…and I’m in the middle of a mad scramble to get ready for a holiday in France. Got my orders for more stock placed, so should have plenty of everything in time for Fibrefest. I am feeling very bad about the lack of attention I’ve paid to the website. It desperately needs updating, I know, there are more kits to add, and pictures, and Knit-pro needles. And I now also have a small range of circular bamboo needles that go down to a smaller size (2 mm) than the Knit-Pro interchangeables. And you cannot find any of them on the site yet. Must do better once I’ve re-charged my batteries. Of course I’d love to think that I’ll make these additions before we set off, but the reality is most probably going to be very different, with the next 48 hours swishing by in a blur.

I am spending a last session tomorow with the book designer making the last last changes before everything will finally go off to the printer. I should at least have one complete copy at Fibrefest and printed books in time for iKnit. Fingers crossed. For those of you who read this in advance of their own holidays, have a great time. Bring plenty of works-in-progress (socks are good, as they’re not too big and cumbersome) – which reminds me, I’d better whip up a couple of small dye batches tomorrow, to dye some last minute hanks to bring along…

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!

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.

…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…

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…