Happy Holi-daze?

I know! You thought I might have fallen off the face of the planet. It has been along time. As much as I enjoy the change of the seasons and the festivities of winter, sometimes the approach of year end finds that I have taken too big a helping out of the pot of To-dos. There's so much pressure to do more and more and more. Whoa! Is that a New Year's Resolution about to be born? All I know is that I may have to watch that documentary about the tightrope walker again ... learn balance....

Well, here are some happy snaps of places my knitting has gone. The college bookstore asked for my scarves and caps again this year and featured one of them in their newsletter. (Lion Homespun and the universal stitch pattern. Thanks, KD! Homespun is a highly textured yarn, but I like the subtle stripes that are produced.)

We also did another turn at the Holiday Crafts Faire in town. As I didn't apply to do it last year, I thought I had enough scarves to sell. Late in the month, I remembered I had donated a number of them to a woman's shelter and panic set in! I spent hours knitting like a mad woman to make more scarves. It's difficult knitting for unknown folks. What are their favorite colors? Are they allergic to wool? Do they want long scarves or short ones?

At the faire, I did learn something from the fused glass vendor in the room: You can't just make things in your favorite colors. People have different tastes. The first piece she sold was something she wasn't even going to set out, because she didn't like the color combination. The piece, however, looked fantastic on the woman who purchased it. I was fortunate enough to experience the same thing twice (yeah!) when I sold a Harvest-toned scarf and then a shawl. They didn't look good on me, but the shawl was perfect on the gal who tried it on. This was a faire full of surprises. Someone asked for an alpaca scarf (!), my little hand warmers got sold, and I got a commission for a lace shawl. These are big shifts in the local knowledge base. The first year I set out hand warmers, I overheard one person say that they were useless. I also came home with all of my wool hats and scarves; acrylic was the fiber of choice. I'm almost looking forward to next year--IF I ever do this again. Re-read paragraph one, please!--because I'll have more fiber-savvy customers out there. I can start knitting and experimenting in different fibers and patterns. That is pretty exciting!