In the early part of the year, around February we moved from our rented house back onto our boat permanently. We had lived there previously in 2009 for three very chilly years on an end of garden mooring and I swore I would never live on it again.

But when an inspirational, very industrial mooring came up on the Liverpool docks last year we slowly drifted back on and it was a very different life than living on the canal. I felt like if we survived a winter and were warm enough then I would feel comfortable moving back.

Along with the mooring which was in a dock used for training people from all over the world who work on wind farms came a couple of containers to rent. One was a shipping container in which I did the dyeing of the yarn (now undertaken by Jessamy and Sofia) and the other a portacabin where all the weaving preparation and yarns are kept.

We thought these would be available until November this year after which we could make a decision whether or not to invest in our own container and keep it there at the dock. Then of course Covid happened and everything changed.

The training company decided to changed their way of operating and served all the boats with eviction notices and the containers were given until September to ship out. So on top of a rollercoaster year we now found ourselves having to find new premises and with nowhere near the income we had pre lockdown.

Friends of ours heard about what had happened and offered us a small section of their barn (actually, small to them was quite a size to us!). This would have been a usable space for the dyeing section of our operation but still left us with having to find storage for all the looms and wheels etc which we didn't want to be affected by the weather, or damp.

While we were there they mentioned as an aside that we might want to look in the shed. The shed or Jack Shack blew us away. At 30ft x 12 ft it's a brilliant size space. Already split in two it has an area for our looms and possibly workshops and a separate area for all our dye kit. It has electricity and access to water. To say it was perfect is an understatement. On top of that, we can do whatever we want to it in terms of decorating or putting up pictures or wall hangings.

Obviously there is a ton of work to do yet but we are so excited to get started and settle into our new home. It'll be a place for the three of us to be able to work which is brilliant because we have a ton of ideas to start setting into plans. We'll keep you updated with each step of the way.

In workshop news, our weaving workshops are back up and running which is fabulous and hopefully covid permitting will continue. Spinning workshops are in the pipeline and we will post dates as soon as we have them

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