Be a brave knitter

As you know from an earlier post, I was terrified to exhibit at Vogue Knitting Live (VKL), but we did it anyway, and it was amazing.  Unlike H+H and other wholesale trade shows we’ve attended, Vogue Knitting Live’s audience is the end consumer.  There were classes with famous designers like Georgia Farrell, Joji Locatelli, Shirley Paden, and others.  The show floor featured yarn stores like ours, as well as hand dyers, yarn distributors, and other sellers.  It’s a cross between a yarn crawl and a fiber festival, all in one convenient NY convention center.  

This was the first VKL since Covid, and veterans of the show said there were 60% of the busy, soI can’t imagine how it would have been with three times the people.  

Preparing, packing, and setting up the booth was a lot, especially since this was our first time.  I made plenty of expensive mistakes at every stage, and all manner of things went wrong, but we managed, and by the time the show floor opened, Friday at 5, most of the bugs had been worked out.  Let me put in a plug here for everyone at Rowan, my awesome rep, Michael, and especially the Crazy for Ewe team, who were absolutely wonderful throughout.  

The questions everyone seems to be asking, though, are: 1) Was it worth it? And 2) Would you do it again? 

Yes, it was worth it.

• It was worth it as a learning experience.  I was pleased to have more than covered my expenses, but even if we hadn’t, the opportunity to learn the ropes and get familiar with the process was invaluable.  
• It was with it to meet wonderful new people.  While I understand the attendance was down, I was still thrilled to meet hundreds of fiber enthusiasts I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to meet. 
• It was worth it to be with the team–we’re so rarely all in one place together, so while it was a ton of work, we had fun together.
• It was worth it for the feeling I had afterwards.  Even though things were stressful, and I made plenty of mistakes, having done the scary thing gave me a feeling that’s kind of hard to describe. Not invincible, but confident. Like I could handle things. 

I didn’t grow up in a family that encouraged risk-taking.  As my mother’s only child, I was protected and always encouraged to play it safe.  That mindset limits our confidence.  When we don’t try, we never have the chase to face our fears and master them.  So, for me, to do something that’s big and scary and to live to tell the tale, is huge.  

It’s like that with our knitting. There are patterns and techniques and stitch work that are above our skill level and outside of our comfort zone. We need to do them anyway.  We know we are going to be afraid, and we know we’re going to make mistakes that are costly in terms of dollars or in terms of time. But it is all worth it for the learning experience and for the feeling we have when we face our fears.  Our first project or sweater will not be our very best, but that’s okay. Now we know that we can do it. And we know that next time we’ll do even better. We have confidence. And that confidence begins to color the way we look at all things and how we feel about ourselves.  

Would I do it again?

Absolutely.  I would do it differently, and I’m sure I would do it better.  But this messy first time was essential to our better next time, and the even better time after that.

It’s hard, but we have to release the idea of perfection and give ourselves permission to make that messy, mistake-filled first attempt that shows us where we need to improve and gives us the confidence to try again.