June is upon us, not that you would think it looking at the current weather. “More like October”, said Mandy to me this morning. Certainly we were both wearing woollen jumpers to work to fend off the chill in the air. Never mind, the weather app says things will get better over the weekend so fingers crossed.
In the shop, June is looking busy – starting with this coming weekend. We have a Fairisle Knitting Workshop in the morning, and a group of knitters are gathering to cast on the Shetland Wool Week hat, the Islesburgh Toorie in the afternoon. You are very welcome to join them if you find yourself at a loose end tomorrow! In addition, we have Claire Howard running a couple of jewellery making workshops upstairs- you can find out more about her jewellery here, but I don’t want to raise your hopes about the workshops here in June as I think that they might be all booked up. I am planning to join her for one of them, making a ring, which is very exciting. I have been watching them for a couple of years now and it will be fun to participate for a change.
On 8 June we have the Amigurumi workshop during which Mandy will teach you how to crochet a tiny cat of extreme cuteness. There are still a couple of places available if you are interested. I have been watching Shogun the last couple of evenings and the Japan depicted in that excellent programme seems a far cry from the one that loves cute crocheted animals, that is for sure.
In the hope that you might want to knit something light for the summer should it ever arrive, we have introduced a new yarn into the shop – West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite 4ply – a wonderful blend of Falklands wool and Mulberry silk – soft and with a gorgeous drape. Come and have a squish next time you are in. It would make a fantastic tee shirt and is soft enough to be worn next to your skin.
Of course, we have our ongoing Knit and Natter events – this month on the 4th, 11th, 15th and 26th June (the times vary – details can be found here). Going forward, I am planning to change the Wednesday evening session to a Tuesday evening, which will make everything more consistent – so from July the evening session will be on the 4th Tuesday of the month.
Otherwise, there are plans afoot for the future. I am winding down the Gallery Upstairs so that we can use the space for workshops – either run by us, or as a space available to other makers. If anyone is interested in using it, you can contact me here. It is an enormous space and very light and we think it will be perfect for the purpose. There are still exhibitions ongoing up there until December, but after that we will not be taking any more bookings from artists. I am sorry because it has been enormous fun hosting exhibitions upstairs, but it is a totally separate and unrelated business, and I prefer to focus on the Yarn Shop.
Mandy is busy planning more workshops for the next few months, including a crochet granny square bag, and how to knit socks using the Magic Loop. Watch this space for more details. I love the workshop planning – it involves playing with wool and such like which is a very enjoyable part of the day.
We are also planning some Kid’s Crochet courses for the summer holidays and much more and will update further on this blog.
Finally, there has been some talk of introducing dress fabrics into the shop – if we do it will not be until next year at the earliest, but I should be very interested to hear your thoughts on this. Would you like it? If so, what fabrics and brands would you want to see? Are there any related products you would like me to stock? I, for example, am slightly obsessed with Merchant & Mills as the photo of the samples I have recently received shows. Contact me here with your views.
Enjoy the weekend and here’s hoping the sun shines. I am planning to drop in to the Worstead Weavers 7th Woolly Weekend at the Weavers Workshop in Dilham (NR28 9PT) if I have the chance on Sunday, although the lure of the garden will be strong.