I'm not a hipster...

On Thursday we packed up the whole family into Gunther, our 240 Volvo wagon, and drove to Austin for the Renegade Craft Fair. This was my first great big craft show and I was beyond excited when I found out that I was in, but I tried to keep expectations low. Yarn isn't a big seller in Colorado in the summer, so I imagined sub-tropical Texans might be even less inclined to fiber craft in the heat. I know the fair and the town are a creative Mecca/Jerusalem/Mt. Fuji I wasn't betting the farm on selling out of skeins. At this point in my yarny schemes I figure my goals are more about building an audience than sell out anyhow. But I certainly wasn't planning to fall for Austin's hipster-laden charms. One hears the Portland comparisons and sees the 'keep Austin weird' bumper stickers, but I'm too smart and cynical for that...
So of course I did anyway. Fall in love with Austin, that is. (Though I did sell way more yarn than I thought I would.) All of us, including Toby, seem to have decided that Austin is where it's at. Between meeting Mishell via the magic of AirBnB and getting to stay in her fantastic vintage Spartenette trailer to getting teamed up with the best boothmates (Catfoodfever!) ever at the show, exploring the town, clownspotting and train riding downtown(Gerry and the kids) and getting to talk with so many crafty people at Renegade, not to mention people watch and get constant Thriftstore Apocalypse flashbacks(me); I think if we had the cats with us we might have been tempted to just stay down there. As it is we are already making plans for the next time. I've added more than a few things I was eyeballing at the fair to my Christmas list, but that's for another post. So, see you soon Austin.