Our Knitting Group Christmas Outing took place on Wednesday night. The evening was spent indulging in a gorgeous 3 course meal at Rosies/The Pepperstack in Aghada.
The food was lovely, the portions were so big that I’m ashamed to admit I had to leave some. Being a vegetarian I opted for the Tomato & Coconut soup, Thai Curry and Strawberry Pavlova – yummy!
However, that’s not what you want to hear about is it?
We exchanged our Secret Santa gifts which as always has to be a handmade Christmas Decoration. You can see our attempts in the pics, the one I made was the Angel and Dina made the Russian Doll.
I’m thinking handmade Christmas Decorations are the way to go for the future, because by the time you get to my age you’re not really in need of anything (other than a Mark II Ford Escort).
I dropped a little hint about this lovely yarn from Hedgehog Fibres in my last post. Having unpacked it, lined it all on the table, looked at each individual hank and generally just fawned over it for some time, I feel I can now share.
Twist Sock is 100g hand dyed yarn. Beata the lady from Hedgehog Fibres describes it as a blend of 80% Blue Faced Leicester wool and 20% nylon. High twist will ensure durability and marvelous stitch definition. Soft, yet durable and machine washable. Best of both worlds!
With colours that shift beautifully from one to another. Randomly dyed to prevent striping or pooling, as much as possible, my yarns create variegated effect that looks good in plain stockinette or advanced stitch motifs.
No dye lots, dye is applied randomly, therefore no two hanks are the same.
Machine wash. 4ply. Approx. 365m/100g
What’s not to like love? Not just for socks either, there’s sooo many lovely 4ply projects out there.
Now I guess you’re gonna want to see the colours?
The photos really don’t do the colours justice, you’ll have to come and pay us a visit to see the deliciousness (can yarn really be this gorgeous?).
There’s no time to hang about so, rushing straight into what’s going on here for December.
There’s Harlequin, a new chunky yarn from Stylecraft, great for those quick knits, There’s some lovely pattern support for it including my favourite, this fab cape come poncho thingy.
There were also 3 new shades to add to our range of Stylecraft’s Kwik Knit which seems to be really popular for cowls and scarves at the moment.
There’s also another new scarf yarn from Tivoli. Lace is €12.95 a hank and like most of the scarves it’s a one ball = 1 scarf knit. It makes quite a full scarf and is selling like hot cakes.
Lastly (for now anyway) our Special offer this month is on Sirdar Freya which some of you might recall I knitted the hat in last month.
There are 8 lovely shades and being a chunky it will knit up fast. A little goes a long way, I made the hat with one ball. There’s some lovely pattern support for it too including the accessories below.
I could be off to unpack some yummy hand dyed yarn now, more about that next time.
I wanted to quickly show you the new yarn Husk from Tivoli although I’m not sure the photo above does it any justice.
I’m not a massive fan of novelty yarns myself preferring the look of a good stitch pattern however, I’m a little smitten especially with the little bolero that you can knit in it (see the bottom pic). I cast on the scarf last night and will have it knitted and hanging in the shop to squidge for next week.
Husk knits on 6mm needles and the hat and scarf pattern comes free with each purchase of the yarn. It takes 1 ball to knit the hat or the scarf and the yarn retails at €6.99 a ball so it’s great for a gift.
This bolero pattern is also available in the Woman’s Way Magazine.
Must go as we have a super busy day full of classes in the shop today.
It’s silly, I know but I was so excited when three big boxes arrived from Katia just before closing on Thursday.
Inside there was more of the popular Merino Flash and a pack of a new aran we’re looking at possibly stocking, but there was also ……….
The very Christmasey scarf yarn Boulevard (Christmasey is a new word for any of you that haven’t heard of it yet) and……….
A lovely new warm red/rust shade in the Merino 100%, and wait for it……….
This riot of colour. I’m so daft – you’d think I’d have gotten over it by now having had a yarn shop for so many years. All I’ve been thinking about is what sample to make for the shop. Azteca is 100g of beautiful, multicoloured aran weight yarn. The picture just doesn’t do it justice, it really has to be seen in the flesh. Maybe squidged and stroked a little too.
I spent a large portion of last week convinced I’d achieved very little, however, after reviewing the amount of things I’d managed to do I realised I actually got through quite a few items on my never ending list.
Firstly, there was the hat I ran up for myself in the new Sirdar Freya. Some of you might have seen the photo above on the shop Instagram account. It’s a dream to wear as it’s so lovely and soft.
Then there was the waistcoat I completed whilst at Wednesday night’s knitting group. It’s made in King Cole’s Ultimate Super Chunky. The pattern doesn’t actually have a full arm band but I felt it needed a little more than the cast on, then cast off that was instructed on the pattern. The yarn knits up beautifully, but to avoid any colour pooling I did knit with two balls, following a two row stripe sequence.
Jeans, Melange, Marine, Moorland, Heather, Rainbow, Dusk, Ember
There are 8 shades of Ultimate Super Chunky, great for those quick knit projects. There’s a really good range of patterns to support the yarn including several accessory designs.
Talking of King Cole, the new Glitz Chunky arrived in too.
White, Black, Rouge, Plum, Atlantic and Burnt Orange
Six shades this time, great for a little Christmas sparkle, and if you prefer double knit yarn then King Cole also added three new shades to their range of Glitz DK.
Petrol, Silver and Royal
I also managed to complete the little baby cardigan I’d been working on for the shop in Peter Pan Merino Baby.
There are six pretty pastel colours and some beautiful pattern support. For the month of November while stocks last we’re offering 10% off the usual selling price of €5 per 50g/116metres. I think the yarn would work as a great substitute for most double knit patterns, particularly if you favour lighter shades.
White, Baby Pink, Silver, Lilac, Cream and Baby Blue
This week I’m trying to power into another scarf and to get a little work done on my Christmas knitting, all being well.
OK so it’s not summer, but on Sunday the 20th October 15 members of the shop’s various knitting groups all took part in our summer gathering. The year has completely run away on us and between one thing and another we hadn’t gotten around to doing something earlier. I think all involved will agree with me that it was definitely worth the wait.
Our felting queen arrived just after lunch to spend three hours teaching us how to get to grips with wet felting. Our first project, and the one we all attempted, was a beautiful star that can be used as a hanging decoration for the tree or (as it stands by itself) sitting on a shelf/mantlepiece. The star is hollow so it would also make a great receptacle to pop a piece of jewellery in to keep it safe for posting.
For our second project we could choose from several different items. The majority of us opted to have a go at making a robin whilst a few of us chose to make a boot or a Christmas pudding.
As you can see from our photos our efforts weren’t at all bad. We’re hoping our felting queen will return soon to offer felting workshops in the shop. if you’re interested please let us know and we’ll keep your contact details on file.
I know there are quite a lot of you that love the Mohair from Cushendale just as much as I do so I thought I’d show you a couple of pictures with all the lovely new shades that arrived in late, last Friday.
The shawl is a super quick knit, 1 ball, 34 stitches on 12mm needles and plain garter stitch all the way until the ball has gone. A good tip is to make sure your cast on and cast off are on the loose side so as not to pull the ends of your shawl in.
By happy coincidence several new designs in the shawl pins have arrived in too, just in time for all your Christmas gift knitting. Who knows I might even get some made.
The very much anticipated Pompon Party from Rico arrived in the shop last week. As you can see from the photograph, the 6 new shades are baby inspired and great for blankets and cushions.
Sadly, as you might expect some of the old shades have been retired to make way for the new colours, including the beautiful cornflower blue and the cheerful carnival multicoloured Pompon Print 😦
I’m often asked if I could post up the information sheet I give you when you purchase the yarn and I will ASAP, promise.
In addition to all the lovely yarn I’ve been unpacking of late these little beauties arrived yesterday and were waiting for me when I got home.
We’ve been fans of McAnarcks Buttons for some time now and this is the latest batch from Fran. All handmade, aren’t they lovely? I’m sure they’ll sell as quickly as ever, so if you’ve been waiting on them to come back in get into us quick fast.
Shall have to go now as I really must finish my latest shop sample – a little raglan cardi.
Two more beautiful yarns for you to cast your eyes over. Some of you may have already seen them in the shop though as I’m a little late getting the photos uploaded, sorry.
First there’s Rico Essentials Super Chunky
100m per 100g of squishy 50% wool & 50% acrylic
Knits to a tension of 9stitches to 12 rows on 10mm needles.
Great to use as a substitute for all your super chunky patterns
Here’s my Super Chunky Ribbed Tea Cozy shop sample.
Lastly for this post is Rico Essential Big
Each 50g contains 48 meters of smooth yarn which will show of your stitches perfectly. Neither a standard chunky or super chunky the yarn is again made up of a 50% wool/50% acrylic blend.
Knitting up with a tension of 11 stitches by 16 rows on 7/8mm needles.
This is the cowl I made recently for the shop sample modeled by what most be the most tolerant daughter in the whole wide world. Her enthusiasm for the job at hand is obvious don’t you think?
Not sure the hand over her face is doing much to hide her gorgeousness though.
Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet 