Saturday, September 3, 2011

What Regretsy Taught Me - Ask for Feedback

Beaded Little Leaf Lace in Sage

I just got through listing several berets and neck laces on Etsy and it seems like that was a lot more work than actually making the things.   I decided to NOT use the word steampunk as a keyword, style, description or any other thing, anywhere on my listings because

a. Nothing has clock parts knitted into it and
b.  I know better than to call something Steampunk, particularly if it actually IS steampunk. 

I did use the tags of Edwardian, Victorian and Goth for my neck laces.  So I'm asking for feedback on that.  If you believe that I've misused the descriptive words Edwardian, Victorian or Goth anywhere in my Etsy shop, please let me know.

While I was posting the berets I've been making, though, it occurred to me that I can offer something I've not seen elsewhere.  After knitting a couple of berets using hand spun it occurred to me that I couldn't possibly charge $200 for a beret -- so I shouldn't be using hand-spun exclusively when I knit my designs.  

I should concentrate my spinning time on novelty/art yarns and use them to enhance berets that had been knitted primarily in commercial yarn.  And that is what I've done.  Though one or two of the berets are completely hand spun, most start with a base of Lion's Fisherman's yarn and go from there.

Thick N Thin with Flags Novelty
It was just a small jump from that to the idea of offering berets with extra novelty yarn so that customers could knit their own matching scarf (with suggestions on how to use the novelty yarn to best effect -- or not.)

The beret here, for instance, is primarily White Fisherman's wool with a couple of different novelty yarns.  Hems of novelty on both ends of a garter stitch scarf would be easy to do, and when the customer is finished they could say "Hey, I knit this scarf just for you!  And here's a hat too!"  ... but is that too odd?
 

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