We arrived early at Skipton auction mart. This was a first for us and gave us time to relax after the drive, eat our lunch (and be chased by a wasp) and chat to fellow vendors who were also there early before the roller shutters went up.
We always forget just how big the building is, but you soon remember when you’re wheeling the trolley up and down the aisles! It took us an hour to get everything unloaded out of the cars.
And then set up began! The roll of black fabric we’d bought having seen someone else use it last year was brilliant for covering the sides of the pens and giving us a backdrop – and was much easier to put up than trying to pin sheets to the rails! It’s the same stuff that is used for the underneath of furniture and also as weed suppressant. We could cable tie it to the rails – and used gaffer tape on the section without rails.
As you can see getting the backdrop up was just the start!
But by 6.15pm we were done! The next photo was actually taken on Saturday as we had chosen to leave the patterns in the cases overnight to avoid them getting spoiled by any rain that might come in or condensation dripping from the metal rafters.
Having a double stand was definitely the right decision – loads of room meant that lots of people could browse and that helped sales too.
Lots of fun was had during the weekend with various vendors joining in the “swish or waft?” game with Meg March Shawl – there are some cracking videos on Sue’s socials. It was also lovely that so many people stopped by to say hello – friends, people who have been on previous workshops, returning customers, fellow tech editors and readers of this blog. If you were one of them – thank you.
My workshops were both fully booked and went well. Neither photo below includes everyone’s progress as some folk had to leave before the photos were taken, but there are now more knitters in the world who can do stacked stitches and two-colour brioche!
I’m teaching brioche again at the Montgomery Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers in a couple of weeks and then again at Stafford Wool Gathering – that workshop is now sold out too!
The best selling patterns at the show were the usual suspects: Nevern Throw, Lichfield and Tiffany. It was good to see Ice Diamond Mitts getting plenty of attention too.
Not for the first time, several people asked if there was an adult version of Caramel Slice and there isn’t.
This has made me decide that now is the time to remedy this! The original child’s version was knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK (a blend of Tencel and Falklands wool), but, as WYS is in the process of being sold to new buyers, I decided to use a different DK yarn for the adult version. I’ve chosen Yarnsmiths Superwash Merino DK and selected some gorgeous colours this morning. I’ve gone for ‘Copper’ as the main colour which is a deep rich colour like Parkin or gingerbread, paired with ‘Carrot’ and ‘Vanilla Fudge’. I’ve recently used the ‘tweeds’ version of this yarn for another design and really liked it, so I’m hoping this non-tweedy one will be just as soft and lovely. As this design isn’t a commission I’ll be able to share the process and my progress with you which is quite exciting!
I’m sitting on my chair in the lounge writing this on my phone today for a couple of reasons. It’s warmer in here and I’m a feeling bit under the weather (probably my body’s reaction to knowing that the 3 deadlines and 3 events of this month have now all happened!) and also there is a big box on the floor in the study that needs sorting out and if I write my blog in another room I won’t be distracted by that.
When we were about to start packing up on Sunday when the rain came down with such ferocity that it even came through the wooden slats that made up the upper part of the wall above our stand. All the samples that were near the wall got a bit damp and so they were packed in a separate bag from everything else and are now spread out around the bungalow to air and dry properly – I don’t want musty smelling samples!
On Thursday Part One of Autumn Dahlia knit-along will be released in issue 233 of The Knitter!
You may have seen the special subscription offer they have been promoting on social media with it. It’s a three part knit-along using LangYarns Naturalis. This is a yarn dyed using natural dyes and is a very lightly spun single ply yarn. It’s listed as an aran/worsted weight yarn although I thought it felt more substantial than that while was using it. The shawl is worked on a 7mm needle. I’ll be sharing lots of pics of this with you next week.
What have you been up to this week? Did any of you come to Yarndale? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! K x
