New wool

Thought I'd post a few pictures of some of our wools that are new or that we've taken delivery of new colours in.

A trio of Artesano Arans, a beautiful 50% Alpaca/50% Wool mix yarn. We currently have in stock the three colours pictured - Walnut, Pine and Sunset. Though we can order any of the many other colours on request.

The stunning Fyberspates Scrumptious DK shown here in Water.

Artesano Inca Cloud, 100% alpaca 4ply. The colours are jewel rich and I particularly love the purple shown below.

We have about 10 balls of each colour at the moment and won't be getting any more in stock as Artesano have discontinued the range in favour of their standard alpaca.

Manos del Uruguay Maxima in:

 Red

 Blue

Scrumptious Purple - this is my favourite but we only have one left at the moment.

We've also got a dark/forest green colour but I'm afraid I've not got any in my stock, what we have left is with Marcia.

Again, as with the Arans, we can order other colours on request.

Market on 19th March and a new knitting/crochet group

I went today to a new crochet and knitting group being held at a pub down the road from our stall, I was arrived towards the end of the session and there were four others there. There had apparently been others there earlier, the four that were there seemed very friendly - one I had previously met at the stall a few weeks back - and the group leader is a stylist assistant who seems to have lots of enthusiasm and ideas. I'll post details another time.

For now some close ups from the market today. I will get better at this photography lark but for now I'm just concentrating on posting! It was lovely today, the sun always brings out lots of people and it always feels a bit like a street party to me.

Hat made by Marcia using Artesano Aran/Wool mix

I want this jug for myself!

Cute little booties made by Marcia using, amongst others, our Rooster Baby yarn

Some of the beautiful handmade Kate Halliday buttons we stock.

Sorry....

Never did post that photo of the new boots! Oh dear, I think I've finally cracked the photo business so hopefully I'll be better now. Promises promises.

Winter on the stall was MISERABLE. Here's a photo, not exactly sure when it was taken but it wasn't in the depths of winter that's for sure. I think it's some time in February.

Last Saturday was great, it was a lovely sunny day, well morning, the first nice weekend day in a long while and there were lots of people milling about drunk on sunshine and good cheer.

New boots

It's getting rather cold out on the market now, I've still been out in my Converse but one thing that's coming across loud and clear from the traders that have worked a winter before is how important proper footwear is. I suspect I'll end up getting some Doc Martens as that's what a few of them wear and I used to wear them all the time in my teens so it'll be a throw back to my carefree days. For the moment I've some beautiful new boots, probably not thick soled enough, that I'll be road testing on Saturday.

I'm still having camera issues, hence the lack of posts on here or my other blog but I'll aim to have those sorted in the next few days and will post a photo of me on the stall in my new boots next week.

New yarns!!!!

Wooooooo.....all our Rosarios4 order has just arrived. So we'll have lots of new things for the next market day. We've got a selection of bamboos, baby cotton, beautifully soft 'adult' cotton, and organic cotton.

I've also ordered some corn fibre but that's for me to play with at the moment and if I love it we'll order more. I'm planning on making Carnac. I LOVE all of that collection and might make the bikini for Lexi who sells flowers on the market.

This is a rush post, if you can't tell, but I'll update about my trip to Knit Nation soon.

Market day today

Marcia's just arrived and we're packing up the car ready to head off to the market. I am dead on my feet after getting home pretty late from the Lovebox festival and doing WAY too much moshing! A very close friend of mine's son was performing with one of the big acts on the main stage no less so it was a must do but now I'm exhausted and my body aches which is not great for spending a day at the market.

Anyway, come and say hello if you're about.

We can be found at Archway Market at the top of Holloway Road just outside Budgens.

Over and out because Marcia's almost finished the packing up! oops!! heh heh.

In the end of the beginning

Well, the end is really just the beginning.

After much, unnecessary, ummming and aahhing on my part I joined forces with Marcia from my Saturday knitting group or rather she joined forces with me. I know from bitter experience that I'm not easy to work with, I very much know exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it, and I don't find it that easy to work with other people. But this stall is meant to be about having fun and I thought it will be more fun if I'm not doing it on my own. Who knows, we may in time be joined by others.

Anyway, my house is now a mess again because we have NO storage space for our normal day to day clutter let alone a whole load of new stall stuff.

Still it felt good to have made the decisions about the initial order and to receiving boxes of stunning wools and cottons. The first order I made was the Rico Essentials Cotton DK (which has gone down a storm) and for that I had a rep come to visit me. I couldn't help feeling nervous and giggling to myself before he arrived but it was all fine, down to business straight away and very interesting.

Our first market day, May 22nd, was one of the first gloriously sunny days we'd had this year in London, great for getting people out and about not so great for getting people in the mood for buying wool perhaps! As I prepared to load up my dad's car, on loan to me for not much longer now, my son fainted in a most dramatic manner - falling straight backwards - hitting the back of his head on a small chest and knocking himself unconscious. He's ok now but there was lots of blood and panic and when I finally did get off to the market worrying that his father would keep a proper eye on him and whisk him off to hospital at the slightest hint of trouble.

We had a brilliant day, it felt good to be outdoors, and we were visited by many friends and fellow knitters who sat at the side of our stall (we were lucky enough to get the corner pitch but haven't had it since) knitting and chatting and bought us cups of tea. We had lots of interest from passers by - well, there really isn't much available to the discernible knitter in these parts and all in all we had a fantastic first day.

I went home happy and exhausted and not quite ready to face an evening up at the Whittington Hospital with said son, which is how we spent our evening. Better to be safe than sorry they do say.