Its been a funny old week, having had a total break from my normal routine. I found that time was flying even faster than usual and the craft fair I had signed myself up for, many months ago, was suddenly very nearly upon us. Now I don’t know about you but I always work much better under a tight deadline and so leaving the vast bulk of the preparation and organisation to be crammed into just over a week was probably the best way of tackling it for me personally.
As you can see, I managed to fill my 10 foot long table quite nicely in the end!
The stall sign was both a labour of love and a feat of engineering. But it should last me for a while as it is made out of very sturdy laser cut plywood. Each piece was individually painted by myself and a very patient friend (it took about six hours of paintbrush wielding between us) and was then pieced back together, jigsaw style, and glued onto a backing board.
A lot of work, I know, but well worth the effort. Weirdly there were still three pieces left over that we just couldn’t figure out where to fit. Very odd, but the sign didn’t look any the worse for it so we got straight on with the job of sticking it down. This involved turning it over while sandwhiched between two boards, taping it together along the back, brushing with generous amounts of PVA glue and then weighting it down overnight with anything I could find. Mainly my vast collection of cookbooks, the ever overflowing laundry basket and anything else heavy enough to help but light enough to lift.
And tadah! Here it is after it’s final coat of varnish.
The sign was a good start but I needed things to sell too. Obviously I have a generous supply of ready made amigurumis which were only in need of digging out and showing off.
They all looked a little startled to be seeing the light of day again!
Amigurumis aside, I really felt I wanted to offer a bit more variety to potential customers. So with that thought in mind I embarked on making up a whole batch of crochet kits. I actually really enjoyed this process once I got into the swing of it, though I’m quite happy to take a break from the endless winding and weighing of balls of yarn for a while now!
They next job was to package them up and squirrel them away into boxes along with the all the equipment and notions necessary to create the finished articles.
One week of winding, weighing, measuring, graphic designing, printing, box folding, bag filling and label sticking, and I had my first collection of finished kits to sell. Six different types in all. I would have liked to do more but there’s always next time!
My very helpful sign painting partner also dedicated a whole evening to making me some badges with the Moji-Moji logo cat on (you know who you are and you’re a star – thanks a million!).
I love these so much. Think I might have to invest in my very own badge making machine soon. Maybe one for the Christmas list if Santa is still listening, I have been very, very good this year, I promise!
I found my stash of owl purses (my free tutorial is here if you fancy making some).
And I dug out and blinged up some of my Mini Party Treats by adding a few sprinkles of seed beads and multi-coloured yarn.
I forgot how much I like playing around with toy food!
Looks good enough to eat huh?
I also had a small supply of extra books featuring some of my designs to take with me. A great way of introducing my customers to the topic of the new Amigurumi Monsters book (more on that in the next post) and as there was a recent outbreak of Jeepers and Creepers (who are featuring in the book) spawning in the studio I had plenty of examples to take along as conversation starters. I figured you couldn’t miss all those eyes staring at you as they followed you around the field!
I did have to spend a fair bit of time thoroughly picking them over for kitten hairs though. Oops!
The night before the show everything was stacked and ready to go and an early night beckoned.
My youngest son kindly came along to help set everything up and keep things running smoothly behind the scenes, tidying the table during the lulls and restocking after the rushes.
There was a lot going on at the Worcester Show but I didn’t get to take many photos as I was kept very busy all day behind my stall but for those of you who are curious about the event you can see snapshots of some of the best moments from previous years on their official site in the Gallery section. There was belly dancing, water zorbing, live music, biggest cabbage, longest runner bean, roundest dahlia, best use of recycling, competitive crafts, face painting, fantastic food and fine wine, bonsai beauties, a dog show, sport events, a fairground, and of course the market stalls… to name just a few.
All in all it was a very successful and enjoyable day. The weather was kind to us and the hours just whizzed by. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat and to those who bought a little something to take away with them. It was lovely to meet you all and I hope to see you again next year, if not before!
And for those that weren’t there, thank you for reading this and sharing my day with me via my blog.
I appreciate all your support and the encouragement that helps me to indulge in my gloriously yarn surrounded lifestyle and passion for amigurumi!
3) Knitting more socks. A girl can never have too many pairs and the 4 ply stash has to be used up somehow, if only so I can go out and buy more.
…and the soup from the excavated pulp, complete with roasted, spiced pumpkin seeds for scattering on top.
They’ve got dangly arms and legs and a comfy handle to carry them around with.
I mean, rain or shine, who could fail to be happy with this mountain of Granny Square glory to get your hook stuck into? 
Time to make a start on joining them all together to make my poncho. I’m thinking at this point that I might get half of the main body finished by the time we reach our destination, but oh no! That wasn’t quite how it happened and, to cut a long story short, the hour and a half journey slowly morphed and expanded into a five and a half hour journey, with traffic at a standstill or, at best, reaching the giddying excesses of more than two miles an hour for much of the way.
So stay put we did, and had a splendidly quiet evening instead. After all that painfully slow driving poor hubby’s back and knees were playing up anyway. We have wine and we have those fine dining camping essentials – Pot Noodles! 
I have my crochet too, so I think that’s the dream checklist with a big fat tick in every box. That’s us sorted then! 
It feels good now we’ve made our minds up to just chill out. The sunshine seems to agree with our decision and pours down it’s approval on us. Thanks to the many extra hours spent in the car my poncho is now nearly all joined together and a few extra squares have been created too. As the sun begins to head towards the horizon I’ve also made a good start on the hood.
We can hear the distant beats of the festival going on several fields away but I’m just glad to be here right now. We slurp our wine and watch the sun set.
Then it’s off for a day out. We start at Dunster Castle where I’m amazed at the scale of these rather Jurassic looking leaves.
On another scale entirely we find a rather dainty ornamental flower garden where I try out my macro photograpy…
Time for a spot of lunch already, so it’s off to Minehead to find a good pub with sea views. We have fish and chips somewhere towards the end of this promontory so we definitely fulfilled the sea view part of our criteria there.
With our appetites satisfied it’s time to settle down on the beach for a signature yarn bomb for me, and a postprandial snooze for hubby!
It starts to rain just as I finish the last few chains so we head back to the tent, leaving my crocheted calling card behind.
In the morning it’s still raining, so the decision is quickly made to head straight back home. There’s no point tramping down to Watchet Beach to search for fossils in the pouring rain so that pleasure is saved for another time. With the recent memory of our epic journey down here we brace ourselves for a good long haul back down the motorway in the Bank Holiday mayhem. But, unpredictable as always, there is hardly any traffic on the roads at all and we make it back easily in the hour and a half that we anticipated for the outward journey. We are home and snug hours before I thought we would be and can now revel in the luxury of having all day to unpack the camping gear as well as a little extra home time to indulge ourselves in before the working week starts again in earnest tomorrow. I think it all panned out very nicely in the end. It’s good to just go with the flow sometimes, don’t you think?
I reckoned that this should be enough yarn for a minimum six hours in the car and a few hazy hours at the Jurassic Rocks Festival on Saturday, plus a lazy Sunday on the beach. And in case I do run out, I have a back up project. Little necklace purses for my next craft fair. Both projects are using self striping yarns so I get all the fun of working with lots of colour but without having to pack up tons of different balls of yarn.
I can cope for the weekend if I forget a change of clothes or my toothbrush but I’m not so laid back if I don’t have a project to keep my hands occupied. It’s my meditation and recreation all in one. So Saturday morning has arrived and we have woken up to thunderstorms and torrential rain here in Worcester. Time to check the weather forecast…and it’s not looking too good, with severe weather warnings in place for much of the country, most specifically down south which is where we’re headed!
Not to be deterred we pack up wellies, waterproofs and umbrellas. A good time will be had – regardless of the British weather. After all, a rain sodden car journey can always be made more tolerable and much brighter with a few balls of cheery coloured yarn.
In the end the wet weather and stormy clouds cleared completely by the time we reached Weymouth. So glad we didn’t chicken out and cancel our weekend. Instead I got to do a bit of drinking and crocheting while listening to some local bands and basking in the sunshine:
These lovely blue skies certainly cheered everyone up and added to the bon homie! Several hours and several bands later it was time to retire to the tent with a whole day by the seaside to look forward to tomorrow. Bliss! After packing up the tent in the morning we headed off in search of a cup of tea. It took us longer than we anticipated because of all the distractingly beautiful views on the way from Portland to Weymouth.
But we got there in the end. In fact right at the bottom of this street was a life-saving brew. 
(Those are hubby’s hairy arms by the way, not mine, but you probably already guessed as much!) With the morning ritual of a good old cuppa sorted we were ready to head off to Chesil Beach for a few hours of rest and relaxation. I took some photos of beautiful tangles of fishing nets on the way as I can’t resist anything remotely yarn like!
Time to have a good look through my Granny squares from yesterday evening.
Hmmm, I think this one may have been made after one too many ciders last night! It’s definitely not very square. I love the way the colours echo the sea and the pebbles though.
I made a few more squares but then decided a bit of beach art in the form of a yarn bomb might be more appropriate. I got hold of the biggest pebble I could lay my hands on and, inspired by all the fishing nets I’d been photographing, I set to work. An hour or so later and here’s my homage to the sea-side.
There’s plenty of eating places to choose from so we took our time and had a wander around all the little alleys full of wonderfully tacky kiss-me-quick hats, buckets, spades, saucy postcards and the obligatory sticks of rock.
…where we ate the perfect crab lunch from the Ivy Coffee House on Cove Row.
Lovely views and an outdoor table in the shade made it all just perfect. 
Now for a tub of cockles and a bit more exploring before we head off home.
On the horizon is the Isle of Portland where we spent last night camping underneath the stars.
The clouds have been very kind and stayed light and wispy around the periphery of the sky all weekend. We have a car boot jam packed full of wet weather gear in all it’s forms but I’m certainly not complaining that we didn’t get to use it. Back in the car at last and the journey whizzes by. I’m a little sun burnt (yes, we packed wellies but didn’t think we’d need to pack any sunblock, but as the saying goes – ‘Life’s a beach and then you fry’). I’m a little tired too but the Radio is on and I’ve still got a ball of yarn left and so I embark on the last of the Granny Squares. Looks like rain again as we get nearer to Worcester.
Ah well, no-one can say that we haven’t had our fair share of sunshine this weekend. By the time we arrive back home I’m glad to unpack, have a cool bath to take the heat out of my lobster red shoulders and take a minute to assemble all of my weekends crochet achievements. Not a bad haul for such a busy couple of days. Now the next fun bit is deciding what to make with them. Whatever they end up being used for they’ll always remind me of my gorgeous weekend of fun in the sun.
