Flea bites

At the weekend Maxine fulfilled a long term ambition and made it to the Giant Flea at the Bath and West where she was well and truly bitten. She took along her 8 year old daughter and they had a lovely time meeting other bloggers and buying wonderful things. She has big plans for this beautiful fabric from Sue at Vintage to Victorian.
So, while the rest of Frome watched Jensen Button, Maxine found treasure after treasure. She loves this Italian jug with the iced gems

and look at the tiny 4ply cup cake, if you can tear your eyes off the doilly.

Now, what would you think Maxine needed like a hole in the head? Another crocheted blanket and a tea cosy! But how could you resist that tea cosy? The blanket is amazing. It has been done with double stranded wool throughout which gives it a luxurious weight which is perfect for a winter blanket or picnic rug. Another project onto the wish list..........

Mad Cows and Fabulous Crochet

The shop has been fairly quiet the last couple of weeks but Maxine and I are still chasing our tails and finding our all pervasive venture time consuming and challenging, yet we are both very happy. Maxine had a day off and sat in the sun to crochet the Woman's Weekly selection which includes the beautiful tea light cover and look at the plant pot, what can I say. She shunned the housework as there is no need to clean a house you are waiting to move out of. 'What, start your own business AND move house?' I hear you cry. I think Max is working on the principle that one stress will keep her mind off the other. More news of the move as it happens....

Well, the Crochet Course is going well. One of our (vastly pregnant) Tuesday morning ladies who had never touched a crochet hook 2 weeks ago arrived with this beauty......

Isn't her baby going to be enveloped in fabulous crochet? This week everyone brought amazing granny squares. We hadn't imagined how exciting it would be to see what our proteges had been making. Here is the Thursday evening class which we do in the front of the shop as we are closed. You can see me sporting the cardigan I had been making for months. Now it is finished I feel it has elevated me to 'mad cow who works in a wool shop' status, wholly appropriate but still taking some getting used to.

From one mad cow to the best cow I have ever seen. She has prize winning udders and wonderful crumpled horns and pound coins in her hooves to make her stand, she is adorable and knitted by one of our talented customers who is waiting for her grandchild to be born who will be a proud farmer at birth. Meanwhile, we have stocked up on King Cole to make the amazing summer pattern which you can just see in the background. There is a sunflower wall hanging, complete with ladybird and a flowery cushion and the best strawberry tarts with no calories.

We have also taken delivery of Mitchell's Wool Fat soap and Woolly Wash, the soap smells like soap used to smell and is perfect for sensitive skin

and there is a wonderful ceramic dish with shaving soap and we stock the refills.
It might be midsummer's eve but we saw a rep this week to discuss our winter order! Now the best thing to come out of it was this divine Donegal Luxury Tweed tea cosy which Maxine designed from a sample our lovely rep left. If only you could feel it...............

If you have noticed the time of this posting, it is because I am waiting for my eldest son to come home from a Scout Night Hawk, I planned to sit up and knit however I have been busy sewing. My younger daughter has requested a skirt and we went to

Millie Moon and had a lovely time choosing material, we are very excited about starting it, I just hope when we finish she doesn't feel elevated to 'Mad Cow' status too.

It has been a while since the last blog and a lot has happened. I have been on holiday, I know.... poor Maxine, I am sure she will get her revenge. It was time for another Artisan Market on the hill, the last one was very busy with lots of friends passing by and we were looking forward to this one. We wanted to do a summer window, so to commemorate D-Day and because the colours look good, we chose Red White and Blue .

Complete with a knitted AND crocheted Union Jack,and this adorable summery, strawberry topped tea cosy.We started our first crochet classes on Tuesday mornings and Thursday evenings. Two lovely groups of ladies came along and we tackled granny squares. It was really rewarding to see them completing their first square. We hope they are looking forward to the next few weeks. One of the Tuesday morning ladies writes a beautiful blog Suzy's vintage attic .We have had a few visitors who blog including, a few weeks ago, the friendly girl from Knitcave who was telling me how she knits while walking along, I was very impressed. Then this week; Nicky, we had a chat and a chance to tell her how beautiful her dolls are and Clare. We never thought we would meet so many lovely people.More exciting news, our friend Mary, a knitting genius, is booked in to do a 'Sock Day' in October. She will show you how to cast on to and knit with 4 needles, knit a heel flap, turn a heel and graft a toe then if you still have some energy simple cabling and lace. Our website is coming along and the new improved version which will include details of our courses will appear in the next couple of weeks. My daughter has a Roman day at school tomorrow and has to take a Roman lunch. She has just requested stuffed dormouse, it's getting late but I wonder if I could knit one?