Zoe's Beautiful Necklace Pattern

This is the blog to accompany Zoe's vlog for Vlog a Day April. She was inspired by the gorgeous new Rico Fashion Jersey to make some lovely necklaces, so here's the pattern and if you follow through onto the vlog then there's a how-to video (the first instructional video we've made, so be gentle).

Materials:

About a third of a ball of Rico Fashion Jersey or Fashion Jersey Prints. 
6mm double pointed needles (or a size you have, down to about a 5mm, up to about a 7mm).
Some beads with big holes (we suggest heading to the Bead Shop Nottingham because they're wonderful!)

Gauge: 

Matters very little. Get on with it. 



Pattern: 

Cast on 3 sts and knit an icord until it was about 120cm. (Maybe a little less if you fancy. Maybe longer!)

Make a slip knot about 16cm from one end. Using your fingers chain for about 16 chains then knot leaving about 16cm from the other end. 

I then threaded beads, with a big hole, on each end.  

Tie the yarn ends together to wear or sew together and sew in ends. 

Bish, bash bosh!!

How simple is that!? Boom!

Love Eleanor (and more importantly, Zoe).

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!

King Cole Zig Zag

Oh I do feel like I've neglected this little blog but I'm coming back to you! I have stuff to say, I just feel like I've had no time to say it! It also helps that I worked an 11 hour day yesterday on my day off so I'm kind of up to date with the time sensitive stuff that I need to be, well as up to date as I can be before other stuff turns up, so today I've been nicely relaxed, chatting away to customers, doing a bit of knitting and listening to podcasts (naughty, shouldn't do that in the shop...). I've also eaten a lot of skittles and here I am, full of sugar, ready to talk about the King Cole Zig Zag as if it's a new yarn! Well, it kind of is... let me try and explain.

Zig Zag was one of the things that I needed to get from King Cole when we first opened. I'd tried it before and was blown away by how well it knits and wears and the colours and the price. It was, in fact, the first thing that I wrote on my first order form to King Cole and we've had it ever since. King Cole have really got it right on this one, you get it in packs of six rather than 12 and this is great because mostly, people want one ball (occasionally two and some brave people take more for garments etc.), and as King Cole (mainly, gah!) sell to independents they've really got it right because most of us can't store that amount of wool for that amount of time. I love it as a knitter/crocheter and as a retailer. Brill!

Over the years they've come up with new colours and designs. It's called Zig Zag because all of the original colours ended up looking like this:



I went on rav to see if I could find any examples to borrow photos of (linked and requested obvs) but I found loadsa photos of the Zig Zag made by my regular customers so now I don't need to request because I know they'd say yes and they'd bloody better or they're banned from the shop. haha. Anyway, these are Sarah's Zig Zag socks in the Rhapsody colourway which is one of the ones that has recently been discontinued and I am so sad because it's the first Zig Zag that I ever bought and the reason I fell in love with it in the first place.

It deffo shows why the yarn is called Zig Zag in the first place. Lots of short sections of colour that build up on top of eachother in slightly mismatched ways and create and actual Zig Zag. Until you reach a heel where the stitch count changes and all of a sudden colours are on top of other colours and it looks like a whole different yarn. This will make you feel very excited (me) or horrified (Sue... haha).

Anyway, then they started making stripes, I think when the cottoned on to how popular socks are, the first set of those was released around the time of the Jubilee so we ended up with this:



By Ollie aka Joxter on Ravelry (who is sadly no longer a customer because he moved to London and hasn't updated his Rav acount since summer 2014 - he'd better still be knitting, such a talent).

This stuff sold really well for us and I was very pleased that they'd come up with new colours after so long.

And then! Out of nowhere, they came up with six new colours that look like this:

Again borrowed from the lovely Mrs Hirst. Can you see how different these stripes are? Love them! This was also the point when they changed the make up of the socks from 50/50 wool/nylon to 75/25 wool/nylon. I actually quite liked the 50/50 stuff, I couldn't tell a difference in the wearing or washing and it just somehow made it a little different to the other stuff on the market but bringing it up to a 75/25 mix does make it a very definite, identifiable sock yarn. Meh. Not much in it. What was important to me was that the price didn't change. Yes. 25% more wool and the price didn't change. Another reason to love King Cole - good to the knitter, good to the retailer (kinda, sometimes, unless you're bothered about them being in John Lewis. Gah!).

Anyway, at the time when they brought out that, they brought out five other colours all beautiful. AND THEN THEY DISCONTINUED THEM! GAH! King Cole! But it's okay, don't worry, they brought out six more new colours one of which was this beauty:



Beautifully knitted by the lovely Claire. The stripe sequence changed again and I loved it!

AND NOW THEY'VE DISCONTINUED THIS LOT! But it's okay! They've brought out this lovely lot:

Calypso - Stonewash - Caribbean

Crush - Majestic - Camouflage

Now, I suspect that the Crush, Stonewash and Camouflage will be stripe sequences that we've never seen from King Cole before, very subtle, very soft, perhaps not even striped. And I suspect that the brighter colours are BACK TO THE ORIGINAL ZIG ZAG STRIPE THING! Which I have missed and I'm excited about.

If you've followed the many, many links through to the Zig Zag over the blog you'll see that some of the older colours are still around. I have a theory. King Cole are doing what I do with the Regia Sock yarns; getting a certain amount of stock in and once it's gone, it's gone. I imagine they're doing it on a bigger scale than I do though, hahah. This works for sock yarn because once you're a sock knitter, you're a sock knitter but it'd be rare for you to use the same colour more than once (apart from like reasonable colours like black) and therefore, you can go a bit wacky with the colours, sell it all through and then get more in. It makes sense and it keeps it fresh and exciting! If only we could do the same with marriages ey? Much less divorce if we all did it the Knit Nottingham way. I haven't been told any of this, I just have a hunch and I think it's a good idea so I hope I'm right. It does mean though, if you're in love with any of the older colours then you need to get in there quick sharp because they'll almost certainly be gone at some point. And it also means you want to get the new colours in sharpish too. However, King Cole obviously take a lot longer to sell through their sock yarns because the last time they released colours was in Spring 2015 and it's only just run out (ish) so you have a little time.

I just want to share this one photo of the new Crush colourway:



How fit is that? King Cole should totes hire me as a photographer.

And finally, I should tell you, I just can't resist my own yarn. Everything I sell here I'm desperate to work with. Everything. I don't just write these blogs or film the vlogs to tell you about wool to make you spend money on any old shit, it's always stuff that I love. Anyway, shut up and show:

This is the new Majestic colourway in the Zig Zag and it will be a pair of socks for Christopher for his birthday... on Saturday... what's the betting he'll get socks still on the needles? It's suitably bright but boyish but I know he would have preferred the Crush, it's just that those will be mine all mine. Ahhhhh. So excited to see how this works out!

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxx

p.s. I forgot to tell you that every ball of the Zig Zag comes with a free pattern for ladies small socks through to big ol' mens socks. How cool is that?

King Cole Panache DK!

I AM ON FIRE! It is Tuesday, though I'm posting this on Thursday (hopefully) and this is my third blog of today. I was going to go home at a reasonable time but there's so much that I have to do that this feels like a reasonable thing to do, stay late and blog. Woohoo! Might just be caffeinated up to the eyeballs, might just be in the middle of a podcast that I don't want to leave, might just be waiting for a vlog to upload - who knows?!?!!?

Annnnnnnyway - King Cole Panache DK! This really is new! We are up to date! This came in at the end of last week, I got the final patterns on the internet on Saturday and then I had Sunday off (wahey!) and Monday off like normal and then this is the first day that this could possibly have made it onto the blog! Boom!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyway.... This is the most amazing yarn! I am SO thrilled that it's finally in stock! King Cole give me a booklet at the beginning of the year with all of the new colours and yarns for the next few months and this is the final one that I have been waiting for. LOVE it! I have been telling King Cole for a long time (literally, since the first time that I spoke to my rep like six years ago) that they need a 50/50 wool/acrylic plain coloured yarn. So many of you love the Riot DK but again and again I'm asked whether there's a plain yarn that goes with it, I usually end up with the Diploma Gold which is nice but this new Panache DK is perfect! It's a similar texture - being a single spun yarn (lots of those about...) - although it's much more woolly feeling and that's what the 50/50 does instead of 30/70. Lovely.

Gosh, we've got very far without a photo. Let's put that right.

How gorgeous is that?! You can see three of the things that I want to impress on you in this photo - the shine, the haze and the colour.

Let's begin with the shine. Actually, I can't talk about the shine without the haze. The shine is obvious, we all know what shine is. But haze? That's something a bit different. It's the wooly-ness about it. The furry bits around the outside. When I first felt this I thought of angora, you know, fluffy bunny wool! I must admit, it's not as soft as that, but the haze does give it the look and it is as soft as it needs to be to wear (and, at £3.75 for 100g (yes that's one hundred grams) it's softer than it bloody should be - what a bargain). I suspect that the haze will mean that the shine gets lost after a while. But the shine could also be to do with the colour. To quote Sarah Brown, "every colour has a mystery colour". YES IT DOES SARAH! This is what I suppose is called a heathered yarn i.e. it's a plain colour but within that there are subtle variations which add up to something a whole lot more interesting than your standard yarn. So, the navy colour, dusk it's called, is a beautiful deep navy base with understated fibre running through in the most delicious deep magenta pink (don't get too excited though, that full packet sold out within 24 hours so I'm waiting until it's back in). The pink that I'm working with, is a delightfully delicate blush pink with hints of sky blue that adds a greyish tone - making it much less sickly than it could be. Can you tell I love it?!

I cannot wait to do something for myself in this, but like I was talking about yesterday, I have many many projects to finish and the Constantine in the King Cole Venice to cast on and finish before I can justify starting something for myself in the Panache. I will have to coco with this beaut that I'm knitting as we speak:



King Cole 4266. I started this one because I love it but I'm not convinced I would make it for myself - it's a little too classy for me. Haha. I also thought that the three different stitch patterns gave me the interest that I might need to actually finish a DK garment for a shop sample. haha. I get bored you see... Also note, I'm using the same colour to knit it as on the pattern. Why??! All those beautiful colours! Well, I can tell you why, I either want to knit the rest of them for myself - the snotty green, the red, the navy, the teal, the charcoal and maybe even the sky blue or I really dislike them - the beige, the darker beige, the grey and the brown. Please buy these colours that I don't like and show me that I'm wrong. haha.

I've just had a thought - I CANNOT WAIT TO CROCHET THIS! I've nothing else to say on that matter (apart from that all of the patterns are knitting patterns which are beautiful and interesting but they're not crochet. Hmmm. Cogs whirring....).

I think that this is the one that I'll make:

King Cole 4271. I like the jumper. Although I deffo need cardigans. Shall I make the cardigan? I'm almost certain that I'm doing to do blocks of colour but I can't work out whether I want to do a block that includes the stocking stitch, the lace and the garter stitch or one colour for the stocking stitch and lace and one colour for the garter stitch. I know this will come to me as I'm working away at other stuff so I just have to have the willpower not to cast it on this very minute. Gah! It's killing me! It's killing me that I'm sat here typing within a metre of this beautiful stuff on the shelf.

Now, let's talk colours a little, although, as usual, I've been through the colours on the vlog which has already been uploaded (this one features Jazz and she is very good with words so you need to watch it) and you could pop over to the internet shop to see all of the beautiful colours or you could pop into the shop. But please, stop, take a moment, grab a cup of tea, because I have something to show you....







.....








Are you ready?







.....

I think that really shows off the mystery colours. This is Sue's fairisle cowl from Saturdays evening lesson (went very well thanks but I think I'll wait to do the next one until we're in a bigger shop). Sue wasn't happy with doing the English style knitting so she's created her own way of doing it and she is smashing it! Anyway, the colours. Phwoar! The background colour is the heather, she started off by contrasting it with the pasture and then moving onto the Biscuit (or perhaps the Oatmeal but I think she may have both in her mix). I was pleased that lots of us chose Panache to work with on Saturday, seeing as it's a brand new wool and that can be a little scary. Steph is also smashing it out:

She's used a similar combo but there's charcoal, dusky pink and seaspray in there too. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to show you this in colourwork. The minute I saw it I knew that that was it's destiny, for me anyway, there will be a full fairisle something in it for me me me me me.

So, can you tell I love this?! It is RIGHT up my street. The colours! The textures! The fibres! The patterns! Once more for the google rankings - brand new and delicious - King Cole Panache DK (and find the patterns by clicking here.

That's it, tomorrow, something slightly different if I get round to it! And maybe even something the next day! BOOM!

Love Eleanor. xxxxxx

P.s. I didn't tell you but this has 312m per ball. That's a hell of a lot. DK's are averaging around 280m nowadays (down from 300m when I was learning, things change, sigh) so 312 is a treat! Makes this yarn veeeeeeeeery affordable. Very good. Well done King Cole.

King Cole Italian Collection

This really is a stunner AND this blog post isn't massively out of date! We got this in at the beginning of last week. Or maybe the end of the week before. And since it hit the shop it's been by far our best seller (until, maybe, the Panache appeared).

And of course, Toni was there to supervise.

This yarn also has it own vlog post (again, they're easier to do and then be uploading whilst I'm dealing with stuff... sorry)... Anyway, let's not dwell on how terrible I am, let's talk about this yarn!

It has caused a bit of confusion. Is it one yarn? Is it three yarns? Why does one say mohair when I'm constantly going on about being allergic to alpaca? Hmmmmmm. Let's talk.

So - this is the Italian Collection:

Florence - Venice - Verona 

(Excuse the strange formatting - Blogger is really smashing it today!).

So. There are three yarns within the collection, two of which - the Florence and the Venice - have alpaca in it and the other one - the Verona - has no alpaca but some mohair instead. All of the yarns are interchangeable - all 50g balls, all 90m, all 6mm needles or hook, all single spun and all £4 - but they're also all different.

King Cole have provided a lovely box to display them in:

 

Which is absolutely gorgeous, and a lovely way to displaying the yarn but doesn't allow for a lot of differentiation. And there is a difference between these yarns - otherwise what's the point of having a 'collection'? Shall we begin??

King Cole Florence:

 This is probably the first one that catches your eye. The colours are just so there. This is the row of yarn nearest to us in the photo above. It's mainly a solid colour - magenta, grey, black, teal and purple - with flashes of something else running through it:

How stunning is that? You can also start to see that there is an uneven element to the yarn, a little thick and and little thin, not as much as the Verona mind, but enough to be interesting. 

Patterns by King Cole are here and there are some stunners that I'll talk about later, but I do also want to talk about this:

Which is the Constantine Cape from Knitty by Natalie Selles. It is both gorgeous and the only thing I could think about when I first saw this yarn. When Gen came in because she'd seen the new yarn on the Facebook page, she was umming and ahhing between a few different patterns and when I mentioned that this was what I was doing, a kal was born. But I promised her not to start any time soon, not just because I'd smash it (sorry Gen) but also because I have a million things to finish (I need to write myself a list of all the stuff that has to be finished by the time I start this. It's a lot). So she's started:



How gorge is that?

It's got a bit further now. This is the first thing she's made that's a really strange construction so I know there's been some faffing around with picking up stitches etc but I think she's on the right track now? Hopefully anyway.

King Cole Venice:

This is the next one that has alpaca in it. And it's the one that I plan to make my Constantine in. Hmmm. Glutton for punishment? Again, it's a single spun yarn but this time it's a little less felted together which should make it lighter feeling (potentially warmer as it can catch air in the spaces) and possibly will need a little more care in the looking after. You can see that a little here:

A beautifully furry yarn, a lovely soft touch and the colours are all combined throughout the ball, no splodges. It does wax and wane throughout to create a subtle striping effect that you can see in action in the beautiful patterns that King Cole have provided. For example:

Can you see? Very subtle indeed and I love it.

Incidentally, this pattern, King Cole 4305, is the one thing that makes me regret choosing to knit the Constantine Cape again. Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions. How beautiful is that jacket? Can't you just imagine me in that! I might even make it more flouncy at the bottom! Like a pea coat! HEAVEN!

I'm not going through the colourways in these blogs because you can see them on the internet or on the vlog about it, but I do want to say that the Marble colourway is officially my favourite and should be called Tartan.

And last but not least:

King Cole Verona:

This is the only one with mohair in it. I don't want you to get me wrong here, I know lots of us have an image one what mohair is and mostly we don't like it (either to wear.... itchy... or to knit... what happens when you go wrong?!!!??!?) but this is nothing like that! There is only a smidge of mohair here, 10% to be precise, but I don't think it's because there is so little that this just feels like heaven, I think it's just beautifully spun and finished. Genuinely, this is the softest of the three yarns. Softer than alpaca! Yes! IT IS POSSIBLE! Is it because I'm allergic to alpaca that I'm not all swoony like 'ooooooooh, alpaca, I love you, let me rub you all over my face, let me knit you now now now now now'? Have you even seen a cat on cat nip? That's what people get like with alpaca, but I'm pretty sure it's just a learned behaviour. For shops like mine, i.e. not boutique-y at all, alpaca is the kind of yarn that they can afford to get in but feels like a luxury for the consumer. When actually, it's just another fibre. A nice one, generally soft, holds a colour well and drapes like a demon. But it's just another fibre, no better or worse than wool or cotton or acrylic as long as you think about how you're using it and what it's good for.

Anyway, on with this yarn. Now, the way that this is dyed is really interesting. Look closely:

Can you see how it goes thick and thin? This is the most varied of the yarns in terms of thickness. On the thickest bits, can you see how there's some creamy bits? Not sure it shows up great in this photo but it's the best one I've got and it's dark now so not point even trying.. Even if you can't see that there are creamy bits, hopefully you'll see that I think it's dyed! Most yarn that we stock, apart from hand dyed ones obvs, will be dyed in the fibre and then spun. But this one looks like it's spun and then dyed. And in my head that's a more difficult process but it also means that you get the most beautiful colour-play in the yarn and I, for one, cannot wait to see how this knits up. I'm just so sad that I have to finish everything else first! (Apart from the fact that one of the projects I'm doing is finally getting to an interesting bit and one of the projects is in another brand new yarn and I am in love). Hmmmm. Can I justify another new project?? Well, I did finish a project yesterday:

Yes, I've been sewing. Uh oh! Don't worry, I think I'm over sewing for like a year. Does it count as a finished project even though I conceived and completed the idea within five or so hours? After I said I wasn't starting anything else? I had to buy everything from scratch so I wasn't using stash? Apart from the thread which is mostly the reason I ended up with this button hole:

In that colour anyway. The state of it is due to how shit I am at sewing, and in particular, finishing my sewing (hello French seam!). I do think it's important though, to show that I'm not great at everything. A lot of people seem to be a bit in awe of my knitting and crochet, when in actual fact, I'm alright - quite good really - but it's not magic, I'm not magic. I just found knitting and crochet at a good time for me to practice. I never discovered sewing, so I'm stuck doing exactly what I did when I was 14 apart from knowing like three more things because of Great British Sewing Bee (OMG - ARE YOU WATCHING THE POTTERY ONE?!?!!? Don't tell me about it! We're watching it tonight as a household - EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE).

Hmm. Back to the yarn, hey? So Verona. I feel like the Verona patterns are the nicest ones:



4300 - Boom. Those cables though. 

4301 - BoOm - that neckline though! The potential for layering!



4302 - BOOM! - THE HOOD! THE POCKETS! THE BUTTONS ON THE SLEEVES!

But, like I said before, all of the yarns are interchangeable and therefore you can interchange the yarns on the patterns - you can find them all here. I'll be really interested in how these patterns work out in the different yarns and I know that as more gets knitting and I'm able to share more pictures of projects that more people will fall in love. I suspect it also might take a good smooshing to really fall in love. So feel free to pop in, even if you're not ready to buy, for a quick squish so that your fingers and their memory of how soft and delicious this yarn is can be working their magic on your brain and eventually a project will just pop out of thin air and then you'll come back and buy. Ahhhhhhhh. Perfect. I love those slow burning projects.

And I think that's it! Two blogs in two days! I really am spoiling you! The best thing?! I have a blog half written for tomorrow too! BOOOOOOOM! I feel like I'm back on it. But I don't wanna speak too soon. I do have to make up for my slow blogging months though. I'm glad you're still here and reading!

Love Eleanor. xxxx

King Cole Big Value Super Chunky Tints

Hi Blogettes,

Apologies! HUGE apologies! The blog has suffered in the maelstrom that has been my life since I got back off my week away (and that's not much different to how it was before to be fair...). It's exactly two weeks since I last wrote a blog post but fear not! I have four (maybe five) blogs to write today. This is my one and only job. Kind of. Once I've got this one done, I'm going to check e-mails and sort orders and then I'm back writing, writing, writing. They're all salesy kind of blogs but I'll try and keep it light so it's not all like 'gimme your money' but naturally, gimme your money. Haha.

It's been a funny kind of two weeks - it's payday and it's October so everybody's up and knitting but we've had the scaffholding up for a week and two days now (helpfully put up during a lesson - bang, crash, wallop and builders singing badly to radio muzak. Ugh). So, I've had lots of regulars coming in and not many people off the street which has been a sweet kind of catchup for me. Often, nowadays, I'm too busy with customers and other stuff to take time to chat. I kind of miss the first few years where I spent a lot of time knitting and hanging around and having fun. But there was always a nagging feeling that I should be doing *something* even if I didn't know what it was. Now I have less time to knit and chill and there's a nagging feeling that I should be doing *something* and I know exactly what it is - recalibrating internet stuff, writing blogs, filming vlogs, making orders, writing patterns, tidying, accounting. Ahhhhh. A million things that don't even get done when they're written on a to do list. IMAGINE THAT! There's a relaxed sweetness to knowing that I can pay my rent though, which was nowhere to be seen when we first opened. Ha. Swings and roundabouts.

No idea where that little tangent came from. Shall we talk about wool?

 

King Cole Big Value Super Chunky Tints

And I love it. LOVE IT!

When I first opened the shop I was all about 4ply, even 2-ply. I still am to an extent but I also have noooooo time now. And sometimes it's just good to finish a project isn't it? And one that looks this good:

Boom. (Toni is thrilled about that angle...). This is the pattern number 4286 and I love it. I didn't realise whilst knitting and making up and even admiring it on Toni that there is a secret owl. Well done Jazz for pointing it out!

How cute is that?

I've already done a vlog about this - it's here. It's much easier to smash out a vlog and then have it uploading whilst I'm doing other stuff (sorry, blog readers, but do subscribe to us on Youtube because it does seem to be the way I'm going right now...). I did that when I first got the yarn so excitement was high but I hadn't yet had time to actually play with the yarn. And none of you lot had either. So it was me talking about the wool and the colours and hoping for the best. Now I've had time to actually work with it I can confirm how much I love it. Oooooh, I can also share a top tip for super chunky! It is possible to thread this onto a sewing up needle - you just have to squash the end so it's like a flat point - but I don't even bother with that. Usually, the gauge of the piece is such that you can use your fingers to push and pull the yarn through to sew it together with your fingers! Certainly means that You can get a little sewing up done in the most unexpected of places - in a queue, on a bus, waiting for the nephew to finish on the loo... All sorts of places and then it gets done! Woo!

Anyway, the colours are superb. I was a bit put off by the browny one - Cappuccino, but I've now seen it worked up along with the Autumn Leaves in a chunky striped garter stitch blanket and I like that too! Talking of blankets, new crocheter, Rachel has used it to make the most perfect blanket: 

That's the Thistle colourway, just under ten balls for a single bed size blanket in the Granny Stripe pattern with a lovely, subtle shell edging. Heaven. I just love how she's presented it too. Ahhhh.

I've got a few new customers recently that are smashing out the crochet.  Really exciting to meet people who have a natural talent so that you have no idea where they'll end up. Rachel is definitely one of them. :)

So you can see, the stripe it pretty subtle. And I think that's what makes it work. Super chunky has a tendency to look brash and chunky-crayon-y, do you know what I mean? So combining it with these lovely subtle colourways just calms it down a little to make a useable and relateable yarn. I know it's become one of my favourites because if somebody comes into super chunky it's not necessarily the first thing I go for - this means it's a staple, something that's here for the long run - it also means I don't have to sell it, which is great because I hate selling - I like chatting and imagining and daydreaming until a new project just pops out of the ether. Ahhhh.

Now, you can find all of the colourways by clicking here - King Cole Big Value Super Chunky Tints.

And you can find the appropriate patterns that King Cole have provided by clicking here.

And if you want to hear me chatting more about it, and going through the colourways one by one - click here.

And I think that's it! There's probably more to say about it but basically, it's beautiful, it's soft, it's kind of stripey, it works for knitting and crochet, it's very popular. That's all you need to know aint it?

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brand New Bumper Boucle

I am absolutely overwhelmed by the response to yesterday's post. It was really hard to write and it was a long time coming but the amount of people that have read it it astounding and the people that took time to comment and come up with suggestions really made my day. I must admit, everybody around me is pleased that I did it, Chris in particular. He gets the brunt of hungry, tired, overworked me and I'm pleased to be able to do something for him. So far it's worked! Only one lady was here when I got in a few minutes early and she's not a blog reader so... we can but hope that this is for the long term. Fortunately we've also been pretty busy in the shop so the tidying isn't where I hoped it might be but I have managed to get something pretty cool on t'internet so let's move this on shall we??

WHAT DO WE WANT?! MORE BLOODY WOOL!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT?! NOW!!

Okay!

Cygnet Bumper Boucle!

How cute is that? It's got to be the most beautiful colour that I've ever seen in my life. So beautiful I had to cast on a jumper:

It's taken like.... two days? Spread over a few days because of how manic the shop is and teaching a lesson and... stuff. But seriously. 12mm needles? Cropped jumper? No excuses not to get in done in less than a week, no matter how slow you are.

There's no pattern for this and I don't suppose that these photos make you want to jump up and cast on straight away but if you want to know how it was made. Well, my gauge was 2 stitches per inch. I measured my wrist and multiplied that by two to get the amount of stitches to cast on. Then I measured the top of my arm and multiplied that by two to work out how many stitches I should end with. And I knew I ought to get my increases done pretty quick, so I increased at each end of every 4th row. When I got to the length that I wanted on my sleeve, I cast off three stitches at each side and then decreased a stitch at each end of every right side row until it seemed like the right length for a raglan. That turned out to be 7 sets of raglan decreases. Which meant that once I'd made my other sleeve, I could start the body really easily. Measure my bust, multiply by two for the cast on, rib a bit, knit a bit, cast off three stitches at each end and then work seven sets of decreases for the raglan. For the neck I cast off a few stitches in the middle of the of the row when I first started my sleeve shaping, then decreased on every right side row at the side of that and at some point, between the neck shaping and the sleeve shaping I ended up with no stitches and I fastened that off and boom. Then I sewed up a sleeve to the front and the front to the next sleeve and that sleeve to the back, basically everything but one raglan seam, and then I picked up stitches all around the neckline, decreased a little bit on the first row of rib (thought I wish I'd decreased a little bit more), another row of rib and it was ready to cast off. Sew up the final raglan seam, sew up the sides and sleeves, sew in the ends, take some stupid photos. And boom.

Anyway, that's the jumper and it's lovely and warm and I can't wait to wear it with a skirt that it actually suits and maybe get some proper photos (me and Chris are going on a date on Saturday so maybe I'll persuade him then...).

Back to the wool. This is super chunky. This is super bloody chunky. And I love it! If you've worked with the Gypsy then it's a similar sort of weight to that and actually, the texture and colours are not dissimilar but it is very much softer. OOOOOOOOOH. Soft. This is the thing that sells this wool, how bloody soft it is. Like a cloud! Like a baby's bum! Like an angel's armpit hair!

Bluegrass - Cracker - Frisee - Tea

Kale - Waterweed - Dock - Willow

How cute are those colours? But so much richer and more gorgeous in real life, I'll try and show you:

Phwooooooooar!

I think lots of experienced knitters are almost a little scared of superchunky. Metre for metre it's not the most cost effective way of knitting, but it is super satisfying and sometimes we need satisfying. Like a good kebab or a bottle of wine or a second bar of chocolate. It's naughty. It's not right. But sometimes it's just what we need. So I've done a rav search for you which you can find by clicking here.

But here are a few that I think stand out:

Quick Slip Cowl

 

Broomstick Lace Infinity Scarf.


Hanging Basket.

Sentiment Shawl

Oohoohohoh. It's been a while since I took some time to wander/wonder around ravelry. That website really is bloody good isn't it??! Especially when you know how to do it well - have you seen out vlog about it?

So that's it! A brand new super chunky - Cygnet Bumper Boucle - 100g - 60m - £4 - beautiful colours - stupidly soft - boom!


Love Eleanor. xxxx

Brand New Arne and Carlos Regia Collection

I hate to have to tell you this (actually I don't, I really, really don't) but the brand new Arne and Carlos stuff is nearly half sold out. Before I get to the deets of the matter, I suggest if you need this in your life but can't get to the shop, order online by clicking here and either just have it sent to you or click 'collect in shop' and it'll be saved for you until you can get in and you won't be charged the postage.

So, there's a vlog uploading about this as we speak, so you can go and see me chatting away about it but I know some of you either don't like the vlogs, don't know about them or need to know the details without stealing all of your internet minutes. I understand. And it's my job as a yarn shop owner to get the info to you in as many ways as possible. AND I've finally got my blog foo back. I think. Don't quote me on this, but I even have an idea for Pattern of the Week tomorrow (don't mention not having any time... at all... ugh, I'll get there) and if I can get that done then I even have an idea for the next pattern of the week! Boom! Anyway, wool, yarn, socks, ooooooooh:

There it is. The stuff we've all been waiting for. It should have got here by the shop party last week but it didn't. I got the invoice for it on Friday while we were moving the shop around and when I rang them up it turned out that the box had got missing. So it actually was sent in time for the party but somebody somewhere messed it up. Gah! Anyway, they resent the box on Monday and then I got the box on Tuesday and didn't have any time to do anything with it... And then another box turned up on Thursday which turned out to be the box that they resent so the original box was the original box! Bloody nightmare.

Anyway, it doesn't matter because it looks this good. Another photo? Oh go on then:

 

How gorge is that? So, first things first. It's a sock yarn, that means it's 4ply and it's made with 75% wool and 25% nylon and tightly spun so that it's really hardwearing. You still need to be knitting your stitches nice and tightly so where a normal 4ply would be knitted on 3mm needles, a sock should be knitted on at least 2.75mm but more like 2.5mm needles preferably. It depends on what you can stand. ;)  There's 100g per ball (lots of people have missed this because the last lot came in 50g balls so don't miss it!) and 420 metres. This means that you can get a good pair of man socks out of one ball or three smaller woman pairs of socks out of two balls. Each ball is £10. If that price makes you hyperventilate (and I get it), firstly, that's a standard price for 100g of sock yarn (the Zig Zag is just really cheap) and secondly all Regia sock yarn comes with a 10 year guarantee. That means that if you knit socks on the needles and gauge specified and wash it like they suggest, if you get a hole in your socks within 10 years you get to send the socks back and they'll send you some yarn back. Of course, then you miss out on the joy of funny coloured darning patches... :)

100g - 420m - 75% wool, 25% nylon - £10

The Regia Arne and Carlos Collection.

And now we should talk about colours shouldn't we? Because that's what we're alllllll about. Ahhhhh.
So, these are all fauxisle. The idea is that the yarn, when knitted as a sock or on a similar amount of stitches, will work up to look like fairisle. I know a lot of us are familiar with this technique (especially as so many of you have been struck by the gorgeous King Cole Drifter) but it's still a bit magic isn't it? Here's a close up of the socks that they sent us to show off the yarn: 

 

That's the Forest colourway and isn't it stunning? Ahhhhhhhhhhh. I love the little hint of green.

So I took a load of photos for the shop page because Regia hadn't provided any good ones but I am a bit disappointed, especially with the Fields colourway. But there was no helping that. I'll either swap to Regia photos when they get some or the yarn will be sold out (I strongly suspect it will be the latter, haha). Here:

Fields - Garden - Iris - Islands

Forest - Orchard

 The one that upsets me the most is the Fields colourway because you miss the purple altogether. Here's a much clearer photo of what it looks like: 

 

But is it that much clearer???? Ooooooh, I'm having a bit of a crisis. Haha. Yarndale is weighing heavy on my mind at the moment. Everything's paid for. Everything's happening. No need to worry. It's just that people are cancelling left right and centre and needing money back and some people that were on the waiting list now can't go. And then I forgot how many people we could get on the bus - is it 64 or 65 - makes a massive difference if I'd overbooked and then somebody wouldn't be able to get on.... Wouldn't that be awful!? Cue stress and panic. No, it's okay it's 65. And then everybody's asking me when they'll get tickets or when we're setting off or coming back but times that by like 65 and I keep saying 'it's coming in the e-mail' and it is but I have to have a minute to write the e-mail but I had to get this yarn on the internet, and on the vlog and here and then up on the shelf and then of course there's the Boucle than came in last week to do all of that for (and a sample) and then an order from Cygnet came and then I had customers and then they wanted stuff right from the back of the shelf and orders on the internet and trying to keep the facebook page looking sane and normal and forget about Instagram. And then apparently becoming Tourist Information for Mansfield Road. Ahhhhh. Sorry. Slight detour into my brain. 

So, Arne and Carlos Collection for Regia. This is a first come first served thing and it's nearly half gone so get to it!

Love Eleanor. xxxxxx

An Update on the Hat

I thought I ought to update you on one of the recent Pattern of the Weeeeeeeeeeeeks because nobody likes a floppy brim. So, if you remember rightly I was making pattern 4336 out of the King Cole Raffia and I'd steamed it and starched it and it looked great! Until the next day when it went flooooooppy. So, after speaking to Zoe Halstead about it, I decided to PVA it. But then I lost the hat and forgot to buy the PVA and long story short, I didn't get to do it until yesterday. I was planning to do it at home in a much more relaxed manner but once I had all the stuff together I thought I ought to make hay whilst the sun shines and get it did.

Now, the pattern I think says to do it on the underside of your hat, which means that there is a little operational tricksy problematics. You need some sort of bowl or something that's big enough for the whole of the bowl of the hat to fit in and not too much of the brim to fall in. The closest thing I had was a vintage Roses tin given to me by a customer full of buttons that have since been sorted and what have you.

It's lovely isn't it?!

After you've plonked the hat inside you need to build some sort of contraption to support the brim. I'd use cardboard or kids building blocks or something very stable only... I was at the shop. So I used lots and lots of crochet hooks. Which held it beautifully, until I looked it its direction and then they all fell down. So I laid a towel down and started again and that was enough to hold it. Precariously.

Then I mixed up some PVA (just white, kids glue) with about half and half water and then I used a teaspoon to layer it thickly all over the top of the brim. It looked like this:

 

At this point, I facebooked Sue (who's been anxiously waiting for me to get on with it so she knows it works) making her promise me that it was going to go see-through. Turns out she was more worried about the drips all over the place and knew nothing of the joy of peeling PVA of your fingers so she wasn't the person to turn to. As an aside, PVA peels off fingers (and floors and walls) beautifully. It's also non-toxic so as long as you wash your implements well they're safe to use again. I wouldn't suggest drinking it though.

And then I had to wait. This is the bit about knitting/crochet that I don't like. The bit where it's nothing to do with you how long the thing takes. It's the same with blocking or even just washing and waiting for it to dry. But you have to be patient. I left it all over night and then the whole of this morning (Saturday as I'm writing) so I could get this blog done and answer the e-mails and tidy a little and do customers and stuff.

And then it was time. I gingerly knocked the crochet hooks from underneath. They were a little stuck but not drastically so, I could move them with one finger and then I carefully removed it from the tin and plonked it on my head.

IT WORKS!

 

It bloody works!

It's a little bit wibbly and I think that's because of my lazy/genius plan of using crochet hooks to support it so I really would suggest using blocks or some other sort of proper support all the way around. But to be honest, I'm a bit wibbly in general aren't I? So I really don't mind.

I would also suggest the use of a hat pin to keep it in place. I think a lot of us have lost the art of wearing hats because... well... we don't do it like we used to do we? It's mainly just beanies or whatever but a sophisticated hat like this deserves a sophisticated hat pin. For now that's going to be a kirby grip because for some reason I used three on my quiff rather than the two that I actually needed - it's like my reptile brain new what kind of beauty was going to be on my head this morning. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! But, I'm going on a workshop at the Bead Shop on Thursday (Chris's birthday gift. What a man) so I'll pick Steph's brain about how best to do it.

And that's that. Hope that helps. Not scary. In the slightest. Get to it.

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. the pattern is still on order but I've got my fingers crossed for Monday.

P.p.s. I've bought a lot of copies. Don't worry.

Eleanor's Pattern of the Weeeeeeeeeeeek - 4336

I had no choice this week. My hands were tied.

The response to this pattern has just been MASSIVE! It's pattern number 4336 and it's the hat I'm specifically talking about (even though I feel sorry for all the other amazing patterns that are being ignored because of the immense beauty of this hat).

Introducing King Cole 4336.

It's definitely the pattern that made me get this Raffia yarn - not that there was much doubt seeing as it's so different to everything else in the shop I was almost certainly going to get it, but this definitely solidified the decision. And then I got scared. Would I look like a twat?

The answer is almost certainly yes but BUGGER IT! I did calm my colour choice down a little, I was going to go for the Marine (which is just the most beautiful combination of blues, turquoises and navies) but I went for the ... Black... instead. I know, I know. I'm a a scaredycat. Mum says I can only wear it to funerals but I wore it on the bus yesterday and to the theatre (with a long black dress) and nobody died and nobody got buried so I guess I can wear it whenever I want!

So, I really need to talk top tips today. Like really. The crochet it pretty simple. I suggest that you look out for the increases - it's a sneaky bugger of a pattern, making you think you're doing one thing and then suddenly changing to do another but I think I'm probably the only one here arrogant enough to think that I can look at a photo and get it right straight away, I imagine everybody else here would at least cast a glance over the pattern. Haha. 5mm hook and three balls of the beautiful yarn (and it really does have to be this yarn, soz folks). Dead simple. But when it's finished it looks like this:

Which is great, but deffo not the look that we're going for when we choose that hat pattern. Haha.

The key here is steam. I can't believe I'm going to write a blog about ironing - my mum would crease! (Haha see what I did there???). I used to work at a dry cleaners believe it or not, for a good couple of years I cleaned and ironed and steamed and pressed other peoples' dirty, stinking, fetid clothes (including Dawn French's. Hers were not dirty, stinking or fetid). It left me with a deep love of steaming and pressing but a deep loathing of ironing as we know it. The presses that are used in that professional (barely) setting are just so different. But we use what we can.

So I set myself up with a towel over a cupboard - because who wants to bother with an ironing board. That'd be an extra 60 seconds before I got to steam my hat into submission.

I thought I'd start by shaping my hat over a bowl but it turns out the only bowl in my house that was small enough to fit in my hat was far too bloody small.... So I set my iron onto the highest temperature with plenty of water and pressed the steam button lots so it was all flowing through nicely. I didn't touch the top of the hat just steamed around it *pouf pouf pouf*, put the iron down and then put it on my head. It shouldn't be so hot with a domestic iron that it hurts. If it does.... stop doing it?? I can't be held responsible for that stupidity. Ha. Maybe find somebody with lots of hair if you're balding though... ;) I used my hands to pull it down and straight and round. Then I did that again and again until I was happy with the shape (that doesn't take very long).

The brim is the magic bit. Magic.

 

This is where we start.

So, I began by finding the beginning of my round. You probably won't need to because it will be so obvious but it's good to have a starting point. I placed the iron gingerly on the fabric (no need to be ginger about it, this is Raffia and it's as strong as cotton I've found), pressed the steam button and hey presto! Keep the iron moving - that's a tip from the professionals. Not necessarily fast but get used to keeping it moving then nothing gets burned. Use your free hand to swivel the hat around and with firm but not heavy pressure and lots and lots of steam keep flattening those bumpy bits out.

 

Can you see where I've been???

Once you've finished all of this it'll look something like this: 

Or even something like this:

 

Veeeeeeeery floppy. Now I think you could leave it like this actually. It's very seventies and even my mum liked it. But I went ahead and starched the hell out of it:

 

Spray starch because I'm not an idiot. £1.50 from the market, don't know how much it'd be elsewhere or where else you might get it. Wilkos??? 

I've been asked a lot about how to use spray starch. Basically, follow the instructions. You spray it where you want it then iron it on. Then spray again and iron it on. And again and again. My biggest tip here is to keep the iron moving. If it stops anywhere it will stick and you'll get little white bits - you can get them off by rubbing with a damp cloth but it's better not to get them in the first place. So once I'd done that it looked something like this:

 

So stiff I could rest my tippex on it. Boom.

Only, I woke up the next day and it was rather.... flopsidaiscal. Hence the video above... So I'm going to revert to the original plan which was to mix half and half PVA and water and brush that on and let it dry. That might need to be redone once or twice but should be a lot longer lasting. I wanted to leave the starch bit on here though just in case you wanted nice crispy pyjamas because it really works for that and I wouldn't recommend PVA there...

Anyway, I went to the open air theatre yesterday to see The Three Musketeers by the Illyria theatre group. It was bloody fantastic! I love open air theatre. If you get the chance to go, GO! Anyway, I was going to get really good photos but we got lost and only just caught the beginning so there was no time before and by the time half time came I was drunk. Obvs. That's the only reason I like open air theatre. I did get some beautiful photos on the stage with the hat and a box of wine though:
 

Me. This will have to do for the yoga pose today. We call that extended wino position. Very relaxing.

 Heather. Who should totes be a model.

 

And D'Artagnan (thanks for that Aurelie... my spelling last night was... memorable...). 

And that's that! Since I got it up on t'internet we've sold out of the pattern though. Haha. So I shouldn't really post that today but I'll make sure to get lots more in this week. Don't worry! Once more for the google rankings: King Cole 4336.

I'm off to suffer the consequences of my debauchery in a suitably stoic manner. 

Love Eleanor. xxxx