Wednesday 30 July 2014

A series?!?

Remember the posts - on being a fart and on being a fart part two? Probably not I'd guess, but this is pretty much 'on being a fart part three' so I am thinking of doing a series.

Unfortch, I can't actually tell you a lot about the pattern or the yarn. It's a bit of a secret until another time. Yes, readers, I'm getting tired of the secrets too. But the supersecret is coming to an end. Everything has been agreed, contracts are about to be signed and I just have the tiniest little bit of work to do. Once the secret's out then the overall project will continue but I won't have to be so secretive about it next time. I promise it's worth it!

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I always have a holiday project - yeah? You should too. It's dead hard to get it right though - you need something that's going to last the whole holiday and hopefully not going to take up too much space. You need something that will keep you interested and entertained but be pickable upable and putable downable. That's a difficult one. My Oranje was pretty cool:


Basically it was just round and round and round for ever but what kept it interesting were the decreases and increases every now and again and the fact that I was getting to REALLY COOL colourwork pretty soon. It didn't get finished on holiday but pretty soon after. Dead good.



The next holiday I started this beaut:




It's the Eight Petal Rose Sweater and it's gorgeous! But it was just too much. Also, that was the shit holiday to Ilfracome - shit people, shit weather, shit illness, shit cat dying. Blurgh. It's still on the go and I do drag it out occasionally to remind myself that I am a good, if incredibly slow, knitter...

Anyway, this holiday, I decided to start a brand new sweater as a shop sample. It's my favourite of some brand new ones from King Cole in a new yarn that I can't tell you about. I did think it was kind of a mistake because I REALLY want this sweater for myself and it's very rare that I'm able to knit the same thing twice so I'll never be able to have my own. *sob* Anyway, here it is enjoying the beach:


That was just before I reached 8.5" which is where the armhole shaping started! I was bombing ahead! 

Only, 8.5" isn't bloody long enough is it? I'm somewhere between 40-44" chested now, depending on lots of things like the time of the month and my bra but basically, under 38" and I'm just not that interested. Everything becomes just 'small' in the same way that everything below Nottingham becomes 'the South' which is really just 'London'. So, it didn't matter to me that I was knitting a 32" size with the length of a two year old - that's just what 'small' people do. Hahah. What a tit.

I only realised when I'd got basically to the bit where you start shaping around the neckline. I was on the phone to my mum (at Sandringham we had some rare phone signal) and I was just skimming to get to the bit where I needed when I saw 18.5". Eighteen and a half inches. Not bloody eight and a half. Ugh. Boyf was absolutely crestfallen. He kept saying 'but you can't rip it out!' and 'all that work!'. But I knew better. I knew that I'd been a tit before, I'll be a tit again and there's absolutely no bloody way to fudge a 10" mistake. Hahaha. Even I know that.

Ahh well. It got ripped and now I'm about back to where I was. Only I've miscrossed a cable. But only Allah is perfect. And actually, I can start a new thread on the blog so it's all worked out for us. Which makes me wonder - do any of you have any being a fart stories? Want to write a post for us? Let me know and you could be a fart-star for the day! :)

Love Eleanor. xxx

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Boyf's First Pattern.


Many of you were dead impressed by Boyf's first made up thing, a beautiful flower,  and I told you I was forcing him to write a pattern. Here it is!

It's featuring in pride of place at the left hand side of the window as we speak:



Can you see it? Here's a closer look:


He's dead proud. I'm dead proud. And here's the pattern. Bits I've added are in italics because he's never had to read a crochet pattern seeing as he's got a crochet genius on hand.... ;)

Boyf's First Daisy

Materials: 
4mm hook. 
Oddments of black, green and orange DK yarn (the orange and black could happily be swapped for other colours). 
A sewing up needle. 

Gauge: 
Matters not in the slightest. 

Experience: 
You'll probably want to have made a granny square before because this is written more like a recipe.

Basic Middle and Petal Shape: 

6 chains in a circle.
5 sets of trebles with 2 chains in between.
5 sets of corners with no chains in between.

make one of these in black.

make five of these in orange but before you break off slip stitch a side of the orange one to a side of the black one.

Stem:

6 chains.
treble back and forth to the length that you want before you break off slip stitch to the back of one of the black sides.

Leaves (make two):

10 chains.
slip stitch, 2 double crochets, 2 half trebles, 2 trebles, 1 half treble, 2 double trebles, carry on on the back of the chain and do the same thing again.
slip stitch around the whole of the leaf.
sew it on.

It's good yeah? It's almost like a real pattern! He genuinely thought of it himself and I know he'd be thrilled if you did one and sent the photo in to us. Even if he'd act indignant and somehow turn the conversation round to complaining about the trams...

I'm off to add this to Ravelry. Yeah. This deserves a place on Rav. :) ETA: And here's the Rav link. Make make make please. :)

Love Eleanor. (and Boyf). xxxxxx

Saturday 26 July 2014

Knit Norfolk

I'm sorry to have to tell you folks, that you're all going to have to pack up, we're moving to Norfolk. Hunstanton specifically. I'm not sure I can go on much longer living in land locked Nottingham when I know what's only two and a half miles away. Sea, sunshine, camping. Ahhhhh. I took SO many photos. Some of them I can't share because they're for the yarn boxes. (Have you bought yours? Deadline's tomorrow and it's exclusive so once it's gone it's gone. Here's the Three Ships one and here's the Dirty Rascal one). Anyway, no selling. Let's just relive my holiday together ey?

Firstly, the soundtrack:


That's Love Is All Around by The Troggs for those who can get it on their devices... It's about the only song that me and Boyf agree on so we played it an. awful. lot.

So, I don't know if you picked up on this but it was a surprise holiday. Kind of. Weeks ago I'd talked about how I wanted to go on holiday for my birthday and we'd talked (well really I'd talked) about going camping on the Isle of Wight. That kind of fizzled out and then I didn't have any money and I hate this weather so I wasn't going to bother doing anything. One day, out of the blue Boyf told me to book some time off because he'd booked us a holiday! I couldn't believe it! He wouldn't tell me where but he did eventually tell me it was camping because we had to borrow most of the bits from my 'rents given that all of his gear is like one man tents for titting about in the wilderness. I need a tent with a reception room and a spare bedroom goddamnit.

So, I had no idea where we were going when we set off but he did really want to take the bikes and I'd told him that it needed to be by the sea and down south and he'd told mum it wasn't 'that far away' so I must admit that flat, slightly southern, sea-sidey Norfolk had crossed my mind. I persuaded him not to take the bikes in the end, mostly because did I ever tell you about the disastrous bike ride that was like hell on earth? But secondly because I was worried about the sheer weight and size of stuff we had to take in his little Corsa.

Anyway, we started off on the way to Skegness. Which was a bad sign. But as we neared our destination I started seeing buses marked 'Norfolk' which was exciting. I've never been to Norfolk before but I've heard from so many people how lovely it is. Then we got stuck in a massive traffic jam just outside of King's Lynn and then Boyf took a wrong turning and had to get back in the jam to get back out again. That was a barrel of laughs! We started noticing that the place names were turning a bit sea-sidey (like blablablahport and little blablah by the sea that sort of stuff) and then all of a sudden we were at the campsite! It was lovely! There were rabbits EVERYWHERE! And people that seemed to live there?!!? They were perhaps a bit old fashioned... when I went to pick up the full gas bottle he told me to 'wait for him, you don't want to get your pretty dress dirty'. Hmmm. And then in the club house bit there was this poster:


Which they seemed pretty proud and protective of.... Right-o. 

Anyway, we headed straight for the beach after putting the tent up AND it turns out it was a bloody nature beach. Do you know what I mean? I came up against it in Weston too. All stones, seagulls and no toilets. Not good. It was pretty and we spent a couple of evenings trying to catch a lovely sunset and we finally did on the bonus extra day that we decided to stay!


Can you see what I mean? I'm sure this is lots of peoples idea of a BRILL beach. But I want beach huts and ice creams and dressed crabs. Anyway. 

 We came back and spent two hours trying to light a barbeque that was far too small:


But ended up with a feast: 


It was more than that. Obvs. But I was so bloody hungry I didn't have time to photograph - imagine!

The next day the weather was looking pretty ropey so we headed to Castle Rising Castle. Which was apparently very important to England back in the day and to Queen Isabella herself but is now a bit of a shell. We had a lovely time wandering around and taking loads of photos for the Rascal Box. 


I saw the most amazing fireplace that WILL be a shawl at some point. Or perhaps a top down yoked sweater. 


And just because:


I found out what corbels actually are. 

Then we wandered around Castle Rising itself:



Where we saw LOADS of those tall pale yellow flowers. Can anyone identify them? I fell in love and need them in Boyf's garden and I know they're common but it's like I saw them with new eyes. They all seem to be pale yellow down there and brighter pink up here. Hmmmm. 

Then I had Pimms.
Natch. 

In the evening with barbequed (more successfully) a bloody £10 piece of meat! £10!!! It was nice but I'm not convinced it was worth it. 

The next day the weatherman told us it was going to be sunny so we went to the beach. It didn't look promising but at about half ten the sun suddenly came out and it didn't go back! 


That was the main beach at New Hunstanton and then about a mile down the road there is Old Hunstanton that is quite simply the nicest beach I've been to in years. There a little patch of shells running right up the beach: 


Once you get past that your in the British equivalent of the Maldives: 

 Look at how beautiful that water is! And more:


This strange ankle to knee depth bit went on for metres and metres and then you finally reached where you could swim and nobody else bothered to go out there so you were on your own looking in at the beach that was crowded and noisy and busy (in the best possible way) singing songs and floating and bobbing gently along on the waves. Heaven. 

 
This was as the evening started to set in and people where heading off home. WHY!? WHY WOULD YOU EVER LEAVE THIS PLACE?!?!

But we did. Because Boyf got it in his head that he wanted fish and chips on the beach but there was no fish and chips in Old Hunstanton. So we walked back along the top of the cliffs that the council have planted with a load of grass and some seats, through some gorgeously old fashioned gardens, past the hubble and bubble of a Victorian seaside town to the fish and chips which were delicious and we've finally worked out that even though we're tubby ('fat as pigs' - thanks mum, haha) we're more than happy to have a fish each and share chips. Trust me, this has been a revelation. What?! You mean you don't have to eat ALL THE FOOD?!?! 
 
 Feeling uncharacteristically romantic Boyf decided that we'd watch the sunset on the nature beach. And that was a bit of a damp squib but what we did see was jellyfish! I'd run out of the water earlier convinced that I'd been 'got' by one and he'd brushed it off. Then he had what looked like sunburned knees but when we got back to the tent they were red and angry and kind of damp and veiny in a way that sunburn isn't (sounds as disgusting as it was). As we sat down on the nature beach we started listen to a loud and happy family who were out on the muddy watery bit where the tide had gone out exclaiming loudly about how many jelly fish there were and how big they were! They were also swearing a lot (in a nice way if that's possible) and having a whale of a time. We got chatting to them and found out that the girl had autism and the boy had tourettes and that they therefore have more important things to worry about that swearing. The mother told us that she'd seen a Portugese Man O' War!!!! I'm not entirely sure I believed her but Boyf's legs looked pretty angry - he's not dead though. Anyway, this is not a man o' war:
 

But it is a jellyfish. Blurgh. 

The next day we decided to do a bit of culture and ended up at Sandringham. I actually didn't enjoy it like I thought I would. Lots of military stuff (and you might know how I feel about that...) and cars. But I did get this lovely photo of Boyf with a halo around him:


 On the way back from Sandringham Boyf got an e-mail saying that some stuff at work had been magically sorted out which meant we were free to have an extra day! And as the weather hadn't been great and I'd only managed to swim once we jumped at the chance!!!!

Boyf decided that he didn't want to spend the whole day at the beach (very. nearly. dumped). So we started driving and found ourselves at a lovely little Abbey that had been left to rot after all of the monks had died of the plague.


It was looking a bit boring until I found a shrine hidden away. 


I must admit I had a read through of the letters. I didn't know if I was supposed to but I did. Heartbreaking stuff. Especially the letter written by a kid just learning to write to her mum. Blurgh. 

We cheered ourselves up (or Boyf cheered me up) by going back to the beach! I'd forgotten reading material and the knitting had gone wrong so I spent three hours watching the sea and people, swimming a bit, messing with stones and shells. Lovely. Found a crab:


 And I took this photo of Boyf which just about sums him up: 


Look at his little (handknitted) socks and shoes! And it occurred to me, before I went on holiday, that I've never actually introduced him to you. I objectify him on a daily basis by calling him Boyf rather than his name and this is all because I didn't want anybody to get attached to him lest he turn out to be a wanker like the rest of them. But I think we can safely say, after nearly a year of him not being a wanker, and him organising the super perfect trip away that he deserves a name. It's Chris. :)

 And then finally we managed to get to see a proper sunset. Ahhhh. Dead romantic. Apart from the bastard screeching kids scrabbling in the mud and getting in the way of a perfectly good photo.


And that's it! Sorry there wasn't more knitting. We did drop into a knitting shop on the way home but to be honest it wasn't much good so I won't bother going into the details (it seems that every shop I visit nowadays isn't much good - could it be me shopping in a different way???). 

Right. I'm offski.

Love Eleanor.

Thursday 17 July 2014

Dirty Rascal Yarn Box


Oh me oh my! Three posts in nearly as many days! We're really spoiling you. Haha.

I've been taken over by the urge to crochet - I knew it would happen. When I released the 'Three Ships Came Sailing Pi' yarn box on Monday straight away I started being told off about not having a crochet one. It was always part of the plan but pressure makes me work much harder so by the time I'd woken up on Tuesday I had a fully formed idea in my head. I worked all day on Tuesday on that pattern... and then decided I hated it. Mmmm. Not hate so much as, not quite sure it's got the general appeal that it should have when you're buying a pattern in secret. I want to make sure that the most of you get the most out of this you see. And if it's to be a regular thing then you need to like them - it's a responsibility, especially for somebody like me that's so in love with neon and sparkles. The things that I provide have to be enjoyable to make, pleasing on the eye, easy to wear, simple for newer makers, interesting for experienced makers. Oh my! It's a challenge. I think I've done it with this one though. I am dead pleased.

On a related note - if the shop ever goes tits up - I could totes be an illustrator. Yeah? :)

Click her to buy the box if you need to know no more... 

Anyway, on with the box - it's a corker!

Your Pattern: 


It's a secret. Obvs. But what I can tell you is: 

- it's crochet - 
- it's an accessory -
- it's worked all in once piece but there are three 'bits' to it -
- one of those bits is entitled 'murder holes' -
- if that doesn't make you want to do it then you're dead to me -
- the stitches are simple - 
- the construction is unusual -
- it will come in printed format and with a code for a Ravelry download -

Your Yarn:
 These are your colour options. All I can tell you is: 

- the yarn is a wool blend -
- it's not a solid colour - 
- it's one of our best sellers and I adore it - 
- it's easy to crochet with -
- and easy to look after - 

Your Other Bits:


- hand made stitch markers on the theme - 
- a code for free shipping on the same yarn - 
- a sneaky peek at a brand new yarn only available in the shop from September - 
- other gifts that I'm going to find when I'm on holiday - 
- a walk through of the design ideas that will be absolutely fascinating! - 
The box will be beautifully presented and sent to you  like a gift. The idea is that you receive something really special to brighten up your day. It's an awful lot of effort going in to this - especially as you all know what a slattern I am... 

Now, I'm giving you 10% off this like I did with the 'Three Ships' box but the offer can't last as long as that one did because I'm literally on holiday as of 6am Saturday morning. So, to be reasonable, it's £18.00 if you buy before 10pm on Friday the 18th of July and £20.00 thereafter. Payments must be made by the 27th of July and the boxes will be sent no later than the 7th of August. See, it's all the same as the knitters - I do love you hookers. 

Once again, click here for the link. 

And that's it. Now I need to do some serious tidying to leave the shop reasonable for June.

Love. xxxxxxxx

Tuesday 15 July 2014

WOWOWOW!

What a response to the yarn boxes! I really feel like I'm taking on a responsibility here, silly as that sounds. I'm just so excited about picking the gifts and getting the photography done - I've told Boyf that we've got to take his posh camera on holiday so get some really good ones - no more of my smashed screen wonder...


Can you see? Haha. It happened at the end of the coach trip in May, I was busy knitting and the coach braked suddenly and everything went flying! My ball of yarn went from the back of the bus right to the front under all the seats - it was like pass the parcel to get it back to me. And that happened. It's somewhere between £60 and £95 to get it fixed so I just keep putting it off. Blurgh. Anyway... Nice photos.

I've also had an idea about a CROCHET yarn box! It was always the plan to sort of alternate knitting and crochet boxes but I actually woke up with a fully formed idea so this might happen just a little bit before it might have done. I'm even, in my madness, thinking I might get it done and written up before I go on holiday so that I an photograph it there like I'm planning to with the 'Three Ships' box. Hmmmmm. Madness. But a possibility.

Anyway, let's calm this right down because I have a BRAND NEW YARN! to show you. And boy, oh boy is it a beaut! Firstly, let's grab a theme tune:


Can't beat a bit of funk. Mmmmmm. Now, this is the yarn that caused this little text convo which apparently had the rep's wife in stitches. What? You mean no other yso talks to their reps like this?!?!



Then I'm just going to pop this here. Take a moment to appreciate it's beauty:


Oh YES! Have you ever wanted the Galaxy in ALL THE COLOURS?!?!?!!? Well, I'm not surprised because I bloody have! And now King Cole have listened to all of our inner thoughts and provided a 'hold-along' yarn that we can work WITH ANYTHING WE WANT to make a sparkly beaut! Now, it's actually not as mental as it looks when it's knitting along with something - I might even go as far as to say... it's subtle...


See what I mean? That's the pattern 4055 (I'm not going to make the 'inspiring name' joke but seriously...). The rest of the patterns are here. And the yarn itself is here.

Now, as subtle and lovely as this looks I also just want to KNIT THE WHOLE THING UP ON ITS OWN BECAUSE OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG IT'S BLOODY SPARKLY! Yeah? I have IDEAS. And no time, no I'm a professional yarn box designer. Haha. There's time. I'm always saying to you lot when I can see you getting over excited and wanting to buy everything in the shop that there's time. Yarn doesn't just disappear. But seriously. Giz!

It comes in a range of seven colours - black with black sequins, silver sequins and multi-sequins, silver with silver and multi sequins and gold with gold and multi sequins. All called ridiculous names like 'Galactica' (I've never had to type that before in my life. Haha. I've borrowed an idea from another shop and done a 'grab pack' of one of each colour. I can see somebody buying that for making Christmas gifts and ornaments (ugh, I've mentioned in twice in two days, I'll stop now). And of course you save money that way, but really, it's cheap as chips when you factor in that you get 393 metres (that's three hundred and ninety three metres) per ball. WHAT??! How is that even possible? I'm not questioning, dear readers, I'm just knitting. Or dreaming about knitting. Somebody should have told me about the sacrifices you have to make when you're a successful yarn shop owner. Not being able to knit what I want to knit NOW. Ugh.

And one more time to help with the google rankings - presenting the gorgeous, delightful, sparkly, warkly, funky-yet-subtle, yarn-of-my-dreams - King Cole Cosmos. Go forth KnitNottinghamites and brighten up even the darkest days. :)

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxx

Monday 14 July 2014

Three Ships Came Sailing Pi Yarn Box

Oooooh. A new idea! Well, a borrowed idea. Can you remember the Bobica Shawl? And I talked a bit in the accompanying blog about Verity's Truly Hooked Yarn Boxes? Well, I didn't really explain them well, did I? I will, but first, here's the song I'm writing this to to get you in the sea shanty mood:


So, what's a yarn box? Usually it's a box of goodies put together by a hand dyer with some gorgeous hand dyed yarn and gifts along a theme. So, the Bobica box had a cake of the beautiful berry coloured gradient yarn by Verity, a letter with the code for the Bobica pattern, some berry stitch markers and some strawberry buttons. Customers bought the boxes without knowing anything about what was going to be in there - I don't think they even knew the theme for that one! Sometimes they'll know the theme like the 'Summer Sun' box that Verity did with a couple of other talented indie dyers - they got three 50g skeins of summer-y coloured yarn, fruit tea, cocktail flavoured fudge and fun little umbrellas (other stuff too, this is just off the top of my head).

Why do people buy them? For a million different reasons I suppose - same reason we knit and crochet! The lovely Steph described how exciting it was to get the box in the post when everything else was a bloody bill, like she'd bought herself a little gift. The money usually leaves you a couple of weeks before you receive the box so it really is like a gift to yourself isn't it?! I was also talking to a customer about how it's lovely to get the inspiration to craft from somebody else - ever feel like you're stuck in a rut with your crafting? Yeah, me too. And that's often when I most enjoy a commission. Somebody else popping into your conscious being excited and inspired about something that you never would have even thought about - like two colours together, or textures together or shapes or, or, or! A chance to step out of your comfort zone.

Why have I decided to do them? Well, with the super secret project, I'm in my design zone at the moment. But a few things went wrong - or sideways - last week so I had to stop and do something else. I always come back to my first love knitting, even after months of flirting with the cute, quick, sassy and saucy crochet - there's something dignified about the pace of knitting isn't there? And, to be frank, the shop is slow. Not worryingly so, but enough that I have at least an hour every day to devote to something, and if that something isn't the super secret then it may as well be something else that makes me money, yes? I've been meaning to write this pattern up for a while BUT I've been waiting for the perfect combination of yarns to pop into the shop. And they have! By jove, readers, they have! I am so excited about this!

The combination of the yarns I've used means that I've had to do some reworking of the pattern as it was in my head and that led to this:


All the best things in life take a bit of thinking about and redoing, yes? 

So, there are my reasons and here is the box, well, at least what I'm going to tell you about the box. You're taking a leap of faith by purchasing this but one last thing that I have been thinking about is bloody Christmas (sorry!!!). It is coming though. So I've made the decision that this box, and any others that I might do (we'll see how it goes) are going to be perfect Christmas presents. If you don't like it - someone will. After Christmas, I can have a rethink can't I? Because I have a GOOD idea for a garment! Hmmmm. Could we do garment boxes I wonder?! Anyway. 

I suggest you press replay on the song up top - it's deffo in the right mood for the box. :)

May I present to you, the Three Ships Came Sailing Pi Yarn Box - exclusive to Knit Nottingham and sent with love.


Your Pattern: 

It's a secret! That's the whole point. But:

it is knitted
 it is an accessory
 it is simple
it is interesting to knit and wear
 it is well explained and tested
 it does involve *some* intarsia at the very end but that is explained and optable-outable
in printed format and with a code to download on Ravelry. 

Your Colours: 




two options
both equally beautiful
plenty of yarn (with leftovers)
pure, natural fibre
plant based
washable
soft 
genuinely one of my favourites

Other Bits:

hand made stitch markers on the theme
a code for free shipping on the yarn used in the pattern
a sneaky peek at a brand new yarn only available in the shop from September!!!!!!!
other gifts that I'm going to buy for you when I'm on holiday next week so I've no idea what they are!
my love, respect and gratefulness till the end of all time

All of this! For £18.00! Until the close of shop on Thursday the 17th of July and £20.00 thereafter... Payment for the boxes must be made by the 27th of July and the boxes will be shipped by the 7th of August (hopefully earlier). 


And that's it. What do you think? Can you think of any ideas for themes? I've got a beaut in my head for around October but I might not get it done by then. It's seriously cute!

I've also got another blog for you tomorrow - spoilt rotten you lot are!

Love Eleanor. xx

Friday 4 July 2014

Voting is now liiiiiiiiive!!!

Voting's now live for the Let's Knit British Knitting Awards! We've been nominated for Best Local Yarn Shop in the Midlands and Best Local Yarn Shop Day Experience. I am absolutely thrilled about this! Thrilled!

You do not know how excited I get about our tiny little shop playing with the big boys like Deramores and Black Sheep Wools. It takes an awful lot to keep this going - sometimes it's fraught and stressful and sometimes it's absolutely incredible. Seriously, like no other job. I hope you feel like you're part of this incredibleness (and I hope I hide the stress and fraught-ness from you, that's why I've not been blogging too much to be fair...) because you are this incredibleness.

Knit Nottingham is all about the people - me obvs, but it literally wouldn't happen without you and we hope you know that your continued support (by buying, spreading the word, coming to events and voting on stuff like this... ;) ) is what keeps this place going. I think it's easy to feel separated from businesses when they're big enough that you don't know the owner. Honestly, the £15.00 that you spend on a sweater here pays the shop's rent. The connection between you and the shop is that simple. Isn't that amazing?!

And with that in mind you have the opportunity here to win a prize for ALL OF US! Stuff like this gets our name out to other people. These other people might be our future friends or have some amazing way of knitting a heel to tell us about or, when you're skint, they might be the ones that pay the £15.00 that pays the rent. This is massive! GET TO IT! Haha.

A few people have asked me for suggestions for answers. I hate doing this but I don't want you to feel lost. Essentially, answer King Cole where you can, Regia where you can't answer that, and don't forget that you have the opportunity to suggest other options if you want... So questions like Best Knitting Book might be answered by 'King Cole Christmas Knits by Zoe Halstead' (because she's great, local and she came to Yarn Shop Day!). Best Website is obvs Ravelry - I don't believe that's even a question. Best Blog?! Why Attic 24! She's AMAZING! Favourite Event has to be Yaaaaaaaarndale! Best Online Store could be www.knitnottingham.co.uk/shop couldn't it!? Best Knitting Designer/Pattern House? Yours truly. That's Eleanor Burke of Knit Nottingham... ;) Best Independent Yarn Brand? Truly Bloody Hooked. Natch. 

Now, please don't think I'm forcing your hand. I'm not. But, as I say every year, husbands/wives/partners/girlfs/boyfs/sisters/brothers/mums/dads/inlaws/pets/children/nieces/nephews....? They ALL benefit from the stuff bought from us, yeah? Therefore if they were to take 10 minutes of their time to vote for us in the appropriate categories then they might need help, as non-knitters, in deciding where their other votes go.

Don't forget that you don't need to vote in other areas of the country if you don't want. And honestly, I don't care what else you vote for, as long as you vote for us in our categories. I honestly feel SICK with excitement! I sooooo want to go to London again!

Hope that helps folks, I promise I will be back with chatter at some point. Let me get over this first. I miss you!!!

Once again, here's how to vote - CLICK CLICK CLICK.

Love Eleanor. xxx