It's been an eventful week for winning stuff: on Tuesday night Gerard and I went for our usual visit to the Retro Bar pop quiz and WON! yes, our knowledge of the lyrics to The Nolans' I'm in the Mood for Dancing helped us take a commanding lead. It leads quite nicely into our quiz which we're holding this coming Monday as part of our National Knitting Week celebrations. I'm a quiz show queen, no denying it, after winning The Weakest Link in 2001 and appearances on Blankety Blank, Eggheads and Only Connect (although I've never repeated my initial success!). What I really want to do is be the host - so, gold lamé suit ahoy, I'll be quizmaster for our NKW quiz. If you can make it along on Monday night at 7, come and join in....
Tonight it was Thursday knitting group and once again the shop was packed with new learners and familiar faces. If you didn't know it is Chocolate Week (as if we need an excuse), so we had plenty to get stuck into at the group tonight. As The Knitting and Stitching Show is in town at Ally Pally we also had the pleasure of the company of Jenna, Erica, Terri and Marnie (pictured below from left to right). Jenna is also known as The Indie Dyer, whose yarn we started stocking about a month ago and it went down a storm. She comes from good yarn producing stock, daughter of Cheryl from Cherry Tree Hill. It's in the genes! Marnie has come all the way from New Zealand where she presides over the beautiful Touch Yarns...if you're going to the show go see 'em! Yesterday we had a visit from Takako from Habu in New York too; we hope to return the visits sometime soon....
We will both be at Ally Pally tomorrow to pick up a special award from Let's Knit magazine. They have been running their first awards this year and have decided that we deserve the Editor's Choice Award for "services to knitting, in recognition of our unfailing energy and enthusiasm". I'm not going to be blasé or take the piss here (for a change). This genuinely means loads to us. I'm not sure about the 'unfailing energy' bit, as sometimes I feel like we have no more energy left to give, but, to be recognised for the hard work we put in day in and day out is a real honour. This isn't about the shop, it's about the seemingly random ideas we put into motion; the dreams of giant wooden sheep; knitting tents in fields in Dorset; thousands of knitters (and Yarn Harlot) at I Knit Day; the promotion of knitting beyond the four walls of the IKL shop in London. But everything we do is always inspired by the people we meet, and the basis for everything we do, the inspiration and the ideas is still our knitting group and all those who come. So, thank you for being part of it and long may it continue..we have so many plans that we're only just beginning!
Oh, we were also voted the 3rd Best Local Yarn Store in the UK. Cheers!
Craig
xx
2 comments:
Well done guys and well deserved. You run a wonderful yarn shop but I'm always so impressed by the many many other things you do too. Great that the UK knows that too. Jacqueline xx
It was lovely to meet you both on Thursday night; I really enjoyed the knit night and I made great progress on my sock.
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