Holiday Craft Fair Experiences

I'm Drea. I'm Meg. I'm Tina. And I'm Jess. And this is Pardon My Stash. Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about knitting with the fiber arts and how awesome it is. Yeah. Woohoo. Getting a twofer today. Before we get into today's topics, let's talk about what we're working on this week. Drea. I am still working on the minted hat by Andrea Mowry. And I am using Juniper Moon Farm in Moonshine. It's a cream color as my main color. And I'm using Oh Dang by Farmer's Daughter Fibers

in Desert Rose for my like contrast color. So it's like super soft. It's got a nice halo. I'm almost done with it. And I should probably finish it this weekend, but I've been trying to work on it sparingly. Tina. I'm making beanies because I'm doing that thing where you have a craft show at the end of the week and you have a bunch of crap that you need to finish because I had a plan for like a billion things and now I have to put it down to like two.

So I'm right now I'm making what I'm calling. So it's it's weird. So I'm using Super Bulky right now, clearly. And I'm just the I finished one hat that just kind of looks like if I had to put it into a description, a Santa hat because it's a little Santa beanie. Yeah, it's like a red top. Yeah. Well, that's the fun. That's the fun part. So I haven't been putting palms on any of them because I'm going to make the palm optional. Oh, that's good. Pick your palm. So I found a

canister, like a tall vase that's clear from Dollar Tree. I'm going to fill it with the palms. Oh, cool. So you can see all the palms. Yeah. And then you pick your palm. Anyways. But so this guy, yeah, he definitely I wish he had a palm, but he's cute otherwise. This one I was taking the leftovers of the white or the cream ish that it is. And I was going into the red. So it kind of looks like it's I think my followers were saying they wanted it to call it frosted berry. That's

like the the winner name right now. They went with frosted berry. So here we are. But yeah, it looks like it has little dots and it just looks like a very small gradient. And this will probably be done in like before this episode is done. And so I'll tell you that that is my favorite thing about working with big yarn. Yeah. But in terms of patterns, like, I don't know. I guess I could shout out my

very vital because this one's definitely I use the decreases in very little on this one. And this one I took the idea of the gradient from like it's on like 3000 beanies. I just picked one that was free because I didn't feel like doing the math. And I took just the gradient part. And then I did the I'm not doing like the exact it's just a Frankenstein. So it's making my own thing. Franken beanie. But yeah, it's kind of off the cuff. Very cool. What's the yarn?

I want to say well, this is all stash yarn. I want to say this is the white or the cream is Lion Brand Woolies and the red is Lion Brand Hometown. Cool. It looks like hometown. Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely hometown this. But this one I want I want to say the way the keep saying white. The cream is Woolies. Jess, I am currently working on a needle felted cardinal. I'm just doing it. But I've got a Google picture of a cardinal. And I'm using felt that I got from

a rainbow pack from felted sky and an ornament blank that I also got from them. And yeah, I'm just just free handing a cardinal over here. I'm also working on the rose hip sweater by Anna Joanna. Anna Joanna, I think. And a Joanna. And a Joanna. I think so. I don't know. I am working on that, just not right at the second because it's hard to focus on color work and podcast sometimes. So always. Sometimes. So so that is that is waiting. But I am at the

color work on the hem of that. And then once that is done, I will be moving on to sleeves. She's just belted through that. Meg. So right now I am working on two headbands for the aforementioned upcoming craft fair. These are my free pattern. No place in mind headbands. And I'm doing them two at a time on one needle, just trying to get them done faster. So smart. I so I don't know why I didn't do this. I probably banged out four of them.

Before I was like, duh, like I could just do this together. No, because now I'm thinking, oh, I'm so mad at myself. That's fine. No, it's fine. It's not. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself. I didn't do anything. No, you gave me a fantastic idea. I know I just sound mad. It's me. I'm the problem. No, I just I just thought of it the other day because I'm like, oh, I have a really long circular so I can do this. It's not a problem. I'm just like, oh, I'm going to do this.

It's not I don't think know if it's necessarily faster, but it's like doing two at a time. Yeah, it's where it's they're getting done. So I have one that is I would say probably three quarters the way done. And one that is I just started this afternoon and they're both made out of critical hit dies, barbarian bulky. One is in lip a T Prince and the other is in Blue China, which is one of our new colors that's coming out this week.

You need to stop making nice yarn. I am upset. I'm not going to make crappy yarn just to make just to fit your budget. No, I don't want to know. It's not it's not the budget thing. It's I literally there is no space after I put like that a bunch of the yarn that there was a couple things there was like I have a bunch of donated yarn. People throw yarn at me. I think that's the

problem. I get thrown yarn just kind of tossed my way. No, I think that happens a lot when people realize you're a knitter and they're like, oh, well, I have this stash that I'm not using or my my relative is no longer using. And here you go. It's all yours. And you're like, thanks. But I I'm bursting. I have so early. Yeah, I'm like I'm trying to get through with the machine because I'm bursting out. But like you guys, I just look at the I'm like blue China. Thanks. I'm just going

to cry. I need to get through everything I have. But we'll be there. OK, I know. I know. If you ever get the itch, ever get the itch for it. Be sure to check out our website, pardon my stash dot com for more pictures of our patterns, project and yarns. So with the holiday season coming up,

we wanted to talk a little bit about the upcoming holiday craft fair season. They're pretty ubiquitous in our part of the country. They're probably pretty common wherever you are as well. We are recording this episode because American Thanksgiving is coming up in just a couple of days. This episode is going to air after Thanksgiving and after the craft fair that we have coming up the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Small Business Saturday. So at the time of recording, we have not

actually done the craft fair yet. By the time this episode airs, we will have. So you could still hear the hope in my voice. So that's how you know. Hey, we had a good year last year. We had a pretty good year last year. So we wanted to take a little bit of time tonight to talk about just holiday craft fairs in general, what to expect, what experiences we have had at them both as a customer and as a vendor, and just some kind of tips and tricks for if you are planning on attending

craft fair, what you can expect and some do's and don'ts. So let's start right off the bat. If you are going to go to a holiday craft fair, where do you find them? I find that there are a lot of local town websites that will post events like that on their community boards. I have found them on Facebook. Oh yeah. I feel kind of old saying that. No, no. I don't have Facebook. So funny enough, when we went away last weekend, we were hanging around

our Airbnb with with Mary Ellen. We're like, what are we going to do? And actually that is exactly what happened is a holiday craft fair popped up on my Facebook and we were like, cool, let's go. And we ended up just checking it out because we're like, that's family friendly. We can take her. And it was actually, we didn't buy anything. We took some cards. It's pretty decent, but it's funny that you mentioned Facebook because that's exactly what happened to us. We were looking for it and

there it was. Facebook does a lot of like suggestions based on where you are. And if you're on your local town page, they'll have stuff to post it there too. I find this time of year, I can't drive like half a mile without tripping over signs for schools or churches or town halls. They're everywhere. And I think they start popping up around the end of October and they tend to peter out around the second week of December as we're getting up closer to the

holiday. Fewer people are planning on coming out and vending fewer places like churches have the spare time or space to open up to them. And, you know, some people are finishing up their shopping, unless you're my mom, who's been bragging to me for like a month that she's done and things are wrapped. And you know what? Nobody needs that, mom. Thanks. Nobody needs that. Someone referred this to me. I have no idea if it's completely legit, but I've been looking at it so far. It's

called zapplication.org and that apparently has a ton of fares on it. I didn't find any, a ton in particular our area, but it's nationwide. So it has like every state. And I saw there was a lot more in other places, which is kind of tracks, you know. But just throwing that out there. I do not vouch for that. And any like if somebody's like, this is terrible, I'm sorry. It was just recommended to me and I just started looking at it. But I just thought of that because but they didn't really have

much for Connecticut. I feel like I used to know more about like when the fairs were happening because my grandparents always did. Because my grandparents always did the craft fairs. My mom's a big Christmas or holiday craft fair person too. So we used to do them all the time

when I was a kid. Oh no, they vended. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. They did woodworking. Oh, that's I think one of the fun things about going to the craft fairs is seeing all of the different types of things that are available there because it's not like going to a fiber fest where you're going to find the same types of vendors. It's really a hodgepodge. You can get anything a craft. Big

hodgepodge. And I love that. I know. You can get everything from clothes to crafts to um, oh god, sometimes you can, you know, pottery, the food, you know, I swear every time you go somebody's got like maple syrup or what? Oh yeah. The one we went to had cannolis. Like people were selling, oh my God, they looked so good. We can get them, but they look good. So yeah, there is the kind of hodgepodge

of holiday stuff. Most of it being holiday themed, but the, yeah. And the other one, the other thing we saw, there was this beautiful inlaid woodwork. Um, it was super expensive. Like we couldn't afford it, but it was beautiful to see. I agree with that. The woodwork is like the thing probably I like the most. Cause so it's cool. Well, for one, I feel bad because they're lugging all this heavy wood, yeah. All the way from one place and all the way back. Yeah. Yeah. Help my grandparents with that

on more than one occasion. Um, but then, but like to, when they have it all on display, it doesn't, they don't need a fancy display cause the wood does it. It sells itself. Yeah. You don't need to. And it's worth every penny for sure. It's not like when I see the, I'm like that, that tracks that this person probably spent hours and days and weeks on this. Like not surprised. I was going to say for, if you go to a craft fair and you're like, man, I don't know where to look first.

I will tell you walk all the way to the back. Seriously. No, I'm serious because once you're done, you're not going to want to walk back through everything. So just sweep. So yeah, when you get, and honestly, you could do this for a fiber festivals too. If they're in a big, like a New York, New England fiber Fest, you just, you go all the way to like the farthest corner to

where you entered and then work your way back. Um, and then as you work your way back, um, try not to get too distracted by people with really, really, really fancy displays. And the reason why I say that is because sometimes people with really, um, unique items tend to be like, have like more muted displays. So don't like overlook something just because someone has just a table and they've laid it out on the table. Like, like don't, don't just like, Oh, whatever

that is. You know, take a, take a peek and, um, you know, and, and please like say hi to people. Cause a lot of those vendors don't know what to do. They're just like, they, they don't know, like if they should say hi, if they should bother you, if they should not, um, if you're not too, uh, you know, uh, shy or whatever, just like, even just a quick, like, Oh, hello, how are you? And just like, keep moving on. Um, just cause it helps everybody feel comfortable in the situation.

I can't tell you how awkward it is when someone like as a vendor, when somebody like walks up to your booth, picks something up really, really fast, goes like looking at it and then just like puts it back down, walks away really fast. I'm like, was that okay? Was that legal? It's just like very like quick. So, um, try to, you know, take your time, especially if you're going to go to one, you don't want to like be rushing through it anyway. Um, it's supposed to

be a relaxing experience. Yeah. I would say like the same with the fiber Fest, like it's a good idea to bring a bag. Um, not all vendors have bags, um, to give you. So bring a bag if you're planning on doing some shopping. Um, I like to do the sweep. We always do that when we go to to. Craft fairs in general, um, do the sweep first, figure out, you know, what you want to buy, what's in your budget, um, and then go back. But the other caveat to that is

craft fairs are not usually mass production. Um, so if you see something you really like and you know, you want it might be a good idea to grab it right away because odds are, um, that crafter is not going to have the same item in stock. So if you, if you see it, you know, you want it, probably a good idea to grab it right then and there. Also, if you see something, because it is a craft fair, if you see something and it's like, you really like it, but man, I wish it was this

color of that. It is not rude to ask the vendor, Hey, would you be able to make it like this? Because nine times out of 10, they'd be like, sure. And then they could like work it out. If you're like not on a tight deadline to get the item, uh, especially if you're, you're going to craft fairs in November for something in December, you actually might be able to do like a commission

with somebody and get it in time. You might not get, you're obviously not going to get it that day, but like, you might still get it in time for the holidays and then you could, you know, have something in your unique color or style or however you want it done. Take cards. Yeah. Oh, I always take cards. If people have business cards, they have them there for a reason. They want you to take them.

I like to take pictures of the card and then like an item that I saw in their booth that I liked, like even if I can't afford it or if it's not a right now purchase or if it's something that I want to commission for later, I'll take a picture of what they have. So I can be like, Oh, right. That guy. Yeah. And that's some, you know, that's, that's always an option too. It's like,

if they have the cards out, it means they want you to take them. Um, Jess grabbed a whole bunch of cards at the last fair that we went to things that she really liked, but they were not purchases we were going to be making right now. Um, yeah, handmade stuff is expensive. Sometimes it can be, it can be, it's an investment. It's also a good idea. Like say if you are, um,

a left, God, we used to do this all the time. We went to Brimfield. It's the antique show. Um, a lot of places will ship to home and in that case you can just order, you can always order online when you get home and have it shipped there and so rather than picking it up and taking it home with you, especially if you're traveling from out of state, um, or from somewhere far away, you don't have the capacity to bring something large home. A lot of places that sell larger items, they expect

that too. Like their items are really for display and then they expect they don't bring their whole stock. Well, we're not bringing our whole stock to the fair same next weekend. No, absolutely not. Um, we, we did that last year. That was a mistake. I am not, I am not toting all those shirts. I'm just saying I will bring one of like each design, but like, and then I'll just list the

sizes, but it's just like, Oh no, it's too crazy. And that's another thing too. It's that a lot of times vendors are bound by space constraints, um, or just shipping constraints of how they're going to get their merchandise there. So they may not have exactly what you are looking for, um, in stock at the show, but it is very possible that they have it back at their home base and can ship it out right away. I know some vendors will do online orders like right there at the store. Um, so

that's always a possibility as well. Um, this is like kind of a tip. I don't know what thing do you use for your checkout square. Okay. So with square, you can actually set it up. So if you wanted to do like a commission at like, you could, or customize an option, uh, you can actually do it right then in there. Oh, see that's sweet. Um, just so you know, you have to go on the web app though. Um,

and this, I guess is a tip to anyone. If you're using square, um, there is an option where you can kind of, um, I don't remember the exact word for it, but it's when you're on the edit screen, there's like a way to set up, um, you have the variations option, but then there's also just

options where it's, it's optional items that you can select with it. So for mine, I did like when I put in, um, the different beanies, I also put as an option, the Palm, like if you wanted to add on the Palm, um, and then like the different, you know, I don't think I'm going to track the colors because I have so many Palms. Um, I don't think, I don't think it's wise versus Palm orange. I will not remember which one is which. So, um, but yeah, I'll just, yeah, just to mark that a Palm

got sold. Palm in general. Yeah. Cause I mean, and, and that's good too, in terms of a vendor, I know, um, just to make sure that you mark what actually does sell. Um, because like, Hey, if you just don't know what you just sold and then you're like, huh, that was cool. I think I sold a lot of this one. Yeah, I'll make more of that. And then like your hot selling item was something else and you, you

just kind of mix the two pro tip. Yeah. We always do a really, um, extensive inventory sweep, like right before we did it last year, before the show, we're doing it this year before the show, just to make sure that we have everything in stock. Um, so we're not putting things on that we don't have and so on and so forth. But yeah, no, we, we kind of learned our lesson from last year instead of bringing every single thing that we had, we're only bringing like some of it, a percentage

of it, enough of a, enough of a display. Um, also if they will let you, um, you can also get these, um, they're like these, uh, many shopping carts. I, um, when I was growing up, uh, my family used them to bring the groceries home, but you could, yeah, they've got four, it's like four wheels to two, the two in the back are like heavy duty. Um, and I currently used to have one of those. Yes.

I still have one. I like mine. Um, so, but you can also, if you're someone that like maybe carrying a bunch of bags is not a happy time for you and you really want to enjoy walking around the craft show, uh, or fair, um, you really can, uh, extend your energy if you have that little thing with you, cause you can actually just kind of park it with, you're looking at a booth and you don't have to actively hold everything as you're trying to look at different tables. Oh, bring cash.

Yeah. Don't expect everybody to have a card reader. Yeah. Don't expect the place to always have good wifi. Oh my God. Yeah. Like some places don't have wifi and you know, electronic sales don't always go through. So don't expect every place to have an ATM either. Right. Especially if it's in a school or a church, most schools and churches do not have ATMs. So, um, you know, plan accordingly,

think carefully before you decide to haggle. Um, some, and, and I say that with a lot of caveat because I know in some cultures haggling at, um, a craft show or a market that is, that is the custom, that is the norm. Um, if it is not, if you're not sure, um, be careful about choosing to haggle with, uh, a craftsperson, um, and take no for an answer if, if they don't want to do that, if their price is firm. Um, try to remember also guys that this is not, uh, a big box store or a

tag sale. Yeah. This is, this is somebody putting their, their livelihood out on the market. Um, and try to respect that. And if it's, if the price is, is not what you're willing to pay, um, try to be respectful about that. Everybody knows, especially if it's knit garments, everybody knows you can buy a knit garment from a big box store for cheaper. Everybody knows that, um, you're not telling an artist in anything new. Um, but it is not a nice thing to say ever. Um, if you can make it also,

don't say that to them. Please don't say that to them. Cool story, bro. Um, just, you know, just remember to be polite. Um, we talked, we've talked extensively on this podcast about the state of the crafting world and how, you know, there have been problems with fiber Fest. There have been problems with craft fairs, um, with shows shutting down with vendors and teachers being, um, left out in the cold, losing money. We want artisans, we want

crafters to still feel comfortable doing craft shows and vending. Um, and they're not going to do that if they don't feel it's worth the investment. Um, so remember that these people who are vending, they have brought their stuff out. They have, you know, taken the risk, financial, emotional, time, physical, um, to do this. So again, and some people are really cool with haggling and that is great. Um, but if they're not, you know, take it as it is and you either buy the item

or don't buy the item as is. I always feel like if a craft person is putting a price tag on something that they have crafted, then that is what they're telling me their time is worth. Right. And I agree with that. You know, you're paying for their skill. You're, you're paying for the time that they put into the item and you're paying for the item itself. Like you don't have to do that. You're paying somebody else to do that. So you should pay them what they feel their time is worth. Oh,

can you please ask before you just take a photo of something? Um, because only because, um, it's not that nobody wants you to not take photos of their items. Um, the issue is more, um, there's a lot of people who will kind of go through a craft show and see what's selling and then take photos of those and then replicate them. I've seen that happen so many times. I have never asked a vendor if I could take a photo of their stuff. I usually just do it. Most people do. I bet they all think I'm like

some jerk trying to steal their ideas. Well, yeah. I think if you just ask, it's even if you like, honestly, like as long as you're not, I think it's really obvious when somebody who's just going in and being like, yeah, I'm just going to see what I like here and do this later. Um, it's pretty obvious because they come out with their phone. They're not like looking at your items and then like, wow, this is so cool. And then going like, I really want to remember this. Like there's a

difference between that. And then like somebody like literally with their phone in their hand, as they walk up to you and you're like, what are you doing? Come on, come on, bro. No, I know there's a lot of places and we saw this when we were up in Salem last week, a lot of places will have no cell phone policy and no photo policy. Um, and it's more the idea of like shopping around. Like, can I get this cheaper? Like on Amazon or something like that? Like if

I take a picture of it, right. Um, go to Etsy, you can find all the folks that are not actually crafters that are making knockoffs. Hooray. That are killing all that. Well, and there have been problems of people like taking, um, popular craft art art and things like that. Um, and then they posted on Etsy or they posted on Facebook and they pretend to be selling it and it's a scam. That has happened to, to artisans before. Um, so I can, I can totally understand why people would be,

would be anxious. Well that, that, yeah, that's, that's happened a lot. That is what happened. Um, a few years ago with, uh, blue brick and wingspan. Oh, uh, somebody took a picture of her, her way of it was not her pattern. Um, it was the wingspan pattern with blue brick fiber arts, um, um, ibis. Um, and it was going viral at the time and somebody else put it, put an ad for it on Facebook and people were buying quote unquote the yarn and the pattern from this scammer.

And they were just taking their money. They weren't actually like, they weren't going to fill any of those or no. So then of course it makes the designer look bad. It makes the dyer look bad and it's not their fault at all. So, um, yeah, that's, that's a thing. Um, go with an open mind. Oh, I always, one of the, well, one of the worst things I think people can do is, is go to a craft fair and assume that they're all the same. Like I've been to a holiday craft fair.

I know what I'm going to find. Um, I'm looking for a very specific item. You probably are not going to find a specific thing that you're looking for. That's not really what a craft fair is for. I always go into a craft fair going, Ooh, I wonder what I'm going to find. I know it is. It's kind of like a treasure hunt. Like you don't know what you're going to find. Um, but if, if you are going shopping, if you're like, I know that my, my sister in law likes X, Y, and Z,

and I'm going to look for that, the crafter. No, that's not it. Look for that online. Um, unless it's something like, you know, I know your mom likes gnomes. I'm probably going to find like 8,000 gnomes at a craft fair. She has 8,000 gnomes. I know, but I could find a new one that she doesn't have. That's the thing. You're going to find an original one. Right. If you go into it

with that or like, you know, like, like your mom likes snowmen. Yeah. Oh, like, so I'm going to look for something snowmen that's original and something that you'll have a great time doing that. A broad search, a narrow search is going to be harder. Yeah. So broad searches, open minds, um, and talk to people, talk to, talk to craftspeople. Like, as speaking as a vendor, we loved it last year when people came and asked us questions about our yarn, um, or about Jess's little crocheted

creations that she had for sale. Like we love that even if people don't buy it, it's still really nice to hear if you like something, even if you have no intention of buying it, it's, it's out of your budget or you have no reason to buy it. You just like the way it looks like, please, tell the vendor because that's going to make their day. Like even if, even if they, you know, buy it, it's just nice to hear that your stuff is liked.

That's all the time we have for this episode for additional content and opportunities to connect with the cast. Check out our website at pardon my stash.com. Be sure to tune in next time for more fun friends and fiber at Pardon My Stash.