End of Craft Show Season

I had intended on talking about the breakdown of each day of my craft show last weekend but, honestly, I'm ready to move forward. Talk about new things. So, I'll give an overview and then talk about more recent craft activities.

The craft show went as it usually does for me. I don't make tons of money, never have more than a few customers, but always sell enough to cover the booth fee and some extra. I haven't sat down and figured out how much yet. I've been very distracted by life and needing distance from the busy weekend. As usual, I managed to get good and sick, clogged head with a cold, a nice, croaky voice for explaining how my spinning wheel works and, "No, I don't have boot cuffs; you can find them at that booth over there." I sat as much as possible, kleenex box within reach and kept quiet as most people passed me by. I am very grateful for all my friends and family who stopped by for a visit. My stream of visitors was steady enough that I didn't get bored and lonely. Chatted with my booth neighbor on the right side, selling aprons and pot holders. The woman on the left sold quilts and had hung one up facing out towards my booth and that was annoying, walled in on one side and having people stand in my booth, ignoring my work and complementing the nice quilt to their friend who also stood in my booth looking at the quilt. That's not cool, using another person's booth as a way to showcase your own work. Not cool at all. So I didn't really talk with that neighbor.

My spinning wheel is always a good draw for kids and husbands. On the first day, an older man in a buttoned up flannel shirt and jeans watched me from the aisle. He said something to his friend who then patted him on the back. Eventually the man came in, watched for a second longer, and said his first wife, many years ago, used to spin by the hour. "You brought back some nice memories." And then left, smiling.

Another day I gave a girl, about eleven years old, one of my cheap, enabling drop spindles. She chose the color and a small bump of light blue roving. She seemed very eager to try. I didn't know if her mom would look into it for her, getting supplies, so I felt it important to pass on tools that might inspire the girl to pursue a new crafty adventure.

I lucked out and my uncle's service was Monday so I was at the craft show the full three days and had set up everything the Thursday before.

The last week or so has been, well, not great. These paper monsters from the book Paper Toy Monsters--punch out, fold, and glue together--and a little bit of cross stitch are the only things I've managed to make recently. Easy to do while watching Critical Role and other YouTube videos.

And here are the four skeins of yarn I spun at the craft shows. Three are from the batts I made and the fourth, thin single, was from polwarth roving dyed by Knitted Wit.

And , finally, just today I put together this turquoise cart I bought for cheap at K-Mart a couple months ago. Its box has been taking up space on my craft room floor and now the constructed cart will take up less room than the box and I can heap piles of supplies on it and wheel it around, pull it closer to my work space or shove it out of the way.

Oh, and this month's theme for the Spirit Wings course is about community. In the spirit of the lessons, I signed up for an Altered Book and Art Journaling class at the local community college, starting Winter term. If it's not cancelled, I should be able to participate in an arty community once a week for a few months. And learn neat, new art journaling skills.