Highlights

I have to own up to a couple things about wool festivals. Well, going to wool festivals is always fun - end of that story :-).  Setting up a booth of your own?  Well...let's chat about it.

First of all I'm happiest at home on our farm.  I talk to the sheep, cats, dogs...or nobody.  As long as the food bowls keep getting filled and some ears get scratched on a regular basis, everyone's happy.  I can work along on something listening to the birds singing, sheep bells ringing, the occasional tractor off in the distance and the next thing you know, it's time for evening chores.

If you decide to put yourself out there and set up a booth at a festival (to be able to keep the food bowls filled ;-) you need to be prepared for a completely different day.  Self promotion is tough.  Or at least I find it so.  Even though the sheep and I have worked hard to produce nice products, being able to stand there all day and say "Hey, the sheep and I have worked hard to produce these nice products and you should buy them!" is intimidating. Nerve wracking.  Exhausting.

The fall Kentucky Wool Festival is extra tough because it's set up a bit different from your typical wool festival.  It's a huge craft fair with a ton of really good food vendors.  People come from far and wide, on average upwards to nearly 50,000 people over the three day weekend, to eat, listen to really good live music and socialize.  Until 10:00 in the evening.  The vendors have to get up early the next morning and do it all over again.

After a full day of hot, dripping sweat "fun" (84 degrees in October this year?  Seriously?) and facing yet another long evening, I thought maybe I might be getting a little too old for this.  I'd spent the day teaching kids of all ages what yarn is, where it comes from, how it's made...  The muscles in my right hand and thumb were very sore from two days of demonstrating how a drop spindle is used - yes, you can get spinning injuries if you overwork muscles that are more conditioned for cleaning stalls ;-). 

Then someone I'd taught to drop spindle a couple years ago stopped by, re-introduced herself and we spent probably an hour Saturday evening talking spinning, knitting, patterns, Ravelry...  It was just what I needed.  And really, that happened all through the weekend.  A customer who "always stops at our booth first thing every year" now comes ready to run things while I go grab a cup of coffee.  Just when I'd need a bathroom break, a blog reader would stop by.  I needed to go take pictures of the shearing demonstration and another friend came by.    

It's a team effort.   The whole thing.  Running the farm, growing the wool, shearing, processing, painting Christmas cards, printing calendars, packing it up, setting it up, taking care of it, tearing it back down and heading back home to run the farm, grow the wool... 

It was a good weekend.  It truly is a blessing to be able to do what we do.  Thank you to everyone for all the help and support and encouragement.  And if we just met you this weekend, welcome to the family :-).