Autumn

The highlight of the autumn so far has been my first time as an exhibitor at Yarndale. The weather was perfect and although the journey up took longer than I had expected I found the venue without any trouble and got checked in quickly and ready to set up. Unfortunately the cable ties I had bought to secure my gridwall panels to the pen bars were too short, but I improvised with the trusty bits of useful rope that we keep in the boot of the car and got everything lashed in place. After an early start the next morning, I was all ready to trade when the show opened. Here's the stand.

I was pleased to find that the space was a bit bigger than I had envisaged - usually it's the other way round - bur the floor looked a bit bare, so next year I'll take a rug to make it a bit more homely and welcoming. That being said, after the first hour or so I was busy all day and was stunned at the end of the day to find that I'd taken more than I'd expect for an average entire show!

I was delighted to meet up with Valerie Bracegirdle,  agrarian artisanwho has used my yarn in several of her designs and lent me her sample of a simple crochet scarf to promote my yarn and the accompanying pattern. Needless to say the packs of 20g mini skeins sold out almost immediately and the scarf attracted a lot of interest all over the weekend. As a result I'm going to add more packs and "loose" 20g skeins to my inventory, so look out for these in the shop!

  
Sunday was quieter, but still pretty busy, and overall I had a great show. I treated myself to some John Arbon "Knit by Numbers" to make a mitred squares "gradient" blanket,

but apart from that I didn't really get the opportunity to look round much at all.  I did see some of the ladies I know from Knitting and Crochet Guild, who were manning the Guild stand and providing a very popular skein winding service, plus several people I've "met" online stopped by to introduce themselves which I appreciated. It was nice to relax in front of "Downton Abbey" when I got back to my hotel after packing up and I'd love to do it all again next year.

Now I'm focusing on my next show, which is November's Festiwool in Hitchin. A new delivery of yarn is coming this week and I've made a list of colours to start dyeing. Plus I'm at St Alban's Farmers market next weekend.      

Autumn News

Well, autumn is in full swing now and I'm getting busy. Harpenden was very good last week - plenty of customers and nice weather! I've got a "free" weekend this week and then back to St Albans on the 12th.

I'm making poppies this year, after a suggestion by one of my customers, which are being sold in aid of the British Legion - picture below:

I didn't get into Unravel, which was very disappointing, but I understand competition is fierce. I do hope that I might get a place if there is a cancellation, as it's commutable and I would be able to go at short notice. I was asked to take up a cancellation place for Yarndale, but I just couldn't do it. I wouldn't have had enough stock, plus getting somewhere to stay for the weekend would have been very difficult, I'll still apply there next year though. In any case, I've got Festiwool in a few weeks and then the Waltham Abbey wool show in January, so there's plenty to keep me occupied. I've just applied for Wonderwool Wales 2015 too and am keeping my fingers crossed for that.

I've added an "Events" page to my website, so I can keep a diary running covering the next couple of months' fairs and markets, so it will be easier for people to know where I'm going to be. I've already had a couple of enquiries via the "contact us" form - it's nice to know people are looking!    

Into Autumn

Wow, I've just noticed that I haven't posted here since May. I have been using my Facebook page to give small updates as I dye more yarn or do something interesting and have been keeping this for a longer posts, but always end up thinking that I'll sit at the computer and do it soon, but not right now - hence the long gap!

Anyway, here goes:
The yarn club went well this year. I announced the colour themes in advance, so people could pick which months they wanted to go for, avoiding anything they didn't like. I like the opportunity to experiment a bit and came up with some colours that will be keepers and going into my general rotation, plus a couple, which didn't fit the colour themes I was aiming for, but did happen to be just what I've been trying to dye for general yarn.

Shows: I've signed up for a new show, Festiwool, in November which, like the Waltham Abbey Wool Show, is fairly local to me. This one is in Hitchin, Herts - about 45 minutes' drive from home and timed in early November, so customers will still have time to make their gifts! I wasn't planning to do any more shows this year, but this looked to good to miss. For 2015, I've applied to Unravel in Farnham, my first attempt. The deadline for applications has passed now and I'm in tenterhooks waiting to see if I've been successful.

Markets: After a couple of months' break, I went back to St Alban's Farmers' Market on Sunday. It was fairly busy and several regular customers came up to say Hi and buy stuff! I'm at Harpenden in a couple of weeks time. I've got a new alpaca scarf in the ready-made ranges and am hoping it will be popular. The sample I took with me was stroked a fair bit, so that bodes well. I've applied for a couple of extra craft fairs local(ish) to me too, so I'll be adding them to the "Events" page of my website when I get confirmations. 

and finally, I've moved and updated my website to a 1and1 my website - I found it pretty easy to do and I like that I can update it myself, the old one relied on a webmaster to do everything and it just wasn't satisfactory.

This post is quite long enough now, so that's it for today - I'll write again in the next few weeks,