Fair Isle Knits

There is an article in this month's Country Living in which a lady 'believes that everyone should be made to wear a Fair isle knit at some point in their life'. Reading this prompted me to dig out a couple of items I made members of my family wear. I knitted this for my husband back in the late 70s. He did wear it but how could he not after I had knitted so much love into every stitch!

I knitted this Fair Isle coat and hat for Rosie when she was about two in 1986.

She did look gorgeous in it but she was always trying to pull the bonnet off, I guess now it may have been itchy as it is pure wool.

I'm going to try very hard not to mention anything about our new house until we have seen the structural survey and know it is definitely going to be ours. I keep feeling so excited and restless and have to control myself just in case.... though that doesn't bear thinking about. I have already started to sort through things and have several piles to be disposed of - papers to be burnt or shredded, bedding to be donated to the RSPCA just down the road, things to be put on the Freecycle website, charity shop donations etc. etc. These are all jobs that can be done regardless but I daren't let myself get carried away; every time I look at a magazine I am imagining what I am going to do to our new home. As soon as I know definitely it is going to be ours I will post some photos.

There is a Wednesday car boot about 15 miles away which keeps going all winter and as it was such a lovely morning I got up early and went along with Jane.

It was strange because you couldn't see any horizon; the sky and sea blended into each other.

I managed to find three more director's chairs to paint and re-upholster and a lovely old wooden crate. Next we went to a salvage yard near Chichester where we bought some nice cast iron shelf brackets. Then we drove to a nearby packaging supplies where we bought a vast amount of bubble wrap, it would hardly go into the car. Lastly we visited Kate Forman's studio near Alfresford. I didn't buy anything but got a sample of the material with which I want to re-upholster the painted chair I recently posted on here.

After all that I am exhausted!

Sold!

What an exciting weekend! On Saturday we had some new viewers for our house. They walked around and barely made any comments but within 10 minutes of them leaving they had made an offer, we accepted and as they have nowhere to sell they want to be in asap! Fortunately the house we have wanted for ages was still for sale and there is no chain above them either! I am so thrilled! The house we are buying is much older than this house, about 1900 and only a couple of miles away at Lee on the Solent. It's also about 2 minutes walk from the sea which will be lovely. I'm too excited and restless to write any more.......

Valentine's Day

'The 7 am Boat'

I love this picture, it's another of my favourite things. It reminds me of when my husband was in the navy though we were lucky as he didn't go away too much. I hope you are all having a great Valentine's Day.

Customer Service Update

Reading your comments on my last post and those on Lucy Bloom's I'm not the only person to experience bad customer service from Cath Kidston (not her personally, of course!). Yesterday I phoned the company again to ask where my item I ordered in December is and was told it is still on order and will be despatched as soon as their supplies are replenished. I had emailed them too and also received a reply yesterday saying that my order has been cancelled as they are having trouble with their supplier! So I don't know which one is correct. As a 'gesture of goodwill' they have offered me 10 per cent discount + free p&p on my next order (don't think I'll bother, somehow). Lucy has received her little fabric covered set of drawers which is what I also ordered and I am so jealous! Never mind, these came from Amazon today.

Another book from Ryland, Peters & Small to add to my growing collection. I just love all these books. Also Agnes Grey which is on my Reader's Group's list and I have never read so I'm looking forward to starting that. Amazon email you to let you know when your parcel has been despatched which is useful to know when it will arrive (perhaps CK should take a leaf out of their book - excuse the pun!).

I have done another makeover, on a stool this time. I forgot to take a 'before' photo but here is the 'after'. It matches a chair I showed in a previous post.

Customer Service

Has anyone out there ordered something from Cath Kidston's sale and actually received it? I ordered an item on the 28th December. Having received nothing and no communication of any sort other than an acknowledgment of my order I phoned them to ask what the delay was. The lady in Customer Services told me she thought (!) they were expecting a delivery of this item at the end of the week! That's it! What terrible customer service from such a large and reputable company. If I didn't want the item so much I would have cancelled and asked for my money back. I had a similar experience with Laura Ashley - I was overcharged for something and after polite emails and letters which were ignored it finally cost me £9 in telphone calls before I managed to get my money back. Speaking to the Head of Customer Services I did suggest a voucher as a token of goodwill for all the angst it had caused me but nothing ever arrived! If we very much smaller traders treated our customers in this manner we would all be out of business. Rant over, I'll change the subject now, but let me know what you think.

Here are my latest 'Before and After' photos of a chair I have painted. It's not quite finished as I have to do the upholstery but it may be a while before I get round to doing this. I have seen a couple of lovely Kate Forman fabrics I think would look good on it and can't decide between the two. I bought the chair for £1.04 on ebay.

The seat and back were covered in a horrid green dralon. Now it looks like this...

Jane and I did an antiques fair on Sunday. These are some photos of our stall.

Sadly, at the end of the day it still looked more or less like this! There was very little buying going on. We covered the cost of our rent plus a tiny bit more but it wasn't worth all the effort really. I did hand out some flyers so hope some potential customers visit our website. I bought some nice braid and a lovely piece of kitchenalia so was pleased with them.

It's now 9 am, the sun is shining and I am still in my dressing gown so I must get dressed. I have just realised I have been reading blogs for the last one and a half hours!

Bags

I just thought I would quickly post a couple of pictures of some bags I have been making this week. When we were in France I bought a small amount of hemp material. Because it is so thick these bags stand up on their own too.

Jane and I are going to have a pitch at an antiques fair on Sunday. Not quite in the same league as Shepton but we'll give it a go. After our disappointing effort a year ago I said 'Never again' but I have been persuaded to try a different venue. It's amazing how time consuming it is putting price tickets on everything, so back to work!