February update

Well, January was a lot busier than I thought it would be! I was looking forward to hibernating a bit and getting on with some personal knitting - mainly a fair-isle pattern hat for my husband in his rugby club colours-  but business got in the way - which is good!

I went to St Alban's Farmers' Market in January and was expecting it to be fairly quiet so soon after Christmas, but it was really busy. Strangely, Harpenden market, at the end of the month and after payday, was quiet - so it's difficult to plan! I was fairly busy online as well, selling quite well in my new year sale and making my first lace-weight sale. I've now got a couple more lace-weight skeins in the shop and will be dyeing more as I work through my plans for Wonderwool. 

It's just hit me that I have only about 10 weeks to get all the yarn ready for Wonderwool, so I've done a stocktake, made a list and started dyeing. I did the first colorway yesterday - bottle green, a surprise hit at Fibre East last year - and will start stockpiling.

I'm off to St. Alban's on Sunday (10th) - the weather forecast is for rain and sleet, so I can't say I'm looking foreard to being outdoors all morning! I'd feel warmer of course if it was busy - last year was, so thermals on and fingers crossed!    

Working Hard!

Just a quick update - St Alban's market was good, sales were up on last year and the weather held up until I was on my way home. We had quite a run on tea cosies and are making sure we are re-stocked for next time, which will be July 8th.

In the meantime, I've nearly finished my dyeing for Fibre East - just on more colorway to dye, which I'll get done tomorrow. I had a look at the range of colors that I'd done and thought "I need more blues", so mixed blues it is. I've just got to do the sewing up and finishing for my bolero and I'm about two thirds of the way through the first draft of the pattern, so I'm sure it'll be all ready for the show. I've dyed a selection of five semi-solid colors to make it with, so people can buy the yarn to go with the pattern.

I went to a training session at our local business centre yesterday on social media and marketing run by a very professional lady called Jo Sealy. She packed a lot into half a day and I came away with plenty of ideas about how I could promote my business. Starting after Fibre East, I think an email newsletter would be a good way to go. I'll get started on that in my spare moments!