Ponderings

I am sitting here while my girls are sitting on the front doorstep eating hula hoops.  Other school mums are probably walking past pitying them, but they think this is the best thing that has ever happened to them.  They rarely eat such treats and to be sitting on the front step watching the world go by, well it's as close to sitting in a Parisian cafe as they're likely to get at the moment!

So I'm pondering life.  I'm wondering what direction things will take over the next 12 months.  I want to expand my "business" and have some exciting collaborations coming up as well as several cool events.  I don't want to overstretch myself but yarn shows are clearly more successful for me than craft shows.  I loved Duck Pond Market in Highgate and will be there again in December, but if you don't knit/crochet/weave then you don't randomly pick up a skein of yarn....  I plan to have some more ready made gifts available (brooches, hair accessories and hats mainly) as well as kits with patterns and a skein of yarn already packaged together.  But my bigger plans involve specific yarn shows - I'll be at Waltham Abbey Wool Show in January and will be travelling up to Scotland in March to take a stall at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival  These are both guaranteed to be successful and will really help me build my current small client base!  I would like to go to Woolfest, Fibre East and at least one other show.  Just need to keep things calm and not too hectic as from January I am also going to be increasing my NHS commitments to 5 days in two weeks.  I hope to have two days a month to concentrate on yarn related work with no childcare commitments!

If I can successfully combine work, childcare, caring for my disabled 11 year old when he's home from his residential school and keep up Shamu Makes I'll be very pleased.  I love the creative process whether it's dyeing or kntting or designing and it helps keep me grounded when the going gets tough.

Watch this space and keep me on track!