Two More Hats

I made it out of the stash room alive with a bag of oddments to dip into to make some more hats. I was going to make as many hats as I could this week before my niece and I go to Yarn Barn at the weekend for a pattern and some wool for my nieces' birthday presents for April I thought that I would start early this year as they both want knitted jackets and they take me longer to make. The earlier that I start then the less I will have to rush with them.

A friend of mine who has an art gallery in Fuente, Spain, where artists can display their paintings or other art work, is having a Valentine celebration in the Gallery and is hoping after that to organise a craft market for the locals and ex pats. He has asked me to crochet a heart, or rather two hearts that he can stuff them or stiffen with foam or cardboard, He wants to thread a metal arrow through the centre of it so doesn't want me to sew them together to make one. I have googled some heart patterns and have found what I think is a suitably sized one. Most patterns that I found were tiny amigurumi sized ones and he wants one measuring approx 8" in either direction at its longest or widest part.

He is hoping to attract people to the craft market, that he is going to set up, with their hand crafted knits, crochet and other crafts where hopefully they can sell their craft work there. Maybe in Spain the customers will be more appreciative of the time and effort it takes to make things. I have never taken part in a craft fair in England myself but I do have friends who do it but only have moderate success with sales. I don't think a lot of people in the UK put a value on anything hand crafted. I see things for sale on the net and often think that I could do far better than that but I don't want to make a business out of my crochet and be put under pressure. It would be nice though to make a little extra money here and there but I would probably only buy more stash wool with it! I wish that there was a scheme locally where I could display a couple of items and see if there was a sale for my work. I like to be in control of what I make so don't want to be in a position of having to make things to order that I don't enjoy making. Next time any of my friends have a craft market stall I will have to barter for a small space on their stall to see if anything of mine will sell.

I am going to start making the crochet hearts tonight as a change from my hat making. Time is of the essence as they have to posted off to Spain and I don't know how long the post will take. I have finished off two more hats and started another one in the blue. The brown hat is the colour of the first photo but I took the second photo to show how it would look with the ear flaps tied on top of the head. I am making another hat with the blue wool. It is some ultra thick Emu Snowball which isn't the nicest yarn to knit with plus part of it had been knitted and unravelled before it was given to me. I also have some brown in the same wool so will be making another hat tonight as well. The wool may not be very nice but I am sure it will make thick warm hats which is the main idea. I am not too bothered about stylish knitting with fancy patterning on them or fancier crochet patterns. I am more concerned by making as many hats as I can whilst it is still cold although I did get assured last year that hats are worn for most of the year as it can get cold at night even in the summer.