A lot has been going on at Babes in the Wool recently, so I thought it would be good to share some of our latest news and projects with you. As some of you know, next month marks the 40th anniversary of our family’s small business, and we’ve been getting creative with ways to celebrate. This weekend we put up bunting all around the shop, and we launched 4 new yarns for Easter weekend; if we’re going to celebrate, we’re going to do it with yarn!
As well as the Rewtisst T-shirt yarn in Yarn Corner, we also introduced a gorgeous acrylic from Spanish brand Katia called Planet. The shades of this yarn are perfect for spring and work really well in a wide range of colour combinations. Another of our new arrivals, funnily enough is called New Arrival. This is a unique multicolour range from Jarol/ Woolcraft that comes in big 200g balls - that’s 600 metres of yarn on every ball! Finally, we’ve brought back a familiar favourite that was really popular with our local customers the last time it was in stock. Say hello once again to King Cole’s Curiosity yarn cakes! These cakes are the perfect combination of price and quality, and will add a burst of colour to your springtime crafting.
We decided to save these yarns for a special Easter launch so that we could really welcome in the spring with bright colours and beautiful textures, and kick off our 40th anniversary celebrations in style. The only thing we love more than yarn is our lovely, loyal customers; Babes in the Wool would not exist without you. So, we’re going to do our best to make our birthday special for all of you too- hopefully our Easter yarn launch was a great place to start!
If 4 new yarns wasn’t enough, we’ve also started uploading a brand new range of crafting accessories and gifts to our website. Earlier this month, we became official stockists of Emma Ball Ltd., a fantastic company that has created tonnes of unique crafting accessories. They fall into different themes of designs that are made just for makers, including sheep, alpacas and kittens.
As our new Emma Ball range was so popular in the first couple of weeks, with some products selling out completely within days, we’ve already started expanding our range! We’re going to work very hard over the next few weeks to get all of the new stock uploaded, but we’ve started with the craft bags which are now all available on our website. This includes tote bags that are perfect for storing your current project, zip up bags that are ideal for storing your crafting tools, and beautiful drawstring bags that we’ve ordered in at the request of our crochet groups! Click here to browse these beautiful designs.
If you like the look of this cute and crafty collection, you’re in luck! Premium subscribers are automatically entered into the In the Wool monthly giveaway, and this month we’re giving away the Emma Ball craft tin pictured below. We’ve also just added the new mugs to our online shop, as there’s nothing better than crafting with a coffee or a cuppa - click here to take a look!
As well as these fantastic new additions, we’ve also been working on some handmade decorations for our shop. We wanted to create some interesting pieces that are eye catching and inspiring for makers and non-crafters alike. The back of our shop is where the inspiration for our ‘Yarn Corner’ feature comes from; it’s a cosy nook at the back that’s filled with yummy yarns, beautiful wallpaper and a table and chairs for our craft groups. We’ve just installed a huge crochet wall hanging on the back wall, and we absolutely love it! It’s the perfect piece for this part of the shop, and will make a fabulous blanket in the future. The mixture of bright and neutral shades really makes it pop against the white wall.
We’ve also made 2 colourful crochet star blankets which are now on display in our shop window. Star blankets seem to be a very popular project at the moment, so it’s good that we’ve got these ones finished just in time!
They look lovely hanging in the window and they’re a great handmade decoration to have in preparation of our birthday month. Our aim with these projects is to share the colour and creativity that we hope our shop brings to many of you, and to celebrate our small business as part of the local community. In December of 2021, we were nominated for a local small business award and won ‘Favourite Retail Business’. This award meant so much to us, especially going into our 40th year, and we plan on making the most of it all throughout 2022!
Another exciting thing that has happened in the last few weeks is the launch of our Google Maps inside shop view. This was such an exciting experience for us! We partnered with Vector Media to take 3D renderings of Babes in the Wool, creating a 360 degree view of our shop. If you find us on Google Maps, make sure you take a look inside! Click the button below to teleport into the actual Yarn Corner in the corner of Babes in the Wool.
Click and drag the screen just as you would on Google Maps Street View to move around the shop virtually.
The last bit of news for today is for our local makers. Our craft group at Relax Cafè on Newland Avenue will be running this Tuesday (19th April 2022) from 6pm to 8pm. The cost is £2 which includes a ticket for our raffle at the end of the night. Hopefully you can come and join us this week as we’d love to see some familiar faces.