a crafty weekend and a business idea

I went out on Friday night with some uni friends and somehow managed to stay out until 4am dancing, despite the fact we'd met at 4pm intending to have a 'quiet dinner'...

Consequently I didn't feel all that well on Saturday, especially as I seemed to have gotten a cold from somewhere during the previous night.

So instead of having a wild time I spent Saturday evening with a friend who was also ill watching films and making toys.

This friend introduced me to the wonders of sock animals a while ago. She showed me how to make sock owls =]. I've made a fair few of these since, including these 4 which I sold at a craft fair:

I was hooked. It's such a fun way to make toys- the materials aren't terrible expensive and the only limit is your imagination!

I made this sock dinosaur as a birthday present for a palaeontologist friend of mine:

This weekend I was making more presents. These are birthday presents for 2 other friends. One keeps snakes and the other collects things with moth designs on them:

I'm so happy with how well they turned out! I especially love the gauzey panels in the moth wings! I can't afford to buy expensive presents for my friends at the moment because I'm very poor- but at least these came from the heart.

Speaking of being poor (and believe me I am- now I have to fund my own PhD) I'm considering going into business making and selling things.

Because the dinosaur, moth and snake are all my own designs (I made the patterns myself) I could probably try to sell similar ones on Etsy. Do you think  anyone would buy them?

I'm also considering making kits, with a pattern, instructions and all the materials you need so that people can make their own sock animals from my designs. Do you guys think this is a good idea?