Botton Market and Malton Show

This weekend, yet again I was once again at two markets. Saturday was my usual monthly Botton market. I've not been for a couple of months (house move and Fibre Events), and for once the sun came out, so I had a lovely morning sat in the sun knitting. I don't sell a lot at Botton, but there again I don't have to pay for my table, so I don't mind, but around lunch time I had a rush of sales, there was a course being run and some of the delegates were hand spinners and knitters!
On Sunday I was at Malton Show in the Craft tent, I wasn't sure if I was going to go, with it being in a marquee and a field, considering the weather over the last few days. But a phone call from another stallholder on the Saturday afternoon to say that the field was bone dry, so "Monty" the campervan was loaded up and we set off early on Sunday morning.
The morning was quiet, plenty of people around, but very few sales. Things picked up after lunch and talking to other stallholders, they were having the same sort of day, but in the end it was a pretty good day and the sun shone all day. Not sure if I will do Malton show again, we will have to see how I feel when the stall application form drops into my in box.
I've no more markets now until September, starting with the British Wool Weekend at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate. But there will be no holiday for me in August as I've fibre and knitting wool to dye, headbands, gloves, wrist warmers and scarves to knit for selling in the run up to Christmas as well as re-label my existing stock after the house move.

Fibre East 2012

This was the first time I've taken my stall to Fibre East and even though it was held in a field, it was a beautiful event, that was until the thunder storm on the Friday night! The rain didn't get into the marquees, but the water table rose and at one point there was 5" of water in front of my stall.The weather seemed to have an effect on the number of people who came to the event, and even though sales were a little slow, I did come away with a profit over the weekend.
I did make one purchase, some wool from The Natural Fibre Company, a raid of their bargain bin, for some wool to knit their fitted jacket pattern I picked up at Woolfest some 3 weeks earlier. I also got a lot of knitting done.

When I arrived at Fibre East on the Friday night, I had only done 3" of the leg rib, and when I left on the Sunday all that was left to do was the toe shaping. Which is now done.
Will I do Fibre East again, yes I will, just hope that the weather is a lot better

What can I knit with 100gms of sock yarn?

This is a question I get asked quite a lot at the markets I attend. So here is a picture to show what 100gms of sock yarn will make.

2 pairs of finger less mitts or wrist warmers and a headband/ear warmers.

At the moment I'm getting ready for Fibre East which is this weekend. I did have a bit of a panic about my fibre. A week ago, we had a really bad rainstorm (known locally as thunder Thursday) rain water seeped into my fibre store. Thankfully most of my fibre is stored in big plastic boxes, so very little fibre got wet, thank goodness, but at some point a new floor will have to be laid,  and I can't leave fibre stored in plastic bags as I usually do in readiness for shows or markets, unless they are off  the floor.

Woolfest 2012

Firstly, apologies for the lateness of this blog, but I've been having computer problems, but these have now been resolved.
I drove over to Cockermouth early on Thursday morning, 2 reasons, Firstly, high winds were forecast for the A66, which when I'm towing a trailer, I was not looking forward to, and secondly the Olympic Tourch was due to arrive in Cockermouth around 4pm and I didn't wnat to get caught up in all the traffic.
Well the winds weren't too bad and I missed all the traffic, but lots of other stallholders had, had the same idea and arrived early, but we all had to wait until 2.30 before we were able to start and set up our stalls as the mart was still being cleaned out.

Here is my stall on the Tursday night, it's not a good photo as the light wasn't particularly good, as the weather had started to turn for the worse. It started to rain that evening and I think it forgot to stop. A 100mm of rain fell over the next 18 hours and at one point on the Friday we were all watching the water run down the steps from the top car park, it looked like a waterfall the rain was so heavy, then the winds decided to blow to a point that the trees were nearly horizontal!!! By 4 o'clock several tents had collapsed or were flooded out by the rain. I spent a very rocky night in my campervan being buffeted by the wind. By Saturday the wind and  rain had subsided somewhat, but Tim caught a train from Middlesbrough to Penrith, from where I picked him up from the station so that he could drive the worst part of the A66 with the campervan and trailer.
From a sales point of  view, Friday was a quiet day, I suspect most people were put off by the bad weather, but despite the flooding on the A66 Saturday was a much busier day and overall my sales were just as good as last year.
I did treat myself to one or two things this year, a drop spindle made from Holly, a sample niddy noddy, a darning mushroom (all made for me by Joan at Woodland Turnery). I also bought some wool from the Natural Fibre Company, not sure what I'm going to knit with it, I just liked the colour.
I thankfully, don't have to do a lot to get ready for Fibre East in a couple of weeks time, though I have decided to dye a Kerry Hill x Oxford Down fleece that I found when I was packing up my fleece store. Lets just hope the weather improves for Fibre East as it's in a marquee!