Rock N Roll Show Wrapup

As I mentioned yesterday the Rock N Roll Craft Show was my best show yet. I took a few quick shots of the accessories area with my pocket camera. The table behind the two ladies in the 2nd shot was mostly my knitting and there were also scarves hanging from every available means with my scarves mixed in among other vendors. I like the department store style show for the most part. It's much easier on me and my time. I dropped my stuff off, they did the displays and I showed up on Sunday to work my shift and then took my stuff home.

Both of the shows that I've done like this I have scheduled myself for the last shift which has its pros & cons. I don't have to make another trip which is nice since these shows are mostly in the city. But it is always the hardest shift to work since it includes the breakdown and separating by vendor. I ended up working more than an hour over my shift helping them get things separated and displays broken down. This really isn't such a bad thing since it makes me look good with the organizers and they will hopefully remember me when jury time comes next year.









Everything was well displayed and professional. RRCS is probably the most well known of all the indie shows in the area. I think my style goes pretty well with their aesthetic. My wire wrist cuffs were a big hit and I sold all but a handful of them. I had several other vendors comment to me about them and their popularity over the weekend. Making them smaller definitely helped I'm sure. I was making them between 7 or 8 inches, which fits my big wrist, but I started making them between 6 and 7 inches this time around.

The other hit was wool scarflettes. I sold 11 of them and a few other fiber ones as well. I sold a few $30 scarves and a ton of $15 ones of course. They almost cleared me out of my low end wool inventory, over half of the acrylic low end sold, and just 1 cotton. I need to time my production better for next year and have all the cotton ones ready for Strange Folk in September and then focus on wool for the later shows.

I am definitely going to make hats for next year also. The organizers said that there were many people asking for them and just a few from one of the other vendors available. They also said that the 2 sets of fingerless gloves from another vendor sold almost immediately so I will be looking into expanding into that territory.

I really need to spice things up in my knitting this year and not let myself get stagnant. I have generally avoided making hats since I don't really like knitting in the round but I did the baby hats for the shower with a flat pattern with a seam that I could adapt for adults. I can do some different embellishments to hide the seams like buttons or bobbles or who knows what all.

The main disadvantage to these kinds of shows is that you don't get the interaction with customers or the instant feedback. During the first hour of my shift I got to just hang out in the accessories section which was nice. I chatted with a few customers and get some of the compliments that make doing shows so reaffirming. My favorite customer was the woman who bought 2 of my scarves that day and then asked me if I would be doing the show next week. She said that she would be getting the coat colors down this week and then come next weekend prepared to shop for Christmas presents for all of her friends. I also enjoyed watching a group of women spend over an hour trying things on and playing with all of the accessories. They walked away with at least 4 of my items and several things from other vendors.

I'm actually looking forward to this weekend's show. I've done the Big Ass Indie Show before so I'm not as nervous about how it will go. If I do as well as I did last year at it I will definitely be able to splurge on the DSLR camera that I've been coveting.