Howler, boy wonder cat

Today needs pictures of cats.

It's been 3 weeks since we took on responsibility of this fella, and his progress is keeping us smiling. He's discovered laps and the sofa and the bed. His coat has softened and recovered, and he's found himself all the places to hang out and dose on our plot.

Go for a walk, and he'll go with you. Tom's dog-sitting Kai for a few weeks, and Howler goes for a walk with them, all the way to wherever and all the way back.

Princess Fi is getting used to him being around, and Howler's getting used to giving her her space.

It doesn't seem to matter what kind of creature you are; if you sit still for more than a few minutes, he'll come and sit with you. Kai is finding this all rather strange (especially as the white one is all too ready to get her claws out) but she's rolling with it.

We had a hiccup last week when we had to take him back to the vets. Not only did he need a Herpes vaccine (which is the cause of his cloudy and runny eyes) but also because his inner eyelids were right up - the vet, an eye specialist, believes the issue is bugs that need evicting, and meds have been had. He'll always have cloudy eyes, but the vet is expecting improvements in a couple of weeks.

Bless him, he's taken it all in his stride.

We're still smarting after the result of last week's referendum, as you can imagine. We're letting the dust settle and talking through our options. We can't do anything just yet, but we know which direction we want to go in, and that feels like a start.

I'm back in the studio today and will be getting back into things, slowly. Thanks for your patience :)

EYF here I come!

I head off towards Edinburgh in the wee hours of tomorrow morning for Edinburgh Yarn Festival!

And these beauties will make up my travel knitting. Both are commissioned designs, and with airport and bus time I should get them both finished! (famous last words)

The yellower green to the left is Kinlun from Miss Babs Yarn, in shade 'Hops' and the other is Ginger Twist Studio Masham Mayhem DK in shade 'Part of your World' (which ahem came all the way from Edinburgh).

I'm looking forward to catching up with friends this weekend, exploring Edinburgh (I haven't visited in about 20 years) and meeting lots of new knitters, in particular those taking my classes. Reckon we're on for a pretty good weekend :)

If you're around and about at EYF saturday morning, I'm signing copies of Painted Woolly Toppers at The Knitting Goddess stand from 11.30am to 12 - do pop along, try on a few Hats and I'll sign your book for you!

Joy has knitted all of the Hats from the book in her yarns, so you can perfectly match yarn to pattern. I'm on hand to give some Hat wearing advice, too, during the signing and Hat Clinic is always fun!

Before I go offline and spend an evening with my boys, I quickly want to tell you that I'll be donating £180.14 to Kidney Research UK from the sales of Torsione when I get back! This is brilliant, thank you! March is my quietest month of the year pattern sales wise, and that makes it even more special that so many of you offered your support - thank you.

La Rivoluzione del Filo

Despite the amount of time I've spent in Italy, I've never really got involved in anyway with the Italian yarn industry. I know a few designers and knitters online and have met a few knitters in person, but my experience is limited. Part of this is the language barrier - I can't speak Italian - and part of this is logistics - my business is very much British based, despite our travels. That said, the internet has made our industry more global, especially from a publishing and community point of view, and I was really excited to be invited to be part of a panel to discuss this very development last week.

The yarn industry in Italy is where say the US was 15 years or so ago, and the UK 10 to 15 years ago, and it felt exciting to be there at the point where the online side of things is starting to develop. And for me, knowing very little about how Italy fares locally and internationally within our global industry, it was absolutely fascinating to hear points of view from so many different corners.

From right to left in the image above, we have:

Sara Maternini (who organised the event), Gaia Segattini (who also knows an old member of the Mutoids and SweaterSpotter - small world!), Maria Cinzia Bellerio (successful Italian online shop owner), Elbert Espeleta (indie dyer, whose yarn I've been sharing this week on Instagram), me (!), and Alice Twain (whom I've met many times at events in the UK, and was my translator for the panel)

Much of the discussion - about sharing skills, connecting with a worldwide community, bridging a generation gap within the craft, access to designs and patterns, relationships between business owners and the customers, digital publishing - won't be news to most of the online English speaking part of the knitting community. But it is news in Italy, and it was wonderful that we all shared that common ground. That it comes back to community - to support, to sharing, to access and relationships. To not feeling isolated and disconnected and the empowerment that brings.

I learnt a LOT. I learnt that although Italy is known as a big yarn producing country, and fine yarns at that, much of it is exported - many of these yarns are not available locally, and the business is dominated by large companies (much like Rowan et al). On the publishing side, there are the main publishing houses (e.g. Mani di Fata) who again dominate. Independent designers, dyers and yarn shop owners are few and far between, and as a culture, there seems to be a greater mistrust towards the internet than I'm familiar with, or lack of awareness beyond Facebook.

But that's changing.

For my input I was able to offer how publishing, and offering patterns, books and tutorials in digital format has helped knitters by increasing their choice. Independent designers would struggle to exist in most of the markets I've encountered (particularly in the UK and continental Europe) and the fact that we are now able to run businesses independently can only be a good thing. I talked about the relationship between a designer and a yarn or publishing company has changed and is slowly becoming more balanced.

And we also talked a lot outside of the panel. I don't think I could express just how amazing I found the evening and being able to talk to other members of the industry! Part of the arrangement for being on the panel was a courtesy hotel room in Rimini, and throughout dinner that evening (Aran stayed with a friend) I think Tom got a tad bored of my verbal processing of it all.

And I'm still processing. I didn't take notes throughout the panel (Alice Twain did a brilliant job at translating and helping me keep up; it would have been too much to ask Tom to take notes as well as take photos) so I'm not able to expand on the finer points of the discussion as much as I'd like, although I'm told there will be a video of the discussion (albeit in Italian). That said, the business tips shared and ideas around language, translation and presence were invaluable, and I hope to develop lots of these further.

Most of all though, I appreciate having made these new connections.

Swiss Wulle Festival

The first weekend in October sees the first Swiss Wulle Festival, and I'll be there teaching!

My workshops will include my now signature Hat design workshop (full day) and Turning Sideways and Cast-on, Cast-off as two half day workshops, both of which have proved pretty popular previously. It'll be two packed full days for me, but it'll be fun too.

I'll be travelling in from Italy, not the UK, which in turn means I get to use the Continental trains! I've not used the trains in Italy or across the European mainland or anywhere really outside of the UK (massive fail, I know)(actually, I fib; I've used the trains in Thailand) and that adventure alone is exciting enough. I'll set off from Rimini, change in Milan then catch the fast train to Zug. The first train is a slow one but that's OK; I set off daftly early in the morning and it'll give me a chance to wake up slowly, relax, and knit some. The faster train for the first leg didn't really gain much anyhows, only an extra change.

There's a whole bunch of great tutors at the festival, and there are a few I haven't met before either, which will add to the fun - the workshop selection is brilliant. Lots of talking to be done! I'm also looking forward to the marketplace as there are several new to me vendors and I can't wait to see what different yarns and goodies are on offer.

There are still some places available on a few workshops so if you're planning on going, I'd head over and book as soon as possible, before everything gets booked up. It's set to be a pretty exciting event - see you there?

TNNA 2013

TNNA feels such a long way away now; I worked my way through the jetlag with a bunch of things for the the Yard (more about that later), and then it was time to trek back to the UK, where I'm now resting up after a bout of gastroenteritis. This is really the first time in the last few weeks I've had time to sit and write about it all!

This was my booth this year; I exhibited again with my US distributor Deep South Fibers. After the success of the shelves we built for last years' show, Tom set about building a 2nd set to match. At some point last summer, after the 2012 show, I found some tent poles in a camping shop that *exactly* matched the ones we'd repurposed in the first set, and naturally grabbed them - matching poles on a 2nd set would be a must, really. When we got round to measuring out the poles for the next set we realised I'd messed up - and hadn't bought enough of the new, matching poles. And being in Italy at the time, where having anything shipped costs a small a fortune, we were a bit stumped.

Before ordering anything online, we figured we'd try the local Decathlon to see if they had anything close to matching, or at least something reasonable enough in price to replace the poles for both sets of shelves. And there we fell for the super sleek aluminium poles. They were a bit of a hefty dent in the budget, but apart from having them all matching, they looked less like tent poles and weighed 500g less per shelving set. Worth the spend, we thought. They look so much more professional. 

The Playful Woolly Toppers Hats had their own display! The cover banners were printed locally in Italy, and I had a whole bunch of photo ones printed at the same time, which kept the unit price down. I took those with me but it looked too cluttered to have them all up. This is one thing I may rethink for next year - I reckon something more imaginative is in order on the hanging imagery front. That said, these won't be wasted, especially the photo banners. I didn't take with me the circular laminated photos from last year - perhaps that's an idea I can revisit.. maybe have them printed on fabric?

The sideways banners were printed at Spoonflower. There's one hanging either side, and they were printed side by side to get the most of the full width of fabric. I then cut them down, overlocked them, added hem pockets, and then they're hung from old tent poles to keep them from curling. They worked out less in price than a printed vinyl banner of the same size, and take up less space and weight in the suitcase. The downside was the shipping from the US, which is neither cheap nor speedy. But still, an overall winner for the effect.

The camping table was spot on - just the right size for everything, and could be moved as the mood took me. A lot cheaper than hiring one, and perfect for future shows. It still makes me happy that I can fit all this in my suitcase! Also on the table were a few of the 'in-progress' Hats that I'd put together last year, with hand made black needles to boot (it all has to match, right?). They're pretty handy for showing that I've a variety of Hat construction methods on offer.. think I might make a few more of these for the display materials bank.

This isn't the best shot of the mirror corner but I think you get the idea. I liked how this looked, although I think next time I'd like more space around them, or maybe arrange them differently. After the fiasco last year of everything falling down despite our best efforts (not the best environment for any type of tape or glue), this year I'd prepared small holes in the foamboard mount for threading monofilament through, and that worked a treat. They also hung better, at less of an angle against the drapes, making them more useful as well as decorative. (more info about the mirrors can be found here)

A closer view of the shelves - here you can see how much smoother the joins are in the tent poles - they don't really look like tent poles! We also improved the cross-brace system, as the method last year for the rear braces wasn't so great. The side braces are pretty much the same, but the rear braces are now more rigid (we had tent poles that went across the back of the entire unit previously, and they did very little to stabilise things!) and that made a big difference.

Rachel of Coopknits was my trusty assistant this year, and between us we put these up in no time at all, and they were all perfectly square and level (it also helped that I'd typed out step-by-step instructions for the construction, so that my jet-lagged self would remember). I was much happier with the overall look - the shelves stood by themselves pretty sturdily too, no wobbling, which was a bonus! I'd hired horizontal bars on both booth walls to tie the shelves to, to stop them being knocked over (even when perfectly square and stable, being so lightweight they are easily knocked) but didn't end up using them because they actually didn't need them. They did get knocked at one point, at the base, and apart from a couple of head stands toppling, the whole unit was fine. Quite a result, methinks. I'd say we've got the engineering right now for these. And they definitely look like they've grown up, too, compared to last year.

Tom came up with the idea of a circular set of shelves, that utilises the same poles and bases, and we've already started on some rough plans for that... not only could it be circular, but it could also snake, or twist and turn however we choose... it isn't at all obvious that we enjoy this sort of challenge, is it...

And finally, the little and large head stands. The little ones were 3D printed at Shapeways - these was another big dent in the budget, but totally worth it, as they're something that will be used over and over again. This year was definitely more spendy than last on the display front, although I hired less so overall it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Considering that generally I'm super-thrifty, I think I've finally accepted that it's OK to spend a little on something that I'm going to get multiple uses out of, and on things that help keep the space and weight down for travelling. 

So, beside the obvious enjoyment in the planning of the space and building nifty stuff for display, how was the rest of the show?

The post-TNNA head crash where you wonder-who-the-hell-you-are-trying-to-play-with-the-big-boys happened a good month or so before the show, so I went prepared for the worst. And having an eviction notice arrive two days before flying didn't help either - friends were warned that I might not be the greatest company, especially after a glass of wine or three. My confidence still took a nose dive, but it hasn't hijacked my head like it has in previous years.

I totally failed to take any pictures of any social aspect or any other part of the show. I did manage to get a decent amount of sleep - for the first time ever at TNNA - which helped muchly in the prevention of turning into a wreck. I caught up with friends, met loads of friendly new faces, and really enjoyed the social side of things. From that point of view, it was a brilliant show. I do so miss spending time with fibery friends.

It was madly busy on saturday and strangely quiet on sunday. I deliberately didn't try to source yarn or make new 'contacts' or try to get work in any other way. Knowing the year we have ahead, the last thing I need is more commitments, and the last thing those companies need is someone who can't keep their commitments. So on that front, it was good too.

Overall though, I'd say the show left me with a lot to think about. An awful lot. After 3 years of attending I think my thoughts about it all have finally dropped into place, and while I don't have everything mapped out for achieving want I want for my business, I do know what I don't want, and what I don't want to be aiming for. I need to streamline more. I've been doing that over the last year or so but it's not enough; my work-life balance is still wrong. Instead of worrying that I've not been included in X or that I'm not good enough to be published with Y, I'm starting to see where my strengths and weaknesses are, and am working on letting go of the anxieties that come with trying to be involved in something for the sake of it or because I think my confidence needs it - it doesn't. Let's just hope I hold onto that in the coming months ;)

There will be changes ahead. What they are yet, I don't know. It's all good, I promise!