How to Attract Men

We were having an interesting discussion on men and what attracts them at the LYS yesterday. I was telling them how I always had a large crowd of men around me on Saturday mornings at the market. Now, I want to let you know I am not some young slender beautiful woman. This happened when I was 57 years old, overweight, with glasses and long hair pulled back in a limp ponytail.

So how did I do it? This happened every Saturday morning for about a year. I had a booth at our local Arts & Crafts Market for about 8 years. For this first 7 years I demonstrated beadweaving and sold my handcrafted jewelry and never had a crowd of people. I did pretty well with the chandelier earrings and the OOAK peyote stitch bracelets of my own design. In my 8th year at the market I made a huge change in my product line and quit selling jewelry. This was the year of the crowds.

What happened? I've always been interested in various needle fiber arts. Well to make a long story short our local Joann Fabrics closed their doors and I needed a new source for my yarn. At least this was the excuse I used to try something totally new (for me) and fascinating. I decided to learn how to spin my own yarns. Like most of the spinners I have met in Florida, this is a self teaching proposition. I got on the internet and found a drop spindle and some roving from Walmart On Line and spent time watching a lot of UTube videos. From there it quickly became obvious that I needed a real spinning wheel. More research on the internet led me to purchasing my first spinning wheel, a Kromski Prelude. From there it was a short trip to a new obsession and an interesting new business. This first year of spinning I still sold jewelry at the market until I felt my yarns were good enough to market. During this time I discovered Ravelry and lots of online sources for fibers and information.

Year 8 at the market I changed my business name and started demonstrating spinning and selling my handspun yarns. There is something about a spinning wheel actually being used that acts as a magnet for men (an women) of all ages. The guys would stand around me and talk while the wives and girlfriends explored the other vendor booths. I thinks its the engineering aspect that fascinates them. A simple machine with a wheel that goes round and round.

So how do you attract men in three easy steps:
1. Buy a spinning wheel.
2. Learn to use your spinning wheel.
3. Spin in public.

By the way we also discussed how men can attract women: Get a frou-frou dog and take it for walks in an area with lots of women.

Fiber Excitement from Wild Hare Fiber Studio

I just have to share the goodies I just received from Wild Hare Fiber Studio. I am so excited about these fibers. When the envelope arrived (the first one to come from our Angelina buying group) I immediately tore it open and saw this beautiful specialty batt, Flame. the colors are so vibrant and the fibers are some of the softest I've ever had in an art batt. I'm going to have to find something very special to make with this one.

She also included a fabulous Polwarth Top Roving in "Lavender Breeze". This one has already found a spot in my spinning queue. It is so soft with a very high loft and will make lovely shawl on my tri-loom.

You will definitely want to check out her etsy shop. She has lots of beautiful hand dyed fibers and handpainted yarns, some handspun yarns and even Spinolution spinning wheels as well as her handpainted drop spindles.

Love That Sparkle!

(Singing) "Angelina, angelina, angelina". Even after sorting, weighing and packing 150 pounds of Angelina, I still love it. It just adds the WOW factor to my hand spun yarns. I also took some new photos of small bits of it for my etsy shop. They are the best photos I've ever managed to get of Angelina. I am especially proud of the photo of the Silver Sparkle Hologram. It actually managed to catch all the fiery colors sparkling under my Ott lamp. It is so beautiful and brings my yarns alive when they hit the sunlight. They should have used it to make the vampires sparkle in the sunlight for the Twilight movies.