So, another busy few days in the life of Kerrie.

Friday was photoshoot day for Yarn Forward / Sew Hip. It wasn't the most successful photoshoot in the history of the world, torrential rain, sick models, garments that didn't arrive but we had a good day nevertheless. We had a mother and baby model team and the baby was soooo well behaved all day, I think he was the only one of us that didn't have a tantrum at some point. Everyone had a little squeeze with him which helped moods improve slightly.

Sarah, Manda and Lou stayed over at mine on Friday night after the photoshoot which was lovely. It involved lots of drinking wine and laughing and gossiping. Perfect..

Saturday was I Knit day and we didn't really know what to expect. We knew there were only going to be 30 stands but we didn't really know how many people were going to be there and how many of them might already have YF subs. It turns out that we should have taken FAR MORE MAGAZINES with us. We sold out of the back issues that we took with us half way through the day and sold the very last copies of issue 4 in the world. That is now sold out for ever. We're getting really low on both issues 5 and 6 as well which is quite exciting, I'm not sure whether we'll have any of either of them to bring to Ally Pally. (good grief, is that really only 4 weeks away!)

Sarah blogged all about the day over on the YF Blog. I'll be blogging about the photoshoots this week as well....

You may not be surprised to know that my poor old sewing machine has had a good dust off these last few weeks and that I've been sewing more than ever. The bridesmaids dress was the first of many, since then I've almost finished an Amy Butler tunic for me and made a few other bits as well. The most popular has been a smock dress that I made for Brooke, she loves it and has demanded more in other colours. It was so easy to make that I'm happy to oblige. I'll get some pics of her wearing it soon.

I've also signed up for a Spoonflower account. Have you heard of this site? It allows you to print your own designs onto fabrics, I am desperate to try it out - if only I was a better illustrator. My drawings are quite rubbish but I'm planning on persuading Brooke to do me some designs that I can get made up into fabric. I've been spending a bit of time looking at other people's spoonflower fabrics, this is one of my favourites at the moment. I also love the girls fabric that get made up into fabric. I've been spending a bit of time looking at other people's spoonflower fabrics, Heidi from My PaperCrane had made. isn't that just gorgeous?

Last summer in walton on the naze.

This summer in walton on the naze.

Look how much they have grown up! A year on from the first photo, Cameron is getting closer to starting school, Brooke is just a couple of years away from choosing secondary school and Trinity is settled into nursery and loving her days playing with her friends. I'm so proud of all of them, they are growing up to be gorgeous lovely kids.

Looky here, we have our first finished shawl from the Project club! Despite being one of the last to receive her yarn Barbara was the first to finish, isn't it lovely? The next kits are being put together this week and next so I wonder who will be the first to finish their Fairisle mitts? Any bets? Not me, that's for sure.

I've had a few emails from people saying that they would be interested in doing the etsy pages in Yarn Forward as well. if anyone is interested please email shirley@yarnforwardmagazineDOTco.uk so that she can let you know all the details and book you in.

We've also decided to extend the etsy pages on sew hip and yarn forward to include small indy sellers who are not on etsy.

I'm shocked at how much time I'm spending thinking about advertising these days...

I updated the shop yesterday with lots of yummy laceweight yarn but none of the thumbnail images seemed to show up. I'll try and fix that later but when you click on the product the main photo shows up...

Who's coming to I Knit next weekend? I can't wait for it, so excited. We're doing a photoshoot for the magazine the day before as well which is bound to be a lot of fun. I'm booking the male model today. Its a tough job searching through model agency books for attractive men but someone has to do it, right?

I've been working this week in the same office as our lovely new temp who is working hard selling advertising on Sew Hip. Now selling advertising really isn't my thing (all that talking on the phone, shudder) but obviously with Tereza sitting next to me I've been thinking about it more and more. We came up with an idea yesterday about how we can be more inclusive for the smaller independent people who run etsy stores and I think its going to work out just great. Manda and I talked on the phone and blogged about it at about 10pm last night and we've sold 1/4 of the spaces already.

You can read more about it on the Sew Hip blog or Manda's blog.

I wonder whether something like this would work for Yarn Forward as well. Not for the next issue because we've sold our ten pages already but maybe for one of the later issues. Hmmm.. Who'd have thought that advertising could be, well, almost interesting?

The shop, it is updated (sung to the tune of wonderpets if you can, you know "the phone, the phone is ringing." Everything is sung to the tune of the wonderpets around here at the momemt) and full of lovely stuff...

We have a few bits on the sale page and some silk that is half price in never to be repeated colours. Lots of lovely lace yarns, as well as some spinning fibre and lots of Ophelia. Goodies galore. Hurray. There is also plenty more that I didnt manage to get on the site today so I hope it will be there by the weekend.