I met Mim at the mailboxes yesterday morning at 9:30 to go in town to our spinners guild meeting. We were together until we got home at 3:00. Today in setting up our booth for the craft fair, who should the organizers set up right across the corridor from us, but Mim!I was pretty rummy this morning, because I got to bed at midnight. We met friends Amy and Allison for dinner last night and then went to the university's student presentation of the Pirates of Penzance. Delightful! I called DD Chris as we drove to our dinner date, needing specifics on our babysitting duties this weekend. She texted me that she was in a noisy restaurant but would call when she got out. We walked into the restaurant and who walked out but DD Chris. We're both still laughing.
Jeanette owns the Sierra Nevada Alpacas ranch out here in Red Rock Valley. She and Mim shared a booth. Jeanette has had a problem making money since the downturn in the alpaca market and has come up with these felted alpaca saddle blankets. The body is pure alpaca felt but she sews a leather strip along the bottom to reduce wear on the blanket. The blanket on top is English and the full-length one on the bottom is Western. She didn't sell these but got orders. Profit!
I'm sharing a space with two friends and this is my section. I sold my natural colored hats and wished I had more. The colored hats apparently are passe. A spontaneous craft fair was organized for our valley three weeks from now and I came home resolved to knit a couple more natural colored hats for it. I'm learning that trendy craft attractions can quickly become old hat. Is that a pun?
A two-year old boy named Alex was obsessed with my wheel. His mother got worried because she couldn't keep him from coming back. She didn't know me and also was worried that he was bothersome. We're babysitting Alexia tonight, or I would say this was the highlight of my day. It probably was no more than ten minutes, but it's certainly a time I will never forget.
I have demonstrated spinning at events for the last dozen years and have seen plenty of interested children, but I have never seen the focus of Alex. He chattered amiably with me, nothing intelligible, but we got along famously nevertheless. Alex kept coming back to me for over an hour - what a charmer. After they left, I heard someone say they were surprised Mom got him out of the building. Don't you wish you could know where his focus will go in the years to come????
13 comments:
The hats all look beautiful! How did the bags do? They look wonderful too. So much fun to have such an interested party.
The buyers at craft fairs are a fickle bunch :) ... said lovingly! Next show, you'll probably sell all colored hats... Glad you had a good day. That little guy is a cutie!
Gosh the buying public is fickle!! Your hats are lovely which makes it so surprising that the natural colors are the sellers. I've never been the average consumer, so I've never been able to predict what will sell to the masses.
Uhm...that little boy could have been my son. Anything with a wheel he had to figure out from a very early age. Now he's a mechanical engineer. Hope the little guy has a bright, fulfilled future whatever path he chooses.
Uhmmm....when did you ever find time to go to work before retirement?(giggle)
I've noticed that a spinning wheel is like a magnet! People will stop in their tracks and watch it go. And children LOVE to watch people spin!!!! I'm glad you had your wheel there...you'll never know what little spark you ignited.
The displays all look wonderfully done! I luv how you encouraged that cute little boy.
Interesting that your colored hats didn't sell. (?) That little boy was so cute. Where was this craft fair anyway? Is is an annual event? I might have gone if it was in Reno.
I love how thrilled he was... and YOU look terrific! Sorry you didn't do better; I have avoided fairs the past few years because of the economy, and agree that staying on top of the trends isn't easy.
Crafts fairs are odd things. Sometimes people buy everything and anything and sometimes nothing or only specific items sell. I'm sure it depends on location, economic factors, and whether the moon is in the right phase when a striped cat wandered through a specific corn field with a field mouse missing one whisker in it's mouth. One of those unpredictable things.
I'm betting that boy becomes an engineer of some kind and all because he had the good fortune of having someone who took the time to encourage him when the curiousity bug first hit!
Kids are great around spinning wheels, but especially boys. When I work at the state fair, they always stop and intently watch and have to be pulled away.
I hope you did well at the craft fair!
I can see why your hat sold so well they're beautiful. It sure does look like you're having a great time and does your little spinning buddy Alex.
Kids are genuinely interested in learning where their clothes come from. The kids in Alexia's class were spellbound and asked me questions for weeks.
It sounds like you had a great time. It's always hard to know what will sell at the craft fairs and it usually isn't what you expect!
It would be great to hear what Alex is doing years from now. Maybe the next Peter Collingwood?
Alex is so cute. Love his expression in that last picture.
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