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Rich and the boys are out today (having great fun on a tree-top climbing thing!), so I am catching up with a uni course that I am doing as part of my job. A lot of it is focused on reflection, and it really got my thinking about LauretteCraftsUK, so these blog is mainly a rambling of my thoughts..

So why LauretteCraftsUK? From our about us, you already know that Rich worked hard on evenings/weekends in order to buy a laser cutter. His intention was initially to create table top gaming scenery, and ideally for this business to be big enough that he could give up his day job. However, he didn’t have chance because as soon as his laser arrived and I realised what it could do… I had lots of ideas! Don’t worry – he has managed to give up his day job and he will be getting back into gaming things soon, but LauretteCraftsUK has taken up all of his time so far, and this is why: I love to crochet and I passionately believe that crochet (and crafting in general) should be fun. I love to come up with items that are going to be useful in one way or another, be it in organising your yarn, photographing your makes, or planning or creating your next project. Richard’s why? He is passionate about creating the highest quality items to help you with your projects. He may not be au fait with crochet, or crafts in general, but he does have some transferable craft skills from his table top gaming hobbies! He also firmly believes that as a crafter or crocheter you should be able to get the accessories and items that you need and want. So that’s our why: to create the highest quality items to help you have the most fun with your crochet and crafting plans, designs, ideas, makes and gifts. We come up with new ideas daily and love to hear of any ideas you have too – Rich is working his way down our ever growing list! We hope that you love our items as much as we do, and thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings! Here’s some photos to make up for it:

Oh wow – isn’t it cold at the moment!! We’ve had a busy few weeks over here at LauretteCraftsUK, so I thought I would share some of our latest items as well as a some exciting news!

Over the past few weeks we launched our temperature shade cards which have been really popular. Here’s my temperature blanket that I have started! I’m planning on doing a granny square a month (and rounding each month up to 31 rounds) and then joining them together at the end to make one big blanket. We also have some big temperature blanket buttons that I love, as well as these super cute weather themed stitch markers.

As well as that we have now got these tiny tins that are perfect for fitting in a set of five of our stitch markers. We don’t sell them with our animal shaped stitch markers, as although they do fit it is a very tight squeeze!

We also launched our “end savers” which I love for keeping the end of your yarn in place, as well as prompting me to remember the colour/type etc of the yarn I’m using. I used the Frixion erasable pens with mine so that I can use the rubber or an iron to erase the ink and use them again – just don’t store them by anywhere hot if trying this method as the heat will erase the ink!

We also have these launched newly “My Current Project” cards, engraved with Yarn A etc in our usual range of options. These are ideal for use with any pattern really, as a lot of the patterns I use reference Yarn A etc in them, and also means that they are really easy to reuse as many times as you like!

And finally, our exciting (for us anyway!) news. Rich has been looking at workshops to move to, and hopefully will be moving soon! We cannot wait!! I’ll update you again when everything is confirmed with more details 😊

How exciting – to finally have our own website! We’d talked about having one for a while now but as it always seems, there’s always a more pressing thing to do and so it had slipped down the list, but, Rich has been working away in the background and got us all set up!

Having our website means that not only can we draw everything together in one place (Instagram/Facebook/Etsy), but also that I can tell you a bit more about what we get up to behind the scenes! We will list our items to sell on here as well as Etsy, and continue to use social media. As well as a bit of a view behind the scenes, I’m going to work backwards a bit too, and tell you about what we have been up to over the last few months.

So about us. I met Richard in 2013, and we quickly moved in together, later marrying and going on to have two sons (who keep us very busy!). Rich was employed as a draughtsman, a role which he had had since he got his first full time job. He used the skills gained over many years in this role and combined them with his hobby of playing Warhammer and other table-top games, to spend his evenings designing table-top gaming scenery. He’s very talented and selling these 3D printable files provided the funds to buy not only his laser cutter but the associated necessities too. It was at this point that I became more interested in what he was getting up to! I like to be busy, and after work and the children are in bed, I enjoy crocheting. My mum taught me how to crochet a circle when I was younger, and this is a hobby I picked up again whilst pregnant with my youngest – I didn’t have a great pregnancy and so whilst settee bound it was something that I could do to keep me occupied. I rapidly fell in love with it (and learnt to make more than a circle!). So, when I learnt about what laser cutters do, I knew exactly what I wanted!

In June 2021 Richard received his laser cutter, I described what I wanted, and Rich made them! We made a few items initially, but our best seller was our yarn tags. I absolutely love them and I think they will always remain my favourites. We expanded our range and thinking of new ideas (or having you lovely lot think of things for us) is one of our favourite parts. I still find it amazing now that if I can think of something, Rich can probably make it! We also went to Yarndale which we loved too. In October 2021, after much deliberation, Rich took the leap and left his full-time job. By this point we were both working day jobs, I’m also studying at uni too, both looking after the boys and then working late nights, early mornings and weekends at LauretteCraftsUK. We knew it was now or never, but that if he didn’t take the chance then it would be something that we would always regret. And, so far so good! We continue to both work hard, but it is much more manageable now. It also means that we are very responsive to messages, can dispatch items quickly, and gives time to design new items as well as things like setting up this website and attending markets.

Richard continues to own and run LauretteCraftsUK and do all the “proper” stuff for it. I love thinking of ideas and doing Instagram/Facebook, sharing not only our products but my crochet too. I also help to package when I can as I love putting an order together and imagining how the person will feel when they receive it. For Rich, he now does this full time, but continues his table-top gaming files and developing this side of things in the background. He too has developed an interest in crochet, and although not a skill he possesses, he understands how our accessories are useful to those of us that do.

So that’s it about us for now! I hope you will enjoy seeing a bit more behind the scenes about what we do, and if you have any questions, just ask 😊