Eggs-traordinary news!

At last a quiet minute to update! The last two weeks have flown by since I had a piece of amazing good news: I’ve been accepted to exhibit at the Selvedge Spring Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall in London next weekend (22-23 March). It will be a mad two days but it’s hopefully going to be full of fun and interesting conversations. I love Selvedge magazine: it’s packed with fascinating snippets from the history, future and culture of textiles from around the world. I’ve not been to a Selvedge fair myself but they go by reputation for their eclectic and creative mix. If it’s anything like the magazine, it should be enthralling for all participants, be they visitors or exhibitors.  

The Selvedge show poster is bright daffodil yellow, mirroring the tiny miniature daffodils now coming out around the garden. In my soil, the smaller the narcissi are the better they withstand the dry summers and deeply cold winters, so I’m gradually collecting Alec Grey hybrids wherever I can find them.  

I feel I should be responding to the primroses waking up for spring. Yellow is all around me, in the Mahonias too, and in the yolks of the fresh spring eggs from the hens at the end of the garden. I thought I’d take some inspiration from my hens and make some egg-coloured yarn to take to the Selvedge show. I haven’t mirrored all the egg colours from my hens, as one is a Heritage Skyline breed, with a soupcon of Araucana in her DNA. Her muddy khaki eggs, though excellent for meringues, are not the most inspiring in shell colours!   

Having done all the fibre prepping, which takes a few hours, I hope I can get time to finish the yarn before packing up for the show on Thursday. With the unusually cold weather it’s the drying time that’s against me, as some of my skeins end up weighing nearly a kilo. There are also more than a few last-minute logistics to sort out - like how to get it all there!

So you’ll have to forgive me if I disappear from view again for a short while, re-surfacing I hope over Easter.  If you’re coming to the Selvedge Spring Fair do find me and say hello: I’m on B43, which (I think!) is in the main hall. In the meantime here’s wishing you a week or two of blossoming good news of your own.