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.
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.
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
Soft Baskets
Draught Excluder
Bobble Hat
Zippy Purse
Cat House
This one to be fair is a little questionable
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.
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.
OK, as most of you know I knit. In fact, I knit as often as I can (love me, love my knitting) and would love to be a guinea pig if they ever discover a way for you to do it in your sleep.
In addition to the knitting of other people’s patterns, I always have loads of my own ideas sloshing around in my head. Some of these make it onto scraps of paper or into notebooks and then, if I have the time, a few of them end up being tested
I’ve popped a few of these ideas up on here in the past and my Easy Lace Scarf has been quite popular. However, in an attempt to become better at this side of my business a friend suggested I take the designing to the next level.
Based on her suggestion I’ve just opened up a Pro account on Ravelry to begin selling some of my designs and the first one to go up is my Super Chunky Tea Cosy. I’m not interested in making any real money from the patterns but acknowledge that if I ever get to write the book I want to, I can’t have all of my patterns available online for free.
My Super Chunky Tea Cosy pattern costs €2.50 and I hope it will be the first of many designs. If you like the style perhaps you could be persuaded to go and add it to your favourites and if you’re interested in purchasing a copy, just click here.
It’s knitted with Super Chunky yarn on 10mm needles and takes no time and very little wool (approx 70 metres without the pompom). Who knows you might even have some stashed yarn just lingering for such a project.
Tea cosies are one of the most requested patterns in the shop so it seems a great place to start.
I’m usually very good at staying ahead of the game when it comes to new yarns. However, I must confess to being caught out rotten by Stylecraft’s new baby yarn.
I’m not really sure we needed another baby yarn but I just couldn’t resist Lullaby. There are 14 beautiful shades available in the range and the pattern support is divine. You can really tell that Stylecraft have a new designer on the team.
Each 50g ball contains 135 metres/147 yards
The yarn is made up of 55% Nylon and 45% Acrylic and is machine washable at 30 degrees, it can even be tumble dried.
Tension is 22 stitches to 30 rows.
Even better it’s only €3.30 per ball
Which one of the 9 designs is your favourite? I think mine is the little blanket. Many of the patterns have an extra design on them so they’re great value for money.
I have been promising to get a quick little post up about the knitting project I took with me on my recent trip to England and as there are so many new yarns, books, patterns, etc to tell you about there’s no time like the present.
As we were staying with our best friends you could guarantee there would be a good deal of talking into the wee small hours and there was. So I needed something that wasn’t going to be full of lace or require much pattern watching and everything I was knitting (some of which I still am) didn’t fit the bill.
Dina my daughter is always adding things to her Ravelry queue, she loves plain and is always in need of more jumpers. Having gone through her list of Ravelry favourites and discarded the bulk of them because they’re mostly 4ply (not happening) we agreed I’d make the Il Grande Favorito by Isablell Kraemer.
Having knitted Dina a good few jumpers in the past, some of which haven’t ever seen the light of day I was reluctant to use the lovely merino she originally selected. We compromised and as the jumper is a chunky knit I used a strand of King Cole Haze (now discontinued) and one of King Cole Moods held together.
Like all good knitters (?) I knitted my tension square (actually I really did) and cast on on the ferry crossing to England. The jumper was completed by the time I got back back to Ireland as I took it with me everywhere in the car with us to try and squeeze some rows in.
I even managed to get a bit of knitting in at the Pickering Steam Fair and the jumper would have been finished sooner had I not realised I’d picked up one less stitch under the arms than necessary – when I came to knit the cuff! One whole sleeve ripped out and re-knitted.
Even so it was a great, easy, top down project and Dina loves it, even if it doesn’t look like she does here.
I’ll happily make her another in Merino now and have even added it to my ‘to do’ list as it’s a very flattering knit. I think I might put a little waist shaping in for good measure too. If you have a look at the projects tab on the pattern page you can see other knitters have used a combination of stocking stitch and reversed stocking stitch. The pattern does cost €4.50 to download but I think it’s worth every cent.
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.
There are things to consider: you have to book your slot, 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. Have a look at the post linked above if you’re not sure and make sure you book your place quickly before they all go.
As you can see from the pictures the shop is now Stash Dash ready for Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th March. There is sooooo much lovely yarn included that I will have to try to control the urge to buy it all myself.
Of course if we’re going to be honest then I shall have to admit to having selected several balls (slight understatement possibly?) for some of the projects I’ve cued…….. Who could blame me?
Double knit
So will I give you an idea of what to expect when you come in for your 20 minutes?
Spring/Summer is supposed to be coming so it stands to reason that there will be chunky yarns, including –
Shades of Wendy Merino Chunky, Rico Galaxy, Bergere de France Duvetine, Twilley’s Purity & Sirdar Folksong to name but a few. We are also clearing Wendy Celtic Chunky & Wendy Norse.
In super chunky were clearing Sirdar Denim Ultra & Big Bamboo, shades of Sirdar Big Softie and there’s a few packs of Rico Super Chunky Tweed there too.
In aran weight there’s Wendy Traditional Aran, Rico Country Aran, shades of Sirdar Supersoft Aran and several lovely cottons from Araucania.
More dk
As you might expect there’s loads to tempt you in double knit yarns – shades of Sirdar Baby Crofter & Snuggly dk, we’re clearing King Cole Riot, Shades, Moods, Moods Duet, Baby Alpaca & Haze. Sorrento from Wendy is also included to clear as is Tiny Tots from Sirdar. There are also shades of Wendy Merino Dk, King Cole’s Splash, Rico’s Cotton dk and Sublime’s Egyptian Cotton.
4ply & scarf
In 4ply and lace there is Sirdar Countrystyle to clear and Rico’s Romance, there’s also sock yarn, shades of Comfort 4ply and loads of odd balls and hanks.
There’s also scarf yarns from Sirdar, Rico & Tivoli, shades of Reflection from Rico, Snowdrops from Sirdar and loads more yarn in lots of lovely colours, too many to mention.
I’m looking forward to having another look myself and hope everyone that’s coming finds something they like.
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.
There are things to consider: you have to book your slot, 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. Have a look at the post linked above if you’re not sure and make sure you book your place quickly before they all go.
This is what you should be expecting.
Stash for the DashLaceweight, 4Ply & more DkSuper Chunky & Novelty
Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet 