A show in Germany and a word on yarn prices September 09 2016, 3 Comments

Back in October 2015, out of the blue, an email from Betta (the lovely lady pictured above) landed in my inbox wondering if I'd be interested in exhibiting at the second Wollfest in Hamburg. So of course I said yes! 

I had a vague idea about the logistics of getting many kilos of hand-dyed yarn from the UK to Hamburg - over 1000km away. However, a lot changes in a year, and my son had acquired my big mumsmobile and I knew I wasn't going to fit a stand's worth of yarn into my Fiat 500!  So he drove down from Lincoln to let his mum borrow back his old car and having arranged special insurance (never borrow someone else's car if you want to drive in Europe - it gets super complicated!), myself and Eliza found ourselves in the Eurotunnel with a car-full of yarn.

I know this little map says 11 hours and 47 minutes, but in reality, with stops factored in, the journey took us about 14 hours with me as the driver, and Eliza as the navigator. We passed through France, Belgium and the Netherlands, finally arriving in Germany.

When we arrived, we met up with Suzanne (alabamawhirly) and her husband who'd had a little holiday in Berlin and had made their way up to Hamburg by train. The night we arrived, we headed straight out to see the sights of the city, and indulged in a few local specialities at the biggest food festival in Europe.

The next day, we arrived at Staatliche Jugendmusikschule and set up the stand in an airy, light room.

Here's Eliza, me and Suzanne just before the start of the show, looking just a little nervous. Although we'd practiced some German on Duolingo, it was coming up with sayings such as "The cat is giving a skirt to a woman" which really didn't come in handy at all!

Suzanne was the best at German, although we were all decidedly ropey, but we managed with her help and were so impressed by many customers' fluency in English. Put us to shame!

These new hexagons which I custom ordered from FaodailWoodworks looked rather splendid filled with colourful skeins.

It was a busy show! By the end of day two, the yarn pile had dwindled to one level meaning we brought back very little. 

Both the customers and the other vendors were so friendly. We felt so very welcomed and really enjoyed every minute as the yarn was appreciated with much ooing and ahhing - which is pretty similar whatever the language!

You may have spotted my new Holyrood shawl - pattern by Justnya Lorkowska - hanging in the booth. 

I chose crazy summery colours as I really wanted to combine all my bright pinks and turquoises into something fun and the different textures of this design work well for frequent colour changes. It's a combination of Little Wrigglers with some Entwine, but you could really use any 4 ply fingering weight yarn. 

For a more elegant look, the pattern works so well with two or three colours.

We did get a few hours to get out and about and see a bit of Hamburg. We walked many kilometres and I stumbled across... yarn! I discovered a massive hobby shop called idee and got a little overwhelmed by all the crafting supplies! Look at all that wool, and that was only about half of what was on offer.

And there are some quite tall people in Hamburg...

It really is a wonderful city and Wollfest was a small, friendly show with very high quality vendors and teachers. It happens every two years, and I would thoroughly recommend a visit should you get the opportunity. Massive thanks to Suzanne and Eliza for being brave enough to accompany me on our little German adventure.

And now to the not so nice bit - yarn prices.

As you may be aware, following Brexit in June, sterling took a plunge against the US dollar and other currencies. I'm sure if you're UK based and been lucky enough to have had a summer holiday abroad this year, you'll have experienced directly the lack of purchasing power of the pound.

I have five to six suppliers of white yarn and many more other suppliers from mailing bags to tissue paper to dyes. Some of these suppliers I pay directly in $US and others pay their suppliers in $US or euros. Those not dealing in the dollar have still put up their prices as they have other supplies to pay for which may not originate in the UK.

So it is with great regret and having held off as long as I can, I've now had to make the decision to put up most of my yarn prices in order to continue to provide the highest quality yarn bases that I know you've come to expect. You can find a full price list here.

Please be assured that I highly respect each and every purchase made with your hard-earned cash and strive to provide you with an excellent product that you'll hopefully get a lot of satisfaction from.

Thank you for your understanding.

On a brighter note, I'm currently dyeing up the last installment of the Summer Club ready to be sent out at the end of next week and simultaneously signing up existing members and the waiting list to the Winter Club.

Depending on uptake, there will likely be more club places available at the end of next week, so keep your eyes peeled on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook if you fancy joining.

Royal Mail price changes April 02 2014, 0 Comments

31st March - the joy of the annual changing of Royal Mail prices.

But there's a bit of good news this time - some prices have gone down.

So although I've had to put my price for a small UK parcel up to 750g up a bit, the good news is that I've been able to REDUCE the price of a medium parcel up to 2kg.

UK Large Letters REMAIN THE SAME.

European prices for sizes up to 250g (most parcels) STAY THE SAME. Larger parcels have gone up a little.

Rest of World prices for sizes up to 250g (most parcels) STAY THE SAME. There's a small increase for parcels in the 250-750g range, but I've been able to REDUCE the largest size by whole £1.

I've adjusted the dollar rates to be in line with today's rates, which unfortunately wipes out any decreases for customers buying in $US, so the price for you, will in effect, mostly stay the same.

Having created spreadsheets for these changes and manually amended all the prices in the shop from Gibraltar to Greenland, I hope the prices remain the same until at least this time next year!

I feel a bit like the Chancellor giving the Budget speech - but here is a summary of current prices which you can always find in the Delivery section of the shop.

UK - Royal Mail 1st class

• 0-49g          -   £1.10
• 50-750g       -   £3.20
• 751g-2kg     -   £5.30

Europe - Airmail

• 0-99g          -   £2.95
• 100-250g     -   £3.45
• 251-500g     -   £4.95
• 501-750g     -   £6.25
• 751-1kg       -   £7.95
• 1.01kg-2kg   -   £13.50

Rest of the World - Airmail

• 0-99g           -    £3.50 (approx $5.80)
  
• 100-250g      -    £4.50 (approx $7.50)
  
• 251-500g      -    £7.95 (approx $13.25)
  
• 501-750g      -    £10.50 (approx $17.50)
  
• 750-1kg        -    £13.50 (approx $22.50)
  
• 1.01kg-2kg    -    £24.00 (approx $40)

Now there just needs to be hand-dyed in the shop to buy! Keep an eye out tomorrow - I have a few skeins which I plan to add to the shop throughout the day - not a huge amount. And then I'm taking a week's Easter break until April 14th.