Our Christmas Crochet workshops will get you in just the right mood for Christmas.  We only have spaces left in the stocking workshop so if you want to come along, click the link and book now!

Saturday 1 December 10 till 1   £35.00 including yarn.  You could come and make stockings and then go along to the Christmas Fair at the Athletics Club.Saturday Crochet Workshops

One of the favourite topics on one of the knitting and crochet facebook groups I am on is words -- generally the difference between UK English and the rest of the World's version of our wonderful language.  So do you say 'jumper', 'sweater' or 'pullover'? 

i Make jumpers and it is definitely jumper weather today.  With the weather set for cold (well it is November) maybe you all need to be making a nice warm and woolly jumper.  We have lots of lovely yarns and patterns in stock to choose from and we are always ready to help if you need it, so why not make this winter the one where you make your own.  it doesn't have to be as ornate as the octopus jumper shown but it will be just as unique.

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I was in Birmingham earlier this week and revisited the Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum.  My sister and I visited there last month but only had time to quickly whizz around the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition and the Staffordshire Hoard.  This time I had a bit longer to explore so was able to really enjoy the displays.  Tal and I spent some time in the Egyptian, Greek and near Eastern rooms before they had to go back to college lectures and then I spent a few hours wandering.

Of course, I went in search of yarn related artefacts and was well rewarded in the Egyptian room with a display of spinning implements -- spindle, whorls and loom weights.  There was no date given, just 'various dates' but Egyptian archaeological finds show that that women and men have been spinning at least since the time of the Middle Kingdom 4,000 years ago.
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 I was searching for my great grandmother's lace bobbins which I know are in the museum collection but while I didn't find them, I did find a beautiful boxwood lace bobbin from 16th century France or Spain.  It's quite a heavy bobbin so would probably have been used for silver or gold thread.   In the same part of the museum were three knitting sheathes on display.  These exquisitely carved items were probably love tokens and were used to hold one needle attached to a belt and enabled the knitter to have one hand free to do other chores.  I've added a picture of a knitter using a sheath.   Maybe women multi-task so well because we've always had to!  

I finished my visit with lunch in the museum's Edwardian tea-room and then to make the day complete was able to collect our renegade cat on the way home!

I hope all of you have seen the many displays around the UK commemorating the end of the first world war.  Our village decided to theme the remembrance around 'Peace at Last'.  Ruth and I wanted to create an eye-catching window which would make people think about the lasting effects of war.

Because our business is very much based around women (I know men knit and crochet too but they are in the minority) we started by thinking about women's experiences of the war and of the peace that followed.  I'd been home to visit my parents in October and my Mom reminded me of my maternal grandparents.  My grandad signed up in 1918 aged almost 18 as did his older brother.  Grandad was injured and sent home twice but my great uncle was killed in 1918.  My great grandparents died during the course of the war so at the end of the war there was just Grandad and two sisters left.  My grandma was the youngest in her family and at the beginning of the war worked sewing uniforms and later did some work in a munitions factory.  Two of her sisters had fiances in the war, neither of whom returned so like many other women they faced a future on their own.  Their story was commonplace.   It's not called the Lost Generation for nothing.   Our window represents the reality of the peace for young men and women who lost the lives they had planned remembering the women who never become brides and their young men who died.

(our special thanks to Pat who made all of our knitted poppies and to my sister Lynda who made the wedding dress)