We’re Stash Dash Ready, Are You?

September 2, 2012 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

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!

Help! Where Has My Creativity Gone?

June 25, 2012June 26, 2012 LeftFootDaisy2 Comments

Have you ever had one of those weeks when you just have sooooooo much going on that you just can’t seem to find the time to be creative?

Yes, I have had an extremely busy week; first there was the two assignments that had to be in for Tuesday and two assessments that also took place on Tuesday. A friend was also in hospital so I went to see her – she’s out now thankfully. Apparently it’s OK for a hospital to discharge you and send you home even when they have no idea what’s wrong with you?

Then of course there was the Stash Dash. It worked, I think. Yippee! All the feedback we’ve had has been really positive and I think those that were a little unsure of what it was all about will be better prepared next time. I intend on trying to do two Stash Dashes a year so they’ll usually be a little more seasonal. I had to try very hard not to add to my stash – I’m not sure I have anymore room – I don’t think the odd pack counts. At least one pack of Twilley’s Spirit Chunky may have worked it’s way into my stash. I don’t have to feel guilty though as my friend knits for me (as I can never seem to find the time) and the yarn is earmarked for this rather nice waistcoat/short sleeve cardi.

I’d also become quite stressed over the robe I’d made for the Naming Day ceremony of one of my good friend’s baby. I was pretty sure her and her hubby would like it but you never know. I’d designed it before the baby was born and we were unsure what kind it was going to be. Boy, girl, possibly martian (only because their massive geeks, pretty sure they also won’t have a problem with me saying so either). I’d put off giving it to the proud parents as the truly beautiful Emily was a little dinky when she was born – 6lb 12oz – and the naming ceremony is happening a month earlier than I first thought. They love it though, they really do, and I am over the moon that I got it right and that I could do this for them. It’s so great when a plan comes together (A-Team fans anyone, I mean the real one circa 1980s. Yes, I am actually that old).

The rest of my week has thus far been spent cleaning, tidying, washing, cooking (two hours today – madness) and generally being very non-creative. I have managed to make a delightful little pair of preemie booties, but they’re so small I’m not sure they count. I’ve also knitted the hat in the first picture, to add sizes to the hat design I’ve been using for the Chernobyl Collection.

It’s meant to fit an average woman’s head – proof if ever it was needed that I’m not your average woman!

A Really Hectic Week

June 17, 2012June 18, 2012 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

It’s felt like I’ve been chasing my tail all week; my daily list of things to do hasn’t been completed once in the last week. Even writing this post hasn’t been simple. I started it yesterday but my internet connection was so slow I gave up.

In addition to my usual manic weekly workload I’ve also had two other pressing items to get ready.

The first, and probably the least interesting, are the two assignments that I have had to complete for the course I’m currently taking. It coincides with the voluntary work I do for the Citizen’s Information. To be fair to me, I thought I’d agreed to do a very different amount of work on the course than what it’s materialised into. The sad thing is that given more time I could have made more of an effort; instead my assignments could be described as ‘half-hearted’ at best

The second, and much more interesting, is all the preparation for the ‘Stash Dash Day’. I didn’t realise there would be so much work involved. I’ve been busy clearing out yarn that’s been put away all over the stock rooms – moving it, sorting it and then having a really tough time persuading myself that I don’t need to procure more yarn for my personal stash while I sort.

Today the hubby took all the yarn over to the shop, along with tables, sheets, tablecloths and lining paper to cover the shelves. When I met him at the shop it soon became clear – to him that is, that the job in hand was a big one. He set about covering up the shelves and setting up the tables and moving boxes, while I began the humungous job of trying to sort out the shop.

The first thing to go wrong – the lining paper ran out!!! Undeterred, hubby went and purchased the next best thing: you guessed, it bin bags, green ones!! So the idea I had in my head of the shop looking somewhat OK while the mayhem of disorderly sale yarn is everywhere has been somewhat smashed. My head is a lovely serene place that I hope to reside in one day.

Still, the shelves of stock yarn are completely covered so there can be no confusion over what is in the sale.

The second thing to go wrong was the sellotape ran out. I simply had too many packs of yarn to close up before the yarn decided to take over and engulf me. At this point I was sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded by boxes and baskets full of yarn while trying to make up full packs to make it easier on Wednesday.

Local shop to the rescue and a rather speedy 3.5 hours later the shop is ready for it’s first ‘Stash Dash’. I was quite shocked by the amount of yarn I had pulled out to clear and even more taken aback by how much stock I still have.

Looking over the yarns for the day I can safely say there’s a fantastic mix, with everything from lace weight to super chunky. I’ll be posting up some of the yarns on Facebook just to try and keep you all updated. For some reason there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of aran weight, but I think that’s probably because everything we have in stock currently sells well. Apologies to all you aran lovers out there.

If all that woolly work wasn’t enough for one day I also went to see Rico’s new yarn collection for the coming Autumn/Winter Season. So many lovely new yarns and a few not so nice ones. It was a job to curb my enthusiasm and I could feel myself drooling over some of the truly scrummy yarns. Had I had a chance I can safely say some of the samples could have found their way into my handbag.

I have ordered quite a few as you might expect – oops!

If memory serves me right my order includes two new DKs – a great new baby one and a variegated lightweight one, one gorgeous super chunky, two completely different standard chunky yarns – one was kind of earthy, the other was glitzy, one furry aran and possibly an earthy one and lots and lots of lovely patterns. Almost forgot to say I also ordered some new shades in 365 Aran: scarlet red, navy and chocolate brown.

Like I always say “it’s an illness”

€3 Stash Dash

June 7, 2012June 7, 2012 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

We’re having a clear out at the shop, a big one.

€3 Sale Day Rules

The €3 sale day will take place on Wednesday 20^th from 9am until 7pm
Due to the size of the shop, only a certain number of customers can shop at the same time, this also means ‘shopping time ‘ is limited to 15 minutes for everyone (no exceptions, sorry).
Time slots can be booked from today (Monday 4^th June). There is no charge for the event but we would love it if everyone could make a €1 donation in the collection box in the shop for The Chernobyl Children’s Trust.
Times will be issued on a first come first served basis, all customers will be given a ticket with their allotted time written on it. This is the only way we can ensure everyone who wants to avail of the day can.
We will have a limited number of times available for customers that turn up on the day.
The only items available to purchase on the day will be the discounted yarn. We will not be selling from our general stock. This includes patterns, needles, notions, or collection of yarn that is on lay by, sadly we just won’t have the time to offer our usual service.
Come prepared – Have a rough idea what kind of yarn you’re after. What weight, colour, fibre. Pull out your patterns and work out your amounts before that’s why we give you over a fortnight to plan.

Remember you only have 15 minutes.

Every customer that purchases 11 balls or more will receive a raffle free raffle ticket. If your ticket is one of the lucky ones you will receive a gift from us. It could be a magazine, a pair of needles, a crochet hook, just a little extra to say thank you for your support.
All €3 sales are final; there can be no returns or exchanges. As with all of our sale yarns, we do not offer a ‘lay by’ service, please ensure you buy enough yarn to complete your project.

If the day is a success we plan to do 2 of these ‘blowout’ days a year. Over the next couple of days I will begin to get together a list of some of the yarns that are going to be included in the sale, in the meantime get looking through your patterns and books. Slots are available from this morning.

The girls at the knitting group last night suggested that I remind everyone that we do not have the facilities to take Laser/Credit Cards at the shop – sorry.

Hello World!

May 27, 2012June 8, 2012 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

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…