Rows Red » Bittersweet

Apr 30 2010

Big Happenings at Tiny House

Category: Bittersweet,Tiny House — Mistress Rows @ 7:28 am

I thought things were supposed to slow down after Clermont? I mean, I know they have… case in point: I haven’t spent every night after work dyeing, skeining, or labeling yarn. That’s a plus. But I have spent every night working on my new Bittersweet website, photographing yarn and editing photos, interspersed with a couple hours of Burn Notice: Season 2 before bed. I <3 Fiona. She speaks my language. Anyway, the feeling of high-speed madness is most likely due to the Big Things going on here at Tiny House. Starting with…

The photo I would have sent them if I didn't look quite so (unintentionally) smug.

Bittersweet Woolery is the featured artist of the month for May over at Yarn4Socks! Those of you on Facebook have already heard me squee for hours, sorry, but for those that haven’t heard it yet I’m quite excited. You can read my interview on their blog and see photos of the yarn that I sent them. Not one of those colorways, including Dragonfly and Concubine, are available in my shop at the moment so if you’ve been wanting a skein you’ll have your chance starting at midnight tonight!

Also in Bittersweet news, there’s a brand new website just for all things Bittersweet Woolery. It’s in the infant stages, but it’s functional and it’ll only improve over time. You can see a sampling of whatever yarn I have for sale in the Shop section, a small slideshow of a just a few of my favorite colorways, and links to the Bittersweet fan page on Facebook. Right now the blog section is the front page, that’ll change soon once I figure out how to redirect the URL to a new “home” page. Someday, as sales go up, I’ll pay a friend who’s good at setting up one of those nifty commerce websites, because I’m really not looking to pay more monthly fees right now. Let me know what you think, and especially if you find something that isn’t working. Remember, work in progress.

Guilty Pleasures superwash sock yarn in "Dragonfly".

In non-vending news, as of tonight there will be a new addition at Tiny House. Emma, Jess’s Kromski Symphony, is coming to live with me for a while! Jess figures we should get used to each other while I put the money together and I’m very excited. No long will I be the only spinner I know who only has one wheel, not that it bothered me. I’ve never been hot on collecting wheels, but I recognize that different style wheels have different spinning strengths and weaknesses. A production style wheel like this has a very different feel, much smoother and faster than my Lendrum, Circe. Since I love spinning very fine, this is very appealing to me.

I started to long for a production wheel back in ’08 when I tried the Lendrum Saxony at SOAR. It’s the wheel I’m sitting at in the “About Me” photo here on the blog. Not having $1,300 to spend any time soon, my mental substitution has always been the Symphony. It’s been years since I spun regularly on a Saxony, and that was my wobbly Ashford Traditional so there’s truly no comparison. Just the fact that it’s a double treadle is a deal changer for me. I need to sell lots and lots of yarn.

On top of all that, tomorrow’s Beltane with friends. I’m tired and run down enough that I was tempted to stay home, but we really need living room furniture and the big warehouse store is only a short distance away from Harriet’s house. When faced with two really good things that can both be accomplished by leaving the house, I cave in. Honest to god, functional, multiple sitting surfaces in our living room? Be still my heart.

Can you blame me for falling behind? Well, I suppose you could, but I’m so tired and achey that honestly, I couldn’t be bothered to care.

Tags: Awesomeness, Bittersweet, Tiny House

Comments (8)

Apr 26 2010

Chancellor’s Sheep & Wool Showcase 2010

Category: Bittersweet,Festivals,Vending — Mistress Rows @ 6:51 pm

Folks, you did it again. You came out, you supported independent artisans, and you rocked it big time. Sales were good in general for the Indie Oasis tent, and we have YOU to thank! We’re of a general consensus that wallets were a little tighter this year due to the economy, and we’re also sure traffic would have been even higher if it weren’t for the massive detour blocking traffic from the North, but it was a great show nonetheless.

There were MANY more vendors this year.

Gathering in one tent, full from end to end with friends and helpers, was better than I could have imagined. We laughed, we lent a hand, we supported each other. It’s a big thing, putting yourself out there, and I was giddy with happiness as so many of my fellow IO buddies came up to thank me for putting it together. Honestly, it was my pleasure! And come on… I benefited more than words can say since Steve was unable to help set up my booth Saturday morning. Matt, Becky’s housemate and budding wood carver, was indispensable, as was Jess’s nephew Brandon. Thank you!

Matt, working on a crochet hook.

Each time I vend, and it’s only been a handful so far, I try to improve my booth. We were short one black tablecloth, but our redone from home fit the theme. Next time, more stock, and definitely adding the spinning fiber back in.

The whole booth, liking the new banner (despite resolution issues).

Strong morning sunlight makes for crappy photos, sorry. Still, yay!

Lace & chocolate, both beautiful things.

The heavier weight yarn table got no love, let me tell you.

My fellow Indie vendors made me proud to share a tent with them… if you were there, you know what I’m talking about. The amount of care that went into their booths, and how obviously skilled they were at what they do was plain as day. You ladies (and gent!) are incredibly talented, and I’m proud to call you friends and colleagues.

Sock yarn was a big hit, but even more so was the lace yarn below.

My first customers, a Concubine purchase on the left, and Angela's Ashes on the right. Thank you, ladies!

The lady on the left, a member of my former guild, fell in love with the Concubine (rich, tonal red) sock yarn and had to have them. She said she was going to knit herself a pair of red socks to wear to the Sheep to Shawl competition at Rhinebeck this year, and this was just the yarn to do it. You have no idea how awesome I think that is.

Natural light, yes!

This family of knitters is part of my quiet but fabulous customer base, I was thrilled to see them this year. Last year they wanted more lace yarn, and since I wasn’t vending I set up a yarn meeting at the show after doing the dyeing custom for them. Thanks ladies for your enthusiasm and for following me through the re-branding! These ladies are funny, sweet, and talented lace knitters. I look forward to seeing them next year.

Aliqae can model my lace yarn any time!

My sales were good, if a little less than in years past, but I am grateful for the influx of cash. Now I can restock my base yarns and get some forward momentum going. It was interesting, explaining to past customers about the rebranding and explaining what my thinking was. Everyone was supportive, and I got a lot of positive feedback on the new branding and on my dyeing. Vending is such a great time, even though it’s a lot of work, and it’s my favorite part of the whole business. Thank you, all of you… friends and customers alike!

Vending is fun.

Steve came by later and worked on his D&D stuff while manning the booth.

I have so many photos to share that I created a Picasa album to hold them, otherwise this post would be entirely too long. See the rest of them here.

Tags: Bittersweet, Festivals, Vending

Comments (6)

Mar 23 2010

Indie Oasis

Category: Bittersweet,Festivals — Mistress Rows @ 11:48 am

When Clermont rolled around last April, my fiber friends and I were somewhat let down at how few indie vendors there were. But since Carolyn and myself weren’t vending that year, we certainly couldn’t blame the show, right? We stood around, panting in the shade, and someone said, “we definitely have to vend next year”. I agreed wholeheartedly, and that’s when the idea sprang fully formed into my head.

“We SHOULD all vend next year, and we can call ourselves the Indie Oasis!”

People, I suck at coming up with names. I really, really do. That’s how I ended up with Phoenix Fiberworks in the first place, it was the least offensive option before me, but it didn’t really light my fire so to speak. So, when a name comes to me just – like – that, I know it’s meant to be. There’s a subsonic reverberation that pings through the universe and the gods smile because I’m not quite as dense as they feared. I kept the idea aside, and once October came ‘round I hit up my indie friends with the details. I would book all our booths together, under one tent, and we would be an oasis of handmade and indie panache at the show. The idea went over very, very well!

View from the Clermont grounds.

Within a few days I had a working list of talented indie vendors that were happy to band together at Clermont. Our merry band includes:

We can’t go too far in delineating ourselves from the rest of the show the day of, the show administrator doesn’t want other vendors to feel like they’re being left out of something. That said, it’s fine to promote ourselves as a group, and you’ll be seeing the banner ad I created on Ravelry starting April 1^st. We’ll be in rotation on our shop groups (for those that have one) as well as the WOOL, Hudson Valley Ravelers, and NY State Fiber Lovers boards.

Jess & Cris will be part of our group!

To say that I’m excited about this venture would be an understatement. It might not seem like a big thing, after all, we’d all be vending anyway, right? But it’s more than just a name. It’s about support, sharing strengths and experience with each other. Some of us are vending for close to the first time, some of us are seasoned pros. All of us know each other socially, and we are committed to seeing each other succeed. Most of all, we are all adamant about the power of handmade, and the care and love that goes into bringing our visions of color and craft to light for our customers. Someday I hope to grow this idea into something bigger, but for now, it’s about Clermont and the fantastic Chancellor’s Sheep & Wool Showcase.

Cutie pie!

If you are local, please mark your calendar. The event is on Saturday, April 24th, with a rain date of the 25th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The show is small, but a great way to spend a few hours enjoying fiber, beautiful historic grounds, music, animals, and demonstrations. At only $8 admission per car, it’s a great way to spend the day with the family!

Tags: Bittersweet, Festivals

Comments (6)

Mar 17 2010

One Step At a Time

Category: Bittersweet,Festivals,Knitting,Life & Stuff — Mistress Rows @ 4:22 pm

It’s been a trying couple of days here, where it seems like the world is on my shoulders. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband, someone who will do the silliest things just to make me laugh. He’s a keeper, and I want to grow old with this man. Between my goofy husband and the beautiful weather we’re having today, I’m starting to feel a little more like myself. Being able to take my knitting outside during my break times feels like a gift.

Sock number two is well on its way.

As you can see, I’m making good progress on the second sock. My gauge is all over the place, probably due to my hands not being up to par lately, but it’s getting there. I’m still in love with the yarn and the pattern. Whenever I work on the project in public it gets compliments, people are struck by the combination. I’m old enough to quote “I love it when a plan comes together”.

I’ve started taking my medication again and it’s making me dizzy and sleepy, as usual. It’s amazing what a single dose of the stuff will do, but also noticeable is the fact that it starts to blunt the pain almost immediately. It isn’t supposed to work that way, but for me it does. I will most likely take a nap this evening, before Steve gets home from work, just to try and take the edge off the sluggishness. There are dishes to do and yarn to wind, it’s not going to get done by wishing! Speaking of the yarn, I can’t wait to photograph and list it, I think you guys are going to really like the colors.

In other shop news, I bought my bittersweetwoolery.com domain and my super-tech brother-in-law got it set up and hosted. We’ll be installing WordPress very soon, and Jess is creating the CSS file I mocked up in Artisteer. It’s this close to be really real folks, and in plenty of time for Clermont. I’ll be sharing some exciting news this week about that very show, stay tuned.

Last, but not least, my latest post is up at the Fiber Lust Confessional, take a look and find out why you should totally respect the hook.

Tags: Bittersweet, Festivals, Knitting, Life & Stuff

Comments (3)

Feb 04 2010

Ooh, shiny! Jing tsai, da bianhua!*

Category: Bittersweet — Mistress Rows @ 11:49 pm

The last of the most recent yarn goes up tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m., most of it’s already listed! If there’s something you liked in the photo-montage from earlier this week, now might be a good time to pick it up. Think of it as color therapy for the winter doldrums. Now if only you could get your doctor to write you a script, you’d never have to feel guilty about your yarn purchases again!

In other good news, I got my stockpots in the mail, only two days after I ordered them. Now that’s some fan-damn-tastic free shipping! Boscovs gets points for that. Not as much fun? The fact that they didn’t list the pots as being 2nds. None of the flaws makes them unusable for my purposes, but still, you’d think in the interest of full disclosure. For $10, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, I’m just happy to have them. It makes me wonder about the other items on their closeout site though.

Also in Bittersweet news, I’ve set up a business page on Facebook. If you’re on FB, and you’d like to show your support for the shop, please consider becoming a fan of Bittersweet Woolery? I’ve linked my Artfire shop right into the page, and soon will be moving away from Etsy all together aside from a few odds and ends. Artfire just offers so much more in terms of flexibility and offsite extras (FB kiosk, sticky cart, discount codes, etc.). I love Etsy, and I’ve been with them in one form or another since they were less than a year old, but they simply haven’t responded to the changing needs of their vendors the way that Artfire has from the get go.

Coming in the future? A Bittersweet Woolery site of its own, complete with onsite vending and its own mini-blog. If I can figure out a way to keep it connected in some way to Rows Red, I will. No matter what happens, don’t think for a minute that Rows Red is going anywhere. I love this blog, and what I’ve built here. I can grow the Woolery and keep my blabbermouth ways, of that I am sure.

*Points to whomever can tell me where those quotes come from. Steve, you can’t play, you’d know right away.

**Extra points to whomever can also tell me what the second part translates to, and yes, you can look it up in an appropriate fan resource!

Tags: Bittersweet, planning

Comments (1)

Jan 18 2010

Inspiratus

Category: Bittersweet,Chez Chastinez,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 1:30 pm

How is the house, now that we’ve survived the holidays and then some? The house is good, really good. We’ve had some misadventures with the furnace and a wonky fuel oil gauge, but we’re getting then hang of it. We have been blessed with recent gifts from friends, first with a free futon and later that day Wendy and Jody gave us a portable dishwasher! We’re thrilled, those two gifts alone have saved us many hundreds of dollars at a time when cash is thin on the ground due to having to pay up front for fuel oil. We’re going to need that futon too, Amy is coming to visit in February for her birthday! We can’t wait.

It’s hard to move into a house in the winter. The days are so short and cold, all you want to do is hibernate after work and on the weekends, but there’s so much that needs to be done. We’re getting things settled slowly, taking stock of what we can or need to do now and what we will have to tackle later. The house finally feels like ours, like our home. A lot of that stems from my early push to immediately fill the book case where my craft books are stored, hang my decorative metal votive sconces, and get piece meal curtains up on the living room window. Steve’s been wonderful, he’s really stepped up the challenge of weather proofing the house, getting things organized and moved, and of course keeping up with his eagle eye budget. Our next big task is getting the basement ready for my dye studio, which will unfortunately have to wait until the walls are insulated.

Sweet Nothings Lace Yarn in Cherry Bomb

That didn’t stop me from fulfilling my first custom order of 2010, which came by way of a repeat Phoenix Fiberworks customer, an intrepid lace knitter named Linda. Linda’s blogless and not on Ravelry, which means I never get to see what she makes with my yarn. I have much to thank her for, she was very patient during my move and it was her order that spurred me to throw a few extra skeins in the pots and play. I need to make a sign that says “Dyeing is fun, you LIKE dyeing!” I still have such a hard time remembering that now that I’ve moved to kettle dyeing, and my Fibro is much more manageable, I LIKE DYEING AGAIN. That studio can’t be set up soon enough, seriously.

Guilty Pleasures Sock Yarn in Dragonfly

I think that kettle dyeing, and experimental over-dyeing, are truly the most fun I’ve had with yarn in a really long time. Monochromatic dyeing reminds me of a mysterious woman with hidden depths, there’s more than meets the eye at first glance. Over-dyeing, something I’m exploring only recently, isn’t as time consuming as I first thought… and really exciting. I started with dipping the sock yarn into the pot I was dyeing the Cherry Bomb lace in, but only for a moment. As I pulled it out I saw that it was satisfyingly mottled from pink, to blush, and some undyed areas. I used the exhausted water from Dragonfly to make up a pot of weak chocolate brown and voila! A rich blend of vintage pinks with a hint of caramel, and still not so “busy” that you couldn’t do cables or lace with it. Love. I even got them listed and up in the shop, go me.

Guilty Pleasures Sock Yarn in Pressed Petals

Most gratifying of all was the look on Wendy’s face when she and her husband came by to visit later that day. She liked the colors of the drying yarn well enough, and we talked about the dyeing, my choice in base yarns, and consumer tastes. I told her, touch the yarn, you’ll love it! Everyone really likes it when I do shows and it’s the first thing to sell out of. Well, wouldn’t you know, I’m not bullshitting and Wendy fell in love. Deep, abiding, ‘oh my god how much is it I want to take it home right now’ love. The happiness I get when my yarn makes knitters and crocheters happy is a rush that I need to remember as I build my plans for 2010.

Wendy and the sock yarn, sittin' in a tree.... K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Because really, who wouldn’t be inspired when a customer has a reaction like that?

Tags: Bittersweet, Chez Chastinez, dyeing

Comments (4)

Nov 11 2009

We’re Getting There

Category: Bittersweet,Designing,Life & Stuff — Mistress Rows @ 2:52 pm

I’ve been a busy bee on every front, which seems to be par for the course. Thankfully, the Fibro has been under control, and I know a large part of that is due to us packing slowly and methodically. We are often guilty of procrastination, but not here. We’ve moved far too many times to leave it to the last minute, and my body thanks me for it. Some of the things I’ve been focusing on:

House

Packing, obviously. Our entire life will fit in our spare bedroom, including over 20 boxes of books, not counting Steve’s 10,000 strong comic book collection and my craft magazine collection. The latter should add another four boxes.
Attempting to close, we’re almost there. We expect word from the USDA by next week. It can’t come soon enough for us, not to mention the very impatient seller. The broker ‘offered’ to eat the $700+ rate-lock extension fee, since it’s partially his fault we haven’t closed, and our rate was supposed to expire today. He didn’t apologize, actually “I’m not going to apologize”, but made the offer saying “you’re WORTH it”. We could see our lawyer’s eyes roll in her email, and the phrase “gag me with a spoon” comes to mind.
I’m finally allowing myself to believe it might actually happen, as evidenced by me taking advantage of a sale and buying something to go on the mantle over our fireplace in the new home. 40% off of $17 and an additional 20% via coupon meant it was a small luxury I didn’t need to feel guilty about.
Steve and I are going to look at furniture tonight, mostly just measuring and pricing out our needs. Those include a new love seat, two chairs, a coffee table, and a dining room set. Our old living room furniture is tattered and the seats are sprung, and while we expected to buy dining room chairs (ours are mismatched), our table doesn’t fit in our new house.

Business

I’ve contacted an organization for small business people and will be speaking with a consultant in my area after we move. The organization helps small businesses find out what options are open to them, offers consulting advice, and direct them to programs of interest.
My goal is to have my new DBA, new packaging, and my studio set up by January 1^st. If I can sneak in some dyeing before then for the holiday rush, that would be great.

Designing

The Fascine sock pattern is out and getting some attention from a gaggle of test knitters, much to my joy. I know at least two pair are already started, and I look forward to seeing them knit up.
I’ve been getting several older patterns I’ve written and templated finished so I can put them up on Ravelry. At least one of them really doesn’t need to be test knit as it’s a simple cowl with crocheted border, so that will most likely go up first. This is the cowl I wear almost every day during the cold months, called Scaollopine. It’s so simple, but has an elegant border. I wish more of my friends were both knitters and crocheters, I love writing patterns that incorporate both!
I’ll be reknitting and actually documenting the Estrella Bella scarf pattern that I knit to wear at the 2008 SOAR fashion show in my Kryptonite handspun. It’s undocumented (but really pretty) because I hoped to submit it to Spin Off but never did. I think there’s never been a better time than now to get off my butt and do it.

Kryptonite

So, that’s what I’ve been up to. I’ll say right now, there will be very few handknit gifts this year, if any. We haven’t even moved yet, but oh boy it’s going to get even busier.

Tags: Bittersweet, Designing, Life & Stuff

Comments (6)

Oct 29 2009

Churn

Category: Bittersweet,Knitting,Spinning — Mistress Rows @ 1:37 pm

It seems as if my knitting and spinning have gone nowhere this month, but at least I can pinpoint why. The beginning of the month I was trying to get Tilt done, fast and furious, only to have to stop with more than ¾ of it completed due to tendonitis and running out of time. Since Rhinebeck, I have finished my Red Scarf project, but it needs to be blocked. I have to stuff my Smiley Cone baby gift and embroider the face. All of these nearly finished projects mean I have no sense of satisfaction upon completion, and only a vague sense of having done much floating around in the wake of Rhinebeck. Thank god for Ravelry, looking over my project page is an incentive to keep at it (and not start anything new) until I can thin my WIP tagged section down.

Not that I’m not thinking of what I might like to do next, mind you. A new book in my personal library has me itching to write up a book review. I haven’t done one of those in months! Closing in on the end of the Panda Fan Shawl and tucking away mom’s shawl for later has me considering a commercial yarn lace project of my own. And, as I said yesterday, all that freshly washed Romney has visions of projects-to-be dancing in my head. Freshly carded batts are a balm to the soul, let me tell you. So bouncy, fluffy, and full of effortless spinning time. My fingers are fairly squirming to get started.

BFL in "Saturn" from Seekay Craft.

Until I get paid and can buy another ball of the Noro Silk Garden Sock (colorway #84, ON SALE PLEASE), I’m currently focusing on two projects. The first is my bobbin of Saturn BFL, which you may remember I purchased from Carolyn at the Garden State Sheep Breeders Festival in September. I started spinning it a few weeks ago and it’s taking me FOR-EVAH. There are two reasons for that, chiefly being that I’m spinning it as fine as thread (because it wants to!) and also because I haven’t been spinning in the house much, mostly just at knit nights. I hope to change that on Sunday in between getting some house chores done. It’s still gorgeous, still an utter joy to spin, and I still think Carolyn’s a genius. If you haven’t bought some of her fiber, I really think you should. I say that not as a friend, but as a completely satisfied customer. And to think… I have more of this stuff in “Ruby” from WOOL ’09. Joy!

A knotty skein that I'd hoped to sell (but obviously wouldn't) turned into my gain.

My second focus is on finishing up my Fascine socks, which are sample socks in my Miss Priss 100% wool sock yarn. Words cannot express how much I love the color of this yarn, it makes me happy every time I look at it. The sock is being knit from the toe up, and this is my first time successfully completing a (soon-to-be) pair of socks with this technique. I tried to make my first pair of socks toe up, but that pair was frogged and I was a cuff down gal from then on. I think I like this toe up business now. The pattern is great for this style of hand dyeing, and I’m going to knit another pair so I can tweak it and write up the pattern. I will say, this base yarn has surprised me… for something with not a bit of nylon or superwash treatment at all, it has survived FIVE froggings for the first sock (don’t ask) with a slight halo, but relatively unscathed. That’s a lot of abuse to heap on a plain wool yarn with medium twist.

Tags: Bittersweet, Knitting, Spinning

Comments (2)

Sep 18 2009

Vending: 2009 Jersey Sheep & Wool

Category: Bittersweet,Festivals,Vending — Mistress Rows @ 6:25 pm

Well, I’m back from my vending trip to Jersey, followed the day I got home with a business trip for almost an entire week to DC. I’m going to have to take this chronologically, and may even have to break it down or shuffle of quite a few photos to a Picasa album, otherwise there’s just no way I’ll get it all up here. So let’s start with Jersey, ok? Ok.

Thanks in large part to my Garmin, I got to Carolyn’s house in good time, with zero problems. Carolyn is such a fantastic hostess, she cooked me fish with spinach and garlic potatoes, healthy AND tasty. Not the least of what I’m grateful for is that she introduced me to Glee. Seriously people, watch it. It really is as good as the hype. I had a great evening, part of which was spent casting on for my first toe up sock since I learned to knit socks all those many moons ago. Not nearly as fiddly as I feared/remembered.

Peacock sock in my new sock yarn.

Unfortunately, sleeping in a strange place had me up at 4 a.m. Yes. FOUR O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING. Argh. Alas, no more sleep for me. We got ourselves ready, packed, and were on the road by 6 a.m. The fairgrounds were roughly an hour and a half away, but don’t think for a minute that we ended up getting there any earlier than 8:30. With a stop to Wegmans for lunch fixings (heaven on earth), and figuring out how to get an address-less address into the Garmin, it was all we could do to get there before the place opened at 9. With much help from one of Jessica’s minions, Sairy, we tamed the cubes of doom and were set up in time.

Early. Really, really early.

Not that “in time” meant much. The weather was poor, the foot traffic dismal… and yet, it was the better sales day of the two! Sunday was lovely, but much, much slower sales and attendance wise. Strangely, I did very well! Despite having much less stock than I thought, despite the poor weather and attendance, people were really enthusiastic about the yarn and roving! I kept a careful list and the final tally was 2/3’s of the stock I brought with me sold, not counting the two skeins I traded away for fantastic show mate product. One woman even tried to buy the third “defective” (knotty) skein of three I dyed in the Peacock colorway, but I’d used that one to cast on my sock with so I could show off the look and feel of my yarn.

Tada! Set up and ready to sell.

Merry Minions!

My first customer!

I found that I quickly fell into a short spiel for what my new dyeing vision is, and it was easily understood (and very well received) by the fairgoers. I am creating yarn that provides you with options instead of taking them away. Sweet, simple, and effective. People got it! It’s not boring yarn, it’s not flat like a solid. It’s rich and subtle. Some of it is more strongly tonal than others due to the vagaries of kettle dyeing, but you still have more options than you do with most of the hand dyed yarn out there. I know I’m not unique in this path, but it is a relatively small percentage of the market. Before I’d even arrived home from DC I had an email order, which (let me tell you) is very affirming. I’ve got a long way to go, and a lot of work to do, but I believe I’m on the right track.

Yay!

I forget how much I enjoy interacting with customers, who are really just people when it comes down to it. People I can do, no problem! It helps when they’re excited to be there, and excited about your product. Speaking of product, Jess’s bags got a lot of attention and sold well. Carolyn’s roving was incredibly inspirational and richly gorgeous, I brought home more than my fair share and then some. Jessica’s booth was party central, due in no small part to minions Sharon and Sairy backing up her lovely offerings.

Keeping busy between things. Seafoam roving I dyed.

Having such great booth and show mates was a huge help, both in setting up and watching, and also in morale support. It was a really big step to take, throwing all my eggs in one basket and doing this show ahead of buying a house and my first business trip. I owe a lot to Carolyn for getting me on the path, and for Jessica (who unfortunately couldn’t stay for the show) for sharing her booth space with us.

Carolyn's delicious fiber.

And I’d like to finish by thanking everyone who stopped by to say hi, offering words of support and encouragement. You ladies are all awesome. And yes, I mean YOU, blog stalker and groupie Carol from Cummington! Now you’ll have to comment.