Comic-Con was a Grand Old Time

Well, it's been a couple of weeks of recovery, so I can blog again.

Comic-Con was exciting, exhausting, fun, and profitable.  I was able to sell a bunch of the steampunk stuff, plus 5 of my little felted hats.  One was sized for grownups, but the surprising thing was that grownups were buying the doll-sized hats for themselves, as fascinators.  One doll did get a hat.  I'm very happy that so many went to good homes.

Now that things have calmed down a bit, I have two projects lined up.  One is Stephanie Tee.  I'm trying it in a beautiful cashmere.  I'll see how the sleeve test goes tonight.  I need to do some serious measuring.

The second project is a brimmed hat Brimming by Lori Puthoff for my best bud, Dawn.  I looked around on Etsy.com for some special yarn.  It had to be a warm, non-wool yarn, so I found some "upcycled" cashmere worsted from SentimentalValu .    She recycled the yarn from a sweater, then plied it to make it worsted.  It's in the mail now.  I'm excited.  And the price is very reasonable.  And I get to knit with *cashmere*!

When these projects are completed, I'll start on the Christmas knitting.  Gee, it's only August and I'm thinking about the holidays.  Can't wait for the cool weather!

Comic-Con Begins!

Today is Wednesday, Preview Night for Comic-Con International, San Diego.  (The con's official name.)  The table is set up, except for small tweaks.  I have to go to my "real" job until 1:00pm then pick up DH and off we go!  He is working as a high level staff person and I am an exhibitor.  A real family affair.

I feel blessed.  Not only do I get the fun and profit of being the "Madam" at The Massage Booth, but I also get to sell stuff off the table.  Some of the stuff I purchased for resale.  (I'm a middleman!)  I sell basic, inexpensive steampunk items to complete (or start!) your costume.  The real blessing, though, is that I also get to sell stuff that I made.  I knitted a whole bunch of hats over the last year, some for people, some for dolls.  Today I have them on display and ready for sale.  There is even a ball-jointed doll (BJD) meetup at the show where I can bring my models and a couple hats to show off.  I'm also bringing flyers.  I might get a sale or too from them.

Making money from knitting is a difficult thing.  You may make a beautiful lace shawl, with an elaborate pattern that took you weeks or months to make.  But you can't sell it for anything worth the time it took you to make it.  These little hats don't take very long so I can charge a price that reflects my time, materials, and the niche market they belong in.  If you paid $300 for your doll, you don't mind too much if you pay $50 for a gorgeous and unique hat for her.

Time to go!  It will be a distracting shift at work, then I can do the real job for the rest of the week.  Have a great one!

Getting Ready for Comic-Con, part 2

So, the preparations continue for the con.  I have knit and felted seven new hats so far.  They still need to be decorated before next week.  Tuesday is set up day.  This will be a leisurely activity, relative to other years.  Wednesday is Preview Night.  Thursday is the beginning of Comic-Con proper.  I usually set up on Wednesday after work, work up a really good sweat, and then  smile and sell stuff off the table.  Setting up on Tuesday will allow me to arrive on Wednesday, park at the hotel, and then smile and watch stuff fly off the table in a flurry of sales.  Life is good!

I look forward to life after the con, too.  I plan to make me the Stephanie Tee after I finish the Goth Girl Sweater for my 8-year old granddaughter. 

Her sweater was a challenge from the beginning.  The parameters were that it was to be black and pink, similar in style to her cousin's that had just been finished.  She wanted the colors to blend, rather than big stripes.  The original design involved lace, but lace disappears on black.  So I redesigned the whole thing.  I decided, after several false starts, that a basic feather-and-fan pattern would work.  After another false start (due to not starting in the *middle* of the fan part) I finished the body and sleeves, added button bands and gave it to her at her birthday party.

It was too tight around her middle.  *sigh*  I took off the button bands but I didn't have enough yarn left to re-do them bigger, so I went to my trusty KnitPicks.com  to order more and found that they had discontinued both the begonia pink and ebony black.  I ordered a skein of black.  The new black is a blacker black, but it was ok on the bands.  One band, done.  About halfway up the second one I ran out again!  Today I ordered another skein and that should be the last one.  An hour or two of knitting, sew on the buttons, and Voila!  The (cursed!) sweater will be done.  If I can, I'll finish it before the con and give it back to her there.

So, I still have hat labels, snake oil bottle labels, signage, and staging the boxes for the move to the con.  But heck!  I still have a week!

Getting Ready for Comic Con

I am blessed to be an Exhibitor at Comic Con International in San Diego.  About a dozen years ago I started the Massage Booth with the cooperation of the committee and the board of directors (some of whom were clients).  Since then, The Massage Booth has been a rousing success.  We have 3 dynamite women who, for long hours, do chair massage on tired members, helping them survive the con.  When I injured myself doing massage, that part of my life was over, but I wanted to continue to have massage at the con.  So, I serve as Madam, directing traffic in and out of the booth, and sell a few items on the front table.

This year I am specializing in steampunk items, basic hats, goggles and other eyewear.  Plus the fascinator top hats and doll hats that I knit, felt, and decorate.  I will have dolls for models, showing off the wares.  The two porcelain dolls I recently purchased at my local Goodwill needed costumes to really sell it, so I've been working on steampunk outfits for them.  So here is a preview of one of the outfits, modeled by Janet.

The con is in just over 2 weeks, so it's time to get cracking to finish the first and make the second costume.  Surprisingly, it takes the same amount of work to make it small as it does to make it big.

Til next time!

Doll Hats Listed on New Etsy Store

Exciting news!  I finally got set up with an Etsy store.  I posted two doll hats to see how they do.  You can see them at Nancy Hay Decorative Arts  There have been quite a few eyes on them in only two days.

So these hats are part of a cunning plan.  I bought two dolls to serve as models.  They were pretty cooperative for first-timers.  They are named Marie and Janet, after my Mom.

Next, I need to make two steampunk outfits for them for future posts and for Comic Con, which is coming up fast.  I have a pattern that I can adapt.  They will model them on the table at The Massage Booth with the other hats and steampunk items.  I will also bring them along for future booths at doll shows.  I hope to bounce the Etsy store and Comic Con contacts against each other to drum up some interest.

The knitting has been hot and heavy lately, only taking a hiatus while I had that nasty cold.  I’ve made a blanket for Baby O, 6 or 7 hats for felting for Comic Con.  Three of them are ready to decorate.  I’m working on the new button bands for Avery’s Goth Sweater.  When Comic Con is done, I’ll be making the Stephanie Tee from White Lies Designs.Stephanie Tee I’ll probably even do it in the same purple, with her yarn.  I need it in cotton or a cotton blend to cope with the heat of steampunk costumes.  It’s going to be great!

Felted Fascinator

Back again after a long while.  I have been very busy writing up and testing new patterns.  The one for today is the Felted Fascinator pattern we did in the knitting workshop at Gaslight Gathering.  The workshop was a rousing good time!

Gaslight Gathering, Southern California's First Steampunk and Victoriana Convention, was an overwhelming success.  As the Marketing Director, I was in charge of getting the word out.  After sending lots of press releases, we got some traction with the local newspaper and a weekly magazine, plus online articles.  The attendance was more than double what we expected.  And we have already sold dozens of pre-reg for next year.

There were jewelry-making workshops, prop-building workshops, my knitting workshop, even mask making.  Plus panels on various aspects of steampunk, two dances, a concert, and, and, and.  It was a wonderful weekend!

Without further ado, the Felted Fascinator pattern.  http://knittingtheexperience.blogspot.com/p/felted-fascinator-pattern.html

ConDor was great!

Our workshop went very well.  The Steampunk Reticule pattern had some new techniques for most of the 10 or so ladies who participated.  We had fun with the provisional cast on and the drawstring casing parts.  They all got it, though.  I'm so proud of them.

So, after much delay, I'm posting the pattern I gave them.  I  hope you try it and have fun with it.  If you find anything difficult to understand, please contact me.  I am new to writing up patterns and am open to new experiences.  (See the title of this blog!)

Getting another pattern ready - Steampunk Reticule

On Friday I get to co-lead some ConDor members (www.condorcon.org) in a knitting and crochet workshop.  I will be teaching my own pattern, the Steampunk Reticule, and my partner, Nolly will be teaching a crocheted cog design.  We sit for a couple hours, knitting and learning, then go on to the rest of the convention.  We hope that our students will come to us with questions later in the con when they get to a tough spot, or to show us their finished product.
Now, to finish the pattern writeup today, so I can print enough copies.
When I went to print out the pattern, which I had written up previously, I found that I had only gone so far -- and stopped.  Oops!  During a test knit, I found areas that needed clarifying, so this afternoon is the write up.

As a tease, here is a picture of the Steampunk Reticule:

Til next time!

Lesson in Humility

So, after posting my very first pattern ever, I realized two things.  One, always test knit your pattern.  Two, make sure someone has test knit the pattern before posting it.
I have reposted the pattern with the corrections.  If anyone actually wants to knit it, it should be okay now.
I have more patterns to post.  They are getting polished up now, so I should have something to post before ConDor.  (This is a science fiction convention in San Diego, Feb. 25-27, 2011.  Fun!)

Flash Drive Sweater pattern!

So, I'm taking this Access class at the local community college.  All the lessons and tests have to be done in the computer lab.  In the lab we have to always have: our school ID card (to sign in and put on our keyboard), the textbook, the syllabus, and a flash drive (to store the lessons on).  These four things were awkward to carry.  The text and syllabus I carried in my arms, the ID was in my wallet, the flash drive was in a pocket of my purse.  There had to be a better way to transport these things.

Aha!  I knit a bookbag using a mesh grocery bag design, with a carrier for the ID and the drive.  Still working on the ID pocket (not happy with how it turned out yet), but today I finished the Flash Drive Sweater.  It's on a loop that goes through the bag.  It's cute and practical, too.