This blog is about shopping ---- again!!

I think the word has gone round amongst the local reps that I cannot resist buying unusual & beautiful yarn.

I have a real weakness for Wensleydale because of Winston my beautiful boy.

I fell in love with Wensleydales “curly wurly’s” during a visit to the Exeter Show, a couple of years ago. So when I heard of a sick Wensleydale lamb I had to rescue him. I bought him for £20.00,then had to rush the vet to him as soon as I got home. The vet told me he had double pneumonia and worms but might survive if I pumped him full of antibiotics every day, forced worm medicine down his mouth and taught him to take a bottle. Well all went well. I wrapped Winston in a towel and squeezed milk into his mouth. Quickly he grew to enjoy his cuddle and feed. The vet suggested feeding him a bottle for the whole of his first year, which both of us enjoyed.

I’ve just realised that I have gone off at a complete tangent!

So..... When a couple from Wales popped in with their beautiful Wensleydale yarn which is hand dyed with organic dyes, I couldn’t resist!

Then a lovely French lady arrived to show me Elle yarns. I now sell Merino Brights which is wonderful for felting and a beautiful soft yarn specially produced for making teddy bears.

My husband is horrified that I still manage to buy more than I sell!

I just love to sit surrounded by beautiful yarn and plan my next project.

I will just hope that the sales reps stop popping in to see me & tempting my weak resolve.

I know that I am a very poor blogger. I have written a couple of entries since the last published one but, unfortunately, I have managed to lose them when I have tried to publish.

I have found this so disheartening that it has taken me a long time to get around to writing another entry.

No excuse, time to try again!

I finished a beautiful wrap using a stunning sea green Touch yarn boucle a couple of weeks ago and took a photo because it looks so beautiful.

I also finished my recycled cashmere jacket. I had a bought cashmere sweater in my wardrobe which was much too big and didn’t fit me at all. So, I decided to undo the whole thing and reknit it using a Kim Hargreaves pattern that was written for All Seasons Cotton. Amazingly the tension worked out exactly right and I was really pleased with the result. This is despite running out of cashmere for the last few rows around the neck. Fortunately, because the cashmere was a natural colour, I was able to match it with Rareyarn’s  natural DK which matched exactly.

I really believe in recycling beautiful yarn and am delighted that Claire Crompton is doing a recycling & remodeling class for us on 20 April.

Confession Time!

Don’t set up a yarn shop if you love yarn. Don’t set up a yarn shop if you love shopping.

I had a good excuse to visit the Knitting show at Ally Pally this year. After all, as a new and proud shop owner I had every excuse to attend & visit all the stands of the yarns that I stock.

Before I drove to London, I walked around the shop and decided that I had loads of stock to sell and didn’t need to buy at all.

 Still it would be fun just to look around.           

Of course, first of all I had to visit the Touchyarns stand and introduce myself to Marnie the talented creator of my favourite Touchyarns skeins. I had no problem finding their wonderful colourful stand as soon as Iarrived. As it was the last day of the show, Marnie asked if I would be interested in buying whatever was left over at the end of the show. Silly question! How could I resist all those beautiful skeins and hand dyed yarns!

The show was great fun. I was thrilled to meet Debbie Bliss and Nicky from Rooster Yarns. I also met Sue of Get Knitted along with Lucy Neatby, who was helping out on Sue’s stand.

 I was attracted to Swiss company Lang’s stand and when their head designer Tom showed me their wonderful patterns and yarn, I was very tempted to order.

Needless to say when Tom visited Spin A Yarn last week on his tour around the West country, I ordered lots of Langs beautiful stock. This arrived yesterday  and I now have a dilemma. Where do I put it? My shop is full!  

I think I will have to plunder a bamboo arch from home. Can't fit it into the car.

What will I do next. Watch this space!

You're wondering what Katie's blog is about. Katie is my daughter and newish knitter. She is already knitting a beautiful sweater in Noro Silk Garden but doesn't have much time because she is studying a master's in Zoo Conservation Biology at Plymouth.

What she really wants to be though is an Animal presenter. with this aim in  mind she is training these cute little pigs to do tricks and filming them.

She will be telling you all about them in her Blog.

It all began with 3 baby lambs

How to start a blog? Well, here goes – I live on Dartmoor, Devon with my family and 6 dogs, 3 cats, a horse, a pony, 3 sheep, 2 goats and 2 miniature pigs in the kitchen.

 My Spin A Yarn story begins with 3 baby lambs which we were given when we arrived on Dartmoor. We couldn’t eat these new members of the family so I decided to learn to spin and make woolly jumpers of them instead.

I learnt to spin at wonderful Bonehill studio in Widecombe with a group of extremely talented ladies.

Now that I was producing lots of beautiful handspun yarn, I began to get quite obsessive about knitting, buying lots of books and magazines looking for patterns suitable for my new handspun yarn.

My daughter bought me 2 angora goats, Alfie & Angus as a birthday present and I spun their mohair with the lustrous fleece from my beautiful Wensleydale sheep called Winston.

Then, when we were in New Zealand last Christmas for a family wedding I went searching for beautiful yarn shops as usual, accompanied by my daughters who are in their twenties. Expecting them to be bored, I was startled to see them react like small children in a sweetie shop. Grabbing armful of beautiful skeins they demanded to be taught how to knit.  

 We all decided that it would be brilliant if there was a similar yarn shop in Bovey Tracey, our nearest town.

 Then when I walked into town, the day I arrived back from holiday, a little empty shop at 3 Station Road shone out at me like a light bulb. It was meant to be! This time instead of holding back I decided to just “go for it”

O n 4 July this year I proudly opened Spin A Yarn for the first time.