I felt very virtuous this morning because most of the embroidery-related things I’ve been ordering recently have been necessary stock: postal boxes for my goldwork and appliqué kits, lightweight calico which is the backing fabric in all the non-counted kits, plunging needles and bamboo hoops for the goldwork kits. But then I came across part of a purchase which I couldn’t quite classify – is it stock or stash? Or both?

The items in question are two lengths of coloured purl. A dark pink one called Berry which will be used for the little flower in the goldwork kits, but which might of course also end up in some of my own projects. And a Bottle Green which is definitely for one of my own projects – a goldwork snowdrop I’m planning. But as that is likely to become at least a chart pack and possibly a kit, perhaps it still counts as stock?

There was no way, however, that I could pass off the things that came with the purls as stock – they were just pure indulgence. It started with a Facebook post by Sarah Homfray showing some octagonal display frames. As I love finishing projects in hoops I thought they’d be ideal, especially as they are the perfect size for a lot of what I do. And as they are quite bulky and fell into the higher postage band anyway this was a great opportunity to add the wingnut tightener I’d been eyeing for some time.

Then, as I thought the postage might stretch to a bit more, the purls were added. I like to be able to offer a nice range of colours for the small flower in the goldwork kit, and that snowdrop had been in my sketch folder for yonks so it was about time I did something about it. And then, as I browsed the rest of the site, I noticed some printed fabrics for two crewelwork fruit trees. They used to come as kits, I think, and they were a set of four: apple, orange, lemon and pear as far as I remember. I really liked them but didn’t really want the kits; I have plenty of threads and the stitching on them was fairly straightforward. Now the apple and orange were there as a “fabric only” option – great for relaxing in-between projects to use up odds and ends of threads in whatever stitches I feel like at the time! They duly made their way into the shopping basket, and as they didn’t tip the postage over into the next band, they were duly ordered with the rest. I’m going to enjoy those!

By the way, having stocked up on postal boxes and small bamboo hoops I’ve been thinking of converting some of the other kits I offer to boxed ones including a hoop, especially the kits aimed at beginners. On the other hand, a beginner at Shisha embroidery may well have done other types of stitching before and therefore already have the necessary hoops. What do you think?