Booth Pictures

Left hand side of booth


Right hand side of booth

These pictures aren't great - they were taken with my Blackberry, and the light coming from behind is kind of washing things out. Not to mention the reflection from my mirror.

The set up is U shaped with the scarf rack in the middle of the mouth of the U so that traffic can flow into and around the booth.

We always use our own lighting when ever possible - even in a room such as this with natural light, you can't always count on good light. For instance today was sporadically cloudy, with two major storms that gusted through. For an hour or so each time, the light was very poor and if we hadn't had our own lights, our booth would have looked very dim and gloomy.

In terms of display, the chenille scarves were front and centre - just because they feel so luxurious! :) Hopefully they will elicit interest and invite people to go further into the booth to feel the rest of the textiles.

The right hand wing had the soy protein and tencel scarves, which led into the bamboo and tencel scarves and shawl. Only had one shawl ready, unfortunately, but should have another half dozen for Studio Fair next weekend. They're ready to be wet finished. I should be able to do that and get them pressed before Thursday set up.

Then came the table and kitchen textiles. If I'd had a better selection of placemats I could have sold more, but only had the dregs left over from the other shows earlier.

On the left wing are the throws and then some hand dyed yarns.

Was really glad I brought the yarns because quite a bit of it sold. :)

While I wasn't totally happy with the layout, it did well enough for today. I'll re-merchandize tomorrow morning when I'm feeling fresher. Since we got up at 5:15 and my bp was high I wasn't feeling great. (It came down and was fine by lunch.) Hopefully after a better night's sleep I'll feel more creative in the morning.

The nature of this (and next week's fair as well) is that people will generally walk the entire fair before making any major purchases. So it was nice to have the yarn because that is what sold in the morning. Scarves started selling while I was home for lunch, and then sold sporadically for the rest of the afternoon along with some mats, a throw, a couple of table runners and - more yarn.

So all in all, a respectable start. While one always hopes for more, some is better than none. And there is always tomorrow (thank you Mz Scarlett!)

UNBC Craft Fair

The sale started with a good steady flow of shoppers. Now to hope they will be buyers. :)

A good deal of sticker shock but that was expected.

Several people have commented that they bought placemats from me twenty years ago and they still look good.

Wish that *I* looked as good as I did twenty years ago! ;)
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

The Joy of Being A Home-Based Business...

...or why I need a new kitchen floor....



This is a partial view of my kitchen this afternoon. We use the kitchen, dining room and living room as a staging area when it is time to do a show.

Boxes get set on the floor and dragged around and over the years the lino has gotten scuffed. :(
Unfortunately, we won't be able to deal with getting a new floor for a while. I'm hoping December, but we'll see. It may not happen until next year, if then. Doug is still on 'short' hours and money is tight. :((((




This is a partial view of the living room. The two grey things are the captain's chairs from the van. The white box is the electrical box with lamps, cords, light blubs and miscellaneous items for the booth. The box just to the left nearly out of view is the cash box. The white lump behind it is one of the packing blankets from the van. (I'm the only person I know with handwoven packing blankets - seconds have to be good for something!) Somewhere in that mess are the road emergency things that normally live in the van but had to be removed so that the van could be loaded up.

We've just finished loading everything except for one last plastic bucket waiting for me to tag the two collapse scarves and pack them into it. I'm hoping to borrow a cheval mirror for the booth.

I'm always amazed at how much less inventory I have now than when I used to do primarily placemats/table runners. Scarves take up about the same amount of space - or less - than a set of placemats, and I get twice as much money. :}

Over the years I've talked with other weavers and the consensus is that if you have a really excellent show you will sell 40% of what you bring. A good show you'll sell 30%.

Of course, you need to bring the correct inventory! The correct items in the correct colours with the correct public attending willing to spend what you're asking.

This weekend is a mid-range price points show so I don't expect to sell a lot of my higher priced items. But you just never know! There are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 180 exhibitors and I lucked into a good spot even though I'm a johnny-come-lately. I wanted two booth spaces and they had someone with a double booth cancel last year in the cafeteria area. Doug did this show all by himself last year, and he'll be doing it all by himself again next, but this year it worked out that the Seattle guild sale was last week instead of the same weekend as this one. This show also books returning artists in the same space each year, so I'm hoping the previous person who had this space doesn't come back and bump me out. I got the same space again this year, so I'm hoping that means it's mine now. :)

Collapse Scarves

First two collapse scarves


Well, I'm not satisfied with the white one, but the black one turned out exactly as I hoped.

The white one was woven with a 12/2 mercerized cotton and has a much stiffer hand than the black one which was woven with Bambu 12.

So, I'll try a 20/2 mercerized cotton for the other white warp, and continue with the bamboo for the black. If the 20/2 mercerized cotton doesn't give the drape I want, I'll switch to bamboo. It's a last resort kind of thing though because the only white bamboo I have in stock is bleached and the warp is natural. Hmm - otoh, that might look okay anyway. Guess I'll try a bit of each before deciding for sure.

The good news is that the collapse isn't 50% so I don't need to weave quite so long a length.

Today, however, I need to be packing up inventory for the craft fair tomorrow. Set up begins at 7 am so it will be a mad scramble to get in and set up before the fair opens at 10 am. At least the weather is supposed to be fair, so we won't be dealing with wet. The bad news is that sleet is predicted for tear down. Oh the joys of being a hand weaver who relies on selling her stuff for income..... :}

The craft fair the following weekend we have the whole afternoon to set up so that will be a much more relaxed set up.

Currently reading Unseen Academical by Terry Pratchett

More Plain Weave

Plain weave again


Funny how I seem to get into a groove and can't get out of it again, but here I am with another 4 warps destined to be woven in plain weave. Each warp is 4 yards long for one scarf.

While in Kelowna on my last trip, I spent a couple of hours wandering the shopping mall looking at clothing. Specifically scarves/shawls. And was interested to see that a lot of them were using shrinkage differential/collapse effects.

This summer two of the students used a new to me yarn that was thicker than the ultra-fine wool/lycra I've had in inventory for a number of years. It was also cotton and lyrca, not wool and lycra. Tien wove up a sample warp and from the samples designed a shawl. Sharon also made a shawl.

So I'm not exactly flying blind here - I do have the benefit of two previous warps - well, three if you count the sample warp.

With time extremely limited, I didn't do anything fancy - just repeated what we had done for the sample because I knew how that had turned out - with the goal of having four collapse scarves ready for the craft fair this weekend.

Of course I can't get them all done! But at least they are started and will be ready for the fair the following weekend. :}

The down side of weaving fabric that collapses along the length is that you have to weave nearly twice as much length.

The up side is that they don't require fringe twisting or pressing. The scarves will be hemmed after being run through the washer and dryer. Getting the lycra wet activates it and the collapse happens.

I was going to do some spinning but apparently the craft drop-in isn't today. :} Perhaps I'll spin while watching some tv later. Unfortunately there is still a stack of rayon chenille scarves to fringe twist.....

Home Again

I did not leave Seattle at the crack of dawn this morning. I left it in the dead of night.

The roads in Seattle at 4 am on a Sunday morning are pretty much empty and I made it from Seattle to Hope, BC in the record breaking time (for me, obeying the speed zones - pretty much) of just 3 hours.

The roads continued to be relatively empty and I proceeded to make really good time until just south of Quesnel, when I ran headlong into a snow storm - and me with summer tread on the van. :(

Prudently, all of the drivers - at least those just in front and behind me - decided that instead of clipping along at 100-110 k (60-70 mph), a stately 70 to 80 k (45-50 mph) was a much wiser course to follow.

The truck in the ditch and emergency vehicles heading toward it were, no doubt, great re-inforcement!

But I got home safe and sound, albeit a little white around the knuckles (and elevated bp!)

view from my living room window

In spite of the dreary day I am very happy to be home. I think I'll go crash now. And pray for good weather the next two weekends or the crafts fairs are going to be a bust.....

Sale Ends!

Another year, another sale. And what a sale! Holly's media plan appeared to work with steady streams of people coming to the hall and not just looking but buying! :D

The greeters at the door asked people to put their names and contact info down for future sales, and also asked how they had heard about it. It was interesting to see just how many people had gotten word through the internet in addition to the post card mail out (previous shoppers) and the newspaper ad.

I'm sure the organizers will have lots of info to review for next year.

Well done everyone!