Thursday, July 28, 2011

Bella Yarn's Yarn Tasting and Silent Auction event! (photo heavy)

 Yesterday was our first ever Yarn Tasting and Sample Silent Auction event!  It was a ton of work, and a huge success thanks to all of the generous sponsors (Dill buttons, Berroco, Mountain Colors, Brown Sheep, just to name a few) and the fantastic people from Cascade Yarns.
 
 We had our favorite reps in from Cascade, Warren and Marina, and we had balls of Cascade Yarns all over the store!  I didn't actually get to pick any up and knit because I was busy helping customers, but I got to mingle with everyone and help them find what they were looking for.

 I also got to show off my latest design for Cascade in Heritage Silk...the lace mitten!  It was really well received so I'm feeling encouraged to hurry and finish it so the pattern will be available.

 I got to hand out some of my new cards to people I knew (and a few I just met, lol) so that they can check in and get word of new pattern releases. 


 I also got to show off the Quilt and Cable blanket, and help ladies pick out the perfect color combination for Naomi's Inside Out Blanket (also a free Cascade download).  You should have seen the back room after we were done for the night!



We had over 80 people come in and knit with us, and we sold over half of the samples so we have a nice donation for the new Warren animal shelter.
 There were three cheese trays with dried fruit and bread from the Cheese Plate in Warren.  I didn't know they were even there, which was probably for the best because I'm allergic to milk...and I love cheese...and they had a huge assortment.  I stayed away as much as possible, but I had to try the caramel cheese!  I brought home a good amount for the boys as a peace offering for being out for 13 hours :)



 I got to meet a local actress from the Trenity Rep.  I got her name but after 11 straight hours at work, I'm lucky to remember my own.  It'll have to be enough to say that she was a really lovely lady and I had a great time chatting with her.  I love how knitting brings all sorts of people from different professional backgrounds together!


 I also got to see my buddies from the knit-a-holics group last night.  It was really good to see Tracy and Lisa, and I'm sure there were others who stopped in but I was running back and forth so much that I missed some people coming and going.
 We also had all five members of the Bella staff in one place at one time!  That has never happened before, and to mark the occasion, we asked Amy to snap a photo of us at the end of the night.


 Ann did a beautiful job of getting all the current samples down, the samples for auction out on display, and tagged for auction.  She has a real talent for making things look pretty!


 I spent my day sweeping,  making room in the storage room, restocking the Cascade 128 superwash, and stuffing yarn descriptions into the doggie-bags.



 We had samples donated by some of our yarn distributors, and one of our reps, Andra Asars donated samples that she knit herself!



 This purple sweater is one of Andra's pieces!





 These baby samples went like hot cakes!





 The pink scarf was donated by one of our talented customers.  It's Rayon Metalic yarn with Sugar Rush as the warp (I believe...don't quote me), and it was one of her first projects!  Unbelievable.  And it didn't last long :)





bid sheets
 These were the cute plates that the yarn was displayed on, with the type of yarn listed on the plate.  I ended up tossing my mitten into the pile as a sample of the Heritage Silk yarn (it's the orange ball).















shop mascot :)
There was one lonely door prize that somehow didn't go home with a customer...so I got to bring it home!  Yay!  It's five skeins of Brown Sheep's Lambs Pride in a pretty blue-lilac variegated colorway.  I'm thinking about a simple pullover.












This is how we looked at the end of the day, lol.  I didn't get out of there until quarter to 10 last night.  It was a crazy long day, but it was fun and I can't wait to do it again :)

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