Memories of my wool shop

Yesterday I mentioned my wool shop and so today I share the few photos I have left of the last shop I had. The first two show approx one tenth of the size of the huge unit I had on a modern precinct in Royton. The last one shows my dearly loved late father along with my niece Victoria (wearing a crochet cardigan I made for her) in the smaller wool shop, still in Royton, that we re-located to about 5 yrs before it's eventual closure.

I am the one on the right in the first photo and on the left in the second.

Unfortunately 2 of my staff pictured in the photos are sadly no longer with us. My cousin (in glasses on the left of the top photo) died from lung cancer after many years of being a heavy smoker and Ann (wearing black and red) died very young at 32yrs old from breast cancer.

As you can see from the photos we were all avid knitters and are modelling our knitteds both personally and the sample garments for sale in the last photo.

I wish I could find a shop one tenth as well stocked as mine used to be. Those were the days. I doubt if anyone could fund a stock that size these days. Ours was built up over 40yrs of dedication to the craft. Sirdar, Hayfield, Patons, Phildar, Twilleys and Studley were amongst the names we used to stock. Our monthly invoices for Sirdar and Hayfield used to regularly be over a thousand pounds each and that was over 15 yrs ago when wool was a lot cheaper than it is today.

Yesterday I borrowed a Vax from my friend to give my carpets the once over. I had always thought I had a fairly good hoover and try my hardest to win the constant daily battle with dog hair on the carpets. I have only cleaned the bedroom carpets so far and I was shamed when I saw not only the colour of the dirty water but the amount of pet hair that came out of the carpet. The dog (and my late cat) had limited access to those rooms so I was amazed that so much could be hidden in the carpets. I could have spun and knitted a mitt with it. I am dreading what the living and dining room carpets reveal later today as the dog has free rein through those rooms. Kim and Aggie would be tut tutting at mine for sure! I am not the queen of clean, as I think a house should be lived in, but I always thought of myself as being untidy but basically clean. Oh the shame of it all! Maybe I should think of investing in a Vax and cleaning the carpets more often.

I am just off to walk the dog again before I clean the carpets. I wish the builder would come and put a new roof and garage doors on my garage and then I can come back from muddy walks via the garage and so be able to clean paws in the garage or kitchen before Buster rushes into the house on wet days. The garage doors are rotten and so if I attempt to open them at the moment they fall off the hinges. I missed my slot with the builder as my son had a jeep in the garage that he could not work around and so now I have to wait until it is my turn again. Unfortunately he has taken a couple of big jobs so I don't know when he will arrive now. Probably in the summer when all the bad weather has gone! I am not a lover of laminated floors but I can see the advantage with a dog. Buster has found my stress ball that I was given whilst at work and refuses to be parted from it. He sleeps with it clenched in his jaw. He must like the squashy feel of it. I just hope I don't feel stressed and have the need of it.

I am still sleeping late. Today I had my breakfast whilst watching Loose Women after our walk. I had heard the alarm at 7.30am and Buster looked at me when it rang and went back to sleep and I thought "Good Idea" and did as well. I must stop losing half the day like this. It is making me very lethargic all this sleeping. I usually make do with 4 - 6 hrs and am full of life. Sleeping for 8 hrs+ is having a bad effect on me! I just wish the days would brighten up. Roll on summer.

Well off for a walk and then to Vax (and get horrified) the carpets.