Autumn

The highlight of the autumn so far has been my first time as an exhibitor at Yarndale. The weather was perfect and although the journey up took longer than I had expected I found the venue without any trouble and got checked in quickly and ready to set up. Unfortunately the cable ties I had bought to secure my gridwall panels to the pen bars were too short, but I improvised with the trusty bits of useful rope that we keep in the boot of the car and got everything lashed in place. After an early start the next morning, I was all ready to trade when the show opened. Here's the stand.

I was pleased to find that the space was a bit bigger than I had envisaged - usually it's the other way round - bur the floor looked a bit bare, so next year I'll take a rug to make it a bit more homely and welcoming. That being said, after the first hour or so I was busy all day and was stunned at the end of the day to find that I'd taken more than I'd expect for an average entire show!

I was delighted to meet up with Valerie Bracegirdle,  agrarian artisanwho has used my yarn in several of her designs and lent me her sample of a simple crochet scarf to promote my yarn and the accompanying pattern. Needless to say the packs of 20g mini skeins sold out almost immediately and the scarf attracted a lot of interest all over the weekend. As a result I'm going to add more packs and "loose" 20g skeins to my inventory, so look out for these in the shop!

  
Sunday was quieter, but still pretty busy, and overall I had a great show. I treated myself to some John Arbon "Knit by Numbers" to make a mitred squares "gradient" blanket,

but apart from that I didn't really get the opportunity to look round much at all.  I did see some of the ladies I know from Knitting and Crochet Guild, who were manning the Guild stand and providing a very popular skein winding service, plus several people I've "met" online stopped by to introduce themselves which I appreciated. It was nice to relax in front of "Downton Abbey" when I got back to my hotel after packing up and I'd love to do it all again next year.

Now I'm focusing on my next show, which is November's Festiwool in Hitchin. A new delivery of yarn is coming this week and I've made a list of colours to start dyeing. Plus I'm at St Alban's Farmers market next weekend.      

Spring Shows

Since I last posted I've had two shows - Wonderwool Wales and Iknit Fandango and I've now got time to pause and reflect.

Wonderwool last year was a little quiet, for everyone and not just me, so it made me think about what I could do to enhance my display and make my stand more attractive. I sketched out some plans on the back of the proverbial envelope and the end result was that I invested in some gridwall panels so that the yarn is hanging up rather than just being stacked in baskets, devised some better labeling, made some samples and added some props to make the stand more "homely" like a rug and some chairs to make it more inviting as a space to step into. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me, so I couldn't add a picture here of the  finished effect, but I had my best level of sales yet at the show, so it must have been effective! I stayed at an absolutely delightful B&B too, so the whole weekend was a pleasure and I'm looking forward to next year already.

Just a few weeks later came Iknit Fandango in central London and after some intensive dyeing, I was ready for that! I did remember my camera this time, so here's a few pictures of the stand.

  
The venue was great - it had a glass roof and so much natural light, ideal for seeing the yarn and so many customers commented on it. It could have been a little busier from a sales point of view, but I loved being able to come in on the train and as it was fairly local to me, I met up with so many people I knew already from my Guild group, farmers markets and customers who had been to Unravel in February, so the weekend was as much social as business!

My next show isn't until Yarndale in September, so I can draw breath a bit now, although I do have some orders and my yarn club dyeing to do. It will be nice to do some knitting and crochet of my own too - I started a CAL on ravelry and have only done three motifs so far while other people have finished!