Today we have had both doors of the shop open all day, despite the weather, because we are redecorating the shop front and today was the turn of the doors. The decorator has taken away the handles to polish them up, so no-one could get in if the doors were closed. And so today, for the first time really, we have noticed a chill in the air and I, for one, was grateful that my shop is littered with shawls, one of which is firmly wrapped around my shoulders as I write like someone out of ‘Little Women’.
The change of season to Autumn is a delightful one for us yarn shop owners, because suddenly people we have not seen for a while appear looking for their winter projects. And we start bringing in new stock as well, which is great fun, although hard to resist knitting all of it oneself. West Yorkshire Spinners have been inundating us with lovely new things, variegated chunky yarn, sparkly Yuletide Signature 4ply, new colours in the Colour Lab DK and Aran and their Fleece DK. I got a huge box of delights from one of my suppliers, including more balls of Zauberball Crazy, which never stays long on the shelves. We have also branched out into a new brand about which I am very excited, but I have not put it all on the website yet, so I will save promoting it until I have done so – watch this space!
Starting tomorrow, we are participating in UK Handknitting’s Yarnstravaganza, (28 Sept to 5 Oct) – this organisation works hard to promote hand knitting and other crafts and yarns in the UK and they have given us some lovely giveaways which we will be sharing with you next week.
Next week, 5 October, is the start of our last Absolute Beginners Knitting Course of the year (there are still spaces if anyone is interested), and we will be setting next year’s workshop dates in a couple of weeks when I will get them up on the website. Let me know if there is anything in particular you want us to consider offering in the way of workshops – I am always open to suggestions.
Next week is also the start of Stephen West’s annual Mystery Knit Along – the Go Go Dynamo Shawl. I was definitely not going to do it this year, but it seems that I am weak and have the yarn waiting and ready for the first clue to drop. If you are interested you can find the details on Ravelry and we will be able to help you find any yarn that you might need. It calls for 400g of fingering weight/4ply yarn in contrasting colours or a neutral tone. And perhaps some mohair. It is ridiculous to feel excited about this – I have quite enough on my plate without adding a Stephen West shawl to it.
The change of season also means that my husband is no longer playing cricket and instead I find that I am off sailing from Burnham-on-Crouch for the next 2 weekends in an attempt to get my RYA Day Skipper Certificate. To be honest I will be very surprised if I achieve this, as I cannot even remember how to tie the relevant knots, which is odd given that I have no trouble knitting, but there it is. So cross your fingers everyone for decent weather for us – I am not keen on the idea of anything less than a sea like a millpond and somehow that seems a bit unlikely at this time of year. Our children inform us that they are looking forward to calling us ‘Skipper’. I don’t think they take us very seriously! It means that I will not be in the shop for the next few Saturdays, but I am here during the week, and of course Mandy will be here to look after you all.