Tag: cork

Look at the Lovely Donations

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Edwina made this

As most of you are already aware we are constantly encouraging everyone to knit or crochet for charity.  At least once a week I hear the words ‘I use to knit all the time, but my kids/grandchildren won’t wear knitted jumpers anymore’.  Hopefully, this is becoming less the case as all things woolly have become quite fashionable of late and some of the coolest people are donning Aran jumpers or oversize sloppy hats, and there’s no denying the current trend for super chunky cowls.

So knitting is the rage once again but if you remain unconvinced perhaps you could be persuaded to pick up the needles or your hook again and get to work on creating some much needed winter woolies for our current charity – The Kyl Assylum in Belarus. If you want to know more have a read through my previous post here http://knitmidleton.com/2012/11/15/our-latest-charity-collection-is/

The lovely scarf above is a beautiful 4ply, yes I did say 4ply, number knitted by Edwina.

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Sinead’s Mum made these

This lovely trio of hats were knitted up by Sinead’s mum, they also dropped off a bar of soap to add to the toiletries collection to send out to Belarus too.

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In addition to the knitted items, Mary also grabbed a bargain batch of gloves and hats to include and whilst some of them are for children they will still be passed on to needy smallies via the charity.

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Teresa O’Flynn has sent in some more baby raglan jumpers and cardis.

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Lastly there’s these lovely hats that a lady dropped in to us to forward on.  Unfortunately, she didn’t leave her name so if anyone know who she is let me know and we can credit her beautiful work.

So if you’ve the time…….. all donations will be sent to worthy, reputable causes and will be very much appreciated by those in receipt of them.

Happy Knitting!

For 38 Days I’ve Been Moody

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I thought it was time to update you all on how my Moody Blanket is progressing.

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The first thing I should point out is that it’s definitely taking longer to complete the two rows than it was when I first began.  I think it’s largely to do with the increasing size of the blanket, which means there’s more fabric to move along the needles.  I’m finding I need to allow at least half an hour to complete the two rows now and I expect the time to increase as the blanket does.

Unfortunately I had to use the flash on my camera to take these photos and it’s made the colours much starker than in reality.  The colour changes are (I think) far less noticeable and seem to flow into each other rather nicely.  By using the cream Sirdar Bonus Tweed Aran continuously and only changing the one strand there is a continuity of colour that adds to the blanket’s charm.

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One of the best things about knitting the blanket is that it’s warm, even at the size it is now – all 13.5inches of it.  However I guess that might not be so appealing in June, or at least we hope so.

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I am really enjoying being able to look over the diary of the last few weeks and am pleased to report that so far I have had :-

2 Tough days

18 OK days

13 Good days

6 Really good days

Not bad considering it’s been dark dismal January.

Happy Knitting!

Super Chunky Mistake Rib Cowl

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Having managed to persuade my usual model to pose for a picture, you can no doubt see how she feels about it.

Mistake rib is a great stitch pattern to use for scarves/cowls as it gives you a double sided fabric rather than one with a definite front and back (like stocking stitch).  The easiest way to remember the pattern is to cast on an odd number of stitches, in this instance I used 17.  With an odd number of stitches every row of your scarf will be the same.

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We managed to wrap the cowl around Dina 3 times, but the friend it was made for is very tall and tends to wear it wrapped round her neck twice.  if you want to make it wider and a little shorter cast on 2 extra stitches (the pattern remains the same).

Cowl  Dimensions

Length 180cm/70″

Width 23cm/9″

Materials

5 Balls Sirdar Big Bamboo

10mm Needles

Darning Needle

Abbreviations

k – knit

p – purl

st(s) – stitch(es)

Pattern

Using thumb method cast on 17 stitches.

Work every row as follows – knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches repeat these 4 stitches to last st, K1

Work until almost all of your yarn has gone ensuring you save enough to cast off loosely (approximately 3 times the width of your knitting).

Sew cast on edge to cast off edge in order to make a large ring and sew in ends.

Tip – When joining in a new ball of yarn try to do this somewhere along the row rather than at the beginning of a row as usual.  This will help to keep the edges of the cowl tidy and means your ends can be better hidden.

They’re Off!

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After months of knitting and crochet it’s now time to send off our teeny, tiny creations to the Irish Premature Babies Charity.

Didn’t we do well?

Our Preemie Collection

In addition to all of the items pictured there are still some to collect and add at the shop but for now our totals are as follows –

Hats & Bonnets = 228

Cardigans = 180

Blankets & Sleep Sacks = 140

Booties & Socks = 13 pairs

There is also a little Paxton sitting on the side here knitted by Dina, awaiting sleeves which will be completed by the end of the day (yes I’ll be doing it).

I’m so very proud of how many items we’ve managed to collect and want to extend a huge message of thanks to all of you that gave your time, your creativity and your yarn to make the delicate, little creations.  It’s great to see how much the collection has inspired so many of you and I know there have been a good few ‘retired’ knitters that have been persuaded to pick up their needles once again and knit for this charity.

I’d also like to say a big Thank You to the East Cork Journal for promoting our collection in their newspaper, the article really helped to highlight the charity.

I understand the charity are sending all of the donations to one warehouse, where they plan to sort through them and divide them up into hampers.  These will then be sent to the hospitals around the country.  The charity intend on having the parcels to the hospitals for World Premature Baby Day on November 17th.

A big thanks once again to all of you that helped with this collection and if you couldn’t do something this time, maybe we could persuade you to pick up you hook or needles for our next collection?  (more info to come very soon)

Happy Knitting!

We’re Stash Dash Ready, Are You?

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Hubby and I went over to the shop today to get everything ready for the Stash Dash, 5 hours later and this is what the shop looked like.

As you can see from the pictures everything else is covered up except for all the lovely sale yarn.

I’ve tried to be brutal and clear out a good few ranges and shades, some of them have been my favourites and the temptation to hang on to yarns I love was quite strong, but we need to make room for all the lovely wool that’s started to come in.

As you might expect this is our post summer (as in sun for those of you that have forgotten what it looks like) Stash Dash, so there are quite a few summery yarns included however, there’s also chunky, aran and super chunky.  For those lace weight knitters amongst you there’s some of the finer stuff and lets not forget to mention the 4ply.

Be sure to come prepared, pull out your patterns and books, search Ravelry and make your lists.  Don’t forget we’re now counting down to the ‘C’ word so if you haven’t started gift knitting yet get planning now.  I’ve already pulled out a few balls myself today to make the teachers Christmas Decorations and I was also considering stripey, fuzzy legwarmers for all the little people I know, so I could be rifling through a bit more yet.

If you haven’t booked your slot. or you can’t commit to a set time you can always wander down.  We’ll be taking 1 walk in per 20 minute slot so you can take your chances, otherwise send us a text or email and we’ll squeeze you in somewhere.

If possible bring a shopping bag or 2 to squeeze your purchases in to and as before I’ll be shaking the Chernobyl Children’s Trust collection box at you all to try and raise a little extra for the charity.

Hope to see as many of you as possible on Tuesday.

Happy Knitting!

 

 

 

 

Hello World!

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OK.  Well it’s safe to say I’m not the most organised of people. Actually that could be the first of many understatements, as organised chaos is about as good as it gets for me.  That’s why I’ve put off writing a blog for the shop for so long, I’m sure I’ll get distracted, or I’ll forget or worse still my terrible grammar and umpteen spelling mistakes will be revealed.  Also I suppose I’ve been a little bit of a coward.  The internet can be such a positive place but it can be a bloody awful one too, with people knowingly or not ripping others to pieces and at times, forgetting that there is another person at the end of their post, blog, Facebook update.

Trying to put these concerns as far in the back of my mind as possible it is with trepidation that I’m going to write my first post –

Why a blog then?

Lots of reasons, we have a Facebook page which is a great way of interacting but there’s only so much you can do before you begin to jam up people’s feed.  I hope to use the blog as a way of letting you know what we’re up to in the shop: the ongoing charity events that we’re participating in, what we’re stocking, what we’re hoping to stock and what we’re clearing.  I’m hoping to eventually do a book/magazine/pattern review section, where I let you in on my knitting porn addiction – I know many of you have the same vice.  Anything that’s new in the world of knitting and crochet (although my crochet skills are poor and that’s stretching it some).  I also intend to upload my own designs, most of which will be quite basic as I hardly ever have the time to dedicate to this love, despite walking around with a head full of ideas.  At present any designs I’ve created have only been available in the shop, so it’ll be handy to have them here in the one place.  Lastly, there could also be the odd bit of cooking and/or baking thrown in.  I try to bake for the knitting group every week and apart from my ever expanding library of knitting books there is an equally growing collection of cookery books.

Beginning with the shop.  It’s called Knit.  I couldn’t believe my luck when I discovered that there wasn’t another business with the name in Ireland.  It explains the shop beautifully, although we have had the odd customer that expected something else?????

We sell yarn obviously and whilst I’d love to be able to say our premises is full to bursting with premium, designer yarns from around the globe,  all hand dyed, 100% natural fibers at give away prices – I can’t.  There are so many yarns I love but the reality is that most of us are no longer able to afford them, so I concentrate on sourcing the best yarns I can, whilst keeping in mind the price point.  That doesn’t mean we only stock 100% acrylic, but it does mean I spend a lot of time shopping around.

In fairness to the bigger, more well known companies, they’ve realised that there is a revival in natural fibers and they’re really trying to bring good quality yarns to the knitting masses.  The larger companies also have the money to invest in pattern design, but they can lack in inventiveness, which is where the independent designers come in.

One thing you will find is that I’m unlikely to stock anything I don’t really like, I’ve tried in the past and it doesn’t work for me. I find I can’t help giving the game away.  If I’ve bought something because it looked nice and I’ve got round to knitting up a sample and discovered it’s awful to use it tends to go in one of the clearance baskets

At the moment we stock yarns from Sirdar, Wendy, Rico, Twilleys, King Cole, Opal, Trekking, Sublime and Schoeller & Stahl.  There is pattern support to go with all of our yarns in the form of single sheet designs, collections and books.  If I find a design I particularly like I will try and ensure I have it in.  As I love all things Elizabeth Zimmerman we keep a few of her more well known designs although I’m hoping to eventually convince as many knitters as I can to embrace ‘uninventing’.

We stock needles, hooks and accessories from Knitpro, Pony and some from Clover.  We also have most of the other things you’d expect: buttons, sewing thread and accessories,  zips, bag handles, the list is endless.

I will leave it at this as I’m conscious i could start to waffle on a little…