Manic dyeing, a day out and a poor market

Most of last week was spent dyeing 13kgs of knitting wool in readiness for the next few weeks Christmas markets. I got it all dyed, priced up and packed away into bags by Friday, so I was feeling suitable impressed with myself, especially as I had the Teeswater Sheep Breeder's newsletter to produce and get out by the weekend as well.
A Day Out - On Thursday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show with Carol, Judith and Sarah from the Tuesday night knit club. We left our house at 7.30 and arrived in Harrogate at around 9, managed to park at the Exhibition Centre before having a cup of coffee and a discussion on our "plan of attack" to ensure we saw everything at the show. We split into 2 groups, Carol and I wanted to look at all the wool and textiles before looking at the exhibits. We kept meeting up with Sarah and Judith every 2 hours to swap notes. We finally left the Knit and Stitch at 5.30, when it closed. We all had a great day, even if our feet ached terribly. It's a few years since I've been to the knit and stitch and I'd forgotten how big the show was and how inspiring the exhibits are. We all came away with our heads buzzing with ideas.
The Poor Market, on Sunday I was at a Christmas Market, along with my friend Jayne (the lady who does amazing cut glass work), as the initial contact was through Ravelry we were expecting a well organised, well publicised market. What we got was something entirely differently, 16 stalls in a sports hall, which had no sign outside to say there was a Christmas Market inside. Driving to the venue we saw no signs for the market and friends who knew I was going to the market and lived in the area could find nothing about the market either. Suffice to say, takings were poor. We did manage to cover the cost of our stalls, but I think we were the only ones who did and some stallholders left just after lunch. The lady I felt most sorry for was the cake stall. Her cakes looked lovely, very seasonal and a lot of work had gone into making them. She took most of them home!
I know from arranging the North Eastern Textile Event, just how important advertising/publicity can be and it is not something that can be done lightly or half hearted, needless to say next time either Jayne or I get a contact via Ravelry asking if we are interested in attending a market they are arranging, we will be extremely cautious.