Tickets are now on sale for the North West Winter Wool Festival 2027! And that means my show design is also available. When you purchase an advance ticket for the show you get a download code (it works on both Ravelry and Payhip) so you can download a copy of the show pattern for free! What a bargain!
Tide’s Out is a single skein 4ply shawl pattern with a lovely lace border reminiscent of the patterns that the receding tide leaves in the sand. The variegated sample shown here was knitted using LottieKnits Little Bird Sock (360m/100g) and the gradient/fade sample was knitted using a brown fade set from The Knitting Goddess (400m/100g in 20g mini skeins) – this yarn is now discontinued.
I am very pleased to be able to report that last weekend went well! When I was looking at my diary recently and trying to work out how I would squeeze two events in different places into one weekend when I was organising the second one and needed to set up for it on the same day as the first, I wasn’t entirely convinced I would manage – but we did!
Saturday was Ewe & Ply‘s 10th birthday and I was so honoured to be invited to go and ‘showcase my talents’ that I was determined to be able to fit it in. Becca, Teri and their staff are so friendly and welcoming as were the other four small businesses who were there. Most of us were set up at the end of St Mary’s Parade just outside the shop, which was the ideal spot as I would have to leave early.
Lots of people came to say hello and celebrate Ewe & Ply’s journey from the market stall in Shrewsbury to a large shop and another shop in Oswestry. I had a bit of a challenge with the fact that St Mary’s Parade in Shrewsbury is at the top of quite a steep hill and the car parks are all at the bottom, but once I got my breath back I was able to chat to people!
I left there at 2.30 and managed to get to Mold just before 4pm to set up the venue for Yarn Gathering. We spent an hour marking out everyone’s spaces on the floor with masking tape, putting up signs and bunting and moving lots of tables and chairs around. I was very grateful to have Sue and Anne helping with this!
Then on Sunday morning the alarm went off at 5.15 and we were at the venue by 7.10. Outside posters were put up before the venue was unlocked and then we were able to get most of my stand set up before the rest of the vendors started to arrive from 8am. Many thanks to Sue, Anne and Joshua for being incredibly helpful with getting folk unloaded and moving boxes to the correct stand space. Especially for going up and down those stairs so much!
Everyone’s stands looked lovely and there was a good range of crafts on display – knitting, crochet, weaving (both modern and iron age!), embroideries, hand spun yarn, hand dyed yarn (both naturally dyed and chemically dyed) and fibre to spin your own yarn, award-winning locks from fleece, needle 3D felted sheep and 2D landscapes, info from Tecstiliau about the courses they run and kits they sell and plenty of other items.
People started to arrive just before 10am and there was a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, with a lull during the traditional British lunchtime and towards the end of the day. It was lovely to see familiar faces returning to support the event as well as people who had heard about us on social media for the first time this year. Our collective efforts online must have done some good!
One of the lovely things about in-person events is when someone brings their finished project (or project in progress) to show me. At Yarn Gathering I saw a lovely completed but not yet blocked Twisted cowl and a fabulous Tiffany shawl as well as the first two parts of a Branwen shawl that I forgot to photograph. I love seeing what people have knitted from my designs!
Everyone seemed to have a good day and then, just like that, it was over, and we had an empty and tidy venue by 5pm! That was thanks to all the vendors for being so efficient in their packing up and also to Sue, Anne and Joshua for tirelessly fetching and carrying items back to vendors’ vehicles.
This week I am preparing for Yarndale this coming weekend and checking all the numbers for my final deadline design and I hope to get it sent off this week before we head north.
We are back on the Lairage side of the auction mart this year in M23-24 (a double stand!) and I am fully intending to remember to bring my tights with me this time – I forgot last year which led to a very early morning dash to Asda so I didn’t freeze.
Because we are having a double stand here for the first time – the stand is even a little bigger than our Wonderwool space! – I can bring lots of patterns (60 designs!) and there will be room for people to browse. We will be next to the amazing Jo.Knit.Sew too, so we know already that there will be lots of laughs during the weekend.
I have even been able to do some knitting that I can show you! The left front of the short version of Leaf & Vine was cast off last night and the right front begun. It’s quite a quick knit when you’re making the shorter version!
With all these events and deadlines, as you might imagine, I haven’t exactly been pulling my weight on the housework or gardening front, but I did help with trimming the hedge last week and got some impressive scratches when deadheading the big rose bush in the front garden. After this coming week life should become more balanced! The rest of 2026 contains three more shows, a workshop for the Montgomery Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and, hopefully, a workshop day at Ewe Felty Thing.
What have you been up to in the past week? I’m looking forward to telling you all about Yarndale next Tuesday. K x