How To : Make gift bags for a craft fair

I thought I'd give you all a break from my hat addiction and share with you how I made the goodie bags that I gave to all my customers in December last year, both at the Bazaar Bizarre Holiday Fair in December, and also orders I received online from my Etsy Shop. Here's what the finished goodie bag looked like. (Please forgive my photos, as I took them the night before the fair. The lighting is not too good.)

These goodie bags are very simple to put together, so you can be like me and make them the night before your 2-day craft fair and go to bed at 3am for a 6am call time (So fun! I would totally recommend it!...NOT :P), gather some friends together for a goodie-bag party, or make it a fun family activity. Either way, making the bags themselves is easy. It's making so many bags that takes time.

Here's what you need for your own set of goodie bags. Feel free to substitute your preferred goodies. It was Christmas, so I thought Chai tea and chocolate would give people warm thoughts, as they enjoyed my chunky handknits. :)

What You need

• Lime Green Organza bag, 4x6 (got mine from Papermart)
• Hang tags (From a local San Jose Etsy maker, The Paper Medley)
• Your business cards (I put 2 in each goodie bag. My cards are from Moo.com. Love them!)
• Goodies 1 (I got the Ghirardelli Chocolate Holiday Assortment pack from Costco)
• Goodies 2 (Good Earth Decaf Chai teabags)

TL:DR Instructions

Add your goodies 1 and 2, along with 1 or 2 business cards to the organza bag, tie the bag shut, and finish off with the hang tags. As an extra, I added a discount code to the back of the hangtags. :)

The Long version (with gratuitous use of photos, because...you know...I have lots of them)

The bags....

...and the tags (I love these tags!).

...but don't forget your cards!

And the tea...

...plus Ghirardelli (I'm so sorry for the rhymes...it's a late-night inspired thing that I can't seem to shake off).

Now for the haaaaarrrrdddd work! Add the 2 chocolate pieces and one tea bag to the goodie bag.

When that's done, take some extra photos just for fun.

 

Then add your pretty business cards, because you want your lovely customers to remember you when they're sipping on their tea, and munching on those delicious chocolate squares.

Now finish this up with your lovely hang tags, and you're good to go! Lots and lots of goodie bags for all!

Hope you enjoyed this long tutorial. See you next week!

Working hard for Christmas

I am so sorry this blog post is a day (or two) late. I've been working really really hard to finish the custom orders I received at the Bazaar Bizarre Fair two weekends ago. All the members of my family are also either sick or recuperating, which has made my work go slower than expected. For this I sincerely apologize. However, I thought I would duck in here quickly and share some of the things I've been working on for the custom orders. Here they are.

There's a couple of Procragratification Infinity Scarves...

... a few chain scarves

    

...and my newest, the Fibonacci-inspired chunky cowls.

      

 Remember, the 15% off coupon (SFETSYHOLIDAY2012) is still active. And if you order now, you will definitely get it before Christmas (no custom orders though, sorry). Visit my Etsy Shop here for more knitted goodness!

Have a wonderful week!

My first holiday fair with Bazaar Bizarre

I am back from the Bazaar Bizarre Fair up in San Francisco this past weekend, and it was the bomb!! So many people, so many lovely vendors! It was wonderful...except for the rain. It rained nonstop on Saturday, making the drive up to the city and back quite scary. In fact, on Sunday morning my booth mate was worried for our safety and left me a message that she was taking a local road (El Camino) instead of the highway (101) because there were so many accidents. However, after we arrived at the fairgrounds on Sunday morning, the sun came out and shone the rest of the day! SMH! I loved the rain on Saturday because I felt it made people more willing to look at handknitted scarves and cowls. One customer actually came in and bought a hat because it was cold outside (and also because the was wearing this beautiful cobalt blue blouse and the hat matched it perfectly! LOL! )

I shared a booth with the awesome Amy of Jumbo Jibbles, the designer and creator of "whimsical plush and personalized jewelry". (I bought a giant blueberry from her for my son...that's my word and I'm sticking to it! :P).

This is what our booth looked like on Saturday morning - my half...(notice the yarn shop that had the booth right next to ours! So wrong! I was sooooo good though. I bought no yarn...but I did get some stitch markers. :) )

...and here is Amy's half of the booth:

The first couple of hours on both days was slow, but traffic picked up steadily and we made some sales. I also got quite a few custom orders. All in all, this was a great fair and I'm glad I got the experience. It's killer on your feet though, with all the standing around and walking. On Sunday my friend Alisa graciously agreed to come along and help us, so we could take a few breaks here and there. Thank you so much Alisa! I also have to thank the SF Etsy team, who had a booth at the fair manned by volunteers. These volunteers came around periodically and also watched our booths so we could take bathroom breaks or find something to eat. That was just super helpful.

As you can probably guess, I'm still exhausted from the fair but...A luta continua (as one of my middle school teachers used to say). I'm starting to work on the custom orders as well as on stocking my Etsy shop for the holiday season. Do take a look as I have a few new items on there. One of them (which was a big hit at the fair), is this chunky necklace scarf.

Let it hang long and it works as a statement neck piece. Double it up and your neck is kept warm from any sudden cold chills. Hand knit in a 50% wool - 50% acrylic chunky yarn, this scarf-necklace twists up prettily so you can hide it in your handbag and pull it out whenever there is a sudden drop in temperature. It's available in various colors and you can also customize it by choosing up to 3 colors to make the scarf you want. Get adventurous and try this scarf! :) Plus, the 15% off coupon (SFETSYHOLIDAY2012) is still active till the 14th of this month!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Prepping for the Bizarre Bazaar Fair

Hi everyone, I've been busy fighting off a terrible cold and prepping for my first major holiday fair, the Bizarre Bazaar Fair. It's quite hectic here so I'm just going to leave you with some pretty photos from a photoshoot that my friend Sam Kessie did for Eden's Corner Hair Salon (in Atlanta, GA), using my scarves.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

The joy of gift knitting - Part 2

Last week I took an impromptu trip to Indiana to visit one of my BFFs. She just had a baby girl and had requested (more like demanded...hehehhe) that I knit the little cutie a hat, a sweater and a blanket. I bought the yarn (Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Solids & Twists) on my birthday and started on the awesome Moderne Baby Blanket by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne from the Mason-Dixon book. I love this blanket pattern and thought it would be perfect for this little girl. What I forgot was the fact that the stitch count go progressively larger as the knitting went along, and that I was also supposed to be preparing for a craft fair as well as working on a pattern submission. Eek!

Once the blanket was finished, I started on the sweater. The pattern I used was Lillie's Baby Cardigan by Laura Edwards. Would you believe this was my first time knitting a baby sweater? And it went so fast too! I don't even know why it took me so long to make one.

And finally, the hat(s). I knew from the get-go that I was going to knit another Aviatrix baby hat by Justine Turner (I made the first one for my son last year). It's such an awesome design and works so well for those little babies. Anyway, the first one I made was in just one color, so this time I decided to be more adventurous and do two colors. Since the baby has a small head, I only worked 3 repeats of the main pattern. Oh, I forgot to mention that I actually knit this while I was with mommy and baby in Indiana, and as I didn't have a button on me, I didn't technically finish the hat. Oh well! Mommy is better at sewing than me anyways. :)

Now since the baby couldn't technically wear the hat (due to the conspicuous absence of a button), I had to knit another hat during the trip. I found this super quick pattern by Woolly Wormhead, Baby Rollin' Beret, and whipped one up quickly before I left.

And one more just because...here's the whole set together.(Sorry about the weird angle).

It was too short a trip, but I'm so glad I was able to see my friend and her daughter, share in her joy and give to them from my craft. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and see you all next week.

PS: If you are looking for a lovely holiday gift to give to friends and loved ones during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, visit my Etsy shop at http://NiseyKnits.etsy.com and use the coupon code SFETSYHOLIDAY2012 for 15% off your entire purchase!

Also, if you live in the Bay Area, please visit me at the Bazaar Bizarre Fair in San Francisco on Dec 1st and 2nd in Booth #156! http://www.bazaarbizarre.org/sanfrancisco/shows/holidayshow/

Saturday December 1st & Sunday December 2nd 2012 Concourse Exhibition Center EAST HALL 620 Seventh St. (at Brannan) San Francisco, CA 94103-4901 Saturday & Sunday 11-6PM – FREE TO ATTEND