Craft Show Outcome
The craft show came and went Saturday. I sold a few scarves
and a ruffled ponytail holder. I did better than I thought I would, considering
the time of year and temperatures here on the Gulf Coast. As the post title
states, people don’t often buy scarves when it’s hot. I easily covered the
booth fee and made a couple unexpected purchases with my earnings. Hubby was
nice enough to give in to my pleas to drive up to the location bright and early
to help me set up. I realized once he helped me unload the big stuff that I
didn’t really need him after all. I’m thankful for a husband who allows me to
see the errors of my ways on my own. Instead of calling him to come help me
tear down my booth later in the day, I called just to tell him I was tearing
down soon and would be on my way home. My ultimate goal with my booth, aside
from making fistfuls of money, is to keep the set-up quick and the equipment as
mobile as possible. Simple is best for me, especially if I want to do this
completely on my own.
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| One Skein Wonder's very simple booth at the Chick Days show |
As I always do at these sales events, I met several very
friendly vendors and handed out lots of business cards to folks who stopped by
to fondle the scarves. I have yet to have any horror stories in regards to other
vendors. I happened to be situated directly across from a very nice woman who
runs a local farm and raises English Angora rabbits, among other animals. I
knitted away on my Cameo Tree sock during the lulls and gazed longingly at her
handspun angora fiber. It was so soft
and beautiful. I wouldn’t even dye it. I’d just knit it up in the natural
colors and treasure the garment forever. She bought one of my scarves and the
ruffled ponytail holder. I asked about a price deal on yarn if I bought enough
for a sweater. I don’t know if she realizes she’s made a lifelong friend.
I bought some tomatoes from the Farmish Market folks who
were set up next door. If you’re in Bay County here in Florida, look up Farmish
Market and go buy their locally-grown vegetables. They are super nice folks and
their business is family-owned and operated. They have a storefront on 15th
St/Hwy 98 and also set up a booth at the St. Andrews Farmers’ Market every
Saturday morning. [End of commercial.] I also bought a gift for a dear friend
who is going to absolutely love this when I give it to her. She just celebrated
a birthday, but I would have picked this up for her no matter the time of year.
It’s one of those items I know I would regret not buying if I passed up the
opportunity. Once her schedule slows down, I’ll delight in presenting it to
her. If an item can scream someone’s name, this one clearly spoke to me as I
was walking by and said, “CAROL!!!” I’m not one to ignore the exclamations of
inanimate objects, so I obliged and tucked it away in a safe place here at home
until I can pass it along to its rightful owner. I’ll have to share a picture
once she receives it.
I mentioned I was knitting my sock during the down times. It
was, of course, the second Cameo Tree sock. Once I finished setting up the
booth, I pulled the sock out of my bag and started working on it while I waited
for potential customers to arrive. The one thing I did not bring with me,
however, was my stitch pattern cheat sheet. I started knitting the stitch
pattern on the leg and came to an important section that includes, in some
order, a k2tog, a k1, and a pass-XX-stitch-over-XX (the ‘XX’s represent the either
the k2tog or the k1, but I couldn’t remember which one happened first). Hmmmm.
So, I looked at the first few rows of the leg pattern repeats and decided it
was k2tog tbl, k1, pass-k2tog-over-k1 and off I went. I’m still not sure why I
thought anything happened through any back loops. It looked like the first few
rows, so I thought I was on the right path. Several hours and about three
inches later, the show was over and I was at home after unloading the Jeep. I
looked at the pattern on my laptop and realized I’d been doing it wrong the
entire day. While I was on the right path, I was apparently in the wrong lane.
I should’ve been working it like this: k1, k2tog, pass-k1-over-k2tog. I would
not have thought interchanging those two stitches could make as much difference
as it did. The biggest problem was the hole that appeared next to the
pass-k2tog decrease. Alas, I ripped out all the work I did at the show. *K1,
rip 1. Repeat from *.
Interesting observation of the day: Knitting on size US 1
dpns in public served the purpose of alerting customers right away that my
items are all handmade by me. Many fellow crafters stopped by to admire my sock
and the scarf display. I received countless compliments only on the scarves
from those who were, I assume, too intimidated to ask about all the ‘pointy
sticks’ skewering my sock.
Dumbest question of the day: (This came from a pair of
10-year-old girls who were ooo-ing and aaah-ing over the scarf colors) “Are
these free?” Admittedly, I failed to stifle my laughter before I told them no
and relayed the price. Yeah, I drove all the way up here to hang out and give
away my handmade stuff. As Bill Engvall would say, “Here’s your sign.”
Precious Baby Blanket
In my last post I was complaining about the free Red Heart
pattern. Red Heart should bear none of the blame for my troubles, because I
managed to cast on 10 extra stitches from the start. How I managed to do that
is beyond me. First of all, I publicly admit I have very poor simple math
skills. Also, I blame myself for breaking a cardinal knitting rule: Thou Shalt
Not Knit After 15 Waking Hours. Even with the aid of stitch markers, and
recounting numerous times before making the first stitch, I managed to foul up
the counting. I’m not surprised, but I just want to clear Red Heart of any
fault in the matter. Now that I frogged the first attempt and cast on the
proper number of stitches (minus my two edge stitches), all is progressing
nicely. This time, the only issue I continue to have is with the tightness of
the stitches. The knitted fabric is still soft, though. It could be the
difference in needle size, but I’m going to continue because and the gauge
matches and the pattern pleases me. Every other row of the pattern repeat is a
row of purl stitches in the blanket center that serves as a nice reprieve from
repeating the pattern in my head like a mantra. The remaining rows are different
throughout the repeat. I like that. I won’t get bored with it, and that’s
always a positive aspect of any pattern.
Cameo Tree Socks
As I mentioned, I had to rip out a few inches of the second
sock to correct the error I made when attempting to remember the stitch order.
I spent Saturday evening catching back up to where I had been before the
ripping began. I knitted off and on throughout today and was able to cast off
and weave in the ends this evening. I’m now wearing my very first pair of
toe-up, short-row heel socks! I look forward to washing them tomorrow with my
regular loads to see how they stand up to normal laundering. According to the
label (Patons Kroy Socks FX yarn), I can machine wash in the permanent press
cycle and machine dry with low heat. I don’t offer anything to customers that I
haven’t or wouldn’t use myself. I need to be able to speak to the comfort, fit,
and care of the socks before I can sell them to anyone. I guess you could call
these my prototype socks.
Next Project
Now that the Cameo Tree socks are off the needles and on my
feet, I need another project to fill the gaps when the Precious Baby Blanket
taxes my concentration. I have yarn for socks slated for my two sisters-in-law
(husband’s sisters), but it’s the same yarn I’m ‘testing’ on myself now. If it’s
too itchy or too much trouble to launder, it will make for poor gift socks. No
casting on for those until this yarn passes muster. There’s also the possibility
of the second pair of socks for my daughter. She loves mis-matched socks right
now and has agreed to wear them if I knit them. She picked out two different
shades of Lion Brand’s Martha Stewart line of extra-soft wool blend (lilac and
green eucalyptus). The first sock will use lilac for the cuff, heel, and toe,
with green for the foot and leg. The second sock will reverse the colors of the
sock portions. The colors are beautiful together. I’ll try to post a picture of
the two skeins tomorrow. I need to swatch the yarn, tho, because it’s fairly
thick for socks. Another option for the second project could be another
prototype pair of socks for myself with some Premier brand Deborah Norville
Serenity in Paprika (think of a Monet water lily painting that is heavy on the
warm reds and pinks). This yarn is a wool, bamboo, and nylon blend. I’m betting
I’m going to like it more than the Patons. (Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but my
ankles already itch and I’ve only been wearing the socks for about 1.5 hrs.)
I hope to get some pictures taken for the next post. My
smart phone is still in time out, so I’m left with my husband’s antiquated cell
phone whose camera doesn’t live up to my standards. That leaves me with my
trusty Nikon digital point-and-shoot, but I need natural light to get photos I’m
willing to share. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to photograph
these socks while I’m wearing them. I’m considering a couple locations in my
back yard. Check back soon to see if I figured it out!
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