Also, my local hairdressor (D’or in Arrowtown) was very keen to stock my hair ties, hair clips and headbands as they get quite a few requests for good quality products.

Having being busy in my studio, I managed to produce quite a few hair accessories for both local suppliers and my online shops.

Having my products online, I decided to use three resources:

1. Etsy - This is the most well known and international of all the craft/handmade sites where people can showcase and sell their work.
2. Felt – This is a New Zealand craft website similar to Etsy.
3. Calla POP – This is my own website (gratefully created by my hubby) that has the full range of all the various items I make for sale.

Having an online shop is a whole new experience for me as I’ve only previously sold things in person.

I’m really looking forward to adding more items to my shops (particularly Calla POP), such as knitted blankets, felted handbags and knitting designs.

Hopefully you’ll check out the sites I’ve listed.

Inger

The market is held in a lovely leafy park opposite the Arrowtown library and as it was just after Christmas, there were a lot of tourists in town (although it’s also very popular with the locals).

I’d organized a stall with my friend who was selling her delicious homemade quince paste.   Our stall was right near the back, which wasn’t an ideal position, but it did mean we had some shade from the trees.

Selecting What Items To Sell

I can sometimes be a little tricky to decide what items to sell as it depends a lot of the location and the type of people coming through.  I knew that expensive items aren’t very likely to sell at a market, so I decided to go for affordable, everyday items.

Also, I figured that smaller items sell better as not many people want to carry large items around with them.

Fabric Button Hair Ties

I made up a lot of these fabric button hair ties.  

I absolutely love making these as I have so many pieces of great fabrics in my collection where I only have a small amount left, so they are ideal for these button hair ties.

My daughters “road tested” the hair ties and were declared a real success.  I also gave out some as prize in pass the parcel at my daughter’s 8th birthday.  They were also a bit hit with the other girls.

I made sure that I used a variety of colours for the band and the buttons so that it would suit most tastes and hair colours.

The fabric hair ties were very well received at the markets and I had some great feedback.  

Interestingly, the packs that had 3 different hair ties in them seemed to be more popular than the packs with a matching pair.   I guess the variety is good if you wear your hair in a ponytail, whereas the matching pair is better if you wear your hair in piggy tails or plaits.

Fabric Brooches

These fabric brooches are made in a similar way to the fabric hair ties, but are obviously a bit bigger and have a pin on the metal base.

The brooches were reasonably popular, but I think next time I need to offer a range of sizes to suit various purposes.

Fabric Headbands

My fabric headbands were a great hit.   I really should have made a few more as they were very popular.

I originally made these headbands for my daughters, and they loved them so much that I made some more for their friends. It was great to see a bunch of girls at school all wearing my fabric headbands. 

They really are a great fashion accessory.

One thing I did learn from the market is to make sure I have a range of sizes available.  Even though the ones I sold have a fair bit of stretch, there were a few head sizes where they were a little tight.

Overall Experience

Although it was a relatively long day (about 8 hours), it was quite relaxing as I took a chair and enjoyed chatting to the people coming by and the other stallholders.

I’m going to do a few more markets, in particular the Queenstown markets will be a good place to try as they have a lot of crafts and a large number of tourists coming through as it’s located by the Queenstown waterfront.

As the scarf needed to be self supporting, the best way of achieving this was to felt the wool.   While wool felts beautifully, even  merino wool (which are regarded as having the softest wool of any sheep ) can still be a little scratchy when felted.    This is due to sheep’s wool having tiny hooks which latch on surfaces they come into contact with.

For that reason, I decided to give Alpaca wool a go due to its softness.  I had previously knitted with Alpaca wool and like the results, but hadn’t actually done any felting with it.

The softness factor was very important given the finished item would be worn around the neck and face.

The client had requested a scarf  to include a palette of blacks, greys and creams.

The wools I ended up using were:

• Indiecita 100% Baby Alpaca DK wool  in charcoal & cream
• Southern Alpacas Stud (80% Alpaca, 20% super fine sheep’s wool) in black
• Patons 50% wool, 30%acrylic, 20% alpaca in grey and light grey

The reason for using different types of yarns was a combination of not having the full colour palette available in a single brand and using different blends of wools created more textural interest.

As I wasn’t really sure just how much the Alpaca wool would felt, I knitted up  some small swatches on my knitting machine so I could test the felting properties of the wool

Alpaca Felting Test 1

For the first test, I put it into my front loading washing machine on a cool wool wash with a small cotton item for aid agitation.

The result was a pretty solid felt that I was mostly happy with, apart from being just a little over-felted.

Also, because the swatch had been done on my knitting machine, it had to be done in a stocking stitch, whereas the scarf was in a garter stitch, so it wasn’t a completely valid test, but enough to get an idea.

Alpaca Felting Test 2

For the second test, I used a Southern Alpacas Stud 80% Alpaca, 20% super fine sheep’s wool blend.  Again the swatch was knitted on my knitting machine.

I was a little more cautious with this test as I wanted it slightly less felted, so I put it on a cold wool wash by itself.

The result?

Nothing!

I was very surprised to see it hadn’t felted at all.  I really expected it to felt quite easily, hence the reason I was cautious.

So I put it back in the washing machine again on a normal wash (33C) on its own.  This time it felted a little, but still not enough.

This time I put it back through a normal wash with a sheep’s wool swatch.

The result was that it felted very well.  In fact, too well and ended up too thick and too stiff for a scarf.

Thoughts on the Results of the Felted Scarf

Felted scarf before being trimmed

Even though I’d done the felting tests on the swatches, I was like an expectant mother when I finally put the completed scarf in the washing machine to be felted.

I was very relieved and delighted with the results when I removed the scarf from the washing machine like a freshly baked loaf of bread.

There’s always an element of surprise when it comes to felting as the felting process is not something that can be repeated with 100% accuracy every time.

The scarf had the right amount of stiffness and was still lovely and soft.

Conclusions

The whole process of felting with Alpaca was a very good learning experience and has given me a lot of confidence to work with it again on other Alpaca felted project.

A few of the things I discovered were:

• The Southern Alpaca Stud yarn can be washed on a wool wash without it felting, even though they don’t recommend it.
• 100% Alpaca yarn felts very easily.  Much more so than 100% sheep’s wool.
• The 100% Alpaca yarn loses a bit of the texture of the garter stitch after it has been felted.

Luckily I kept my mistakes and was able to use them in other felted projects.

I got the idea to design and make some stylish felted handbags as I had some wool that felted very well and I’d got to the stage where I didn’t need any more blankets.  Also I had a lot of wool that I was given, so I was able to experiment without having to worry about the cost of the wool.

I used Ashford Yarns Tekapo wool (100% merino), which comes in lots of colours and is great for felting.

For the design, I chose my favourite mitred square technique and sketched out the basic shape of the handbag.

When it came to felting, I initially set my washing machine to 90C and put the bag in with a towel.  The reason I did it like this is that I wanted it to be a solid felt so that it would be strong enough to carry all manner of items that a good handbag needs.

I was pleased that all of my felted bags came out well, as there is always an unknown element when it comes to felting and it can be easy to under or over felt an item.

On two of the felted bags, I added some embroided flower (inspired from Frangipanis growing in my Mum’s garden) patterns on the side of the bag.

For the handles, I used a combination of bamboo and plastic handles (not my ideal preference, but it’s what was available at the time).  When I make some more of these bags, I’ll definitely use wooden handles and I think they look so much better and they have a nicer feel.

My next felting project will involve felting alpaca wool.

This gives them the warmth they need around the body (without being too hot), and leaves their arms free for all the playing and other activities they do.  This is particularly important when they are in the playground and doing activities like swinging on the monkey bars.

The purple version of my knitted top

The wool used for making these tops is a 70% lambs wool/30% angora wool blend.  It is extremely soft and warm.

I had the wool sitting in my wool stash for some time.  My daughters chose their favourite colours and they loved the feel of the wool as I’d previously made them a blanket from the same wool.

My daughters wears these knitted tops almost every day and they have quickly become their favourite knitted items of clothing

Light blue version of my knitted top

The design is my own creation.  What I did was look at my girls existing tops and measured them and my girls to get the sizing and did the appropriate maths to come up with the knitting pattern.

I chose to use raglan sleeves because I thought that it was the most flattering for my girls slim shape.

The body of the top uses a simple 2×2 rib.  The rib has a good amount of stretch which hugs the body without being tight.

Initially I found the neckline too wide, so I tightened the rib by reducing the stitches in the ditch.   That is, I changed it from a K2 P2  rib to a K2 P1 rib.

From memory, it took me a couple of days to create these tops, but I was writing the pattern down as I went along, so that slowed me down a little.

I will be adding details of my own designs as well as knitting and quilting tutorials.