Soap, Chooks and Distant Memories of Summer
There have been quite a few markets and spin-ins this month, which have been fun but not all that profitable, fingers crossed I do better at the next two, a pottery market in South Auckland and then Fibretron, one of the biggest fibre events in New Zealand….
I sold a few felted soaps at the Nathan Homestead market:
So I have been replacing some of that stock, first I needed to work out which soaps needed replacing:
Then to work…
A few of the finished soaps ready for the next market….
Not fibre related but we have two new chooks, a friend adopted a new dog and was struggling to manage so I agreed to add her two ladies (Thelma and Louise) to our flock of nine naughty chooks. I had hoped to keep them in a separate run and coop (alcatraz henitentiary) where they could all see each other for at least a couple of weeks. However, 3 of my girls decided the mountain of food in their troughs wasn’t enough, they wanted what the new girls were eating and broke into alcatraz. So I had to play prison guard and break up the fights, turns out one of my Red Shavers is a horrible bully, she’s been threatened with the pot a few times.
Thelma and Louise are still sleeping and laying in the henitentiary but are allowed to free range during the day. For the most part they are hanging out away from my original flock but every now and then I have to break up the squabbles and chase the naughty bully away.
In between chook chasing I have started work on a crochet shawl using some hand-spun art yarn, can you see the shells and glass beads? It was spun form some of the pina colada blend I have for sale, it contains pineapple fibre and reminds me of summers on the beach. A distant memory in the depths of a New Zealand winter!
9 thoughts on “Soap, Chooks and Distant Memories of Summer”
Love your ongoing struggle with the cheeky chooks 🙂
Your stall looks good – it’s upsetting when sales are low but maybe it’s just because people are tightening their belts presently.
The crochet shawl is going to be lovely with the minute shells and beads and just the overall colour of it.
Thank you ladies, the chooks are a bit of handful but at least T&L are super friendly, they “helped” me plant some bulbs yesterday afternoon.
Chickens are very entertaining but can be nasty sometimes. We have had to remove one or two for bad behaviour.
You have lots of things that look really interesting on your tables. I do find it a bit overwhelming though. I think I would miss half of what you have just because there is so much and they don’t seem to be grouped together but maybe that the angle of the shot.
I hope you get some better sales. Everyone one seems to be very nervous and hanging onto there money right now over here too.
Yes, sales seem to be down across the board this year, I’m still selling quite a lot of fibre but sales are down 25% at all the fairs I attended this year compared to last year and the other fibre traders are reporting the same.
You made me smile with your chook escapes and the henitentiary! Hope the new ones soon join your flock.
What a full offering on your interesting display – enough to tempt folk I would have thought. But everyone’s belts are being tightened and don’t look to be slackening off any time soon sadly. Wishing you better sales with your next venues.
I love the pattern & colour of your shawl yarn (hope you have got enough!) and look forward to seeing it finished.
Thanks Antje, I’ve only made 5 of the 20+ squares I will need for the shawl and have used nearly half the yarn so it looks like some more spinning will be needed before I can finish this one!
I’m looking forward to seeing your IFA piece. I believe I may have a couple of pictures in the Members’ montage in the September edition.
Your stall certainly does look amazing, your buyers will be spoilt for choice. Is that an animal bag I see at the right hand? It looks familiar. And are the ceramic pieces yours too? I particularly like the container just beside the animal bag. Putting letters on the felted soaps is a good idea.
Henitentiary – I love it! It looks as if Thelma and Louise do to, really getting down to things.
That art yarn looks interesting, I hope the additions don’t make it too difficult to crochet. And I agree with the others, do let us see it when it’s finished.
Here’s to more sales in the future.
Ann
Well spotted! There is an antelope case on the low shelves, the pot next to it is an oil burner.
T&L were funny, I expected them to spend the first few minutes exploring their new home, but oh no, they saw lots of little bugs to eat, so that is what they did! One of them even ate a slug yesterday (my old girls eat snails but refuse to touch slugs), so she has gone to the top of the class!
The shells don’t make it difficult to crochet but it is a bit fiddly trying to manipulate them so they all sit on what will be the outside of the shawl.
I’m looking forward to hearing about your IFA piece. How exciting. Your chicken escapades are funny. We have chickens next door. This morning one decided to rush my dog while we were walking on the road. Luckily, Edgar behaved and the chicken finally gave up. Hope your sales improve soon, my gallery sales have been down this year too.