November-December update

Well, I knew it had been a long time, but I've just seen that I last posted on October 17th and have missed out November entirely!

Since then, I've dyed and posted the third instalment on this year's yarn club and I hope people like it. I've tried a different approach this year, by thinking of a base colour and trying it in different strengths and combinations, so each month's club yarn is a toning set rather than a collection of different colours. The final set of the third instalment, which was based on turquoise as the dominant shade, is now in the shop.   

I particularly like the Plum & Jade colourway on the far right - I think it will be added to my repertoire!

November sales were a bit varied - in particular I was really busy at St Albans Farmers' Market, but only took about a third of what I was expecting to do at Harpenden Christmas Carnival, which is usually the best market of theyear. Other stallholders felt the same, so I'm glad it wasn't just me, but it was disappointing all the same. Anyway, in contrast December has got off to a storming start - Ware was really good and I had my best market ever at St Albans yesterday. My bank manager will be pleased!

I'd like to wind down for Christmas, but can't do that not just yet as I've still got three fairs to go to - I'm at an event in Wanstead Village (London E11) on Saturday and then two final markets the following weekend - Royston on Saturday and Harpenden again on Sunday. Let's hope they're just as busy as the previous December events have been!  

November update 2

Not the most snappy title for a post, but I really couldn't think of anything better!

I'm off to Harpenden Farmers' Market on Sunday. It is held to coincide with the town's Christmas Carnival, so it wil be a later start and a longer day (12noon 'til 6pm) than normal. The weather forecast isn't great, but I hope we will be able to set up while it's still dry and then we'll just have to take our chances with the rain! My husband is coming to help me and to provide much needed relief breaks during the day, so it will be nice to have some company. I was reasonably busy at Royston last weekend, so I'm just trying to get enough stock together at the moment.

I sent out the final shipment of my yarn club on monday and it's started arriving - so far people seem to like the colours and I'll be listing some spares in my etsy shop, once I know they've all arrived safely. I need to dye some more yarn, but may wait until after the holidays as I'm so busy trying to keep up with scarf sales at the moment.

I've only got two more events after this weekend - a school Christmas fair next Wednesday (28th) and then St Alban's Farmers' Market on 9th December. It's always a relief to finish and get ready for my own Christmas - so far all I've done is order a turkey!  

A Busy Weekend

A busy weekend is coming up!

I'm at a garden centre christams fair near Royston, Herts. all day tomorrow (Saturday) and then at the ususal Farmers' market at Wheathampstead on Sunday morning.

It's the first time I've been able to go to the Garden Centre fair, although they have asked me in previous years - let's hope it's succcessful as it's a long way to go and I'm having to take my own table! Wheathampstead could be OK or people could all be waiting for the Harpenden Christmas carnival, which is the week after and is usually very busy.

I'm getting ready for the next Fibreholics round too - out 1st December - and have been busy dyeing this week - check out my mini etsy feature for a couple of new shades of yarn.

And finally, I've applied to Fibre East for a stall at next year's event - if I'm accepted it will be my first show.

Markets

Another busy week - I was at a very cold and wet Royston market last Sunday and was amazed to sell a scarfs. Several things blew off the stall and got wet and at 11.30 the stallholders rebelled and quit! It was nice to finish early and I got to go and have a coffee and big slice of cake in the old cornmarket buildings there - so warm and cosy after being outside since 8.30 and a really pleasant oasis!

There is now a proposal to move the market indoors - let's hope it goes through, so I can get out my spring and summer stuff without fear of it all being ruined.

I'm off to St Alban's this weekend - the forecast is for cold, but at least no rain - I don't think I'll be putting away the thermals just yet!

On a better note, I had an etsy sale this week, which was pleasing.

New Silk - 2

I've just had a scarf in my latest colourway back and am very pleased with it - I've decided to call it "blueberry". It's already in my etsy shop and I'll be taking one to Royston market with me tomorrow.

I had a fairly busy morning at Harpenden last Sunday, although the weather was not nearly as nice as had been forecast and we had quite a lot of rain to start off with! however, it didn't seem to put people off coming out and it was a good end to my season there - I'll be back in September ready for Christmas!

Tomorrow is forecast quite wet and windy too, so I'm not really looking forward to a morning outdoors. Royston can be a little quiet too, so let's hope people come out to support us.

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.

More Markets

Hatfield and Royston were both very cold, but busier than I had been expecting and well worth going to.

I sold one of my new silks (sapphire sea), which was very pleasing and at Hatfield one kind lady gave me a pattern for a tammy that I can adapt and another gave me some pretty yarn (sirdar Fizz) which she didn't want - many thanks to them both!

We had some minor dramas over the weekend - one of our cats had to be taken to the emergency vet's with an infected eye on Saturday afternoon and then our washing machine broke down on Sunday with a load of wet washing still in it. Fortunately all is well now, the cat, Tess, is recovering well although she didn't like the journey to the vet's and has spent several days hidden away since she got back and the engineer is coming to fix the machine next week.

I had some more of my new silks come back from the knitters and think they look fab!

Here's a picture, from left to right the colours are amethyst, rose pink and salmon. The picture shows each shade with a little bit more blue tone than it is in reality, but overall it's reasonably accurate.

I'm off to St Alban's market on Sunday, so I hope my customers like them. As ever - if you would like to reserve one, just get in touch.