So after much anticipation, that’s it! Pulse 2013, my first tradeshow, is done! It was all and so much more than I could have anticipated. I think I expected it to be far more scary than the other retail shows I have done such as MADE London & MADE Brighton, but infact it was fine! (although having said that if I’d done that straight off, I think I would have been more than a little intimidated!)

Obviously the biggest difference was meeting lots of real live & kicking buyers from very real & very exciting shops from all across the UK and abroad, rather than just selling direct to individual customers. This was such a positive experience for me – I got loads of positive feedback on my products, particularly my geometric blankets and cushions, and my new finegauge merino scarves. So hopefully lots of exciting potential new stockists in the pipeline…

I also got some great food for thought from buyers. A great talking point were my cardboard display heads drawn by my talented cousin Lawrence Elwick. Buyers were interested in whether they could potentially use them use in their own shops as quirky visual merchandising – which I think is great!

I also need to think about designing some really lovely packaging for my scarves, as this will make them more ‘giftable’ for potential customers. So the old grey cells are whirring again to do research and make these and other ideas a reality…

I also met lots of lovely new designers who were also exhibiting in Launchpad. It really felt like the place to be in terms of new and exciting design, but was also very friendly and supportive – I love being part of the designer/maker community. I also did a couple of sneaky show swaps, including a very beautiful Emily Bucknell lampshade, which always makes me happy!

Keep your fingers crossed for me. I’ll keep you posted with any exciting new developments! xx

                          

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With an impressive line-up of speakers, the Manifesto for Making addressed and provoked discussion of three main overarching questions:

• Why is making important?
• Where should crafts be?
• How do we get there?

A small representation of the discussion between speakers and delegates is featured below.

My favourite speaker, was the truly inspirational Mark Hieatt (pictured below) of the aspirational denim brand Hiut Denim - I strongly recommend a read of their website to find out more about the ‘history tag’ – Marks brilliant brainchild of keeping an online log of your jeans life story for future generations to read and add to.

He slightly blew my mind with his talk. He has to be seen, and experienced, to be believed to be honest – but two keys points have really stayed with me:

• Do one thing really well
• ‘If you’re going to scrape a living – make sure it’s a living worth scraping’

I also made a whistlestop visit to the Wool House exhibition, before it had finished, not least because my geometric cushion covers were part of a giveaway to promote the exhibition by the Crafts Council. I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the work on show, and felt honoured to be a very small part of it. Highlights below:

Please see my facebook page for more photo’s, and the Crafts Councils website for more information on how to win the hamper including my cushion covers.

1) Josephine Ryans ‘natural’ room layout 2) Wool House curator Arabella McNies colourful ‘snug’ 3) Detail of embroidered wool chair from Kit Kemps beautiful bedroom 4) Shauna Richardsons brilliant ‘crochetdermy’ brown bear 5) My very own cushion covers featured in the Crafts Councils competition (So proud!) 6) Donna Wilsons ‘Knitted Nursery’

                          

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1) The Grand Danois hotdog from Andersen Bakery OMG people, O.M.G! (NB: the cucumber was pickled in what I think was rice wine vinegar, and tasted totally dee-vine!) 2) Stephen & I togged up in our thermals, and warmest winter coats = Copenhagen standard 3) Pretty Smorresbord 4) Yayoi Kusama’s stunning ‘Gleaming night of the souls‘ at Louisiana Modern Art Museum 5, 6, and 7) All Tara Donovan sculptures, again at Louisiana I had never heard of her before but found her work so inspiring 8) Colour crush on Per Kirkeby painting

NB: What are Kanelsnegle anyway?

                          

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I sneakily turned 34 on Sunday, and shared a lovely birthday & Mothers Day celebration with my mum, brother and Stephen. I’ve been mulling over my options for a celebratory blog post, and have settled on compiling a list of my top 34 things to achieve and enjoy for the year ahead. Of course I have plenty of other more ‘worky’/less fun things on my to-do list, but this one’s all about the fun.

In the next 365 days I would like to …

1) Eat at Ottolenghi’s

2) Walk the South Downs Way from Winchester to Brighton with Stephen, bivvying or camping en route.

3) Make time to exercise regularly, including yoga and pilates to look after my poor knitters back

4) Visit Copenhagen (this is happening at the end of this week! I can hardly believe it or wait!)  done!

5) See my work and business expand and develop enough to need to enlist help from lovely helpers, i.e. amazing label sewer onners, and brilliant financial spread sheet filler inners, and expert parcel packer uppers.

6) Make a long overdue visit to Manchester to see some much loved pals.

7) Bake the perfect soda bread

8) Make the perfect fish pie

9) Visit the Pyrenees. Spanish or French side. Or both.

10) Stay in a treehouse

11) Do the Eton Dornay 3K swim

12) Find a little house with a woodburner and a cute secluded garden.

13) Once in said house rescue a beautiful and affectionate cat or kitten (or two)

14) Eat at Bob Bob Ricard

15) Finally pass my driving test

16) Go pick your owning for strawberries, raspberries, and hopefully gooseberries.

17) Make chilli jam

18) Have a go at knit hacking my old blue sweater a la Amy Twigger Holroyd from the wonderful Keep & Share

19) Go to In The Loop 3.5 in Shetland. Spend some time with Eric to learn more about Shima programming

20) Start going to jive again

21) Buy new and gorgeous glasses

22) Have the time and money to see more of my lovely friends

23) Have a hot stone massage

24) Make salt baked fish on the beach a la Jamie Oliver

25) Sleep the night on the beach

26) Start a patchwork quilt

27) Design & make my own ‘dream’ knitted garment

28) Conquer my fear of photographing my work

29) Aim to blog once a week

30) Spend less time on my iPhone, and more time in my real life, with real people, doing real things

31) Successfully grow tomatoes

32) Make really gingery ginger beer

33) Do something that scares me (just a little bit) once a month

34) Dream bigger, bolder, brighter, faster, stronger.

Blog post inspired by and with a large hat tip to the wonderful Hula Seventy, Sas Petherick, and Susannah Conway my favourite, and much read, lady bloggers.

                          

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Enjoy!

                          

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I’ve been working gradually, almost painfully slowly, through Susannah Conways ’Unravelling The Year Ahead’ worksheets bit by bit throughout January – the fact that I haven’t been able to even do the worksheets in one go has also been a real red light to me that I needed some time off from non-stop work, to switch off my brain a bit and rest.

Through the worksheets Susannah encourages you to pick a word you want to experience and encapsulate in your year ahead. Last year I chose ‘growth’ and what a year of growth it had been! My business went from strength to strength, and I felt I developed new products I was really creatively proud of, something I hadn’t felt for a couple of years, and lots of new & exciting opportunities consequently opened up to me. I ended the year on a real high, but was also E X H A U S T E D with a capital E.

So, this year, even though I know my business needs to continue to grow & develop, I also know I need to be kinder to myself. Find ways of growing that supports me and my life more wholistically. Find ways & means to let me be more hands off in some aspects of my business, and to let other people and things support me more.

So my word for this year is E X P A N D. It was going to be expansion, but that felt a little bit corporate and too ‘worky’. Where as expand, seemed a better fit, as is more wholistic, allowing for personal, spiritual, and work growth.

I had a beautiful snowy weekend in London a couple of weekends ago with my mum. I love the chalky colour palette you see in the snow, and the way it dampens all the sound making everything beautifully peaceful & calm. Having the time to do lovely frivolous things, and spend quality, un-rushed time family and friends, definitely helps me expand. To breathe. To feel like I’m enjoying the journey, rather than just being fixed on the destination.

                          

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- ‘She Koyakh’ Balkan music at the opening night preview

The show was a great success, with a real buzz about it in the lead up, and during the actual show. It was very successful for me, showcasing my new collection of geometric merino knitwear accessories. I received some great feedback on my work, including some food for thought on new products to develop for next year, and met some great new customers, and fellow makers.

A real highlight for me was doing a scarf swap with fellow hothouser Holly Berry, who’s beautiful scarves and blankets I’ve had my eye on for a while. Thankfully she felt the same about my work so we did an exciting scarf swap! Her morse code scarves are so beautiful, spelling out the word H O L D in woven morse code. Beautiful.

I have also had three lovely blog features since, on Lin_Morris, Creative Clerkenwell, and last, but definitely not least my lovely friend, Sarah Dyers blog. I’ve also sent a selection of my knitwear off for an exciting Country Living photoshoot, to be published in the New Year. So am feeling very pleased, and looking forward to what MADE12 in Brighton might bring for me.

I would like to say a masssive THANKYOU to the MADE LONDON organisers Jon Tutton, and Anne-Marie Shepherd for doing such a brilliant job, and to Stephen Chamberlain my lovely and extremely helpful boyfriend, who did all the driving, helped me to set up, and pack down with no stress at all, and covered my stand for much needed coffee breaks/lunches/other people’s stand snooping… What a star!

Finally, I have just officially launched my online shop, (hooray!) and to celebrate I am offering a 20% discount on all products, ending next Tuesday morning at 09.30am. Just enter the code ‘getyerkniton’ at the checkout, and all your woolly dreams can come true!

                          

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Highlights for me were Tom of Holland, and his brilliant Cabinet of (knitting) curiosities, and Stitchlinks, groundbreaking research, and a movement which utilises crafts, in particular knitting, to improve wellbeing.

‘Our mission is to use knitting and other activities to improve wellbeing generally, but also to complement medical treatments in the self-management of long-term illness. We are working closely with academics and clinicians, and as a direct result, therapeutic knitting and therapeutic knitting groups are being formally acknowledged by leading clinicians and academics for their benefits in mainstream healthcare.’ taken from the Stitchlinks website.

I found their research and findings so inspiring, especially the findings that handknitting actually releases Serotonin!

I also took part in the Shetland Fairisle knitting workshop with the lovely Wilma Malcomson, from The Shetland Designer, where I spent a very happy day learning all the tricks of her trade. Photo’s of her beautiful samples she prepared for the workshop below.

                          

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Setting up & enjoying a new facebook page for my work. It’s been great getting instant feedback from family, friends, & fans as I work on and develop my work. It definitely keeps my momentum going!

Running a pom pom making workshop in the run up to In The Loop 3: a knitting conference at the Discovery Centre in Winchester where I am presenting a paper on my work. Here’s few lovely photo’s from that day:

The aim was to create some large pom poms to decorate the trees outside The Discovery Centre while the conference is on the welcome the delegates. A few more photo’s can be found here on my facebook page.

Starting to write my paper for In The Loop 3, which is proving a bit more challenging to say the least…!

Discovering the joys of the iPhone. At the risk of sounding like a cliche, it really has streamlined and made my life easier! I’ve also got a bit hooked on instagram. You can follow me here, for all my latest visual inspirations.

Last but certainly not least I enjoyed a super relaxing glamping holiday in the idyllic Broad Meadow House campsite in Charlestown in Cornwall with the lovely Stephen. Highlights included the Eden Project, plenty of sea swimming, eating, and sleeping – I always sleep so soundly when I’m camping – and the option of having a home cooked breakfast, with freshly brewed coffee (at a very reasonable cost) bought to you tent each morning. Bliss!

                          

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