Catch up - and what is next?

The winter is supposed to be the time to relax a little after the busy summer, catch up with orders, increase stock levels, but also plan for the coming year. All in all that makes for a busier time than the summer.

My last blog was after Wool Week with the winner of my Baa-ble hat. With a good wool week behind me and very little stock remaining, and a few weeks to the Craft Fair, I hit the spinning wheel and the dye pots to get yarn and colour. I spun some worsted sock yarn, and jumper weight and lace weight yarns. Then dyed onion yellow, indigo blue and over-dyed for greens, leaving some as natural colours. 

Next it was back to the spinning wheel, yarn was needed for orders and stock.

But at the same time plans had to be put in place for 2016. So what next?

Firstly, The Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March, I have booked a stall at the Market, Friday 18th and Saturday 19th, and I am also teaching a class: Fair Isle - Colour blending, on Sunday 20th. 

I have a new scarf pattern for EYF,

Scarf detail

Hope to see a some of you there.

In May I set off for a trip to the US with my friend Martha Owen, we will be at 

The John C Campbell Folk School, North Carolina, www.folkschool.org; 

North House Folk School, Minnesota, www.northhouse.org; 

Vesterhiem Museum, Iowa, www.vesterheim.org; 

then I go on to Cordova, Alaska to take part in The Net Lofts Gansey Project, 

http://thenetloftak.com/pages/net-loft-calendar

We are still working on one more venue. 

Myself and Martha are really looking forward to our trip, it is a bit of an epic one, but it is so exciting - hope we dont get lost any where on the way.

And, of course, the classes for 2016 Wool Week have to be organised. That has taken up a lot of time this month but the plans for all the classes that myself and Niela set up in the Hoswick Visitor Centre are almost complete.

Fit Christmas, New Year and the Lerwick Up-Helly-Aa into the whole scheme of things, and it has been quite a busy winter so far.

Today is a good day to stay inside and work, we have 100 mile an hour justs of wind and a few heavy showers of rain. Hope it passes soon, but it is exciting to watch a storm like this. So far the power is still on, but I am remembering to hit the 'save' button, just in case.

One last item - For the past few years I have been working on a book on the Warp Weighted Loom with Hildur from Iceland, Marta from Norway, in conjunction with the Osterøy Museum in Norway. It is almost finished and should be available by the summer.