Wonderwool

A massive thank you to everyone who came and squeezed themselves in to my stall at Wonderwool. I seemed to spend most of Saturday stood out in the middle of the aisle, and it was great to see so many people oohing and ahhing over 3 months worth of hard work. Neext year I will see about getting a bigger stall so I can fit a few more of you in! I put my heart and soul in to HilltopCloud, and it was the first time I'd had feedback from people in person, I still have a happy little glow when I think about it! If you braved the weather on Sunday, then thank you for your patience, by lunchtime I was really getting chilly, and thinking longingly of a hot bath, and a warm bed. Now I just need to get ready to do it all again up at the Lake District and Woolfest at the end of June.

Wonderwool

I'm about to start packing up the van to take to Wonderwool Wales.
The shop is off-line over the weekend but I'll be back on Monday and hope to be able to add some new things for you (thought hopefully not too many!)

Cleaning Up

I'm having a day off today, everything is ready for Wonderwool, so I decided that a little time to relax probably wasn't a bad thing.
We've also had the building inspector here to sign off on the barn, so I escaped in to the sunshine to walk with the dogs. Once we got back I pulled out all the spinning wheels for their annual spring clean. The Traveller is hopefully going to a new home at Wonderwool so I wanted to give it a good clean and make sure it was spinning nicely for it's new owner. Over the winter it's easy not to notice the layer of dust and grime that develops in the nooks and crannies, but in the spring sunshine they were all looking rather grubby. They all had a wipe down, all the old oil has been wiped off, and they've had a fresh coat of Danish Oil to help stop the wood from drying out. They all look so much better for a bit of tlc, and will probably spin more smoothly as well.

I hope to see some of you at Wonderwool, and for everyone else, the shop will be updated when I get back and unpack.

PS. New postage prices come in to effect next week, this particularly affects European customers so if there's something you have your eye on then now might be a good time.

April Frost Showers

It's been a strange spring. March was stupidly hot, and April seems to have decided to take it's place. We've had snow, and quite a few very hard frosts. The seedlings that were safe in the polytunnel didn't take too kindly to the cold weather, and quite a few have been killed by the frost.
The other day I woke up to see my windows completely covered in beautiful patterns.

I wonder what May will bring?

Country Living

Warning, not a post for the squeamish....


Mum is the gardener round here, I dabble, and can wield a spade as well as the next person, but the garden is Mum's domain. Spring is coming round here so there's been lots of digging and planting.
Two days ago she was setting up her Asparagus bed, and had emptied out the compost heap to add in to the soil as they were planted.

Rats and other vermin are a fact of life round here. We live next to the main road, and the rats come out of the drains and up in to our garden. They like to eat the spilt bird food, and live in our compost heaps. We generally know where a current nest is because our dog Gwen sniffs them out.  If we are not to end up with a plague of rats we have to do something about them. The something usually involves traps, and poison bait.

We knew there were rats in this compost bin because Gwen had been trying to dig them out for a couple of weeks. Mum got half way through digging the bin out and found these.

Twelve baby rats... who won't grow up in to adult rats, their Mum would have abandoned them, and their warm nest was destroyed. In the open air they will die of cold very quickly. They went over the hedge and nature took it's course. By now they'll be food for a hungry predator. 

What to do about the rabbit warren that seems to be appearing in the back garden is not quite so simple. At the moment we're blocking off the holes with rocks, but they don't seem to be getting the hint... A more drastic solution may be required :(

Shop Talk

I've been busy carding for the past 3 days. Turning a drum carder to prepare 3 kg of fibre gives you a lot of time to think...
I've been thinking, there's been a few upsets with in the UK fibre world, a couple of yarn shops (bricks and mortar, but with an online presence, have gone out of business), and the giant ACM debacle just keeps rumbling on.
A few more prominent yarn dyers have written a few posts recently that have made me think, this one, by Posh Yarn's Dee, about customer service, and this one, by Natalie of The YarnYard, about targets and resolutions.

Those posts, coupled with a customer service incident regarding something I bought that left me incandescent with rage, have been churning round in my head.

I believe in treating my customers how I would like to be treated.
If someone is not happy about something I have sold them I will do my level best to put it right. I make mistakes, I am human, give me a chance to fix them, and I will. Email works best, but Etsy convo's and Ravelry messages are ok if that's what you'd rather do.

I work hard at this business, I have grown it from nothing in the space of just under a year. I am extraordinarily proud of what I have achieved, but I do have a few rules for myself.
What you see, in the shop, is usually what I have in stock. I don't overcommit myself, this is a one-woman show, and it won't do anyone any good for me to be over stretched.

The same thing applies to the fibre club, there are only 22 spaces, I'm certain it could be bigger if I wanted, but there's only so much of the same sort of fibre I can face prepping in one go. This way, I stay in control, I only have to take a few days out of my regular schedule to get the parcels ready (I do have plans for a different sort of club that has the potential to be bigger though)

I owe it to myself to pay myself a decent wage. Since I started, I have put prices up, some things have got more expensive, others I was massively undercharging for. I will keep looking at prices, doing the sums, and deciding wether I am being fair to myself, and to you. Some things won't need to increase in price, because I can buy more of them, I can get the raw ingredients cheaper. I started the business using my final wage packet from teaching, things have grown a lot since then.

Growing the business is important to me, but I am realistic, there is only so far that I will be able to expand, and acknowledging that is important, a lot of businesses go bump because they grow too fast, and beyond their limits.

In short, the past year has been fantastic, I want to keep having fantastic years, and I hope I'll get to share a few more years with you as my customers.

Packing Assistants

Gwen would like you to know that no parcels are sent out until they've been personally inspected by her. In return all she would like is a tummy tickle!

Meg, on the other hand, just needs 40 more winks, and that this pillow is a rather nice place to have them!

In all seriousness, I have now delegated parcel packing to an assistant (aka my Mum). It was becoming quite a time consuming job, and that time was better spent with me doing jobs that only I can do. She mostly packs the parcels first thing in the morning, before the dogs get walked, so they come and help. 

They're confined to my bed, and keep the wrapped up parcels company, all the loose stuff stays well away from the fluff shedders!