Just In Time August Update
It is another one of those blink and a month, or more, has passed by moments. July whizzed by faster than a Tour de France cyclist, and the first bits of August have blurred into chaotic preparation for my first in person market. A lot has been going on with Evening Spin and outside of it for me, so let’s recap what has happened.
July and Tour de Fleece
Tour de Fleece was nicely contained within the month of July, unless you were also spinning for the women’s race. I was not, I didn’t even quite make it through all of the men’s race. Early in July some things outside of Evening Spin happened that made things feel a bit upside down and inside out for a couple weeks, but I persisted. It was actually quite helpful to have my slow focused spinning to do everyday while everything else felt a little too tumultuous for me.
My goal was 15 minutes a day minimum, except for my two rest days I squished together so I could go celebrate my anniversary with my husband. I was aiming for consistency, practicing new techniques, and experimenting with some of the Coopworth I had been processing. I quickly made it through my first braid of fiber, I was just doing a basic chain ply for that one. The next took more time as I was aiming to make some beehives or coils. That art yarn is still in process on my wheel. During TdF I found out I was accepted to be a vendor at my first in person market. As it drew nearer to the end of July, my focus and energy entirely shifted to preparing for that big and exciting event. Eventually I ended up running out of steam for my spinning and dropped out just a day or two early.
August and Fiber Fair
Early August was the real whirlwind. It was a big decision for me to make just to apply, and once I got the good news it was full speed ahead as I had a lot of preparation to do for the Clear Creek Farm Fiber Fair. The Fiber Fair was a one day, Saturday event, located at Clear Creek Farm in Duvall, WA.
While I had my own hiccups on the day of, the event itself was excellent with lovely weather. The turnout was great, the Fiber Fair had classes, live music, a raffle, and a local cafe offering food. I had so many wonderful conversations with people stopping in to take a look at what I had. I felt so much support from those that offered kind words or made purchases. I have to be honest, I wouldn’t have been successful if I didn’t have my two best friends working with me as booth buddies and lenders of things, and my husband who saved the day after I forgot our chairs at home.
While definitely a successful event for me, I also walked away with some good lessons learned from my first market experience.
A colored tent can cast a color hue on your product. I was borrowing the tent I used so I made note to make sure I purchase a white tent for myself.
Everything will take longer than you think. I waited too long to switch gears from production to market prep which meant I ran out of time and had to do a lot of tagging and pricing after initial setup.
Use your systems and follow your processes. Building off my earlier lesson on giving myself more time, as it got closer to market time, I got less organized and stopped following all my processes fully. I also didn’t give myself time to be ready with the checkout process I had planned. Both things led to more work for me later.
Since the event, I’ve had my Etsy shop on vacation mode, and expect to have that back available soon. Included in that will be some new product I made for Fiber Fair and haven’t listed yet.
Coming Soon in September
On September 1st a new online marketplace that I have been following is launching called Fybe. They are pro-human created and anti-AI. They are reviewing and approving all vendor applications and products to make sure that artist and the products they offer aren’t AI or just mass produced junk you weren’t looking for. I currently have a couple listings up in my Fybe shop for testing, and I’ll be continuing to slowly update with more of my existing and new listings leading up to September 1st. I’ll also still be available on Etsy for the time being, this is just a first step to expanding where Evening Spin can be found.
Also in September will be my next in person market. I’ll be at the RAM Studio Artisan & Community Market being held in Woodinville, WA on September 5th from 10am-5pm in the former Molbaks parking lot (13625 Northeast 175th Street). This is going to be a large artists market with food trucks and variety of different types of artists. I think the market itself will be a really cool and fun event for a Saturday. Right now, all the markets I attend will teach me something and provide the potential for me to make connections with all kinds of people. One day markets also feel less intimidating than a two or three day event.
