Do What You Love....

The old adage goes, "Do what you love and the money will follow." I have found this to be true with my crocheting on more than one occasion. My dear friend and colleague Michelle DiBennardi is expecting a baby girl any minute now. No, literally -- she's going to the doctor tomorrow to see if labor can be induced! And I adore Michelle, and I know how excited she is to be having her first child. So I made her a ginormous baby blanket. This is the biggest thing I've ever made -- I tend to lose interest in projects bigger than three feet square. But it was a labor of love for someone very special to me. Below is a picture that Rico Blanco took at Squiggly's Yarn Shop when I finished it.

I have also tended to shy away from pieced Granny Square projects. I love how quickly granny squares stitch up and how portable they are, but I could never find a cool way to piece them together. Never, that is, until now. I Googled "granny square crochet together", and the ninth entry was Carina's Craftblog, in which Carina gives an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to join the squares using double crochet back and forth. I was delighted with the way it turned out! Here's a picture that Rico took at the Glenwood Stitch 'n' Bitch when I was piecing the project together.

Michelle loved the blanket. She texted me and said that she just wanted to cuddle with it herself! And then she texted me and reminded me that her twin sister is expecting her first child -- a boy -- next month and asked if I would be willing to make a blanket to sell to her to give as a gift to her sister. I was blown away! How flattering is that? And then I thought about the pricing aspect. I'd never made anything that big to sell -- I list my 3'X3' blankets for $60. I had made Michelle's blanket as a labor of love! How would I price it? Would Michelle be willing to pay for it? With the help of my dear friend and creative marketing genius Matt Dans, I came up with a price that would be fair to me. I reluctantly quoted the price to Michelle, and she said that sounded great! So I started her sister's blanket on Thursday. The colors I'm using are pictured below. I should have it finished in two weeks.

The lesson I learned is to not undervalue my work. People are willing to pay for quality work. And, of course, to do what I love and the money will follow! I'll post pictures of the boy version of the Michelle Blanket as soon as it's finished!

Tonight is, of course, the Glenwood Stitch 'n' Bitch. I'm going to grab something to eat and head over there in a few minutes. That's all the news for now. As always, darlings, Peace, Love and Yarn!!