Woolly Moo Day

Our annual Woolly Moo Day got off to a great start on Saturday, with Florence leading the way up the High Street from the shop to the Memorial Hall. She stood just inside the door ready to welcome all the crafters with a smile and a quick chat about classes and cake!

I am so pleased to say that this years event was a great success with the 3 classes all better attended than last year, and most importantly lots of lovely positive feedback from all who came along. There really is nothing so nice as learning a new skill and crafting along with people who all have the same interests - we knitters and crocheters just seem to love the fellowship that this sort of event brings.

We started the day with coffee and homemade cakes (yes, I was VERY busy the day before baking lots of lovely treats!) and then settled into a morning of crafting. Each of the classes brought something different - with Bekky teaching Continental (or 'Funny') Knitting, Phyl teaching crochet and me showing my ladies how to embellish their knitting. I know that my group went away with some new skills and as I looked around the room, there seemed to be a lot of bowed heads and concentrated faces so I'm sure that everyone learned something to add to their crafters toolkit.

Phyl with her class who all look very happy!

My class studiously learning how to embroider onto their knitting

Bekky helping Liz and Jill with their 'funny knitting' and Daimen looks on as the crochet class is in full swing

After the classes we indulged in a delicious lunch (I definitely had something to do with this too!), and then many people carried on with their projects from the morning while we listened to some really informative talks. The Alpaca Boys were incredibly entertaining as usual, telling us all about their alpaca farming and yarn business, Bekky unravelled the mysteries of Ravelry, and Babs gave a very comprehensive talk on the history of knitting.

Daimen loves to talk! He was happy to answer all sorts of questions and help some of the ladies make their purchases

Beautiful yarn from The Alpaca Boys, Du Prem Alpacas

As the afternoon wore on it was time to say a final farewell to the Knitting Hut Chickens, who were raffled off to raise money for Willen Hospice. The flew the coop one by one, well actually two went to a very good home, and we raised a splendid £72.50 for this amazing charity. Thanks to all who purchased tickets and a special thanks to those who now find themselves with chickens to look after . . .

The Knitting Hut Chickens were excited to be flying off to new coops

Our day finished later than expected, and after a quick tidy up of the hall, we wound our way back down the High Street to the shop. Heather had done a marvellous job of womanning the shop while we were enjoying ourselves at the hall and was then greeted by a hoard of knitters eager to indulge in some retail therapy before the day was done. Most of my lovely customers bought my latest book, Knitted Dogs and Puppies and as I signed the last one, I finally sat down - exhausted but super happy that the day had been such a woolly success!

An exciting early delivery!

It is always exciting when one of my books arrives in stock but even more exciting when it's early! Knitted Dogs and Puppies wasn't due in until at least the middle of June but to my immense surprise and enjoyment -  it turned up at the beginning of this week!

It's fabulous to see it in print and I forget all about the many hours spent agonising over designs and editing that go into producing a book. It's also quite a long drawn out process - from my finishing the designs and all the knitting, to actually seeing it in print, is quite a long time and so when I first get my hands on a copy of the book, I get rather excited all over again!

All the dogs and puppies are dotted around the shop and look fabulous sat next to a pile of books. The pre-orders have all been sent out and now I am facing the challenge of getting all the yarns in stock to go with the book, and then beginning to make kits of some of the dogs to go with the book.

As well as my unexpected delivery this week, I've also been working on getting all my patterns sorted out on Ravelry. Some of them needed updating, some needed new photographs and some had never made it onto Ravelry in the first place! Now they are all there, looking great and I have also added a few new free patterns, Summer Bunting, Summer Bunting Egg Cosies and Little Hutty Duck.

 

 

It took a whole day just to put on all the projects from the new book, listing yarns and adding pictures but it is so lovely to see them all there and I know it will be useful to anyone buying the book. Also, from my point of view it's really interesting to see which projects have been 'favourited' the most. Cuddle Pup looks like a clear winner so far with 24 favourites. Why don't you have a look and let me know which is your favourite. The top five will be the first yarn kits I put together to accompany the book!

Don't forget you can buy a signed copy of Knitted Dogs and Puppies from my website, RRP £9.99 but £8.99 directly from me!

How the Woolly got it's 'Moo'

How it all started . . .

A few years ago (four when I checked!) I signed up with some friends, to take part in a charity walk to help raise funds for one of our local good causes, Willen Hospice. The Midnight Moo, as this walk is called, is a ten mile walk through Milton Keynes starting at midnight and running through the night - great fun with a group of friends and vital for raising funds for this amazing charity.

Instead of asking for sponsorship I decided to find another way to raise money for the Hospice, and so I started with a knitted cow - of course . . .

Bergere de France very kindly donated black and white wool so that our customers could create knitted and crocheted ‘patches’ to cover the creation of packing tubes, boxes and cardboard I had put together in vague resemblance of a cow. Everyone donated £1 per patch and Florence was born. After a couple of get togethers in the shop to assemble her we made a platform with wheels so that Flo could join us on the walk. She even had a coin slot in the top of her head so that donations could fall into a bucket underneath her udders - unfortunately some missed the bucket and she still has a bit of loose change rattling around inside!

As you can see, Florence rolled along on the walk with us and had a fabulous time. She managed five miles and was then taken to the finish line by a marshal. When I arrived (some time later) she looked mighty pleased with herself and was resplendent in her medal.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the Midnight Moo, but I wanted to do more to raise money for the Hospice and so I also decided to hold a day of mini workshops (including lunch, cake and afternoon tea of course). The Woolly Moo (as it is now fondly called) was such a success that we did it again the following year.

This year again sees us celebrating our Woolly Moo on Saturday June 14th and although I no longer walk the walk we still raise funds for Willen Hospice. Florence enjoys her day out, even though she is getting on a bit and is rather wobbly on her legs - maybe we'll try and give her a bit of tlc and a mini makeover before her big day . . .

If you're free on the 14th June, Flo would love to see you! You can find out all about the workshops, talks, and the first ever Chicken Raffle on the website but do remember that the workshops need to be booked in advance so please call the shop on 01908 586244. Come along and join us for what promises to be a fantastic woolly day!

Love Your Yarn Shop (and Cute Knitted Dogs) Day

Last Saturday saw the very first Love Your Yarn Shop Day - an initiative to encourage knitters to support and patronise their local yarn shops organised by Let's Knit Magazine. As the owner of a small knitting shop I was eager to take part in this national event, and with my latest book Knitted Dogs and Puppies almost ready to hit the shelves (due in June!), I thought I'd combine a sort of Love Your Yarn Shop and Cute Knitted Dogs Day . . .

 

To help us celebrate I designed a pattern for a Scottie Dog brooch which went down very well. As you can see from the pictures, there were quite a few by the end of the day! Tiny Scottie Dog measures approximately 6cm from nose to tail and is knit using double knitting yarn and as the pattern requires so little yarn it's an excellent stash buster. The collar can be made from any yarn - just find yourself out a little scrap of something brightly coloured and attach a tiny tinkly bell if you have one. He's knit in one piece from the tip of the tail to nose - his legs, head and ‘ears’ are just worked using increases and decreases. I used two 4mm black beads for his eyes but you could embroider the eyes instead. I also embroidered a nose using some of the black yarn.

 

Jo made hers into a bag charm which looks fab and added a small button as a bell on his collar. You could have lots of fun making these little Scotties into cute individual little characters and then add a safety pin to make it into a brooch as I did or make a whole pack and sit them amongst your stash!

 

 

 

While I was at the shop I dug out some fab black and brown eyelash yarn and made a cairn terrier to match our real dog Hector. When I had finished knitting him he just looked like a blob so I gave him a serious trim and he soon started to look more like a dog - so cute!

 

 

Tiny Scottie Dog is now up on Ravelry and is a FREE pattern. I'd love to see how your mini doggies turn out so please post pics of your finished pooches in the Group thread.

 

Inspirational Trunk Show

Last Saturday was a truly inspiring day at the shop as we hosted a trunk show with the very lovely Louise Zass-Bangham (Inspiration Knits). I was a bit frantic in the run up -  baking cakes and trying to organise everything, but it was so worthwhile - the day was a great success!

Louise came early and set about displaying all of her beautiful samples - shawls and cowls, fingerless gloves and scarves - a whole range of utterly gorgeous samples that we all oohed and aahed over. She had a selection of her patterns, beads and of course the delectable Whimzy Sokkusu O yarn in some delicious colours (I of course, couldn't resist!) and she even bought cake!

Almost as soon as we were ready, knitters started to pour through the door and the shop was soon full of expectant people. Louise was kept busy giving advice on selecting colour combinations for her most popular shawl pattern which turned out to be Stay Awhile - a lovely easy two colour striped knit with a pretty beaded picot edge, perfect for sitting and 'staying awhile' at knitnight or indeed, for a spot of knitting in the shop.

I started my own Stay Awhile in Cabaret and Spring Storm and Max (knitIam) brought her shawl which she had already begun and we very soon had a bit of a knitalong going on! You can see from the pictures that Max's is quite a bit further along than mine, and looking stunning in Sokkusu O Thistle and Squink. I have a feeling that she might finish hers before me, but we'll see . . !

Our mini Stay Awhile Knitalong

Louise in her finished Stay Awhile and me casting on!

If you missed Louise this time I'm sure we can tempt her to come back for another trunk show later in the year - I'm told she is easily persuaded with a nice slice of cake! But, in the meantime if you'd like to read all about her version of events then head over to Louise's Blog.

The radio, too much chocolate and colouring in fabric . . .

Nick loved Floppy Moggy

It's always hard when the kids go back to school after two weeks of getting up later, too much chocolate and trying to fit in work and doing things with the children . . .

Last week I was interviewed by BBC Three Counties Radio for a feature they were doing about Woburn Sands and Woburn. It's a lovely idea to promote the smaller towns and villages which tend to be missed because of the larger local destinations such as Milton Keynes, Bedford and Luton, and I was very happy to go along to help raise the towns' profile.

I had a lovely chat with Nick Coffer and although he was disappointed I wasn’t going to teach him to knit he asked some great questions which were fun to answer.

Of course this meant leaving the children behind but luckily our lovely friends Lucy and Bill came over to keep an eye on them and make sure they had some lunch! Lola said it was funny hearing me on the radio - I hope she meant that in a good way!

A couple of days earlier I had made a little trip to Ikea because a friend of mine had put something on Facebook about some fabric they had to colour in and fabric pens. I couldn't resist the idea of colouring in fabric but of course, I couldn’t just buy a metre so I bought two!

Little did I realise how addictive this would be for everyone . . . It was laid out on the breakfast bar when I left for my interview and any of the family that walked past picked up a pen and coloured in.  Even the teenagers! By the end of the day we had the second piece of material laid out on the floor.

We have had lots of ideas about what to make with this fabric . . . but I think we have settled on a big bean bag. There’s still a bit more to colour in but once it is finished we have plenty of fabric to make one. I have already thought ahead to the one small problem - there will definitely be fighting over who gets to sit on it . . .

This week has been very quiet with the children back at school. It's a short week (we all love those don't we?) and I am looking forward to going into the shop for the Inspiration Knits Trunk Show tomorrow (11-3.30 if you can make it, do drop in!). I have my eye on a couple of hanks of Whimzy yarn that I think will be coming home with me . . .

London Book Fair

This week I was lucky enough to be invited to join the Search Press team on their stand at The London Book Fair. It's not really what you would call work, because it was such a pleasure chatting to people, and then restacking the books on the shelves when it got a bit untidy - I had a fabulous day!

The Show itself is absolutely huge - almost as big as a small village - filled with anybody and everybody in the world of publishing including all the very well known publishing houses.  It was also amazing to see the range of publishers out there, targeting all sorts of markets.  The nicest area to wander around was definitely the children's section. I noticed a huge variety of accents as I wandered around - the Show has a lovely international quality as it attracts visitors from around the world, and I was thrilled to meet with publishers from a good selection of countries.

My Cats and Kittens book has now been translated into 5 languages! Astonishing to believe that this has happened in the year since the last Book Fair when it was first shown, and I can now count knitters in Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Russia and Italy amongst my customers.

This year, with my Dogs and Puppies book due to be launched in June, we were approached by Danish (Turbine) and Dutch (Librero) publishers as well as one from Ireland who was interested in a book of Irish Knits - which gave me plenty to think about. Though I must say right now that I won't be designing any knitted leprechauns or shamrocks . . .

I had the opportunity to look around to see what is new in the world of textile and handmade crafts, and though there were lots of other publishers offering crafty books, I must admit that I didn't see anything that I got really excited about. There was certainly an increase in sewing books this year - due to the enormous success of The Great British Sewing Bee I think. There were also some lovely craft books for children which I made a mental note of. I think my ten year old daughter would love some of them.

I managed to escape for lunch at a lovely Pizzeria in West Brompton with a good friend of mine, Karen who was also attending the Show (and is a real author!) which broke the day up and gave us the chance for a good old catch up. By the time the day was nearing an end, my feet were begging me to sit down and I was imagining a nice, relaxing journey home on the train. Oh dear - I ended up standing up, squashed amongst commuters for most of the way, my feet complaining bitterly and worst of all - no chance to do any knitting!