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!

Sock Knitters Annonymous

Thanks to The Knitter issue 42. I ditched my newly cast on socks and 'just reached the exciting yoke pattern' Killing jumper and spent the last 2 evenings making this adorable Easter bauble. Not as useful as socks but oddly satisfying.
We all seem to be a bit obsessed with socks just now. Even Maxine who suffers from a knitting in the round phobia is flying through a pair and loving every minute. I promise pictures soon.
My own 'sock queue' and sock yarn stash could keep me occupied for several years, I think fuelled by the fact that there is nothing better to put on your feet than hand made socks.

These are Cookie A's monkey socks, sadly only worn for the photo then given away.

These are plain bog standard socks BUT in Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, happily worn every single second they are not in the wash all winter. Heaven!

If you too have a sock habit then best not click on the next link. Our favourite local tech editor, the long suffering Jen, who is frequently hooked off the street and into the shop to help with some scary pattern hiccup. I made the mistake of looking at her blog and 'OH NO' there was a link to her own sock queue on Ravelry. She has made the most gorgeous Kai socks which are worth a peek but I am warning you, sock temptation! Click if you dare!

It's Cold Outside!

Well, it is definitely winter outside, despite the pathetic snow fall that turned to slush before we could find the sledges, it is very cold and wintry.
Despite this the summer season stock keeps on arriving and our table has a fresh spring like feel to it:

We now have Amy Butler Belle Organic dk and aran. The colours are fantastic and there are beautiful patterns in the supporting Meadow book. 

The new Holiday Crochet book is very exciting and I feel the desire to crochet a garment!

Maxine has been ill and is missing the new stock. I know she is especially keen to see the new Noro colours which came this week along with the brilliant Mini Knits 3 book:

The projects are fantastic and while we have been using Noro in our crochet for a while it is nice to see some patterns for more inspiration. And the socks.....

So I am going to send Maxine a copy of the book to curl up by the fire with her winter cold and dream of summer projects.

New Season

Rowan subscribers have been enjoying the new summer magazine for a while and we have had it in stock for almost a week. I usually find the summer edition a bit less inspiring than the winter version, not this year!

This summer, Magazine 51 is amazing. It has a new glossy cover and the contents are so desirable, wearable, knit-able, crochet-able.....you get the drift.
Pop over to the website and browse the patterns at : knit rowan

Other exciting news: we now stock Rooster Almerino dk. A wonderful blend of 50% baby alpaca and 50% merino. Beautifully springy to work with. There are 14 delicious colours and new ones coming soon. I hate to be predictable but I feel a crochet blanket coming on. 

SALE

It's sale time again.

 This year we have a lot of luxury yarn reduced for special New Year cut price projects.

Is that a basket of Noro Kochoran? Yes it is and there is Debbie Bliss Aran, Rowan pure life, Adriafil venezia, Artesano Hummingbird and a lot more so if you dare brave the weather; see you soon.