The Woolclip

Well, I'm very excited;

I had my first proper day at The Woolclip yesterday. Spent the first part of the day sorting out my display, as I wasn't too happy about how I'd left it the other week, so I'd knitted a cream shawl so that I could put that on display with a black one. It's good that they're stretched out, as you can the patterns more clearly.

And then I finished off the display in the lovely glass cabinet that had been bought for me.

It's just as you walk in the door, so I wanted to make sure it was eye-catching & colourful!

It was a wonderfully sunny day yesterday in Cumbria & we were quite busy, lots of interesting people coming in. Caldbeck is such a lovely village & I just learnt that John Peel is buried in the churchyard next to the shop!

Why are all Spring flowers yellow......

I've noticed over the last few years that all Spring flowers do seem to be mainly yellow & white - is that beacuse it's Easter & eggs are yellow & white??

Just think about it, for yellow you've got; daffodils, primroses, forsythia, buttercups, celandines, aconites, dandelions, cowslips, crocuses, gorse, I'm sure there are more.

Then you've got the white ones; snowdrops, hawthorn, blackthorn, elderflower blossom, actually most blossom's white, wood anemones, crocuses & then you get some purple flowers too; crocuses again, lilac, polyanthus, - strange but true!

These are the cowslips that the mice have eaten - those pesky mice!

The crows are pulling the pansies out of 1 of my pots by the front door, only the right one, not the left & then the sheep are getting in through the hedge & eating everything else - it's a wonder we have any garden left at all!

The Woolclip

Well, it's official I'm in The Woolclip in Caldbeck,

Spain

Aren't these bowls beautiful? You just don't get colours like this in the UK, am going to use them for tapas.

& I absolutely adore this blouse I got, again don't get anything in these sorts of colours here. I got this one last winter, I love this make Almatrichi.

Whilst we were in Spain they had The Fallas Fiesta in the Valencia region, where they build these amazing wooden strutures & then set fire to them on 19th March. The stautes are cartoonlike & are of political figures, celebrities etc. The amount of work involved is incredible, in our town they have 11 but in Valencia there 380! The whole city comes to a standstill. & then they have the most amazing processions, as each district that has a Falla, elect Falleras & Falleros. The dresses that the women & girls wear are so beautiful, they're made of silk & the jewellery is gold & they cost a fortune upto as much £13,000!

Holidays & The Woolclip

Well, we've just come back from 5 weeks in Spain, we left at the end of February in the snow & returned on the 1st Sat in April to yet more snow! Luckily we came back on the Saturday & not earlier as we wouldn't have got home there was so much snow.

This is what we left, lovely bright days, this is a photo taken along our favourite walk, Las Rotas, & this is what they put on washing lines in Spain.... a bit different!The day before we went away I heard that my shawls & stoles have been accepted to be sold at The Woolclip in Caldbeck. It's a wonderful shop run by 15 women as a co-operative & is based in an old Priest's Mill in the stunning village of Caldbeck in the Lake District. They sell all sorts of wonderful hand-made things from felted cards to rugs, kits, corsages & now lace shawls!

They also organise the amazing Woolfest in Cockermouth, which I went to for the first time last year, when I first started getting back into knitting again. Do try & come this year as Cockermouth desperately needs people to come back after the dreadful floods. The town is still so quiet, even though it's Easter, there are few tourists around.

So now I have to try & work out how to display my shawls in the shop......a nice problem to have!