Hats for Hunger

Kool-aid dyed hat
Originally uploaded by ham_and_eggs

So the good folks at Red Heart Yarns turned me on to this organization, Hats for Hunger. Started by a 9-year-old boy named Andrew Castle, Hats for Hunger sells handmade hats and donates the proceeds to Heifer International, another great organization. You should read about them- they do really amazing work that has a real, immediate impact on families across the globe, helping to fight poverty and starvation by providing livestock to families for food and income.

Anyway, as part of my do-goodery, I made a hat, which I'm donating and sending to Hats for Hunger. I made it with the kool-aid dyed yarn I made the other day (and blogged about here). I followed the pattern for an adult hat but since the yarn is sport weight (at best), it's probably going to fit a tweener better, which is fine, because I think this hat would look adorable on a girl (or boy; I don't judge...). It's lightweight and kind of stretchy, so its perfect for spring and summer. and for me, the flower detail really finishes the look.

If you're a crocheter, I would strongly urge you to make a hat and send it off to this kid. Consider it your good deed of the week. Mine only took a few hours and a few dollars (1/2 skein of yarn and the cost to mail it, primarily), but it's going to help feed a hungry family. Since I've been unemployed, I have a much keener awareness of how lucky we are to have all that we have- a roof over our heads, food in the fridge, heat in the winter and ac in the summer, great friends, family and neighbors. If I can spend a few hours to try and give some of that to a family in need, it's totally worth my time.

If you're not a crocheter but would like to commission a hat made by me to send to Hats for Hunger, just let me know! Or, I bet you could just donate directly to them or to Heifer International. :)

free gift with purchase

button rose
Originally uploaded by ham_and_eggs

so i've started throwing freebies into my packages. my husband says i need to think like a buyer, not a seller. so, as a buyer, what would delight me and make me come back to my shop again? of course, my answer is 'free shit.' it works out well- i get to try out a new pattern or make something small i would otherwise have no reason to make (right now, i'm not really interested in selling crocheted flowers in my shop- there are sooooo many people out there doing that now, there's no way to stand out from the crowd, in my opinion, and i can't really sell them for more than a few bucks, so all in all, it doesn't seem worth my time...). and my buyers get a free thingy that engenders love for me. hopefully. i'm also giving them 10% off their next purchase if they leave me positive feedback. is that wrong? i have almost 50 sales (be my 50th and get a kick-ass free gift! better than this flower!), but i only have half that in feedback. so i'm hoping that's going to work for me too. it's all about return customers.


sooooo, anyway, here's a flower. it's got a pin on the back, so you could presumably do something with it other than just look at it. what do people do with crocheted flowers? appliques? gift bag adornments?

so what do you think of my buyer incentive program? would this make you want to come back for more? got any good ideas for other types of freebies i can throw in the box? i'd love to hear your thoughts.

The Mad, Mad Angry Girl Gardener

Mad Janet_2
Originally uploaded by ham_and_eggs

my friend janet asked me to make her an angry doll a while back, and i finallllllly got around to finishing her last week. the basic body construction is relatively easy on these dolls- nothing too fancy, so i finished that in about a day or two. but the hair! good lord, the hair took forever. she's got short, blonde hair. i've never done short hair on an angry girl before. each hair is individually placed on the head, so i cut about a bazillion strands of yellow yarn and then cut them into a hairstyle, like a hairdresser would. that was pretty stressful, honestly. it's no biggie if i screwed up; i could always remove the hair and redo it, but because it took me so long to get it done in the first place, the thought of removing it and redoing it was making me sick to my stomach. anyway, after i cut all the hair, her head was looking a little too round and poofy, so i gave her a babushka. i used a pattern that i'd used to make a babushka for myself with, modified to fit the dolls head. (actually, i just used a d-hook instead of an h-hook and it worked perfectly).

janet's a huge gardener, so she had to have flip flops. i mean, who gardens in socks and shoes, right? i actually originally crocheted her with green clogs (not crocs, because i hate crocs!) which were pretty cute, but when i added the purple headscarf, there were too many colors going on, so i removed the legs and redid them. i have a drawer full of unused body parts from dolls gone awry. i keep saying one day i'm just going to sew them all together into one gigantic ugly doll. lastly, i gave her a flower, because every gardener needs a flower, i think. it's a funny juxtaposition because her face is so, so angry and the idea of a girl holding a flower is sweet and innocent. all in all, she's one of my favorite angry girls. she's got so much personality.