by Amy Simpson
So, Christmas was such a busy time (but totally amazing) time, I had a whole load of orders, plus two craft fairs in December and I spent lots of time catching up with my beautiful family.
The first craft fair (the one I was preparing for since October), was AMAZING, I loved every second of it. It was a team effort, I got my lovely Mamma knitting and my mum did loads of knitting for me as well. Between the 3 of us, we ended up with way more stock than I expected. On the day, my cousin and best friend ever, Lottie, came to help and she was a massive help, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her – she was a gem, helping with setting up the stall, standing with me and helping to serve customers and fetching Nan, so Nan could come and enjoy it. I got Nan helping run the stall too. My boyfriend Daniel has been incredible over this craft fair journey, he’s put up with endless chatter about ideas (sometimes at like 3am when I have random brain waves!!) and all the time I’ve spent crafting as well. He taxied me there with all my boxes and stayed with me all day and helped with customers, put up with my stressing and helped to clear up – and he did most of the cleaning, cooking and household jobs in the few weeks before to give me more time to craft – what an absolute diamond!
We arrived at the first craft fair at the Stapleford Community Centre and set up the table – we only had half an hour to set up and I was a bit stressed as I had no idea what I was doing – I was still faffing with the last bits while the first customers were coming in. But I loved it so much… Daniel even managed a sneaky photo of my first sale!
My first sale documented by Daniel!
We made a total of £80 which I was super thrilled with, I came away with the biggest smile on my face, the hard work was worth it!
Next time, I will display the stockings differently though, as they didn’t sell well and they kept falling down, I don’t think they were visible enough! My best sellers were – Scrunchies, Chocolate Orange Covers, Large Snowman and brussels – I even got a custom order for a family of 8 brussels!
When we got home, I had the genius idea to book a second craft fair, as we had plenty of left over stock, I found one at the Bridge Inn in Sandiacre … so booked it, £10 table fee, plus raffle prize, not bad I thought.
My mum came with me to help this time… we arrived and got shown to a room right out the back of the pub, with a few tables in, we set up and waited and waited for customers, made a couple of sales to other stall holders, but very little footfall from the public.
We had a really nice chat with the lady on the stall next to us (Monkey and Fox wax melts- they smell amazing, check her out!!) and she bought a lot of things from us.
The pub got really busy, but poor poor advertising from the pub itself, meant very little footfall. Overall, this second craft fair was such a disappointment, but it taught me how important it is to advertise. I wish I’d took a pile of business cards into the pub itself and directed people our way. We made a shocking £29 which was pretty pants, but at least we made enough to cover the stall fee. The highlight of the day was my lovely Nan and Grandad popping in to see us.
We wrapped up well to keep us warm as it was freezing! 
A well earned drink after standing about for hours!
I have learnt a lot from both craft fairs and my goal for 2022 is to do more – I want to aim for 6 if I can! I will be more selective about which craft fairs venues I go to though!!
Happy crafting… would love if you could drop me a follow on Instagram or Facebook @amyknitttedbits