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March 31, 2008
Olympia recap
We're home! As usual the worst parts of the show were the set up and break down, there is nothing worse than having to take the whole stand apart and get it back to the car at the end of 4 or 5 days of hard work. Set up isn't so bad as the hundreds of vendors have a 12 hour slot in which to arrive at the venue and set up. We all want to leave at exactly the same time at breakdown though which leads to chaos.
The show was great, I sold enough yarn to keep me happy and the magazine sales were amazing. Lou is a brilliant saleswoman, Mandy, Jo and I learned a lot from her and the subscription target that we set ourselves at the beginning of the show was met and exceeded by the third day. So much for it being a stretch target that we didn#t really expect to achieve. We rocked. Probably about 90% of people that we saw hadn't heard of the magazine before so it was lovely to meet so many new people and see their interest and excitement. We also made some great new contacts for designs, product reviews and advertising so all in all it was a fab show. There was only one negative instance where one of the other vendors who came over to look through the magazine decided to be incredibly rude to us instead of give us a polite no thank you when we asked them if they might be interested in advertising. Manners cost nothing you know and none of us will be spending money with them or recommending them in the future, I can tell you that for sure.
Its good to be back home, a day on the sofa is planned for today. I looked at my emails this morning and saw over 500 waiting for a reply so I'll gradually work through those today and then hopefully get a website update in tomorrow.
I'll pull the pictures off the camera this morning and get them on here as well.
Posted by Kerrie at 08:40 AM | Comments (2)
March 26, 2008
Off to Olympia
I had hoped to get more done today but alas, there just weren't the hours in the day. I still have emails outstanding but I won't be able to get to them all until Monday, please bear with me. I left home before 6am today to set up and will be doing the same for the next 4 days so Monday is definitely a day for catching up on the sofa.
If you're coming to Olympia make sure you stop by and say hello.
x
Posted by Kerrie at 06:02 PM | Comments (1)
March 25, 2008
Ethical yarns
There is a LOT of talk out there at the moment about ethical yarns. It is something that has always been important to me, our environmental statement has been on the site for many many months now and its something that we get lots of emails on and questions about.
Jeni and Amanda have both posted recently about ethical yarns and I'm looking forward to chatting to them both more about it at Wonderwool.
Posted by Kerrie at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
Easter weekend
I hope that the long Easter weekend bought you lots of chocolate and happiness, it certainly did for us. We had a super busy weekend (as usual!) - here are some of the highlights :
- a trip to the cinema with AJ and the big kids on Friday morning to see Horton hears a Who. Loved it!
- lunch at pizza hut afterwards, yum.
- Village Easter disco and egg hunt for the children on Saturday, the rain and sleet didn't put us off that much, it just turned into indoor fun instead of outdoor fun. Afterwards I served dinner for 10 adults and 5 kids, thanks to both grandmas for bringing along their speciality dishes which meant that the cooking I had to do was minimal.
- Snow day snow day! It didnt last long but we had a good 3 or 4 inches in the morning which the kids loved playing in, building snowmen and throwing snowballs.
- Wee trip to IKEA. Love that shop.
- Tea and yarn playing with Jo. The kids loved playing with her little boy (and all his toys) and Brooke now wants to learn the piano, nice expensive hobby she has got in mind there then.
And lots more. Today is all about getting ready for Olympia. Packing and checking lists and the last few skeins of yarn to label. What did you all get up to over the weekend?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:06 AM | Comments (1)
March 20, 2008
Thank you!
Thank you all for the offers of untangling, I was in Bath all day yesterday for meetings and when I logged on this morning I found over 50 unmoderated comments offering to help. You guys are amazing, I'll work out today what will be easiest to do and email the person / people today or tomorrow.
Don't forget, big site update tonight at 6 ish. 9pm ish.
Sorry for the 3 hour delay, I won't moan too much about what has led me to have to change my plans but the shop update will still happen (with a nice Easter discount for newsletter subs) albeit a little later than I had hoped.
Posted by Kerrie at 06:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2008
Great British yarns
Sharon from Great British Yarns was one of the new wholesale accounts that dad and I have been busy on over the last few weeks. She has some amazing yarns on her site, go and check them out.
Unfortunately, this pile of tangled cashmere sock yarn here was also destined for Great British yarns but it blew off the washing line at dads and turned into a big pile of tangles. Le sigh. None of it is unsaveable but it will take some time to work through it, untangle and reskein. :( Definitely not in time for Olympia but maybe for Wonderwool...
Does anyone out there (apart from mum!) love untangelling yarn? All offers of help in return for cashmere sock yarn would be welcomed!
Posted by Kerrie at 08:28 AM | Comments (2)
March 18, 2008
First EZ
I must be one of the few knitters in the world never to have knitted anything by Elizabeth Zimmerman. That all changed last night when I started a February cardigan for Trinity. I'm following the basic pattern but using aran weight yarn and 5.5mm needles in the hope that it will be large enough for Trin. I'm still on the garter stitch yoke so nothing really interesting to see but my plan is that she will wear it to her proper birthday party on Saturday. Anyone like to place a bet?
Thanks for all the Happy Birthday comments yesterday, we had a lovely birthday tea. Brooke and Cameron both wanted to wear special clothes for the celebration so we had Brooke in a bridesmaids dress and Cameron in his firemans outfit. Perfect. Lots of cake was eaten, presents and cards were opened, played with and chewed and songs were sung. They all went to bed early and exhausted. We love birthdays around here!
Posted by Kerrie at 08:00 AM | Comments (5)
March 17, 2008
What a difference a year makes...
One year ago today I was laying in hospital with my head on Wayne's chest, fast asleep. I was sleeping the sleep of the truly exhausted, the sleep of a brand new mum who had been awake since 2am busy giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. Trinity was born at 5.20am after a nice quick labour with no pain relief, weighing in at 9 pounds 6 ounces. Big girl. Beautiful girl.
The NHS hospital where she was born has a policy of private double rooms and allowing dads to stay with mum and baby afterwards for up to 5 days. In fact we left 8 hours after she was born to get home to the others but those few hours in the morning where I slept and Wayne lay with me resting on him and Trinity in her cot next to us were priceless. An hour after she was born all three of us were snuggled up in bed, with Wayne and I eating toast and drinking tea and Trinity having her first feed. The midwife came in to check on us and help out with breastfeeding, took one look at us all, smiled and left us to it.
When we showed Brooke some of these first pictures she asked us why we were in a hotel, she didnt think it looked like a hospital room at all. She is right, the NHS did us proud - it was a million times nicer than the experience we had at the hospital where Brooke and Cameron were born, although again - they weren't really bad experiences, just not as nice as the third time.
We were lucky though. It could have all been so different. When we arrived at hospital there was one other woman in serious labour and only one midwife and an auxillary nurse on duty. The other lady and I progressed at exactly the same time, quickly, and the midwife was frantically trying to call in another midwife to no avail. She was walking from room to room, leaving the auxillary nurse in the room when she was gone and just waiting to see which one of us gave birth first. This was the first time that my waters broke naturally, they were broken each time when I was around 8 cm dilated with both Brooke and Cam, but the midwife said it would be irresponsible to break them while she was unable to give me her full attention. So we waited.
They broke all by themselves about 10 minutes after I became fully dilated. Trinity was born within 2 minutes of them breaking, after only a couple of pushes. It was quick, intense and over before I even realised that it was actually happening. The midwife was with me as I gave birth and then had to quickly move back to the next room where the other lady's waters had broken. Her baby was born 5 minutes after Trinity. Perfect timing babies, well done.
The first year of having 3 children has been a rollercoaster. A combination of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, all bunched up together. I love the dynamics of our household with more children than adults, all the noise, fun, laughter and playing just makes me feel like the luckiest mum in the world. Wayne and I sat in the car yesterday just listening to all 3 of them playing in the back - they were so lovely it made us both all emotional. Love having a big family.
There are a lot of challenges that go with it, the age differences mean that all 3 of them have TOTALLY different needs and making sure that all their needs are met invariably means that there isn't much time left for Wayne and I at the end of the day. Our time will come again though.
Brooke and Cameron adore their little sister and the feeling is so mutual. She loves to play with them, gets all excited when she sees them and is desperate to chase around after them. She is not quite walking yet, despite the fact that she has been cruising around the furtniture for the last 4 months. But that's OK. Its better for all of us if she takes it steady, no need to rush anything at all little one, no need to rush. Just take care of yourself and take your time, please.
Trinity was supposed to be our final baby, completing the family. Neither Wayne or I are prepared to confirm or deny whether this is going to be the case though. We would both love more children, something that I didn't think we'd say - I really thought that 3 was the right number for us. For now, we'll just wait and see what happens, at least for the next year or so. Having her at home with me full time for the first 9 months while I worked from home was tough. It was harder than I ever dreamed it would be and sometimes I look back on those days and wonder how I ever got anything done.
She really is the most contented, happy baby ever. She rarely cries, unless something is wrong, and is so full of love. She blows kisses to us all at the table, snuggles up in my lap when she is tired and throws her arm around my neck and pats me on the back when I get her from her cot in the mornings. Despite all that she has been through, she still smiles. All the time.
Having spent so much time in hospitals with her during her first year, Wayne and I can now truly appreciate the good health that both Brooke and Cameron have. You don't realise just how scary it is to have to go through all of that with a tiny baby until you experience it. Seeing the same faces in the hospital waiting room gives you a bit of a feeling of community though. Experiencing the joys and the disappointments of other parents as their child's treatments either work or fail just reinforces the feeling of togetherness.
We met one of our neighbours in the waiting room at one of our appointments, having no idea that her brand new baby was going through the same thing that we were. How funny, that we can live 3 houses away from someone and exchange pleasantries with them most days without fully appreciating that they might be going through the same thing that we are.
Anyway, a year on she is doing well. She chatters all the time, smiles laughs and is the easiest of the three of them. Everywhere we go people comment on how placid she is, how calm, how happy. She is busy being thoroughly spoiled today with a little party with her baby friends at nursery and then a birthday tea at home with the rest of us. Just the way every first birthday should be.
Happy Birthday precious girl, can't wait to see what the next year brings us. xx
Posted by Kerrie at 07:18 AM | Comments (20)
March 16, 2008
Saturday treats
Yesterday I found a bargain in the sales. A huge bargain. Something that I have coveted for so long but never thought I would be able to afford. It still cost me almost £100 (which I actually don't have at the moment, ho hum) but it was so worth it. No, not shoes. Or clothes. Nor make up, jewelery or perfume. But a 6 piece Le Creuset cookware set. How sad am I?
I love it. I got the granite colour (can't stand orange) and it is lovely, I have an omlette pan, an oval casserole dish a large griddle pan, 2 rectangular dishes and a round dish. I almost can't wait to cook something with them this week. Man, I'm getting old.
I also treated us to some new flanelette sheets in the same sale. See, I told you I was getting old.
Then to top off a day of treating myself, some friends and I went out to Brentwood to see Colin Fry. Dinner, a few glasses of gin and a couple of hours with Colin were fab. None of us got a message from anyone unfortunately but it was great to see what goes on, hear some more about his beliefs and thoughts and see some people get messages from loved ones. I'm fascinated by all things spiritual, this is definitely a subject I'd like to learn more about.
Today has been about kids parties, shopping for the big day tomorrow and housework. Not as exciting as yesterday but very necessary. Oh, and labelling yarn of course - the big stock take is about 50% done. Yawn.
Posted by Kerrie at 05:26 PM | Comments (1)
March 14, 2008
Stock take weekend
This weekend I'll be sorting through stock and labelling every single skein of yarn that I can get my hands on. The reason for this is that from Tuesday next week all HipKnits orders are being posted out from another location, I'll be driving over there on Tuesday morning and handing over boxes of yarn and other goodies. My real hope is that this will beat the Post Office jinx that we have going here at the moment and show everyone that I am totally serious about providing good customer service and getting your orders to you on time. Try it out, if you've had problems getting parcels from us in the past I KNOW that you'll see a difference from next week.
It is a little hard for a control freak person like myself to hand over a big part of HipKnits but I am 100% sure that it is going to be for the best. It will allow me to concentrate on some other things that I have been meaning to do for a while but just haven't gotten around to and it will take away so much of my stress and worry over missing parcels.
It also means that there will be a little more space in my garage and a lot of bits on ebay next week. I like the idea of a bit of a spring clean, most of the odd skeins of HipKnits yarns will go on the sale page (at the risk of upsetting people, ha!) and the non HipKnits yarns will go on ebay.
Posted by Kerrie at 09:21 AM | Comments (2)
March 12, 2008
Wearing
Its really not like me to not know what to say but right now, I don't know what to say. Funny that really. SO much going on here right now, tonnes and tonnes of changes - all of which are good but all of which are taking just that little piece out of me and making me feel as though I don't have much left to give. Life is just feeling a little wearing at the moment, you know?
Lou is expecting the proofs back for the magazine any day now, we're both a mixture of nervous and excited to see what that looks like. We're working really hard to put lots of new processes and proceedures in place for the magazine which includes handing over the subscription management to our lovely intern, Jo. She will now be handling all queries with regards to the magazine and posting out all the sub copies and individual issues throughout the quarter. Her post office is much more reliable than mine (and how could it not be, after I found out that my postcode is the 2nd worst in the country in the post office league table. Ha.) so I think that is going to be great. Not to mention the fact that it will save me some magazine packing time which will be great.
Similar plans are in place for HipKnits to get around the postcode posting problem, they are not quite finalised yet though.
This post from Courtney really struck a chord with me. As a mother your mama voice is really important, I listened to mine when Cameron had pneumonia as a baby and the doctor told me it was just a cold. I've had lots of cause in the last year to trust my judgement (and that of Wayne) and google things that are concerning me. Sometimes this isn't the best way to find out information, but sometimes it leads you just where you needed to be led. The most important part of parenting is to trust your own judgement and know when to listen to yourself and not other people.
Sigh. My lovely husband is home with a takeaway so its time to go and sit and eat and reflect on life. Have I told you recently how fab he is? Last week in the middle of press week chaos he went out at 9pm to Tesco to buy me cheesecake and a bottle of wine. He peeled me off my keyboard and made me eat and drink for half an hour, it made SUCH a difference. I'm lucky to have him, x
PS - have you seen the YF blog with our new office address, the kids were very impressed when I showed them around. Brooke asked me if I was really posh enough to be there. I think so. Maybe.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:59 PM | Comments (3)
March 10, 2008
Cashmere sock yarn
Cashmere sock yarn, yummy don't you think? I love the way this particular type of sock yarn takes the dye, the colours just come out so vibrant and beautiful.
We have a few skeins of it in the shop at the moment, and lots more to come over the next few weeks..
Strange things happened with the sale last week, a lot of the yarn that I put on the website magically disappeared leading me to think that it had sold out but after printing all the orders and posting them I was left with a big pile of yarn. Most odd, I can only imagine I did something wrong with the quantities in the shopping cart, its bound to be a user error on my part!
So tonight there will be another shop update with lots more sale bargains. I found another box of bits in the shop move as well so there will be a lot of yarn, if you're quick. Lets say 6pm again shall we, that seems to work well for most of you.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:42 AM | Comments (2)
March 07, 2008
Today
Today is my final 15 hour working day of the week. I can barely keep my eyes open. Lou and I have been meeting online at around 5am and saying our email goodnights at around 10pm pretty much every day this week. We are so looking forward to signing this issue off at noon today and then sleeping for a week. Well, maybe not sleeping for a whole week but at least for more than 5 or 6 hours at a time. Doesn't that sound like a luxury to you?
We this this issue of Yarn Forward is the best yet. Can't wait to hear what you all think.
Does anyone know of a good website person who can help us out with some techy bits over the next couple of weeks? We're happy to pay in yarn, money or whatever combination works for them. Drop me an email or leave me a comment if you think you could help.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:55 AM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2008
Pirate day
Today is National Book day (I think that's what its called) and Brooke's school have decided to have a pirates day, dress up as a pirate or walk the plank were the rules. What do you think? Brooke is worried she doesn't look pirate like enough but turned down the offer of a eye patch or parrot. Any kind of cutlass, hook, weapon etc have already been disallowed by the school so I'm not sure what else I could have done to make her more pirate like. What do you reckon?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:25 AM | Comments (9)
March 05, 2008
Milk
Yes, Mook is her word for milk - or at least that is what it started off meaning. Now she uses it for any kind of drink, her water at dinner time, her brothers juice or my glass of wine. If you can drink it, its Mook.
Lets hear more about kids words for things, I love these stories. Brooke used to say baddit instead of rabbit which was a favourite of ours and Cameron's funniest one was funkit instead of something. With his hands behind his back he'd come creeping over and say "I got funkit for you" Hillarious..
x
Posted by Kerrie at 09:27 AM | Comments (15)
Mook
One of the things that can make me smile without fail is Trinity. She is talking so so much in her own funny little language, one word in particular brings a grin to my face whenever I hear it. Mook. Its a bit like magic, don't you know?
Mook, I think that's how you spell it. It sounds a lot like book when she says it but it defintely does not mean book. What do you think it means? No-one who knows is allowed to guess, (mum, dad, wayne and aunty jen are the only people I can think of that might know or do know) but does anyone else have an idea?
The funniest time she has ever said it was at around 4am the other day. She doesnt really wake up much in the night any more, she usually sleeps from 8 to 6, and when we heard her shuffling around in her cot both Wayne and I held our breath and waited to see if she would go back to sleep. Just as it went quiet and I whispered, "I think she has gone back to sleep, don't you?", she shouted MOOK at the top of her voice and both Wayne and I couldn't stop giggling.
So if any of you are having a bad day, or a stressful day just think of the word Mook and smile. Mook, how can you be sad when you think of a small person with big curly hair standing up in her cot and shouting MOOK?
Have a guess at what it means, I may even find a prize if someone gets it right.
Posted by Kerrie at 05:37 AM | Comments (8)
March 04, 2008
Shop Update
Shop is updated and newsletter list have been emailed. Go and see the goodies, lots of sale bargains here and all of the other new yarns here.
The yarn shown here is the March choose your own sock yarn club, handspun merino yarn - the softest yarn ever in the world.
Edited to add - well the sale yarns didn't last long now did they? (just over an hour to be exact) I've removed the sold out ones from the shop as it seems a but mean to let people look at them all knowing that they are sold out. There are still plenty of other goodies on the site though, all reasonably priced. I'm sure I'll find some more sale stuff soon as well, in all the boxes full of bits that I moved out of the shop last week.
Posted by Kerrie at 05:27 AM | Comments (1)
5am
The house is really quiet at 5am. I don't see this time of day often, I blame Lou for this really. She mentioned last night that she was going to get up at 5 and do some magazine work today and I found myself in bed at 5.01 wide awake thinking about some proof reading so here I am, on the sofa wrapped up in a quilt with the laptop.
It didn't used to be this quiet at 5am. From the age of about 6 months to 2 years Cameron would be wide awake and ready for the day at 5am every day. Thank goodness he grew out of that one. Trinity is now the earliest riser in the house (apart from Wayne but he is pretty good at not screaming and waking me up when he gets up) at just before 6am most days. That gives me another hour or so here on the sofa before peace is shattered. Shame its not light enough to take a photo of this months club sock yarn as it is GORGEOUS.
I should really be downstairs on the MAC but it is so cold down there, I need to wait for the central heating to come on first.
Posted by Kerrie at 05:23 AM | Comments (1)