We re all horrified by the invasion of Ukraine. We have kept in touch with our friend Magda in Poland who buys white outsorts from us and turns them into beautiful duvets and pillows. She is just 140 kilometres from the border and has just sent a van load of bedding to 34 youngsters whose orphanage in Mariupol was bombed. I hope some of our British fleece is in there.
Meanwhile, we are in Islington at the Stitch Festival selling UK Alpaca yarns. Thursday was pretty tricky as there was a tube strike, there was another on Tuesday that meant it took us an hour and a half to travel from the Westway to the venue, total gridlock.
It is a beautiful venue with a stunning, high curved iron roof and loads of light. I came across this cow, parked in a hallway under the stained glass Royal Agricultural Hall sign.
We are on the main floor and in the galleries above us are lots of smaller designer maker stands that have some very interesting stuff. On the ground floor there are many offices full of trendy young things hot desking. It feels like a very modern venue with much avocado and smoked salmon in the café!
Lots of people come here for the workshops and we met many exhausted students who had done three workshops in a day. One of the tutors is our own Monica Russel who has designed some of our most popular patterns.
Next door is the Janone sewing machine stand. The men of the stand wear a different coloured shirt every day. Thursdays was red, today’s blue. What next?
