STITCHES Texas 2015

Last weekend, I was at STITCHES Texas, back in the very far corner in booth 124 with my patterns and yarn. This was the first time I've had a booth to myself (I've shared booth space with others before this), and there was a lot of preparation both of the yarn and of deciding how to set up my space. But overall, I'm happy with how my booth turned out, and it was so wonderful to be able to share my work with people who stopped by.

And one person came by wearing her version of my Wife of Bath's Cowl. It was so much fun to see one of my designs "in the wild." That is truly what I love most about designing--seeing what other people make with my patterns--so it was an amazing experience and one I hope to get to have again.

We got to set up on Wednesday and Thursday (with a market preview for the students on Thursday evening). I brought all but the yarn and patterns up on Wednesday.

Here's how I left my booth on Wednesday, with the grid walls and everything else set up.

I came back on Wednesday and added the yarn, samples, and patterns (and a rug).

Samples of my self-striping sock yarn were at the front of the booth.

Half of the "fingering weight wall": Merlin (self-striping sock yarn) on the left, Camelot (MCN) on the upper right, and Perceval on the lower right. Samples of cowls on the bottom left.

The other side of the above wall: Guenevere on the top and Gawain on the bottom. The Don't Blink Illusion Scarf and Hat (samples, patterns, and kits) were in the back corner.

The brown shawl is my Astolat Shawl. The red shawl is the gorgeous Scarlet Ibis, designed by Jennie Santopietro, using my Camelot in Morgan le Fay. There were so many compliments on this shawl over the weekend. Jennie did such a beautiful job with it and I was happy to be able to display it for her. On the back wall, Avalon (the merino/silk DK) was on the top left with Galahad on the bottom left.

Continuing on the back wall was the Lancelot base and then some samples. The hats and cowls from top to bottom are the Lyonet Hat and Lyones Cowl, Palamon Hat and Arcite Cowl, and Chaucer Hat. The shawl on the dress form is Fellowship, from my Gawain's Shield collection.

More shawls from Gawain's Shield. Since the book had just come out, displaying these shawls and the book was one of my main focuses for the booth and they definitely got a lot of attention.

I also had sample copies of PLY Magazine and subscription cards for people to take. (And see, far back corner of the vendor hall!)

The right front of the booth contained my display of patterns. I am so in love with the new format of them (thank you to Elizabeth of Stitch Definition!).

Me! I totally should have had someone else take a picture of me in my booth as I'm not great at taking selfies!

Over the course of the weekend, I did some rearranging of various parts of the booth. I think moving the shawls up here (and moving the Don't Blink Kits over) really drew even more attention to them.

My best seller was the self-striping sock yarn (Merlin). By the end of the weekend, I had sold out completely of two colorways and had just 1-2 skeins left of each of the others. Thank you so much to those of you who bought some (or anything from me!). I hope you have a lot of fun working with it!

One of the things I did was participate in the stitch marker swap. People made stitch markers (both vendors and attendees) and when you saw someone wearing a stitch marker swap button, you exchanged one of your markers for one of theirs. Here's my beautiful collection of stitch markers that I got over the weekend. Isn't it fantastic?!

It's taken me much of this week to "recover" from STITCHES: meaning taking inventory of what came home with me and getting new pictures of my yarn and all of it posted to the shop. Even though I have a lot of inventory in the shop, I do have some undyed yarn that is calling out for color, so I'm looking forward to pulling the dyepots back out and doing some experimenting for some new colorways.

Week in Review: DFW Fiber Fest

This week's review post will be a little different as the bulk of the week was taken up with DFW Fiber Fest (and preparation for it), so it'll be a recap of the event.

This was the 10th year for DFW Fiber Fest. It has grown from a very small event to a large yet still personal event. It is organized by a board of volunteers, and I don't think I can even imagine how hard they work to put everything together.

Two years ago, I went to DFWFF as a shopper. I didn't take any classes; I just met a friend on Saturday and shopped in the vendor hall. Last year I decided to take some classes and was a full weekend student (with a little shopping time thrown in). This year I was a vendor (sharing a booth with my friend Taya from Handspun Homestead).

The beginning part of the week was taken up by preparations for the event--making sure I had packed everything I would need and get everything situated at home (especially with the toddler) so things would run smoothly while I was gone (even though the convention center is not a long drive away from home, I decided to stay at the conference hotel this year, so I was immersed in the event). I did a little bit of knitting, and tried some techniques to produce some variegated yarn, but that's about it on the creative front.

New colorways: Olwen (x2) and Camlann

Thursday was set-up day. Thanks to the help of the wonderful Ted (from my knitting group), Taya and I were able to get the booth set up fairly quickly. We used Ikea shelves so there was some assembly required but it wasn't too bad. After arranging everything (and rearranging), there was just enough time for me to eat a quick dinner (thanks again to Ted for making a food run for us!) and check in at the hotel before the kick-off event: a talk from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot). She had given the talk at the previous year's event so I was really looking forward to this year's talk and was super happy to have made it in time.

As I was heading up to my room in the hotel to drop off my suitcase, who should walk out of the elevator but Jacey Boggs and her husband. Meeting Jacey in person had been one of my main goals for the event since I've been copy editing for her amazing spinning magazine, PLY. I still had my hamburger in hand (so I was tired and hungry) and my suitcase, so I smiled at her but didn't stop to introduce myself at that moment. I hoped that I'd be able to run into her again. I ran up to my room, ate my hamburger (which tasted so good since I was so hungry), and grabbed some knitting to take with me to the talk. When I got there, the doors were already open, so I went in and had a seat toward the back of the middle. I realized that I didn't know who from my knitting group was going to the talk, so I was looking around to see if anyone I knew was there, and on the opposite side of the aisle a row back from me, I again saw Jacey and her husband. Feeling this was a much better moment, I got up and went over and introduced myself, asking if I could sit next to them. Both Jacey and Levi are really great people and were welcoming and friendly. And Stephanie's talk--for all her nervousness about it since it was a brand new talk--was truly fantastic. It was a great kick-off to the fiber fest.

I went back to my room after that because I was really tired and went to bed not too long after. I'm not sure if I was nervous or if it was just sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, but I was wide awake at 4 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Not a great start to what would be a long day. But after some coffee and breakfast, I was ready to get back to the vendor hall and do some last-minute prep before the vendor hall opened.

Because this was my first time at DFWFF and was the debut of Round Table Yarns (so I didn't have any name recognition), I wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised within the first hour to have two knitters come over and ask about the Don't Blink Hat and Scarf kit (I had posted a preview on Ravelry), so I sold two of the four I had brought (another sold a little later in the day and the last on Sunday). That was exciting. So many people who came by over the course of the weekend stopped to admire the Blanchefleur Shawl sample that was sitting in the front of the booth. And people bought my patterns and yarn. Such a relief. There was a group who was especially excited about the yarn--the names were a big attraction--and came back multiple times. Seeing their enthusiasm and excitement is exactly what I've been hoping for (thank you gals so much for your enthusiasm!! It helped me feel a lot less nervous about the yarn launch). I want people to be excited by the yarn and patterns and want to use them. I'm looking forward to checking Ravelry over the next few months to see projects going up.

I also got to learn a lot more about SpinOlution wheels (my booth partner is a dealer), and it was a lot of fun to see people, both experienced spinners and brand new spinners, trying out the wheels. I had a lot of great conversations and met so many wonderful people throughout the weekend. I've been trying to decide which route to go for my business--should I pursue more wholesale types of options or more direct sales (which means me going to festivals) options and I realized that connecting with other knitters on a more personal basis is really what is important for me. I like seeing who buys my yarn and meeting them in person. I'm imagining a day when someone comes back by my booth to show off what they made from yarn they had bought the year before (as I saw happen with other vendors). So I'm going to see what I can do to pursue the fiber fest route (and perhaps some trunk shows) so I can get to more events and meet more knitters. (I'll still have my yarn and patterns available online as well.)

Even though I was in my booth most of the weekend, I took some time before the hall opened each day to walk around to the other booths and check out what was available. So many pretties! I decided that this year was the year of self-striping sock yarn for me, so that's what I focused on overall. I had been told that Sunday morning was fairly slow in the vendor hall so that was the time to do our own shopping. Since I had made a list of everything I wanted from my pre-show walks, I was able to zip around to each booth and get the items on my list fairly quickly. Here's my new stash:

I got some E-tomic Balm from Goodies Unlimited (which should help with some of the shoulder pain I've been having). For the sock yarn, I got yarn from Gynx Yarns, Wooly Wonka (whose dyer, Anne, and I had a lovely conversation about her venture with Elizabeth--the graphic designer who designed my Round Table Yarns logo--which is called Stitch Definition. In particular we discussed photography for some of my patterns), Brazen Stitchery, Must Stash, Tumbleweed Yarn, and Fishknits. The fiber came from Four Hens Fibers, October House, and Dawning Dreams. And I got some Signature DPNs in my most-used sock knitting size since I'm apparently going to be working on a lot of socks in the near future!

It was a tiring weekend and it felt good to be home, but it was such a great fiber fest. Thank you to the organizers and volunteers who worked hard to make it run so smoothly. Thank you to all the other vendors who made their wares so enticing. And thank you especially to those of you who stopped by my booth; I hope to chat with you again next year.

Finally, I'll be posting a shop update in my Etsy shop which will go live on Thursday, March 26 at 7 pm (CST). I'll have most of the following in the update:

Fiber Week in Review: March 2-8

Knitting: I finished the Palamon Hat with plenty of yarn leftover, so the hat and cowl can indeed be done from two skeins of King Arthur.

Pre-blocking picture. Blocking helps to even out that cabled section a bit more.

I think I worked on the baby blanket a tiny bit at the beginning of the week, but that wasn't my focus this week. Instead, I cast on with my Lancelot base in the Morgan le Fay colorway to do a sample of Lyonet for my DFW Fiber Fest booth. I got a little further along than this picture shows (almost two repeats of the pattern). It's been almost a year since I designed this pattern and I forgot how fun it is! And the yarn is super squishy, so I'm really enjoying working on the hat.

My other knitting for the week was swatching for some design ideas, so I'll save discussion of that for the Designing section below.

Spinning: I did some spinning this week! I looked through my fiber stash and originally thought that I would go for something with a lot of color. But this fiber jumped out at me:

It's alpaca and bamboo and is so soft. I got it during the DFW Yarn Crawl in 2013 when I visited the Fiberlady stop. It was a fun visit because I got to see the back of the shop with the machine that makes the yarn. Very neat!

I didn't do a ton of spinning, but I did spin for at least 15 minutes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So if I can do 15 minutes each day, I'll feel much happier about my spinning life. I'd love to do more, but I think making it a special part of each day is better than having one day every so often where I just spin all day. Here's my progress after Sunday's spinning:

The plan is to do a 2-ply. And it wants to spin up pretty fine so I'm thinking it'll be a fingering or even light fingering after plying (although the alpaca will probably puff up). I'm doing a short forward draw to make it more smooth overall (the bamboo seems to want that).



Stash Enhancement: Again, nothing here as I'm saving for DFW Fiber Fest. I did have a realization this week--I can dye yarn for my own projects. If I want to make a sweater, I could dye my own yarn for the sweater. I don't know why that didn't fully sink in until this week, but it was a neat realization!

Designing: I have had a shawl idea running through the back of my mind for a couple of weeks. I picked out yarn from stash for it and even have a name for it already and was planning to start it this week. But then I watched the Craftsy class on short rows (the new longer one, not the free one) and I've become smitten, especially with German short rows. My mind started flashing through a lot of different ideas, and I decided to focus on one (which is a shawl idea) for now. But then I was looking at various options for edgings and found five that I loved. I couldn't decide.

So that's when I had "the idea"--I'm now planning out a five-shawl collection that uses short rows for shaping and knitted on borders. Each will be in a different weight of yarn (well, I'm not going to do lace or bulky, so there will be a repeat, probably the fingering weight) and some will be one color and others will have two (or maybe three) colors. I've done swatches for two of the five so far and have picked out yarn for one. I'm really excited about this and looking forward to how it all comes together. Oh, and I already have a name for the collection and for each of the five patterns. But it's a secret for now.

I also have another unrelated to the collection but still using short rows idea for a shawl, so that's also in the back of my mind. So I guess that makes seven shawl ideas that I'm excited about and want to work on. Yikes! I'm sure I'll throw in another cowl or hat in there to break up all the shawls, but I'm having lots of fun thoughts about designing!

The blue/white on the bottom is the yarn for the first shawl idea that got bypassed for the shawl collection idea. It is Kauni Effecktgarn and the original skeining made it look like just blues so I was a little surprised when I caked it to see so much white. The top skeins (JulieSpins) together are for one of the shawl collection ideas.

Dyeing:  Still dyeing up a storm for DFW Fiber Fest, although I'm slowing down a little so I don't get too overrun with reskeining and labeling. I'm actually all caught up on reskeining and just have a few labels left to go. Of course, there's yarn still drying and yarn still dyeing or to dye, but it feels good not to have a huge backlog like I had built up. Just 1-1/2 weeks until booth setup, so I also need to create signs and get all the booth details situated. The fiber fest is sneaking up on me so it'll be here before I know it! If you're anywhere near the Dallas area, I hope you'll make it to the fiber fest and come by my booth to say hi.

Fiber Festival, Teaching, and Yarn Crawl

It's been a really busy time for me, both as a knitting designer and as an editor. Some days I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through everything and once I have made it past a big event, I'm not sure how I did it. Craziness, but also lots of fun even though I'm exhausted each evening.

The first big event was the Blackland Prairie Artisan and Fibre Faire (BPAFF) in Denison, TX. For this event, since it was a fairly long drive, I chose to stay overnight in a nearby hotel. Not only was it the first time that I was bringing my stuff to a fiber festival, it was also the first time I stayed overnight away from my three-year-old son (two nights even!). It was hard at first (when I dropped him off at my mom's and knew I wouldn't be tucking him into bed that night), but I was so busy and exhausted that I didn't have much time to dwell on missing him. But I was really happy to see him on Sunday!

I got to the location a little later than expected, so I put the other people in my booth a bit behind in setting up since I had the tables (sorry!), but once I got there, it was set-up time. The other ladies in the booth (MAFIA: Mansfield Area Fiber Inspired Artisans) have done this type of thing before, so they were able to get things set up pretty quickly. We did have one scary moment when the grids on the table got a bit top heavy and almost fell forward, but two of us where right there and caught them in time and we managed to figure out a way to secure them so they wouldn't topple over. Whew!

My space included my handspun yarn and earrings and keychains made with my handspun as well as my patterns and the samples. I used waterfall hooks to hang the handspun but found that they weren't great because they then overshadowed the stuff beneath them. I also secured my samples to the grids with zip ties--for the scarves that wasn't the greatest idea in the end because they were held with one tie so both of them stretched out from the weight of hanging. Fortunately, once I got home and reblocked them, they went right back into shape. Another whew!

The worst thing about the festival was the heat. Fortunately it wasn't over 100 degrees outside, but inside felt like it was. We were in a big arena used for livestock shows so no A/C and the giant fans overhead didn't do much. I had brought a small portable fan that we plugged in and aimed into our booth which helped a little but not much. And there was one corner of our booth that was just completely too hot. But the ladies who organized the festival were amazing! They kept bringing around cold bottles of water to the vendors (as soon as I finished one bottle, they were making the rounds again), which was very much appreciated.

I got to meet a lot of neat people who came by the booth and got to learn how to use Square--especially the card reader which didn't want to work for me. Argh.

One of the other things I did at this festival was teach a knitting class on how to work cables without using a cable needle. My class was small (five) and included a range of experience, but I felt that overall it was successful. And it made me realize how much I miss being in a classroom. I so much enjoyed working with the students in the class and helping them learn this new skill and cheering them on when they got it. I'm going to work on developing more knitting classes and sending in proposals to other fiber festivals. I want to get back into the classroom more often. And the best part about teaching a knitting class vs. a college English class? No grading!

----

So the other big event was the DFW Yarn Crawl. MAFIA was a location this year and operated out of the house of the MAFIA organizer. We had some great stuff under her roof (which she had to live with and be tempted by for 10 days!!) and quite a few shopper during the crawl. I was there for a good chunk of time and got to meet a lot of people who were surprised (in a good way) that all of these indie dyers and designers were right there (nearby for some shoppers or across DFW for others).

Once again I set up my space and was unhappy with the waterfall hooks but wasn't sure how to get past that. This time on the samples, though, I used some hangers and put the scarves on the display figures and was able to spread out the shawl on the wall. During the first weekend, the MAFIA host had a great idea for how to display my stuff without using the waterfall hooks.

So much better, I think, although I'm still thinking about ways that I can change this up to have a better display as I'm still not 100% happy with it. I really want the emphasis to be on the patterns rather than the handspun, so I need to brainstorm and experiment a bit more.

I'll get a chance to do that on a limited scale this weekend as Saturday is the Fall Gift Market at Jacob Rewards Farm. Three of us from MAFIA will be there with our wares. If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop by.

After this, we (meaning MAFIA) don't have any big events planned until DFW Fiber Fest in six months. We're considering some other avenues before then since six months (especially during the colder weather when people want to knit!) is a long time. In the meantime, I'm continuing to design (new shawl pattern almost finished testing and another new shawl pattern soon to enter testing) and I have a full editing calendar ahead of me. (I just finished editing a truly wonderful epic medieval fantasy book..) So even if we don't have any events, I'll still be pretty busy.