The eagle has landed...

After the trade show in Zwolle, a few weeks ago, where I helped out at the Wereldwol stand, last weekend it was time for another yarn and fiber event, the Brei- & Haakdagen, held in Nieuwegein. This time, I decided to split myself up between both the National Spinning Group and Wereldwol, plús giving workshops on both days.
Luckily, my work schedule worked out just right, and I had an entire afternoon left over to pack, get the house sort of organized, try out the workshop in my head and write down what I had to take with me. At the last minute, a 10yo girl was added to that list, as Mermaid really wanted to help out at the stand, when she heard I was mostly going to be demonstrating the blending board.
So, instead of me, passing visitors were greeted by this beauty playing about with fibre and sparkles.

And be honest, if a wee girl looks at you like this...

Who can resist... She sold quite a lot of rolls, and spent a bit of her takings on more Zpagetti yarn, which she loves to transform into long chains on her Lucet fork. It's a great way to relax, she says.

 And who can disagree with that? I do this to relax... I spin and spindle... Sitting down or, like at the trade show, standing up... There were quite a lot of people interested in the different types of spindles!

And quite a few people also joined me for the spindling workshop. 13 on the first day, and 9 on the second. I was well impressed! More than half of them actually bought a spindle as well, and quite a few were enticed into buying lots of lovely fibre to play with...

Janet, the organizer of the event and also a great photographer, managed to take a photo of me actually standing still for a second ;) 

My workshop was part of a larger event, all with the focus on colour, organized by talented yarn dyer Loret Karman. She took the workshop as well on day 2 and says she's going to hate me forever for introducing her to another fun hobby ;) Thanks, love, you're welcome!

The yarns you see are by her, the picture is by one of the most promising young designers in the Netherlands, Leslie Eisinger. She was also wearing a gorgeous knit dress she designed herself. Talent to be truely jealous of... ;)

After a hard day's work, we got back to the hotel, where we had booked two rooms. One for me and the Mermaid, and one for the Hubby and Batman. They had a great day as well: they came down to Utrecht on the train and shopped for dice, books and games. As gamers do ;)

The Pink Romans I finished the night before got some well-deserved rest as well...

And Mermaid finished another Zpagetti necklace...

The next morning, it was off to Wereldwol, where I joined Marieke and Joyce for another day 'at the office'.

These crazy ladies and I had a great day! Thanks again, also for the lovely knitting needles and lace yarn I got for helping out. It was a pleasure!!!

And of course I came home with more roving than I needed, and a new drum carder, but it is all part of a bigger plan... Because when I got home, there was an order in the mail! I had put some of the rolags I made for sale on Ravelry, and someone in Britain wanted to buy them. I took it as a sign, and we spent yesterday and today making and photographing rolags and batts, we opened a Gmail and Twitter account and voila... an Etsy store was born!

Our own website-webstore is still in the making, but we've got a platform to really start trading now. And then today, an hour after opening the doors to the Etsy store, this arrived in my e-mail...

My first Etsy order! Sooo proud!!! Me and the hubby are celebrating this with a glass of clear tap water and a cracker with very, very, very smelly cheese! Tomorrow it's to the wholesaler's to buy envelopes and grip bags, because we want to send our products off in style.

Oh, want to have a look? Of course, you're welcome. Our shop is called Peeriewinkle (more about that later), and when you click here you can hop in to browse around. More products will be uploaded soon and the Hubby is working hard on some cool T-shirts while finishing off our own site as well. And yes, there will be a section for Mermaid's creations. So if you want to buy her rolags and necklaces, you'll have to patient just a little while longer...

Now, time to get organized for another workshop next Friday: crochet for beginners at Het Breiparadijs. Looking forward to it!