I am being daring

Today I will be daring. On several fronts.

Back when I was in chemo a friend of mine told me to stop whining and get a hobby. I took up crocheting and then knitting.  Well back when I was in 4H and girl scouts I learned to crochet, knit, embroider, needlepoint and a few more girly-suitable-to-the-1960's (am I really that old?) skills. I hadn't thought of them in decades. When my sister in law was pregnant with my first nephew, I got inspired to crochet a baby blanket and took a stab at crocheting with her help and bought yarn and materials. Suffice to say he is 14 and the baby blanket now resides in a closet somewhere about 2" wide.

During chemo, I thought it might be time to finish the damn baby blanket. At that point my nephew was 9 and I knew he would no longer appreciate a baby blanket but he did have younger siblings. I promptly gave up on that blanket and started crocheting like mad. I started making scarves for family members. My addiction grew to encompass knitting - it was creative and non-fattening. The following year all my friends got scarves as well.

Since then, I have been making a stock pick to end all stock piles. I have a yarn stash that puts me clearly in as a member of SABLE (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy) even without cancer twice life expectancy. I have developed an addiction to yarn. I have a giant bag of yarn - you know those giant bags for storing comforters... Its almost full.

Now I have to go on the offense and get rid of my scarves so I can buy more yarn to fuel my addiction. I contemplated selling them in a local store on consignment but that didn't work out. I also thought about selling online at Etsy and that would have been a lot of work. Those would have been the easy way out. I wouldn't need to face down customers critiquing my products. I mean what if they don't like them? And say it to my face? "Gee her work is really not very good". Could I handle that? I'm not sure. I could also play the cancer card - I took up knitting and crocheting during chemo after my second cancer diagnosis so don't buy them for the quality but buy them out of pity.

So I was brave and daring on two counts and signed up for a local craft fair at a nearby school. My two counts of daring are: can I face my customers - I mean they could tell me my stuff sucks or is overpriced and not buy it. Ever. And can my body withstand a five hour craft fair? I will be  manning a booth by myself for the duration. I am equipped with a chair, a water bottle, a little bag of oranges (after a good healthy breakfast), some pain pills, and my cell phone to call my husband if I need to be bailed out.

I prefer to keep to the background but this will certainly put me out in public. So I will suck it up, put on my big girl panties, and face the music.

PS Please come to the Peirce School today by 2pm....