Day 1 was just great!

Here is Miranda standing proudly behind our stand just before the exhibition opened. We had a great day. Met so many people (the man in the stand across the way even said to me, you sure did a lot of chatting!) not sure my voice is going to hold out for the next 3 days. Thank you to everyone for coming to see us today and for all the lovely comments about the Ba T'at yarn!

The next photo is of Emma Garry's side of our stand. We are all friends from Ilkley and Emma has just set up an on-line fabric store. Her stuff is soooooo lovely so check out her newly launched website (www.emmagarry.com). We have had a lot of laughs today, good thing really considering the size of space we have behind the stand. Also a big thanks to Emma for the fantastic graphics we have on our back wall.

The last photo is of our first customer of the day - Janet Wilshaw. It was pretty much as soon as the exhibition opened and sorry Janet for being slightly over excited but it felt so good to make that first sale and it certainly set us off on a roll!

Anyway better get to bed as hopefully it will be another big day tomorrow.

Emma

Phew - we are ready for the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show

Well think we are pretty well set up for the show. It was soooooo LESS stressful than I imagined. It was easy to park, we got a trolley and we even got help bringing the stuff in.

Here are some photos of us setting up. We are sharing the stand with Emma Garry (emmagarry.com) who sells beautiful fabric. Emma designed and sorted out the backing for us and it looks great. Seemed to spend ages trying to load the shelves up with the Ba T'at yarn and get the colours working together. Not really sure these photos do it justice as the colours look great. Bit more stuff to take over tomorrow and then sort out our top display and then we are there! We will be ready at 10.00 - unbelievable. Think that's about it from me though tonight as got to get myself ready for tomorrow and also want to watch Spooks on the TV!

Hopefully see some of you there - STAND C570

Emma

Final Count Down - Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show

Well its set up day tomorrow for the show and we are just about there!! You can see Sherry in the photo busy labelling the Ba T'at yarn up and then the hands in the other photo belong to Miranda. The Ba T'at production team were all very busy at my house today whilst Lyndy and Charlotte held the fort at Create. We were also lucky to have another 'happy helper' in the form of Vicky. Thank you Vicky for giving up your time to lend us a hand - very much appreciated!

As you can see from the next photo of my sitting room we have covered the house with stuff. Slightly worrying given the amount of space we have at the show! You can just about see our attempt at setting up a little shop just to see how much we could actually fit in our 'small but beautiful' space!' All I can say about that experiment is ................. it should be very interesting tomorrow! And one more thing - no shop, whatever the size, could be without a till and for that we would like to say a huge thank you to Glynn at Parker Shop Equipment Ltd who has lent it to us and also spent yesterday morning programming it. All he asked for in return was a cup of tea! I know our tea is pretty special but not to that extent! I know for some it maybe hard to understand the importance of a till but from experience with Create you just can't beat a proper till - well that's if you make a sale!! So fingers crossed that it sees some action.

Emma

Ba T'at Yarn Twiddling!

Sherry and I made a trip to Bradford and arrived to see piles of our Ba T'at yarn all hanked up! Bless the team at Bradford!! Doesn't it look fab. All that was left for us to do was a bit of twiddling. See below for the famous twiddling stick (new to us too but it worked!) and Sherry demonstrating the twiddling method!
We just have a lot of labelling to do tomorrow - well when we get the labels back from the printers. Looks like its going to be a long day.
Can't believe we only have a couple of days left to get things organised.
Oh just thought of the other things we have to pull together tomorrow. We have quite a few knitting patterns that we have designed between us for one hank projects. Anne Makepeace has also put together a pattern for some great fingerless gloves. Anyway we have to get those all properly sorted out and printed to give out with our yarn at the show. And then we have a long list of all our workshops at Create for the rest of the year and all of 2010 to print so we can give those out as well ........... the list just goes on. Think I may just open the wine!

Emma

Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show - Part Two

This is the wonderful jug Lyndy painted at Create for us to display some of our knitting needles at the Harrogate show. We are going to be taking Brittany needles which are made out of sustainably harvested birch hardwood. I love knitting with them, the yarn slides easily on them and they don't bend as much as Bamboo. Also they come with a 5 year replacement guarantee! The jug has the Cow and Calf Rocks painted on it - a famous landmark on Ilkley Moor plus lots of sheep including 2 black sheep that you will have to try and spot if you come to the show. Our Ba T'at labels also show the Cow and Calf Rocks. The picture on the labels was drawn by a very talented artist - Miranda's husband Simon. (He does more than just fall of bikes! which is normally why we include him in our blogs - July 2009 & June 2008!) He doesn't draw commercially although I think he should. I am very proud to have his drawing on our labels. Simon is a born and bred Ilkley man so it seems very apt that it's his drawing fronting our Yorkshire brand of yarn.

Emma

The Build Up

Well Sherry and I have been to Bradford today to take stack loads of Ba T'at yarn to be wound into hanks. Up to now Sherry has been doing it all herself but don't think her arm can take much more (she has been using a hand winder) and we have found the perfect guys to help us with the job! So relieved and think Sherry was close to hugging them! We hung it all up there so it can be bone dry to be sorted on Monday (Think some of the yarns Sherry had just lifted from her bath to take along!) We are going to be there on Monday so we can sort them and add the labels as soon as they are done in their hanks. Cutting it all a little bit fine on the timing but can you imagine what it would have been like this weekend putting all this lot into smaller hanks!! Anyway here are some of the hanks of yarn for you to see - I just think they look sooo gorgeous. The guys in Bradford said it was a bit like Christmas having all the colourful yarns decorating the place! The other really interesting thing (well to me but then I just love this whole dying wool process) is how different these colours all look when they are put into small hanks - it kindof mixes all the colours up. Will try and post a before and after photo in one of the next blogs.

Sherry also managed to sneak in a few extra colourways. One of them she has named "Pie and Peas" which is just fantastic and for all of you coming to the Show you will see its first outing. I think it is going to have to be added to my list of favourites.

Well I better get back to labeling the other yarns and sorting through boxes of Brittany Needles.
Emma

Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show

Things are just mad here as we are preparing for a stall at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show next week (starts on Thursday 19th November through to the Sunday). Sherry is busy dyeing loads of our Ba T'at yarn to take. The picture is of some of it drying in my kitchen as Sherry has run out of space. The colours are so amazing I may just keep it hanging up! We have a tiny little space but hopefully it will be a beautiful little space! We will have our Ba T'at yarns - some not seen before and the latest Louisa Harding yarns plus Brittany Needles. So please please come and see us we are on stall C570. And if you are not already planning to come but want to take a look at http://www.twistedthread.com/ for more details. Anyway will keep you up to date on the build up to the show as it may prove amusing!!

Emma

A Knitted Christmas

Bit of a Robin theme going on here!! Two of the photos are of the mass of Robins that were knitted on Create's 'A Knitted Christmas' with Anne Makepeace on Monday and the other picture is of our lovely Robin that tweets at us in our garden. So realistic are those knitted Robins its hard to tell the difference!!!! I unfortunately had to sit in the office catching up on paper work as Miranda oversaw the course. All I could hear was a lot of laughter. I had to go down and see at one point and think it had a lot to do with how 12 people could all knit with the same yarns from the same pattern and come out with very different and individual (did I say weird - no!) looking Robins. Anne loaded everyone down with masses of patterns for Christmas projects and the feedback was that everyone had had a really fun day. We have another course booked for the 30th November and by then we will have loaded the Christmas songs onto the i-pod, got the Christmas tree and sparkling lights out and may even put Anne in a knitted Santa hat!! So get on that phone and book a place and you could go home with a Robin like these!!

Emma

Sewing Club Launched

We had the first session of our children's sewing club tonight. Ten eager children were very busy threading needles, tying knots, sewing in straight lines. It is the first of a 10 week session. Miranda (who is very proficient with her sewing needles) armed with all the Sewing Club material (a tried and tested children's sewing course from http://www.stitchclub.com/) taught the course and if my daughter is anything to go on they had a great time. Next week they are cutting out simple patterns and making little animals. We already have some on our reserve list so if you know of anyone who would like to join the next session (starting after Easter half term) then let us know. I have a feeling this is going to be very popular.

We had such a busy half term last week with sooooooo many pots painted we can't fit them all in the cupboards. Thank you for coming to see us - there really was some great stuff painted. We now have all the christmas stock out - baubles, christmas plates, bowls, santas, penguins and more is arriving on Tuesday. We have already had quite a few people in painting those very special christmas presents. It really does make a unique and special gift. We are going to have some late openings on a Wednesday so please give us a call if you fancy coming in one evening (Create Number: 01943 817788).

On the Christmas theme we have got the lovely Anne Makepeace coming in on Monday to take our Knitting Christmas course. This was so over booked that we have sloted in another one on the 30th November. If you fancy coming along then there are a few spaces left so please give us a ring.

There is quite a lot more to tell you but will leave it there for tonight ..............

Emma

Our on-line shop has launched.

We have finally launched our on-line shop. Please take a look on www.createwithwool.co.uk ! Only taken us months and months (or could it be years) longer than we expected but we are finally live! Please take a look and let us know what you think. All feedback is welcome. We have already commissioned changes to the sale page so that it is easier to view but at least we are up and running AND have already made some sales!!

Actually thinking about it Miranda and I need to celebrate the achievement. We have been so busy with all the stuff we have on at Create we haven't taken a step back and celebrated it going live. Think a bottle of champagne may be necessary - possibly next knit night. So all of you considering coming along the next one may well be the one to start!!!

The picture is of our flyer we are just getting printed, advertising the website. Not sure you can read much on it but the backdrop is the design for the website.

Emma

Introducing Baabara Ba T'at

Like you all to meet the newest addition to Create Baabara Ba T'at who is modelling fine knitwear in the gorgeous Ba T'at yarn! The hat has been made in Funfair and the scarf in Rhubarb. She has yet to receive her socks which Sherry is currently knitting. Each one will be in a different Ba T'at colour. Sherry better get going as its nippy in Ilkley!! Anyway do come in and introduce yourself to her as loves new faces. You will finding sitting happily amongst the wool.
And here is Baabara nestling up to her namesake Barbara who is a regular member of our knit night group. She is also a familiar face to all those who visit Duttons for Buttons in Ilkley! Barbara is great at giving you good advice on which buttons go with those knitted items.
Anyway I better go and start packing as am off to London this weekend for a christening. I am godmum and it will be the first time I meet my new godchild so really looking forward to it. I am giving the Bird mobile (Erika Knights Book Natural Nursery Knits) that I made especially for my godchild and has been featured in a different blog (August 2009). I will quite miss it! Also we have painted her a plate which after I hand it over I will hopefully get permission to feature it in a blog.

Emma

Thursday Night is Knit Night!

Every other Thursday we have a knit night running at Create from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm. As you can see from the photos the wine is out! There is a bit of knitting, a lot of chatter and some good advice on hand - not all from me - luckily we have some really good knitters amongst our regulars (Sherry and Jacqueline have helped me along loads). We have every level of knitter so anyone is welcome and we have lots of space to fit more in! Our next night is this Thursday, 8th October.
Thank you so much to Pam for bringing us all some of her fantastic plum jam to our last knit night! She inspired me to have a go at jam making this year and our (have to say 'our' because my husband and daughter actually made most of it, I was just left to clear up) bramble and apple jam was a huge success. Success meaning we got our fussy eater daughter to eat it and enjoy it.


The above photo is of some of the socks knitted on our sock knitting course with Sherry. The course was run over 3 evenings, a week apart, to allow time to get to the next stage of the sock.
The group did amazingly well and some got a pair knitted! We are now onto the Shawl Class with Sherry which Miranda and I are taking - boy is it complicated. Not sure if Sherry is going to give us a gold star for our homework efforts!! I have already pulled mine back once. But really enjoying it as its pushing me out of my comfort zone.
I am writing this with the voice of Debbie Abrahams in the background. We have a full class for her Fairisle and Intarsia Course which is running today. We seem to be really busy with courses which is just fantastic. We have Emma King in next week (Monday) for Professional Finishing. There is one place left so if you fancy it please give us a call on 01943 817788.
Emma

The New Wool Stock Just Keeps Coming!!

Another huge delivery of wool has descended on Create and we are very busy trying to fit it in!! This time its the Sirdar and Sublime! We have ordered loads of the new colours plus some new lines. Lots of new colours in Sirdar's Baby Bamboo, Escape Dk, Crofter DK and Big Softie as well as the new line Crofter Chunky. Crofter is a self patterning yarn which gives a look of fairisle without the work! The DK range has been really successful so am sure the Chunky is going to go down a storm. And in Sublime we have new colours in the Organic DK wool, Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK and the Extra Fine 4 Ply Merino. They look sooo beautiful. We have also brought in the Sublime Luxurious Woolly Merino - a gorgeously soft, subtly textured yarn that creates the most exquisitely luxurious knits to wrap yourself in natural, gentle warmth. Made from extra ordinarily soft Australian merino wool and has been created in the most beautiful palette of velvety winter shades AND is machine washable!!! I have already been modelling (well wearing!!) a jumper in this wool and have had loads of great comments about it - some from non knitters asking where I bought it from and could I knit it for them.
Anyway better go and dig Charlotte out from under the wool - she has been sorting it out all morning!!

Emma

We just love Debbie Abrahams' Courses!!!

Well Debbie Abrahams was back into Create yesterday to teach a full quota of eager students "Professional Finishing Techniques". You can see a few of them on the photo working very hard before Debbie allowed them to break for lunch!! Apologies this course hasn't been advertised on our website its just that it has been full for ages. Anyway everyone seemed to get a lot out of the course and were in fact asking us to run Professional Finishing part two as soon as possible!! Debbie brought in one of her lovely blankets (picture above). It was gorgeous. Its out of her book More Blankets and Throws. We have Debbie back in a couple of weeks to teach Fairisle and Intarsia which again am afraid is fully booked! BUT we do still have a couple of places left on Design your own knits (details on our website www.createcafe.co.uk) but I really would get in fast. Managed to get 4 more dates in the diary for 2010! but will post details as soon as we have fixed what we are going to run on those days. It was more a matter of getting in quick as Debbie seems sooooooooo busy.

We have Anne Makepeace back in next Monday to run Learn to Crochet - we were so over subscribed for the last one that we put this one in to satisfy the reserve list! However there are still some spaces left so let us know if you want to come along. Can highly recommend it as have taken this one myself and loved it. Have knitted for ages but never crocheted and really felt I had got the hang of it (well the basics!) after the day. Miranda had to run around doing all the coffee making and lunch preparation that day as hardly left my chair or put down my crochet hook - I was that hooked!!!!!!!!

Well not long now and I mean very very soon we will be announcing the launch of www.createwithwool.co.uk - so exciting. Anyway more to follow.

Emma

Gorgeous Cardigan in KidSilk Haze

I just love this cardigan!!!! Carol who is an amazing knitter and knits a lot of our samples at Create brought this in for us last week. The pattern is in the new Rowan Magazine (Number 46) and is called Wentworth. As you can probably tell it is a Kaffe Fassett design. Don't think the photos do it justice as it really is beautiful, a wonderful mix of colours! Ours is slightly adapted to the one in the book just to incorporate all the colours we have in Create - a vast array I can assure you!!

Pretty much as soon as Carol brought it in I whisked it away with me on a trip down south to visit friends (including a wedding and a 40th Birthday party - very hectic!). It got a lot of admiring comments. One of the days I took my daughter into London. We spent the majority of the time in Hamley's but we did make it to Trafalgar Square and saw the famous plinth where Anne Makepeace (a Rowan Consultant who takes some of our knitting and crochet courses in Create) stood with her knitting. Can't say there was anyone quite so interesting when we were there. We also went into the National Gallery and I can quite honestly say my cardigan did not look out of place amongst the Masterpieces!!! Anyway it is now proudly displayed in Create for you all to see.

Summer holidays are pretty much over. I find it sad when all the kids go back. The weather has certainly turned as well just to remind us that the summer has gone. Well at least I can get out my warm knits, put our new wood burning stove on and settle down with my knitting!

Emma

Ba T'at Wool Names

This is a blog particularly for MerrySusan who has been asking for the names of the beautiful Ba T'at sock yarn featured on Emma's blog in August - apologies for the slowness in our reply but I think I have managed to work out the names of the skeins shown, but I will get another photo taken with them all in a row and named since the colours have not come out brilliantly. Bottom left skein (Reddy/browns) is Cranberry; The bluey/green one next to that is Wharfe; the reddy/brown one above Wharfe is Cranberry again; on bottom row next to Cranberry is Fun Fair (Blues/greens/ reds); Green/pink one is Rhubarb; Blue/red/pink one on right hand side is Watercolour and the Dark red/purple is Bilberry Crush. Hope that helps a bit! Will get camera in today and will post new photo as soon as possible.

Miranda

Media Fame and Another Knitted project!!

Well Create has been featured in the Ilkley Gazette today. They came in and took photos while we had the pottery wheel working and the kids throwing some amazing pots last week. Here is the link to the article on line - Ilkley Gazette.

We are hoping to set up after school Children's Art Classes starting after the October break which will include learning to throw pots as well as other art forms - information to follow. We are also going to be running a 10 week course on Learn to Sew for ages 7 plus again after the October break - we have got loads of great sewing projects to do. So when we finalise the days they are running we will let you know and put them on our website.

Well here are the pictures of my latest knitted project! Its a sort of mobile and yes they are birds!

The pictures show it hanging in Create and one of it laid out flat. We painted the beads at Create that you can see, which makes it a very original piece of work!! Anyway you can see it proudly presented at Create for a short time and then I am going to give it as part of a gift for my goddaughter at her christening. Her name isn't the one shown but for secrecy purposes have disguised the true owner!!! Sure if the parents are reading this blog they will guess its for them as I haven't been made Godmother to too many children this year!

The pattern is in Erika Knight's beautiful new book - Natural Nursery Knits. Miranda has knitted the rattle from there which she showed in an earlier blog. I knitted the birds and the covering on some of the beads in Rowan's Fine Milk Cotton - which is such a soft beautiful yarn - joy to knit with. Anyway I am really pleased with it! I wonder what my goddaughter will make of it in years to come .............! Guarantee there will never be another like it though!

Its knit night in Create tonight which I am looking forward too as need a bit of help with my new knitting project. Trying to stretch myself with this one but it may be a little tooo far! Do have some others to finish off, so it may not be the next project, I post in fact it maybe years before you see it! Miranda is back off holiday now so it will be good as it will be the first evening we have had together since the summer holidays started. Bit of gossip to catch up on. Anyway anyone is welcome to our knit nights - we have them every other Thursday from 7.30 and quite often there is wine - helps with the knitting I find and definitely with the chatting!!! Give us a call if you are interested in coming along - any standard of knitter is welcome.

Emma

Emily's first knitted item! Busy Saturday at Create!

Emily is one of our teenagers that works very hard at Create at the weekends and I am very proud to present her first knitted item (well maybe second think she did a sheep for her first!) Emily has had very little guidance from us, borrowed a book and taught herself. She has knitted the elephant in Adriafil Knitcol which is a self patterning 100% wool. Looks great!!

Had news of the A'level results and were very good! Off to their chosen universities.

Very busy at Create this weekend, a lot of pots painted and wool sold! We had a great group in on Saturday afternoon. They all came in to paint a 4 inch tile each to give to their parents / grandparents for their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. There were 20 of them (10 children, starting at a couple of months old and 10 adults). The parents arrived not knowing what was going to happen. Thought it was such a lovely idea and they produced a great selection of tiles. Here is a picture of some of them before they go in the kiln. The colours look quite dull at the moment but once they have been glazed and fired they will be shiny, bright and very colourful. They are going to put them all together as a picture.

One more week of summer courses - learn to sew, quilling, wet felting a small bag / ipod cover and pin felting and of course pottery painting - should be fun.

Anyway till next time

Emma

Beautiful Painted Pottery Jug

Just sooooo love this jug that one of our very talented staff painted for me this week. Charlotte has just finished an art foundation course and is off to Newcastle to do an art related degree. She has been working part-time at Create for over 3 years now. Hopefully we aren't saying goodbye as we seem to (luckily) get our staff back during the holidays.

Anyway she painted this up for me as I am off to a wedding next weekend and this is part of my gift. Its a good thing that we wrote a message on the bottom or I may have kept it!!!

On tender hooks at the moment waiting to hear how some of our other staff have done in their A'Levels. I think we are incredibly lucky at Create to have such a great crowd of staff who work for us part-time, after school, weekends or holidays. Some of them have been with us since we set up. They are all really hard working, committed, cheerful and talented.

We had a lot of people into Create today for the enamelling which was great. Think a few sorted some Christmas pressies out! Very organised and am sure those grandparents are going to love them!

Anyway better get back to my knitting I am soooo close to finishing off my next project!

Emma

Enamelling

Well as promised a photo of some of the items that my 7 year old daughter has produced enamelling. It really is very easy to do with some great results. We have the enamelling kiln working again this Friday - 21st August (10.00 am - midday) so if you fancy having a go give us a call and reserve a table. All our contact details are on our website www.createcafe.co.uk. We had more adults enamelling than children last time the kiln was on. Michele is coming back into Create tomorrow to teach more people how to throw pots so should be busy!

Emma

Wool Glorious Wool!!!

Sherry has dropped us off some more lovely Ba T'at yarns. She has been busy! Some new colours and some of the existing colours. Photo doesn't show them all but gives you an idea!
Miranda has put her name down for the Liquiorice for the shawl knitting course Sherry is taking in October. I am undecided - there is just too many to choose from!
Supposebly our Gedifra yarn order arrived this afternoon at Create, I haven't seen it yet but it contains some metallic yarn. Very whacky and suppose to be all the rage this season! Anyway I will be in tomorrow to check it out.

Emma

My Latest Finished Project

My latest finished project - I have about ten unfinished! This is one of the items I knitted on holiday! A cup warmer knitted in our own Ba T'at yarn - the mugs on display were beautifully painted by our talented girls (Emily and Charlotte) at Create! These pictures are taken in our garden next to our vegetable patch which I am equally as proud of!! It's turning into a bit of the 'Good Life' here at home with our first year of vegetable growing. We have had tomatoes, lettuce, runner beans, peas, carrots and the season isn't over. Not sure people would recognise me from my wild days living and working in London - knitting and vegetable growing all in the same blog!! They all wondered what would happen to me when I moved further north than the Watford Gap - well here you are! Anyway really enjoyed knitting with the Ba T'at yarn (this colour is called Daffodil) which is hand dyed by Sherry on the farm very close to Create. I am also known for letting my coffee's go cold so this cup warmer may just help!
Further news from Create is we have had our enamelling kiln working today. Will post a picture of some of the items that were produced so you can get a better idea of what enamelling is. Sure the tease of seeing our enamelling items will get you back to view our next blog!??

Emma

Wool Arrivals

Can't believe I am writing another blog so soon after my last one but there is so much going on at Create and I just had to put this photo on. This show our enormous delivery of the Autumn/Winter range from Rowan. The different yarns and patterns that have come from Rowan this season really are great hence the big order! It made a very comfortable bed for our youngsters for a very short time before the team at Create cracked on with getting it onto the shelves today. We are pretty much there! Well done to Lyndy and Emily! I luckily escaped for the afternoon and went with friends, the dogs and the children for a walk along part of the Dales Way, ending up in Grassington. It was a beautiful walk and really made me appreciate how lucky we are to live in this part of the country. Miranda is off camping at the coast, I'm hoping that they are getting the good weather that we have here at the moment.

Emma