Market Day week 3 and 4

Week 3 picture (my best week so far)

I write about my market for those of you who are considering to have a stall of your own.

There are alot of things to consider, presentation playing a very major role.

Transportation of your goods.

The weather plays another major role, unless you are selling indoors.

Plan ahead, windy conditions saw the purchase of occa straps and big clips to secure my goods (sort of look like this but plastic), wet weather saw the need for water proof covers.

Too many small stands can take up precious room in your transport vehicle and on your stall table.

Your timely arrival at the market is also important, arriving late may see you in a long cue of stall holders, wasting valuable time from the setting up of your stall.

A small float of coin and note's, clearly marked pricing, the wearing of your product if applicable, a companion, be prepared to answer all questions about your items, such as the materials used, "can you make more, how long will it take, will you be here next week?"

A nice bright table cover.

A thermos of hot coffee, food and drink.

Get to know the rules of the market you are selling in.

A positive and friendly approach.


Week 4 picture, and my daughter Casey, she was a great help. (Another good week, but it did rain. Week 3 still the best.)

Previous market post's.

Market day 1.

Market day 2.

More market ideas here.

A Week of crochet, with picture's

The granny square in hat and scarf from

Pretty in Pink

Beanie Duo. Divine and Cable pattern here.

Blue Sparkles.

Left over yarn from these 2 set's.

Now with just one day to go until I went to the market to sell, I made all of these set's, in about 9 hours.

Burn't Orange Set.

Lovely Lilac

Creamy Dream

Mohair Mayhem

Bright and Soft Red

More than half of these sold. I had made 4 other set's too that I did not take picture's of that were made for an order.

Making Bape Monkey

My first time to upload a video clip.

It may be a bit dark, but it was a bit of fun for me.

It's putting together the pieces that make the Bape Monkey, what I haven't included is the sewing around the facial pieces to make them stand out better.

This is how I displayed them at the market. The sunlight hit the foil and they shone.

The first one I made.

What Makes Your Crochet Stand out In A Crowd?

Individual style and flair, would most probably be, what makes your hand made crochet items stand out.

I ask this as I once again return to the market tomorrow, Sunday 06.07.08.

A lady 3 stalls down from my stall last week, was selling scarves made with that fluffy type yarn you can buy for nick's. I didn't look to see if they were crochet or knit, it wouldn't make a difference any how.

But what I am getting to here is that her scarves were priced at $7.00 each and I am selling my neck warmers for $10.00 each, I originally wanted to sell them for $15.00 each, as they have buttons and use a 50 gm ball of yarn to complete.

So with the thinking cap on for idea's to keep on improving my stall from week to week, I realised that I had to be different and to stand out from other stalls. I feel I have already made myself unique, as I am a one of a kind stall where I am selling.

I did not want to make cheap fluffy scarves as every other stall can have those, I'd rather spend the same amount of time on a unique item with quality yarn.

What I have come up with can still be sold at the bargain price of $10.00, there is a little room for profit, but once a matching hat is sold along with my new scarves, the profit becomes larger.

Here are some pictures of my latest scarves with matching hats.

Divine into Beret/Slouch

Referring back to the Divine free hat pattern, I thought it was more than possible to make a beret/slouch from this lovely st pattern. The first one I made is the light coloured grey one, I kept the increase (with out the repeat of the line before) going until I had 8 dc made in the space, then I continued the edge with the griddle st (up and down st) and slowly decreased as I reached the length desired, I thought that there was too much effort in making up to 8 dc, so the black one was done slightly different. I made one repeat of the 3 dc row and one repeat of the 5 dc, then I began the griddle st, omitting the fpdc in the first row, I made a few rounds of the griddle st before I began to decrease every 10th then 8th st. Decreasing with the griddle st and keeping the pattern correct, I decreased in a dc way, then made another dec in a sc way immediately after, hence decreasing every 10 th st then every 8th st.

Because it was mostly guess work with the decreasing, I finished the black one off with a row of sc to give it a slightly tighter finish.

I made a bow in the griddle st, which really set the grey one off.

Off The Top Of My Head and onto My Head

Some times I use a pattern and most of the times I don't.

Some times I get ideas from patterns and change their idea to suit me.

Below are a few examples with out patterns.

I will be taking these and more (gotta make more) to the market this week end.

Market Day 2

I believe that this week-end at the market was a better out come than last week, with triple the sales and no rain, how ever it was very windy! Regular stall holders said that numbers were down, so when I was asked if I wanted to book for next week-end, of course I said yes.

When I got home I looked up the fore cast for next week-end and it is going to be a fine winters day!

Keep reading for an eerie vision.

This was the first photo I took, I could not believe the eerie mist type shape I saw in the picture preview, so I took another straight after which is below. What do you think the mist is? I have no explanation for it, but the shape seems to me to be a giant skull. I usually crop and make my images smaller before posting them, but this time I didn't, just so I can't be accused of playing around with the image. I'm not into super natural stuff, but who knows?

As you can see by the picture, I have some novelty and apparell that I am selling at very cheap prices. I used to have a shop and still have contacts for cheap products.

This is a classic, the wind was blowing things away and over, one way to combat this was some old jumper leads that were in the van I borrowed, along with some big plastic clips and occa straps we bought on the day. I layed the occa straps across my goods on the table, you could still see the goods clearly, but they were held securely down onto the table.

I must thank my husband Terry for making up a wooden stand I can place my display heads onto. It's a simple horizontal flat board with cut down broom stick handle's, secured into a vertical position, I can take the head models off for transport and storage.

Free Hat Pattern-Divine Hat

This free pattern was truly a delight to work with, the pleasure being with the outcome of the Hat. The pattern is written in simple terms. Just remember the space to dc in, is the space, not the eye of the dc, I did this at first and the spiral effect was not there, once I had over come this little hurdle it was on with the pattern and it was a breeze. It's written in US terms and some adjustments were made due to US yarn being different to AU yarn, I used a 5.00 and 6.00 hook, 12 ply yarn, I decreased the height and added a few simple decreases around the last few rows for a better fit with the Au yarn used. Here is the link to the free pattern.

Thanks to Rheatheylia for the pattern, she does have more free patterns with in her site.

Crochet Hat Additions

Because of the popularity of the slouch/beret type hat at the market last week, I've made some more for the market tomorrow.

This one is a lovely thick blend with a small fleck of black through it, it feels very soft and silky

I've called this one a flurry, as it is a flurry of mixed colours

which can be worn as a hat or slouch

This is truly a lovely set, which is done in a V st.

The model does not do it justice.

The wool blend is almost silky and it has abit of a shine.

I've made this very soft brown before, as I had a little of the wool left I was able to make just one more

A bit of a colour medley here, which is done in a fpdc and a bpdc, with a tassle for fun

This is my caramel surprise, after I had made the V st set above, I wanted to make another in 2 colours, but the increase of the V st made it difficult to keep the colours aligned, so I alternated coloured rows as the pattern increased, it is a colour and style that actually suited me

Market Day

To market, to market

to sell something

rain again, rain again

jiggid'y jig.

All was well at 7.30 am.

Here is a view of my stall from the right.

And here is a view of my stall from the left. My youngest daughter is in the back ground, she actually got up early to halp me after she had a late night.

A close up of the left side of the stall.

A close up of the right side of the stall.

The rains came down and the brellies came up.

My second eldest daughter came along with 2 of my beautiful grandsons.

Not selling much at this point in time, can you see the puddle of water in the plastic?

My grandson Cooper loved the puddles.

I sold 3 beret type hats to an elderly lady, who would have bought more if I had more to suit her.

I sold a hat and neck warmer set, a few single scarves, a single neckwarmer and a few variety items from my bargain box.

I was in profit after I paid for the stall.

There was so much interest in what I was selling, that I couldn't resist booking a stall for the following week.

No body knew what the ice-cream cone or cup cakes were, they were clearly marked, but this is not some thing one see's alot of, here in Australia.

The neck warmers were a first time see for many, I can see that people need to be educated, we wore my product and I had display heads and a picture in a frame of the neck warmers, but people still seemed uaware of their purpose.

I know that I need to specify that what I was selling, was adult wear.

I was impressed with the males who liked the neckwarmer, but alas I did not cater for them.

I am back to the drawing board this week and I will focus on improving certain area's which may help with more sales next Sunday(Weather fore-cast is windy but dry). It was also a fun day, even though we got rained out. The market closed a half hour early and I had my stock covered for an hour previous to that. 3 of my daughters, 2 grandsons and my Husband turned up for support, so it was a wet family fun day.