I am delighted to be offering this workshop at Bakewell Wool Gathering on Saturday October 19th 2024.
Workshop tickets are £30 per person. Please ensure you also have a ticket for Bakewell Wool Gathering (you can pay on the door from 12 noon, pre-paid tickets can enter the show from 10am).
Learn this amazing knitting technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basics of the two colour brioche stitch and the terminology. We’ll also explore a brioche increase and two simple decreases to create geometric shapes in your brioche swatch.
You need to be able to cast on, knit and purl confidently and be able to follow a written pattern.
Yarn and handouts are included.
Bring 5mm circular needles (60-80cm). Circular needles are essential for two-colour brioche knitting, even when knitting flat.
This is a Zoom workshop. Learn from the comfort of your own home. The Zoom link will be sent to you upon booking and the workshop handout will be emailed to you before the event.
Develop your two-colour brioche knitting skills further with increases and decreases to create wonderful geometric and curved shapes.
Two increases and three decreases enable you to knit this splendid geometric swatch. Even better, they’re some of the most commonly used incs/decs so you’ll be able to tackle a wide range of brioche patterns after taking this workshop.
2-hour workshop, £25.
Skills required – cast-on, cast-off, knit & purl, some experience of knitting basic two-colour brioche stitch. You will need 2 contrasting colours of DK yarn (approx 7g of each), 5mm circular knitting needles (60-80cm is ideal) and a pen or pencil. Needles must be circular for brioche knitting, though we will be knitting flat, not in the round.
This is a Zoom workshop – learn from the comfort of your own home. You will receive the Zoom link upon booking and the workshop handout will be emailed to you before the event.
Learn this amazing knitting technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basics of the two colour brioche stitch and the terminology. We’ll also explore a brioche increase and two simple decreases to create geometric shapes in your brioche swatch.
You will need 2 contrasting colours of DK yarn (approx 7g of each), 5mm circular knitting needles (60cm long is ideal) and a pen or pencil. Needles must be circular for brioche knitting, though we will be knitting flat, not in the round.
Well, Wool@J13 (that’s ‘Wool at Junction 13’ as it’s near Junction 13 of the M6, sometimes referred to as ‘Woolly J’) is done and we are home. I still need to go through all the samples and check if anything needs freshening up with a re-block or just folding in a different way, but everything else is back where it should be.
I know I’ve said this before, but Wool@J13 is a very different kind of yarn show. First of all, it’s in a field and the parking is in a different field down the road. Most of the vendors are in the ‘shop til you drop’ marquee that is a bit like a circus tent with its yellow and white stripes, with others in individual gazebos in the ‘gazebo village’. There are also two tents for workshops. So far, so yarn show, just with a slightly different setting.
Here’s my stand in the marquee, with Sue wearing her ‘Add value, bring joy’ T-shirt. She did, and does, every day!
Then as well as the marquee and gazebo village, there’s a small stage tent, with plenty of chairs and tables arranged in front of it. Throughout the weekend there’s live entertainment and you can sit and enjoy that as you eat your lunch from one of the street food vendors, or just soak up the music as you go round the stands. Last year Jo from Second City Yarns also entertained us inside the marquee with her cello playing. However, this year she had a broken finger, so couldn’t play. Ingrid (who it is almost impossible to say no to!) asked what instrument I played, and when I told her that I mostly sing, and yes, I did sing a cappella (unaccompanied) sometimes, asked if I’d like to do a turn in the marquee? I said yes! So, on Sunday afternoon when it wasn’t too busy and wouldn’t be interrupting too many potential sales, Ingrid gently blew her whistle, and I sang Misty and Unforgettable. It wasn’t until afterwards that I told her I hadn’t sung a solo in public in about 7 years…! I did enjoy it and there’s a short clip of the end of Misty floating about somewhere on Facebook if you want to see the evidence.
Bryn, my new brioche cowl designed especially for first time brioche knitters (or, as Tamsin from The Left Hookery put it, ‘brioche virgins’…!) , was well received and the kit, forever now to be known as ‘Bryn in a Tin’, sold well. The blues colourway was particularly popular.
I will be putting this kit and several others on to the website in the next few days, so if you want one, but can’t get to a yarn show, you can order online!
I had a nice surprise yesterday. I received an email telling me I had a Payhip review and clicked on it to see the details. It was a super review from someone who had bought the Pride and Progress Pride Knitting Kit bundle:
Cute kit – perfectly packaged!
A great kit for a beginner, or someone who wants to make a Pride flag without investing in massive balls of yarn. You got plenty of yarn and great instructions all packed in an enveloped that fitted through the letter box. I made my first flag straight away! – Nessa H.
That wasn’t the only surprise though. I also discovered there were nine other Payhip reviews (all 5 star) waiting to be moderated and published! So, now if someone has reviewed a pattern or kit on Payhip, the review is there on the product page for folk to see, and I’ve selected a few for testimonials at the bottom of my main Payhip shop page. I’m not sure how I didn’t know the reviews were sitting there – some are a year old! But I’m so glad to have found them and to know that folk are enjoying what I do.
Speaking of folk enjoying my work… If you get my newsletter or have seen my social media posts at the weekend, you’ll know that I saw some of my designs ‘in the wild’ at the weekend. It’s always such a buzz, especially when the knitter tells you they’ve really enjoyed knitting the project and that the pattern was clear and really easy to follow. I mean, that’s what I always aim for, but until someone tells you that that WAS their experience, you don’t really know for sure. From the left the patterns are: What Do Points Make?, Meg March Shawl and Branwen Shawl.
My Persian Tiles blanket is making progress – I only have 9 more motifs to finish off with the last two rounds now (that’s about three evenings worth)! Then I need to block them and put it all together. Can you see the different from last week? I am glad I followed Jane Crowfoot’s recommendation to make them ‘production line’ style as you can memorise the round you are working on easily and just repeat it, and you don’t have to keep getting a different coloured ball of wool out.
I’ve made a little progress with my Bargello Scarf. It’s less than I’d intended, and I think that’s because finishing each of the crochet motifs is so addictive! I am however, nearly at the halfway point now.
I am really looking forward to being able to photograph all three samples (the wrap, cowl and scarf) together as a set, ready for the relaunch of the pattern. It’s going to look so dramatic!
I also got a bit more of Sue’s sock done while we were away. Socks are the perfect travel knitting, as they take up so little room – and that was an important consideration with the car being so full of stuff for the show. I will definitely be on at least the second sock by the time of the next show (Pop Up Wool Show on August 18th), even if I haven’t finished them by then. I’m using my Bodelwyddan pattern, making the 4th size.
Plans for Yarn Gathering 2024 are coming on well. It’s being held on Sunday September 15th, from 10am -4pm.
You will be pleased to know that entry to the event is still FREE, and once again it is happening at the same time as the Mold Food and Drink Festival, so you can combine visiting the two events! And as it’s on Sunday, there are no parking charges in Mold!
We will have more vendors than ever this year – 16 or 17 – and because of that we are expanding into more of the Daniel Owen Centre.
We have previously used the main hall and the cafe space. This year we are using those two areas again, and are also using the largest of the upstairs rooms. We know that stairs aren’t great for everyone, but (as someone who has bungalow legs myself and isn’t great with stairs) I can say that they are decent stairs. The treads are deep enough to get your foot on, the steps themselves are not too high, and there are sturdy handrails on both sides. If you can’t access the first floor at all, we can take a video to show you what is up there and bring down things you particularly want to see.
Yarn Gathering now has its own Facebook page as well as an Instagram account, and we will be posting about each of our lovely vendors – who are all still fairly local – leading up to the event. Do come – we’re sure you’ll enjoy it.
That’s all from me today. I was going to pick the blackcurrants or do some weeding in the front garden, but it’s raining (again!) so that can wait. Take care and have a good week, K x
Last week I promised I would show you my progress with my Persian Tiles Blanket, designed by Jane Crowfoot and my Bargello Aurora Scarf. I’m quite pleased with both.
The large motifs for the blanket are on their final three rounds.
One of these 16 motifs is complete – that’s the one I made first and one to the left of it has a dark blue round with stitches of different heights that changes it from a flower / star to an octagon. I hope to have completed this round on all the other 14 motifs by next week and perhaps have begun the cream round with the stitches that cross over each other – that’s the hardest bit in my opinion.
As for the Bargello Aurora Scarf, I’m just over a third of the way through it! It probably could have been more, but since I got home from my *second* trip to the midlands last week (it was planned, but it was a lot of driving), I’ve been crocheting in the evenings instead.
There will be nine blocks of the stripe pattern repeat in total. Yesterday I wrangled with inkscape, a programme I use for drawing .svg files for schematics. I don’t use it very often, so remembering how to move nodes (the points where the lines change direction) etc and edit files took longer than I would have liked, but I do now have schematics for the cowl and the scarf as well as the wrap.
I won’t have copies of the updated Bargello Aurora pattern with me at Wool@J13 this weekend as I want to finish the scarf sample first and double check the measurements and yarn quantities used, but I will have it at the Pop Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight on August 18th and it will hopefully be available online before then as well.
There will be new designs and new kits at Wool@J13 though! Leaf & Vine has returned to me as I told you last week and I will have printed copies of that, the new brioche cowl (now named Bryn!) will be there in both printed pattern and kit form (with kits comprising the pattern, yarn and a stitch marker in a tin), and the pride kits will be there with the same bundle offer as online.
The Bryn Brioche Cowl kits all contain the same amount of yarn, allowing you to simply choose your colours and then decide which size you want to make.
That’s quite a few items having their first show outing! I was going through my inventory list and as well as these ‘brand new to shows’ designs, there will be about 20 other products that I didn’t have with me last year at Wool@J13, including patterns, kits, postcards and hand-spun yarn. I just hope I can fit it all into my car and then into my stand space! (Barragán will be making its show debut at the Pop Up Wool Show).
I have a new brioche knitting workshop coming up in a couple of weeks! Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche Knitting is ideal for knitters who have learnt the basic two-colour brioche stitch and now want to explore the technique further. Knitters will create this amazing swatch, learning increases and decreases that will open up a whole range of brioche knitting patterns.
The workshop is being held at Shaz’s Shabby Chic in Buckley on July 10th, 6.30-8.30 and the full details can be found on my events page as well as on ticketsource where you can book a workshop place.
I will also be running this workshop AND my Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting workshop as online Zoom events later in the year, so keep your eyes peeled for those if this is a knitting technique you’d like to explore, but you can’t get to North Wales (or to Yarndale in North Yorkshire, where I am teaching Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting on Saturday 28th September – there are just 3 spaces left on the Yarndale workshop).
I haven’t been at home much this week with the double trip to the midlands, but we have been able to get into the garden this weekend. There has been some serious pruning of the box at the bottom of the garden (it was almost twice as tall as us!) and we’ve even trimmed the hedge! Well, some of it. We couldn’t get right down to the bottom because the box was in the way, but now that’s been brought back under control we’ll be able to finish the hedge off. This is the hedge that acts as a backdrop for many of my photos of knitting when it’s modelled on a human! Our neighbour used to cut our side every year while we were away in the summer, but since he died (quite a number of years ago now), we’ve had someone in to do it twice, but it hasn’t been enough – and we felt it used to get more of a tickle than a prune anyway. I reckon we’ve lost at least two feet of garden to the hedge, judging from how much it came in front of the bottom garage window. So, we bit the bullet and bought a pole hedge trimmer. We took off about a foot from the width of the hedge on Sunday, but we still need to remove more. We are being very careful – gloves, proper shoes and so on. This pic gives some idea of how much the hedge has overgrown – that’s after we trimmed a foot or so off (and bevelled the corner to get more light into the garage)!
The veg has been very poor this year, with everything apart from a few kale plants having been eaten by slugs or snails. However the fruit bushes are looking mighty fine, and the blackcurrants are ready to be picked!
Jam making time is coming near. Maybe after the weekend?
That’s all from me today. The next time I write it will be July! Which reminds me, if you’d like to receive exclusive discount codes and more, then do sign up for my monthly newsletter, which comes out at the start of each month.
Learn this amazing knitting technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basics of the two colour brioche stitch and the terminology. We’ll also explore a brioche increase and two simple decreases to create geometric shapes in your brioche swatch.
Participants will receive 2 colours of DK yarn to complete the swatch and printed instructions.
Please bring 5mm circular knitting needle (60cm long is ideal) and a pen or pencil.
This time 2 years ago, Leaf & Vine Cardigan was published by Knit Picks as part of their “Haven: Knit Lace Patterns” collection. The rights have now returned to me and I am delighted to tell you that the digital pattern is available to buy from Ravelry, my website and Payhip! You can still also buy the whole Haven collection direct from KnitPicks.
Leaf & Vine is an oversized lacy cardigan with very short sleeves that are worked as an integral part of the body. There are 10 sizes (up to finished chest measurements of 71″) and 2 length options for every size. It is designed to be worn with 7-10″ of positive ease (ie 7-10″ bigger than your body measurement). As the pattern was published in the US initially all the measurements are in inches.
Knit Picks have a great system where, once the rights return to the designer, you can choose for the individual pattern to still be available from their website (it is) as well as sell it yourself. They send you the pdf document that they’ve been selling for you to sell yourself, so I don’t have to worry about reformatting the pattern, taking new photos or any of that.
The pdf for Leaf & Vine is 10 pages, 2 of which are full page photos. For printed patterns, that I will sell at yarn shows, I haven’t printed out the 2 full page photos. This is to keep the pattern to 8 pages and avoid excessive ink usage. Both omitted photos are on the pattern page on my website and on Payhip (and here!), so you won’t be missing out on anything if you buy a printed rather than digital copy of the pattern!
Last Thursday I should have been giving a workshop knitting Pride flags at Qube in Oswestry. Sadly it was cancelled due to lack of bookings, so I decided to use some of the yarn I had purchased for the workshop to make up Pride flag kits. It’s all West Yorkshire Spinners ColourLab DK, so it’s 100% wool that is machine washable. The ‘basic’ flag kit (£7) has 6 colours and the progress pride flag kit (£8) has 11! I think you’ll agree that’s a massive saving on buying 6 or 11 100g balls of wool!
The instructions for the basic flag include youtube links for every stitch used (two cast-on options, knit, cast-off). They’re publicly available videos that I have checked out for clarity and helpfulness. The progress pride flag instructions include the colour work chart and information on how to work intarsia in garter stitch to get the zigzag part of the design. I’ve put the kits on my website and I will be bringing them to Wool@J13 in just under two weeks time. You can even buy them both together and get a tasty discount (both for £12)!
Although I wasn’t able to lead the Pride flag knitting workshop at Qube as part of the first Oswestry Pride, my lovely wife did take part in the Pride in the Park event in Oswestry on Saturday. We braved the weather (which thankfully calmed down and dried out a bit!) and, after the Mayor of Oswestry (the one with the chain) and Jen the organiser (the one with the flag) opened the event and welcomed everyone, Sue was the first of three poets up on the bandstand to read to an enthusiastic audience. I was very proud at Pride!
If you receive the Yarndale newsletter (or have looked at the Yarndale website since Friday), you will know that I am teaching a workshop on two-colour brioche at Yarndale this year! It’s on the Saturday afternoon, 1.30-3.30pm. If you’d like to be introduced to the delights of two-colour brioche knitting and are going to be at Yarndale on the Saturday (28th September), why not book a place? You’ll have to be quick though – there are only 4 places left! I’ve updated this workshop since I last taught it and we’ll cover the basic two-colour brioche stitch, an increase and two directional decreases with lots of repetition in the swatch to help the skills bed in.
You may spot some similarity between the new workshop swatch and these cowls! I’ve been asked quite a lot recently what my simplest brioche design is for someone who hasn’t done two-colour brioche before or for someone who has done just the basic stitches but maybe didn’t want to knit a whole brioche shawl. This is my answer to that question! There are two size options in the pattern, both of which can be made with or without the garter stitch striped border. The cowl looks great worn as it is or folded in half. Not only do you have these options, but the pattern ALSO includes instructions both for knitting it flat or knitting it in the round! (Top Tip: I strongly recommend starting with knitting two colour brioche flat…)
There will be kits in a tin too, in these two colourways of Town End Yarns Poldale DK: Lime Green/Olive Green or Light Blue/Blue. Look out for them at Wool@J13, Pop Up Wool Show, Yarn Gathering and Yarndale!
The pattern is written, the samples are knitted and the photos have been taken. All I need before I can print the patterns is a name! Have you got any suggestions? Please add your pattern name suggestions in the comments. If I choose your suggestion, you will get a free copy of the pattern!
I think I mentioned before that I’m adding some more options to my Bargello Aurura pattern.
Here’s the original wrap:
There is now a cowl version as well, and I’m currently knitting the scarf sample to complete the set.
Here is the cowl!:
I love how the cowl works with the fabric folded to create overlapping points. The finished updated pattern with all three options should be available in time for the Pop Up Wool Show in August.
Yesterday I took my mum for another hospital appointment. When she was called in I stood up rapidly to push the wheelchair and heard a ripping sound. The pocket on my smock had caught on the back of one of the waiting room chair armrests and had torn. I’ve already had to mend this area of the smock once before – but it hadn’t torn so badly the first time. The smock is from The Slow Wardrobe as are many of my clothes. I had kept some fabric from a pair of black linen baggy trousers that had given up the ghost years ago, and I used that give support to the mended area. A patch, but on the inside. Once that was tacked in place I had some fun with the sewing machine. The tear is now repaired, the smock is once again wearable (and it’s at least 8 years old), my sewing machine knows I still love it, and it looks as though I’ve sewn a K around the pocket! What more could you want, really?
I’m taking her for another appointment later this week – hopefully I won’t need to mend any more clothes as a result of that one!
That’s all for today. Next week I’ll show you some of the progress I’ve been making with my Persian Tiles crochet blanket (designed by Janie Crow) and the scarf sample of Bargello Aurora. Take care all, K x
After the glorious sunshine we had at the weekend, the past couple of days have once again been cloudy, windy and sporadically wet. However, the roses are looking amazing in spite of the wind and rain and one of them is defying its name (Tottering By Gently) and attempting to grow taller than the fence it is next to! We also had a little day trip to Llandudno yesterday to help celebrate my lovely wife’s birthday – and there was, indeed, a little hint of blue sky at times in the distance. Why not have a listen to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s song, The Blue Distance while you have a read? It’s a beautiful song and very relaxing.
I spent this morning and a good chunk of the afternoon in a deep dive analysis of sales, costs and profits from the yarn shows I’ve attended so far this year. It’s quite eye-opening once you add in the mileage, the printing costs of patterns and the cost of knitting kits as well as the usual costs of show fees and accommodation. Wonderwool Wales has been my best show business-wise so far which I was expecting. It’s a huge show and we were busy all weekend. More of a surprise was that Saturday’s event in Bangor, the North Wales Wool & Fibre Festival came second! It was such a lovely day and, although we had a very early start leaving home at 6.30am, the sun was up, the A55 was actually quiet and the hour-long journey was a pleasant way to start the day. We met some new folk, all lovely and interesting people, and the whole event was very well organised by Jenny and Sophia.
This was our space in the window of what used to be Bright House in the Deiniol Shopping Centre. I didn’t get pics of many of the other stands, but these are the ones I did get. On the left is Mossy & Fern who was our stand neighbour and on the right is Saorimor:
Both weavers, but very different!
I also made a purchase! It was my first purchase at a yarn show in quite a while, but I was so intrigued by this little gadget on Tecstiliau‘s stand and then, when I saw how it worked, I was hooked!
It’s for bracelet plying when spinning. Instead of wrapping the singles around your hand and wrist (and risking losing the blood supply in the process as well as finding it very difficult to remove) you wind it around this and then remove the peg from the top when you’re ready to ply the two ends. Genius!
If you’ve seen me at a show recently, you might have noticed me walking a little less freely than usual. I’ve been experiencing plantar fasciitis (again – I had it years ago too) and it’s been quite annoying and painful. But I am hopeful that improvements will soon start to be felt. I’ve just taken delivery of these massage balls:
The spiky one is very hard plastic and the smooth one is like heavy rubber. Currently I am typing away whilst rolling the spiky ball under my foot and it feels heavenly! My foot already feels better than it has in months. Fingers crossed it will make a long-term difference. I’ll let you know!
Last week I showed you some swatches I’d been experimenting with for a knitters-new-to-brioche pattern. Well, I’ve been busy and both the knit flat and in the round samples for the pattern are completed (although I still need to weave in ends and block them), and the pattern has been written up! There are two size options and either can be made with or without the garter stitch border. The pattern (and kits) will be making an appearance in the coming months. 🥳
The colours of these cowls haven’t come out very well – the left one is two shades of blue and the right one is two shades of green with the light colour being more muted than the pic suggests! If I get better pics with morning light tomorrow I’ll update them.
Also moving its way up the ‘to do’ list and edging nearer to the needles is my update of Bargello Aurora Wrap. This gorgeous horizontally knit wrap hasn’t had quite the amount of love I feel it deserves.
I wondered whether the large number of stitches (and very long rows) might be putting some folk off, and so considered ways to extend the flexibility of the pattern. So, there will also be a cowl version and a vertically knit version of the scarf coming soon and I’m looking forward to winding this yarn up tomorrow. It’s the same yarn I knit the original sample of Bargello Aurora in, dyed by Rachel from Cat and Sparrow and it’s so gorgeous, being a single spun, superwash Blue-faced Leicester yarn. This photo has come out showing the colours exactly as they are!
There may even be progress on one of the new samples to show you next week – who knows!
Take care and enjoy the sunshine when you can, K x
Learn this amazing technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basic two colour brioche stitch, the terminology, as well as a brioche increase (and maybe even a decrease!).
Bring 5mm circular knitting needles (60-80cm long) with you. Needles must be circular for brioche knitting, though we will be knitting flat, not in the round.
Skills required – cast-on, cast-off, knit & purl.
Refreshments can be bought from the shop during the workshop.
I’m glad the wind outside has dropped since yesterday. For 24 hours we had winds over 40 miles an hour and we’ve been very lucky that nothing has been broken, just a small tree in a pot on the patio that got blown over into the border.
It was a day to settle down into the knitting. I’m working on a new design with baby alpaca laceweight yarn and I’ve very nearly finished the first section now. The photo just below the title (which you may not see if you receive this blog by email) shows a full ball of alpaca on the left for comparison and what was a full ball on Friday morning on the right. There’s 12g (of 50g) of that ball remaining currently (along with four full ones).
I was hoping to start it while I was at Mum’s last week, but I didn’t have anything appropriate for a provisional cast-on with me. When you do a provisional cast-on (i.e. one that will later be undone so the live stitches that remain can be picked up) you need a yarn that won’t felt or stick to your main yarn. One that isn’t fluffy, or too thick – for something that is referred to as ‘waste yarn’ it is funny how important it is to have the right characteristics. Once I got home I had the pick of my 4ply leftovers and a merino superwash 4ply that I knew to be quite slippy was the perfect choice.
Because I couldn’t get started on that project at Mum’s, I worked on the other project I’d taken with me (I don’t make the mistake of only taking one project away with me anymore), so there has been quite a bit of progress on my Persian Tiles blanket, designed by Janie Crow. I’m following the original colourway more or less, using West Yorkshire Spinners ColourLab DK – do follow the Persian Tiles link to check out some of the other colourways!
I know they look like flowers now, but they will ultimately become octagons.
I blocked my final sample before Wonderwool over the weekend. Petulia came out in September with RiverKnits. It’s really two patterns in one as the different sizes of the shawl are also different shapes. RiverKnits have kits for sale for both sizes on their website. I recently finished knitting the smaller, symmetrical version of the pattern and I’m really pleased with it. Both versions of the shawl use the same lacy brioche leaf motif, in different arrangements.
Photos were taken yesterday and added to the pattern, so the front cover looks a little different than it did seven months ago, but it is the same pattern inside (with a couple of previous typos also now corrected). Now you get to see both versions on the front cover!
Copies have been printed and I will have them with me at WonderWool – and, if you want to use the same yarns I did (Chimera and Nene 4ply from RiverKnits), you’ll be able to buy those directly from RiverKnits who will also be at the show!
Petulia is the third of my Discworld named shawls that I designed for RiverKnits. The first two were published in September 2022; Agnes and Tiffany. These two designs ‘bookend’ the designs on my Shawl & Scarf Patterns page, being the first and last alphabetically.
Preparations are nearly complete for WonderWool (I think). I’ve got to the point where I’ve updated my packing list and started drawing possible stand layouts on squared paper – the stand is 10 x 14 feet – that’s nearly as big as our lounge! As I think I mentioned previously, I’m trying to get ahead of myself as I don’t know if I’ll need to do any extra trips down to Mum’s before the show. If Sugar Loaf (the adult version of Honeybun Cardigan) is back from the tech editor in time to print I’ll bring that with me too. I may bring the sample with me anyway even if the pattern isn’t printed and ready to sell, so folk can see how the design works on a ‘grown-up’ scale. The photos below were all taken at the same time and the colour has come out differently in each one. I would say the reality is nearest to the top left image.
I spent quite a bit of time on Friday working on my website, setting up a WooCommerce store, and getting the first few products uploaded. I then realised that every time I pressed ‘publish’ for one it was sent out as a social media post! That would have been fine, except neither the basket or checkout pages would load on mobile devices, so it wasn’t really working. I turned the product pages into drafts and tried to find out what the problem was, but it seemed to make a few other things go wonky instead. And then I couldn’t check whether the basket worked without pressing publish again – and getting another social media post going out (to four different platforms, no less)…
Anyway, by Saturday lunchtime I still couldn’t fix it and it seemed weird to have a ‘basket’ option on the main menu of the website when you couldn’t add anything to said basket. Also, in the process of all this, the Payhip pop-up window plug-in stopped working as it was incompatible with something ‘Woo’. You can possibly imagine my joy frustration.
So! I have deactivated the WooCommerce store again for now. The price buttons on my pattern pages take you directly to the relevant product in my Payhip store now, rather than giving you a pop-up Payhip checkout window, and you can add patterns from my whole store to a basket and check it all out at the same time, which is useful if you did want more than one pattern.
I will investigate the WooCommerce option again at some point, but possibly when my head is clearer and things aren’t so busy.
Excellent news this week is that my lovely wife, Sue Finch, has had her second full collection of poetry published. Welcome to the Museum of a Life is available from her Payhip store, Amazon and all good book stores – your local bookshop can order it for you if you give them the title and author.
That’s all from me for today. I hope you all have as good a week as you can and that you get a chance to do some stuff that makes you happy. Take care, K x
