This year's festival was a blast! Because I am a producer and seller, I work really hard to be ready for this festival. It reminds me of the feeling of turning in a thesis paper for college. It has all the same sprinting to the deadline -- no matter how much you have done, you still want to do one more thing to be *awesome* for the show.
The weekend was wonderful. It was absolutely perfect weather. Sunny with a little breeze, warm but not crazy hot. The mornings were cooler. However, by the end of the show, all of us in the Avalon Springs Farm booth had a little sun-burn. We just didn't expect it. Sun block will be on the list for next year.
Shoppers came early and stayed late! Each time there was a announcement made for the sheep dog trails a huge wave of folks walked down from the main street and hung out at our end of the festival. Our whole family loves watching the amazing sheep dog trials. We purchased the movie "Away to me" this year. It was a new booth in our section.
Because of the increase in traffic, I had two expert knitters helping me with customers and the register. Thank you so much Kira and Linda!
I am thrilled to show off these really neat photos of a customer project from some Avalon Springs Farm yarn. I love the use and placement of color! Look at where there are both solids and rainbow dyed yarn. The sweater even includes cozy pockets and a zipper. So cool!
Kira did some spinning teaching and demo-ing outside on the grassy knoll in front of the booth row. Folks loved it!
A big seller this year and always is the Gwenivere yarn. It is soft and cuddly, and its a practical sport/DK weight. It knits thinner and poofs fuller. It seems to be popular for the shrug and shoulder shawl kinds of projects.
Of which we had a few to offer to folks. Many of the patterns were design and authored by Linda Minnick of MidValley Fibers. I also had a cool self fringing triangle shawl sample and pattern done by Greta Dise of Persimmon Tree Farm. Greta has a booth at Maryland Sheep & Wool at the far opposite end of the festival from me. All the shawls got lots of "ooh's and aah's" from the public! That makes us happy!
Also in the pattern department, I had my first "Handspun" pattern. Yes, that is right. A knitting pattern that starts from the roving! That was brought to me by Caroline Hockenberry. Caroline is a resident expert of Uniquities Yarn Shop in Vienna, VA. This is a special pattern; it is part of a matching set of patterns -- this one is the "Royal Outing, Filigree Mitts." Other pieces of the set are part of a special release that included Avalon Springs Farm roving for the Uniquities Fiber Club. Pictured above --it is kind of an unfair photo in this respect-- is the pattern at the show on the top shelf. This unit at the show held many of our Farm Yarns and Arthur Yarn bases as well as samples, where-to/how-to information, and patterns.
Another significant introduction this year was the greatly expanded "Excalibur" yarn line. At last years show we introduced the first Excalibur yarn produced as a worsted weight yarn. This year we had both sport weight and worsted weight in a big variety of colors. Our whole booth sparkled! With the sun shining it could not be understated how wonderful the yarn looked even from really far away! Top photo is of the sport weight section and bottom photo is of the worsted weight section.
The last picture in this little essay is just the view from the register. Day dreaming a bit while I write this blog entry - I think to myself, next year I need to get a few shots of the amazing crowds and some of the actual dogs in command of the sheep. But alas... for a bit more that two whole days, the view above is really all I see. Well, that plus a line of people! Big smile!
Exhausted, Happy, and Making more yarn!
Always, Karen
