All Good Fun

May 8, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

So for those of you that missed it Saturday 3rd of May was Yarn Shop Day. It was great to see so many of you out to support us and good fun was had by all (I hope) despite the rain 😦

After all the fun and games I have some competition and raffle winners to announce.

The raffle winners are as follows –

Sock Yarn – Mary Healy

Scrumptious Lace Weight Yarn – Fiona Ryan

Snuggly Dk & Pattern – Deidre McArdle

Bambeanies by Woolly Wormhead – Edwina Cole

Erika Knight – Molly McSweeny

Lucy Neatby, The Brand New Knitter DVD – Sadie Foley

Knitpro Symphonie Interchangeable Starter Set – Susan Macfarlane

We also had a ‘Guess the Number of Buttons in the Jar’ for our younger visitors on the day. The winner receives a €5 gift voucher for Auntie Nellies Sweet Shop and a woolly goody bag donated by the good folks over at Stylecraft Yarns, for the knitter in their life.

Can you guess?????

252

None of the children guessed correctly, but the nearest was Jasmine Jennings with 258. Well done Jasmine the Auntie Nellies Gift Voucher is yours and I’m guessing your mum or your sister might like to receive the goody bag.

Last but not least.

There was the competition to find our fastest Knit Happens stocking knitter.

The stocking had to be knitted in two colours and this mind blowing time was achieved by Mary Murphy, who wins 4 balls of Sirdar Bonus Dk for her effort, which she whipped up with smoke rising from her needles in a little over 10 minutes..

The second fastest stocking knitter was Mary O’Donovan with a little over 12 minutes. Mary wins a ball of King Cole Splash for her speedy needles.

Those of you that didn’t make it won’t have had a chance to see our yarnbombed rocking chair, which definitely helped entice passers by in. We’ll be taking it with us, along with lots of our Knit happens stockings to the Midleton Mid May Festival on Sunday 18th at The Square (near The Granary). Why not come and see it and lend your support to this new festival

You can find out more about what’s happening over the weekend here

Happy knitting!

1 More Sleep

May 2, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

So Yarn Shop Day is very nearly upon us, 1 more sleep until the fun begins.

As promised here’s a little peek at some of the goodies on offer tomorrow on our market stall outside the shop.

They’ll be all of these books and more all down to €5 each with some going for as little as €3.

All of the packs of yarn on the stall will be €20 each, including the multi packs.

There will be other yarn in the special bins for €3 a ball and the day will be full of on the spot give-aways. Not to mention the raffle and the competition to find the fastest Knit Happens stocking knitter.

I hope to see as many of you as possible.

Happy Knitting!

Yarn Shop Day – Saturday May 3rd

April 26, 2014April 26, 2014 LeftFootDaisy4 Comments

It seems like I’ve been trying to write this post for weeks now what with computer and internet problems *sigh*

Anyway….

Yarn shop day (taking place on Saturday May 3rd) is all about you showing your love for local yarn shops. It is also an important opportunity for bricks and mortar shops – such as ourselves – to remind our customers how valuable our personal experience and knowledge of all things wonderful and wooly really is.

Whilst the online yarn market is fantastic for those that cannot manage to get into a shop or can’t find something particular it is also unfortunately taking away from the tradition of local yarn shops. There is nothing better than going into your local yarn shop and having a good squidge and play with the wool, as well as getting hands on help and advice. Knitters and crocheters alike are an enthusiastic bunch and our shop has often played host to a number of excited discussions about new projects and ideas between strangers that have bonded over their love of the craft.

Yarn shops are fast becoming an endangered species and every week I will have someone come in and say how nice it is to have found a wool shop because they no longer have a local one. A visit to the yarn shop was something I looked forward to as a child and even now I still get excited when I go to a new place and discover they have a yarn shop to explore.

So in the spirit of all things woolly we are planning the following events, giveaways and special offers to celebrate Yarn Shop Day.

The first 15 customers to spend €25 or more receive a baby knits goody bag.
11am – There will be a demonstration on how to use the amazing Clover Pom-Pom Makers.
2-4pm – We are holding a competition to see who can knit a “Knit Happens” stocking the fastest.
There will be a woolly raffle with prizes including Knit Pro needles, Scrumptious Yarn and a variety of books. (Details of the raffle will be posted here and on Facebook in the coming days.)
A free Sparklemouse pattern will be sent to your via e-mail when you spend €5 or more.
Clearance packs of yarn and books will be available to buy throughout the day on our market stall outside at less than even Stash Dash Prices.

Throughout the week we will try (I stress the word try) to pop up photos of some of the items that will be putting on the market stall and using as raffle prizes.

Woolly Clearance

April 16, 2014 LeftFootDaisy4 Comments

The time has come to accept that my addiction for all things woolly might be getting a little out of hand. I know, I know, most of you had probably already spotted it some time ago now and for those of you that know me, you’ll know it’s not going to stop any time soon.

Facing the facts, I need to make space before I disappear into one of the stock rooms and never return -“suffocation from yarn, there are worse ways to go”.

After discussing it with friends, family and anyone who’ll listen, I’ve decided to give in and try an ecommerce site. My lovely customers have been asking me to do this for years now and I’m concerned they’ll think it’s so much more than it is (apologies in advance).

It is a clearance shop, with clearance prices. The yarn will only be sold in packs of 10 balls and you can buy as many packs as you want at the much reduced prices.

I intend to work my way steadily through the boxes of Stash Dash yarn one at a time and will therefore be popping up new products on a weekly basis (I’m aiming for Tuesdays). The yarn will be from all the companies we stock and will include acrylics, wool, cotton, blends, etc, though once it’s gone it’s gone.

Postage here is still extremely expensive, with An Post the cheapest at this stage.

They’re prices are – €6.50 for 500g/1kg or €7.50 for 1.5kg/2kg

You can of course purchase your packs of yarn on the website and collect them from the shop, but I’d ask you to contact me to ensure I have it waiting for you at the shop for collection.

We’ll see how it works, maybe it will go so smoothly that I can be persuaded to look at running with a proper online shop at some stage.

For now this is where you’ll find us Online Clearance Shop

Please be patient with us, hopefully there won’t be too many teething problems 🙂

Happy Knitting!

More That’s New

March 26, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

As you’ve probably noticed from the last 3 posts there’s been rather a lot of new stock arriving in the shop of late and there’s at least one more new yarn still to come.

This time I wanted to let you have a quick look at the new shades in some of our favourite standard yarns. The ones we’ll always have.

With no further delay, lets launch straight in with 3 new colours of Sirdar Snuggly DK (there is a 4th but it kind of looks grubby)

2 really pretty colours in Sirdar Snuggly 4ply and although rather feminine I do think the Custard would look lovely in combination with blues in a stripy baby cardi.

4 new shades have also been added to the Sirdar Baby Crofter range. 2 brights and 2 a little more subtle the 1st is definitely my favourite this time.

We’ve also taken delivery of new shades in Bonus Dk, Aran and Supersoft Aran and as with all new seasons from Sirdar they have released a wad of beautiful, new designs to compliment the new shades.

Here’s just a few for you to cast your eyes over.

Baby crofter patterns — Baby Crofter designs now also showing the yarn being used for older children’s garments

snuggly patterns — Just a few of the new Sirdar Snuggly DK patterns

Crochet patterns — The suppliers are finally starting to listen, some of the new crochet patterns that have been released.

Lastly (for now), I wanted to give you a quick look at our lovely woolly sheep cards, that I’ve managed to locate after spotting them a good few years back. Ideal for the woolly enthusiasts amongst us.

Happy Knitting!

Wendy Festival Chunky

March 22, 2014 LeftFootDaisy2 Comments

We were actually meant to have this yarn in before Christmas but it sold out completely and I decided to run with something else instead, but the patterns still arrived and having discovered them recently whilst trying to be organised I thought ‘why not’.

The yarn is a standard chunky with a multicoloured look that’s not too busy and I guarantee you’ll be as surprised as I was to hear it’s 100% acrylic. I saw and felt the scarf in the pattern below and was pleasantly taken aback when I realised. Needle size is 6.5mm and knits to a tension of 14 stitches by 20 rows over a 4″/10cm square, the 100g ball contains 118 metres/129 yards and costs €5.25..

I’ve opted for 6 of the 8 available colours to begin with and quite fancy making the ladies jumper, but will probably end up going with the baby one instead due to number of friends expecting at the moment. All of the shades have been named after music festivals including Glastonbury and Secret Garden and whilst a chunky yarn might not be the kind of knitwear that instantly comes to mind when you think of sunny summer days. it’s definitely what’s needed when the sun goes down.

As a standard chunky it will knit to most chunky patterns, here are the Festival designs I love the most.

I’ve had a quick look on Ravelry to see what people have been making with the yarn already and there seems to be a mix of knitting and crochet. MMKMads has knitted a Braided Knit Headband in it and it looks lovely, have a look at the pattern, it’s free.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/braided-knit-headband-2

Happy Knitting!

Sirdar Bonus Buzz

March 21, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

Sirdar Bonus Buzz DK is a bright, cheerful, multi-coloured yarn, with each shade having up to 6 colours in it. Machine washable, great value and incredibly colourful, making it the perfect yarn for children. It’s great for making fun accessories, such as hats, mitts and scarves.

As it’s part of Sirdar’s Bonus range there are no specific patterns for it (yet), but it is a true double knit, so will knit to any double knit pattern.

Each 100g ball of 100% acrylic contains 280metres/306yards so it will go a long way and costs €3.99. Knit to a tension of 22 stitches by 28 rows to 4 inches / 10cm square on 4mm needles







I think both of these garments would look great knitted in Buzz Dk, each of the patterns are free to download, just click on the links.



http://www.yarnspirations.com/pattern/knitting/babys-hoodie






http://www.yarnspirations.com/pattern/knitting/top-down-super-stripes





If by chance anyone’s interested? It would also make great stockings for the Knit Happens Campaign (I’m just saying)

Happy Knitting!

Sirdar Cotton Dk

March 20, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

Sirdar have listened to our requests and developed a beautiful, mercerised cotton double knit yarn. Available in 18 jewel shades it certainly draws you in with the eye.

Sirdar Cotton Dk is ideal for both knitting and crochet projects and if you’re stuck for inspiration you should have a look on the Sirdar website at the 18 new designs they’ve created specifically for this yarn. Of course, it goes without saying that as Cotton Dk is a standard double knit yarn, it can easily be used as a substitute in most dk patterns. However, as always be sure to consider the drape and design of the yarn the pattern was originally written for.

The yarn is made using mercerised cotton to create a subtle sheen and incredible stitch definition so it’s the perfect yarn for lace knitting, cables and crochet work.

Each 100g ball contains 232 yards/ 212 metres of 100% cotton and knits to a tension of 22 stitches by 28 rows on 4mm needles to 4″/10cm square and costs €6.65.

These are 4 of my favourite designs.

I hope Sirdar’s Cotton Dk will end up becoming one of the companies standard yarns and who knows it might even push them to consider releasing it as a 4ply too.

Happy Knitting!

Here is the News……..

March 15, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

It’s been so busy here of late that I’ve had no time to post, sorry.

It was, as most of you know Stash Dash, which is so full on that I tend to feel a little wiped out for a few days after. We’ve also been trying to launch our Knit Happens campaign all across the county and beyond (newspaper interviews included, terrible photo though).

So I wanted to give you a quick run down on a few new bits and pieces that have come in over the last couple of weeks, apologies though as some of you may have already seen them.

First up are the three beautiful new colours in the Mode Chunky from Wendy. A good basic 50% wool, 50% Acrylic yarn.

Also in were 2 more shades in Wendy Candyfloss, which is proving really popular with our chunky knitters too.

Chunky again, it’s three new shades of Stylecraft Harlequin to add to our existing range of colours.

Double knit this time in the form of Stylecraft Alpaca Double Knit which is one of my current favourites. I defy anyone to be able to tell that there is only 20% Alpaca in the fibre and it has some serious meterage – 240 metres/262 yards per 100g ball.

Lots of bright, cheerful buttons came in too, they’d be ideal for jazzing up kiddies clothes. There’s multicoloured hearts, playful animals and flowers in primary and pastel shades too.

Just in case any of you managed to miss the Facebook post or my Instagram pic

The lovely scarf yarn is back in from Cushendale in a rainbow of colours.

We’ve also taken delivery of 3 new yarns and new colours for Spring/Summer in many of our favourites too. There are lots of new patterns and design books and we’re trying to expand our haberdashery ranges with more bias bindings, felt, trims, etc. I shall pop up more information on all that is new next week, including our delightful range of Sheep greetings cards that I’ve managed to find.

I’m looking forward to having my children’s group back this morning and then it will be time to unpack the box of buttons that arrived yesterday (squeal)

Happy Knitting!

Stylecraft Stars

February 24, 2014 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

Stylecraft have come up trumps again with their latest yarn Stars.

Reflecting the latest fashion trend for sparkling and lustre effects, Stars is a lightweight blended yarn with a metallic filament and small Payette sequins throughout to bring a beautiful sheen together with a subtle sparkle to your knitting. Made up of 75% Premium acrylic, 10%Polyester, 10% Metallic Polyester and 5% Sequin.

Stylecraft has taken care while developing this DK yarn to ensure Stars is soft and brings a delicious drape to the designs knitted in it. The colour palette focusses on icy pastels, from stellar white to quartz pink and aqua blue with the addition of amethyst and noir for those who like a bit of drama.

A couple of the large spinning mills have released similar versions of this yarn and on first look they might seem like a more economical purchase however, you have to look at the meterage. Each 50g ball of Stylecraft Stars costs €4.80 and contains 150 metres of yarn in comparison to another I can think of that only has 110 metres.

Knitted as a standard double knit there is a great range of designs to support the yarn too including a beautiful bolero that would work beautifully as a Communion Cardi.