Pimms and Knitting in the Secret Garden

Last Saturday we were down in the Secret Garden at their annual craft fair, we could tell you where it was but then we'd have to kill you...Not really it was on Edwards lane at the United Reformed church and it was lovely.

 

This was our little stall, tucked in the corner of the tea rooms, so we had unadulterated access to the delicious cream teas and biscuits. Just behind us is the piano on which Eleanor gave an impromptu concert after one pimms too many! 

 

We took a small selection of our yarns but focussed mainly on the artisan products including a lovely debut of our newest artisan's brooches and pin cushions - the prices of which have now been updated on this blog post.

 

The day kicked off with a lively parade - wearing sparkly clothes and making a bloody racket but they all looked to be enjoying themselves.

 

Right next door to us was a lovely lady called Karen selling knitted and crocheted items, by which Eleanor was a little smitten. We'll talk more about her later as Eleanor took tons of photos to share with you.

 

This was one of Liese's favourite stalls, where Eleanor brought a lovely purple flowering plant for her mum, and as it turns out the lady running it is one of our good customers - Jane.

Emma Williams stall was Liese's other favourite, a treasure trove of wonderful blue toned ceramics, stunning!

Eleanor kidnapped the camera and went for a walkabout, where she spotted this stall which appealed to her macabre side but she has forgotten the name of the lady running the stall, so if it's you or you know her please get in contact.

My first full day at the shop

Yesterday was spent at Knit Nottingham undertaking a stock take. This was the first time that I had spent a whole day surrounded by the shop yarns, counting them, petting them and generally getting to know their different properties and colours.


I soon found myself up to my knees in yarn to be sorted.Yarn was put taken off shelves, put in boxes, taken out of boxes, put back on shelves, rescued from under the table and the odd balls were returned to their families.



Somehow sorting a box of wool into piles of colour reminded me of sorting buttons as a child.



We have moved things around a little to really show off the yarns, I hope you all enjoy the new display cupboards and I am sure you may recognise them as the ones that were previously stood in the window.



Other display areas have been sorted.






The needles and spindles have had a good dust down




AND.......we found the floor!



why not pop in and have a look?

It WORKS!!!

Blimey folks! The webshop works - we've even had orders and it's all gone smoothly.

I'm celebrating so listen up:

We're going to give a lovely free thing to the 38th person to order from us. I'll not tell you what it is because I'm going to choose what you get based on what you order - so make sure you order enough to let me know what you'd like.

Would this be a good time to mention the divine handspun we have in stock...?

Get down on it by clicking here!

I've been counting...

The e-mails between our web designer and us over the past few weeks and it's about 40. Forty e-mails! Back and forth and back and forth. Me trying to do techy things and her trying to explain complicated things to a simpleton. Photos not coming out as they should have done and documents disappearing and some nitwit hacking us the minute we got it up (thank goodness there hadn't been any orders!!!).

Oh my, it's been a treck of epic proportions. And I don't like the internet any better than I did before. But it's done:

nine months and two weeks after we first opened, we have a webshop!

This must be what it feels like to get married after months of planning and speaking to people and ordering things and being frustrated - the big day has come.

Now, let's hope we don't have a repeat of what happened last time....

WEB SHOP



How I am sew not a domestic goddess...

One of my most hated moments in the shop is when somebody, I hate to say it but usually a man, comes in and asks if I can just take his trousers up or sew on a button or whip up a dress for his kid. No. No. No. No. NO!!! In my head I'm saying 'come on mate, I don't sew and I don't cook, clean and bring up your kids whilst putting dinner on the table for you either'. Argh. It annoys me. I knit and crochet. I sometimes spin. And I do them to a high standard because that's where my skills lie. It's as if they assume that I'm some sort of 50's housewife/homemarker and I'm bloody not - I'm a skilled crafter. 

OK - rant over.

Sometimes I do sew - but don't tell them that...

I'm not very good. I get inspired by lovely things I see on the internet, or lovely things I see on customers or lovely things I see at knitting club but in reality I'm a bit bad at sewing. I think it's because you've got to be precise. I've never got good enough to splash out on jersey type material, I just haven't got the money to waste when I know I'll go wrong on it so I stick to cotton. And I'm a massive fan of bed sheets for turning into skirts and dresses. You just can't beat the patterns or the prices and it's upcycling ain't it? I'm down with the kids.

As an aside, I did sew a lovely skirt a couple of weeks ago out of some curtain fabric I picked up for free at the Kathleen and Lilies sale. I wore it on the bus to knit night and a lad sat opposite me asked if it was a bed sheet because he had exactly that pattern when he was a kid. How exciting! Mum was embarrassed when I told her... But I'm impressed. 

So, yesterday a new artisan showed me her goods. I think they're just the sweetest. It's a collection of pin cushions with needle books, knitting needle rolls, hair clips and brooches. She's used chocolate browns, rose pinks, duck egg blues and ivory to create the cutest little knitting and sewing accessories you've ever seen. There's lots of blanket stitch. And I like it. Let me show you why:

Prices:

Needle rolls - £13
Pin cushion and needle books - £8
Brooches - £4-£6

As another aside - I discovered the website shapecollage.com by accident and I bloody love it! It's like I've been photoshopping but it does all the work for you. Exciting!

And - here's a gratuitous shot of some pin cushions with chubby baby feet and legs:

He couldn't resist them - I think we may have a crafter on our hands!!!

And just to finish up - here's some sewing I did yesterday - it's still in the idea stage but at least I've got a project bag, it might keep me more organised. Unlikely. Maybe it'll make me look like a more upmarket bag lady... 

Busy and sunny and happy and drunk and creative!

On Saturday I got off the bus, in a mega rush because I was late as usual, and what did I see before my very eyes but a young woman knitting in public. Naturally I rushed over and started spouting about how exciting it was to see someone knitting in public and how it was knit in public day and did she know and did she want to come for a booze later, what was she knitting, where did she buy her yarn from and did she know about Knit Nottingham?! Bless her little heart she looked quite stunned but to her credit she didn't run away screaming. She didn't end up coming because she had to work but if she ever reads this blog, then I am sorry for scaring you when you were innocently knitting at the bus stop.

It was a brilliant start to knit in public day along with the fact that it was such a sunny day and we were mega busy in the shop. You'll know that we arranged the Yarn Crawl, which has gone down brilliantly but the main event was the boozy get together in the evening at the Bell Inn. It was great to see so many lovely folk come together for a knit/crochet/spin and booze session, hope you all enjoyed yourselves as much as I did!

  

 

 

Knit2gether Lincs

Hi, 

With all the recent chat about yarn bombing on the facebook page at the moment, I thought I would explain where I was last Saturday.  Knit2gether Lincs is a collaborative knitting project which captures the inclusivity and celebration of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games and last weekend they held a Keep Calm and Carry Yarn event at The Hub in Sleaford.





They are aiming to knit a running track and are holding knitting events around the Lincoln area. For myself, it was an opportunity to see some yarn bombing in action as well as sit and spin with friends. I even got to mend a spinning wheel for a young couple, amazing what can be done with a bit of tape ( wheel now works and it should hold ok until properly repaired)

Also, a quick update on the spindle spun singles.......The Calais shawl is finished!!!


I love the way the colours and the fibres change from white Merino round the neck area through to Falkland and finally Shetland for the bind off. I still have the shawl knitting bug though :-) sorry Eleanor but I think it will be a while before I knit a cardi!!

Hope you all are having a great weekend,

Sue

Just another day......

Morning

Knit Nottingham's tame Marketing Manager here, (more like admin monkey!) I realised today that I had not posted anything on here for a while, so here goes....

The last month has flown by, only seems five minutes since Easter and the Royal wedding! Realising yesterday that we are now in June made me pause and think about what I've been doing, as I never seem to get much time to knit, not a good state of affairs.

Doing the marketing for the shop uses up a fair chunk of my week which I thrive on, but as I still have bills to pay the rest of the week is taken up by my day job as a nurse. On the marketing front its been a busy month, organising things ready for Worldwide Knit in Public day, the Yarn crawl cards and putting together an exciting suprise which I could tell you about but then I'd have to......(joking), watch this space for details in the next week or so.

As I have yet to master the art of surviving on no sleep all this leaves little time for the fun stuff in life such as knitting. However I have made time to catch up on my blanket challenge (more about that next week) and work on some lovely little knitted badges....

These badges were designed specifically to celebrate Nottinghamshire Gay Pride and will be available to buy from the shop soon, £1 from the sale of each badge will be going to the Nottinghamshire Lesbian and Gay Switchboard charity.

Happy Crafting
Liese 

A Shock and Suprise!

This is a spinning post that's not from Sue! AND. It's a post from Eleanor that's not a novel!

I just has a little thought, whilst browsing through Youtube looking for music, I'm often sending people to a specific video to help start their spinning journey because it's the one that I learned from and I think it's fab, clear and simple. (I also wonder why she seems to be spinning in an underpass?). So, here goes with embedding...

Part One:

 

Part Two:

 

And while we're at it I'll post this video too. I love knitting to music, I try to keep up with the beat which means that if I'm in a pub, club or bar you'll more often find me knitting too (what a bloody sad act...). I particularly like this one - it fits with my knitting beat: 

 

What's your knitting beat? 

Little Summer Knits

In the blog post about poor old Sunshine, I mentioned that I was knitting a simple little something to keep my hands busy but I never followed it up because life got in the way. It is lovely though, and it's a quick knit and it's a cheap present for you or your loved one.

This is it! it's just a little corsage kit in the Silcaress DK which is similiar to the Smooth DK. In the kit you get a 50g ball of yarn, a pattern for the corsage, a brooch back and a little booklet showing the shades of Cygnet yarns with a couple of scarf patterns thrown in for good measure.

All this for only £3.

This will be a great pattern for intermediate knitters and experienced knitters who want a bit of a break (I got it done in a matter of hours).

More to follow but we thought you'd like this little summery tidbit. 

See you soon!