Wonderwool

I'm home now from my trip to Wonderwool Wales and time to catch up with my much neglected blog.

This was my fourth year as an exhibitor and I've learn a lot in that time, mainly about improving the presentation of my stand. It's always great to look round the other stands and see what other people are doing that could inspire me to try for myself. Over the years the show has got busier for me, so whatever I'm doing must be working. I do enjoy meeting the customers and I love chatting, as anyone who has been to my stand will know! This year I had conversations on subjects as diverse as the design process to the plot of the Walking Dead. Be warned though - if you start talking about Star Trek you may never get away!  

One area I'm trying to expand is the range of pattern support available, especially as my yarn is mainly worsted weight and there aren't a lot of commercial patterns for that weight in the UK. My bolero is still going well and I'm soon to add a waistcoat with side vents - I'm having some issues with the shoulder shaping, so it's taking a bit longer than I had hoped, but it shouldn't be too much longer now.    

On the crochet side, Valerie Bracegirdle (agrarianartisan on Ravelry) has used my yarn for some of her designs and she has let me have a scarf pattern to distribute. It has proved very poplar and I had it on display at Wonderwool. I used one of my packs of five x 20g skeins to make the sample and was very pleased - it's a quick and easy make, but the tassels just give it a little some thing extra. I sold out of the "blue to green" colorway I had used pretty quickly, but will be dyeing some more!

My next big show is Yarndale in September, which feels like a long way away, but isn't!

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.