Hi folks and good afternoon from a warm and sunny-ish Yorkshire!
I'm sure many of you follow my social media and newsletters and stuff but I thought I should post an update on the blog too seeing as it appears on the website. There's so much to tell you since my last general news blog post so I won't try and cover it all, I'll just talk about the latest stuff.
Firstly as I'm sure you'll have heard by now Laura has left ECY to move on to pastures new. She'll be greatly missed of course, but unfortunately with Brexit having decimated almost half of the business (in sales/customers) and then the cost of living crisis (can we just call it what it is - a recession??) and running costs constantly on the up I had no choice but to let her go. It was either that or call it quits to be honest. I'm not one who quits easily though and this job is my passion so after stressing about it for ages (like, really ages) I finally made the tough call. It was really hard, I have to tell you. Laura knew how difficult things were though, and quite honestly I don't think either of us expected to make it to seven years together when I first took her on. It's quite hard as a business owner to decide how much of this sort of stuff to talk about - we want to put a positive light on things all of the time and I generally do do that. However, I believe that people still don't know how dire the effect of Brexit has been on small businesses (not to mention other things) and I do want everyone to know that.
As ever, things move along quickly here at ECY though, and I'm sure you'll have also noticed that Dave and I are doing a lot of shows this year. That means I haven't had much time to worry about what I'll do without Laura as I've had to throw myself into absolutely everything at full speed and deal with it as it happens.
We were at Yarningham the weekend before last and are at Summer Wool Festival this weekend so I didn't actually unpack the hand dyed yarn but I do want to re-pack and organise it. The Milburn 4ply and DK does need unpacking and counting, so that will have to be re-packed today/tomorrow! Yarningham was a real privilege to be part of, it felt like something a bit different (they market themselves as "proudly different as the UK's only black-led yarn festival") and although Birmingham is genuinely worse to drive around than London I am so glad we did it! I was also worried about being tucked away on the first floor, but I think most people did come and find us (we're a curious bunch aren't we). Thankyou if that was you! All of the new batches of Pendle 4ply (superwash extrafine merino) that I took to the show are available to buy online now HERE.
Summer Wool Festival is at Ampthill near to Milton Keynes and Bedford - it was formerly known as Fibre East (we did it so you might have heard of that one. So it's back down the A1 for us, with lots of new batches of Keld Twist, Titus 4ply, and other yarns in tow as I've been busy dyeing like a mad-person and the warm weather (she says whilst it looks like it might thunder) has really helped to get it all dry. Also Dave has been winding up lots of new Yarnlings™️ as always! The new yarns that come home with us will be on the website very soon; in fact I've managed to get the Keld Twist photographed today so if I have time I might manage to get it online before we go.
There's all sorts of other stuff going on behind the scenes - I'm still busy working on a design that I've been working on since Feb for a start. It's not actually that complicated but there are so many elements that go into producing a pattern and I'm doing it in my 'spare' time so it's taking ages. I'm hoping it'll be ready for test-crocheting soon anyway. It's a wrap which uses 12 x 20g mini skeins, or you can do the scarf size which uses 6 x 20g minis.
Talking of minis, I won't say too much about this yet but you should know that Ellen and I are already plotting and planning our 2024 Festive Collab. 😍 I reckon we've done about six years now, I've lost track, but I'd love to know if anyone else has collected them all?! I still use all of the project bags from the years!
Finally, lots of you often ask me about my running so a little update - I did Ultra Trails Yorkshire Wolds Way about three weeks ago. 33 miles and about 4100ft of elevation so it was hilly, and the hills in the Wolds are SO steep! They're not technical - they're usually grassy - but getting up them can be seriously energy-sapping and I passed a number of people who said to me "we underestimated the hills". I had the benefit of having done it before and knowing exactly what to expect! I smashed my previous time, taking 70 mins off it, although that wasn't planned or expected. And I had a brilliant, brilliant day out. It's the most running I've done on an ultra yet - most of the 10 hours was spent running when I wasn't struggling for breath up a hill 🤪 but the hills did really slow me down and impact my overall time as I hadn't trained for them at all. Ahead of London Marathon I obviously just did a lot of running and then following that I had two more ultras just weeks apart which isn't enough time to do any meaningful training. Anyway, it's all good! There's loads more I could say about it but I won't bore you with it. Since then I've not really run as thanks to my foot surgery scar tissue and having tied my laces too tight (don't ask) I hurt my foot. So I thought I may as well spend the time getting work done, getting back into the gym, and then when it's ready I'll run again.
Right, that's all for now, this is long enough already. I'll leave you with some pics.
Eggatha Christie doing a fine job at Yarningham
Agapanthus Wrap, coming soon (hopefully)
New batches of Pendle 4ply
More new batches of Pendle 4ply
Titus 4ply drying on the line
Keld Twist all piled up post-photoshoot. Luckily I put it away as it was raining again soon after.
My current WIP - Cloud Cowl (by me) in Lowther Lace
Selfie from the Wolds
One of my absolute favourite views on the Wolds route; it's about five miles from the end and I had climbed up from the road that you can see below
Probably the worst view on the Wolds route as those people on the huge hillside opposite are runners who were just ahead of me. It's honestly even bigger than it looks. You drop down below where I was stood and have to climb straight back up. This one was a case of take 20 steps up then stop and get my breath, repeat until the top. It's about six miles in so you do at least get it out of the way early on!
At the finish line, half-changed into my pyjamas already 😆😆
