A couple of memories popped up on my Facebook feed last week which I wanted to share but resisted doing so because I didn’t want to come across negatively.
This is the first one from 6 years ago when my Mum and I still had our gorgeous little shop in Tadcaster.
The Definition of Irony…
This was such a frustrating and quite upsetting experience for me which I shared with friends because I just needed to get it off my chest.
One Year Later…
We were about to close our doors!!
Do we think that these to occasions might be linked?
The answer to my question is probably yes, but there was more to it than that.
It still frustrates me that a person could say something so thoughtless and I would have preferred to have been able to keep the shop open. However, as I said, this is not a negative post.
Closing the shop was the right thing for us to do, especially as the bridge in Tadcaster fell down making the town even quieter for the final six months of it being open. We have had challenges since then that would have made running the shop quite difficult at times and I have no regrets.
I have often commented that the times I loved the most in the shop, were the times when we had events and workshops, when the place was full of people having fun and we were able to inspire and encourage people to learn and create.
I took a year off after we closed the shop and then I was asked by Di at Knitting Pretty and Nadine of York School of Sewing (now York Fabric Shop) to run some workshops. I love doing this and it’s a privilege to have been able to carry on doing so regularly, and to have been welcomed at various venues.
Happily there are places out there still where you can find enthusiastic shop owners with properly inspiring places to be.
It is always a good day when I get to spend time with excited knitters wanting to learn new things or new knitters, keen to get started. Even on the days when I go home tired out, it’s a good tired.
Sock Knitting 
Beginners Knitting 
Brioche Knitting Modular and Entrelac 
Fair Isle
These COVID days I am not getting out there as much as I would like to and I really do miss sitting around in a room full of people knitting, talking about knitting, learning about knitting, playing with knitting…
It won’t be forever though.
The lock down in 2020 made me abandon my comfort zone and create the biggest Knit Along I have ever produced, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I was thrilled and excited a few months ago when I was asked to write a book about Brioche Knitting.
I am being heavily challenged at the moment with that task.
My feeling is that we will be able to get together properly later in the year for some workshops and some more online classes and knit alongs could be added for a touch of extra fun fun fun.
So those ladies who came swanning into my shop 6 years ago just to look and not to buy could really be missing out because just looking is no fun. The fun comes when you get making and creating and playing and joining in and the doors of our little shop may have had to close but the fun parts have absolutely definitely kept on going and I like to believe that they always will.