A Successful Wool Gathering

Aren't they beautiful?  Except for Grover being full of burrs and with one ear inside out.  It kind of reminds me of a photo of younger son, Sam/Zac/Satchmo taken at my brother Larry's wedding reception.  It was later in the evening and he was the ring bearer and his shirt was untucked on one side, his bow tie hanging askew and I think his cummerbund was undone.  He was posing with the bride, Jill.  He was 5.  I'll have to find that photo and post.  It really is adorable.  Thinking about it makes me kind of teary......

So, yes, the Wool Gathering.  I had a fabulous weekend.  It started off a bit wet.  I arrived at the venue around 4:30 pm to set up and just about the time I finished with set up and headed to Mom's house the skies opened up and it rained cats, dogs and alpacas!  It really came down.  Since the vendors are set up in huge tents, I had set up my display stuff, but had left all my products in their plastic containers.  The festival opened at 10 am and I knew I would have plenty of time to get everything out and on display the next morning and this way I would not have to worry about covering things.  I'm glad I did it that way.  Here is how my booth looked.  I was so pleased with my new banner.  It worked perfectly on top of my display.  I also had signs done up to put on top of my yarn trees which worked quite nicely.  One of the biggest issues at this festival is the lighting.  You can see how the red tent affects the color of everything.  But the weather was nice enough that I rolled up the side of the tent and encouraged customers to take yarn and fiber out in the daylight to look at the true colors.  
My 2 ply alpaca yarn sold very well, but I sold only 1 skein of the 3 ply.  I am not sure if it is due to the colors, or the fact that the skeins have less yardage but the same weight for the same price or what.  But this has helped me to decide that my next batch of yarn will be the 2 ply again.

Here are some wheels that the vendor next to me had for sale and for testing out.

 Here is another view of the inside of the tent looking one way.  I think I was about mid-way down the tent.  These tents are huge.  There were 112 booths inside the tents.  I had 1 booth, but many vendors, like Susan's Fiber Shop (next to me) and Fiber Optic (across from me) will use 2 spaces.  There are 3 of these tents at the festival and there are also outside spaces for vendors to bring their own canopies or tents.

                                                                                        





Here are a couple shots outside from Sunday afternoon.  As you can see, the weather improved greatly as the weekend progressed and by Sunday it was wonderful, though Saturday was good as well, just not as sunny.  And of course in addition to the fiber shopping, there are herding dog demos and there are sheep and alpacas to look at and pet and there is a pumpkin patch and rides for the kids and I was told there was even a car show going on.  I have no first hand knowledge of many of these things because I was too busy to get out except for important things like potty breaks and ice cream and food.  I had a great pulled pork sandwich on Sunday that came with home made potato chips.  It was wonderful and less than $6.  I am a sucker for home made fries and chips and these were excellent.

A downside (?) to being so busy is that I did not even get into the other 2 tents to shop!  My only real goal shopping-wise was to acquire a nice crimpy wool fleece to blend with my alpaca into either yarn or roving.  I was able to get that as the vendor I purchased from 2 years ago was only 3 booths down from me.  Handy.  So I spent relatively little money.  All in all it was great fun.  I met and talked to dozens of great people and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  My check is in the mail for my space for next year.

So now I can start to tackle all those fleeces I have in my studio.  I need to send some off for yarn and some for roving and I may do some different things,  we'll have to see.  I also need to send some off for more socks.  I won't be doing another festival until the Christmas Festival in our local town in early December and there I sell more finished items.  But once in a while, I will sell some yarn at that.  Unfortunately, the Harvest Festival I have attended the last 10 years or more is not happening this year.  I am not sure why.  I think it was just people not agreeing.  The same thing has happened with the Soakum Festival my spinning guild always attends this coming weekend.  It is not happening this year and I think it is a real shame.  So I am left with a couple of open weekends which is fine with me.  

As for fibery stuff, well this whole post is about fibery stuff isn't it?  At the Wool Gathering I spent time working on a wool tunic I started back in the spring.  It is just easy, no-brain knitting, so I could work on it and talk to people at the same time.  I got a lot done on it, maybe 5 or 6 inches. This is the front.  It has a kangaroo pocket.  The back is already finished.

I also started a new sweater for another Knit-Along on Ravelry.  It is a summery short sleeved sweater  and has cables and mesh panels.  I bought the yarn at SSK and I know it is fall in Ohio and I am knitting a spring sweater, but that's how it is.  In October, I will resume my Holiday knitting.  That's only  a few days away.