Yesterday,because of the train timetable,

I had a choice between being very early or very late. I decided on early. I will do early again today.
I was well rewarded for earliness yesterday. It meant I could take a little time out and look at some of the stunning quilts...and that meant I met the Virtual Quilter, a very nice person who reads my ramblings. We had a chat before I prowled back and decided we had way too many people on our stall.
There is a psychological barrier if there are too many people there. If there are five or six people sitting there knitting away and talking to each other then show goers will hesitate to come and look or ask questions - and that is what we are supposed to be there for. I decided to be more useful elsewhere and took myself and the camelhair beret I had almost finished off eleswhere. The yarn stall holder working on her own greeted me with relief and we worked happily together. I would not want to do it for a living but a couple of days of helping people with yarns and patterns has been interesting. I am learning a lot from this so, in one sense, it has been quite selfish!
I also met some more interesting people. "You're the one who writes to the papers" is much less fun than meeting a nine year old boy who knits his own socks! (He is also learning to cook and sew - and manages to play football and cricket and 'reads lots'.) There were also young Japanese twins, one knits and the other embroiders, who had us in fits of laughter. Mid-afternoon a woman who spoke only a few words of English arrived. She looked very nervous. I listened carefully and, taking a guess, tried my few words in what I hoped was the right language. Her face lit up and we muddled through a large sale. She hugged me as she left.
Knitting speaks all languages.