Tag: Sirdar Bonus Aran

Edinburgh Part 2 – Exploring

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Soooo many things to see, I have to go back.  Preferably when it’s a little warmer and there’s a chance of the sun putting in an appearance, but return I will.  It would have been sacrilege not to snap a photo of this daisy I spied carved into the end of a bench.

Edinburgh was everything I’d imagined and more 💞

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No trip to the Scottish city would be complete without a visit to the castle of course,  dominating the skyline as it sits perched above the other buildings.  My word, you definitely know how high it is too when you get up there, because it’s blooming freezing.

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The castle itself is fantastic and much bigger than I thought, think fort rather than castle.  Cobbled paths lead you to the different buildings which contain room after room of memorabilia from Scotland’s history.  My favourites were the National War Museum and the Regimental Museums, I’ve recently developed a bit of an interest in military history and am hoping to visit The Imperial War Museum in London again this year 🙂

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The Scottish National War Memorial is a truly moving place, which commemorates the dead of the First and Second World Wars and of military campaigns since 1945.  Around the main room you will discover books with lists of the fallen soldiers from each Scottish regiment.  The number of books provides a poignant reminder of all that lost there lives in defence of their country.

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In truth we didn’t leave ourselves enough time to truly experience the sheer volume of things to see at the castle and will have to go again when we’re next in Edinburgh 😉

We rode the obligatory tour bus, but only managed to take one of the three tours and after dragging my poor husband to several yarn shops and haberdashery departments there was barely any time left for a wander through the cobbled streets, stopping for coffee and cake.  I really can’t sing the praises of the public transport system in Edinburgh enough.  An all day pass for the buses and trams costs only £3.50 and you can travel the length and breadth of the city

Edinburgh is a bit of a haven for yarn shops, having already visited the yarn festival I thought it only fair on hubby not to take us too far out of our way.

I’m a bit of a department store haberdashery junkie, I just can’t help myself and have to look at everything.  Jenners House of Fraser is smack in the centre of Edinburgh and their haberdashery department in the basement, was jam packed with a rainbow of colours from Rowan and Patons.  Having popped in briefly on Saturday afternoon before they closed I was able to resit the urge to purchase something in order to save my pennies for the festival.  if Rowan is your yarn of choice though I’d recommend a visit to either Jenners on Princes Street or the John Lewis which you’ll find in the St James Centre.  John Lewis also had some of the fantastic but seriously pricey Wool and the Gang yarn and kits too.

Kathy’s Knits on Broughton Street offers some beautiful yarns, patterns and notions, concentrating on British yarns sourced from around the country including Blacker Yarns, New Lanark, JCRennie, Jamieson & Smith and Eden Cottage.  I didn’t stop long enough to purchase as it was drizziling a little outside and I didn’t want to risk having a grumpy, sodden husband.  Next time when the sun is shining I’ll be sure to stay longer 😎

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Ginger Twist Studio is an indie, vintage inspired yarn shop on London Road crammed full of yummy yarn, most of which is hand dyed.  I’d met Jess at the yarn festival, but as I follow her on Instagram I wanted to pay a special visit to the shop.  We popped in briefly on Monday when Jess was busy unpacking after the show.  You wouldn’t want to turn up with a massive group of knitters as Ginger Twist is a little on the compact side, however this little haven is a hand dyed yarn lovers dream destination.

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Never one to resist hand dyed I opted for a hank of luminous lime sock yarn and the necessary shopper.

Up near where we were staying in Haymarket was David Drummond’s  a traditional sewing machine and knitting shop with a vast selection of all things knitting, sewing and haberdashery.  Rather happily I discovered some Wendy Alfresco Aran on special, which I purchased to crochet up a quick granny shawl on the way home.  Four balls in a great charcoal shade for less than £10 – bargain!

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In amongst all the travelling, walking, eating and touring I managed to get my knit and crochet on too.  The bottom project is a granny shawl in Rico Galaxy Chunky yarn that I took with me to keep my hands occupied whilst on the plane (it’s a gift for a dear friend).  I also managed to finish one sock and start it’s twin, but didn’t want to risk having my Knitpro Karbonz taken off me on the plane, hence the Alfresco purchase.  You can kind of make out the lovely shade of grey in the photo and to jazz it up a little, I’m adding some rows in yarn from my stash.

I’ll be sure to post up some pics of the finished garment, but I could end up boring you as I’ve developed a bit of a hankering for granny shawls at the moment.

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First there was the blue one I made for myself here and then you might recall the photo from a previous post with all the ends needing to be sewn in? Well I finally found the time to do so and to give it a quick block too.

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I love it and it’s really warm having been made in the now discontinued King Cole Chunky Merino.  Hopefully, you can never have too many shawls?

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The photographs make it look rather bright, when I like to think it’s a little more subdued ✨ only a little mind.

Happy Knitting!

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Winter Edition of Knitty

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The Winter edition of Knitty was published in December and I’ve only just managed to spend some time reading through it now?  I say reading through it but that doesn’t seem the right turn of phrase, maybe it should be ‘clicking’ through it?  Anyway, as I settle down in front of my computer enrobed in as many woolly layers as possible – there’s a window in front of my desk, a big drafty one, but the view  (above) is beautiful.

I love the individuality of Knitty, which isn’t as reliant on the ‘big boys’ within the industry purchasing advertising and promoting their own agenda because it’s online, rather than in print.  Not that I’m against knitting magazines, far from it, a quick glance into my office would confirm that, it’s just that Knitty appeals to the more creative, experimental side of me I guess.

As usual it all makes for a good read and being the 50th issue it’s jammed packed with articles, reviews and patterns.

Cracking on then

In Cool Stuffs there are reviews for several of the most recently published knitting books and the good people of Knitty also have a look at the Double Pointed Knitting Needle Sorter and Gauge and the Eszee Twist Tool for Spinners.

Donna Druchunas Ethnic Knitting Adventures article on Fighting Prejudice in Knitting and in Life makes for an interesting read.  I shan’t go into more detail here in order to encourage you to take 5 minutes to have a read yourselves.  The piece works as a great introduction to The Slouchy Saami Hat designed by Donna’s friend Susan Santos which she created after a visit to the Nordiska museet — the Nordic Museum in Stockholm.

Saami

Susan took her inspiration from the exhibitions of Swedish folk art and fashion from the Saami (or Sami), the Arctic indigenous people of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia.  The traditional folk costumes of the Saami are often adorned with bright bands of weaving in geometric and floral designs,  if you’re interested in knowing more, pop over to Roman K’s fantastic blog dedicated to folk costumes.

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Franklin Habit’s Stitches in Time column has a pair of vintage gloves for us in the 50th issue.  Franklin has adapted the pattern from Weldon’s Practical Knitter, oh how I’d love even one of them.  Knitted in 4ply yarn the gloves are sized to fit a man, however Franklin explains that simply shortening the fingers should make them a better fit for women as the ‘hand’ part of the glove is quite elastic.

Amongst my favourites in the pattern section are

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Alice by Juliett Turjoman – a very unusual hat, knitted in aran weight yarn the hat is made in 3 seperate pieces. Juliett was took inspiration from Parisian designer Alice Bernard who was a successful couturière and hat designer during the Roaring Twenties

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Lean On Me by Anna Maltz – a dazzling, slim fit tank top which I adore.  It’s worked in double knit and has steeks, but could prove so tempting that it has to be knitted :-0

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Smithfield Pullover by Amy Christoffes – a cosy, oversized, top down, aran weight jumper.  No endorsment is needed as it obviously sells itself.  My only problem would be making sure it didn’t wander off with ♥ Dina ♥

Minetta

I also love Minetta by Kirsten Kapur but as beautiful as it is, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s knitted in 4ply (sob), one day…..

Last but not least in Knittyspin there are a couple of interesting articles well worth a look at including one on jar dyeing by Laurie Osbourne.

Why not pop over to Knitty if you haven’t already and have a look for yourself 🙂

Happy Knitting!

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And The Winner Is…..

LeftFootDaisy2 Comments

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The run up to Christmas was a bit mental here (even more so than usual), but I was organised enough to ask Liz from the East Cork Rapid Response team to draw the winner of the Stocking of the Week.

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Excuse the terrible writing but Jackie Smyth is the winner 🙂

Yesterday Jackie popped into the shop to pick her prize of €100 worth of knitting goodies.

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Jackie picked a couple of projects to work up for herself in beautiful merino and tweed double knit and then lots of odd balls to knit hats and scarves to donate to The Chernobyl Children’s Trust 😀

Happy Knitting!

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The Madness Has Been & Gone

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By the madness I mean the build up to Christmas Day, which I convince myself every year that I’m not going to buy into, only to find on Christmas Day that I have 😞 Maybe though, that’s part of the fun?

Unlike previous years I really didn’t manage to get as many presents knitted or even generally handmade as I would have liked to.  The year seemed to rush by faster than a speeding car and before I realised it it was the end of November and I’d only knitted the one gift, a Hitchhiker for a friend of mine.  Of course I’d forgotten to take a proper picture of it before I’d mailed it, so this is one I’d posted on Instagram whilst I was knitting it.

hitchhikerI used a ball of Rico Poem Superba in green and a ball of King Cole Merino 4ply.  The Poems Superba is variegated, so the greens change as the scarf grows.  I found it a really lovely pattern to follow, with only 8 rows and by using 2 colours, the stripe effect meant I really didn’t have to concentrate on which of the rows I was on.  A lovely happy accident.

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Nearly everyone that would wear one received a knitted hat of some kind, mostly these ones though.  The pattern is very basic and I should be able to get it up on here over the next couple of days.

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Nostrils shouldn’t be that big should they? It’s obscene 😬

 

I liked them so much that I’ve even made one for me.

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Tate looks rather fetching in Leann’s one too, bless him.

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Some friends including my Secret Santa recipient received my crochet baubles, which I loved making once I’d figured out what to do.  I used several resources to help me, but the circles kept getting bigger because of the trebles.  After trying a few different things I decided double crochet was the way to go.  A couple of you have asked for a pattern already, but I’m not sure if I can write it up as a ‘proper’ crochet pattern, so it might end up being more of an instruction sheet?

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Last but not least was the jumper I’d been making for my hubby Con in secret.  Many of you will have seen me trying to get a few rows done in the shop; especially if you popped in the few days before Christmas when I was frantically trying to get the sleeves finished.  I’ll write up a separate post to tell you all about it and I might even be able to get a photo of the man himself wearing it 👨

Cobblestone

Since finishing the jumper I’ve cast on and started knitting Cobblestone by Jared Flood for Durahn my son.  I’ve also been sticking to my morning walk everyday, regardless of how cold it is and both Kye and myself have been going a bit photography mad with our phones.  This morning’s walk produced some beautiful snaps, all with no filter too 📷

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He pinched my hat.

 

 

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2 of my dogs trying to drink from one of the frozen troughs. The black one usually dunks her head in, but even she’s not daft enough to do it when it’s this cold, right?

 

 

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No wait…. She really is that daft.

 

I’ve also been watching far too many cheesy movies including the must see Guardians of the Galaxy which inspired me to make my own mix tape on Spotify.  If you fancy having a look at what tracks I’ve included my profile is lmillar72.  More mix tapes to come me thinks 🖭

Happy Knitting!

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Quick Knitted Gift For Kye’s Teachers

LeftFootDaisy8 Comments

 

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On Thursday I posted up a photo of the present Kye made for his favourite resource hours teacher Mrs McCarthy, today I thought I’d share with you the little gift I knitted up for all of the teachers, secretary, special needs assistant and resource hours teachers including the very special Mrs McCarthy.  Don’t panic it sounds like I’ve been knitting for a bus full when in fact there’s only 6 ladies in total as it’s a very small school.

I’m a regular reader of the blog Simply Notable, which is written by Carli and her mum.  I spotted her post on The Almost Lost Washcloth Pattern and was delighted because it was just what I was looking for.  Have a look at the blog here Simply Notable or you can find the pattern through the link on Ravelry here.

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The Spiral shape is created by using short rows, much easier than it sounds, you knit 14 points in total and sew the cast on edge to the cast off edge and gather in the centre with a running stitch.

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I made 8 of the washcloths in total, the first was more of a trial one to see if I liked them, the 8th was to use up the yarn and I can gift it to someone else later.  The yarn I used was Rico Essentials Cotton Aran and I knitted two washcloths out of the one ball.

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I bought some lovely handmade raspberry soap from our local health food shop Well & Good and wrapped the bars up with the washcloths and a bit of organza ribbon. Simples!

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Nice, pretty and personal.

Happy Knitting!

 

 

Crochet World Record Attempt in Aid of Essex Children’s Hospice

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I know we’re smack bang in the middle of trying to get all of our lovely stockings knitted for the Knit Happens campaign but we’ve been asked for help via Instagram by The Craft Club who are busy preparing for a ‘magical’ yarnbomb in the gardens of The Little Havens Hospice.  The Havens Hospice cares for children from across Essex in the UK with life-limiting illnesses by providing respite breaks, managing pain and caring for them at the ends of their lives.

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Helen Thomas, Gabby Atkins, Kelly Holcombe, Claire Whitehead, Becky Burton and Emma Curley are seasoned yarnbombers, they understand the joy of collaborating on projects which raise a smile or inspire others to have a go.

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The Little Havens yarnbomb is inspired by children’s book The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton and the group hope to create their version of the land at the top of the magical tree in crochet.  In doing so the team hope to break a Guinness World Record for Largest Display of Crochet Sculptures which currently stands at 4061 crocheted items.

The finalised project will be displayed on the 25th August 2014 in the Little Havens  garden which is an event for the parents and families but it will be covered by the regional press  and there will be loads of photos up on Facebook, etc.

It is hoped that the attempt will consist of over 1,000 individually crocheted items including rabbits, hedgehogs, owls, pixies, trolls, fairies and characters from the book.  For an item to count towards the world record it has to be made in crochet, but if your strictly a knitter only, then The Craft Club would still love to receive something bright and cheerful to add to the garden.

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There are loads of suitable patterns available on Ravelry, many of which are free.  You can also find a few ideas on The Craft Club’s Pinterest board here and if you stumble upon any suitable patterns it would be lovely of you to share them on our Facebook page 

You can keep up to date with what’s going on with the record attempt on The Craft Club’s Facebook page too.  They regularly post  photos of the items they’ve received and they’re often linked to patterns and blogs.  As I’m not the best at crochet I’m going to whip up a few Teeny Tiny Flowers from Attic 24’s blog like these that I made before.

We will be collecting finished items in the shop to post to the UK up to Saturday 12th July or you can send them direct to:-

Miss E Curley

9 Kenley Close

Shotgate

Wickford

Essex

SS11 8XL

UK

It would be great to have a few items to send over for this very worthwhile cause, remember to let us know what you’re up to.

Happy Crochet!

 

All Good Fun

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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.

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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

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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?????

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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.

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Last but not least.

There was the competition to find our fastest Knit Happens stocking knitter.

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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..

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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.

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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

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You can find out more about what’s happening over the weekend here 

Happy knitting!

Yarn Shop Day – Saturday May 3rd

LeftFootDaisy4 Comments

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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.

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Baby Crofter designs now also showing the yarn being used for older children’s garments

 

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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!