November has arrived and with it proper autumnal weather and the most extraordinary colours on the trees. I am not sure I can remember a year as colourful as this one. It gives me great joy on the commute in to Fakenham, I must say. Of course the weather is cooling down as well and the garden is finally going over although everything does seem to be about a month behind. I have managed to get my bulbs in, which is great relief. And of course the clocks have gone back and we can all justify extra knitting or crocheting time in the evenings (not that I ever really needed to).
This is my look forward into what you can find happening in the shop in the coming month.
First of all, as always, we have have the usual Social Stitchers sessions as follows:
Tuesday 4 November 11am to 1pm
Tuesday 11 November 2 to 4pm
Saturday 15 November 2 to 4pm
Tuesday 18 November 7 to 9pm
These are our formal dates, but I should say that there are always people knitting with us on Saturday afternoons between 2 and 4pm. Recently there has been chat about ganseys, Stephen West’s shawls, people’s renovations, and much admiring of amazing work. Come and join us.
Our final workshop of the year, Learn to Knit Socks on DPNs, starts on Saturday 15th November at 4pm. There are still some places available if you interested. You can book here or in the shop.
The most exciting event in the shop this month, for me, anyway, is the celebration of our 4th birthday on the 29 November. Can you believe that we have been here four years? On the one hand it feels like yesterday that I opened and on the other I feel as though I have been here forever. We are celebrating with an all day pop up shop by Blue Fern Yarns – always a huge treat to be able to see Shannon and her lovely hand dyed yarns – together with a party from 12 noon.There will be cakes, tea and perhaps even some fizz to cheer us up and I very much hope that people will bring along their current projects and do some knitting and nattering. As it happens the date coincides with the Christmas Lights Switch On in Fakenham and I believe there will be things going on in the town centre which might be fun as well.
Outside of the shop, the big event in the UK knitting world is the first episode of Game of Wool which airs on Channel 4 at 8pm on Sunday 2 November. It is hosted by Tom Daley and the judges are Di Gilpin and Sheila Greenwell. I assume everyone knows who Tom Daley is, but Di and Sheila are well known knitwear designers (I have their book about Ganseys in stock), and many of the 10 contestants are also quite well known on social media, so it should be very interesting to see what happens. I am on a WhatsApp group with a lot of other UK yarn shops and they are quite nervous about the response but I hope it will be a positive one and that perhaps it might bring a few more people to this fabulous and never-ending hobby. I will definitely be watching it and probably taking notes. I have the sinking feeling that there will be a lot of chunky knitwear in there! Not my favourite but each for each as my mum used to say.
And then we will be into Christmas….