Fiber Fair is this weekend!

[carbonel]

And I have entered 29 items in it for sale.

Fiber Fair is the big annual sale organized by the misnamed Weaver's Guild of Minnesota. It's misnamed because it includes spinners (like me) and dyers as well. I've seen it go by for several years, but this is the first year that I've ever been involved with it.

Of the 29 items, 6 were handspun by me and hand knit by iraunink, and the rest are various sorts of yarn. About half of those are art-type yarns and the rest are more standard sorts. I included one of my two blue-ribbon yarns, the rainbow-colored chain-plied one, but I priced it quite high ($50), on the grounds that it wouldn't hurt so much to let it go that way. And if it doesn't sell, I will be okay with making other plans for it.

And I've already sold one skein! The woman who was checking things in decided she wanted a skein of orange and yellow and red spun silk, and I said she could take it and hide it until she came back on Sunday, if she promised faithfully to pay for it then. So that's at least $25 in sales, of which $18.50 will go to me.

I'm alternating between worry that I priced my items too high and no one will want them at those prices, and worry that I underpriced them, because between materials costs and the Guild's cut (26%), the profit margin is really quite low. This will at least be a testing ground to see what the market will stand.

The big buying rush will be on Friday, when the doors open, but I'm doing my two required shifts on Saturday, so I won't have a chance to see what-all was on offer, just what's left later. And I'll get the final numbers on Sunday afternoon, when I pick up whatever hasn't sold.

Comments

[uilos.livejournal.com]

As someone who spent an embarrassingly large amount of money on sock yarn two weeks ago, I doubt your yarns will be too expensive. Something about being in a room full of fiber and other enthusiastic crafters sends all good sense out the window.

[xinef.livejournal.com]

Best wishes for a great sale. Would love to see some pictures of what you are selling.

[xinef.livejournal.com]

How did it end up going? Make many sales?

[biblio-tech.livejournal.com]

"Too much and no one will come"...why does this sound familiar? No, I guess that was "Not enough and no one will come." Same rhythm.

I hope it lives up to your talents. You make lovely stuff!

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Wish you luck and profit. You appear to have remembered Step Two, so hopefully Step Three will work out.

[carbonel]

Is Step Two similar to the advice for writers, about how no editor is going to rifle through their file drawers for unsubmitted manuscripts?

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I was actually thinking of the Underpants Gnomes. Step Three is Profits, but step two is blank.

[carbonel]

Ah. Wikipedia has explained it all.

Good luck!

[dlandon.livejournal.com]

and, yes, trying to figure out what to price things at is a constant difficulty - I worry my prices for my baby knits will be too high, but then I worry that I'd never cover my costs if I had to pay someone to knit them. I think there's a certain amount of guesswork involved.

- D

[elisem.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised you got an instant buyer. You're talented at this spinning stuff, truly. You make nice stuff!

Pricing is always tricky. If you want to have a cuppa and compare pricing thoughts, even though we're in different arts, I'd be up for it.

[carbonel]

Thank you for the kind words, and I would love to get together for tea and pricing discussion. Possibly not this week, because I'm hosting our tea group on Saturday, but next week?

[elisem.livejournal.com]

That sounds good. I will get home from traveling tomorrow night and figure out what my calendar thinks I am doing, and we can coordinate.