Second and now third thoughts!
And now it's March 2017, we keep going out on the road to all these wonderful woolly events and our audience just keeps on growing. There are now even more events on the calendar and you have to really think hard about where to go - usually we head for somewhere we can camp and do a bit of outdoors stuff at the same time as the festival! So yet again, I'll leave the following text as a bit of history!
It's now September 2014 and I've just been looking back at what I wrote below, back in 2011. I've done a lot more events - including Woolfest in 2013 and 2014, Yarndale, Edinburgh, Highland Wool Gathering, Kendal Wool Gathering, our own local St Abbs Wool Festival which we now organise... the list is seemingly endless. There are wool gatherings and festivals and celebrations all over the country and the trend looks set to continue - there is a really strong wool market and a celebration of the traditional crafts associated with it, albeit with more modern interpretations. It's a lovely world to belong in!
I thought about revising the texts below, but on second thoughts will leave it to stand as it is - my journey continues....with woolly socks on.
It's now September 2014 and I've just been looking back at what I wrote below, back in 2011. I've done a lot more events - including Woolfest in 2013 and 2014, Yarndale, Edinburgh, Highland Wool Gathering, Kendal Wool Gathering, our own local St Abbs Wool Festival which we now organise... the list is seemingly endless. There are wool gatherings and festivals and celebrations all over the country and the trend looks set to continue - there is a really strong wool market and a celebration of the traditional crafts associated with it, albeit with more modern interpretations. It's a lovely world to belong in!
I thought about revising the texts below, but on second thoughts will leave it to stand as it is - my journey continues....with woolly socks on.
Why wool?
I love hand made clothes and think thay everyone should have at least one thing that has been carefully and lovingly crafted by hand, using quality natural materials. Hand made doesn't have to mean expensive either, you can buy a ball of yarn for just a few pounds/dollars/euros and with the internet as our market place, we now have access to more yarn types than ever before and from far flung places too, you can buy yaks wool or llama yarn or good old fashioned sheep's wool for heaven's sake whilst sitting in your pyjamas at midnight in Dunbar (or wherever you happen to be), if we can support the farmers who are producing the raw materials to make these fabulous yarns (in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way) then we are doing our bit for this lovely planet we call earth. Let's get back to using natural materials and enjoy wearing them again, you might have to take a bit more care when you wash them, but they will reward you with a lifetime's wear.
Who's wearing this stuff?
It all began when the young couple who came to buy our car saw some designs I was working on and exclaimed:
"You gotta sell it. My dad's organising a music festival and you have to be there."
So to cut that long story short, I took the plunge and got myself a stall at said festival where to my joy and satisfaction, sold a host of stuff amongst which some memorable sales - a green silk beanie to a golden haired potter man, a Shetland felted pixie to a feisty over sixty, a heather and moorland Shetland felted moebius scarf to a mature potter lady, long and short recycled silk beanies to "les chic jeunes filles et leurs mamans", mittens galore to all and sundry, a short Shetland felted beanie transformed a bashful, bespectacled boy so much that Hayley hollered "Phwoar - Thongs off!". The list goes on. I also sold lots of yarn to lots of creative ladies.
I have been doing fairs, markets and exhibitions for the last three years, selling yarns, kits, patterns and ready-to-wear stuff. At one event a young woman (late 20s) made a bee line for my stall, shouting on the way over "wow!! cool hats". She got her dad to buy her a Shetland felted long beanie and some mittens as a Christmas present, then she came back another couple of times to have a chat about the recycled silks before declaring that she wanted to buy the just-knitted-brand-new recycled silk and banana fibre multicoloured jumper off my back! That was commissioned too and duly delivered to another satisfied customer.
Earlier this year I did an exhibition at La Rochelle where a young woman, a knitter herself, wanted a hat. We chatted for a while and she decided she was interested in buying something, so I suggested she buy a kit and make one herself but she said "No, I want one that you personally have made." So that's another felted Shetland long beanie breaking free.
I've been commissioned to make recycled sari silk shawls to wrap up everyone from home-counties-opera-going professional women to octogenarian women's guilders and meditating yogis.
An English artist's mature French muse bought a DK felted wide brimmed beanie which she flipped up at the front and turned it into the chicest hat I've seen for a long time - surprising both me and the artist - but not, I have to say, her!
Snowboarders stay cool in Shetland long felted beanies and their girls look slick in recycled silk beanies.
I sold some recycled silk yarn to a mum so that her 9 year old son could knit a birthday scarf for his gran - it was his first project and now he's addicted to the art!
A mid-40s mum bought Shetland long felted beanie kits to knit for her teenaged-banjo-busking-cycle-racing son, her horse whispering friend and her friskie pixie of a husband, then a couple of recycled sari silk yarn beanie hat kits for both herself and said son.
Six Shetland kits in a myriad of colours to a youthful pregnant baker to while away the long hours before giving birth.
A 120 coloured Shetland wool shawl, a felted peaked beanie in the same yarn and some long-wise stripy gaiters to a French apple grower with a complexion as rosy as her fruit.
Lots of girls from 20 to 60 buying yarns to make everything from crop-tops to beanies to scarves, mittens, hats and shawls galore, all accessorizing and jazzing up their wardrobes with stunning recycled silks and woollen yarns.
I went to the Lot et le laine festival in July this year and just about sold out of recycled silk yarns - I think everyone who went bought some! I also sold some wonderful Moondance wools and my Shetland kits went down a treat with everyone who saw them. Felting looks set to be big this year if sales were anything to go by.
In early August 2011 I was in the Scottish borders for the National Sheepdog Trials and sold kits, patterns, hats, scarves and recycled silks galore to knitters new and experienced, young and old.
We have now relocated to Scotland (July 2012) and I am working hard to promote my wares! I've started spinning my own yarns too and they seem to be going down a treat as well. I've got a regular stand at the St Abbs Market, I am now organising the St Abbs Wool Festival, I've participated in other wool events - like the Alnmouth Wool Fair, the Berwick Slow Food Festival as part of the Sheep Tales project, St James' Fair in Kelso. Everywhere there are knitters and crocheters, felters, weavers, spinners and lovers of wool and woolly products just wanting access to lovely hand made stuff!
"You gotta sell it. My dad's organising a music festival and you have to be there."
So to cut that long story short, I took the plunge and got myself a stall at said festival where to my joy and satisfaction, sold a host of stuff amongst which some memorable sales - a green silk beanie to a golden haired potter man, a Shetland felted pixie to a feisty over sixty, a heather and moorland Shetland felted moebius scarf to a mature potter lady, long and short recycled silk beanies to "les chic jeunes filles et leurs mamans", mittens galore to all and sundry, a short Shetland felted beanie transformed a bashful, bespectacled boy so much that Hayley hollered "Phwoar - Thongs off!". The list goes on. I also sold lots of yarn to lots of creative ladies.
I have been doing fairs, markets and exhibitions for the last three years, selling yarns, kits, patterns and ready-to-wear stuff. At one event a young woman (late 20s) made a bee line for my stall, shouting on the way over "wow!! cool hats". She got her dad to buy her a Shetland felted long beanie and some mittens as a Christmas present, then she came back another couple of times to have a chat about the recycled silks before declaring that she wanted to buy the just-knitted-brand-new recycled silk and banana fibre multicoloured jumper off my back! That was commissioned too and duly delivered to another satisfied customer.
Earlier this year I did an exhibition at La Rochelle where a young woman, a knitter herself, wanted a hat. We chatted for a while and she decided she was interested in buying something, so I suggested she buy a kit and make one herself but she said "No, I want one that you personally have made." So that's another felted Shetland long beanie breaking free.
I've been commissioned to make recycled sari silk shawls to wrap up everyone from home-counties-opera-going professional women to octogenarian women's guilders and meditating yogis.
An English artist's mature French muse bought a DK felted wide brimmed beanie which she flipped up at the front and turned it into the chicest hat I've seen for a long time - surprising both me and the artist - but not, I have to say, her!
Snowboarders stay cool in Shetland long felted beanies and their girls look slick in recycled silk beanies.
I sold some recycled silk yarn to a mum so that her 9 year old son could knit a birthday scarf for his gran - it was his first project and now he's addicted to the art!
A mid-40s mum bought Shetland long felted beanie kits to knit for her teenaged-banjo-busking-cycle-racing son, her horse whispering friend and her friskie pixie of a husband, then a couple of recycled sari silk yarn beanie hat kits for both herself and said son.
Six Shetland kits in a myriad of colours to a youthful pregnant baker to while away the long hours before giving birth.
A 120 coloured Shetland wool shawl, a felted peaked beanie in the same yarn and some long-wise stripy gaiters to a French apple grower with a complexion as rosy as her fruit.
Lots of girls from 20 to 60 buying yarns to make everything from crop-tops to beanies to scarves, mittens, hats and shawls galore, all accessorizing and jazzing up their wardrobes with stunning recycled silks and woollen yarns.
I went to the Lot et le laine festival in July this year and just about sold out of recycled silk yarns - I think everyone who went bought some! I also sold some wonderful Moondance wools and my Shetland kits went down a treat with everyone who saw them. Felting looks set to be big this year if sales were anything to go by.
In early August 2011 I was in the Scottish borders for the National Sheepdog Trials and sold kits, patterns, hats, scarves and recycled silks galore to knitters new and experienced, young and old.
We have now relocated to Scotland (July 2012) and I am working hard to promote my wares! I've started spinning my own yarns too and they seem to be going down a treat as well. I've got a regular stand at the St Abbs Market, I am now organising the St Abbs Wool Festival, I've participated in other wool events - like the Alnmouth Wool Fair, the Berwick Slow Food Festival as part of the Sheep Tales project, St James' Fair in Kelso. Everywhere there are knitters and crocheters, felters, weavers, spinners and lovers of wool and woolly products just wanting access to lovely hand made stuff!