Weft Blown Rebooted
To say it's been busy at Weft Blown over the past year would be a bit of an understatement. So, as there are a lot more people out there who have found us I thought it'd be good to get back to basics and reintroduce ourselves and explain what we're doing and what we've got planned for the future.
Weft Blown was started by me 4 years ago when I was in my final year at Bradford College studying HNC in Contemporary Constructed Textiles. The aim for Weft Blown then, and still is, is to create weather-inspired handwoven textiles for you and your home. This has grown to be our handwoven range of textiles that you can find in our shop, in the Craft Town Scotland Barony Centre West Kilbride, and here on our website. And in case you were wondering where the name Weft Blown came from, the Weft part refers to the weft-threads that lock the warp threads together when weaving and Blown from the winds we get here on the west coast.
Unfortunately, due to a rather annoying and painful gallbladder I've not been able to weave anything for the past couple of months. Thanks to the amazing NHS the evil gallbladder has gone and with it my creative spark has come back and I'm starting to plan new weather cloth for later on this year. I'm taking my time with this as I want to get back to exploring design in a similar way to what I did at college and expand on my weaving skills and the products that I make.
As well as handwoven textiles Weft Blown has expanded rapidly over the past 2 years as, with help from my very useful husband, we decided to become a dealer of Louët, Glimåkra and Schacht weaving looms and spinning wheels. This has led to a lot of hard work but has been a lot of fun too as we get to make weavers and spinners happy in helping them find the equipment that's right for them.
What we are going to be focusing on this year is showcasing what can be done with the range of looms and wheels that we sell. So we will both be creating new weaving and spinning samples using the range of demo equipment that we have. We will also be blogging about how we get on with each loom and wheel and give hints and tips for you to get more out of any looms or wheels you may have.
We are also launching a new range of weaving and spinning classes. The classes are all designed to be informal and a relaxed way to get into spinning and weaving. I'm really excited too as it's going to be great to get back to teaching again and see what our students create.
To help with these changes we are also in the process of getting our new shop (that's less than a minute's walk from our old studio) to be ready for our Grand Opening on Saturday 17th February.
The reason for the move was that we had too much space in our old studio (really, this can be a thing!) and we wanted to have a dedicated shop space where people can easily browse our products, have a go on our demo equipment and still be able to hold classes. We are still strongly involved with Craft Town Scotland and love still being part of the great business community in West Kilbride.
Our new shop is a lovely and bright space, and most importantly has central heating. This is leading me to have a huge rethink on my work wardrobe and means I need to knit and weave some new lightweight tops to wear.
This year we will be on the road and you will be able to find us at Edinburgh Yarn Festival and Wonderwool Wales as well as a couple of other events later in the year.
The final thing we are aiming to do more of this year is try to get a better work-life balance. Running your own business is all-consuming and Rob and I can be workaholics which isn't ideal. So we are trying our best to make sure we take some time for ourselves to spend with Weftboy and the Weftwoofs and make sure we get a chance to relax. So there will be times when it is just one of us in the shop or at a show with one of our friends. It also means we will be sticking a bit more to business hours for replying to emails and messages. We will be keeping our Calendar up to date with what we're doing and if we are away we will post it on there so do check there first or contact us if you're planning a visit.
It's time for me to go now and weave a new Open sign for our shop door and think of cloud cakes for our Grand Opening.