My partner/helper, Jeannie, and I had a blast. As is usually the case, at events such as this, the hour and a half before game time was a continual throb of people. And, there was quite a variety of those. We saw women with 'lite-up' tipped knitting needles in their hair, a woman wearing a 'birthday cake' hat (I recalled seeing her last-or at least, the hat-last year and it wasn't until just last night that I realized that she was an employee representing the birthday of the 4th annual Stitch n Pitch). Later, we saw a man in a 'muscle body' outfit (blue); wearing a silver cape (I think it had an "M" on the back). I guess he represented the 'super heros' of MARINER'S. He stopped at our table and looked around. I do wish, now, that I had my camera or that we had ANY camera 'on the ready' as he picked up one of the washcloths that Jacquie, another guild member, had crocheted and very serenely placed it on his head and asked what we thought. After I informed him that people might mistake him for a TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE. He quickly returned it to the table and stated, "Well, that just won't do." And, he quickly moved along the line of tables: I suppose to see if he could find another fiber art to accent his uniform.
Jeannie and I quickly learned various "sales pitch" techniques to draw attention to our afghan; which was displayed on a metal park bench that just happened to be right behind us. People ooooh'd and aaaaaah'd at the beauty of it. We told how very long it took for each square to be made and that one of our members did each one and that no two squares were exactly alike. And, I must tell you that I didn't even feel shy when I asked if I could get them a ticket for it and sometimes even added PLEASE (hey, sometimes it worked!!!). I haven't yet counted all of the tickets for the raffle but at last count (and we sold more since) it was at 50 tickets.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. One one, who stopped by was not at all interested in purchasing a raffle ticket but she did give us a $1.00 donation.
Many visitors, to our table, admitted to being just crocheters, just knitters, or bi-crafters. For those who crocheted, we handed each a copy of the poem A CROCHETERS PRAYER (written by myself). Some stood right there and read the entire poem rather than waiting to read it later. I just explained that it was simply something to give them a little chuckle.
We answered questions on crochet (as well as demonstrating crochet-whenever we had the opportunity) and Jeannie spent some one-on-one time helping one young woman with an issue she was having. I was pleased to find many who said they were just learning to crochet. And, even though most lived in Seattle, some visitors were from California and as far away as Utah (who said that they heard about the Stitch n Pitch and had to come-this was the closest ball field that offered the SnP). Many were given business cards and I see that I'll need to print up some more before going to the next event.
This years freebie that was given out by the Mariner's marketers was a T-shirt. Part of the advertising was a baseball and they used it as a ball of yarn to stick two knitting needles through. I thought this was a cute idea. Then, I realized that the Stitch n Pitch is ALWAYS geared toward knitters. So, I HAD to speak up. I wrote a letter to my contact. I let her know how much I loved the freebies this year but there are many other 'stitch' crafters out there; like crocheteres. I suggested that they consider the idea of using these other crafts in their advertising and maybe rotate them around, taking turn, each year. My contact person did respond that she'd pass it by the marketeers.
Just letting my peeps know that I'm always looking out for us
crocheters. It does seem as though there are more knitters. But, if
all that's advertised is knitting...how can people learn that there
are other crafts out there. And, how many times have people seen you
with 'hook in hand' and asked, "What are you knitting?"
I'll have more later for next years event.
Beverly
