lovely customers

patchwork panel on bag

One of the delights of blogging, folksying, fairs and doing the harringey market are the lovely people that you come across.

The lovelies heavily outweigh any of the sillies that you encounter I am very pleased to say.

This weekend, I was asked through my blog to supply a lady with 3 of my cable knit cushions in red and I also had to make a loo roll bag for someone who had approached me at the Harringay Market with the request some weeks ago.

bag of bag

I agreed a price for the cable cushions (discounted and with postage and packing included) and parcelled them all up ready to go off to Wales. Just whenI was expecting payment, I got an email to say ‘no thanks, I’ve got 3 from Tesco for £14 each.

I haven’t got a reply to the ‘no thanks’ because it has rendered me somewhat speechless.

bag front

I was disappointed on so many levels but just as the disappointment was in danger of ruining my weekend and drying up my crafty juices, the very lovely Sophie got in touch to ask how I was getting on with the bag she wanted for hanging spare loo rolls on the back of the loo door.

As it happened, this weekend was the very weekend, I would be making it for her.

patchwork panel on bag front

I suffer terribly from confidence  (or severe lack of it) when I am making and especially when I am making something for someone that they have not seen (it is very different to having made something you like and did sort of to suit yourself, someone seeing it and just buying it outright). I had taken a brief from Sophie and then we communicated by text to get the details sorted out so I thought I was on the right track.

hanging on the back of the bathroom door

I finished it on Sunday morning and sent her photos of the completed bag hoping that I had interpreted her requirements correctly.

I am always pleased and very relieved when the response is positive. She liked it and it was just what she wanted but better.

Phew!!!

patchwork

Crisis of confidence over so I arranged to meet Sophie at Harringay Market when we would both be going to get our yummy street food lunch and shop for the coming week’s meat and veg.

patch

We had a quick chat when we met and then I got a lovely text complimenting me on the quality of the work and saying how pleased she was with it.

patches

It is so easy to forget the sillies when you have dealings with lovely appreciative people like Sophie.  I have said many times before, that the customers and the ‘craich’ are the best bits about crafting in the public arena and I am pleased to say that the cushions are now unpackaged and back in my little stock cupboard ready for someone who really does want hand knitted cushions instead of some cheap and nasty ‘thing’ from Tesco.

tinyinc’s hot commission

red, blue, arran & gold hotties

Tinyinc was recently commissioned to knit 4 cable hot water bottle covers for Country Touches that have just been advertised on the on line shop for the Christmas season.

Natasha Jones, who owns the company and runs it from her home in Wales approached me through Folksy having seen tinyinc’s cable knit cushions.

Dealing with Natasha has been a pleasure . It has been relaxed and easy without any rushing, stressing or worrying. I initially sent a sample arran white hot water bottle cover, along with colour suggestions for the others. I needed to make sure that the design met with Natasha’s expectations.  Once I knew that she liked the arran white one and the other colour options, they were despatched and my money request was paid immediately.

gold hottie for country touches

They are very soft and cosy hot water bottle covers which is ideal for the coming colder months and I am tempted to keep one for myself!!

blue hottie for country touches

red hottie for country touches

With my mum’s help (again), there are now a few additional colours but these are one offs as they are from a limited supply of arran wool that cannot easily be matched from our local supplier.

mink hottie

lilac hottie

mint hottie

I have spotted some raspberry and parchment wool so I might see what they look like as cushions and hotties for the future.

a hot commission

cable hottie

Natasha Jones, who runs country touches has commissioned 4 hot water bottle covers for her christmas 2010 stock.

They are based on the cable cushions that I sell and that she particularly liked.

The first one has been posted for sale and the other shades which are blue, red and a gold colour will follow soon.

I am so excited to have been invited to take a stand at marmite lover’s underground market and I have some others to sell there too.