Of talented customers! BLIMEY! I've been a bit lacking in sharing photos of stuff that people have done recently, and after my Ode to Jazz yesterday, I thought I'd better do one biiiiiiiig post to get back up to date. Enjoy. :)
Singing Bird Artist. Proud of what she's done. Obviously. haha. She'd tried to pick a ball off the shelf and it all came crumbling down around her. It happens a lot here and it's the only time that things really get tidied and sorted (if I have enough time... otherwise they just get shoved back on) so I really don't mind. I just love her little face on this photo. :)
Onto something a bit more productive hey?
Lindsey! From the bank! It's not a bank! I don't care! She came on one of the learn to crochet courses, promptly turned into a master of crochet doing all sorts of intricate things and I virtually had to bully her into finishing this for her mother (for Christmas? For her birthday?) even though it's booooring because it's back to basics. I think the colours really work though and by all accounts her mother loved it. :)
Cathy. Dear old Cathy. She's a regular in the shop so many of you will have met her, she jumps around a lot and she's got a warped sense of humour (in the best kind of a way). She came to us when we'd only just opened, really struggling with her knitting and it's been lovely seeing her progress. Doing this in the Patons' Diploma Gold from one of the Knit Now's took some persuading but I think it's charming. Don't you?
Here's Priscilla in her beautiful Riot DK cardigan. The pattern was written for the Shades DK which we discontinued a little while ago but she's changed some of the details around - like the ribbing on the placket? That was originally garter stitch. I think it adds a kind of military feel which is still around as a trend. I love how she's made it fit her perfectly too!
It wouldn't be a blog post without Verity would it!? This is the Postman Pat jumper that I took off her hands when we were making the bouquets. She couldn't be bothered to sew it up and I offered (because I was drunk...) but then I kinda lost it and then there wouldn't have been enough time for her to do the other bits so I did the neckband and the embroidery (the glasses and Jess's eyes and some other bits). It didn't take long in the end and Alf is MEGA pleased with it. Dead good. Although, on one side she forgot to do any armhole shaping - that too some thinking about. Bloody Vezza.
Dare I say this might be my favourite thing on here!? It's a handbag by Iris and it is STUNNING! She came to show me, unfortunately, on a Monday so the table was still out from a lesson and stuff was everywhere. Bum. So I didn't get a good photo of the rest of it but oh well because this is definitely the best bit! It's the crocodile stitch (or dragon stitch depending on where you come across it) and it was Iris's first time doing it. She's a fabulous crocheter anyway but it's definitely a challenge of a stitch this one. I love how she's used the Flash DK and sometimes the scales are half one colour and half another - so cute! The handle, and some other bits are done in black Pricewise DK and the lining is a printed cotton in the most perfectly matching fabric you ever did see. She looks a treat with it!
I'm sneaking this one in here because it's gone down a storm in the shop. It's not interesting enough, I don't think, to have a blog all of it's own. It's by meeeee! And it's for the shop. It's part of my new year's resolution to do a knitting and crocheted 'thing' in every yarn in the shop (that's kind of stalled to get me back on track with Amy's Cardigan which is pretty much finished btw) but I will get there - I have until the end of the year, ey? Anyway, it's a jacket from the King Cole Baby Crochet book - I can't get these on the internet because I don't have any good quality photos of the projects inside, maybe people will buy just from the cover but I'd feel bad. It's in the Pricewise DK and the buttons I bought from York on my Valentine's weekend. In retrospect I could have gone a size or two bigger for those but it will most likely never be worn anyway and I had no idea because when I bought them I had just about done a chain and a row on the back so I did my best. Lovely pattern, lovely yarn. :)
This is the lovely Hilary (mates with Priscilla from above - love word of mouth!) in her King Cole Riot Chunky Jacket (pattern: 3370 - doesn't it look so much better in Hilary's colourway??). I adore how neat Hilary is, I couldn't do it. She's matched up the fronts and the sleeves perfectly and somehow the button bands match even though she didn't try, she's just magically neat! Lovely fit, lovely colour on her, very pleased. In fact, I was walking down the road with my head down the other day when I noticed a flash of colour, had a quick glance, thought to myself 'phwoar what a cardi' and then realised it was Hilary and her Riot Chunky. :)
AMY! AMY BLOODY BLACKWELL! She's only gone and made a bloody Beatnik hasn't she!? In yarn from another shop (boo hiss!) but I was so tickled by the fact that she was wearing it as I was finishing the last bits of Amy's cardi that I made her pose. Look at her lovely smile and look at the fact that there are two Beatniks that belong to two different Amys on the camera at the same time. Magic.
This is a snap from my Learn to Knit lesson last week. It was a seriously good lesson! Seriously! I say this every time but these lot were mega knitters after only about an hour. You know I can't remember names, but the leftie in the corner who was sure she couldn't do it - she could! (Not so much the threading a needle though but we can't be great at everything hey... ;) ). And the bloke, Philip? Phillip? Phil? I could be completely wrong - sorry! He's not only a knitter, flower arranger, hair dresser and an electrical engineer (love those electrical engineers), he also fixed my kettle! Kinda... He worked out it must have been the switch rather than anything electric and ever since I've been able to make it boil just by flicking it on and off a few million times. Today though, I walked about three miles to buy a new one and it's shiny, sleek and silver so that fits in with the rest of the shop (or not...). Anyway, he's wearing the bling and holding the special electrical screwdriver that Boyf left in my bag... So enjoyed this lesson and so looking forward to this Sunday.
This is Annette in her lovely Bamboo Cotton Cardigan. She made this on the Sweater Club workshops and it was a true labour of love but I think we can agree that it looks fab - yes? I love this colour on her and I have a sneaky suspicion that she might have one of the few colourings that look good in that shade. Apart from kids obviously, they look good (or equally kiddy should I say, not a big fan) in every colour but for me, I'd deffo have to mix it with something and then you'd lose the pure simplicity of the colourway. It's a bit Farrow and Ball if you know what I mean? Love how she's matched it with the scarf too!
And the mavelous Davina - another big friend of the shop! :) She deserves extra special mention because she's now finished a crochet t-shirt (which is amazing btw, check the ravelry) but to say thanks for the help I've given her she bought me a BIG BOTTLE OF RED WINE! On a day that I really needed it! This is an old pattern of ours knitted in the Patons Diploma Gold DK and it took a lot of wool and even more willpower to get through it. At fist cables are all like 'yeah, fun, not just knitting, not just ribbing, bit exciting, looks amazing, dead easy, yeeeeeah' and then cables are more like 'oh. my. god. could. you. be. any. more. boring? Please just knit yourself, like now'. Know what I mean? Davina persevered and this was the result and I love her and her little face! :)
This one deserves and extra special mention AND a huge photo because OMG! LOOK AT IT! I can't remember this lady's name (and I feel bad but I warn everybody that this is going to happen so tough) but she is a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Amazing. Look! And I lost half the photos because I'm a tit so there's even more goodness to this cowl than there is on these photos! Essentially, she bought a load of Cygnet Chunky and made a My Favourite Things Cowl. There's loads of stuff in there, wabbits, London, snow, music, and the world! I wish I'd not lost the rest of the photos because there is so much more. Isn't it beautiful??! Isn't it exactly the right size for her?! What about the colours?! Is everybody else as excited as I am!? I LOVE IT!
And here's the shawl in action - love her hair. Love how she's put it with something so plain - to let the yarn shine. If you're in any doubt, Jennifer is a seriously nice person who didn't tell me off when she should have done so I love her. :) :) :)
And finally, I'd get a right telling off if I didn't include these. They're Cazza's (my sister...) dishclarts and aren't they lovely!? As far as I can tell they're in the Bamboo Cotton (mostly maybe anyway) and I do genuinely love how she's put colours together, dead interesting. Not entirely sure you could claim that they were 'designed' though Cazza - they are just kinda squares with stripes on. Anyway, really enjoy useful knitting - it must be a family thing. :)
And that's your lot. It's not all of my talented customers (obvs, you are reading this) but it's everything that's on my phone and now they're on here I've deleted them off there and my phone actually feels lighter. It takes less time to find photos of Boyf and the cat to cheer me up anyway... Haha.
Love Eleanor. xxx
wow wow wow could you move shop closer to me please sigh x
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