Sweet Sorrow !

At last, our new signage arrived and we really are Marmalade Yarns now. No more confusion for the delivery men.


This month, we have a 10% off Sirdar Snuggly Yarns and have put all the lovely display items on our washing line, interspersed with 4ply fairy cakes.

One of our customers brought in this beautiful cardigan she made for her young granddaughter,

It is a Stylecraft ethical twist pattern, done in Paton's Wool Tweed.

It is gorgeous, look at the wooden elephant buttons and the wine coloured rose detailing.

We didn't know whether to be happy or sad at the end of our crochet course. We were ecstatic at their progress and declared them fully fledged as they sat round doing new projects of their own however, we were so upset at the loss of our friends that we suggested a monthly Crochet Get Together starting in September. Meanwhile we had a show and tell of the fantastic items which have been springing from the hooks......

Jar covers galore from Woman's weekly,

A beautiful bag from the 'Learn to Crochet' book,

A garden of roses,

and the magnificent shrug from 'Inside Crochet' !!!!

And last but definitely not least a wonderful, thrifty item made of lots of oddments and backed with a husbands ripped shirt. A truly lovely, credit crunch embracing cushion.

To think these fledglings had never used a crochet hook 6 weeks ago!

I keep promising to post photos of our own ongoing projects, if only our customers weren't so talented, I wouldn't have to keep filling the blog with their fabulous creations. I will endeavour to post our projects soon although I think there will be some pictures of the lovely new stock as the winter orders start to drift through the door, we can hardly wait.

Flea bites

At the weekend Maxine fulfilled a long term ambition and made it to the Giant Flea at the Bath and West where she was well and truly bitten. She took along her 8 year old daughter and they had a lovely time meeting other bloggers and buying wonderful things. She has big plans for this beautiful fabric from Sue at Vintage to Victorian.
So, while the rest of Frome watched Jensen Button, Maxine found treasure after treasure. She loves this Italian jug with the iced gems

and look at the tiny 4ply cup cake, if you can tear your eyes off the doilly.

Now, what would you think Maxine needed like a hole in the head? Another crocheted blanket and a tea cosy! But how could you resist that tea cosy? The blanket is amazing. It has been done with double stranded wool throughout which gives it a luxurious weight which is perfect for a winter blanket or picnic rug. Another project onto the wish list..........

Mad Cows and Fabulous Crochet

The shop has been fairly quiet the last couple of weeks but Maxine and I are still chasing our tails and finding our all pervasive venture time consuming and challenging, yet we are both very happy. Maxine had a day off and sat in the sun to crochet the Woman's Weekly selection which includes the beautiful tea light cover and look at the plant pot, what can I say. She shunned the housework as there is no need to clean a house you are waiting to move out of. 'What, start your own business AND move house?' I hear you cry. I think Max is working on the principle that one stress will keep her mind off the other. More news of the move as it happens....

Well, the Crochet Course is going well. One of our (vastly pregnant) Tuesday morning ladies who had never touched a crochet hook 2 weeks ago arrived with this beauty......

Isn't her baby going to be enveloped in fabulous crochet? This week everyone brought amazing granny squares. We hadn't imagined how exciting it would be to see what our proteges had been making. Here is the Thursday evening class which we do in the front of the shop as we are closed. You can see me sporting the cardigan I had been making for months. Now it is finished I feel it has elevated me to 'mad cow who works in a wool shop' status, wholly appropriate but still taking some getting used to.

From one mad cow to the best cow I have ever seen. She has prize winning udders and wonderful crumpled horns and pound coins in her hooves to make her stand, she is adorable and knitted by one of our talented customers who is waiting for her grandchild to be born who will be a proud farmer at birth. Meanwhile, we have stocked up on King Cole to make the amazing summer pattern which you can just see in the background. There is a sunflower wall hanging, complete with ladybird and a flowery cushion and the best strawberry tarts with no calories.

We have also taken delivery of Mitchell's Wool Fat soap and Woolly Wash, the soap smells like soap used to smell and is perfect for sensitive skin

and there is a wonderful ceramic dish with shaving soap and we stock the refills.
It might be midsummer's eve but we saw a rep this week to discuss our winter order! Now the best thing to come out of it was this divine Donegal Luxury Tweed tea cosy which Maxine designed from a sample our lovely rep left. If only you could feel it...............

If you have noticed the time of this posting, it is because I am waiting for my eldest son to come home from a Scout Night Hawk, I planned to sit up and knit however I have been busy sewing. My younger daughter has requested a skirt and we went to

Millie Moon and had a lovely time choosing material, we are very excited about starting it, I just hope when we finish she doesn't feel elevated to 'Mad Cow' status too.

It has been a while since the last blog and a lot has happened. I have been on holiday, I know.... poor Maxine, I am sure she will get her revenge. It was time for another Artisan Market on the hill, the last one was very busy with lots of friends passing by and we were looking forward to this one. We wanted to do a summer window, so to commemorate D-Day and because the colours look good, we chose Red White and Blue .

Complete with a knitted AND crocheted Union Jack,and this adorable summery, strawberry topped tea cosy.We started our first crochet classes on Tuesday mornings and Thursday evenings. Two lovely groups of ladies came along and we tackled granny squares. It was really rewarding to see them completing their first square. We hope they are looking forward to the next few weeks. One of the Tuesday morning ladies writes a beautiful blog Suzy's vintage attic .We have had a few visitors who blog including, a few weeks ago, the friendly girl from Knitcave who was telling me how she knits while walking along, I was very impressed. Then this week; Nicky, we had a chat and a chance to tell her how beautiful her dolls are and Clare. We never thought we would meet so many lovely people.More exciting news, our friend Mary, a knitting genius, is booked in to do a 'Sock Day' in October. She will show you how to cast on to and knit with 4 needles, knit a heel flap, turn a heel and graft a toe then if you still have some energy simple cabling and lace. Our website is coming along and the new improved version which will include details of our courses will appear in the next couple of weeks. My daughter has a Roman day at school tomorrow and has to take a Roman lunch. She has just requested stuffed dormouse, it's getting late but I wonder if I could knit one?

Cupcake Surprise!

Last time I promised you a peek at our own projects and this morning Maxine thrilled me with a surprise project she had been working on overnight from 'Knittoday'. I now have a beautiful new keyring on my shop keys.You might already know that we have a few patterns written by Maxine for the shop which include tea cosies, bunting and the very popular cotton peg bag. The latest additions are this cute baby hot water bottle and decorative heart. These were knitted in King Cole 'Splash' which is lovely for household items as well as baby knits. The decoration reminds us of small rosies.Here is my work in progress! It is a cardigan and I am very excited about finishing it, I have been knitting it for about 4 months and it only needs sewn up. However if I stopped photographing it and picked it up off the floor, I might get on better. I will let you see the finished article, soon I hope.

Next to the retro crochet tea cosy are a plate of petit fours kindly donated for display by a very talented customer. They have been in the window and drawn a lot of attention. Another very talented customer brought in this beautiful baby hat knitted in baby cashmerino from 'Baby Bloom' by Erika Knight. You can just make out the gorgeous tiny heart button in the centre of the ribbon.

I was so in love with this that I have bought the book which includes beautiful maternity patterns. Now, the last thing I need is another baby so lets hope I become an aunty again soon.

The Knit Nurse.

After all the sick kids had been and gone, Maxine decided to knit us a Barbie nurse to be on duty. We have been advised by 2 real nurses that she should be wearing a navy cape lined with red so it can be turned inside out on Christmas day when they drink sherry on the ward! Guess when you should avoid ill health. Instead of the cape I suspect Maxine should be knitting a uniform in the colours of a psychiatric nurse, as that is probably the next type of nursing we'll need.

If you are passing the window look out for our very own knit nurse, she will be there for a few weeks and hopefully make you smile.

Another piece of progress; we now have the couch in the cubby hole. All ready for pattern browsers or husbands in waiting.

Remember I mentioned my feelings of jealousy as everyone leaves with their new wool? Well this is one of the most jealous inducing items I have been forced to part with this week. Two customers have taken it home to make hats and I can't wait to see the finished items. The colours are beautiful and it is soooo soft.

Another soft yarn, which has had rave reviews, is the Sirdar baby bamboo. Neither Maxine or I have ever knitted with it but now are itching to give it a go however we need to plough through our WIP's. Next time I will treat you to a selection of our projects. Unfortunately one of the effects of working in a wool shop is your 'Project Wish List' increases in direct inverse proportion to the 'Amount of Time Available to Knit'. I knew there would be a down side.

Open for business...

Well, how niave I was 2 weeks ago when I thought I would update this blog a couple of days after we opened! We hung up our sign and opened the door and thankfully, customers started to visit.

We had browsers and buyers and friends popping in to wish us luck. We were both trying to get used to working every day and fitting in the rest of our family life around it.

I had a trip booked to Jersey and had to abandon Maxine on our first weekend. She coped and secretly loved it. I took bad photos of bronze Jersey cows, relaxed, drank wine and crocheted in the sun, it was a chore.Back to Frome with a bump, well a bang really as our plane was struck by lightning on the descent! I rushed back to the shop and as you can see by the squashed crocheted cushions, the chair was being well used and appreciated by tired knitters who climbed the hill to pay us a visit.

We have plans for further seating in the form of a sofa in a cubby hole and we are also carpeting the back of the shop in preparation for our 'learn to...' classes and knitting groups.

We were very excited on Friday when the first phase of 'marmalade' carpet was laid. Let me tell you, it is freezing in the back of the shop and bare concrete didn't help. I might have been lucky enough to be living every knitters dream but I was in danger of freezing to death or at least losing a couple of essential for knitting fingers to frost bite. You get the picture so admire the carpet and feel the orangey warmth..........

Phase 2 of mission carpet is scheduled for next week but first we have to clear this room :

The week took a turn for the worse when I had to keep a child with stomach cramps home and bring him to the shop, then got called by the school when another of my children vomited in the playground. My husband, crippled from a cricketing injury, helped out by limping to the school and picking up the sick child. After nursing children overnight it was slightly depressing to find this on Saturday morning....

Despite these hiccups, Maxine and I have had the best 2 weeks and are thoroughly enjoying it. The customers are uplifting as every one has different projects and ideas and we love to see their work. I am surprised to find I feel slightly jealous of them all as they leave with their new wool and patterns. Luckily I managed to find the time to make an organic cotton chicken who is now sitting on the shelf and he has told me that everything will be fine.

Tomorrow, the Artisan street market; see you there.........