Maiden Voyage

 I had my maiden voyage with the craft show tent this past weekend.

I was a vendor at Buckland Flowers and Produce's Fall Family Jam and got to use the tent for the very first time.  I was weirdly calm leading up to it.  I wasn't the least bit stressed or concerned about having enough inventory or if the weather would cooperate, or if I could fit all the stuff into the car, or if I'd make enough sales to make it worth while.....  I had none of the pre-show jitters that I normally get. It was weird.  Don't get me wrong, it was nice not going into panic mode.  Nice, but weird.

Of course I ended up forgetting to take several things with me but it all worked out in the end.  The guests were none the wiser, it was a beautiful day and sales were good.  

The event was really nice and I hope to get invited back in the future.  There was a band, well, really just a guy singing I think.  I couldn't see the stage from my booth but I could hear him singing.  It was the perfect level of background music.  Loud enough that I could whisper-sing along with him, but not so loud as to make it hard to have conversations with the shoppers.  There was a dunk tank where you could dunk the sheriff or a firefighter, there was, of course food and other vendors, and somebody must have pulled some strings because a medevac helicopter flew in and landed in the adjacent field for the kids (and grown-ups) to tour.  Pretty cool!

All in all, it was a really nice day and my tent went up and then down with no problems, my sandbag weights worked just fine (I was worried about them being heavy enough) and the tent never attempted to blow away, even with the helicopter wind.  Success!! I feel like a 'real' vendor now.  😊

I did have a little trouble the day before the show though.  The whale sweater I was knitting for Sarah for Christmas.... Well, something went horribly, horribly wrong.  And I don't even know what happened or where the problem is.  I have looked and relooked at the pattern a zillion times.  I started with the correct number of stitches.  I had the correct number of stitches before I started the yoke's colorwork.  The colorwork worked perfectly so I know I didn't have mistakes in my increases there.  But after the colorwork, when I went to put the sleeves on the holders, I discovered I'm missing more than 115 stitches.  For the life of me, I can't see where I went wrong so I plan to take it to the knitting shop and see if they can figure it out.  I don't want to frog it and start over if it's a pattern issue.  I was unbelievably mad and frustrated at first but the more I think about being 115+ stitches off, it's just sort of funny.  Frustrating, but funny.

Another frustrating thing is, I've got a nice case of poison ivy.  It's driving me INSANE.  Rather than itching, it feels more like someone is jabbing a lit cigarette into my skin.  It's mainly across the top of my foot, and on, between and under a few of my toes.  I'm not handling it well and I'm pretty dang cranky.  The good side of it is, they sent me home from work for having 'open sores' (a big no-no at the grocery store) so I've had two extra days to spend knitting and preparing for the next show this week.

It's also been raining almost constantly for the last several days.  I'm not complaining about that.  We needed the rain and it just makes me want to stay home and knit.  No complaints about that!

Happy knitting!

Pumpkins

We finally got rain!

And the pumpkin patch began to grow.

I recently found out I'd been accepted as a vendor at the county fair and I've been frantically knitting for it.  I applied so long ago and didn't hear back so I thought I didn't get in but, Surprise!  So, yeah.  Frantic knitting has been happening.  The pumpkin patch is growing, and yes, I know they still need stems.  

I've made about 1,000 things and they all still need something done to them. Ends woven in, seams sewn, eyes attached, stems attached, tags attached..... There's going to be a lot of attaching happening over the next two weeks.

I hope and pray I do well at the fair.  July has been an expensive month!  There has been, obviously, some yarn shopping.  Then our dryer bit the dust and had to be replaced.  My laptop also bit the dust and had to be replaced. I bought the new laptop, a vacuum and a 10 x 10 tent for craft sales during Amazon's prime days. I saved between $75 and $150 on each item so it made sense to get them but still....  I bought a Jeannie Gray Knits banner for the tent. Something went wrong with the mower's clutch and every time you'd engage the mower blades and start to go, the mower would cut off.  The a/c compressor in the car went out on a 98 degree day and we discovered that same day that the window control was also broken and the windows wouldn't go down.  That was one HOT ride home!  Sarah's prescription sunglasses broke. And hopefully last on the list of July expenses, my husband found out he needs a double hip replacement sooner rather than later.  Oh, and there may have been some additional, 'I'm having a nervous breakdown' yarn shopping. Yikes!  I'm going to need to sell a LOT of pumpkins!  At least I know I have enough yarn to make them.

And now, since the tent and banner both arrived a week early (when does that ever happen???) I just may take a day off from knitting and go see just how easy it is to assemble the tent by myself.  The write-up promised ease, but I have my doubts.   Honestly, I'm not even sure I can get it out of the shipping box by myself.  That thing is heavy!

Happy knitting!