Pinterest and what it means to me

After writing my last blog post about how I'm struggling to find enough time to do social networking.
I'm going to admit to having a slightly unhealthy obsession with Pinterest.
It's something I look at when I have a spare 5 minutes, before I go to sleep, when I'm too tired to crochet, at least 3 or 4 times a day.

I have been a member for several years and never taken much interest in it, to be honest I couldn't see the point of saving pictures of cake and clothes I want to wear.
You might not believe this when looking at me, but I'm not a food person, I eat because I have to, not because I enjoy it, it just doesn't excite me.
But I have a foodie for a husband who does all the cooking and has made it his life's work to ensure I don't starve, he's a brilliant cook and always cooks too much. And has been known to sulk when if I leave anything, hence the fact I'm quite round and not a skinny beanpole.

Anyway back to Pinterest..
When I was at art college we were actively encouraged to keep scrapbooks of pictures that inspired us and I have recently discovered Pinterest is a giant scrapbook with pictures and inspiration found from the entire internet.
I do have a couple of boards that are pointless, such as my Lurcher and Sheep board's, I've saved the photo's because I like lurchers and sheep.
But I have lots of boards full of quilt's, crochet, islamic tiles, textiles, colour's, texture and shape.

I'm also beginning to realise that peoples boards reflect their personalities, its fascinating to discover that you can tell exactly whether they like cooking and clothes or where they want to live or who they want to be etc etc
I'm not sure what my boards say about me, except I like sports cars, lurchers, sheep and the whole rainbow, texture and shape.

I'll let you decide for yourselves.....

http://www.pinterest.com/queenieamanda/boards/

The end of our show year & social networking

Here at NDS we have had a very, very busy year.
Our last show was Ally Pally which was last weekend, since our return home we have been trying to relax and catch up on sleep.
So I have been very, very quiet on the social networking front

We haven't really had a break since January, each month was packed full.
Every month we dye on average 100 kgs for clubs, wholesale and retail stock.
Sometimes we have more wholesale, sometimes we have less.
We started planning the shows we had booked in January.
Our first show was Unravel in February.
The we did the big European trade show in Cologne in March.

Wonderwool in April.
I published my second crochet motif book in May.

Then we did Woolfest in June.

In July, August and the beginning of September we dyed for Yarndale and The Knitting and Stitching show, a total of 6 days show, 2 weeks apart.
Plus I published Madder Triangles in September

All this has meant I haven't had much time to chat on-line, which has resulted in our Ravelry group going to sleep and Twitter almost ignoring me, however our Facebook group has grown and grown and grown.
Social networking is really important to a small business like ours, so I constantly feel guilty that I'm not keeping up with friends, customers and the news.
But something has to give, the 3 of us work 7 days a week, just to keep the work under control.

And now we can have a bit of a rest, although we still have clubs, wholesale and retail stock to dye.
Plus I have some very exciting crochet design work in a very distant pipeline.
I also have a complete crochet motif collection book planned asap, maybe in time for Christmas if I can fit it in.
Plus I need to finish the pattern for a design which is being published in a magazine very shortly.
And finish and publish my Florence blanket.

And finish and publish my new Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Blanket.

And finally finish and plan the Kaleidoscope club blanket.

I'm not complaining we've had an amazing year, I loved every minute of it, we've met loads and loads of customers, both old and new, but please forgive me if I seem absent.
Don't worry we're still here.................

Shows and lack of wool

As we've finally finished dyeing our 200+ kgs for Yarndale and Ally Pally we still have another 20 kgs to do but, after 200kgs, 20 seems like child's play.
And I've finally got a few moments to blog about the shows.

As we have been concentrating on dyeing for the shows we haven't had much yarn to dye for our regular weekly updates, this means our website is looking a little bit bare.
I'll be updating the site tonight and yet again I only have a couple of kgs to add.

Including this which is 2 skeins of very dark indigo Godiva HT, there are only 2 skeins as I dyed it especially for the secret blanket design I am working on.
As its very dark indigo I expected to get very blue hands while crocheting, but so far I've used 2 skeins and it is no where near as bad as I thought.

And this Angelus logwood, there were 5 skeins in the same lot, but 2 of them are far more variagated, so I have listed them seperately. These are the 2 variagated and have dark streaks in them which isn't showing up in the photo - grrrr

The update will be HERE tonight at 7 pm UK time.

Now for the show news.
Next weekend we will be at YARNDALE in Skipton, Yorkshire, its a brand new show so will be really interesting going to a new place and meeting new people and hopefully a lot of our existing customers.
We are taking nearly all our yarns to Yarndale, + the new book, + kits + mini skeins etc etc

Then we have a 10 day break (dyeing the extra 20 kgs) until The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace
Ally Pally (as it is known in the wool world) is the biggest UK show, 4 days and what feels like a million people to chat to.
We haven't done it for 6 years and so are quite anxious about how it will go, especially as I have decided to do something totally different for our stand.
I am going as a designer, rather than going as a yarn supplier, so our whole stand is built around my new book MADDER TRIANGLES, with a few of our knitting patterns, because knitters need to be pampered too.
As the stand is based around the book we are only taking 5 yarns - this is the bit I am anxious about.
I know we will have lots of people asking for yarns we left at home, that's why I am warning you now :-)

The yarns are..
DAZZLE 4 ply/Sock
DAZZLE HT 4 ply/Sock
DAZZLING 2 ply Lace
DAZZLING 4 ply
And GODIVA HT 4ply?sock

You might notice a British woolly theme, but they are all used in the book, we've been dyeing some amazing new colours and hopefully they will go down really well, I'm particularly pleased of Berry Castle, which I'm afraid I don't have any photo's of, if it sells well I'll be dyeing more, if it don't there will be some on the website late in October.
Plus we are taking mini skeins, rainbow Collections, kits, books, hooks etc etc etc

And finally here is the only sneaky peak you are going to get of the KALEIDOSCOPE BLANKET CLUB, that is unless you join the club and watch your own blanket grow :-)

It's the centre 6 motif's, only another 660 to go!

Kaleidoscope Crochet Club

I thought I would write a blog post about my new crochet club for next year (2014)
I mentioned it in yesterday's NDS mailing list mail, but I know not everyone is on the mailing list.

I've been thinking about running a blanket club for over a year, but due to publishing books and dyeing wool I haven't had much brain space to work on a design.
But since publishing Madder Triangles a couple of weeks ago I've been thinking and playing with a design for a blanket club for next year.

Its a secret design, you won't see it until its finished, which will be December 2014, so you have a long time to wait. Members will see it layer by layer, as new layers will be built each month.

I can show you a couple of early sketches that ended up in the discard pile long ago.

The design has come a very long way since then, these 2 designs look quite sane, the finished design is totally mental :-) Here is a tiny sliver of the actual design, as you can see there are spots and a lot of colours.

Here's a little bit of info to tempt you with, which you can find on the site 

"What is a Kaleidoscope? Described by the Ancient Greeks as the 'observation of beautiful forms' the kaleidoscope is a cylinder of mirrors, with colourful loose objects in it, that reflect in the mirrors creating an astounding spectrum of colour in a symmetrical form.  

So what is the Kaleidoscope Blanket Club about? This is a club which will run for the whole of 2014, starting in the January and finishing in the December. 
At the end of the year you will have a spectacular and unique blanket, with a design based on a pattern created by a kaleidoscope, measuring approximately 60" (150cm) square consisting of 666 motifs. 
The design will grow from the centre out in the same manner that a kaleidoscope pattern does, utilising one simple triangle motif."

And you can find the rest of the information page HERE 

And HERE are all the sign up options.

I'm hopeing to get members to post in my Ravelry group DESIRABLE CROCHET MOTIFS, so they can share experiences and wip's.