Week 31 - Fair and Sale

The week started out with blazing heat and humidity but a storm came through on Wednesday with 1" of rain and a temperature drop. Not that I got to enjoy the cooler temps because it was all about the county fair and prepping for another yarn sale on Saturday.

I spent Monday morning prepping my entries for the county fair. I had lots of socks, of course, but also my temperature blanket and my huge crocheted granny's daughter afghan. I had room for one more entry on my sheet so decided to make a peach crumb pie since they only need 1/4 of the pie so I took the rest to knitting, where it was a big hit. Heidi was fresh from her trip to Alaska via Canada so brought the President's Choice mac & cheese boxes that I'd requested and had OMG's to share, which are my fave Canadian candy. Yum! Then Andrea offered to take my fair entries so I didn't have to leave early. It was a good day.

Tuesday was another scorcher but I was busy inside. I finished sorting the yarn I'd already pulled and moved it to the front room, all ready for the sale. But I wasn't done so pulled sock yarn from my Ikea to sell. Yes, selling indie dyed sock yarn since I have more than I can ever knit. There was more pulling, pricing and packing on Wednesday, which was a rainy day. 1 inch! It was done raining by the end of the day when it was time to check my ribbons. At long last, I won best in county! My temperature blanket won! I was pretty happy to have finally won after 2 years of getting runner up best in county. My thrown together peach pie also won best of division, which means best baked good in the county. That was a surprise.

Thursday was a full day. I had a scheduled phone call about the Emeriti/Retirees Association membership data then met Lorri at Chip's for the BOGO burger special, after which I hit the bakery and The Warehouse. I always go to the bakery so close to closing that there's very little left but I got a handpie and had it with tea before heading to Lincoln. Anne wasn't swimming but had given me some cone yarn she didn't want so I added some of mine and dropped it at Stuff before going to the pool. Of course I found more sock yarn there. Good thing I'd been culling my stash for the sale, right?

I loaded the car in the cooler weather on Friday, worried that all the totes wouldn't fit. Well, not only did they fit but I had more room. Of course I pulled more yarn and still could have fit more but I was done. I got pizza for supper and made blueberry/chicken salad to take for lunch at the sale. I went to bed confident that I was ready for the sale.

Andrea was going with me again so I picked her up at 7:00 and we headed to The Bagel Bin to get breakfast and were unloaded and set up with time to spare. Based on the many requests I had for acrylic when I did this sale in February, I had brought pretty much all the acrylic in my house, which is bigger and sells for cheaper, so I wasn't expecting to make as much money (I made $900 before). Well, I broke $700 in profit so was pretty darn pleased with that. I dropped a bagel at my friend Lorri's before getting home and collapsing. It was well worth the effort because as I always say, gone is good and the kind of gone where you make money is even better.

After chatting with my friend Dee Sunday morning, I ran to the fair to pick up my entries and then went to scoop poop at the shelter. Then it was time to unload the car and decide what to do with all the yarn that didn't sell. I had to figure out what sold and mark it as such in my Ravelry stash but I also went through everything that didn't sell and marked lots of it as gone and put it in the donate bag for Stuff. I figured that if it didn't sell at two sales (mostly single skeins of very nice yarn), it was time for it to go. I talked to my sister on the way to Lincoln and swam for the last time this summer.

So, what a great week! I finally got my best in county rosette and the sale was a big success. The fact that the ridiculous heat had broken was icing on the cake. Now to deal with the yarn that didn't sell or get donated and get ready for my next adventure - my annual Rhode Island beach week. Life is good!