Monday, June 23, 2008

Pile of Craft

Pile of Craft was fun, and now I feel much more ready (readier?) for Crafty Bastards next saturday! Pile of Craft took place in this gorgeous church:

pile of craft 08


(you can click on the photo to go to the flickr page & see the pictures better.)

And even though I am not really a city person, I was really impressed with the community in Baltimore, to the point that Lucius and I talked a little about moving there at some point in the future. The people there reminded me so strongly of my last year of high school, when I discovered the radical community in Milwaukee. I'm so glad that I went, and now I'm looking forward to applying to more shows in Baltimore so I can go back.

I didn't bring my camera to the show, since it's a clunky ancient thing that is current held together with a few rubber bands (sadly, this is not an exaggeration) and it can only hold about 9 pictures at a time, so the above pics were "borrowed" from other folks via flickr. But I did take one picture of a few of my self-striping yarns all labeled up on Friday:

labeled yarns


I left off labeling my stuff until the absolute last minute, and it took FOREVER. Lesson learned!

I did well enough at the show to make it worth it, but not so well that I have to completely re-spin my inventory for next saturday, so it worked out perfect! I know I would have sold a lot more if I had been able to accept credit cards, but I put that off until the last minute too and ended up having problems setting up a merchant account, so I need to call and get that figured out today.

I had a bunch of batts with me at the show, and a lot of people looked at them but obviously had no clue what they were. Most people had the same reaction to them - a sort of blissful tactile awe combined with complete confusion over what the heck they were. This batt wins the "most-fondled" award for the show:

seafoam batt


I think nearly every single person who laid eyes on it picked it up and petted it. But I think I'm going to spin it up myself now - it's a yummy blend of raw merino-cross wool from homestead that I dyed in seafoamy shades plus a hint of pale green, pale blue mohair, seafoam bamboo, sparkle, and white & seafoam tencel nepps from Steph. Yum!

I also brought home this yarn, one of my favorites:

princess tree handspun


As you can see, I've taken spinning leaves into yarn to a whole new level, hah. I call this one "Princess Tree", and I made some awesome abstract black & pink leaves for it. If this one doesn't sell next Saturday, I think I might keep it for myself. I also managed to cut out & embroider 30 felt leaves at the show! So more leafy yarns are on the way.

4 comments:

Elizabeth Porter said...

sounds like a blast! Congrats on your success, and may the next show be a sell-out!

I need to set up a credit card merchant account too- I just keep putting it off.

Stacie said...

Ah FF, how can you entice us West Coasters with your yarns sold at craft fairs we can't get to? and not put any of them on etsy? Hint hint! I love the self striping--

cosymakes said...

hurrah! sounds like a great time. maybe we'll do a show together some time :)

sadly, i'm always glad when i don't have to make everything again for a week later. much less stressful.

isn't if funny how one thing always gets fondled the most? i'm always surprised when it doesn't sell by the end of the show - but all the more for us i suppose!

cheers,
cosy

p.s. have you looked into www.propay.com? if you search for propaymike in the etsy forums, there's a deal for etsy sellers.

folktale fibers said...

Thanks, Liz! I have the pre-show jitters right now.

Stacie, I'm sure a bunch of yarns will be going up on etsy afterwards...and the self-striping single skeins were so much fun that I'll definitely be making more!

Cosy, I wondered if you'd be at either of my shows for a minute last week...until I realized that I'd have seen you on the vendors list if you were selling there! Haha. I'm sure we'll cross paths at some point.