Looking at my calendar and realizing my first craft show is three weeks away, I had a moment of craft show panic.  Do I have enough inventory?  How long will it take me to tag, price and load new garments into inventory?  What other things do I need to knit between now and then?

Same Craft Show Panic, Different Day

I’m sure I’ve gone through this same feeling of presenting naked in front of a classroom whilst being completely unprepared.  In fact, I think I need a bit of panic before a craft show to get my butt in gear.  I used to use similar techniques at work to get me to plow through a boatload of work.

Just a couple of like-to-do items on my list.

First, I’ve completed three Baby Surprise Jackets.

I’ve never tried to sell baby items at a craft show. My mom seems to think they’d do well.  I’d like to make at least two more baby jackets to have choices for buyers.

I’m also thinking that they’ll want accessories. So I may try to bang out some baby hats (which are practically the size of girl hats…why does the head have to grow first?  So unfair.).  Here’s my first attempt.

Yes, the hats will be equally as bright as the Baby Surprise Jackets.  Perhaps I could market this line as “Never lose your baby in these colors” or some such tag line.

I also need to inventory my adult scarves, hats and shawls/wraps. Then, I need to make sure I don’t need more garments to have a decently stocked craft show table.

Finally, all the garments I’ve knit for sale since last year will need to be tagged, measured, photographed and listed in inventory.  It’s a lot of up-front work. But it helps enormously both at the show when sales get brisk and afterwards to do all the accounting and inventory assessment.

Wish me luck! Or better yet, schedule to come see me in Flemington on November 3rd to make sure I’ve met my goals!

Current Knitting

Just when I’ve gotten past the second 40-row repeat on the Rowan Jens Pullover, it looks as if I may have to put it down to work on craft show stuff.

This is about 16 inches of knitting.  With only 2 more inches, I’ll be shaping for the arm hole openings.  I’d hate to lose momentum on this project, but based on  the initial assessment of what needs to happen in the next three weeks, I may just have to postpone it a little.

Readers’ Comments/Questions

Thank you all for your comments and ideas about woke-shaming on my last blog entry.  Not-so-shockingly, I got another chiding comment on a Facebook post yesterday that makes fun of a sign that’s missing some letters.  Here’s the post and the comment:

A comment came in (from a self-identified white cis-female) asking me why Chinese? And why a man?  And then a follow-up comment indicated that my post smacked of race and gender bias and made fun of Chinese sounding names.  The commenter didn’t find my post at all funny.

The comments were deleted (by the commenter) and I was unfriended, but not blocked.

I have to say, I find this kind of public chiding from someone who’s never commented on a post before, to be so self-righteous.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve posted on truly offensive posts before as a first-time commenter. But it is only when I or someone I love is personally attacked by a post.  I was grateful to the comment to re-assess my post. I checked to see if there was animus or negative race or gender bias (which I had already done prior to posting it), and I really didn’t think it disparaged anyone.  So, I did reject her feedback.

I just thought it was funny that an incident should show up that was a perfect example of what I posted about last week.