… an amazing yarn fair experience

We’ve been working hard over the past 9 months. Since we decided to venture into the wool business, setting up wool decanted. Creating a business in the middle of a pandemic is challenging. By far the most challenging aspect was not having face to face contact with people. Not with the farmers providing our fleeces, nor the people at the mill or the dyers. And most difficult of all, not with you, our supporters and customers!

**Squishing yarn at last!**

Imagine our delight when we secured a last minute spot at the Unravel Yarn Festival in Farnham last weekend. Quickly replaced by terror! We had a total of 6 weeks to prepare. Six weeks to encapsulate our brand and products into a 2m x 2m space with table. If you want to create an unrelenting focus on your business – take part in your first in-person Fair!

We really had to think hard about being clear on who we are, what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. And getting ready to put our lovely new yarn [our baby!] to the test. To the scrutiny of knitters and crocheters who know their yarn.

Well, here’s how it turned out – here’s the wool decanted stand from Unravel Yarn Festival 2021

wool decanted at Unravel Yarn Festival 2021

In my past life I have given many business presentations to groups, large and small. Nothing compared to the the nerves Lisa and I felt as we drove to the venue on that first morning. Black coffee and legs like jelly are what I remember!

But as soon as people started to wander through the Great Hall, stopping to squish our basket of yarn. Chatting about how lovely it was to be able to squish yarn again. We felt we’d come home! Overwhelmed by the words of support and encouragement from everyone who stopped by to see us. With the biggest compliment being the amount of our yarn that visitors purchased.

Inspiration from the Fair

For those who stopped by our stand and asked about patterns for the garments we had on display. And for those of you who weren’t there in person – I thought I’d give you a quick rundown of what we had there. [Note there are links to each pattern at the end of this post]

**Star of the show! Softest baby hat**

We used this cute little baby hat to show how soft British wool can be – our vintage 20 blend in particular. It worked! Everyone agreed how soft and delicate it felt – and gorgeous to look at.

The hat, a PurlSoho pattern, knitted up in our vintage 20 4ply in Natural. With a cute pom pom in Lazy Hazy. I made this pom pom using a fork would you believe. I upgraded to a proper pom pom making tool thanks to Katie of TheSewcialCircle, a near neighbour at the show. For the hat, I used less than 1 x 50g skein of Natural on 2.75mm(US 2) circular needles (Magic Loop method)

**Versatility**

Next up was my interpretation of one of Helen Stewart’s [Curious Handmade] lovely shawls. This is my first shawl project, and when I say ‘interpretation’ I mean how it turned out once I’d misread the lacy part of the pattern. Apologies to Helen, whose unique pattern layout is excellent. This is nearly Helen’s Spindrift shawl! What we showed was the versatility of our vintage 20 4ply, knitted up on a larger needle, 4.5mm (US 7) circular. And also the popular colour combo of Silver Ripple with a Midnight Lagoon strip.

**Warmth**

This time using vintage 20 DK. In the Silver Ripple/Midnight Lagoon colour combo. A pair of fingerless mitts, courtesy of the Paddle pattern by Tin Can Knits. These mitts showed beautifully how our DK weight knits up into garments with all the softness of the 4ply.

vintage 20 spritzer!

Another star of the show was Grace – our vintage style model. Grace models one my favourite knits so far – Purl Soho’s Boyfriend Hat, knitted up using 2 strands of vintage 20 4 ply. Complementary colours, Shepherd’s Delight and Natural, give an interesting marled effect to the hat. Which turned out soft, smooth and warm. I remember how lovely the fabric felt in my hands as I was knitting this one. I used 1 skein of each colour and 3.25mm (US 3), circular needle.
**One for machine knitters**
Grace also models a short cowl. In the same complementary colours, Natural with a strip of Shepherd’s Delight, to match her beanie. Machine knitted in vintage 20 4ply on my SK840 machine. Showing machine knitters how the yarn behaves on a machine. The beautiful soft, drapey fabric it produces.

Taking stock ……

We are literally stock taking now. Counting what we’ve got left of our first small batch after a very successful show. Thankfully our next batch of vintage 20 is being spun at mill as I write. We’ll also have a new yarn which I’ll talk about in a later post.

Also, taking stock of our feelings after Unravel has been enlightening. We are still in awe of the visitors to the show. Turning up with their huge bags ready to fill with beautiful yarn [learning: don’t bring so many brown paper bags!]. We are humbled and excited by the messages of support we received and the positive responses to our yarn. We learned how important it is to give inspiration to makers using finished projects. We have already started collaborating with designer, Marina Skua. More of this in a later post. And I will be knitting like crazy throughout the summer, too.