Welcome.

Welcome to the Willow Knits blog.

I'm Anne and I'll be using this blog to let you know what is happening with Willow Knits during the year.

I'll include which Farmers' Markets and shows I'm going to be at, what I'm working on and general news and events plus a little about myself.

If you want to buy one of the scarves or some of the yarn featured, just look in our etsy shop (to the right of the page) or contact me and I'll reserve it for you.











Thursday 28 April 2016

Wonderwool

I'm home now from my trip to Wonderwool Wales and time to catch up with my much neglected blog.

This was my fourth year as an exhibitor and I've learn a lot in that time, mainly about improving the presentation of my stand. It's always great to look round the other stands and see what other people are doing that could inspire me to try for myself. Over the years the show has got busier for me, so whatever I'm doing must be working. I do enjoy meeting the customers and I love chatting, as anyone who has been to my stand will know! This year I had conversations on subjects as diverse as the design process to the plot of the Walking Dead. Be warned though - if you start talking about Star Trek you may never get away!  

One area I'm trying to expand is the range of pattern support available, especially as my yarn is mainly worsted weight and there aren't a lot of commercial patterns for that weight in the UK. My bolero is still going well and I'm soon to add a waistcoat with side vents - I'm having some issues with the shoulder shaping, so it's taking a bit longer than I had hoped, but it shouldn't be too much longer now.    

On the crochet side, Valerie Bracegirdle (agrarianartisan on Ravelry) has used my yarn for some of her designs and she has let me have a scarf pattern to distribute. It has proved very poplar and I had it on display at Wonderwool. I used one of my packs of five x 20g skeins to make the sample and was very pleased - it's a quick and easy make, but the tassels just give it a little some thing extra. I sold out of the "blue to green" colorway I had used pretty quickly, but will be dyeing some more!

My next big show is Yarndale in September, which feels like a long way away, but isn't!