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Bringing a Little Whimsy to the Neighborhood
A reflection on magical markets, mushroom hunts, tiny frog keychains, creative community, and the realization that Hex & Hook has quietly become something truly special.
Jamie Markell
6/14/20263 min read
The past two weeks have been an absolute blur of yarn, markets, mushrooms, coffee, plushie tags, and trying to remember whether I actually ate lunch or just drank iced coffee and stared at frogs for six hours.
We somehow jumped from getting ready for DOCO, to creating inventory for Constellation's 5th birthday celebration, and then immediately into the Game of Shrooms yesterday. And somewhere in the middle of all of that I turned 56, which is wild because I'm still running around playing with fairy wands.
DOCO ended up being a really lovely day for us. I have to say that I had concerns going into DOCO. We just had two back to back mini markets where we sold 31 plushies total. I can't speak for all crocheters, but I just don't crochet fast enough to replace all of that inventory in a week or two. (Maybe it's all the time I spend gazing into the plushies eyes, telling them how cute they are and giving them little hugs!) So I decided to bring some items left over from Easter and Halloween to fill out our tables. The amazing thing was that in addition to the new items selling, so did some of our older seasonal pieces- which just shows that every plushie has a forever home! We finished the day with a magical moment between a little boy and a frog keychain. I won't go into all the details, but I will say that the joy on his face has Carissa and I ready to spend all our time crocheting mini items to giveaway to sad children!
Then it was time to work on inventory for Constellation's 5th birthday celebration. Being part of Constellation Marketplace was one of the intentions that I set during Yule. It is a lovely store, with a lovely owner, and it is really an honor to be part of this creative community space. So we got to work last week creating the most whimsical little collection of magic wands, dragons, treasure holding little frog coin purses, and gorgeous sparkly shooting star keychains that are exclusive to Constellation. I ran into Constellation at the last minute before closing on Friday to restock our shelf. I managed to take some wonderful photos of Spencer's hand as we ran around the store, him trying to help me take the best possible photos of our new keychain. Turns out that I really struggle as a keychain photographer, but I am top tier when it comes to unintentional hand photography!
Then finally, we wrapped up the week yesterday with the Game of Shrooms. If you are unfamiliar with this, it is a mushroom themed worldwide handmade art scavenger hunt. This was our first time participating. I enjoyed making our mystical mushrooms, finding hiding spots for them, and coming up with and posting clues. We got 18 local followers on Instagram in 24 hours which made us very happy. But what we were unprepared for was the joy we would feel from the messages coming in from the mushroom hunters. Photos of happy people holding our mushrooms saying "FOUND!", "I love it!" or "It's beautiful!", and even connecting with people looking for mushrooms that were already taken. Each time I exclaimed "I'm so sorry that you wasted the trip", and then them replying "It's ok, I had fun. I live in the area". I have to tell you, every time this was said it gave me all the feels, because I live in the area. So to know that I was able to help bring some whimsy to my neighboorhood, to people that I may be standing in line with at Trader Joe's, was just magical to me.
So, this past 7 days have really given me the opportunity to reflect on what Hex & Hook has become. The community we are building, the memories that we are making. When we first started Hex & Hook I was so excited about the numbers- 600 followers in the first week, how many pattern tests we were chosen for, 10,000 views on a post. But over the past two years we have grown in so many other ways. I mean, yeah- we are so grateful for all of the follows, the views, and people that admire our work. But what really makes us sparkle is the friends we have made, watching a child kiss a frog keychain because they love it so much, taking silly photos of hands because I'm still figuring out how to take a decent photo, and seeing our joy reflected back in the faces of our community.
This is what makes Hex & Hook magic...