A busy winter

Following on from my last post, it certainly has been onwards and upwards!

January got off to a great start with a very busy St Albans farmers market followed a couple of weeks later by a successful Waltham Abbey Wool show. It's the most local show to me (about 20 minutes' drive!) and it was good to meet several people I knew from Guild and from my general social life as well as customers old and new!

February has been busy too - I was offered a cancellation spot at the Unravel festival in Farnham and was absolutely delighted to be able to go. I had been turned down in my original application back in September, but must have been on the reserve list. It was my first time there and was my best show ever in terms of sales. The venue, organisation and general ambiance get a big thumbs up from me too - the tea trolley going round the stalls and the house cat deserve particular mentions! I did take a picture of my stand, but it is so out of focus that I can't put it up here - you'll just have to take my word for it that it looked good.

I've got about eight weeks dyeing time to get ready for Wonderwool Wales now and then I Knit Fandango is a couple of weeks after that, so no pressure then!

I've got a couple of new colours for spring - Lavender Garden and Seascape (pictured below) - which are going to be featured in Inside Crochet magazine's next issue (no 63) Inside Crochet, but the surprise hit of the season has been Petrol Green, which has sold fantastically well. Bottle green was my school uniform colour, so I've always felt a bit ambivalent towards it! I'm sold out at the moment,  but will put up a picture when I've got a new lot ready. Now to go and get some more yarn ready to dye!

  

Cushions and distractions

I can't believe that its been nearly a month since I last posted here.







May was very busy - after the wet and windy morning at Royston last month my markets at St. Alban's and Wheathampstead were pretty busy with the best market of this year (so far) for Wheathampstead.







We've been a bit distracted recently as our lovely cat Katie (pictured)has gone missing - she's been gone for eleven days now and we're so worried about her. She did this three years ago and we found her after three weeks, straying in some gardens not too far away, so we're hopeful that we will find her again this time too, although it is difficult not to dwell on all the bad things that can happen to a lost cat.

Knitting wise, I've been using up a stash of tapestry wool (plus buying a bit more on ebay!) to make some colourful cushions. I'm very pleased with the results - there's such a great range of colours and you can plan out the stripes with the little skeins of wool before you start. I've enjoyed mixing colours that may not "go" to make a rustic effect in my first cushion, and I'm now graduating shades of blue and green to make a more shaded effect for my next one. There's no chance of getting bored making these either, as the colours are changing so often.

I'm waiting for a delivery of cushion pads so I can finish another and then they'll be ready for my markets this month. I'm off to St Alban's on Sunday and then Wheathampsted the week after.