MERRY CHRISTMAS

Yes, we are still here. The blog silence doesn't mean we have disappeared, we are beavering away in Catherine Hill and we have some new additions: Tawny Owl and Intrepid Fox. 

 Intrepid fox is very handsome, Tawny owl is much more photogenic but he doesn't look too sure about being embraced by the carnivore. They are available as beautiful kits by Bombella. The owl is made with fyberspates yarn and Mr Fox is Skein Queen, truly luxury knits.

So Merry Christmas everyone, enjoy your festive knitting and crochet.

The Festive Season is here! (Sorry)

I should apologise for the continued Christmas theme but here in retail land Christmas is looming large. I have got used to it's early arrival now and think nothing of seeing Christmas decorations in October.

We are very pleased to be stocking some beautiful felting kits designed by Nicola Sugg, there is a cute dachshund, a curly fleeced sheep, an owl and these fantastic baubles:

Nicola is coming to Marmalade Yarns to teach a class on needle felting on Saturday morning, 8th December. You will drink coffee, eat cake and make these baubles, there are only a few places so give us a call/e-mail  if you are interested.

Intarsia Fun.

No prizes for guessing what this is going to be.....

We decided this week we needed a Christmas jumper for the shop. I don't knit a lot for the shop as I am SLOW. However, this intarsia is a lot of fun. I agreed to do it as a bit of a challenge, I haven't done a lot of it and we are only making the 2yo size. To my delight I am really enjoying it. If only I could speed up I would knit the whole family Christmas sweaters. It would be worth the effort to see their faces!!!

Frome, we love it!

You can imagine how excited I was to see this next to the river in town on Saturday morning.

Yarnbombers in Frome, how fantastic. I hope they strike again soon.

Frome is a wonderful place to live, friendly, bright, dynamic; well I am a bit biased! 

We have a quaint town centre with a lot of independent retailers, especially around us in Catherine Hill, so if you are not lucky enough to live here, it is well worth a visit.

If you are lucky enough to live here then we have just started a new Ravelry group to unite all the yarn lovers of Frome, click here to join. We hope to keep everyone informed of all yarn related events and bring together local stitchers to share their talents.

Frome WI

Last night Maxine, Rosie, Sue, Janet, Mary and I all took our knitting and crochet and descended on the :

This is a very new WI run by dynamic and enthusiastic young women, we had a great evening talking about knitting and crochet and looking at the lovely projects members had brought along to show. It would be great to see some pictures of the evening but I was having such a good time I forgot to take any! However there is a picture on their Facebook page here

This is the poster they used as an advert to recruit new members:

I would highly reccommend this group, they have a table of home baking and wine for refreshments and lots of friendly faces. Check out the blog here  and if you are in the area pop along to the next meeting on 18th October.

This week I have been mostly drooling over:

This is my favourite docket this week:

 While I was away in the summer some new Skein Queen sock yarn arrived, quite a few had sold by the time I got back. However, this is probably a good thing as I have a sock knitting queue which really doesn't need added to but I still struggle on a daily basis not to take a skein home. On tuesday I placed one by the till and chatted about why I shouldn't start another pair of socks with all the slightly bemused customers. This worked well and at the end of the day I managed to put it back on the shelf, for now anyway.

 Last week we restocked the delightful Jillybean range. This locally sourced, hand spun and hand dyed yarn just begs you to knit it. The names are so evocative, 'Evening Tor' , 'Shepherds Delight' , 'Coal Face' , 'Geranium' and 'Up For a Cuddle' all make me smile.

Maxine has succumbed to the charms and snaffled some before it even hit the shelf. Remember Highland Fling? Well watch this space for the next Jillybean project. I am currently loading some of these beauties on to the webshop where they should be available by Monday.
Have a good weekend.

September, reasons to be cheerful.

I spent a long time away from the shop this summer and had a very difficult and sad time. On my return Maxine (and Rosie) had been working hard and a lot of new stock had arrived. The shelves are full and we are bursting at the seams.

Now it is September. I love September, the sun is still shining but the air has a crisp smell after the colder nights. I know the nights are drawing in but that brings the promise of cosy fireside knitting, toasty blankets and comfort food. The new season patterns are full of cables and fair isle. I am scared to look in the new books as every time I do I see at least 3 more "must knits".

Today I opened the new Debbie Bliss Magazine: Gorgeous cabled Paloma jumper, cutest 'fox' hat and mitts, mens jumpers that my husband would wear and stunning lace: Check it for yourself if you dare here.

Best of all, new yarns keep rolling through the door: Lovely pure wool aran:

New Knitcol colours:

and chunky scarf yarns

 

Cheeriest of all, new pom pom Jester. If that doesn't cheer you up.....

then come along for a visit and we will show you more reasons to love this time of year.

Owls - Rip Off

Do you remember my Kate Davies 'Owls' sweater?

The owls aren't as easy to see in mine as I would have liked and am planning to reknit it this winter in a plain chunky yarn. Kate Davies is one of my favourite designers. 'Owls' is famous! on ravelry there are 5434 owl projects registered!

Today, I have been horrified to find out Debenhams has copied this design. needless to say it is very inferior to a hand knit but there has been  no consultation with Kate Davies. 

Read the story of the iconic 'owls sweater' and see the mass produced copy by going to Needled, Kates Blog. Then e-mail Debenhams to register your disapproval. Then....buy the pattern and make your own beautiful version.

Bunting Galore @ Bath Fashion Museum

Bath Fashion Museum has rallied the knitting community to produce 2500 flags and lovingly joined them together to make the most amazing bunting.

Maxine and I had a lovely day visiting the museum which has a history of fashion in sport exhibition and the most amazing chandeliers in the Assembly rooms.

But best of all was the bunting. It's lovely to think of the many different people who made the flags and the enormous task of joining them all.

Well worth a visit, check out more information here.

Jubilee

The Queen herself is in our window. 

Lovely, talented Claire made the sparkly patriotic shawl.

We found the crown from last year and a few corgis.

Maxine spent hours crocheting the edge on some rooster bunting.

Hilary and Tonya made the heart

and the long awaited jubilee window appeared....

Have a fantastic Jubilee weekend with family and friends.

Olympic Bear

The olympic torch came to Frome today. There were crowds and sun and cheering children with flags. I shut the shop and joined them. To celebrate here is an Olympic bear at the swimming pool. His jumper is King Cole Aran and knitted by one of our lovely customers. 

Happiness is....

....learning to crochet.

Especially when we make granny square love hearts.

Once again we had a lovely group learning to crochet and we tried a new love heart project this time which was very popular. They also made jar covers and flowers and are now fully fledged crochet addicts.

Highland Fling Shawl

It has taken me longer to upload this photo than it did Maxine to knit it, guess who had more fun!
This is the Jilly Bean 4ply called Highland Fling. This simple lace leaf pattern shows off yarn and the colours perfectly.

Stunning!

Jilly Bean's Campaign for Love (Wool really)

If you love real fleece yarns you will be very excited to know we now have some Jilly Bean in stock.

Everything about this yarn makes you smile, from the quirky sheep label,

to the fact that it is made from locally (to us in Somerset) sourced fleeces,

and the colours have the best names: Spring violets, Fairy Wings, Slow Dance and best of all Highland Fling. We can't stop smiling and Maxine even couldn't stop knitting. Seven hours she knitted with this yarn the other evening and she is still in love with it.

To join us in our happiness have a closer look on our website here.

Smile, it's Spring

Despite the rain, Spring is here. We have had our knitted barge in the window for a few weeks and I thought you would like to see it before it is all cleared for 'The Jubilee Window"

Maxine has been accumulating all things red white and blue so expect a good one.

We love the colours and designs of the Jolly Red tapestries whatever the weather.

Only a short post, I am saving my energy for the Red, White and Blue entry, next time...

FREE PATTERN! (After the talent worship)

Friday night was crochet get together evening where we spend more time admiring amazing projects than actually doing crochet. This month saw the appearance of Janet's breathtaking shilasdair and rowan tweed blanket. To say the photo doesn't do it justice is an understatement. The pink/yellow/grey combination is stunning, I wish I had taken more photos.

 Meanwhile, our fledgling crochet class of complete beginners were amazing too. After one lesson we had a girl who whipped together a baby cardigan of her own design. Once she could do trebles there was no stopping her. Impressive. The 2nd lesson was granny squares and we also taught the circle in a square design and you can see the rest of the class were brilliant too.

We also allowing knitting at our crochet evening and were blown away when Victoria produced her Rams and Yowes blanket. 

 She is hiding behind it. She had cut the steek and was about to do the edge.

Finally, Maxine, who is very excited about the jubilee, has designed a Coronation Crown Jar cover.
The flowers are courtesy of Bramble and Wild, the beautiful florist on the hill.
So watch this space as things are about to become very red, white and blue around here.
If you want to join us the pattern is free on our website here.

More Socks?

Maxine finished knitting her first pair of socks in the round and she actually enjoyed it, they are in the fantastic Regia Stadion and now she will be churning out socks making me, the slow knitter, jealous.

 Debbie Orr of Skein Queen came to visit this week and I acquired this stunning yarn which almost glows. As I gazed lovingly at it I decided we must have more.........

 So we releived Debbie of the need to cart the rest of her yarns home and they are now in the shop, Hooray.

As I was loading them onto the shelf the new Opal sock yarns arrived, Fairies and Elves:

 and 'Let Flowers Speak', Lasst Blumen Sprechen Hand Dyed:

If only I could knit faster!