Thursday 20 June 2013

Special Order....

Last week I told you I was preparing a little something for Marylenes shop in Ruette. Well, here it is, or rather, here they are:

The new Squeaky Elliot embroidery threads!
These are a 100% wool crewel weight in 25 meter skeins.




These are currently exclusive to Marylene for her workshop with textile artist Lea Stansal next week, but if they are well received and there is enough interest, I will be adding them to my etsy shop too.
So feel free to let me know if you would like to see more of these :)

Sunday 16 June 2013

BIG SQUISHY SALE!!


A huge 20% off all Squishy Sock, Squishy Merino and Luxury Lace during the whole month of June.
Come and get them while you can!!



The Giant Vintage Rag Market in Frome

And now to something completely different....well, not completely, but a little.
I am delighted to have secured a stall at The Giant Vintage Rag Market in Frome at the end of the month - Saturday the 29th of June to be exact.
Over the years, I have amassed a bit of a collection of vintage fabrics ranging from the 40s through to my favourite 60s and 70s. I've never quite had the time to list them and post them on ebay as originally intended, so I am really pleased to be able to take them directly to the public where they can really see and feel the fabrics themselves.



I've been to a couple of events organised by The Vintage Bazaar and I can heartily recommend a visit if you are in the area - the atmosphere is always buzzing and joyous and they really value good quality stock - strictly no post-1980s or endless racks of clothing, just lots and lots of vintage fabrics and haberdashery.



If you are coming by, come and say hello! I won't have the yarns with me as such, but if there is anything you have your eye on, let me know and I can always pop it in the boot :)



Sunday 9 June 2013

3 country weekend

I had a little weekend trip to Luxembourg to visit my mother last week, and as usual, caught up with some of my favourite old (and some new) haunts.
Three countries in one weekend may sound impressive, but when it takes on average 20min to cross any given border, it's really not that much of a feat.
We started east to Germany and the town of Trier - a nice, mid-size sort of sensible town which reminds me a little of where I grew up in Sweden, with a market, a department store, a proper fabric shop and a couple of nothing-fancy-but-perfectly-useful yarn shops. Wolle Roedel is a German chain of shops, selling mostly their own brand yarns and a good range of KnitPro needles. They have yarns for every use, especially a big range of commercial sock yarns (including Regia) and a great choice of cotton yarns in lots of happy colours, perfect for baby blankets. It's a really nice shop to go in to - not as touchy-feely as more arty ones, but all neat, colourful, rows and clear labelling.

  I bought some of their funky thick sock yarn for some funky quick-knit socks. Sock yarn for lazy people, essentially.


            



We had lunch at my very favourite place in town: Biogate - a huge health food shop serving food on a counter in the middle of the store. They run a choice of 5 dishes of the day, always vegetarian and super fresh - not the kind of stewed, stodgy food you might associate with that kind of place. I always come away from there feeling like I've topped up all my vitamin levels for the next 6 months.



      




We didn't have much time as we still wanted to make it over to Belgium that afternoon, so I quickly ran to the Orthopedic shop in search of some Birkenstock sandals for the summer. I love Birkenstocks and a couple of years ago, I discovered that you could get the basic models much cheaper from these dusty old shops that sell support tights and other such glamorous things. I really enjoyed supporting this old fashioned little place, but unfortunately, it is now so old fashioned that the couple running it are about to retire and therefore had about 5 pairs of shoes left in the whole shop and none of them in my size. Still, it was fun while it lasted.




The other thing Trier has in spades are Konditoreien - pastry shops and cafes. We really didn't have time for a sit-down coffee and cake but couldn't resist buying a couple of slices of the glossiest, most beautiful chocolate truffle cake - to be enjoyed on my mothers vintage china when we got home.





We then drove on to Belgium and the small town of Virton. This is a whole new discovery for me this year - noone could have expected that such an unassuming place in the depths of rural Belgium would actually house a proper quality yarn shop! But La Compagnie des Laines does exist - and they are currently test-knitting the Luxury Lace yarn by yours truly with a view to stock it soon!
They also stock a range of Rowan yarns, Malabrigo in several thicknesses, the Wall of Holst that the owner Ornella and I are posing in front (in my Holst jacket. not that I wore it there to show off or anything...) and lots of Lopi yarn - they seem mad for Lopi over on the continent!





Finally, we popped in to yet another surprising place: the Atelier Patchwork a Ruette. Ruette is a village just outside of Virton and in the village there is a house with a car mechanics one side and a tiny patchwork and embroidery shop the other. Marylene runs embroidery workshops from there and I needed to go in and see her to drop off some samples we'd been working on.....but more on that soon ;)