Saturday was Yarnies at the Flaxmill and it was a very good day, even though I was flying solo for a change! I’ve got so used to having Sue with me that I’d forgotten just how hard it is to put the whole stand together (and take it down again at the end of the day) when you’re on your own. I’m so grateful that it’s only occasional that I ‘fly solo’ now and mostly it’s something we do together. Shout out to Jo from Jo Knit Sew and the organisers of the show who between them carried most of the stuff out to my car once it was all packed down. Also to Antidote Yarns and Designs who were one of my stand neighbours and offered to keep an eye on the stand if I needed a loo break during the day and provided Candy Kittens during pack down!
Being on my own also meant that I wasn’t able to run the stranded knitting workshop. I remember a few years ago when Sue and I looked after Cat & Sparrow‘s stand at the Summer Wool Show so that she could go and teach a workshop when the person who was going to help her on her stand all weekend was unable to attend at short notice. It was fun, even though it felt like a big responsibility! We got to do it because Rachel had put out a call on her socials asking for help from anyone who would be attending the show. Last year my friend Matthew stepped in as ‘booth babe’ at East Anglia Yarn Show on the Saturday as we didn’t know if Sue was going to be able to make it to the show or not. Amazingly she did get there and they ran the stand between them splendidly in my absence while I taught.
Today I’ve been thinking about the importance of asking for help with stuff and how hard that can be for me at times. It’s always been something I’ve not been that good at (in fact it was once a target in my appraisal when I was teaching full time), and it seems to be something I still need to work on!
I started knitting a super secret commission yesterday. It’s not a gift for someone, but a design using a yarn that’s not even out yet. I’m really pleased with the colours I chose to use and it’s knitting up well.
While I was at Yarnies at the Flaxmill on Saturday I bought some yarn (colour me shocked!) from another Jo, this one being the lovely person behind Second City Yarns, my other stand neighbour for the day and who was good company in the occasional quieter moments of the day. Her yarns are properly ‘woolly’ and her hand-dyed colours are spectacular, but surprisingly it was some undyed yarn that I bought. Two gorgeous skeins to knit a sample of the shorter version of Leaf & Vine. This pattern was originally designed for Knit Picks using Palette, another ‘woolly’ 4ply yarn that comes in 150 colours, and my sample is the full length version in a leafy green. I want a sample of the short one, partly to wear at summer shows when I’m not wearing ‘What Do Points Make?‘ and partly so folk can see the difference in length. Sometimes it’s hard to just imagine these things.
The reason I bought this undyed yarn from Jo is that at 450m per 100g it’s closer to the original yarn thickness (of 422m per 100g) than her hand-dyed yarns which come in at 350m. The hand dyed stuff is gorgeous and absolutely perfect for other designs (and I am brewing some ideas for one gently in my head), but I needed the thinner option. Here it is!
Some exciting news to share with you is that Yarn Gathering will be back this September in Mold! The venue is booked, the licence is paid and the prospective vendors have completed their forms. We are once again at the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold and this year’s date is Sunday 20th September. The page with all the details and vendor info will go up on the website very soon.
The updated version of Into the Vortex should be available later this week, once the final checks have been made. I’ve added in details for knitting a DK version. It’s so gorgeously squishy.
Ice Diamond Mitts will then (hopefully) be relaunched either next week or the week after. I’ve changed the pattern layout and made it easier to follow as well as changing the pattern itself a bit (mostly in terms of length to keep the large size under 50g).
This is the pre-blocking photo of the large size. I also knitted a medium size mitt yesterday evening!
That’s all from me for today. I’m now intending to go and ask for some help with something else that I do. Wish me luck and have a good week! K x