Beginning in 2010, we started attending craft shows as exhibitors and had our eyes opened to what we could do to improve them. The first show was just draped blankets on the backdrop, and I realized that the better exhibits had a proper theme and things people wanted to take pictures of. This was the first exhibit we ever did. Pretty pedestrian, eh!
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We started small theming in 2011, and by the time our last show in 2015 came, we had pulled out of the show circuit to focus more online. But we did create some fun stuff.
Crochet Carnival
We created a theme based on fairgrounds and travelling carnivals. We made the crochet carousel, and we felt we needed a Ferris wheel. Mikey made the carousel structure while Daniel made the Ferris wheel of our water pipes, dowels and wood.
With the exception to the characters riding the Ferris wheel, everything was crocheted by Mikey. See how the Ferris Wheel was made here.
The movers that moved our item to the show ended up dropping both of the exhibits and permently damaged the structures, except for the characters, which were tossed in the garbage. It was devastating. See close-up shots of the Crochet Carousel here.
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Crochet Alice in Wonderland Top Hats
The theme was to decorate a top hat with the base structure in the theme of Alice in Wonderland. Over 300 hats arrived for the exhibit.
Inspired by the Halloween Top Hats, we wondered what an Alice in Wonderland theme would look like if we did an entire exhibit with the community's help. People from around the world mailed in hats for the exhibit.
The hats were sold as a donation to support buying scholarships for Fashion Design Students, which $3,000 was raised. These are the presentation photos for the Scholarships.
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Going to The Shows with Crochet Madasgar
With our friend, Colleen, we would load a full size uhaul to the limits. From months of making stuff to final show floor. This theme was based on the animation movie. To this day, in 2024, we still have some creatures left over here in Nova Scotia that are really amazing.
It was just the three of us moving all of the contents to the show floor from the shipping docks in the back. We came in two days before the show to start set up. Everything in the above photograph was just the yarn that was for sale. All of us were sold by the end of the show. So we only had half of what you see which was our equipment and display materials that returned home.
See all of the set up photos for this exhibit here.
Once the show as set up, we had a colourful arrangement of cool stuff to see. This was our version of Crochet Madagasgar. Speaking personally, this was one of the coolest exhibits we did. You can see the final show photos here.
Crocheters from around the world made creatures for this theme and mailed them in. People at the show made donations and we were able to support Humane Society for Pets with the money collected.
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Crochet Spring and Hot Air Balloon
Daniel wants a fun spring theme and this show would be one of the first shows we got serious about selling yarn pretty cheaply. The goal was to sell as much yarn as possible that was just above wholesale so people could try it. Our feature was Red Heart With Love when it first came out.
The Crochet Bike was made for this exhibit. You can see how I made this from scratch here. The bike was donated and given to me instead of going to the recyclers. It was damaged and no longer useable.
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Crochet Aquarium Exhibit
With the new opening of Ripley's Aquarium of Canada that opened the month before our exhibit. We wanted to pay tribute through Crochet with a large crochet aquarium exhibit. We tried to get someone from Ripley's to come and see our exhibit but they didn't have time in the three days we were there. Ripley's was right next door.
What Daniel didn't bank on was 2 days of solid set up for the finished aquarium at the show. Most creatures were fishing lined into position, sometimes having two lines each to prevent them from spinning. He would step back and check over and over for even distribution.
Every creature we received was used.
In this exhibit, it was all things sea creature based. Again, donations were mailed it from several people around the world for this exhibit. From the coral to the creatures of the sea. We took pictures of the creatures as they arrived from different people. You can see most of the submissions here.
One crocheter made
All items from this exhibit were donated to children's charities for giveaways. This exhibit was suggested to go to the Children's Hospital as an art installation but it never took off and all items went to charities instead.
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We Went Back to The 70s
Colleen, our assistant, has an obsession on the 70s. So, this exhibit was just for her. Daniel constructed a large van out of styrofoam. Items were made and added to the exhibit. Crocheters were encouraged to send us flower power flowers, and they did.
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The Crochet Nutcrackers and Igloo
By far, the biggest exhibit for time and promotional attention was the Crochet Nutcracker and Igloo exhibit. It took a village of people to do this with thousands of snowflakes donated from around the world.
Most notably, Kevin and Karen Price were directly involved in helping Daniel and I create the nutcrackers.
We used primarily Caron Party yarn to make the nutcrackers.
Daniel drew out what he wanted on a scrap piece of paper and it would be our model to strive for.
You can see the entire Nutcracker Process to make the in photographs here.
Daniel drew his paper idea with marker onto the form and I free-formed to match the vision. Notice below that the pant idea never made it to the finished sample.
Daniel made an igloo from water pipes for the exhibit. Crocheters submitted snowflakes for this exhibit. You can see how he made it here.
We had 4 days of weather without rain. We spent 3 of them just stapling the snowflakes to each other to make the cover. We refined it at the show floor.
The set up of the show was a really big deal. Another two days.
People were so excited to see this exhibit. It would set such a high standard in presentations that we could never out do this exhibit in the future.
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The Last Exhibit with Pinky Boots the Flamingo
By 2016, we were ready to retire from the show circuit but promised to do one more show. Strictly exhibiting and teaching crochet. Based on the idea of Kinky Boots, Pinky Boots was constructed using a Home Depot Christmas frame.
The boots were ridiculously fun to do! All free-form, of course. She was top heavy and tipped too easily to be on public display. I had to fill her feet with rocks to give more weight to her standing for balance.
People were disappointed that we only had Pinky Boots, but the truth was, the foot traffic collapsed to the point of no return. The show moved it's location and it was almost 2 hours after the show opened that we finally saw someone pass by our booth.
It was the end.
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World's Largest Knit and Crochet Stocking Exhibit
Upon joining Yarnspirations, we participated with the World's Largest Knit and Crochet Stocking. 830 crocheters and knitters donated squares for this stocking. It took nearly 6,000 balls of yarn to make this.
The stocking was a real stocking but never turned over. There were 1,260 blankets in total used. It took 288 balls of blanket yarn to join all of the squares together.
One of the biggest disappointments in this project is that due to the distance we were from the airbase, we were not able to get a drone in the air to take a photograph of what it looked like as it was a huge field.
People could identify their own squares but because the stocking wasn't turned over for photography purposes, some people never saw their squares in the blanket. I was also disappointed about that as well. It took 6 men (people) to roll out the blanket taking 4 hours. To be able to turn it over in the day we had at the field, wasn't possible due to the sunlight and time frame.
We are lucky it didn't rain, seriously.
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Nothing In Life Stays the Same
We moved on to Crochet Cruises from 2014 to 2022 before finishing it up. In 2023, we are focused on nearly all cyber online activity as that's where the world is heading.
Have you completed this project. Show me!