I have neglected my blog terribly over the last couple of months, relying instead on quick facebook and twitter updates, so it is time for me to get a little more organised and get back into the blogging habit, after all I have so much to tell you about!
This Autumn has been incredibly busy and when I look back over the past 7 or 8 weeks I find it hard to believe Im still standing, although there has been a week away in Scotland for half term which gave me a chance to re charge my batteries.
In early September I moved to larger space within The Hertfordshire Craft Collective in Radlett. I have had a small space there for a while, but now I have the whole back wall of one side of the barn and will be in the store a few days a week. It has been fabulous having a base to work from away from home for the last few months, the barns are so nice to work in and I have really enjoyed my new routine.
The image below shows the space cleared and ready for me to put my stock and display items in.
These three images show the space full of stock - I chose to focus on my book 'Homespun Vintage' for the first few weeks and you can see a lot of the projects in these images.
We had an open weekend on the 13th & 14th of September which went really well - I even made a cake or two!
The week after the open weekend at the craft barns it was The Handmade Fair, which took place between the 19th & 21st of September. The fair was held at Hampton Court Palace and I was lucky enough to be invited along by Rowan Yarns to teach the 'beginners' crochet workshops.
The Rowan team had spent 2 days preparing their workshop marquee and their display space. The tents looked wonderful and despite a dramatic thunder storm the night before the fair the weather was incredibly kind to us - the fair had a real summer fete feeling with many participants wandering around in summer dresses and sun hats
The Rowan marquee really did look amazing and many people commented on how nice it looked.
This Autumn has been incredibly busy and when I look back over the past 7 or 8 weeks I find it hard to believe Im still standing, although there has been a week away in Scotland for half term which gave me a chance to re charge my batteries.
In early September I moved to larger space within The Hertfordshire Craft Collective in Radlett. I have had a small space there for a while, but now I have the whole back wall of one side of the barn and will be in the store a few days a week. It has been fabulous having a base to work from away from home for the last few months, the barns are so nice to work in and I have really enjoyed my new routine.
The image below shows the space cleared and ready for me to put my stock and display items in.
These three images show the space full of stock - I chose to focus on my book 'Homespun Vintage' for the first few weeks and you can see a lot of the projects in these images.
We had an open weekend on the 13th & 14th of September which went really well - I even made a cake or two!
The week after the open weekend at the craft barns it was The Handmade Fair, which took place between the 19th & 21st of September. The fair was held at Hampton Court Palace and I was lucky enough to be invited along by Rowan Yarns to teach the 'beginners' crochet workshops.
The Rowan team had spent 2 days preparing their workshop marquee and their display space. The tents looked wonderful and despite a dramatic thunder storm the night before the fair the weather was incredibly kind to us - the fair had a real summer fete feeling with many participants wandering around in summer dresses and sun hats
The Rowan marquee really did look amazing and many people commented on how nice it looked.
I have to admit I felt really daunted by the size of the workshops I had to teach as they were sold out which meant I had a class of 100 participants each day of the show. Thankfully I had the help of the Rowan team of Design Consultants and everything went well. I gave the participants a beaded flower corsage project to make.
On Sunday I managed to persuade Stuart Hillard and Martin Storey to come along to the workshop and we even had a surprise visitor!
We had a great weekend and it was made all the better by being with some fabulous friends. Below is a picture of me with Suzie Johnson from The Wool Sanctuary (she taught Kirsty to knit on her TV show a few years ago) and Stuart Hillard from the first series of The Great British Sewing Bee.
I also got to spend some time with Sarah Hatton and the Design Consultant team - all of whom I can't thank enough for their help and encouragement - especially on the Friday when I nearly lost the plot faced with 100 people wanting to learn to crochet!
I am not sure whether the show will happen again next year, I hope it does as I had a great time and would definitely attend as a show goer given the chance. You can find a youtube clip of the film by following this link.