Tag: hats

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!

 

Knitting With Giant Needles

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Included with our regular delivery of books from The Book people this month was Knitting with Giant Needles by Hanna Charlotte Erhorn and published by Dorling Kindersley.

If I was to be completely honest, on first glance I wasn’t that impressed with the content of the book however, I decided to give it a proper chance.   Armed with a cuppa I spent some time perusing the pages and have since revised my opinion.

Using big needles or crochet hooks isn’t everyone’s idea of fun.  Big tools can be a little different to get use to holding and you will probably have to change your technique a little, but the speed with which you can finish a project is fantastic.  I love the look of chunky stitches and the added interest they bring from the texture.  Big knitting is a great way of incorporating knitting into your home with chunky cushions and throws, bathmats and even wall hangings.

Back to the book…..

As you might expect with a book from DK, everything is photographed beautifully and explained very clearly.  There are a couple of pages at the front of the book discussing chunky needles and yarns and towards the back of the book there is a great techniques section covering basic knitting, sewing up and crochet.

In total there are 35 projects in the book, most of them would fall under the heading ‘accessories’ or ‘frippery’ , however most of them are cute and quirky and would make great gifts.

My only complaint is that there isn’t a pattern included for the beautiful, crochet hearts shown on page 9 of the book, but I’m sure Attic 24 has a version on her blog.

I’ve picked 5 of my favourites to show you

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Soft Baskets

 

Draught Excluder
Draught Excluder

 

Bobble Hat
Bobble Hat

 

Zippy Purse
Zippy Purse

 

Cat House
Cat House

 

This one to be fair is a little questionable

Cosy Footwarmer
Cosy Footwarmer

Overall not a bad little book for The book People price of €8 and it would be a great book to give with a couple of balls of super chunky yarn and a set of big needles as a gift to a newbie knitting friend.

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!

Stylecraft Stars

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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.

Stars

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.

Stars patterns 2

 

Stars patterns 1

 

Stars patterns 3

 

Stars patterns 4

 

Happy Knitting!

 

 

 

 

New Magazine – Prima Makes

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I spied this little number smiling at me from the shelves of Eason in Dungarvan yesterday and was won over instantly.  Containing a hefty 162 pages of things to make, knit, sew, crochet and bake what’s not to like?

Like many of the other ‘lifestyle’ magazines that are available at the moment it is a very photography heavy publication, leading you to aspire to all things quirky, vintage and floral.  In addition to the numerous projects there are ‘Ideas & Inspirations’ and  ‘Spring into Shopping’ sections.  There’s also a great feature on craft courses and workshops and if that wasn’t enough the good people at Prima Makes have also thrown in a couple of sheets of fancy printed paper.

So I imagine you’d like to have a little look at some of my favourite little projects?

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These 3 beauties are called High Flyers, Heaven Scent and Time for Tea.  Soooooo pretty.

2014-02-17 12.20.04The very appropriately hat a Picture is so fantastic I’d actually like one please.  The funky, patchwork laptop case ould make a great gift and Kitchen Stichin’ is for those of us that like a bit of crochet.

2014-02-17 12.16.05The pretty Tunic Top knitted in cotton has sizes from 6-12 months to 5 years and it would be hard to resist the little pairs of Baby’s First Shoes.  Bobtail Bunny is a pocket sized pal worked in 4ply crochet.

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Still more …..

For the bakers amongst us my 3 favourites are the Coconut Doughnuts, Shortbread Flowers and the Peppermint Marshmallows, yummy.

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It shouldn’t come as any surprise to those of you that know me but Daisy Chain is my absolute favourite, isn’t it beautiful?  I hope my crochet is up to it.

If you’re still in need of a little convincing, then the icing on the cake has to be that the magazine comes complete a free kit to make this little mousey pincushion.

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Happy Knitting! (maybe that should be crafting?)

Sirdar Peekaboo

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peekaboo

Snuggly Peekaboo DK is a gorgeously soft baby yarn that comes in softly printed, dappled colours that look extra cosy for girls and boys from Sirdar.  It is in the same designs wonderfully soft blend as Snuggly DK – 55% nylon and 45% acrylic.

Each 50g ball contains 179yds/165m and knits to a tension of 22 stitches to 28 rows on 4mm for a 4″/10cm square and costs €4.45.

peekaboo colours

There are 6 beautiful shades that are reminiscent of the original, paler colours that Sirdar Baby Crofter came in when it was first released.

peekaboo2

peekaboo3

peekaboo1
As is the norm with Sirdar they have created several beautiful designs to compliment the yarn although any standard double knitting pattern should work equally well.
Happy Knitting!