u/Zooey_Zoom_Travels

Hi! I'm finalizing a pattern for a market-make dragon, so now my brain is starting to think of the next project. After touring several local markets the last several weeks, I'm seeing the same patterns repeated - often low detail loaves/balls/blobs for fast makes. I think our local area is perhaps saturated with that kind of crochet and it's starting to sell less?

So here's where I'm wondering what I've missed because no one seems to be doing it: Build Your Own Crochet selections with accessories but also pre-crocheted attachments like hair swirls.

Example: Horse body pre-built in different colors. Hair pieces pre-crocheted in different colors. Horns to make horse a unicorn. The shopper picks their horse color and then selects the different hair pieces they want, and the seller attaches it all with a basic slst of the long tails, then weaving those tails into the horse body before the shopper leaves.

What am I not considering in this kind of market engagement? I know time at POS is critical in a restaurant and retail scenario, but in markets i don't see speed as being the primary function for the checkout process.

Thoughts and insights from others who have tried this, or seen others try it?

I've been pondering how to compete with the 3d printed items at handcraft fairs and markets that kids and adults naturally gravitate to because of the "cool" factor. While the dragons are getting old - and you can basically order them overnight on Amazon - they are still selling at maker markets. This creates competition for other crafters, such as amigurumi crochet, and most of the dragon patterns I've tried are too generic or too complex to compete with the 3d prints at scale.

I decided to try my hand at a pattern that would be a fast make, and also work in a variety of yarns, colors, weights, and styles. The pattern so far is what you see pictured here. I've made five dragons with different mixtures of hooks, yarns, and stuffing, and I've embroidered eyes, used basic black safety eyes, and the fun glitter safety eyes, too. I used our local school's colors to provide two high contrast styles, and used scrap yarn on the red wings to see how far I could get with it, and I'll say the wings are a great way to use up scrap balls. The larger dragons (12in tip to tail) are made with Big Twist yarn, the smaller (9in tip to tail) with Caron fingerweight yarns. The glitter in the smaller dragons really brought some magic to the pattern, so I will definitely be making more of those. I also tried a row of stitching down the spine to create spikes, and it was an easy and fast add-on for styling variations.

The way I patterned the body it creates a no-sew tube that you stuff as you stitch. The arms, legs, and wings are made in pairs and sewn on very quickly, and without a lot of precision. The attachments are not designed to be stuffed, though the back legs have a pocket that could be stuffed to add a little extra dimension if desired before stitching across the feet. For extra shaping, a stitch can be sewn in between the eyes to create more defined orbital spaces.

The neck is slightly elongated which allows posability if using a very stiff stuffing, such as plastic, cut up fabric, etc. If using polyfill, the packing should be firm and overfull to hold the dragon shape. I am planning to also use this pattern with blanket yarn to see how it turns out. Because the wings are very flexible, they can be used to wrap the dragon for placement into an egg shape - which im also work on designing a paper craft egg that could be used for holding the dragons as part of a themed set, or used to create a blind box mechanic of picking the egg and hatching a random dragon. I've got some ideas in the works now, but more engineering to be done as the dragons are a bit heavy and break open the paper windows.

This is my first attempt at a pattern make - and it has given me a whole new appreciation for designers, and reminded me that though I have a background with math - counting is hard haha.