Finally I can get back onto my blog to let you know that I am no longer seeing the world through a bubble. The colours of all our new yarns look amazing .....especially when you have spent a while looking at the world through a dirty fishpond (which is what looking through a bubble is like).

Our website is in a state of reconstruction at present as we prepare to enable you to buy online. We're all very excited in the shop especially Verity who is going to be running the online site for us.

We've certainly got plenty of stock to sell. The shop is completely choccoblock full at present with all the beautiful new yarns!

 I think we will start by putting just the NZ yarns online, which reminds me that I'm feeling very jealous of my dear husband and daughter at present as they are both in NZ visiting relatives and watching the rugby. I'm not missing the rugby but would loved to have been able to go with them to visit Cruellas in Nelson, South Island. Cruellas was shop of the year in the South Island and is the base for  my beautiful Rareyarns. I've ordered masses of new Rare Essentials Pure Boucle in all the new colours, new hand dyed alpaca/merino and even packs of 4 ply. How they 're going to fit in the shop I've no idea. I never think of this when I order new yarns!

Well I'm sitting at home away from the shop but unfortunately its difficult to relax knitting because I can only see out of one eye, the other eye is full of a gas bubble which is like looking at the world through an aquarium (a very blurry aquarium).

I went to the opticians a couple of months ago mentioning that I must need new lens in my right eye as the world had become rather weird and distorted in that eye. He sent me straight off to the eye specialist at Torbay who informed me that I had a hole in the macular part of the eye. Having never heard of a macular before, I looked it up on the internet and was horrified to discover that I would need an operation to try to seal the hole. This op took place last Monday 4 July (Happy birthday Spin A Yarn You are 5 years old!). I then spent a week trying to keep my head down looking at the floor all the time. Very boring!!

Now I can pick my head up but am feeling rather sea sick as the bubble wobbles all the time and I can't see through it. Some people get their sight back very fast but apparently he put a slow acting gas in my eye because I've had problems with the eye in the past.

Anyway do keep your fingers crossed for me that the eye will recover and the distortion will  be gone. I plan to come back to the shop next Tuesday but might have to potter a bit for a few more days.

Now I'm going to try some knitting and spinning!

I took Sue and Yvonne up to Rowan yarns for the retail event and we all had a brilliant time. The new Autumn collection is wonderful. The biggest problem is going to be choosing which designs to knit.Mag 50 is a real triumph for Rowan - lots of wearable fashions in snuggly yarns. I've ordered all 24 new colours of the Heritage Tweed which is to take the place of the Scottish Tweed. This is spun locally in Holmefirth and is really soft in a stunning range of colours. Fair Isle and "The Killing" Jumper are going to be very popular this Autumn. I can't wait!

The other success this Autumn will be the new lace yarn from Rowan. Only £7.50 for a wonderfully soft suri alpaca/merino blend 400metres long! I've left all ther samples in the shop so will try to take some photos of the new designs and the other new yarns to post

Oh I've just joined Twitter so will be able to post as soon as the new yarns arrive and let you know when our next sale will be.

We're 5 years old on 4 July so that should give you a hint!!

Last Tuesday was another exciting day at Spin A Yarn. Martin Storey popped into the shop before the Rowan Fashion Show which was held in the evening at the Devon Guild.

Our photographer Mark Shuttleworth took masses of photos but I haven't seen most of them yet! Some are available to view at https://picasaweb.google.com/MShuttleworthUK/ShootSpinAYarnSMartinStoreyFashionShow#

However I'll post some on the blog when I've had the chance to see them all.

Martin is such a lovely friendly guy, very easy to chat to and quite modest considering he has been designing for Rowan for 20 years!.

Rowan sent some beautiful samples to the show and lots and lots of balls of wool for our raffle. We were delighted to raise £131.60 for the Devon Air Ambulance.

Our models are amazing, so confident and beautiful. Everyone agreed that it was the best show ever. Steven excelled himself with the food and there didn't seem to be long queues for the food. Just lots of customers sitting around knitting, chatting and enjoying themselves especially when it was time to try on the beautiful Rowan samples.

Anyone who has paid us a visit knows that Spin A Yarn is absolutely stuffed full of yarn! Having tried to reduce stock by having a sale, what did I do yesterday?

I received a very tempting shade card from Shilasdair on the Isle of Skye of the latest yarns which they are now producing for trade customers.

I'm afraid that I couldn't resist the colours and wonderful softness of the Luxury DK and 4 ply. The mix of 20% cashmere, 40% Angora and 40% British Merino is so gorgeous that my most difficult problem was confining myself to only 12 colours of each.

Then I clicked the send button and ordered. Where they are going to fit I have no idea. I just had to order them! My favourite cardigan is knitted in Shilasdair Cashmere so I have a long standing weakness.

Hope others like the beautiful natural colours that Eva uses to dye this wonderful soft yarn?

They'll be arriving in about 3 weeks time. I can't wait!!

What a Brilliant, exciting & fun evening! When we suggested hosting a fashion show at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen for Designer Yarns we didn't dream that Debbie Bliss would come. However the company sent the whole of Debbie Bliss's winter collection to us and Debbie and her husband, Barry came as well.

First the big boxes of garments arrived and our customers had a wonderful time trying them on. Then came Debbie and Barry. Debbie was very sweet and such a nice person. Unfortunately I managed to get larymgitis the day before and could hardly squeak ---- very embarrassing. I've told her that she must come back just so I can chat normally to her.

We were also proud to have Claire Crompton, Alison Crowther Smith and Anniken Allis at the show as well as Gerda Hatton Ellis. So many designers!!

I'll be posting lots of photos of the fashion show. Meanwhile I've just got the one of me and Debbie Bliss.

The food at the Devon Guild was very enjoyable especially the desserts!

After dinner our customers paraded up and down the beautiful upstairs mill room showing us how beautiful Debbie's designs look on normally shaped people as opposed to super models. Debbie gave us some insights on the design of the garments.

Then best of all Debbie kindly suggested that we should all try the garments on. It was such fun. The noise level of laughter and chat rose to a high volume.

Everyone agreed that it was such a fun evening and we're all looking forward to the next one now.

How did I manage to order so much yarn! The last couple of days we've had HUGE deliveries.The Designer Yarns boxes were full of beautiful goodies from Noro, Debbie Bliss and  Louisa Harding. The new Kochoran shades are spectacular and the Kogarashi is gorgeous. We've also got new shades in Silk Garden,  Kureyon and Yuzen  and the Silk Garden Sock Yarn.

Then there is the new Debbie Bliss Glen in 12 shades and the scrumptious Andes which is Silk and Baby Alpaca for a really reasonable price.  Louisa Harding new yarns include Millais, Rosetti and hand dyed Grace.

Then tomorrow our first delivery from Colinette arrives!! I'll try to take some photos. We've also had huge deliveries from Sirdar, Katia plus  all the new shades of Silk Blend from Manos.

Then we're still waiting for the beautiful yarns from Adriafil which our handsome Italian persuaded me to buy.

I'm hoping some yarn addicts like myself arrive at the shop soon to help us clear some space!1

Can't believe its a week since we travelled up to Bradford by train knitting all the way.

Ali &  Patsy accompanied me to the UK Handknitting Trade show up at Bradford. We were all excited at the prospect of meeting lots of designers and seeing all the new samples knitted up in the new yarns. Perhaps there would be a couple of fashion shows?

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and were initially surprised to find that it was a much smaller show that we thought it would be. however, we quickly got used to the scale of the show and took advantage of the opportunity to chat to the Designer Yarns team and then to Louisa Harding! She was wonderful to chat to and gave us a real insight into why her designs are so wearable and feminine. She began life as a dress designer and moved into knitwear design. She modelled her designs for us and we got the opportunity to try then on as well. Great fun!

We're so glad that we asked the Designer yarns team where to go for an enjoyable meal.They recommended Muntaz Indian Restaurant and it was fantastic.

It was a beautiful shiny palace of a restaurant and the food and atmosphere were fantastic.

I'm at home today so able to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine. I've just had a quick walk up the hill (Haynedown on Dartmoor) with the dogs and sat at the top next to the Bowerman's nose thinking how beautiful everything is today and how the new young nettles and gorse will be perfect for dyeing my angora and sheep fleece.

My two little goats were sheared yesterday and are now skipping around the field full of the joys of spring having been relieved of their long shaggy locks and I've got a great big bundle of beautiful Angora to wash.

In the shop we've got lots of new summer yarn. Rowan revive is proving really popular and has been joined by the beautiful new Amy Butler wool cotton yarn which is so soft and comes in really scrummy colours.My only complaint is that the trendy green label looks a bit sickly and detracts from the clear bright colours.

I've got all the DK in stock and have just ordered the Aran weight so that my customers can knit the stunning dress on the front of the new Amy Butler pattern book.

The other yarn excitement is the arrival of the scrumptious new Manos Lace Yarn  along with the trendy new lace patterns, four of which are designed by our own customer and teacher Anniken Allis. The yarn's a gorgeous mixture of Baby Alpaca, Cashmere and Silk and is sure to be a huge hit. We can't decide which of Anniken's patterns we should knit first  

We were so excited today when 4 large boxes arrived from Rowan. One was full of the new Rowan Mag 47, and amazingly 2 boxes were full of all the sample garments which are in the new magazine. They are so beautiful we can't wait to try them on at the Fashion Show!

Then the 4th box has lots of beautiful Rowan yarn for raffle prizes. We're raising money for the Devon Air Ambulance so Rowan have kindly donated some prizes for us.

Its going to be a wonderful evening we can't wait!! There are so many garments I think I'll have to enlist more customers to be models for the evening.

The forecast of heavy snow on Dartmoor again persuaded me to stay in Bovey last night as otherwise I would have been stuck at home and the shop would have had to stay closed. As we are in the middle of a sale I really wanted to open up.

Anyway I had a very pleasant night at the Cromwell Inn in Bovey. My only complaint was that the energy saving bulbs were not bright enough for a knitter!!

My family emailed me a couple of photos to show me what I was missing.

A snowplough cleared the snow off the road so I was able to get home tonight and have every confidence about getting down the hill again tomorrow.

At last I can safely tell everyone that we are moving up the hill to beautiful new premises in the middle of Bovey Tracey. I've been rather superstitious about putting the move into print while lawyers were still negotiating the lease.

We are planning a public move next Monday, 3 August and invite all our friends to come and help by forming a human chain along the road from the old shop to the new shop and passing the wool along.

I can't quite believe that we will only be in our old shop another week and feeling rather sad.

The main news which I've been waiting to tell everyone is that we are expecting to move to bigger premises very soon, hopefully at the end of June! We've known for ages that there was a possibility of a move but have been waiting for the tenants to move out. They moved out this last weekend but we still haven't managed to sign any papers. Next week everything will be sorted I hope.

I've already planned where everything is going to go. We'll have a local section and a luxury section and will fit in a couple of new suppliers such as Garn studio.

Best os all we will have lots more space for workshops and will be able to spread books and patterns around the room, instead of squeezing everyone into a small space.

I definitely be blogging to let everyone know when we get the official goahead

So much has been happening that I haven't looked at the blog for a while. How embarrassing to discover that the last blog was all about the snow when now it is beautifully and sunny.

Last week Ali and I travelled by train, knitting all the way up to HolmFirth to visit Rowan yarns for a wonderful Retail event. We had a preview of all the new winter yarns and books and fell in love with Alpaca Cotton and Lima . We had a brilliant time trying on the new samples and enjoying fashion shows.

Holmfirth is a lovely place full of beautiful unusual clothes and we enjoyed a wonderful Thai meal in the evening. Certainly, we'd recommend a visit to that part of the world.

Well for the first time we've been cut off by snow at home  and I wasn't able to open the shop for the "Professional Finishing "workshop.

Apologies to everyone who was inconvenienced!

Couldn't believe the depth of snow which greated us when we woke up this morning. I'll try to post a few photos to give you some idea. It reached to the top of my wellies!

The local pub was packed as no-one in the village had managed to get out to work.

I'm hoping that I manage to get down the hill tomorrow. My husband dug his car out this afternoon and managed to follow the tractor to the top of the hill. He's left his car up there in the hope that we might be able to get out. The forecast is for the snow to freeze which is not going to be much fun. 

Still it is looking beautiful, a real Winter Wonderland - so quiet and bright.

Its also good knitting weather!

Just had to tell you about my trip to New York with my daughter for 4 days just before Christmas. It was our first trip and first morning walking across Brooklyn Bridge I exclaimed "Wouldn't it be brillant if it snowed like in the movies"

Next morning we woke up to heavy snow falling. So we took a subway up to Central Park to find a winter Wonderland. It was so beautiful. We enjoyed playing in the snow then went off shopping.

I ofcourse had googled all the yarn shops in New York and was hoping to visit them all. But with my daughter and the snow I only managed one - the beautiful Purl in SoHo. It was certainly worth the visit, however. Such a pretty shop with beautiful yarns as I hope you will see in the photos. The best bit was seeing a swift in constant use. I'm now determined to get one for Spin A Yarn!

I haven't posted anything on my blog since August! This is not because life has been boring. Instead so much is happening I don't seem to have time to write about it.Highlights have been the wonderful show at Ally Pally, when I couldn't resist buying beautiful cashmere and silk from the Knitwitches stall. My stash is getting bigger and bigger. I tend to buy sock for my shop in the same way. Impulsively!

Its probably because of this that I found myself in the shop today with4 huge boxes of yarn arriving as Mary was running a spinning workshop for me.

 It seemed a good idea to invest in some DK sock yarn when the Rowan rep visited last week, then surely I had better buy lots more Noro yarn as the shelves were starting to empty slightly.

Anyway I really have run completely out of space. Poor Allie did a brilliant job trying to hide away packs of yarn but when I left the shop it was still taking uyp every available space.

I think I'm obsessed.

Yesterday was quite an interesting one to say the least!ITV West country emailed me last week to ask if they could film a knit club for a programme to be shown on ITV this Friday 15 August at 6.00pm

Well I thought it might be fun so of course I said yes! I was flattered that they had picked Spin A Yarn to film. It turned into a marathon 4 hour session from which they will pick about 1 or 2 minutes apparently.

Yesterday morning wasn't officially a knit club day but everyone was eager to come along so before I knew it there were 10 ladies sitting around the table with their various projects.

Clare Manning the presenter arrived and joined the camera man and the soundman as well as Ali & I.

As you all know I have a very small shop!

Claire Crompton came along to teach Claire, Anneken was knitting her exquisite socks with her Mum and daughter, also there were Christine, Mary, Sue, Jackie, Becky.

At least 10 customers arrived along with a delivery of 2 huge bags of yarn from Sirdar.

My shop was by now looking exceedingly small!!

My worst moment was when the sound man decided to fix a mike so that I could be interviewed.  As anyone of you probably knows I can chat happily to anyone all day in the shop, however.... when i was provided with a mike and asked questions I just went bright red and couldn't think what on earth I was saying. I'm dreading watching the show on Friday! 

Claire & Anneken did very well however and Claire Manning seemed to be genuinely enjoying learning to knit. In fact she was doing very well by the end of the session.

Do watch but please excuse whatever I'm saying as I really can't remember! 

I closed the shop the other week for the first time since I opened it on 4 July and had a wonderful week in Crete. It was brilliant to see the sun even if it was only for 1 week.

I, even managed to persuade my husband to take a trip out to the hills because I saw some interesting photos of ladies spinning and weaving. We found ourselves in the town of Annoya (probably Spelt wrong!) and wandered around looking for ladies spinning. Eventually I found 2 old ladies with beautifully woven rugs and tried  by sign language to ask whether they spun the yarn and what type of loom they used to weave the rugs with.

Eventually I showed them my knitting that I had in the car. (I'm still knitting Lima using Mirasol Sulka). They thought the yarn was very beautiful, then showed me the natural brown yarn ( I think goat) that they were using. I gave them a small amount of money and the old ladies got quite agitated and insisted that I go with them to see their loom which is featured in the photos and then kindly gave me another large skein of brown coloured goat! What I'm going to do with it I don't know! But as usual I have come back from holiday with new yarn!

Just realised that I haven't mentioned the terrible fire in Bovey Tracey. The Old Thatched Inn across the road from Spin A Yarn burned down a month ago. I was fortunate because my door is supersealed against flooding so there wasn't a hint of smoke inside the shop.

The poor young family that lived in the pub though lost everything, their home and business.

Now we're all waiting to find out if the beautiful old building will be rebuilt.

I enjoyed my trip to Sirdar and was looked after very well. Very impressed with the window displays. Must try to make my window more focussed!

I was surprised to find that the spinning equipment has gone and that all yarn is brought in, mostly from China and Italy. It seems a shame that such a great tradition has been lost from here.

In the South West I feel I great movement towards spinning our own British yarn again. Certainly I get a lot of local smallholders visiting and wondering if they can get their own fleece or Alpaca spun into a marketable yarn. Also, there is now fully new working mills at Launceston and Cold Harbour Mill. Perhaps Devon will become the new centre of a spinning industry?

I'm just about to catch the train up to Wakefield to attend the Sirdar presentation which they have organised for their suppliers. It will be really interesting to visit the Spinning Mill and design studio and gain a new insight into spinning yarn on an industrial scale.

Meanwhile I thought I would mention that I have a some new interesting yarn supplied by a knitwear company called Keep & Share. This is an alternative knitwear company which has decided to make yarn from its Offcuts, a brilliant idea!!

Each yarn is individual so I have put each colour that I have onto the website. As you will see each has a different mix. All have a luxurious feel however and sparkle. I can't wait to knit up a jacket. I have a feeling it is going to look very pretty and different!

Just realised that way back in March I stated the intention to publish lots more photos and thoughts. Its now June and there's not been a squeak since!

Just today I've published the photo that I took way back in May, when Alison Crowther Smith taught a yummy kidsilk haze workshop. I do find it a magic yarn that changes its character however you knit it.

Other highlights of the workshops were the Modular knitting when Claire brought along lots of samples from her soon to be publishes Knitted throws and cushions and showed how effective and fun patchwork knitting can be. Knitting with wire was also popular. I've promised to buy in some fine wire as soon as possible.

Anniken's Lace knitting workshop was wonderful. Her designs are exquisite and it is no wonder that magazines are now publishing her new patterns. Unfortunately both my cameras went on the blink and only one photo has survived. We'll have to repeat this workshop just so I can take photos of the beautiful wraps that she brought to show us.

All the crochet beginners became quite expert by the end of the day's workshop so I have promised to organise a beyond the basics crochet workshop next term.

I'm aiming to publish a lot more photos this year to show you what is going on in Spin A Yarn.

The first workshop Claire taught this year was Professional Finishing techniques, which is always the most popular one.

This photo shows everyone working very hard. Its quite a demanding day as so many techniques are covered during the day.

The next photo shows 3 happy participants on the knitted Flowers and Jewellery workshop. They were very pleased with the knitted flowers that they produced in the morning and then made some pretty necklaces in the afternoon.

Spin A Yarn knitting clubs are getting more and more popular. Last Tuesday I managed to fit 8 people round my little table. Fortunately no one seemed to mind. As each new person arrived everyone squashed closer together and the laughter and conversation got louder. Amazingly lots of knitting was done and lot s of coffee was drunk.

Thought I'd post this photo to give you some impression of the atmosphere.

I've had access to my website again for a week now so it must be time to bring you up to date with all my news.

I've had delivery of lots of new yarns since my last entry - lots of beautiful natural yarns such as Artesano alpaca in 4 ply, DK and Aran weights, the stunning hand painted Araucania yarns from Chile and the Beautiful Mirasol yarns from Peru. The Baby Llama , miski yarn is incredibly soft. Everytime I hand a skein to a customer to feel there is the same reaction --ooh ...ahh...!

Two weekends ago I went to my first trade show, Stitches at the NEC Birmingham and had a wonderful time. Designer yarns invited me to a champagne reception that they held for their customers. It was very exciting as I got to chat to Debbie Bliss, Louisa Harding and Jane Ellison who were all really nice. They really seemed to appreciate the effort that retailers make to sell their designs and yarn.

The whole show was wonderful and I loved meeting all the different yarn company owners and discovering all the different beautiful natural yarns.

I was very good and didn't order anything at the show apart from 10 muti coloured sheep kits from Cornish Organic. They were so cute, I couldn't resist them. I've already planned to build a tower of them in the window.

Since the show however I have been trying to working out if I am able to resist the Lantern Moon knitting needles which are being marketed by the same company which is looking after Mango Moon and Alchemy yarns amongst others.

The Alchemy yarns are gorgeous spun silken skeins in amazingly  brilliant colours. They are very expensive so I think I might just buy a few individual skeins to look at and put in the window!

Its not as though I need any more yarn to fill the shop. My problem is that I can't help collecting new beautiful examples of yarn. My shop is stuffed full now as I've had large deliveries from Touch and Rare yarns from New Zealand as well as all the new Rowan summer yarns.

Do I have a problem!?

I know its a long time since I made a post. My excuse is that I've not been able to access the adminstration of the website for a long time because long suffering William is making lots of wonderful changes. Sometime very soon my web will be looking a lot slicker and hopefully you will be able to buy direct from the website.

Spin A Yarn has been a very lively place this Autumn last though with some brilliant workshops, even if I have posted no new photos or articles since the summer

My daughter Katie ran the shop on her own for a week and did brilliantly. Her fiance Dan constructed a load of new shelves for me in exchange for knitting him a new sweater. I've just finished the sweater which I made in the wonderfully soft Chunky yarn by Lang called Tierra, which he had chosen. Fortunately it knitted up on 8mm needles so was quite quick to do.

Now I can back backto my own projects. On the needles I've got the wonderful little lacey jacket, Loden Mist, from Knitters magazine, one Opal sock (I've finished one), a wrap made from Rare yarn Surino, a lacey scarf in Touchyarns brushed kidmohair/superfine merino and I've just started a new summer jacket knitted in the brand new silk cotton mixture from Rowan.

I'm looking longingly at the beautiful Cashmere from Shalisdair that I bought at Ally Pally in October and the yarns which I have in my stash from  the Fleece Artist and Handmaiden yarns, as well as my beautiful hand spun. Where do I start!!

Finally, I can get into my blog again after lots of hiccups!

Its been a busy week.

I decided to seize the the chance to go to Toronto for a week where my husband was attending a conference. It was the first time I had been away since I opened the shop, so it felt a bit like leaving my baby for the first time.

I was so lucky that my friend Ann has a friend in London who has always had the ambition to run a yarn shop. Between the 2 of them, they did a really good job.

Meanwhile I really enjoyed the break and enjoyed the hot sunshine after all the summer's rain.

Not that I could resist looking around yarn shops, especially when I discovered that Toronto was the home of the "yarn harlot".

I was delighted to get an email from Mary who I met in my shop way back at the end of May.

She was delighted to join me for a day looking around the local yarn shops. I also met up with Lindsay & Kerry from the Angel yarns forum.

Of course I wasn't going to buy any yarn, which I need like a hole in the head!

We met up in Romni Wools on Queen street. What an amazing place! It is absolutely huge and stuffed with every type of yarn you could think of. I was able to have a look at the Garn studio yarn which I am considering.

There was a huge basement with sale bargains, fleece and huge cones of yarn which you could buy by the meter.

The owner and assistants where very nice and seemed genuinely interested in hearing about Spin A Yarn. I was delighted to spot Claire Crompton's books and to be able to tell the assistants that Claire is a good friend and teaches lots of workshops for me.

There was a selection of wonderful Canadian yarn made in Nova Scotia with the brand names Handmaiden yarns & the Fleece Artist. Apparently, they are made by a talented mother and daughter. I had to buy a selection - purely for research you understand !

After a couple of hours in Romni Wools we mentioned to lose Kerry! Leaving lots of messages for her we went off to Lettuce Knits. This is a beautiful shop even smaller than mine. They stock only yarns from small businesses - such gorgeous yarns as Lorna's laces and lots of other beauties. I bought loads, I'm afraid.

I promise to take a photo of all my new acquisitions tomorrow. I can't stop stroking them all at the moment! 

We had a couple of relaxing days at Niagara Falls before returning to Exeter. Such an easy flight from Toronto now - only 6 hours.Already, I'm thinking that a trip to Nova Scotia would be fun - can't think why!

I arrived back on Wednesday afternoon to find Ann in complete control, as Joanna had had to return that morning.

The place was full of boxes of yarn however. 2 hugeboxes of yarn from Lang arrived the day I left and then of course all the wonderful new Rowan winter yarns are arriving in quick succession.

I have had to rethink my display again.

Can't believe we only had 2 participants for this wonderful course of Claire's. And I thought that most knitters were interested in "Saving the planet"!

The morning started when Claire gave us ideas of what to do with a felted sweater. She'd made everything from teddy bears to a tea cosy, a hot water bottle, a bag and a flower. All very beautiful items.

Next she showed us the best way of pulling back an old sweater, giving us lots of information about the best sweaters to buy from charityy shops.

After lunch she revealed the secretes of Magic Ball knitting. It was great fun playing with colours and textures and brilliant to get lots of new ideas for not wasting a centimetre of yarn.

I'm now falling asleep as I woke up at 4.46am this morning to go off to a Dog Agility Show at Wadebridge. I'd not planned to get up until 5.30am but there seemed no point in going back to sleep for 30min. I won a 12th rosette with Flynn so I was quite happy despite making a mess of my other round. I travelled with my daughter Katie and 5 of our dogs. Katie hasn't been training any of the dogs for ages because she's been doing a Master's course in Zoo Conservation Biology, so she decided to take 4 of them round the Grade 1 Jumping and Elementary courses. We were really pleased that all the dogs got Clear round rosettes apart from her most experienced Lab who was very unlucky

We've had 2 brillant jewellery making classes at Spin A Yarn these past 2 weeks.

The first was taught by Claire Crompton. Participants really enjoyed themselves and went home with some very pretty jewellery which they knitted themselves. See photos

Anne, one of the participants has already made 3 for her friends and has returned for more sari ribbon.

Then on Thursday Cat showed us how to make beautiful silver and gemstone jewellery.

Next time I think we'll do a rethreading class, that is if anyone has as many broken necklaces as me.

Surprisingly often for a wool shop, someone will pop their head around the door and ask if I mind if they bring their little dog in while they browse around my shop.

I always say of course I don’t mind because from experience quiet little dogs are a lot better behaved than husbands who quickly get impatient with their textile loving wife and cause her to exclaim in exasperation to me, “I’ll come back on my own another day when I’ll have time to have a good   look around!”