Tales from a wool shop

Let's begin with a moan. On Friday we had a delivery of seven boxes from Katia, and Jules and I drooled over the loveliness. There are some lovely glittery yarns, and even lovelier multicolour. I carried round a favourite, like a teddy bear, all day. Yesterday Rhiannon went down to the shop, and GUESS WHAT SHE CAME BACK WITH!

She's even started knitting with it!

We've had some interesting customers in this week. For example, there were a couple from Seattle on a 3-month tour of England. They were, I think, looking for woven things, but had found their way to us.

Then we met Charlotte's little sister Evie for the first time, and she sat on my knee and gave us the sweetest of smiles. 

There were some duh! moments, like the lady who wanted lace for the bottom of a doll's dress and looked as if we were geniuses when we suggested crocheting round the bottom. These are the moments I like best in the shop, when we're trying to solve someone's problem. Sometimes it's difficult to believe the ignorance of people - like the woman who insisted you could not crochet with the same yarn as you knit with. But then there are the fascinating ones, like people completing their projects for design degrees. Of course they are often dashing in at the last minute and are really grateful for our suggestions.

A particularly welcome visitor was baby Mia:

She's so pretty! I hope her parents took away the hippo Phil commissioned for her: meet Fenella.

Notice the violet eyes! These hippos have been a real success in the shop; they are very pattable, with their lovely fat bums, and attract a lot of attention. Some people have gone away with details of how to get the pattern. (Pity we're not on commission!) My first two were raffled for the Marie Curie fund, and we have Catherine's in the shop being raffled now; I think we have sold something like £60 of raffle tickets so far. I love her multi-coloured one:



I have commissions for another two, (both pink! yuk) and then I'm going on to Heidi Bears elephant.

Today I'm working on Zoe's fairy slippers. They look weird, but I hope they will be magically transformed by the power of Zoe's foot. If not, I'll try again.

Next week Jules and Caroline are off to Scotland for a couple of nights so Doreen is in charge and I'm the underling. Phil is off to Liverpool for a boxing match, so we really are on our own. Then on Wednesday we have Stitch Birmingham and will be able to tell our knitting friends the latest on our fund-raising.

At the moment the total is about £2,400, and still rising. Next year's will be even better ...