This was the scene at St Abbs last week - a beautiful sunny day in November - and it was the same today but a little colder!  One of the bears taking a little rest on the wall before setting out on a walk around the Head at St Abbs.



Here are some date for the diary in December - where I'll be out and about and hopefully seeing you all.

To finish off November, I'll be at the Buttermarket in Berwick upon Tweed between 9am and 4pm tomorrow, Saturday 30th November.  It'll be cold but bright so dress up warm and come and see the lovely Georgian town of Berwick.

We start off December with a date on Sunday the 1st at the Ford Christmas Fair at the Lady Waterford Hall in Ford Village between 11am and 3pm - a day not to be missed - click on the coloured text above and below for more information about the events listed.

On Friday 6th our regular slot at the St Abbs market in the Ebba Centre at St Abbs between 10am and 3pm.  The cafe is always open and the cheese scones are to die for!

Saturday 7th is the usual Berwick street market and you can find us at the Buttermarket in Berwick between 9am and 4pm, alongside Slightly Foxed second hand book store, Masarnen with her lovely herbal potions, lotions and teas, Hedgepig copper jewellery and maybe some other hardy folk!  It's cold out but there are plenty tea and coffee shops around and about so come and have a look around Berwick!

Sunday 8th December sees us back once more in the Buttermarket for the Berwick upon Tweed Christmas Market, organised by the MAD events.  We'll be there between 11am and 4pm so come along and join in the fun.

Friday 13th sees us back in St Abbs for our regular producers market, so if you are still looking for those last minute seasonal gifts, perhaps we'll have that perfect something for you.

Saturday 14th back in Berwick Buttermarket for the regular Saturday street market between 9am and 4pm.

Friday 20th is our last St Abbs market this year - and indeed until March 2014, so this really is your last chance to stock up on lovely handmade things to eat - from fish, charcuterie, chocolates and cakes, gifts from jewellery, carved wood goods, paintings and drawings, quilting, knitting and crochet supplies and knitted accessories (from me!), candles, books and more besides.

Saturday 21st December is the last Kelso farmers market of  the year and with loads of stalls selling all 
the Christmas goodies a person could want, plus carol singers, mince pies and mulled wine this event should be something worth turning out for.  The market starts at around 9am and finishes about 1.30ish, so get up early and come and see what's happening.

After all this, I'm putting my feet up for a week or so, then we'll see what next year brings - already lined up are a second wool festival in St Abbs on the 1st March - more of which later; a woolly event in Wooler in the summer; maybe Woolfest in Cumbria if I'm lucky enough to be accepted; the Yarndale event in Skipton if that takes place too, back to Kendal for a second wool gathering would be fantastic and lots of Fridays in St Abbs with the regular market producers - lots to look forward too!

Here's how these balls happened... I recently started stocking some lovely Shetland dk yarns in beautiful jewel colours.  Then I wanted to make things to show them off to their best advantage.  I came up with these lovely festive decorations.   If you want some small easy projects to make for Christmas then these are perfect, taking less than an hour to make each ball, great for taking a little time out from the hurly burly of this time of year.  I'm selling the pattern through my Ravelry pages (click on the coloured text to go through to the pattern page), there are several ball patterns, from which you can make around 37 different balls - more if you use more than 2 or 3 coloured yarns.   I'm selling kits whilst I'm out and about at markets and fairs this month and next - a kit contains the pattern for all the balls, enough Shetland yarn to make around a dozen balls and wool nepps to stuff them with.  There are 15 different coloured yarns to choose from too and the kit costs just £10.  I think that it would be possible to send the kits out by post, so if you are interested, please use the contact form here.

What a weekend!  Started off at Halloween at Etal Village Hall with assorted spooks and ghouls, moved on to the local producers market at sunny St Abbs by the sea on Friday, then on Saturday we had our lovely woolly wool festival in St Abbs and that was a great success, finally on Sunday we went up to Haddington in East Lothian for the Poldrate Mill Fayre where I met up with lots of old friends and acquaintances from the Haddington spinners group.  Now I'm officially worn out.  BUT, we have November to get through now, so here's a list of where I'll be and links to the events so that you can read a little more about them, just click on the coloured text to find out more.

Friday 8th November 10am to 3pm St Abbs Producers market at the Ebba Centre
Saturday 9th November 9am to 4pm Berwick market in the Butter market, under the town hall on the high street in Berwick upon Tweed
Thursday 14th November 10am to 4pm, the Borders Textile Group exhibition at the garden centre in Bewick upon Tweed, a celebration of all things textiley over 3 days!
Friday 15th November 10am to 8pm St Abbs Christmas Market at the Ebba Centre - free mincers and mulled wine for all our regular customers....
Saturday 16th November 10am to 4pm St Abbs Christmas Market at the Ebba Centre
Friday 22nd November 10am to 3pm St Abbs local producers market
Saturday 23rd November 10am to 4pm Alnmouth Wool Fair in the Hindmarsh Hall at Alnmouth
Thursday 28th November 3pm to 8pm Eyemouth late night Christmas shopping evening at the Seaman's Mission and at other venues around the town!
Friday 29th November 10am to 3pm St Abbs local producers market
Saturday 30th November 9am to 4pm Berwick market in the Butter market, under the town hall on the high street in Berwick upon Tweed
Sunday 1st December 11am to 3pm Ford Christmas Fayre at the Lady Waterford Hall, Ford Village


I'm scaring myself thinking about of these events, so I won't list December things for a couple of weeks....!  So now for something completely different...

Here's a little sample of my newest line!  Take some lovely buttons, a nice card, draw on a lovely tree and sew the owls to the card and hey presto! a lovely greeting card/pressie for that crafting friend - just to say hello!  Available from my stall when I'm out and about or on line through the contact form.  £2.50 each plus p&p. 
 A little addition here, post & packing to UK is £3 for up to 5 cards and then goes up to £5 for 5 to 25 cards - if you are anywhere else in the world, please contact me for a quote :)
You can have the owls on any of the card colours shown here.  Owls are randomly coloured but there are 4 per card.  Make your choice! (when chosing, please let me know either top or bottom row and numbered 1 to 7 from left to right on top row and from 8 to 14 on bottom row again, left to right.
  
And if you are wondering why all these cards seem to have Christmas trees on them, it's because...

....Yay! Christmas button cards!!  So, you can have hearts, flowers or stars, 6 buttons on each card, all made of wood and hand washable.  £2.50 per card plus p & p.  Just use the contact form here to let me know what colour card and which buttons you would like and I'll get back to you right away to confirm.  The blue buttons are a turquoise colour by the way and the only turquoise hearts I have are in the card on the photo, so if you want that one, then get in touch right away!  Cards are A6 size (so that's 1/4 size of A4 paper and the envelopes are brown Kraft recycled.