Tag: charity

1 More Sleep

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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

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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.

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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.

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Sparklemouse

Woolly Clearance

LeftFootDaisy4 Comments

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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

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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)

Snuggly dk

 

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.

Snuggly 4ply

 

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.

Baby crofter

 

 

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.

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Just some of the designs

 

Happy Knitting!

Wendy Festival Chunky

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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..

Festival shades

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.

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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

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Buzz

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
Buzz shades
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
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http://www.yarnspirations.com/pattern/knitting/top-down-super-stripes
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If by chance anyone’s interested?  It would also make great stockings for the Knit Happens Campaign (I’m just saying)
Happy Knitting!

Here is the News……..

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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.

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

Wendy candyfloss

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

Harlequin new

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

Alpaca new

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.

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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.

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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!

Guess What? It’s Stash Dash Time

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stash dash pic

For those of you that have been before you’ll know what it’s all about, the rest of you would probably best to read this previous post here http://knitmidleton.com/2012/07/23/everybody-keeps-asking-me/

Basically, we cover up all the shelves and lay out as many tables as we can fit into the shop; on top of these we put all the yarn we’re discontinuing.  There could be whole ranges of yarn, shades of yarn and some you might not have seen before.  There will be odd balls, several balls and packs of balls, no matter what, all balls are €3 each.  (All sales are final, no returns)

There are things to consider: you have to book your slot if you’re coming in before 1pm.  You only have 20 minutes (you’re timed), you have to prepare, dig out the patterns, check your favourites on Ravelry, make sure you know how much double knit/aran/chunky you need.  There is nothing else available to purchase on the day and there isn’t usually the time to help you calculate yarn amounts, suitability, etc.  You get the most out of the day if you’ve already worked out what you’re looking for.

Have a look at the post linked above if you’re not sure and make sure you book your place for the morning if you want one, quickly before they all go.

This is what you should be expecting.

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Happy Knitting!

Peter Pan Hatti

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Peter Pan have embraced the idea of ‘quick knits’ with their latest woolly release Hatti.  (technically there is no wool, but you know what I mean)

Hatti is aimed at kids although the knitted hat fits me.  Each ball comes with a free knit and crochet pattern on the ball band and one ball makes one hat complete with colour coordinating pompom for the top!

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It’s made from 80% Acrylic / 20% Polyester and there’s aapproximately  95m / 104 yds in each 50g ball.  The knitted hat uses 5mm needles and I had it made within a couple of hours.  It’s a lovely simple pattern just 2×2 rib with no shaping.

Hatti is available in 4 shades and is €7.15 per ball.

hatti

There’s another similar yarn and pompom knit called Duo which I’m knitting up at the moment.  I’ll post about it as soon as I’m done.

Happy Knitting!

Notes From Week Ending 25th January 2014

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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.

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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.
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It would be an ideal yarn to use for my Easy Lace Scarf 

air shades

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.

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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)

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Happy Knitting!