Humbling

Last Wednesday my car was packed and ready to go. The drive over the mountain to Asheville is so pretty in fall. We left in pouring rain here in Knoxville, but by the time we got to the other side it was clearing up and the mountains were pretty with the changing leaves.

So drove to my booth and unloaded as quickly as possible, driving out so someone else could drive in and move their things to their booth.

In unpacking I realized we'd forgotten the stepladder and 2 of the bars we use to mount the lights above the booth. Oops!!  Thankfully craftspeople will lend us things like ladders and the civic center had extra bars so I was glad to use them for the lights.  I hate when things like that happen, when I forget something. I've amended my list for packing, again, so that maybe next time I won't bring 3 of the upright posts instead of 1 upright and 2 of the bars for the lights........

It's so much nicer to set up in fall. It's not so hot and easier to get the things hung up and ready for Thursday.

 I brought my camera Thursday morning and took this picture after I had my booth set up the way I wanted it to be. In looking at it now, there are several pieces shown that have since found new homes.
I also took a picture down the aisle of the booths I would be looking at for 4 days. This was all before the show opened yet.

 Last fall I had the chair booth in my vision the whole time. I enjoy chatting with the couple that cane the old chairs and sell them. Thank goodness this year I couldn't see them as well.  They were nearby but my chair faced away from them.  Last year a chair and a little table with a couple of caned shelves on it "had" to come to my place. It's really bad when you keep being drawn to something in someone else's booth until, ok, it's Saturday afternoon and no one else bought it, so it must have my name on it.....

I did have a good show. It's 4 very long days tho and I am tired this morning. I will do my bookkeeping and stuff to conclude the paperwork for the show but I hope to be able to just sit down for a bit and maybe read a book or watch a tv show I taped and finish a vest that didn't get done for Asheville but needs to be done in time for the Foothills Craft Show we'll be doing as a group in November...

I see alot of people during the show. I try to remember those that buy something from me but you can't realistically do that. Some people you're not even sure of their names or where they're from but every year as they come by you chat and get to know more about them. You look forward to seeing them even if they've never bought something from you. That's one of the nice things about the show especially since I've been doing it so long. Or someone comes up and talks about a piece of clothing that they thought you made but you know it was someone else's and you send them down to their booth. Then they come back to show you what they got. It sure looked good on her too!! The nice thing is that others do that as well and we all benefit from it.
Yesterday I had a couple of customers that I thought I'd mention. The first lady I didn't remember. She's from Florida. She came by the booth a couple of times. That's really normal. Everyone looks at everything before they buy something. I do the same thing. So the last time she came by she tried on a vest and loved it. She then said she already had 3 of my pieces. This was her 4th.
Late in the day a repeat customer came by. I know her because she came a year ago and bought some tops. She was so impressed that I remembered her. How could I not? I even wove her some tops specially last summer. I asked her how many of my things she had. She had 11 of them. Then she bought 2 more vests.
Saturday a lady I call my "fairy godmother" came by. When she left she had several pieces that would make her collection close to 30 pieces.
So, my reason for saying this: it's humbling to know that people have the confidence in what you make to buy more pieces. Thankfully my pieces hold up nicely and wash well. Having someone wear something I wove is exciting even after all the years I've done it.
They push me to try new color combinations. They'll come into the booth looking for a color they don't have. What colors can I put together that are unusual and yet have the finished garment look good? I've got a short list started for new colors and old ones. Another crafter was wearing a top I wove several years ago and the colors were ones I had only put together in that one warp. I think it's time to repeat that combination.
I was thinking if the show didn't go well, I could ease up and take a break to do other things before thinking about weaving more fabric. Nope, can't do that. Tomorrow afternoon I'll look at my yarns and see what I need to order...again!! I'd rather be busy working in the studio than just about anything else.
Til next week.
Carol