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!

…there IS lots of action, but it’s not very visible here yet…

I’ve changed computers and I kept telling myself that my next post should be written on my “new” (secondhand) gadget, believing that what was stopping me was having to re-install the blog software on my new computer…only just found out that OF COURSE NOT, it sits on a remote server and all I had to do was type in the correct URL on my new pc and log in….one of those typical stumbles when trying to start up a business without any upfront capital…

Okay, enough with the … already. This was not meant to be a reflective piece, but a quick update. My first Chinese order of bamboo knitting needles is winging its way here as we speak, so I’d better get a move on setting up shop here, as my knitting group on Monday evenings will probably reach saturation point on the needle front long before I run out of needles!

We are remortgaging and my friends keep reassuring me that a knitting shop in our little village would be commercially viable, so in my bravest moments I dream of having the courage to increase the mortgage amount and pump money into my own little retail niche. That’s as far as I go though, despite the number of people who tell me that “I’ll manage to make a success of it”.

Apart from that, I am making good progress on the design front and have started the design of a lacy shawl yesterday evening. I am trying to write down my trials as I go so I’m not left having to write up everything at the end. That posed my with the choice between doing a chart for each section vs. a verbal write up of the different stitches. I went with the chart so as to give at least SOME visual clue of what one is knitting. I hope it works! (nearly went for … again there. Maybe I’m just in a reflective mood and didn’t know it yet!) Tomorrow I’ll pick up my parents from the airport. We’re all looking forward to seeing them again and it means we’re THAT much closer to the KNITTING CONFERENCE in Winchester next week. Check out www.intheloop.soton.ac.uk/ - 3 days of knitting immersion, I can’t believe it. Really looking forward to it! I’ll probably come back with 3 times as much inspiration as I can ever turn into action or design. Yippee!

I’ll hope to post again before I go there. As well as work out how to post my Knit in Public picture. If ever! Until such time: happy knitting and remember, if you do live close to Grayshott, come and join us at the Fox & Pelican on Monday evenings between 7 and 9 for friendly faces, stitches and chat!

I’m either too busy or part of me has entered a state of mind I usually associate with middle age… how do I know? I currently say “Oh-deary-me!” a number of times a day. Every day…
Truth of it is that I really HAVE been rushed off my feet lately. I’ve represented both my better half and myself on most days in the course of the past 2 weeks to help my in-laws to get ready for their house move. The good news: they’ve moved. The bad: they’re both so exhausted from the upheaval that I think it’ll take them months to get properly settled…so I’ve kept going and kept helping after the move as well. Which I really can’t afford. In terms of time stolen from the rest of my life that is. Even my better half commented that, “although I really appreciate all my hard work you do for my parents, I wish you were as motivated  do that kind of work in our own place…” Bit of jealousy there, how funny! Still, the man’s got a point; we’ve had a list of things to do in and on the house as long as my arm for as long as I remember. And he very nearly DID run out of ironed shirts last week.

More importantly though and a bit closer to my heart, I “borrowed” a knitting machine from a friend of a friend MORE than a year ago, with the solid intention to try it out and, if it’s in good working order, buy it. The owner of the machine is an elderly lady. I’ve now had the machine for so long that even I am starting to give up on the mere idea of even finding the time to try it, let alone keep it to work with it. But, what’s more worrying, I now wonder whether I have kept it too long to even contemplate giving it back, but paying for a machine that may not even work seems daft. And what if she dies before I stop procrastinating about it…?
So just before I go mental, talking myself into a complete tailspin, I rejoice in the fact that, if this is the most important of my problems, I’m still a very lucky, spoilt brat. On that note, I count my blessings and distract myself with a happier thought…
My new toy for example; a second hand laptop that I scored on eBay. As I’m rushed off my feet, I still haven’t finished installing all necessary software on it (most notably, the software that drives this blog!), let alone transferred my most important files, folders and emails. Hence the dead silence here on the blog since my WWKip celebration – and, no surprise, I have not figured out how to upload my Kip-pic!

My chronic lack of hours in the day takes its toll though. I even got cranky with the head of the school, who was fretting about the sex-ed video for the year 5’s as he’d had some critical feedback from some of the parents and wanted my input as a Governor. “I’m from Holland, where the teenage pregnancy rates are one fifth (!) of what they are in the UK. I consider my 6 year olds ready for this year 5 material. I’m not the right person to ask. I can’t get my head around these British hang-ups!” Oh-deary-me, indeed. I’ll have to find out his shoe size and knit him a pair of socks as penance at some point.

Oh, talking about (finally!) knitting – I’m working on a design for a Throw (or an Afghan, as I’ve seen them called in the US) to put in the book. Because despite not having enough hours in the day, not spending enough time on the costumes of my little boys for their Class Assembly and wondering whether the dustbunnies in the corners of the room have started rivalling our daughter’s bunnies in size, I somehow manage to find just enough time every day to push on at least one of my book-knitting projects just a little bit. If my better half were to read this, that last sentence would probably be met with an end-of-tether remark on his part about how nice it would be if my motivation to work out would abe as big as my motivation to work on this book…

Coming back to my choice of daily priorities, I may have to try to bluff my better half into believing that the solid coloured sock yarns I’ve had on that knitting shelf in the living room are two tone self patterning yarns…Hmmm, little white lies…a form of creativity? Or desperation? Middle age? Oh-deary-me…

Despite the diabolical weather forecasts earlier in the week, despite the fact that I didn’t publicise the event enough, despite the fact that life completely ran away from (with?) me in the last 3 days leading up to it, we had a WONDERFUL afternoon on Saturday. The sun was JUST warm enough not to scorch anyone, Mo had mobilised some keen-to-knit friends and Eve had spotted us on the WWKip site where I had managed to log the event just in time…phew! Everyone ooh-ed and aah-ed over the gorgeous Fyberspates yarns (thank you Jen!) that I had managed to secure just in time and I convinced some knitters to give bamboo needles a go. We even had some passers-by sit down with us and knit a couple of rows, just for the sheer fun of it. Which is EXACTLY what WWKiP is all about. So it won’t surprise you to know that I’ve already told the local papers that there will be another WWKiP in Grayshott next June…hurray! In the meantime, locals to Grayshott are all invited to come and knit with us every Monday evening between 7 and 9 at the Fox & Pelican. All agea and knitting abilities welcome, no need to join or make any form of commitment, just turn up with a smile and some change for a drink. For those of you further afield, please watch this space…I will be adding my wares for sale soon! And thank you to all who made my day on Saturday….

p.s. As soon as I’ve worked out how to upload it, I will add a picture from Saturday.

I am getting very excited for tomorrow: the FIRST Knit-in-Public day in Grayshott!
Got some gorgeous yarn to sell: check
Got some bamboo knitting needles to sell (in 2 choices of lengths even): check
Got some bamboo DPN’s (also in a choice of 2 lengths): check
Have finished the silk bags for the DPN’s: eh….not JUST yet….
Got tomorrow morning to get things ready: eh…not exactly….!

And before that: a Governors meeting at school this afternoon and a wall painting session at the in-laws tomorrow morning…. (inner voice: “and we’re smiling, we’re smiling, we’re smiling…..stop gritting those teeth!”) Right…time for a coffee then….?

Please come along: Saturday 14 June, 2 pm at the Fox & Pelican in Grayshott: come knit, come chat, come have fun! And IF the weather doesn’t want to play, we’ll just run inside, needles at the ready. See you all there…

Knit in Public Day
Okay, it’s official: on 14 June we WILL celebrate Knit-in-Public-Day in Grayshott, Surrey! From 2 to 5, we will gather on the forecourt of the Fox & Pelican, smack in the middle of town, to show off our skills, learn and teach new ones AND meet as many knitters as possible. I hope to have some of my first ever Tall Yarns stock there with me to offer for sale, so no knitter will have an excuse not to plop down and have a knit and natter. Of course Ben at the F&P will be right there with coffee, tea or whatever takes your fancy (!) to help keep tongues wagging and needles clicking.
Tall Yarns Needles
I am currently putting together my first stock of Tall Yarns Knitting needles. Being a bamboo convert, that will be the main body of my offering. Based on your feedback, I will chop and change my needle offering to achieve a selection that meets your knitting needs. As soon as I’m ready to go, I will add my offerings for sale. Because I am very aware that the web is flooding with knitting materials suppliers, I aim to offer products that are either outstanding value or unique.
Speak out
If you are looking in vain for something in knit land, do let me know. Since I will spend considerable time putting my proper offer together this year, the more feedback I get, the better I will be able to offer what you want. Much appreciated!

June the 14th
I’ve put the wheels in motion today (better late than never…) to ensure that Grayshott has its own Knit-in-Public event! With a bit of luck, we’ll be in the Village Square. If that doesn’t fly, it’ll be the local pub – garden of course so we can still attract attention and get more people to grab some needles and join. If you want to know more about the event in general, check out www.wwkipday.com. For more info on KIP-day in Grayshott, just sign up to this blog (top right corner) and any updates will wing their way to you.

Knitting Conference
I’ve also found out about a 3-day international Knitting Conference in Winchester this July. If that doesn’t sound downright intriguing, I don’t know what does… To find out more about it, download a booking form etc, surf to www.intheloop.soton.ac.uk.

Book progress
I just today found a kick ass pattern for baby booties, thanks to my partner in crime, Helen. There’ll be some felted ones in the book and this pattern gives me a place to start for my own design. Hurray! In the meantime I’m knitting away on the test piece for my felted lacy shawl for the book. If this yarn felts the way I hope it will, it’ll be a stunner. Fingers crossed. The patterns for the book will be the first products in my soon to open web-shop, right here at Tall Yarns. Oh and of course there’ll be some gorgeous yarns to knit them with.

Habu
For the knitting aficionado’s amongst you as well as those with knitting aspirations, go have a look at the American website of Habu Textiles, especially their knitting kits (www.habutextiles.com). If I can help it, I will be selling their stunning materials as well as my own designs for their yarns. It would just be the bees knees.

Ravelry
If you’re into sharing and organising your knitting, do join a fast growing movement on www.ravelry.com. VERY addictive, only go there when you’ve got some time!

More soon, keep watching this space…

Welcome….

I feel all official. This blog’s been a while coming! Stay in touch if you’re interested to read about a lifelong knitter on my way to the publication of a first book. About yarn dyeing at home and cool knits. I’m co-authoring the book with dear friend Helen Deighan, esteemed textile artist, fabric dyer and thanks to me now also kniting fanatic (Yay!). Apart from playing with yarn, I am raising (more like racing, ha!) 3 kids, volunteer for Twinline and help govern our village primary school and one of the preschools. That’s just for intro, though. This corner of my universe is all about yarn and what to do with it. I won’t make any promises about the frequency of my posts. I wouldn’t dare (just yet)! Please be generous with your feedback if and when you can – much appreciated. Linda