Brrr …
This week we had just headed back to work, and the kids back to school, when Mother Nature came and hit Sussex hard with something we are not really used to.
We had a delightful Christmassy flurry just before the holidays – but this was something else! The A3 was closed with 400 cars stranded, the local schools are closed, the post office and bank have been closed for 4 days now – and there is a frozen 3 foot pile of ice blocking our car from going anywhere!
Welcome to the big freeze!
As I write it is minus 5 and we are promised another foot of snow tonight! There is 5 inches of ice on the roads in Arundel (no grit here!) and with our hills it is a little treacherous!
On the first day we delighted with the rest of the town in sledging, hot chocolate and igloo building, but as 4 days has past and the world around seems to be at a standstill – the kids are going stir crazy and we are getting increasingly concerned about the affect this is having on our business. No UPS or Royal Mail and manufacturers being closed for days is going to have a huge impact on our Top Drawer offering next week.
We are busy in our igloo making up kits and bits for Granny Knits (but new yarns are not getting through to my sewing ladies) and mocking up our new China and Textile products… so we really are ‘Make Do and Mending!’
The community spirit is in full force sharing our loaves food and having impromptu gatherings.. so business worries aside this will be a January to remember for sure.
Fingers crossed though it has cleared for us to head up to Top Drawer next week.
The Knitting and Stitch show at Alexandra Palace in October just so happens to coincide with the launch date of my book SUPERSIZE STITCHES … and I was asked by the organisers to teach some stitching classes. This was a bit of a daunting task for me – as I quite like working in my own mad cap creative world, so I had to put my thinking hat on as to what to talk to a paying audience about.
