Aggie's Afghans
by Anita G.
Gorman
I like
to crochet afghans. I make them in all sorts of
colors and then try to sell them at those craft
shows. I have to pay for a table on a Saturday
morning at a church hall or a school usually. My
afghans take me many hours, and I have to buy the
yarn, so I figured that $200 would be a fair
price. It's cheap when you think of how many
hours it takes to do the afghan, and there is
lots of yarn involved.
The
first time I set up my afghans I also had some
scarves that I knitted. I was charging $20 for
them.
I really
take pride in the colors I use, colors other
people don't always think of. Maybe orange and
pink or yellow and orange, or a multi-colored
yarn with a different multi-colored yarn.
Sometimes people would comment on my colors.
"You
do pick unusual hues," one woman said to me.
Another
one said, "We don't usually see handmade
items with those rather imaginative colors,"
or something like that. I was proud.
But no
one bought anything. I didn't want to lower the
price, so I just sat there all day. I lost $50,
since that was what it cost me to rent a table.
The next
time I was at a craft show, I raised the price of
the afghans to $250. It was still a fair price.
After all, I would have made much more money
working as a waitress in a restaurant. I raised
the price of the scarves to $25. I liked that--it
made the scarves look so much cheaper than the
afghans.
Every
time a possible customer came by I smiled and
said hello. Someone told me that was important.
Eye contact, that's what my friend Janice told me.
Always look them in the eye and they'll feel
guilty if they don't buy something. That's what
Janice said.
There
must have been a lot of guilt floating around the
middle school gym that day. I smiled. They smiled.
We looked each other in the eye. Then they would
make a comment.
"My
grandmother used to make afghans like these.
Pretty much the same pattern. But she never mixed
fuchsia and red. That's different."
Another
woman said something like this. "My mom used
to make afghans just like that. Not with those
colors, of course. She gave them away to all her
friends and relatives. I still have some. Her
colors were more, shall we say, subtle and
traditional. You're really brave to combine
garish colors like those."
I smiled,
but I wasn't sure what she meant by garish. I
lost another $50 that day. But I did crochet all
day, both times I was at the craft show. I made a
lot of progress on my new afghan. It's puce and
purple.
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