I'm about to give you a sneak peek into what it takes to put up a splendiferous booth display. This one happened to be at Sock Summit in Portland last weekend.
When we arrived, this is what the booth looked like. Tables. Boxes that arrived before me.
I had some amazing help, who immediately set about configuring our shelving, ironing tablecloths, and constructing spinning racks that had no instructions and too many parts.
Hello, back of Trisha's head.
Then came the fun part. Unpacking the yarn. Sorting it by color. Laughing at colorways called, "DUDE. This is gorgeous!" and, "No boys allowed!"
Color order is something that makes sense to me. Most people shop by color, anyway. If you love the color, you'll find something to make with it.
Hello, Yarnista with two hours of sleep.
Hello, Amy and Allison.
You can see that the rainbow begins on the rack with vibrant reds and pinks, and transitions to pinks, yellows, greens, blues, and purples.
It can be a challenge to display things on open-backed shelving. It gives you more arrangement options, but things often commit suicide by jumping off the back and into someone else's booth.
We discovered that several of our lights had broken in transit, which necessitated a last minute sprint to get more.
Lights are incredibly important in this kind of setting. The sodium lights shining thirty feet from the top of a convention center just don't do yarn justice.
Hello Amy, light procurer, shopping bag stickerer. Amy's husband roasts his own coffee, and made us thermoses of French Press, which Amy carted every morning from her Portland-area home. She also brought a cooler with cream in a glass jar. And a case of peanut butter granola bars.
The marketplace opened to registered class participants on Thursday night. I decided to brush my hair for the occasion.
When the doors opened, the booth started filling up. I didn't take these pictures, and at the time, it was such a whirlwind, that I didn't get to see everyone who came in. But looking at these pictures now, I recognize many familiar faces.
Look, there I am in the back corner, demonstrating my petite tendencies.
An event like this does not just bring Portland locals. People come from all over the US and Canada. I can see several people in this photo alone who flew in from the East Coast just to be here.
And now, the answer to a most haunting question. Something not even my mother knew before now.
What would Sharon look like if she were a miner and wore a headlamp to work?
Here's your answer.
Glad I was able to clear that up for you.
Trisha came all the way from Northern Alberta, where it is cold, and where yarn takes forever to arrive. I'm convinced that yarn travels to Northern Alberta via sloth. It just arrives whenever it feels like. And it usually feels like being slow.
Amy didn't know it before now, but orange is her color. She has blonde hair and brown eyes, and it looks gorgeous on her.
Allison, on the other hand, thinks everything is her color.
If you've ever wondered what it would look like if you wore two hats, a sweater, a scarf, and a shawl all at the same time over your regular clothes, here's your answer.
And here's Abigail, taker of most of these pictures. See how the look on her face says, "Hi. What are you doing, exactly?" As if she doesn't know exactly what I'm doing with the camera.
And Audrey, who had just finished knitting this skirt the night before. You can spin it so that any of the colors are in front, and it will go with everything she owns.
I could not have survived without the help of Trisha, Allison. Amy, Abigail, and Audrey. They swooped in from far away regions, said, "We're here to unpack and fluff and lift heavy stuff and bring you coffee and leave notes under your door and write receipts and answer questions and help customers and run errands. And this is going to be SO MUCH FUN."
And it was.
Thanks, dudes.