Countdown to Street Fest

Wow, Street Fest is a month away! 

Street Fest is an annual event in East Aurora, NY, home of Fisher-Price toys. They close down two blocks of Main Street to traffic and have vendors lined up both sides of the street. I first did the show in 2018 with my friend Joanna, who has a tent. She sells cute earrings, so she had her table on one side of the tent, and I had my stuff on the other. We did very well that day. It was the first time I had over $200 in sales from one show. I had a few bottle slings hanging from the frame of the tent, and a young man stopped and pointed at them. "If you had a ton of those in different colors, you'd sell out." I kept that in mind for 2019. That show moved to the top of my spreadsheet ranking shows by net sales. 

In 2019, I had a rack with over 40 bottle slings at the front of the tent... and a sign saying that with each purchase, you got a bottle of cold water... I sold over half of them... and for the first time, I had a show with over $300 in sales. That bumped Street Fest 2018 out of first place.

Then came 2020... when lockdown came, and they said we should stay at home for two weeks to flatten the curve, I worked on bottle slings for Street Fest 2020.... but it didn't happen. I ended up with 67 bottle slings... 

Street Fest returned in 2021, with a different format. Main Street wasn't shut down, and vendors were at a local ice rink, under a roof, with wi-fi, nice restrooms, and a lower fee, so Joanna and I each had a 10x10 space. I was able to set up two tables and multiple racks in my space. I was overwhelmed by how well the sale went... for the first time ever, I had over $500 in sales at one show, and that show quickly rose to the top of the spreadsheet! 

So, now I have a month to fine-tune my plans for Street Fest 2022. We're back on Main Street, so it's back to one table and a rack or two. I want to make sure I have a full slate of my best sellers... so I made up a little grid for July projects. The first line is for a custom order I've been working on... I need to clear that first... then I'll work on finishing off the rest of the grid. 

Having a grid in my day planner, where I can color in blocks, seems to be a good way of keeping myself on plan!

I was posting my newest make on Facebook and Instagram, and had a local person say she hoped I would have my sunflowers at my next show, so I have ten boxes designated for sunflowers. I'm hoping I can squeeze one into my schedule every three days... They work up in less than two hours and are a great to-go project, so those boxes should get filled in... and I have so many ideas for colors. I googled Sunflower Color Varieties and got an eyeful! 

Then there are the best sellers I want to restock: 

Dress-up turtle

Ankylosaur

Dachshund

Beagle - Done

Tree Frog

Mini Pup - Done

Anemone Hat

Veggies in Bag - Done

Ramen Cup

Mr. Ugly - Done

I'm currently at 48 bottle slings....so I think I'm all set. Although it is tempting to add a few more bottle slings to the agenda. I'm trying to work down a collection of crochet cotton given to me years ago. I think I started out with about thirty pounds of crochet cotton. I'm down to 158 ounces (yay, under ten pounds!). I'll have to weigh the next bottle sling I make to see how much each one uses up... I'm guessing an ounce and a half... so that means I have enough cotton thread left for over 100 slings! 😝Yikes... I probably shouldn't have done the math! (Math update... bottle sling takes 1.9 ounces of yarn, so I have enough left for 83.) 

So, the best case scenario is that I have all my boxes filled in by July 29th, and glorious weather brings out the shoppers in droves on the 30th, leading to a new #1 show... let's see how it goes! 

Filling in some squares. 

A few sunflower squares are filled in, too! 

7/6 update... I have two orders (six items total) to work on, three new design ideas, two unfinished projects, and a guest room to clean up because company is coming! I have been playing with the "Veggies in Bag" square... I have a basket with a tomato, carrot, potato, and green onion. I'm half done with an ear of corn, and I think it needs a beet, too. Then I'll do a photo shoot and get it on Etsy. 

And color in the square, of course! 

Market Veggies finished and listed on Etsy! 

Not on my list, but an entry for prizes in a crochet along... a parasaurolophus or something like that... I don't have the pattern with me to copy the name. 

I was sorting out my scrap yarn tray and decided I had so many small cakes/balls of yarn that I had to make something scrappy, so Mr Ugly, Big and Sassy came about. I used three strands of yarn held together, so he's over 14" tall and extra squishy! 

Still plugging away at orders, hoping to catch up in the next day or two. I have an idea for another veggie basket (a salsa basket: tomatoes, onion, peppers) and more colors of sunflowers, but I really need to focus on getting the orders completed! 

7/13 - Had to make a hedgehog for an order. Still have a cat and three flowers to finish for orders... but not making much progress! Oh, could it be because I snuck in some more veggies (the salsa basket is almost done) and some treats (and ice cream cone and a baby carrot) for the outgoing Etsy order? Here's how the sheet looks now: 

I'm making these fancier flowers for a custom order. Customer doesn't want a stem on them. I'm going to count them as sunflowers on my page. Eventually I'll make up a few with stems and add them to my Etsy listing. 

7/24 - wow, one week to go... I haven't made much progress on my list. 

A gecko wiggled onto my to-do list, because I wondered how it would look with a strand of dark green yarn with a strand of thin variegated yarn. I think he looks pretty cool.. 

On the 23rd, we had a family picnic about 90 minutes away... I took cotton yarn for bottle slings and a pattern for a cute little turtle. By the time I got home, I had four slings and two turtles to sew together. 

Oh, well, I don't get to fill in a block, but I love the way they turned out! 

Black cat is done, and on his way to his new home today... so I'm caught up with orders and can knock the stuffing out of my list! I have a sunflower almost done.... in a non-traditional color scheme, and I love it! Pic coming soon! It needs a stem. 

Red Sunflower

Well, I joined another crochet along, just an express with four quick projects... I got them done by the deadline, but I didn't fill in all my squares! 

Summer Express Crochet Along

The final grid. 

Street Fest went very, very well. I thought my sales from 2021 couldn't be beat, but I beat that show by 10%. I have a lot of restocking to do! 

Poor, neglected blog...

 Looks like I skipped through May without any blog posts. Well, there wasn't all that much to talk about in May, at least if I wanted to keep a positive spin on things. I had one craft show that didn't go well, set a new record for longest sales drought of 2022, and two promising shows I was hoping to get into didn't work out. 

So now it's June! Yay! A clean slate... my birthday month. I have one small show on the agenda, a Community Days for a local pregnancy counseling center on June 11. There's no table fee, so if it doesn't go well, I'm only out gas money.  

I'm about halfway through a Space Crochet Along that I joined in May. Every three days, they release part one of a pattern, and you have three days to finish part 1 to get part two. So far, I have finished three. 

I'm halfway through Celeste the Astronaut, but project #5 is a solar system, and I'm trying to finish up part one in time to get part two... so Celeste is on the back burner! 

The planets are getting bigger, and taking longer! 

Planets are done... 

On to the next project... Laika the Space Dog. I need to finish part one by Saturday, so Celeste and the Solar System are on hold... 

Celeste is done. 

Started "Selene" (a moon) and Astro Bunny... there's only one more #spacecal project that I haven't done any work on... 

Seven Down, Two to Go! 

DONE! 

So, once I'm done with the space CAL (or between projects), I want to restock these best sellers: 

• Guinea Pig - done
  
  
  
• Ankylosaurus - Done 
  
  
  
• Dachshund
• Beagle
• Owls

I also want to make a new item from my "wanna-make" list... I think a bearded dragon will be next up! 

June is typically a slow month for sales... so I'll just keep making stuff and stocking my shop for my big Street Sale at the end of July! 

6/30 update: I got a freelance proofreading assignment that kept me busy for several hours per day, so crafting was limited in the last half of June. I had a friend message me with a picture of some crocheted sunflowers, asking if I could make some for her. It took three tries before I was happy with the finished flower, but it was worth it to see the smile on her face when she picked up her bouquet of four sunflowers! 

I have a big custom order in the wings that I'm trying to get done (a black cat... working with black yarn can be a challenge), and my biggest show of the year, Street Fest, is just 30 days away... so I need to keep busy in July! 

The Making of Mr. Ugly

 I try to use even the smallest scraps of yarn. When I finish a project, and have yarn left over, I usually wind it into a cake and it goes into one of my scrap yarn collections... if it's a few ounces of yarn, it goes into a large tray with similar size cakes of yarn. Smaller cakes (one ounce or so) go into the scrap yarn box next to my chair, for when the need to make a cute little project hits me. 

If it's a really small amount of yarn, like only a yard or two, it goes into a gallon-size Ziploc bag next to my chair. That bag also gets the yarn ends that I cut off after sewing a project (if it's more than 6" or so). Well, the bag was overflowing, so I decided I needed to do something! 

During Wheel of Fortune, I made two scrap balls. I just kept pulling yarn from the bag, knotting it to the end of the last strand, and rolling it up. It's a rather mindless project that takes a while, but making Mr. Ugly goes a lot faster if your yarn is prepped! 

I kept going until each ball was about 5" across. It used up about half the bag! I even found an eye in the bag... so I decided to make a one-eyed monster. (When I needed to add to the scrap balls to finish the arms, I found a second eye. I guess I'll be making a Mrs. Ugly too!)

Then I got to work on Mr. Ugly. 

I started at the bottom, with his legs. I held the yarn double and used a K crochet hook. Don't worry if the yarn ends are showing as you work! That's part of what makes him Mr. Ugly! 

Round 1: 6 sc in Magic Ring (6)

Round 2: inc x 6 (12)

Round 3: (sc, inc) x 6 (18)

Rounds 4-9: sc (18)

Finish off leg one, and make another leg in the same manner, but don't finish off. 

Round 10: Joining legs. Holding legs together, sc around leg 1, then around leg 2. (36)

Rounds 11-18: sc (36)

Round 19: (sc x 4, dec) x 6 (30)

Round 20: (sc x 3, dec) x 6 (24)

Round 21: (sc x 2, dec) x 6 (18)

Round 22: (sc, dec) x 6 (12)

Round 23: dec x 6 (6)

Finish off, leaving a tail. Weave tail through the 6 stitches of the last row and pull to close. Weave in end. 

Arms: using double strand of scrappy yarn and K hook

Round 1: 6 sc in magic ring

Rounds 2-29: sc (6)

Finish off, leaving long tail to sew to body. 

Eye: Using a single strand of worsted weight yarn and F hook. 

Round 1: with black, sc x 6

Round 2: inc x 6 (12) 

Round 3: with blue yarn, (sc, inc) x 6 (18)

Round 4: with white yarn (leave a long tail when you attach the white yarn, to make the accent on the black center) (sc x 2, inc) x 6 (24). Finish off, leaving a long tail to sew to Mr. Ugly's face. 

Assembly: sew eye to center of body over rows 14-17. Sew arms to sides of body, even with the top of the eye. Using small pieces of scrap yarn, loop strands of yarn through stitches at the top center of his head, for a messy hairdo. 

Notes: my finished Mr. Ugly is about 7" tall. You can make your Mr. Ugly taller by adding rows to the legs or body. You can make the arms shorter (I wanted him to have the ability to "hug" something.) You could give him a mouth, or ears or horns. 

I had fingering, sport, worsted weight and bulky in my scrap balls. If I was adding fingering weight yarn, I used two strands. Fortunately, I never ended up with sport weight coming off both scrap balls. 

I thought it was interesting that I only ended up with the same (or very similar) color coming off both balls at the same time twice. Mr. Ugly has a small purple stripe on his back, and a solid pink at the top of his head, just above the eye. 

Since the original Mr Ugly sold on Etsy... I made another... 

And then I was organizing cakes of scrap yarn and decided the scrap box needed a good cleaning, so Big & Sassy Mr. Ugly was born... 

I used three stands of yarn together (2 worsted, one bulky) and a P hook. Since his face was so wide, I figured I had room for two eyes (the eyes are three rounds with two strands of worsted weight yarn and a K hook - 6, 12, then 18 sc stitches). Black parts of the eye are 5 sc in a magic ring. I had to make his arms shorter because I was running out of the bulky white/blue/green speckled yarn. 

For the tongue, I used two strands of red and a K hook. In a magic ring, ch3, then make 7 dc. Pull right tight, but do not join. Ch 3, turn, and work four dc across the flat bottom. Work 2-3 more rows (ch 3, turn, four dc), or more, depending on how long you want his tongue to be. 

I made another one... I gave him bobble toes, and tried to give him a chubby belly by doing some increases after I joined the legs. He just sold at my 4/1/23 craft show, so I'm gathering yarn for another one! 

Here is the modification for adding three toes: 

For Row 4, sc 3, *4-dc cluster, sc* x 3, sc 9

When it comes time to connect the legs, fold each leg in half so that the toes are centered on the front. Use a stitch marker to hold the legs together at the stitches that will be at the center of the body. On your second leg, sc over the marker, then sc around the first leg starting with the marked stitch. Then finish up your second leg. 

I love how the hair on this guy turned out! I cut about a dozen strands of yarn about 4-1/2 feet long (my "wing span" - I measured it by stretching my arms out). I pulled up a loop at the top of the head, made sure the yarn ends were even, and chained until I ran out of yarn (usually about 20 chains), then pulled the yarn through and pulled tight to finish off. 

I used up a lot of orange yarn on this guy. 

For this one, I used up some bulky yarn and added horns. 

 

April's theme: "Recalculating"

 Well, I started out April frantically trying to finish items for a craft show on April 2nd. 

The show went fairly well (11th place out of the 101 shows I have done since 2013), about double my average... but bear in mind that over the years, I have had plenty of crummy shows to keep the average down. The worst was a show where I had a $40 table fee, and had $0 in sales! 

I'm done with shows until June now... but the June show is a venue that was in 2nd place when it occurred last year. A show later in the year bumped it down to third, but it was still a great show, with about 4x my average sales. 

I made up a spreadsheet of my best sellers (about twenty items) and set goals for how many of each I'd like to have ready for the June show. I had over 50 slots to fill.

Then, as I worked on items, I added another column to the spreadsheet, since I missed some best sellers! Then some of the lines that were already filled in got crossed off as items sold... I currently have over 70 blanks to fill in... 

It seems like every day I start out with a plan.... finish this project, start on that one... and by the end of the day, as my GPS says, "recalculating"... the plan changes! 

This week of April has been busy! Record-breaking busy! 

• I hit 600 Etsy sales! 
• I got a hat trick (three sales in one day... third time this year. For reference, I got hat tricks 3 times in 2021, and twice in 2020). 
• I broke the previous record of two days in a row with Etsy sales... at three today, will I make it to four? 
• As of April 7th, I already broke my record for April sales. And the month is only 1/4 over! 

I love it when I need to use a tote bag to carry my Etsy orders into the post office!

One day's orders, ready to go! 

Butter Lamb orders have been keeping me busy. I'm trying to keep a good selection in my Etsy shop, but quite often, new lambs will sell within 24 hours of listing! Right now, Etsy tells me that 7 customers have my butter lamb in their cart. So I will ride the Butter Lamb wave and keep churning them out! 

I'm hoping by the end of April to have a lot less spaces in my restocking spreadsheet... but if Etsy customers keep me busy with other custom orders, I'll just keep smiling and crocheting! 

Wow, April 26 already... orders have slowed, so I've been working on restocking items for an upcoming craft show. I have a bin with small items: 

Hamsters

Baby Octopus

Snails

Baby Axolotl

I've been working on restocking those... my scrap yarn bin is getting cleaned out nicely! In May, I will concentrate on making some bigger items for some large street fairs I'm doing this summer.