Spring.... or not

Last year I was sat outside, in shorts and t-shirt. 

I think if I did that this year I'd be suffering from serious frost bite!

It started snowing on thursday night, and it's not really stopped since. It was forecast, but I didn't think we'd be looking at this much! The main road is clear, but the cars are stuck at the bottom of our drive, fingers crossed we can dig them out, particularly as the temperatures are due to drop once the snow stops. Here's hoping I can get out to post parcels on Monday morning...

We keep getting mini avalanches off the roof, which keeps me on my toes, the sound of the snow falling and hitting the roof of the back passage is quite startling. 

On the plus side, the delivery man bought my wool delivery yesterday, so I have plenty of new fibre to play with!

Skip North

This weekend I took a bit of time out away from the pressures of work. It's only 5 weeks until Wonderwool, and the next few weeks are going to be rather busy.
I went up to Skip North, it's a knitty and spinny social gathering, based in Haworth Youth Hostel (the village where the Brontes lived). There's trips to local fibre and yarn suppliers, and workshops, and generally a chance to share my passion for all things wooly with like minded individuals.

First stop of the day on Saturday was Texere, this is a huge emporium of yarn of every type. I particularly like their Troon Tweed oiled aran weight, and hatched a plan involving some cones of linen....

That afternoon we got to go on a steam train, I've not been on one since I was a child, so taht was a real treat. The line we went along was the one used in the filming of The Railway Children, and still has lots of period features from the heyday of steam travel in the Victorian era.

Some features are from later in the Railway's history, this advertising sign in particular made me smile!

Star of the show, was of course the steam train itself, a great big black monster, belching steam and smoke. I only wish the ride lasted longer, but before you knew it we were back in Haworth, and it was time to get off. 

Sunday was a trip over to see  Wingham Woolwork, with the added highlight of some rather pretty scatterings of snow on the moors, but before I knew it I was on my way back home again, purse lighter, stomach full of cake, and feeling ready to get back to work. 

The shop will be a bit light on updates over the next few weeks, but odd bits and pieces will no doubt appear from time to time. Make sure you come over and check out the Ravelry group, and I'll let you know when I add new things. 

An eggcident

Something clearly went wrong here....

Yesterday I went to the nest box to collect the eggs and very nearly missed this miniature egg. It's definitely from the chickens as it's shell matches their normal eggs, but it's tiny, about the size of a cadbury mini egg. Normally they lay creme egg sized eggs (on the top left), which given my bantams are half the size of an ordinary hen is still pretty impressive, there's a normal egg on the right for scale. 

Who knows what happened, the egg itself is normal, with a yolk, it's just like it's been shrunk however. The chickens are there usual perky selves, with the exception of the one who has gone broody already, so I don't think it's a problem, just a rather intriguing bit of chicken biology!

Goodies in the post...

Look what arrived today!

Two new drum carders from Paul at Classic Carders. These are on long term loan for me to take out and about with me when I run workshops.  It's a good relationship for both of us, I have more carders for the workshops, and people get to try out Paul's carders who might not have seen them before. The UK fibre industry is great like this, for the most part businesses are highly supportive of one another. When things like the huge postal rises get announced we tend to band together and try to work out how to get round things. 

I've been working on a semi-secret project with Paul for a while now, and hopefully he'll be launching that something new at Wonderwool. I love working with Paul, he's passionate about what he does, and strives for the absolute best in every single carder that he sends out of the workshop (these 2 are supposedly cosmetic seconds because of a blemish on the wood and I can't find the blemish anywhere!). He actually lives just over the border from me, I visited his workshop last summer and we had a lovely discussion about how he started his business, and the technicalities of drum carders.

I use a Classic for all the carding I do for my shop, and hands down it's the carder I recommend. They work fantastically, Paul's customer service is great, and they're made in the UK.
I'll be taking these 2 around the country with me over the next few months, so they'll be put to the test by lots of people.

Spring Inspiration

I just started a colour inspiration thread over on my Ravelry group. (If you're not a member come join us). Sometimes my brain starts to run a bit empty on the colours I want to use, and I love taking inspiration from pictures, so thought I'd ask others to see what they like.

My friend Katherine posted this picture

Isn't it gorgeous? It's one of her bees drinking nectar from some early spring flowers. The bees are just starting to come out again after the cold winter. In sunny weather like we have today our hives are buzzing away like crazy, and the bees are heading off foraging, even at this time of year they can usually find something that's flowering. That's partly why it's really important we plant a variety of things in our garden, at this time of year the bees need a source of food, they're run down after the winter, and are possibly at their most vulnerable. This blogpost highlights exactly what we should be growing. 

I chose to pull out the colour at the tips of the unopened buds, I took a pale yellow, a pale green, and some white, and added a sprinkle of pink angelina.

It's a bit more obvious in this photo

Perfect for spring spinning.

There are still a few batts left in the shop from last night's update, but most of them sold really quickly, if you want to get an email in your inbox when I do updates in the future the mailing list signup is over on the right sidebar.

Plastic Fantastic

This weekend at Unravel I was trying out a new device.
It's a way of taking card payments, using my iPad. Conventional card terminals that you get in shops don't work out to be very cost effective for small businesses like me. I do less than 6 shows a year, and go months during the winter where I do no shows at all, if you have a conventional card terminal you're stuck with paying rental agreements, and contacts involving set fees.

This however, changes all that, there's no hire fee, no monthly cost, and it means I can accept cards for pretty much the same fee as it costs me to take a payment using paypal.

It's a chip and pin reader that connects to my iPad using bluetooth, and then processes payments just like a regular card terminal. 

I use the iPad to key in the amount, the card slots in the bottom of the reader, you enter your pin to authorise the payment, the iPad talks to your bank over a 3G signal, just like a regular mobile card terminal, and it's as simple as that. 

I used the chip and signature version at Unravel, and it worked flawlessly. I picked iZettle because they were one of the first options available in the UK, but there's more companies offering this sort of device all the time. I know quite a few fellow indie dyers and fibre artists have one, or are getting one, so I think it's going to be a pretty common sight at UK festivals this year. It's just as secure as using a regular mobile card terminal like this one, but an awful lot cheaper for a small business like me. 

I'd always rather take payments in cash as there's no fee for me to pay cash in at my bank, but if you are coming to a show, and would rather pay for something by card, you do now have that option. 

Oh, and just so this isn't an all shop talk post, here's a chicken picture!

They spotted me head outside to take pictures of my new toy, and headed over to check if I had any food. As soon as they realised I hadn't they resumed digging up the vegetable beds. For little birds they manage to send soil flying everywhere as you can see in the blur of dirt and feathers!

A shop update with lots of batts is on it's way tomorrow, and I'll be putting up pre-orders for my Odin's Ravens colourways as well. 

Shows

The calendar for 2013 is looking pretty full. Nearly every month for this year I'll be heading off to various parts of the country for a show or event. The full list of where I'll be is here.

The first show is Unravel in just 3 days time, things are pretty much ready, all the fibre is dyed and carded, and ready to be packed in the van. This has meant the shop has been a bit neglected recently, but when I get back I'm planning on spending a bit of time restocking the shelves.

Not too much time though, because in 2 months time (April) I'll be off to my local show, Wonderwool Wales, probably my favourite of all the fibre festivals. I've got a bigger stand this year, so I've moved along an aisle from where I was last time, still in roughly the same part of the building though.

After that comes the grandaddy of British wool shows at the end of June, Woolfest was the original UK fibre festival, this year I'm hoping for slightly better weather! I'll be in exactly the same spot as last year, hopefully minus the leaky roof.

One month later in July I'll be at FibreEast in Bedford. I went as a visitor last year on a very muddy Sunday, but this year they've moved to a brand new indoor venue.

In August the Association of Guilds of Weaver, Spinners and Dyers Summer School is being held just down the road from me in Carmarthen. At the end of the week they hold a trade fair for local suppliers, and on Saturday 10th August the fair is open to the general public.

In September I'll be at a brand new event, Yarndale in Skipton, Yorkshire. There are already lots of great suppliers signed up to attend, so it looks like being a fabulous weekend.

October is looking like being a busy month, the start of October is the All Wales Guild event, this is in Llanidloes at the Minerva Centre. And finally, we twisted Antje's arm and there's going to be a Glasgow School of Yarn this year. No more details about that one, but keep an eye out for further announcements, there's usually a stellar cast of teachers (Amy Singer from Knitty, Woolly Wormhead, and Liz Lovik last year) offering workshops, and I'm sure this year will be no exception!

I love going to shows, both as a purchaser and an exhibitor. If you've never made it along to an event I really recommend it, there's something happening nearly everywhere in the country now. There's usually a corner where people are sitting creating, sharing skills and enabling others. Some of the big shows like Wonderwool and Woolfest have a designated interactive area where you can try drum carding, hackling, and generally ask for help on any particular skill. There's also nothing like seeing things in person. I always have a huge range of colours and fibres with me at shows, far more than is listed in the shop at any one point in time, and there are a few fantastic suppliers who don't have web shops.
If you do come along to a show, please stop by and say hello, I love meeting internet people in the flesh.

P.S. You're not too late to leave me a comment here, and win yourself a copy of Yarnmaker.

PPS. 20/2/13 Just picked the winner of the copy of Yarnmaker, I gave all the comments except mine a number and used a random number generator, which picked comment number 2, which is Joanne. Joanne, an email should be in your inbox.