Cannot think of a better way to summarise my last couple of weeks. Wonderwool was great; what a buzz. Then I spent a week with our daughter in the US, visiting family and spending some quality time together, away from younger brothers (life-saving when you usually have to share your mum with 2 loud 7yr olds).  No time for jet lag after our Monday return, because today was the formal brief of the book designer, followed by a full day photo shoot tomorrow. It’s all taking shape, there’s still lots of work to be done but it’s also incredibly exciting. In the meantime, if my shop is giving you any headaches, don’t hesitate to drop me a line (linda.deruiter@tiscali.co.uk). I’d love to hear from you. I promise to order any out of stock itrems this week, in time for Ravelry Day and Woolfest in June, both hurtling towards us with frightening speed. Hope to see you there!

Wonderwool was such a joy; I love these shows and got lots of positive feedback again on the kits. Even some kit-buyers promising to come find me at Woolfest in June to show me the results of their efforts; I am really looking forward to that!

In the meantime, we are going full throttle on finishing our work on the book. Editing the last pages, briefing the illustrator, meeting with the designer and having scheduled a full day photoshoot, I am now knitting the last design… I won’t know what to do with myself (wishful thinking!) once the pressure of looming deadlines eases off. I am about to spend a week together with my girl, awa from her little brothers, some quality mother-and-daughter time. We did this last year and both enjoyed it so much that we vowed to repeat it if possible. So, at the start of the year I booked the time, thinking the book would be finished by now (oh, the naivity of inexperience…). Litle did I know I’d be juggling like mad by now to fit everything around it. And then came the Swineflu panic at the start of the week, nearly crossing our plans (which include some flying). Part of me was very sad, part of me was calculating how much extra work I’d be able to get done if my week away was to be replaced by a no-meetings-scheduled week at home.

On the website front, I’ve finally managed to add the 6 new colours to the kits, so you are no longer restricted to the colour combinations of the first 6 colours in the range. And I’ve added more different undyed yarns, so if you’re after any of the yarns I showed at Wonderwool, they’re in the shop now (not all with pictures, but hey, one hank of undyed yarn looks pretty much the same as the next one; I cen’t picture the feel of them unfortunately. Fingers crossed it all works when ordering. Do let me know if it doesn’t.

Somehow, I manage to Twitter a lot more than I blog. If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, visit www.twitter.com and look for Tall Yarns (of course!).

I received my first edited book pages last week. What a ride. I’ve never "been edited" before; or at least not by a professional…

Turns out that my use of exclamation marks, capitals and lots of dots is rather over the top… well, I’m a self-confessed drama queen after all. And I thrive on pressure (adrenalin junkie as well, yes). So true to form I find myself losing sleep over the fact that the site is still not updated, my stand banner still not painted, and my list of must-knit items steadily growing. So here I am on Tuesday morning well before 7 am, computer buzzing, in an attempt to catch up with myself, despite the Easter school holidays. P’s off to Sweden (I’m envious; I love Sweden) so I’m relatively housebound unless I come up with some thrilling kids’ excursions. But we’ve just spent a day at the Hawk Conservancy near Andover  (please all go, and then decide to join as a member once you are there; you will not regret it) and our eldest is lining up an array of sleepovers this week. That’s all the excuses I need to get on with my work, so P’s early departure soon propelled me out of bed. I must admit that the clear blue sky helped as well, together with the radio 4 weather forecast, promising warm weather. Hurray, Summer’s on its way!

Four days of talking to other knitters, sharing stories, explaining about dyeing yarn yourself, coo-ing over the softest chunky yarn I’ve ever felt and coming home with lots of email addresses to contact once the book is out. I’m thrilled by your enthusiasm, support, compliments and encouragement. I’ll be adding everything I had at the show (some of which you cannot see in the shop yet) to the shop pages. If you miss anything, please do shout.

I will also add a new page called Tips, Tricks and Freebies, where I’ll start publishing exactly that. First in line is an easy pattern for bottom-up socks with a short-row heel, which is an easy alternative to the more common heel-flap-and-gusset.

Although I was sleeping wewell after the first 3 show days, I found myself tossing and turning last night, mind whirring with ideas and inspiration to make my dauntingly massive stand at Wonderwool work as best as I can (given that I’m on my own and by myself for the duration…) I love the challenge of it and have more ideas than I can probably execute, but who cares, I’m having a blast. If you can, do come and see me there or at any of the others shows where I’ll be this year. I’ll keep updating the list on the home page of my site. For now, see you all again soon and roll on Wonderwool!

Well, the Spring show season is upon us. I’m replenishing my stocks and gearing up for the second show (after a fantastic first show at Unravel in Farnham at the end of Feb.). That’ll be Stitch and Craft  this coming week at Olympia, London, from 19 to 22 March. I’ve put a little section on the home page with upcoming shows that I’ll keep updated. 2 more shows to be added there soon (fingers crossed).

The knitting groups I run here in Grayshott are humming as well. Must find out how to publish those on Ravelry, to help people find their way to us…

In the meantime, the microwave is doing overtime (and so am I!) to dye a complete set of samples for next week in the 6 new colours I am adding to the range this Spring. So the Helen Deighan All in one Acid Dyes will now consist of a range of 12 colours rather than 6. I will add the new shades to the shop this coming week (as soon as I have some pictures of my swatches).

If you can, do come and see me at Stitch and Craft in London next week. I’m downstairs right next to the escalators!

Okay, first the bad: this site is looking sad, what with all the blurb running along the top (trying to sort that out today!) and no news, updates or dates posted….
I have kept my head down to finish writing the book that I am co-authoring.
Sincere public apologies to Eve (trusty knitting group member), who did not get my email about stopping the knitting group during the darkest months and turned up to an empty pub…
It turned out I had an incorrect email address on file (which doesn’t come back as undeliverable, so someone, somewhere will be wondering why on earth I keep contacting her about this knitting group….) but contact was restored at Unravel so I hope I haven’t done permanent damage.

And then there’s lots of good:

THE BOOK
We’re nearly finished! The book will be ready at about April/May time. I promise to shout it from the rooftops once i have a date and list it in the shop for sale.

KNITTING GROUPS
We will be resuming the evening knitting group on Monday nights at the Fox and Pelican pub, in the centre of Grayshott. First meeting: 2 March, from 7.30 pm.
I will also start a daytime group, at the new coffee shop behind the Post Office in Grayshott. Dates and times to be confirmed shortly.

FIRST SHOW OF THE YEAR
The first one was this past weekend, Unravel in Farnham. A new, one day event, which went down a complete storm, both with visitors and stand holders. Smiles all around. Due to the stomach bug that completely floored me on Friday (that was a first!), I wasn’t able to build the stand on Friday afternoon, so I made due with a very rudimentary set up that I quickly threw together on Saturday morning with help from my best pal in the world. By 11:30 (!!!), i.e. 90 minutes after the show opened, I knew I was going to sell out…I brought back some DK yarn, a couplle of sets of knitting needles and a handful of pots of dye. THANK YOU to the extremely patient customers waiting to be served AND the ones happily agreeing to only have their goodies sent out to them this week. I promise it’ll be worth your wait.

OTHER SHOWS COMING UP
March: Thurs 19 – Sun 22 Stitch and Craft Show, Olympia 2, London
April: Sat 25 – Sun 26 Wonderwool, Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells, Wales
June: Fri 26 – Sat 27 June. Mitchells Lakeland Livestock Centre, Cockermouth, Cumbria, CA13 0QQ
Aug: Sat 22 – Sun 23, Fibrefest, Coldharhour Mill, Uffculme, Devon (TBC!)
Sept: Sat 12 – Sun 13: iKnit London (TBC!)
Oct: Thurs 8 – Sun 11, Knitting and Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, London
Nov: Thurs 19 – Sun 22, Knitting and Stitching Show Harrogate
I will change my home page to add a panel with upcoming events to keep these in the limelight and make it easy to find updates.

THE SHOP
More yarns, patterns and kits are on their way and will be added in the next couple of weeks. Yarn tasters: more Sock yarns, Boucle, Alpaca, Aran and Chunky weights AND 6 new dye colours!

PRESS AND PR
I have started talking to the magazines, who have all reacted with enormous enthusiasm to the concept of the book – the idea of combining dyeing the yarn and knitting the garment in one project – so in the course of this Spring, you will start seeing Tall Yarns ‘n Tales in the media. Do look out for it!

REGULAR UPDATES
As I no longer have to focus as much on the book, I will post regular updates both in the shop as well as on the blog, so do keep an eye out and I’ll re-introduce the Live Feed button, so you can subscribe to automatice updates. Tata for now.

We road-tested the concept of dyeing and knitting kits at the big Autumn shows and were blown away by the positive reactions! We’ve received the first pictures of scrumptiously dyed hanks of wool  from enthusiastic first-time dyers and then Christmas came and went in a flurry of wool, dye and needles.

Thank you so much for the big thumbs up from everyone to date. Please keep the feedback coming. We are rounding off the writing part of the book in the next month or so and some of your feedback has already led to changes in the instructions to make sure there is no room for different interpretation and all the roadsigns appear whn you need them when you’re starting your first journey as a yarn dyer.

We are finalising the new, complementary Spring 09 colours in Helen’s collection of dyes. Watch this space…
And yes, I know the website needs atention in the form of updates and mending of some broken links. I will attend to it as soon as possible. In the meantime, do drop me a line if you get stuck, whether it’s during ordering or once you’re playing with the dyes. Thank you for your patience and as always keep knitting…

Thank you to all who gave me such wonderful feedback at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace the last 4 days. The pre-launch of my knitting kits and dyeing starter packs was so well received and you voted with both words and purchases. It well surpassed my expectations, so I was on cloud nine. Not for long, as I discovered that my mini-webshop does not seem to be fully operational and I have no idea why. Please bear with me while I try to sort it out FAST! Pictures of the different dye colours on offer are also on their way. In the meantime, let me have your comments, thoughts, feedback. I’d love to hear from you.

I am THRILLED with this new look! Visiting friends from Holland (web developers – www.lefthandmedia.com) spent hours behind the screen yesterday after I asked them to help me add the necessary software that will allow me to start selling products. Not only did they do that, they agreed that things as they were didn’t look like the business I am launching. This new look was the result. So I have started putting all the info together to be able to add working product pages (with the option to buy on line!). It’ll take some days all together, but it should all be up and running by the end of this week (famous last words…)

And then of course there is the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace NEXT WEEK. Eeeek! I’m living day by day, not thinking too much about everything that still has to happen before then. Has anyone out there ever decided to start preparing a pre-launch only 5 weeks before THE DAY?

I spent 3 days at the Knitting & Stitching Show at the NEC and that was enough…we decided that it would be too good an opportunity to miss not to sell anything before the book’s out. Which would mean missing the entire sales period between now and X-mas. With my kits being he PERFECT present and Helen already having booked a stand at Ally Pally, how could we even contemplate not sticking toes in the water to test the temperature?
As for footfall, the NEC was a lot less busy than usual. Helen was doing alright, but there were lots of fallen faces amongst the stand holders. It just gave us more time to think, brainstorm and plan.

So, since the NEC I’ve been ordering stock, have commissioned the design of my logo and we’ve been able to get a bigger stand at Ally Pally. A corner no less! We’ll be in the Pavillion (where the workshops are and the cafe). I think we’ll be stand number RC F1. This last moment change means Helen’s stand details in the Show catalogue are not correct. She waves that away, but I know how fantastic it is that she’s happy to take it in her stride for the sake of our little venture!

We spent Tuesday all day doing dyeing trials to narrow down our dye collection for the Ally Pally launch. This means that this show doesn’t just see the launch of Tall Yarns ‘n Tales, but also the first ever selection of Helen Deighan Dyes! I am thrilled with this news. Helen is SUCH an experienced dyer and with such an eye for colour….and finally, after years of patience from her loyal following, they’ll be able to take some of her colour-whizz home.

In the meantime I also want to ensure that people have somewhere to go AFTER seeing my wares at Ally Pally, so I’m pushing to have a webshop up and running in time for the show. Of course all this has resulted in me chucking my new health routine by the wayside…not good. I haven’t been to Pilates in 3 weeks and I can’t see me returning before the show either. Okay, enough lamenting. On with some site building!