I’ve had a cold for over a fortnight now and I’m getting rather fed up with it at this stage. It’s one of those horrible ones, that mutates almost daily and lingers forever.
Tag: buttons
Happy Friday
I thoroughly enjoyed my morning dog walk, it was beautiful out there and has now turned into the most glorious of days. Spring is definitely in the air, which has really helped us as we had our Olann and photo shoot earlier. I’m really excited about this coming issue and I know I’ve said that before, but it really is getting better every time (well I think so) I’m not sure if it’s because we’re more knowledgeable about the process, or whether we’re just more comfortable with what we’re doing? Whatever it is, it feels very much like it’s working.
More Baby Knits
I’ve been so busy trying to plan for our refurbishment that it’s ended up being a couple of weeks since I wrote my last post, despite having tonnes to tell you all about.
My needles and hooks have come close to combusting with all the use they’ve been getting. I’m currently mid way into at least two projects for the shop and I’ve just started another. I’ve been baby knitting for my friends first grandchild and another friend has just had a baby too :-0 and then I was trying to crochet up a few bits for The Craft Club Yarnbomb, oh and I’ve been crocheting for the shop too. (I’m so excited about the refurb, sad I know)
I thought you might like to see the little cardi I knitted up for baby Sean as it’s one of my all time favourite patterns.
Beyond Puerperium by Kelly Brooker is going to set you back about €4.20 via Ravelry here and it’s worth every cent. The pattern includes sizes newborn to 2 years with options for using 4ply, double knit or aran weight yarn. If you have time I recommend looking at what other knitters have made on the project pages as there are some great colour combinations and pattern modifications.
There is a free double knit version of the pattern available too in newborn size, if you want to try before you buy, but I guarantee you’ll be hooked.
I’ve used a lovely vintage green Sirdar Snuggly DK with multicoloured buttons from Rico this time but I’ve made several of them now and am happy to report Dina has too, she’s actually making a lovely candy pink one at the moment (we’re sharing the buttons, I used the boyish ones she’s using the girlie ones). I’ll see if I can persuade her to let me post a photo or two here when she’s finished.
I’ve just sent all the yarn bomb goodies off so my next post will be a photo explosion of crochet creativity.
Happy Knitting!
Yippee! I Can Knit Baby Things
One of our friends has recently had a little baby girl so my needles have been smoking a little with shades of pink and oatmeal.
True, I could have been sensible and just knitted up a few different garments in gender neutral shades and themes and been ahead of the game, but where’s the fun in that?
I’d spotted the Gidday baby cardigan by Tikkiknits on Ravelry a little while ago and have been looking for an excuse to knit it up. You might remember I popped the link up on the shops Facebook page? If you missed it you can find it here.
It’s a fantastic little double knit pattern and this free version has instructions for 2 sizes, newborn and 3 months. If you’d like to make larger sizes the full pattern contains 15 sizes from newborn to 12 years and costs $6AUD or a little over €4, which is a bit of a bargain. Find the full pattern here.
I love the way the yarn overs that make the increased stitches on the yoke add a little extra interest. You can always increase your stitches with a M1 if you’d prefer not to have the little lacy holes in your garment.
I’m rather pleased with the finished cardi, although when knitting it again I think I’ll knit an extra 2 rows of the garter stitch yoke in the main body colour in order to try and overcome the ‘jog’ that happens when knitting stripes.
The little wooden flower buttons add that little bit of extra charm, buttons are so important, at least that’s what I keep telling myself to explain away the tins of them I’ve amassed 😉
I used Sirdar Snuggly DK because I love the feel of the finished fabric, it’s machine washable and the range of colours is vast. The cardigan used a little over one ball of the oatmeal (344) and barely any of the rose pink (Lolly 420) so I thought I’d be proactive and try and use up a little more of the yarn rather than just pop it straight into my ever growing stash.
The pattern I used for the hat is from Stylecraft Yarns number 8794 , but I still have yarn left. Maybe some booties too?
Trouble is I’ve already started this for the baby (oops!)
Happy Knitting!
All Good Fun
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
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
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
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!
Here is the News……..
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!
Notes From Week Ending 25th January 2014
Wow! January will be over in a few days, how did that happen? I need to catch up quickly, does anyone have a magic ‘get everything done’ potion I could buy?
Rushing quickly on.
There were several deliveries last week most of which was restock although there were a few new goodies. Unfortunately, in my haste to unpack them I forgot to take photos of most of them although I did manage a quick snap of the new Candyfloss yarn from Robin.
Sadly, there’s one shade missing, if memory serves me correctly it’s a bright pink mix. Candyfloss is being sold as a super chunky with a recommended needle size of 10mm’s but it’s most definitely not. You could probably use up to an 8mm for scarves and neck warmers but for garments and hats I’d treat it as a standard chunky yarn and use 6.5mm needles. I hope to get a sample of the yarn knitted up for the shop so you can see what it’s like as there are no designs to go with the yarn.
The bright colours make it an obvious choice for children and it’s 100% acrylic so it’s easily washable. The 200g ball has approximately 280 metres/306 yards and costs €6.95.
Included in this delivery there was also 4 shades of the mohair yarn ‘Air’ from Wendy which is made up of 70% Kid Mohair, 30% Nylon and knits to a tension of 18-24sts x 23-34 rows depending on your chosen pattern. The 25g ball has approxamitley 200m in it and it’s €7.25 a ball.
It would be an ideal yarn to use for my Easy Lace Scarf
I’ve already started to knit a little communion bolero sample for the shop, it only takes 2 balls so I am aiming to have it finished by the end of the week.
One last thing before I go, with all of the controversy surrounding all things charity at the moment I thought I’d share the receipts and card we received for money collected from the bags of buttons on sale in the shop for St. Vincent de Paul. As promised the full price of the sale goes to the charity. (sorry for the bad photo)
Happy Knitting!
Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet 