I never EVER wanted to do a craft fair. This is something that people have been urging me to do since I started knitting over a decade ago. I’ve had lots of friends and business buds ask me why I didn’t sell my knitting.
My reasoning was always that I designed for work and I knitted for love. And well, that is still very true, but now I knit for work too. I know I don’t have to say this, but having a baby changes everything. I needed a way to bring in “guaranteed” income, while still taking care of the babe. Not that this is guaranteed income by any means. I’m writing this post the day before my first fair, and I have no idea how well I’m going to do. But my products are high quality, I’ve been knitting for years, and I know there is a market out there somewhere for me. It’s just a matter of finding that market! And knitting until the wee hours of the morning.
I’m kidding, I did not lose sleep over this. Even in college I prioritized my sleep over all other things, but you catch my drift.
So today, THEE day before my fair, I wanted to give a rundown of everything I made for the fair. I want to do this because when I search online for a community of knitters at craft fairs, the loudest group online currently are the crocheters. More specifically, the plushie crocheters. I’m hoping in sharing I find more people doing similar work to what I do, and do it successfully. That way we can create a community that might inspire others in a similar situation, who have always been a “hell no” to turning their hobby into a business, who have since turned into a “hell yes” but need a place to start.
This is that place.
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How to make it profitable.
I need to preface this again saying I HAVEN’T EVEN HAD MY FIRST FAIR YET. I am truly just spitballing here, but I wanted to share what made me finally decide I could make this profitable.
I’m a Knitter – with a capital K. But, I know that knitting takes time. Even the fastest of us, the amount I would want to charge hourly it doesn’t make sense to sell hand-knitted goods.
In comes the Sentro (or Addi) knitting machines. I used to be one of those people who assumed using a machine was cheating. But what makes this any different than a sewing machine??
What I love about these machines is that it helps me to churn out my “basic” stock. Plain hats, headbands, blankets, and mug cozies that way I can use my valuable and limited time to hand knit beautiful items all while still being profitable! I like to think of these items as my bread and butter, while the hand-knitted or crocheted items will change with the seasons or what type of market I’m doing.
Patterns
Now for the goods. Here is the list of all the patterns I used and brought to my first show. I’ll be sure to make another post next week about how the show went, what my best sellers were, and what I’ll change for future markets (if there will be future markets.)
Machine Knitted Items
Hand Knit & Crocheted Items
- Winterfell Beanie
- Newborn Hat is a riff off this Purl Soho Pattern
- Stocking was a riff off of this Purl Soho Pattern
- A DIY on the finger knit blankets
- Crochet Coasters
- Crochet Trivet
And I think that is everything! Please feel free to shoot me a message if there was anything that you saw in my booth that I missed providing a link for. Keep an eye out for a future post on how all of these products did for me at my first fair! Sign up for my email list to be notified when that post releases, and have fun making friend.
