The weather was beautiful and the traffic wasn't too bad as I drove down the 405 to Long Beach on Friday morning. I had just dropped the child off at school and needed to get to Alamitos Bay Yarn Co. in time to set up my part of the trunk show before 10 AM. Merilyn gave me an area outside the yarn store annex to set up my display. The exposure was terrific but the problem was that once someone walked by my display and into the annex they were overcome by all that Koigu and my patterns were, shall we say, set aside. There were a few who committed to the patterns before seeing the yarn and walked in, pattern in hand, but I felt we could do much better. Merilyn agreed and on Saturday, the inside was rearranged to acommodate my little collection of patterns and samples. I felt like I had finally been invited to the party.
It was good and bad. Good because I could interact with the customers more fully, help them select their yarn if they wanted me to, and refer back to different patterns as they revealed their preferences and desires.
It was bad because I spent hours and hours in the presence of all that Koigu.
Now let me say that Alamitos Bay Yarn Co. is perhaps one of the tastiest and temptingest yarn stores I've ever encountered. The colors and textures are arranged in mouth-watering cascades that actually took my breath away and quickly overwhelmed my senses. When encountered with so many different choices, and no particular need or desire, I quickly go into overload and was able to walk away with only a set of #2 dpn's (I needed them)
But in a whole different manner, the longer I spent in the presence of Koigu, the more I fell in love. Everytime I helped a customer make a selection, I wanted what she was having. I actually became frantic with worry when someone was buying the last of something I had already lost my heart to. I embarrassed myself with my enthusiasm.
Finally, about an hour before the show was to end, I broke down and began to lay skeins out on a sofa, organizing and rearranging and adding and soliciting the opinions of Debbie and Sharon, who smiled at me in amusement. The thing about Koigu is it is like painting with yarn. And look at the title of this blog! If there were only one yarn company left in the world, I would be okay as long as it was Koigu.
Merilyn says she loves and appreciates the yarn, too, but she doesn't get attached to it. That is why she is such an incredible success.
This is what I came home with.
Don't worry, I did leave some for you. Foxyknits.
