I am a crafter and I love to make things, but I am adverse to selling them. I have a lot of friends and family that take my items for free, but mostly, I don't think I make things in selling quality. It just seems like an unattainable level of quality. I am a pretty good knitter and crocheter, but something about selling my items puts me beyond my comfort zone. So, instead I swap.
I follow a lot of crafting blogs for inspiration and free patterns/tutorials. I am a firm believer that my crafting shouldn't cost too much, but I do spend quite a bit on yarn in a year. Anyway, one blog pointed me to Whoopdwhoop the "currency free marketplace." Basically you make stuff then add your creations to the market. You earn "whoops" as currency for adding items and for "selling:" items to other whoopers for their whoops. Get it?
I joined a several months ago in May and got regular requests for items. Then I haven't received a single swap request in three months until last week. Last week I got one full request and two future requests if I can make my creations just a bit bigger. Then today, I got another swap request for a pair of earrings. I wonder if people are starting to think about Christmas gifts.
So I set out to make my swap from last week. It is a cute crocheted butterfly hat. Seen here modeled by my niece just after her first round of chemo this past spring.
For some reason it was super easy to make this first hat for my niece, but I had to make four hats this weekend just to get the hat to be about the right size for a toddler for my swapper. I tried different yarns and hooks. I kept playing with my gauge, but the pattern doesn't have a gauge; I was just hoping it would turn out. Something was always wrong so, for my final attempt I used the exact yarn as I made this hat out of (had to go shopping, I was trying to make it from yarn I already owned) and the exact same hook. Well, the small shopping trip paid off and the hat finally turned out right and I sent it out to California.
My next trick with this pattern is to make it adult sized so I can fulfill another possible request. I just like that people like what I have made. I love making things.
Now I have a pretty good bank of whoops and I can go shopping and get something I want.
If you are on Whoopdwhoop, check me out: http://whoopdwhoop.com/profile/view/u.id/1553/n/michelle523
I follow a lot of crafting blogs for inspiration and free patterns/tutorials. I am a firm believer that my crafting shouldn't cost too much, but I do spend quite a bit on yarn in a year. Anyway, one blog pointed me to Whoopdwhoop the "currency free marketplace." Basically you make stuff then add your creations to the market. You earn "whoops" as currency for adding items and for "selling:" items to other whoopers for their whoops. Get it?
I joined a several months ago in May and got regular requests for items. Then I haven't received a single swap request in three months until last week. Last week I got one full request and two future requests if I can make my creations just a bit bigger. Then today, I got another swap request for a pair of earrings. I wonder if people are starting to think about Christmas gifts.
So I set out to make my swap from last week. It is a cute crocheted butterfly hat. Seen here modeled by my niece just after her first round of chemo this past spring.
My next trick with this pattern is to make it adult sized so I can fulfill another possible request. I just like that people like what I have made. I love making things.
Now I have a pretty good bank of whoops and I can go shopping and get something I want.
If you are on Whoopdwhoop, check me out: http://whoopdwhoop.com/profile/view/u.id/1553/n/michelle523
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