The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Renegade Craft Fair Chicago was this weekend and it was pretty glorious!

Renegade Kisses

The weekend was Chicago at it’s best – sunny, breezy, warm, full of beer, delicious food, and people chilling outside. Unfortunately for me, no one was interested in buying anything I had to sell. But hey! I was warm, I didn’t get rained on, and I saw a ton of people I love.

Necklaces, Pins, and Magenets, Oh MY!

Some of the un-purchased items from the weekend? From left to right, my Hello Sailor Knot Necklaces, the lovely Miss Katie Canavan‘s adorable yarn ball knitting needle broaches, and my friend Stefanie‘s fun collage magnets.

Purses and Buttons and Headbands!

My cute Cabled Change Purses, which got a lot of love but no buyers, Stefanie also made really cute buttons, which got a lot of love and quite a few buyers! And a couple Twin Cities Headbands, of which I sold two.

Broach! Necklace!

Katie even made me a special yarn broach in my Sweatshop of Love colors! Is it cute or what? She blogged about it at Under the Red Umbrella.

A weekend spent sweating, standing, talking to a million strangers, NOT watching football or knitting, all for about $150 profit. But, what are you going to do?! You’re going to take it on the chin and enjoy the time you spent with the people you love.

Renegade, EARLY Morning

That being said, I try to learn from every experience. This has been my third craft fair of the summer, and I shudder to think how much money I would have saved had I just chose to watch paint dry instead of participate in any of them. Instead of continuing to run into the same money sucking wall, I’ve decided that 2012 will be a craft fair free year. I’m never saying never, but shit. I’m bloodied and blistered and tired and broke. And I’d rather concentrate on other projects.

I’ve got two shows on the books for the rest of the year – YarnCon in Chicago in two weeks, and the DIY Trunk Show in November. I applied for No Coast in Minneapolis in December, so if I get in to that show I’ll do that, too. But THAT’S IT!

This whole do-a-millions-shows-in-2011 thing did not work out. It was fun! But I guess I’m a businesswoman or something, and I’ve got to stop flushing money down the toilet. Because that isn’t what businesswomen do.

See?! I’m learning!

I’m sitting in Boxborough MA at the kitchen table of our friends Lucas and Laura, who have popped here many times before, in Boston last year and in Portland a while ago. They just bought a house and it’s adorable!

The Sweatshop!

I wanted to post a few pics from the weekend. Renegade Brooklyn was really fun! It was great meet a ton of people I had only known from twitter and from blogs, so putting faces to names was the highlight of the weekend for sure.

Me! Rocking it Out!

There were less knitters around and Renegade Brooklyn had a much more commercial feel than Renegade Chicago last year. I got a lot of crazy looks.

Knits!

Our trip so far has been awesome! Lots of eating and meeting up with friends and chillin’ in the bar. New York is such a great time when you are only there for a few days! You can cram it all in, eat and drink and party, and then escape 4 hours north to Boston for some R&R.

Body Necklaces!

So yeah, I’ve got a ton of inventory left! It will be making it’s way onto etsy when I get back into Minneapolis. In the mean time, I’m off to Boston for the day! More from the road soon.

It’s always crazy when something you’ve been planning for and anticipating for a long time actually arrives, so the fact that Renegade Brooklyn is THIS WEEKEND kind of blows my mind! Caitlin and I found out we got in back in March, so it has been a while.

Lots of Knitting Kits Packed Up

I started out with a HUGE plan. I trimmed it down as I went and ended up with two new kits, a couple updates to some old kits, and a bunch of new knit and crochet ready to wear jewelry pieces to sell.

Felt Boxes for Display

When you’re in a craft fair you not only have to think about what you’re selling but also how you are displaying it. For Renegade Chicago I used my mom’s beautiful baskets, but since we’re traveling for 11 days and will be living out of our car I didn’t want to take the chance that something would happen to one of them along the way. We have a LOT of stuff we’re taking and needed disposable/collapsible displays.

Cute AND Collapsible!

When I saw Katie from Under the Red Umbrella‘s Felt Box tutorial last year I knew I had to make some! And somewhere I made the connection that I could make them with Sweatshop colors, and organize my knitted jewelry for Renegade in them.

Katie’s tutorial is super easy to follow, thorough, and super clear. They’re also a lot quicker than I thought they’d be! I made 10 of these in 2 sittings. Bonus?! The materials cost me like $2. Katie makes them with vintage sheets, which I love, but I’m working on BRANDING and all that, so I used yellow and teal materials, my Sweatshop of Love colors. I found teal sheets of felt at Michael for like 20 cents a sheet and the same muslin I dye yellow for my kit project bags.

I’ll show you pics of how it all looks next week! I made tags and pricing to attach to them so I think it will look awesome.

A Million Mes

Speaking of tags, one of he downfalls of using yourself as your model is that you end up staring at yourself ALL DAY to the point where you don’t even see yourself in the picture anymore. This is the picture on my kits, so this is the picture I’ve had to stare at at the printers, cut out, paste to tags, and stuff into project bags. I wore this shirt yesterday and could barely stomach it.

Daisy Chain Necklace, Ruffle Bracelet

I don’t even recognize that as my body anymore. But there you have it! My Daisy Chain Necklace and Ruffle Bracelet kits. They’re my first crochet kits! They’re debuting this weekend at Renegade so if you’re in the area come pick one up! If you aren’t then they’ll be up in my Etsy shop by the end of the month. What do you think?!

As you’re reading this we’re somewhere between Chicago and New York. Follow me on twitter for Renegade updates this weekend, and I’ll let you know how it goes next week!

I’m scrambling to finish and pack up everything I’m taking to Renegade Brooklyn this week. It’s next FREAKING weekend! I can’t even believe it.

Since there are so many boxes and supplies and tables to bring, not to mention our tent, driving is pretty much our only option. It’s a good 22 hour drive from Minneapolis to Brooklyn, so we’re breaking it up and taking advantage of being on the east coast to visit some friends and enjoy our travels.

Wed June 8th: Drive the 7 hrs to Chicago. I left some stuff there that we will be picking up, and why not stay the night?

Thurs June 9th: Drive the 10 hrs to PT’s family cottage in western NY. Chill.

Fri June 10th: Drive the 5 hrs to Brooklyn. We are staying with Caitlin in Carrol Gardens and Friday night we are going to blow it out! By blow it out I mean eat bagels and pizza.

Sat June 11th – Sun June 12th: RENEGADE!

Mon June 13th: Drive the 4 hrs Boston to hang out with our friends Lucas and Laura, who we visited in Boston last summer, but who have since bought a house and got a dog!

Tues June 14th – Wed June 15th: Hang out in the Boston area. I really want to hit up Salem! I’m also planning to sleep.

Thurs June 16th: Drive the 7 hrs back to western New York to PT’s family cottage.

Fri June 17th – Sat June 18th: Hang out at the cottage! Apparently there are swimming holes and hiking trails and no internet, which I can’t really get behind, but we’ll try to work with it.

Sun June 19th: Attempt to drive the 17 hrs home to Minneapolis, but we might stay in Chicago Sunday night and do the last 7 hrs on Monday.

I’m excited! This is by far the farthest I’ve ever road tripped. Renegade will be a blast, and I’m very excited about all the old friends I’m planning on reconnecting with and about meeting blog readers and twitter friends for the first time.

If you are planning on coming to Renegade Brooklyn be sure to let me know! Like I said, there is no sleeping until we get to Boston so I want to party with all of you.

Things have been quiet around here on the knitting front, but despite my mad carpel tunnel I have been knitting up a little storm for Renegade Brooklyn, which kicks of in less than a month.

Hello Sailor!

These Hello Sailor Knot Necklaces should look familiar – they have been around for a while and are a favorite. A lot of icord? Hellz yeah. I’ve got 7 main colors I’m working with for the majority of my knits and kits for summer and I LOVE them. I can’t wait to start wearing these knits around myself.

Hello Sailor Knot... BRACELET?!

These should not look familiar! New this summer is the Hello Sailor Knot Bracelet – a super chunky fun bracelet using the same knot in the necklace, only, you know, bracelet-ized.

COLORS!

So yeah I was basically icording for 3 weeks straight. But worth it! I’m in love with these bracelets.

Cabled Change Purses

An oldie but a goodie, my Cabled Change Purse pattern is making a comeback! In all my bright summer colors I think they are so fun, and once I get zippers and linings for these little purses they are going to be even cuter.

Crochet Body Necklaces

And these?! Well, they are new, too. I’ll chat more about these later. Ohh body necklace cock tease!

So I’ve been a busy lady! As far as knitting and designing for Renegade I’m 95% finished.  I’ve got a TON of sewing and packing and organizing and tagging to do once I get back to Minneapolis, but I’m on pace to have a really great Renegade!