Handmade The Hippie Way :)

Recently I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in my right wrist (and i'm right handed!) and pinched nerves in both sides of my neck. Safe to say it really makes things hard some days and definitely puts a damper on my crafting abilities, at least when it comes to crochet. Now until this point crochet was my bread and butter, it was all I did and all that I had listed in my Etsy shop. I about cried when the Dr. told me I needed to lay off the repetitive motions and wear a hand brace. So at that point I did my best to not have a poopy attitude about things and to find something else that I could do that would fit in with my shop aesthetics. Safe to say I found myself depressed and without ideas, until one night that I wasn't able to sleep. I had been asked to make a set of towels for my brother in-law's girlfriends birthday (whew say that 10 times fast) I had made this sort of towel prior to this, but hadn't listed any in my etsy shop. I'd given them as gifts or sold them to people I knew personally, i'd never really given it a thought to make and sell them on Etsy in addition to what I already had. So with some midnight inspiration and a trip to the fabric store a new line was born.



In my trip to the fabric store I went and perused the countless fabrics to get some ideas. It didn't come right away, it took a little bit of looking and thinking to come up with the final concept for this new line of towels. So after alot of pacing through the aisles of fabric I came to the conclusion that I would fabricate a line of towels with a Rainbow/Hippie/Retro theme. To me, this line screams me, from color, to print, to concept, even down to the very pattern fabricated to make the topper, there is a piece of me in each and every one of these towels. It took me a little more than a week on and off working for a couple hours here and there to finish the 18 towels. I finally photographed and listed the first few of the line just yesterday and will continue to list a few at a time until all 9 colors are up.

This has been the most challenging and pain-staking project to date, but with all of the blood sweat and tears they're done. I can now move on to other things, and continue to build my inventory over the next few months. I'll be participating in a craft fair at the end of October, so I have alot of work to do in order to get a beefed up inventory big enough to handle a 3 day festival. This is another big reason as to why I had to come up with another plan for things I could make and not damage myself any further. I hope to document my entire experience prior, during and after the craft fair since it's my first and I would love to share it with the world. Keep your eyes open for future blog postings on "the road to my first craft show" I intend on doing an entire series. :) For now I bid you farewell!

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