Gone Sailing

This evening I am setting off for the Hebrides for a week on what appears to have become a regular sailing trip. As we all do before a holiday, I am frantically tidying up loose ends and generally trying not to panic. Part of the this exercise is to tell you all what is happening in the next few weeks in the shop.

Firstly, the shop will be closed on Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 June, but open as usual from Thursday 4 onwards when lovely Mandy will be here to look after you. This means that the first Social Stitchers of the month has been cancelled, for which I apologise, but other ones will still be happening as follows:

Tuesday 9 June 2pm to 4pm

Saturday 20 June 2pm to 4pm

I am having to cancel the evening session on Tuesday 23 June as well because I will be on the second leg of my summer holiday by then!

There are no courses this month either, partly because as well as my absence from the shop, we have our Summer Retreat on the weekend of 13/14 June. We will be back on track in July and there are still spaces on our Introduction to Knitting course on Saturday 11 July and the Learn to Crochet Granny Squares on Saturday 25 July.

For those of you who might feel that you are missing out on the Retreat in June, I have just launched our next Social Stitchers Seaside Sunday event on 13 September 2026 – a whole day at the Cliftonville, knitting or crocheting or whatever and chatting. Buffet lunch and pop up shop. You can find more details here – spaces are limited and some have already gone, so book soon! I have to admit the website is playing up a bit as I write, so if you are having any problems and want to attend, just contact us and I will sort it out when I am back from the Hebrides.

I have also set up a Drop Spindle workshop led by the amazing Theresa of the Spinning Barn on Saturday 5 September. Now is the time to learn the age-old craft of hand spinning on a drop spindle! Theresa taught me to spin and she is an amazing teacher. So do come along.

To celebrate my sailing trip, I have done a sailing themed window for June, and am displaying a gansey knitted by the fabulous Sara Phillips who runs the Gansey Knitting Group in Wells-next-the-Sea. It is such a lovely garment – very inspiring. In return, she has asked me to tell you all about the Gansey Shore event at the Maltings on 1 and 2 August 2026 – an amazing 2 day event including a gansey surgery, a Grappling with Gussets workshop and more. I strongly recommend it.

In case you drop by the shop window and are interested, we also have a lovely shawl knitted by Mandy – the Gone Fishing Shawl by Jem Arrowsmith who is coming to run a workshop on designing shawls at the Retreat. To top it all off, we have a model of HMS Victory, kindly lent by Peter Howard.

So there we are. Lots going on. Think of me as I am sitting on a small boat in the rain for the next week. I have taken ALL my knitting and several books and am very much looking forward to the break.