Fiber Arts Friday: Created by Carlin

I've been hinting at it here but this coming weekend marks the 'real' start of my own little crafting business.

The idea started in late October. I was asked to come teach Moravian Star folding at the library (more of an archive really) and museum where my dad is the executive director. They expand out their little gift shop to have a little Christmas Market of their very own. So it seemed like a good way to see if I could sell some things.

I then experianced quite the frenzy of ideas and options. And then a crazy frenzy to get a bunch of things created and ready to sell by Thanksgiving when I would be able to deliver my goods.

It was pretty crazy and nearly burnt me out (link) but here's what I put together for the opening of Created by Carlin...

First we have Carlin's Critters. These incredibly cute little guys were also surprisingly simple, although like many things the devil is very much in the details. The pattern is from fuzzymitten.com and I can't reccomend it enough. Although while I love the final products, as does everyone I show them to, they did get rather tedious to make.

 

 Next are a bunch of little ornaments. They are all constructed just like their regular knitted object would be but with sock yarn on tiny needles and only a few stitches. Although my mittens were a bit wonky. The stockings ended up being my favorite by far. I started with a pattern to knit them flat but modified it so that I could do everything in the round. Hooray for no seams.

After that we have the tote bags. Colorful circles were crochet into white hexagons and  pieced together for these fun guys. I also added matching sewn linings (with a pocket!) for each. It's lots of fun to get to play with so many colors although as all things the repetition can get tedious. The green family bag was a ton of trouble because I just ran short of 3 of the colors when I was I believe 3 circles shy of my regular construction. So I improvised and adjusted a bit and the bag came out a bit thinner and maybe a bit taller, but hopefully it's still fun.

Somewhat randomly I decided I ought to get some 'fun' yarn and whip up a few scarves. It was then that I met my newest favorite yarn. Lion brand Wool Ease Thick N' Quick. I am so used to using lace-weight or maybe sport and the somewhat rare worsted that this stuff felt practically like it was crafting itself. Plus the resulting scarves are soft, plus, and machine washable! I also went against everything that I've heard from fellow crafters in recent memory and couldn't resist the lure of the pretty colors (and price) of the Lion brand homespun. And yes the stuff was quite splitty and not at all my favorite but it gave my 'collection' some nice variety I think.

And lastly while in the midst of all of this I had been taking items in to show or bouncing ideas off of my coworkers. One day as I was talking about the scarves one coworker had a thought, went out to her car, and came back with a knit headband/ear warmer that had a crochet flower on it. It was super cute and I found what was virtually a replica of the same thing on Ravelry. So with the rav instructions and borrowing her object I used the left over yarn from the Thick N' Quick scarves and made my own, pretty dead on, copy. It's just as cute as the original and now I need to make one for myself.

The Christmas Market opens this weekend, and I'll be home on Sunday to teach star folding (and see the family again, see/house a friend, and play my flute in church....going home is dangerous). Here's hoping that I sell some thing and that I can teach the complex folding without loosing or frustrating too many folks!

---

Thanks for visiting! Be sure and check out the rest of the Fiber Arts Friday blogs. And I have started a series of posts to celebrate the 25 days of Christmas in Music. Click the link to listen to day 1 or keep an eye here on the blog daily for the rest of the series!