Yesterday I decorated the Prick Your Finger shop window with Rachael Matthews. We used all the knitted walking stick cosies received so far, the knitted speakers (for playing Christmas Carols) and a tree that Rachael made out of carpet yarn. Elly helped us out quite a lot.

The shop is amazing; kind of my dream shop. It feels less like an ordinary yarn shop, and more like a kind of wool-curios emporium. In the shop one can see tiny knitting, big knitting, joke knitting, serious knitting, wool that’s been re-wound on the bones of the sheep from which is originally came, (admittedly not a big seller) and other things like felted creatures, button badges, knitting-patterns that are also somehow art-projects plus a huge assortment of needles, vintage buttons, threads and notions. It is stocked exclusively by small, independent producers and artists, and browsing there is fascinating. There are random balls of ancient vintage wools, some handspun extremely scratchy stuff that is completely weatherproof, (The Shop Sign is knitted from it; I guess if it can survive at high altitudes in relentless snow, there is little a suburban winter can do to it) Kool-aid dyed wool and wool from Louise and Rachael’s sheep. There are miniature knitting patterns, 0.54mm needles and everything in between, up to the huge knitting needles made on the Wool’n’Boat. The walls are paneled in old cupboard doors hauled from skips and whitewashed and form a fantastic, thrifty backdrop to everything. Crochet provides great home-decorating solutions to some of the practicalities of this panelling:

Rachael has some patterns from projects she did, including one that involved seeing a man she fancied on a canal boat, knitting him some socks, putting them in a bottle and floating them downstream for him (for those who are wondering – he liked the socks and Rachael got to stay on his boat for a few days.) Knitted art and conceptual knitting projects cover all the surfaces and there is stuff by many familiar names gathered here; Donna Wilson has some beautiful Embroidery-hoop bags there, (the embroidery hoops form the sides and the handles of the bag) while Mark Pawson, (one of my favourite printing artists) has lots of button badges and one of his OPEN/CLOSED signs in the shop. Rachael is also doing a piece at the moment involving spinning crap tapes in with wool tops to make yarn at the Tatty Devine boutique.

Suffice to say, we found plenty to talk about. The Knitted Walking Stick Cosy Collection is growing constantly, with highlights including a cosy for gathering nuts in the forest with, pictured below. It is sensibly a half-length cosy, so that it doesn’t get completely mud-splattered.

I was delighted to find a use for the knitted speakers; they will play Christmas-related music during the seasonal period and they look good strewn all around the tree.

The window display was a very collaborative thing; it was great to see how the collection and the idea changes in another environment and this is the first time I’ve been able to show The Knitted Walking Stick Cosies with so much space around them. You can really see all the different designs people have made and together they look great. The tree is really wobbly, so many of the sticks are literally propping up the branches, which is befitting in a way.

There is a Missability barrel in the back room featuring information on the project, little knitting kits for sale, button badges and suchlike.

So The Missability Radio Show stays alive while I unpack boxes, plan Xmas knitting and do my best to bring some joy into what is, at the moment, a sad and quiet household.