2016

I can't be the only one who is glad to see the back of 2016. In fact, I know I'm not. What a year. The hippies on the street tell me that mercury has been in retrograde for the entire year and to be fair it's felt like society has been for a lot of it. I look back at Christmas last year and cannot for the life of me think that I knew what was going to happen (even after the shit storm that last Christmas was...). I've spent much of the year wallowing - amazed that humanity can stoop as low as it has, fearing where we go from here, wondering whether what we thought was our community was ever our community, knowing that my privilege has shielded me from the worst of it for the longest time, wishing some people would just shut up. The overwhelming feeling for me has been bleakness, blackness - but that makes the best backdrop for the shining, twinkly moments. It's truly been the year where I've appreciated the few good bits viscerally and that's what I'll share with you here.

There's really only one true story for Knit Nottingham this year. The move. The big bloody move. It was needed. It had been on my mind for years. The old shop was overwhelmingly small. I sometimes felt like I couldn't breathe and I can't pretend that I was happy towards the end. I actually applied for a masters degree. I needed to get out of there somehow. How lucky am I that I didn't get accepted??? It was a long shot anyway but for the first time in a long time I now feel like I have a hold of my future and I certainly didn't then. I couldn't even sort out the orders that came in - they mainly sat outside the shop as I sorted through them. If they didn't the shop looked like this:

Hellish.

It was only a few days ago when Facebook memories popped up with this beaut:

The responses were mixed but positive enough that I followed them up. I couldn't believe my luck! I'd already offered on two other shops and been turned down or let down and this one seemed too good to be true. The landlord is a dream, the downstairs is big and nice enough to work from, the upstairs a manageable size but FOUR TIMES bigger (!!!) with interesting little nooks and crannies in a beautiful street.

 

 Can we all take a moment to understand how much I've come to love this little street? Seriously. I feel at home here now. I miss Mansfield Road and I often find myself wandering up there to see my lovely friends. Mansfield Road is rough and colourful and vibrant and full of different cultures - the people are grafters, mainly immigrants working hard for their families, living a life full of dullness, fullness, excitement, every day problems just like you or I. This street is more mundane, more British, and I found it difficult to adjust at first - everybody was lovely (mainly) - I found I had to live up to something (and when I find myself feeling like that I realise in the end it's only ever me that's making myself do it but still, it's a feeling). But I have a real fondness for it. There's a history here. Little windows in the buildings across used in the lace industry, a chunk taken out of my shop that nobody knows who it belongs to, a pipe in the loo that occasionally leaks because it relates to a drainage system built 300 years ago.We went on to a Christmas breakfast the other day at the Hilton (because we're all too knackered at the end of the day...) and it was wonderful! The people here are inspiring and funny. 

Running the crowdfunder was a shock to me. I'd had it suggested many times before and I'd dismissed the idea. I'm a business, I'm not a multi-national corporation here to rake in all I can get but I am here to make money and the idea of turning that somehow into a charity felt alien to me. But the more people that sent me dribs and drabs of money through PayPal or just in the shop because they were excited about the new shop and wanted to help made me realise that they're not paying me because I'm a charity but because I, and every person that is a part of this community, has built something quite special here. Sometimes when the right people are in the shop at the right time with the right amount of wool and chocolate, it feels magical. That's what they were paying for. I thought long and hard and spent weeks putting together the material that I needed and low and behold we BLOODY SMASHED IT! If ever I've been feeling down this year I just think back to that evening when I was on the bus home from work and my phone was ping ping ping ping ping ping pinging with all the donations and messages of support. Incredible. It still makes my eyes water, though I've gotten over the sobbing.... ;)

That money was incredibly useful. It took a strain out of moving that I'm not sure I even knew was there. My plan was to use my savings, borrow a bit, build the shop up bit by bit but that money meant that moving was plain sailing. Sure there were a few problems, but when you have cashflow in business most problems can be solved. Run out of storage? Instead of chucking it in bags down the cellar we bought the most beautiful baskets. Need a shelf in a specific place to keep the paperwork? Quick, Chris, nip down to BnQ. I can't actually put into words how that money helped. It was a security blanket that I didn't know I needed and I'm 100% convinced that it was that that stopped me having a breakdown through the move (and I'm not even exaggerating). The fact that we doubled the target and were able to buy a new till system may have caused some hassle in the setting up - especially the bloody loyalty cards (remember that!?!?) - but now we're VAT registered (because you lot have been spending so much!) it's an actual life saver.

The first few weeks here were a whirlwind.

 An actual whirlwind. The shop was SO busy. I can't even begin to describe! It was so lovely to see some faces that I didn't see very often, so lovely to share everybody's joy and have them share mine. It helped that the shop looked so snazzy because so many of my beautiful customer friends had helped. Moving was hard work. Long days and stress, a vomiting bug on the day I'd set aside for resting, a family health crisis, beautiful Versace got run over and we had to put her down. It all came at once. But the thing that kept me going was how quickly and unreservedly people offered help and then followed through. I hope I'm able to do the same for these wonderful people one day. I hope that no matter how stressful running this little shop is I remember the gratitude I felt then and now and pass it forward as easily and happily as they did.

It was good fun, as hard work usually is (even if it takes a few weeks to realise). I kept on top of everything for a long while. Stuff was getting on the internet, hoovering was done, pots were washed, lessons were taught, orders were sent, vlogs were made. But come June, with the result of the referendum, I gave up. I realised recently that the constitutional legal talk took me right back to my degree during which I was incredibly depressed. I'm still amazed and still reeling - this year has been about hard work in my business, confidence that we could pull it off, hope for the future - the referendum puts that in peril. Have no doubt about it. I believe we're in a good position to weather the storm and I'm doing all I can to put plans into place. I worry about other indie businesses that I speak to and admire. But all I can do is keep plodding on. There's some fight in me now, like there wasn't towards the end of the old shop, and I'll use that to the best of my ability but it's a dangerous place right now for businesses so I implore you, as I always do - shop small, we need you more than ever.

A sparkling twinkly moment was getting Zoe in!

This woman is a marvel. I put off getting anybody in for a long time because I was so scared about VAT (still am to be frank) but I couldn't put it off any longer. There were a few candidates but I can't tell you how grateful I am for this woman's steady, good-natured, hard work. Customers adore her and I trust her and I couldn't ask for more.

Of course, there's been new yarn. I've got rid of some suppliers who were hanging round my neck and got new ones in who have been a joy to work with. It's interesting the contrast between some suppliers and others - ones that can't do enough and appreciate the money, others that apparently can do without it. I've worked hard over the last two years in putting boundaries into place in all aspects of my life and that extends to suppliers. We're a big shop now, with a big turnover, I have some power over my shop and I vote with my money. King Cole as always, get a huge shout out. A joy to work with and constantly providing beautiful yarns at fantastic prices, with a rep who feels like a friend but is professional when called for and the women (and gent) in the office who know who I am as soon as I say 'hello' and go out of their way to make my life easy and are happy to share a joke (ladybirds with std's anybody???). Viridian are new to me and an absolute pleasure to work with too. They're the ones that give us the Opal wool, but something that you lot won't know about, they put a little packet of Haribo in every order and it's just the ticket after you've unpacked and put on the till and hung up hundreds of needles.

I'm going to avoid going into detail about all the yarn because I'm hoping over the next few weeks that I might get back to new yarn blog posts on here and given that I'm about four/five months behind getting stuff on the internet, there's a lot to talk about! But I am getting there with Zoe's help in the shop.

One more shout out needs to go to the Association of Independent Yarn Shop Owners. For me it mainly takes place around a facebook group for yarn shop owners but it's more than that - there's a newsletter, they organise meetings with suppliers, man a facebook group for yarn shops across the country - you can find that here. Many of these business people have become friends and it's my main port of call for a moan or to share a funny story or for advice or for moral support.

And finally, I ought to end with a massive shout out to Chris. My lovely Dr Christopher. It's been three and a half years now and I'm not sure how I'd have got through this year without him. In fact, I'm not sure that this would have happened at all without him. It's a strange feeling when you've found 'the one' (or at least 'one of the many potential humans to share a life with in this world') - people call it 'love' but actually I think it's just a form of confidence - not the only form mind - but the confidence that somebody's on your side, in your corner, or maybe in the corner that you created together. Chris has been more than in our corner this year, he's been in the shop, at the Post Office, at the hardware store, in the kitchen, doing the washing and most importantly sat next to me on the sofa whilst I'm knitting in the evening watching a history documentary with me. He's a good'un and I can't wait to start planning the #cabbagewedding with him properly next year. Look at him all dressed up when he became a doctor. That doctor face ey!?

Every year I say it's been a rollercoaster but it's never been more true than this year. It wasn't a write off was it? There were excellent bits in between. And examples of how kind humanity can be for me personally but also in the wider world. Next year we must get ready for a fight, we must be present and political, we must hold people to account and monitor their actions, but most importantly (and something that I've actually discovered this year instead of just paying lip service) we must find the time to nurture ourselves and our dreams because I'm the proof that hard work and a fantastic community around you gets you somewhere.

Thank you for all your support this year, in many ways, thank you for being kind and generous and understanding and thank you for your creativity.
Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. here are some photos that didn't make it into the blog story but deffo needed to be on here:

 

THE BLANKET! I underestimated how hard this was going to be to sew together but I did and now every day it sits in the corner of the shop reminding us (and proving to the unbelievers) how much Knit Nottingham means to us all. Love it.  

She survived.

Elizabeth and Zimmerman came to live with us. The little characters. Ahhhh.

 

The shop on the opening day. I still look at it and can't believe it's mine. It looks so damn snazzy!

 

The beloved old shop. 

 

The beloved new shop. Quite a difference ey? :)

The Update

22nd of March!? That's when I last spoke to you! That was two days before the big move and 9/10 ish weeks ago and I feel like my entire life has changed!

If you'd have said to me three months ago that I would be happily skipping into work at 8.30am every day to do admin and tidy I would have called you a a big fat liar. But here I am! And here I am in our beautiful new shop!

I'm sure most of you have seen this photos now or been in to visit us but here's one any way:

 

And that's only half the shop - compared to this!

Truly, it's been a wonderful and daunting, exciting and tiring journey. So far. Everybody else seems to have moved on to the next stage of what I can do in my quest for world domination but I'm happy to potter around here, tidying and sorting and enjoying the space (tidying is so much more fun when you can lay things out and not have to smoosh it back into a pile again every time a customer comes in). It looks like we're going to have to register for VAT - this means that we are a. serious. business. It means more scrutiny from HMRC and getting my accounts in every three months (which is laughable given the state of what mine look like right now...). To this end I spoke yesterday with a lovely and friendly accountant (who made me not want to die at the very thought of it) and in our chat I had the sudden realisation that actually, I've turned over in the eight weeks we've been open here, a third of what we did in the whole of last year. That is, in two months, I've taken what we did in four months last year. And suddenly, I got a whole lot gentler on myself. This has been tough. Amazing but tough.

I keep hinting on the other social media platforms that some stuff has gone wrong at home - there's a significant amount of serious illness involving family members all over the place and little Versace died, and technology has really let me down in very stressful ways and I'm so tired when I get home every night that I'm living in even more of a shit hole than I'm used to but the shop has been a haven. And the wonderful support coming from all over the place has been more than I could have ever imagined or hoped for.

And just as I was at one of my lowest ebbs - I found out that I'd been nominated for not one, not two, not three or four, but FIVE nominations in the British Knitting Awards. That was a heart stopping moment! Now I see who we're up against and I'm less sure that we can win in any category but the Best Yarn Shop in the Midlands (which is such a special category to win that I'm not sure it matters to me if I only ever win that one anyway) but I'm taking a leaf out of Verity's book who is gobsmacked and in awe of who she's been put up against and thrilled to just be part of it (she's up for three!). Voting isn't live yet but it will be here when it is.

But I have to be realistic. I can only do so much, and at the minute it has to be whatever's easiest and quickest to market the shop which means that my focus will be very much on the facebook group, the instagram, and youtube. I will get back to blogging but it isn't as instant as everything else and it isn't something I can do on my phone whilst I'm out having a fag or on the bus or in between customers.

Once again - thank you all for your lovely support - especially the people that come in just to sort wool and bring food (although, I pretty much won't need any more food for like three months). You are, each and every one of you, a massive and important part of Knit Nottingham and I do not undervalue that.

Thank you.

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Info Info Info

Info all over the place! I'm being as open as I can about this because answering the same questions is driving me batty (I love you all but google!!). This is going to be bullet points so that nobody has any excuse.... ;)

• Knit Nottingham is moving! 
• The last day in the shop on Mansfield Road is Thursday the 24th of March. 
• On Thursday the 24th of March we'll be shutting at 4pm.
• We're re-opening on Friday 1st of April at the new address! 
• Our new address is 9, Trinity Walk, Nottingham, NG1 2AN. 
• You will know this if you're from Nottingham - it's the one with the pet shop on it, it's not the one with Long Tall Sally on it.
• If you're not from Nottingham, this can be googled! I've done it for you here!
• Yes it's much more central! Yes, it's lots more money! Yes I think it'll work! Yes I've heard about the vintage shop and her leaks! No I'm not worried! (Well, actually, I'm really bloody worried but sometimes you just gotta jump in ey?).
• The most important point  - THERE WILL BE A PARTY ON THE 2nd OF APRIL! BOOM!
• I think that's everything.

Love love love love love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxxxx

A Return to Pattern of the Week!

I am going to stop apologising for the lack of blogs. I promise. Not every blog will start with an apology because this one will just have to do for the whole of the next few months.

The shop is getting on top of me. There's a vlog uploading as we speak (it's uploaded!) about my horrific day yesterday and I've got to admit that I'm struggling a bit. There's a lot to think about and I'm waiting on so many other people to do stuff and I hate that. I like to be in charge of my own destiny but I'm not at the minute. I also can't start packing up because the yarn/needles/patterns need to be on the shelves until we finish here and there's not enough space to store the other stuff. It's all going to have to happen on the day as it were. I started knitting some samples up but one of them went badly wrong and I can't bring myself to do it. And the doctor told me not to knit for a few days (although I'm ignoring that, I think I'd implode if I didn't knit at the minute). Anyway, there are lots of problems, nothing that I can do and nothing that you lot can do to help though I know you'll be offering. It's just a case of working through it.

But, something that has really cheered me up and kept me going today is this new(ish) cardigan: 

I actually finished it the day before I went to Stitches which was either the 22nd of 29th of February - I forget... I wore it on the day and it was still a little wet from blocking! It was also mostly too hot to actually wear it but I do like wearing a new thing to things like that - I believe it makes me look like a and actual knitter/crocheter (always shocked when yso's don't wear their bits/can't actually make them (!!!)) and it gives me a bit of confidence which I need with things like that. After that I wore it just like a normal everyday cardigan, including to give the talk to Nottingham Uni. Just after I finished with that I was meeting up with a customer who'd forgotten to pick up a ball of wool and before I met her I went for a coffee whereupon I just forgot to pick up my cardigan because I'm a tit.

I rang them up straight away and they found it and I was going to pick it up but, readers, there's been no time to do anything recently and it didn't get did. So, a week after I lost it, I sent Chris over to get it and then I got a text message saying something like 'I got your cardigan. I met a customer of yours. She's mad and she loves you'. Haha. Turns out it was only bloody Sarah! Sarah was working there that day (I think!?) and when she realised who he was went a bit mad! Or rather, stayed as mad as she usually is... ;) How wonderful is that??!?!

So this cardigan already has a story attached to it. The crocheting of it was too quick for it to have a story, it didn't go anywhere interesting just here and my house and Chris' house and the buses in between. But now it has a story.

Anyway.... Let's get down to business.

This is a crochet cardigan. It's King Cole pattern 3900 which I've finally put up on t'internet here. It's a DK pattern and originally worked in the Bamboo Cotton DK but, I think because it's still bloody cold out there, that wasn't even in contention. It was only ever going to be in the snotty green of the Panache DK (aka Pasture. I think King Cole missed a trick there...).

Nice big fuzzy photo for you. I did the short version, sans pockets (I know! Not like me to leave out pockets. I really am not in my right mind at the moment...). I also, as I usually do, did a size down from what I 'should' be doing. I like things smaller than King Cole usually write them.

You can just about make out, better on the long version, that there's a little rippling at the bottom there. I missed that completely. It's too fussy for my liking so I just started with trebles straight into a chain. I didn't actually count the chain, I made one long enough roughly, added some more, worked my trebles back into them, counted the trebles and then stopped and turned when I was ready. It's an awful lot easier counting trebles than it is chains, it's also easier to keep your chains a more even tension when you're not stopping and counting every ten stitches. And any extra chains you have at the end can just be chopped off about an inch from the work, slowly undone and then that end sewn in like normal. Makes it like a hundred million times easier. And I'm all for an easy life.

Notice too that there's only two lines of zig zags running up each front. I don't hate that but I'm a big old human and two little lines would look just like two tiny weeny lines on me I think, so I decided to make it an all over pattern. It wasn't hard to do. I think the stitch repeat was something like *5tr, ch1, miss a stitch*. Once you've set that up at the bottom, the rest comes together. And it was a surprisingly easy pattern to keep straight once you get to the shaping at the top.

The shaping at the top is unusual. Naturally, I'm thinking it would be do a decrease at the armhole edge in every row because it's a raglan. No. I ain't going into what it is, it's unusual is what it is but I really like the ratio that they've created there. I think I'll use it again.

Now, if this goes over your head, allow it to, you don't need this. But I've started doing my decreases differently! It started when I made Jeremy Corbyn just before Christmas. I don't often to amigurumi but when I do I'm always disappointed with the decreases but the one good thing I did get out of this pattern was a different way to do them. The standard way is to do all but the last stage of one stitch, all but the last stage of the next stitch, and then yarn over and pull it through both stitches together. This works nicely and, once you've got your head around it, it's very easy but it can look a little clunky. The 'join' of the two stitches happens at the top of the stitch meaning that most of both stitches are there and only pulled together at the top. The woman that design Jeremy Corbyn does it a different way. She inserts into the front leg only of the first stitch and then the front leg only of the next stitch, yo and pulls through, then finishes off the stitch. So I used that but because it's tr's rather than dc's I yo first, insert into front leg of first and then second stitch, yo and pull through and then you have the three loops of the treble to finish off. All of the bringing together of the stitch happens right in the base of the stitch and only in the front bit of it anyway so it somehow looks less bulky. Anybody else got any clue as to why it's better!?!?!?

So. They're the changes that I made. I did make sure that the zig zags all started off leaning one way  so they look reasonable but then when I got to do the fronts which I did last (and in one evening! Ugh! Don't do that) I made them zig and zag respectively. If I'd have thought about it I'd have done a zig front and sleeve, a zag front and sleeve and the back zig on one side and zag on the other. But. Meh. Who's got time for that?

In other news, with this cardigan, lovely Davina was inspired and did the pattern in the Dusk colour of the Panache DK but she likes the ripples at the bottom and doesn't like the zig zag. So guess what she did! She only went and did the ripples at the bottom and none of the blady zig zags! AIN'T CROCHET GREAT!? I haven't got a photo of that yet, I'm not sure it's totally finished. But when it is there will be a photo and we will look like twins. Fact.

I think that's all,

Thanks for listening to the ramble.

Love Eleanor.

A Picture-y One

I've had a busy couple of days. A lesson on Sunday (lovely ladies, lots of good crochet done). The Stitches trade show on Monday and a lecture on Tuesday. As I was walking down (in a rush because I was late) yesterday to the bus to get to the lecture I realised that this is me. As much as I complain about how much there is to do (and there is a lot to do) I only really work when there's a lot to do. I'm a procrastinator and I'm energised by doing a lot of little things hither and thither. Oooooooh. So here's lots of photos about all the little bits I've been doing, in no order, let's let the computer take the lead.

And what a photo to start with! This was one of the yarns I saw on Monday and fell in love with. The eagle eyed will see who it's from but you're getting no more out of me. ;)

This is my blanket for the shop as of Saturday - it's a different one to the community blanket - I'm having two in the shop! One to match the table cloth that Zoe Halstead bought and one that you lot have made and I've sewn together (no doubt I'll be knitting a few squares myself too). I'm excited about this one, I chose every colour of the Merino DK and then took out the ones I didn't like like the beiges and then had at it. It's actually quite hard to be random isn't it??! So I'm doing squares that I like mainly and when I'm feeling a bit more organised I'm setting them out in piles according to the outer edge colour. Then I see which colours have the least in their piles and make more of those. And then I get bored of that and go back to doing the ones that catch my eye. I'm taking some cream home tonight so hopefully I'll get some crocheted together and then it'll feel a bit less like a pile and more like a blanket. Well over 150 made already!

Hot cross buns for breakfast yesterday. I think these might be my favourite seasonal foods (apart from pigs in blankets obvs). I've tried making my own but they're never as light and fluffy. Help with that always welcome!

The entrance to Stitches. Somewhat daunting. Beautiful day.

Some woven wire bracelets at  Stitches. Definitely not my 'thing' but the technique was fascinating. I'll have to wait and see if the Bead Shop get them in. I only buy beads from them because the girls (and Robin) are so ridiculously helpful.

On the way to Stitches. Jem Weston was driving anyway so me and Steph tagged along. It was nice and lots of crochet was done. Jem wants me to point out that these are her driving gloves and her hands don't always look this weird.

The lecture hall yesterday at Uni of Nottingham before the rest of them turned up. I think there were about 15/20 students - all engineers in their fourth year. I really enjoyed it actually. Last year I planned really carefully what I had to say and had too much to say but this year I was so busy I just winged it and luckily they had loads of questions - as in, most of the lecture was questions which is unusual I think! My favourite bit was when somebody asked me whether school/college/uni had helped in the business and I said 'kinda yes, kinda no' but I said something like 'I don't think uni makes you any more clever than anybody else, in fact I know it doesn't'... I think they liked that after spending £10000 a year for four years. Ha. Hopefully I was of some use or at least not boring.

Cygnet's beautiful stand at Stitches. So lovely to finally put faces to names! Although I'll forget names again I know....

Damon from King Cole. He really is a lovely man who sells me too much stuff and understands when I won't take fluffy baby stuff. Spoke to the CEO again who was absolutley incredulous (and maybe a bit pissed off) that I told him what I actually thought about one of the yarns they've brought out... Ha. I love King Cole but I don't love everything that they do. It's like family, you know? Anyway, I made two orders, one to come any day now and one to come in the new shop. There's a couple of verrrrrrrrrry lovely new yarns coming and shades of old favourites as well as some fabulous patterns. Can't wait to get my greasy mitts on them all!

My face at six in the morning. Ugh.

Haha. This is the Trent building at Uni of Nottingham. It always makes me laugh how their main showstopper building is called 'Trent' as in the Trent Uni. I'm sure there's some person (*cough*bloke*cough*) that's involved with it all but I think it's weird. Anyway, lovely campus, lovely walk apart from I already had blisters from walking around Stitches for so long and that only made it worse. By the time I got back to Chris's I was hobbling...

King Cole are now on Instagram and their opening shot? That bloody hedgehog. Haha.

And finally! PLANTS! I know it's early. Veeeeeery early. I'd be happier doing it in March but I'm going to have so much to do in March that I just though, bugger it, let's plant. We'll see what happens. It can't go that badly wrong can it? And most of my seeds are leftovers from my mum anyway so nobody loses out if they don't grown and I think the cats will enjoy trying to shit in these tiny little garden pots....

And that's it. Bits and bobs. Good few days. I'm offski.

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxx

Community Blanket

So, in the new shop we have space for a sofa. On this sofa we have space for blankets. I have a blanket in me that's getting going but when I mentioned it on facebook customers got really excited about making their own so I'm opening this up! I did do a vlog about it nearly a week ago - you can find that by clicking here but there have been many questions since so I thought a good faq would go down well. So here goes:

Can I can only knit/crochet - is that okay?
Yes! We are a knit and crochet friendly shop and this ought to be reflected in the blanket. Both please, and lots of them!

What size do they need to be?

I've chosen 10cm by 10cm which, coincidentally, is 4" by 4" so everybody's covered. I'm happy for them to be made up of smaller pieces say, four squares of 2.5cm (1") as long as they're sewn together. In fact, I think that'd be pretty cute.

What colour?
Green! All shades of green! Teal-y green, spring green, yellow-y green, forest green, mint green etc etc etc. I'm happy for there to be a little bit of other colours - have you seen lovely Phyllis's squares?

 

Love them! They're definitely green but they've got a good smack of an obnoxious colour - it's like all my favourite things together!

Charlotte made this:

 

 And I love it's simplicity. We need a mix of colours and textures and patterns.

Before I even launched the blanket quest I started a Pinterest board of all the influences I could think of - mainly colours but also textures etc. (I'm falling a little bit in love with pinterest but I'm finding I don't go back to it, I just like pinning, maybe that'll change when I've been on a bit longer, it's certainly not Ravelry...)

What pattern can I use?

Any! So far I have a lot of granny squares which I knew I would - they're easy and quick to make and the size is easy to mess around with. By all means, if this is what you can do then this is what you should do. But if you're able and interested I'd also love some more exciting and varied squares to mix it up a bit. I'm going to do a little bit of lace and some cables I think but moss stitch and variations of, basketweave, colour work, slip stitch knitting, the start of a sophie's universe? Hmmmmm!!!! Anything!!!!

You can by all means search ravelry for 4" squares (I've done that for you if you click here) but remember you can do the maths! Choose the right needles/hook to go with your yarn, work out your gauge per inch, times that by 4 so you get 4" and have at it! Some stitch patterns will affect your gauge - i.e. lace tends to make things looser, cable tends to make things tighter so you need to adjust your stitch count accordingly. 

Don't worry if you're a cm over or under - there's a bit of room for manoeuvre because whilst you're over somebody else will be under but they're fairly small squares so an inch will make a difference....

What yarn can I use?
Any! I'd avoid laceweight or super duper chunky but anything around 4ply to chunky should work out well enough and again they can be put together next to squares made out of something exactly opposite so balance it out.

Let's make it washable! You never know what will happen in a shop - all sorts of people, all sorts of kids. Who'd bloody have them?

When do they need to be done?

I've set the time limit as the 30th of April for squares to get to me. That's plenty of time and it makes sense because that's when Yarn Shop Day is happening (yes! it's happening!). You can drop them into the shop or pop them in the post any time until the 30th.

What will happen in you have too many squares?

 

One of two things - we'll either sew them together into a blanket/blankets for charity (maybe Framework) or, did the you see the thing at Liverpool Hopsital about 4" squares needed to help with breastfeeding? I'll get in contact with the Nottingham Hospitals (QMC and City) and see if they need it. I guess Liverpool will have been overwhelmed so I won't bother with them unless nobody else wants it. Yes?


I think that's everything - do let me know if you need to know anything and I'll update this faq.

Love Eleanor. xxxxxx 

A Very Catchy Uppy Catch Up

Because I am still lacking in the blog department, but I tried this as a vlog and it just doesn't work... Too much to talk about.

So,

Let's start with Yarndale - it's happening! I've even got as far as booking the coach (a big 83 seater!) but I'm not putting it on sale just yet. I'd like to use the new till to keep a closer eye on who's booked on. This is one of the biggest sources of stress for me when I do this coach thing - people cancelling and rebooking and swapping and eventually I'm absolutely confused about who's coming and who's not. So I'm going to use the full £2500 worth of the till and get my money's worth! Therefore, it wont go on sale until I'm happy that I've sorted all of the features. It doesn't necessarily have to be up and running in the shop (that'll not be until we're in the new shop) but I have to be sure I'm not going to bollocks everything up AND at the minute I'm checking that my barcodes work a lot so it's running in test conditions all the time. Last year Yarndale went on sale at the end of February so it will probably be a bit later but not majorly so don't worry. Also, because there are so many more seats everybody that wants to come should be fine. Boom.

The new shop! Is coming on a pace! I'm clearer with the dates now. I think the last day of trading here will be on Thursday the 24th of March which should allow us to open on the Wednesday or Thursday after Easter (30th/31st). Whatever happens, the VIP evening will be going ahead before the shop opens. The people that gave the most to the crowdfunder should get something special i.e. a first look. I'm also inviting the press there but we'll see if anything comes of that. And the business on the street will be there too. Hopefully. And there *will* be a chance to get more tickets at a more affordable price - I suspect I'll do a raffle-y type thing i.e. pay a pound to get a chance to win. I know a lot of people want to come on the evening and it will be good but I don't want to be overwhelmed so there'll be a guest list and if your name's not on the list, you're not coming in. ;) It's going to be a bit of a practice evening for the new till and the way that the shop works. There'll also be chance to have a nosey downstairs. And goodie bags.

After that, the shop will be open as usual for a couple of days before we have a big old shop party like we usually do on the Saturday. Really looking forward to that, it'll be nice and relaxed and with you lot there it's always good fun. Anybody's welcome on that day and I want you all there! :)

In terms of the till, I'm getting the products on there right now. It's not maybe as simple as I wanted it to be. When adding products you can do it either by scanning the bar codes or by typing them. But I don't necessarily have every thing in stock at all times so I don't necessarily have the barcodes to scan. Also, the setup is really too big for this little shop especially with our beast of a till which still needs to be set up because that's how we're doing the book keeping until the new till is going. So, the options are, take a ball of every yarn in every colour home bit by bit, scan, bring back. Or use the document that King Cole and Cygnet have sent me which doesn't have barcodes to scan but does have the actual codes to type in. It seems to be working so far, the numbers on there mean something so actually there is a pattern to it and you can get into rhythm. Once they're onto the till, you can set them out in a way that means that they're easy to find if the scanner doesn't work for some reason. The blokes at the shop warned me away from making that colourful but actually I think it's going to be useful so bugger it. The Pricewise looks like this now:


 

The colours are a bit difficult - especially beiges and browns but roughly the correlate and that should make life easier.

I've been through and done the majority of King Cole's DK yarns I think but I got tired of doing that. So tired. By like 8 o'clock on my day off. So I stopped and did something else, I forget what.

Last night I took three folders of patterns home to start getting them up on there because King Cole don't have those barcodes on a document, but when I started scanning the patterns in, all of the older ones were under the same bloody barcode! Once I realised I started putting all of the names of the patterns in but there's no enough space so I guess that will have to be called 'general pattern' and I'll have to keep an eye on it like I do at the minute but that's a bit annoying because patterns are my Achilles heel really, there's just too many to keep up with. Anyway, the newer patterns have different barcodes so as the old ones get discontinued/reprinted this should sort itself out. I feel like that's about £100 of till that I'm not making the most of though. Very frustrating. Haha.

The loyalty cards are a bit of a nightmare. So we can do that by giving out cards with barcodes on, scan that before we put the yarn through and then the computer works out your points. I could get plastic cards with barcodes printed. This is expensive but doable. I could get laminated card cards with barcodes printed. I'm waiting on a quote for these. Or I could get either plastic or laminated cards printed with space for me to print my own barcodes. I'm waiting on quotes for those too. I looked into getting a barcode printer but they're ridiculoulsy expensive, although the may be worth it in the end if I do have to print off lots. Either way, there's going to be a different way of doing loyalty cards in the new shop.

Another problem with it is this... and bear with, this is long and boring. So, at the moment you you get a stamp for every £10 spent and then when you have 20 stamps, you get £15 to spend in the shop. Easy right? On the till, I can get it to give you a stamp per £10 spent. No problem. But when you have 20 stamps, the till will only allow you to have £20. I can't make it give you £15. And what's more, neither can Chris... I'm looking at my profit margins, and how much more this shop is going to cost and I'm thinking I can't allow that to happen. £15 is the limit. So, if I can't make 20 stamps mean £15 then maybe I can make £200 mean 15 stamps. Mathmeticians, forgive me, this is based around 1.33333 but I can't remember how now. If I put 1.33333333 in somewhere, £200 turns into 15 points. Only, the till doesn't like anything past two digits past the decimal point which makes 1.33 and that doesn't make £15 but rather £15.38. Which is a weird amount. I guess, I could deal with that in terms of profit margins but how the bloody hell do I explain that to customers?!?!? Don't get me wrong, at any point we could go in and change the amount of points you have on there, i.e. we could take the 38p off or we could take the extra 5 off. But, the points will be written on your receipts to make it open for all to see, and how would you feel if I took five points off you or even .38 points? Rude! And then I'd spend my entire life explaining how that worked. Much better to used the full £2500 of till and get it right in the first place.

 

Another way to do all of this is to use the 'slice of the pie' option. Which means I can set it so that when you spend £200 you get £15 off. Brill right?! Only, you have to spend it all in one go. And I reckon I can count on my fingers and toes when people have spent £200 in one go in this shop. haha. Not going to happen. 

 

When we were first looking at this on Monday and realised we weren't able to sort it ourselves, I sent an e-mail to the till bloke, he seems to know what I mean and is thinking on the same lines that we are but he also has a job to do so it's taking a bit of time...

In terms of the other stuff with the shop, I now have two options for carpeting which is more than I thought I had last week! Part of the problem is that we're basically moving over Easter weekend which makes sense because we'd already be closed on the Friday, Sunday and Monday so we're only missing one trading day. But because of the date that we chose originally (the 25th) for swapping keys etc I wouldn't have been able to get anybody in to carpet until the Tuesday unless they could do the Saturday. We're now, as I said before, working towards the 24th which is the Thursday and leaves me a little freer because I have the potential to get a carpet in on Thursday. It's cutting it fine though but I've found a place that will fit on the Saturday and now, thanks to a customer, one that will fit on the Good Friday. So I'm just waiting for a quote from them and then we're good to go!

The signage is being designed as we speak - I've yet to decide whether I go for window decals - I deffo want some with the opening times, I'm hoping that might appease some people that tell me off when they come at 9 o'clock... I'm thinking of changing the opening times anyway. Sticking to a 10.30 opening - it works because I miss the traffic and I still get to do stuff like going to the bank and post office. But I think if I shut at 6pm I have a fighting chance of getting home for 7pm which gives me an evening. For example, yesterday I left at 6.50 and didn't then get home until 7.50. I still had to make and eat dinner, do some work and then try and spend some time with lovely Chris. That extra time I think will be worth a lot to me and very little to you guys, especially now that we're so much closer to town and you won't have to walk out of town for ten minutes to get to us. It also means that evening lessons are a bit more doable - with two and a half hour slots rather than two hours. We could also potentially have a late opening night or late opening by appointment. Still, I'm thinking through this all.

Hmmmm. What else have I got to say?

We've got more Gill Page bags! Including this beaut:

Yes, they are typewriters and yes, Gill has matched the insides beautifully:

 

 

Isn't she good!? Not only is that print on the inside of the typewriter bags, but it's also it's own little miniature zippy bag. Ahhhhhhh. She's good isn't she?! 

I think that's it!? Maybe? I'm sure there's more to say but I did tell you that I would keep you up to date with the shop to try and stop so many of the questions (I love you all but there's only so many times I can answer the same questions without wanting to murder you...). You're genuinely up to date with everything. LOVE.

Oooooh. I'm going with Jem Weston and Steph from Nettynot to the Stitches show on Monday - it's a bit like the Knit and Stitch show but it's for trade only. I'm feeling a bit apprehensive - I am genuinely not a people person despite what everybody thinks and spending all day with lots of people really takes it out of me. But I've got to go and see what's on the market. We have much more room now and I want to expand our range sensibly, not just based on who's been in contact or I've heard of. Any suggestions? Just to let you know where I'm going first - West Yorkshire Spinners, Stylecraft and Viridian who are a wholesalers who specialise in sock yarn, particularly Opal. I'm open to other suggestions though if you've got stuff you want to see (but do remember it's not as simple as just liking a yarn, I've got to like it, it's got to fit in with the range that we have i.e. not be replicating something we have, it's got to be something that we're allowed to sell i.e. we're not within a certain radius of other shops, and I've got to have the money on hand to make the minimum order with that stockists amongst other things but I am still curious to know what you'd like!).

That's got to be it, I'm going to the Lush evening with Vezza and she's due any minute, the shop's a mess and I haven't answered my e-mails and I made a mistake on the till earlier when I had like 20 customers in that I still haven't put right. Gah!

Love Eleanor. xxx

P.s. I haven't even got time to re-read this. Muchos apologies for typs and spelling mistakes.

This is not the blog I was expecting to be writing.

WOW! Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow! I literally am in awe and I don't know where to start.

Perhaps I'll start at what I said to Toni when she was in the shop as I pressed 'go' on the crowdfunder:

'I'll put an extra week on, that'll give us a bit more of a chance'.

Or what I said on my personal Facebook page:

'P.s. If you're thinking about donating, apparently if I get 10 backers within 24 hours I'm 90% more likely to reach my target.... Just sayin'.....'

Or what I said to Chris a couple of days ago:

'It doesn't matter if we reach the goal, it'll all help and I'll just have to borrow a little less but maybe I should put the goal down a bit?'.



Honestly, this was not the blog I thought I'd be writing. And I don't know how to thank everybody enough. I honestly don't. You know sometimes, when things are a bit shit - say, you're in the middle of a big fight with the council and stuff's going a bit wrong at home and you have a lot of people (solicitors, surveyors, carpet people, signage writers) bothering you constantly whilst you're trying to get on and do your job - you need a bit of a kick up the arse. And this was it! Smashing the crowdfunding target in four hours was all the proof I need that Knit Nottingham is a little bit magic and means something to a lot of people and for that I am ridiculously grateful and immensely proud and just a little bit daunted at how I'm going to spend this money sensibly and not just buy ALL THE WOOL IN THE WORLD!

I have allowed myself this morning to dream big about the till system I could get if we reached the stretch target (the original was £2000 and the stretch is another £2000. We're actually half way to the stretch target already. Astounded). It didn't actually enter my head that we'd be into the stretch target at all, never mind within 24 hours! So the plan was vague with what I'd do with extra money - there are options, different wools, sorting out the basement, a nicer carpet in a knit print - but I think, sensibly, a till will make the most difference to the shop.

With the increased stock we'll have being able to take a quick snapshot of what's available will be useful, it'll also save me saying 'I'm sure I saw it the other day' and scrabbling round to find a solitary ball that I might have sold yesterday and forgotten about. And that in itself should save messing the shop up like I do now which will save on tidying. And the tills that I'm looking at have the automatic loyalty cad thing going so lost cards will be no problem. And it'll keep a record of what you've bought in the past if you want to do a signing in thingy so we'll never forget again! And I won't have to trundle through scrolls and scrolls of till receipts to do my accounts. And, finally, when we get an upgraded e-commerce site (which is a looooooong way off) it will mean that the stock can be integrated and therefore you'll know what you're buying and whether it's in stock and therefore it not only helps the internet customers but it also helps those of your that are shop customers checking out wool before you come in. Boom right?! So I think I've made my decision that any stretch target money goes towards that and if I have to I'll save more or borrow (sensibly) to make up the shortfall.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I set a good target, higher than I thought that we could achieve and each and every one of you that contributed or shared or talked about this thing has honestly just about made my life.

I haven't read all of the comments yet, I tried to when I was on the bus last night but I just couldn't get through them. It was making me feel all weird inside to have nice things said - I prefer tough love... ;) But I love them and I will read and respond when I'm feeling less emotionally drained.

And thank you.

And sob.

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crowdfunding!

Ahhhhh the blog as an escape. If you've been following the vlog or the facebook and twitter over the last day or two you'll know that it's been quite a rollercoaster! I now have the biggest headache and the shop has been fabulously busy (thank you!) so, once again, tidying has been left to the side and I have a lot of shop to tidy!

Hopefully soon much more shop to tidy!

Which is where you lot come in. This crowdfunder wasn't my original idea but I've been absolutely taken aback by the response to the new shop and the offers of help I've had. In terms of physical help, I'll be putting calls out later, but right now we need a financial boost. I have saved a lot and I was intending to borrow (sensibly) but I've already had people sending me money via paypal and now I just need to put it on a more formal footing.

You can read all of the information on the crowdfunder itself as well as on the accompanying vlog and I'm sure I'll talk more about it as we get there but essentially, if everybody that follows us and has had help from us puts in a fiver, we're there. We're more than there. Put in what you can and if you can't then do what you can by sharing the crowdfunder and related posts and talking about us to your friends and family and buying from us and coming to workshops and hopefully, with a little help, we'll soon be the most central independent yarn shop that Nottingham's had for YEARS!

I love you alllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. Once more - the crowdfunder is here!

Tartan Cardi

Ahhhh, this blog is feeling more and more like respite right now, so lovely to be back and I've got something to talk about!

So, it's no secret how much I like Knitty.com and Amy Singer. In every edition of the mag there's something to inspire and I am forever grateful. Something that caught my eye and I kept coming back to was the Princess Franklin Plaid Collar. So much so that I haven't really stopped thinking about it since 2013 (I had no idea it was that long ago! I can still remember the first time I saw it and it took my breath away).

 

How cool is that?!

Now, we're all knitters and crocheters here and we all know that we all have a million scarves and cowls and snoods and we probably don't need any more. Thing about neck accessories is that they don't really wear out do they? Not in the same way that cardigans and socks and things do, which means that once you've made it you've got it for years and years and therefore I try and avoid making them unless I really really can't not. And to be fair, what I loved about this was the technique rather than the thing. So the idea that I'm talking about today had been percolating for a year or two before I even considered casting it on. I did that at some point last year, early last year when I was going through a bout of finish-it-and-use-up-the-stash-itis but I only managed to finish it yesterday.

And I love it and I know that it's good because every single person who's come in the shop has commented on it. Boom.

So, I haven't got a pattern for you and to be fair I'm not going to write one because I'm not sure, despite the final garment being brilliant, that the idea is a sound one but I also couldn't not write something because so many of you love it. I found, on rav I think, a basic pattern for a top down raglan and used that to make the body in garter stitch. I put big chunky ribs at the top and bottom because I knew I'd need to hide some ends.

 

I did a stripe sequence that I kind of made up and went a bit wrong sometimes too but mostly kept the same all the way through. All the increases and things were done right on the edge so as to try and keep that out of the weaving process. Once the knitting was done, all I had to do was weave in the weft. All I had to do. Haha. 

 

 Now that was a job and a half, you can read about how to do it in the Princess Franklin pattern, he explains it better than I ever could. The weft had to go all the way up the fronts and then when I got to the armholes, it had to then go all the way up the fronts and down the sleeves too. I really like the way that the raglan 'seam' looks:

I wasn't sure that the vertical stripes were going to meet up properly at the back so I made the fronts right because people were going to see that and then fiddled a little bit at the back. If I remember rightly I just took out a couple of the purple lines in a mirrored pattern at the back and I doubt anybody would ever know:

 

Then came the really difficult bit - sewing in the ends. Every singly vertical bit had two ends. I thought I might use one thread to go up and down if I was doing more than one vertical stripe in the same colour but I found it really hard to keep the tension right. One of the brilliant things about knitting is that it stretches both ways - more one way than the other - but definitely both ways. When you're weaving as I was doing then you lose the vertical stretch. The tension needed to be such that it didn't pull the garment shorter, and allowed for a little stretch but didn't bunch up. I didn't get that right. I didn't take my time sewing in the ends either so when it was laid out for blocking and I was stretching it into position, some of the ends popped free. And that's about where I left it.

I knew I would have to sew those ends in and find a way of securing them without being able to add any more length to the strands... And that just kind of gave me brain ache (also, pretty soon after we got loads of really good stuff in the shop like Drifter so I was far too busy fondling that, haha).

But yesterday! Yesterday was the day! I had steadied myself for a day of adminning and doing lots of little jobs that hadn't got done and I did do a lot of those but I also forgot two crucial pieces of paperwork which meant that everything else went to pot so I caught up on a bit of housework - sorting out the recycling, doing the washing, cooking in a nice relaxed manner, changing the sheets - all lovely housewife-y things and then I settled down to sew the ends in on Chris's Christmas jumper and then I was ready to tackle this which I'd found at the bottom of a pile of (clean) laundry. I went through finding the ends to sew in, re-wove them where needed and used a finer needle to split some plies to add strength to that sewing job. Then I debated sewing a straight stitch along the entire hem of the thing and all up the sleeves and then I thought to myself 'oh no Eleanor, you already mostly look like a tit, what's a few little ends poking out going to do?'. So I left it. And if they poke out I'll leave them, or I'll fix it according to my whim and to be honest, after a while, the ends with mostly be felted slightly and stay where they should anyway.

Then I put the eight buttons into place and then I tried it on and took the best photo ever taken without a bra which can't be shared because the beauty will be too much and then I put it away to wear today, and here I am full of compliments! Boom!

I can definitely see that it's going to be a favourite to wear - very snuggly, although I feel like snuggly season is almost over (maybe?). It's also kind of smart so it will be a nice one to wear when I visit the bank or the solicitor, that kind of thing but eventually it will be a ratty every day cardigan and I need more of those! So, if you can get your head around what I did and you like it enough, it's a very simple cardigan to make, you just need to do more reasonable sewing in your ends than I did - take time and effort and it would be worth it.

Also, if you aren't mad enough to do a whole garment, lovely Lindsey used the same idea to make a crochet cowl in chunky. I just love this technique!

That's it. I've got so much to do, I'm offski!

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxx

Gauge

Gauge Gauge Gauge. It matters. And I have proof.

So, I do want to avoid talking overly about the new shop, but this is related. Know how I was saying that customers are so willing and excited to help?! Well, lovely Vita Spark is one of those! She loves a hand knitted sock and has made plenty for herself which are beautiful and practical but she's a loose lady, I'm sure she won't mind me saying, in terms of gauge anyway.... ;) Just a naturally loose knitter and as you'll know, if you've been on a sock lesson or watched or read any time I've spoken about socks, the tighter the gauge the better. There's a sweet spot like between being so tight that it hurts your hands and means a sock that takes two years to finish and being so loose that the sock doesn't last but generally, the tighter you can comfortably go - the better. Tightness works because the yarn can't move around to much and so the fibres don't rub together and get thinner and therefore weaker.

For numerous reasons, including the sheer amount of projects she always has on (!!!!), knitting tighter socks is not possible for Vita and therefore she had an offer for me! She'd give me the yarn and I'd knit socks for her for a good price which gives the shop a nice chunk of money to put towards the new shop! Boom! And because she's a knitter, and a close supporter of the shop, the timeline for getting them finished is long enough for me to relax and knit them as I'm on hold for all the people that I need to be on hold for or whilst I'm reading through contracts etc. Perfect project.

So, the first pair I'm knitting for her is in a beautiful yarn that she picked up from Yarndale when she came with us on the first trip. She's already knitted the leg in the way that she wants which is perfect because it gives me the size and style that she wants for the leg (no ribbing for comfort, nice and wide and not too long). The leg was ready for the heel to be started and I've now got the leg length that she wants and the shape of the toe. Very easy.

So I'm using the same needles that she started on, same yarn obvs, same amount of stitches because there's no point changing it and I've decided to do a heel flap and turn because that gives the opportunity to increase the amount of stitches without much thought to make up for the fact that my gauge is so much tighter. I've done the heel now and I've done a couple of decreases for the gusset but not many to try to keep the same circumference around the foot as it has been on the leg and I'm now just plain sailing down the foot, so if you pop into the shop that's what you'll find me working on.

I knew our gauge was different but just look at this:

 

I've made the photo extra large. Can you see the difference between the top bit knitted by Vita and the bottom bit knitted by me? Same needles, same yarn, same stitches, different knitter. Amazing huh? Vita's gauge is 6.5 stitches per inch and mine is 8.5. That's 2 stitches per inch difference which means that over a sock which is roughly 9" circumference a whopping 18 stitches difference which at this gauge amounts to between 2 and 3 inches difference. If that makes any sense at all?!?! Put that into a jumper for say a 40" chest and there's 80 stitches difference which amounts to 10-12 inches difference! Can you imagine the difference that 12 inches makes in a jumper - that's (roughly) six dress sizes! The difference between a size 8 and a size 18!!!!

Gauge matters!

So for the next sock in this pair, I'm going to go well up a few needle sizes for the leg, and pop down onto the same needles for the foot so they'll be a slightly odd looking but fully functional and identical-as-any-hand-knitted-pair-of-socks-are pair.

And for the rest of the pairs I'm making for her I'm going to measure the circumference that she needs in inches and times that by 8.5 to come up with the cast on number for me. If you can make that cast on number divisible by four then you have a recipe for an easy-no-think sock. But of course, if you want to know about that you'll have to come on one of our courses, but of course, our next two sock courses are sold out which means that I need more space which brings me right back to the new shop.

SOMEBODY SAVE ME FROM THINKING ABOUT THIS BLOODY NEW SHOP!

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx