What we do on our days off!

tRuth and I spend Monday at Birmingham NEC at CHSI Stitches which is the major UK trade show for the creative craft industry.   We went to the show with a plan but it didn't stop us yearning after some beautiful yarns which we can't fit in just yet -- oh for a bottomless budget!

The purpose of our trip was to finalise our yarn plans for Wonderwool.   We were sidetracked slightly by some lovely sock yarns, by Rowan and by general yarnie loveliness but we stuck to the plan and finalised!

We've always championed British yarns and suppliers and want to show how commercial yarn producers can really complement the indie dyers who are so successful at Wonderwool so we've spent a lot of time planning and choosing the yarns we are going to take with us.

Our Wonderwool blanket is made with West Yorkshire Spinners’ vibrant Wensleydale Gems and we can’t wait to launch it at Wonderwool (we will give the opportunity to pre-order and collect at the show (or pre-order for posting after the Wonderwool).   Just launched at the Stiches the new range of Signature Sock yarns.  Called the Florist Collection, it is made up of pastels and will really complement the more vibrant yarns already available and will sit well with Michelle's Woolly Wumpkins sock yarns.  We will have it at Wonderwool but  are holding fire on ordering it for the shop immediately but will keep the blog updated about it.  The other WYS yarns we have chosen to take with us are The Croft, Blue Faced Leicester Aran and Jacobs DK, together with the all  Gems range.

We’ve had lots of support from our Stylecraft rep who has helped us choose yarns to take with us.   Lots of crocheters know about Stylecraft through the blogstar posts so we’ll have some of their kits at the show – it is lovely to be able to support home-grown talent in this way.   We had sight of the new CALs at Stitches but no photos yet so we can only tease by saying 'watch this space'!  Stylecraft is owned by Spectrum Yarns who also produce Yarn Stories which is spun in Slaithwaite at the Spectrum mill so we really wanted to make sure we could showcase it at Wonderwool as part of our British producers and yarn theme.  The colour palette is just beautiful and the pattern support classic and stylish.  We will be taking the merino DK which may be new to many knitters so we hope to introduce it to loads of new fans.

 We will fine-tune with some other yarns added -- local Welsh yarns for example but we came back from Stitches tired but glad to know that it is all coming together.  Our next challenge is to work out how we get our stock to Wonderwool -- it might take a juggernaut to get it all there but hopefully only a mini to get what’s left home again!​

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