April Update

Well, spring now finally seems to have sprung and we're enjoying some fine weather at last! It's been a long cold winter and we're all ready for a change.

I haven't posted for a while, but I have been busy re-vamping my website (www.willowknits.com) - I'm changing it from a shop to a general information site and moving all my online shop stuff to Etsy. I've passed all the necessary alterations over to my website people and they should be doing the update fairly soon. I'll let everyone know when it's live.

I've also been busy deciding what to make a priority for my spring & summer Farmers' markets - I've decided on the centrepieces being my silks and the light cotton "colour changing" scarves. I've got a couple of the cotton scarves made already (silver -blue and silver-purple) and yarn for some more, so there's plenty to get on with. I've also dyed some more silk in two new colourways - a tropical blue-green- turquoise mix and a vibrant berry-lilacs-blues mix. Pictures to follow when the scarves come back from the knitters!

April is the end of my "winter season" and I cut down the markets to just St Albans' and Wheathampstead from May to September, although this year I'm going to give Royston a go as well, at least for May. They have had a new person take over the admin and she has been working very hard to promote the market, so if there are new customers coming I'd like to be there.

New colours

We woke up to a bright morning today, with a dusting of snow on the ground - perfect weather for taking some pictures of my new scarves.

Here are two of the silks, "spruce" on the left and "sapphire sea" on the right. "Spruce" has photographed more yellow toned than it is - in reality it is slightly darker and more shades of bottle/pine green, but "sapphire sea" is just right.

I tried getting a picture of my cranberry red shade, but it just wouldn't come out anywhere near the true colour, so I'll have to wait until I can get outside with the camera.

I've also just finished this scarf in a wonderful new yarn from wolles yarn creations (available in etsy) - it is a cotton yarn that graduates from one shade to the next, so the finished article looks as if it has been dip dyed. I've got another to do in silver-purple and am awaiting a parcel with some more. I'm planning to make them a feature of my Farmers' markets stall in the spring.