This week feels very short and in a way it is – we have just four days in between returning from one big show – TexStyle in Manchester – and going to another one – East Anglia Yarn Festival just outside Norwich. Unsurprisingly therefore, my printer is working overtime as I type and I’m awaiting a delivery of A3 paper today as I may be about to run out!
TexStyle was a lot of fun as you’ll know if you’ve seen my social media posts. The hardest part was finding the loading bay for the venue when we arrived as the pictures with arrows on supplied by the venue were the kind that only make any sense when you already know where to go! I ended up in a lay-by of a side street ringing one of the organisers and saying: “Please help – I’m lost!” Michelle was a superstar and, having experienced the same issues herself the day before, was able to direct me exactly where to go. Once we arrived the system worked like clockwork: our booking code for unloading was scanned and we were shown where to park and unload from. There were venue staff on hand for those who needed help unloading and each stand already had a little ‘bus-stop’ style name attached to it so it was easy to find where we were positioned in the hall. I moved the car to the car-park underneath the venue once it was empty and returned to get set up with Sue.
Being in Manchester meant we were able to commute which we’ve never done for a weekend show before and I have to say it was lovely to fall back into our own bed at the end of the day!
Travelling into Manchester on Saturday morning was fairly quiet on the roads, apart from when one of the warning lights came on in my car – along with its associated ‘ping’! It was a ‘headlamp low’ warning and sure enough, once we were ensconced in our favourite parking spot and able to check, one of my main headlights had blown. This led to a large number of phone calls between Sue and Quickfit, then Halfords and between me and Lookers (the nearest Kia dealership). We finally discovered that Halfords in Trafford would probably have the correct bulb in stock and would be able to fit it, but they closed at 6pm and the show was open until 5pm… As you can imagine this was all a little distracting and worrying, especially as the show was incredibly busy on Saturday. However, at 2pm when it got a little calmer, I let the organisers know that I was popping out and why and left Sue in charge of the stand while I ventured to Halfords. They were so helpful and kind – got my headlight fixed really quickly and I was back at the show just after 3pm, feeling much happier – and I think my relief showed!
I even got the confidence up to go and say hello to Stephen West (and I got a hug!) after Sue and Ronnie set the example of being brave. If you’re a knitter you have probably heard of Stephen West, he’s a ‘big name’ in the knitting world and had a stand at the show.
However, back to the show itself. It was lovely to meet some of the people who follow me here and elsewhere online, including Anthony who brought his gorgeous Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl to show me in person. I’d seen a photo, but the actual knitting had so much colour and texture in it – and was knitted really well too! I also saw the finished version of Stitches and Jack‘s Imperial Cowl that she was wearing, and Jenny from the Bowland Guild was wearing her Tiffany Shawl too! Both beautifully knitted and worn with style. Because it was so busy and I didn’t think of it until later I didn’t get any pics of these lovely projects, but I know that Stitches and Jacks is likely to be podcasting about it soon – she did get a pic of us! She has talked about the process of knitting The Imperial Cowl in Episode 106 of her podcast (starting at about 22 minutes in).
Saturday was so busy that we barely stopped all day and so it was a bit of a relief that Sunday was quieter. I think the combination of Mothers’ Day, a St Patrick’s Day parade and a football match all taking place on Sunday had meant that most people had decided to come on the Saturday. It actually gave us a chance to have a proper chat to lots of the other vendors and start to plan the design of our stand for next weekend at EAYF as well as have a little dance in the empty space opposite us.
Although both of these shows are ‘patterns only’ for me, everything still takes up quite a lot of space as folk like/need to see the samples before they buy the pattern and next weekend our stand will be smaller, so we’re going for a slightly different approach. No table, just the pull up pattern stands, the double height rail and the cage to display samples that don’t hang well. We’ll have 32 of our most popular and newest designs with us rather than the 50 we brought to Manchester, but the layout should mean folk can still get in to the smaller space and have a look at everything fairly easily.
Looks impressive, don’t you think!?
On a related note, if you bought a copy of Nevern Lap Blanket (probably on Sunday) or a Heart in my Hands Hat (on Saturday – it was purchased alongside the Little Orme Hat) and find you only have the outermost pages of the pattern, please do get in touch and we’ll fix that for you.
One of the downsides of not using staples in our patterns is that sometimes the inner pages get left behind when a pattern is picked out of the display. The benefits of not using staples are tangible though – by not using staples it keeps the cost of producing the patterns down (partly as I would have to outsource the printing of patterns if they were stapled which would likely require a price rise), and staples are a ‘snag-risk’ for yarn when knitting.
That’s all from me today – I am heading to the dentist very soon for my annual check-up, and then it’s back to prepping for next weekend as well as finishing seaming my current commission (it’s blocked beautifully). I also need to update my website so you can see all the shows we’ll be at and where I’ll be teaching as more events have now published their vendor lists.
See you all next week! Until then, take care and do something that makes you happy. K x