Guest Post - Mr Banshee

Mr Banshee Shares His Thoughts…
The Sydney Stitches and Craft Show was an interesting few days, which has led to me writing my thoughts. It was the first time Kate had run a stall at a big show like this, so a bit of a learning experience for both of us. Lots of lovely people that we met, several of whom amazed, surprised and/or impressed me. The reason I’m writing this is that the Selvedge Sisters –Jodie and Annie (absolutely classic ladies) tag teamed and bullied me into agreeing to write a male perspective of the whole show. So let me start by unloading on them…
The one session that I attended intentionally and really enjoyed was Jodie’s Sunday session on blogging and how she started the blogging process. Some good laughs and she outlined her challenges, blog etiquette and a few cracker stories. Oh and she makes some pretty impressive stuff too – check out the selvedge umbrella, chair and a very funky dress. Throughout the session I think she had to contribute to the swear jar around $5 – one dollar for swearing and $4 for calling me craft-tarded. Later on we chatted while she was waiting for Annie (who was spending the national GDP of a small African country on various fabric). Like all hobbies and occupations there is a meta-language that exists in the craft world. I suggested to Jodie (and the rest of the craft blogging world) that maybe the other end of the continuum to craft-tarded should be craft-tastic.
I was lucky enough through my periods of Sluggo-sitting to chat to several stall holders – Louise + Cathy from Audrey and Maude, Belinda from Tutti Frutti, Fi from Dear Fii, Helen and Nic from The Stencil Gallery, Justine from Mixtape and Lisa from The Red Thread and many others. Everyone had amazing designs (even from an art and craft philistine like myself) and there were so many different yet quality products. Quite a few of the Incubatorettes were obviously multi-tasking champions (Sorry – I’m a bloke who still is amazed by this) who were either knitting, stitching, cutting, making, creating a little something whilst running the stall and chatting to either customers or neighbouring stall holders. I needed to have a Bex and good lie down just watching them operate. One of the above mentioned ladies (with 5 kids of her own) gets absolutely no gold stars for her suggestion, after seeing Sluggo, that Kate and I need to work on adding some more cute kids to our brood (and yes I’ll contribute to the swear jar!).
Good move having the kids Crayola section – a gold star from me to the organisers. However, they could have got 27 more stars by maybe considering a small bloke’s section – with some chairs & tables, sport tvs or radio, magazines, papers, bar facilities, all just slightly removed from the hustle and bustle of the show. Remember that happy hubby = more chance of you staying at the show = spending lots in the Incubator section.
Ms Banshee obviously needed a break here and there so I took over running the stall while she ate, shopped and chatted to others. I’ve never worked in a retail job before so it was a little weird seeing people look at me funny as I stood in front of the quilts, toys, bags, patterns and yarn with a half completed sock knitted on the table. “Surely he couldn’t have made all that?” Correct. Still - Millions of gold stars to the lady who stood there and said to her partner “Wow – look at the great work this guy’s doing on that sock”. Made my day! It was actually quite cool being able to see the variety of people come through and chat, and even better when those who found out I knew little about the craft stuff still continued to chat and even more so those who actually bought something from me at the stall.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to say hi and maybe I’ll see you in Melbourne next year!