Yarndale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm really not sure who reads this that isn't on the Facebook, Twitter, Insta or Youtube but if that's you then GREAT! Yarndale is up on sale again! We're doing it a bit different this year. You have to fill out a form so I have contact details in case anything goes wrong and then I'll contact you in the way you ask for payment. You can still pay in the shop if it suits, or over the the phone or in paypal. Anyway, the details can be found by clicking here.

I don't want to say too much because I want to keep it all in one place - the FAQ which I linked to up there.

As we have for the last two years we're making a Yarndale Uniform. There's not much too this and it's not as exciting as it might sound. We choose a pattern on Yarn Shop Day and then we make it. Anybody can make it, in any yarn bought from the shop and wear it on the day. It's not an exclusive pattern to us but I can think of at least eight people who are giving it a go for the Yarndale coach so you'll be one of a tribe. If you've got an inkling to do it, do it!!!!!! Doing things with us is what makes you part of Knit Nottingham, no special hand shakes or anything, just being a bit of a dork with yarny friends.

 

I think it's a really good choice. And trust me, I stopped them choosing a fully lacework 4ply number (which is fit but deffo not inclusive). I'm considering an evening of Yarndale Uniforming where I can help with issues. Thoughts?

You can find the pattern with all the details by clicking here - Sirdar 7977. It's a fab size range and doable in an awful lot of yarns - many people have chosen Bamboo Cotton DK, but some have chosen the Rico Cottonsoft and of course, the Toscana which is the original yarn.

I think that's all I need to say on the matter. Any questions about Yarndale itself - check here before you ask - any questions about the uniform, ask away!

Love Eleanor! xxxxx

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.

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!

Small Business Saturday!

So, American Express put on this thing (or maybe somebody else but it's well advertised by American Express) every year where the idea is that you celebrate and support small businesses. I like to think that I do this every day and I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted so I just though I'd share a beautiful little story that happened to me as a small business owner this week:

I'd popped next door to get a cuppa tea from the independent coffee shop owner there (see what I mean? Every facking day Amex, not just once a year...). I always stay by the door in there because I have to lock the shop up and I end up chatting to Sandra and her husbeast. She makes the tea and he brings it to me and bish bash bosh, dead easy. I see a customer coming to my door and trying it so I walk out and say 'hi, sorry, I got chatting, silly me... blah blah blah'. She says 'have you got some black wool?'. I say 'can you be more specific?'. She says 'thick'. I say, have a look at the Cygnet Seriously Chunky'. She says ''Ow much?'. I say '£2.50'. She says 'too expensive'. I say 'have you looked at the Cygnet Chunky?'. ''Ow much?'. '£1.75'. 'Too much. I've seen it in the Poundshop. It's a pound'. I say, 'have you seen the Dolly Mix, it's 75p. Or the Pricewise which is twice as much yarn for less than twice the price'. She says 'no, I think I'll go to the Poundshop'. I said 'brill, they need all the support they can get'.

This is what we're faced with people. Haha. Happily, I popped back to the cafe next door to grab my tea and was able to let off some steam but there are people that would rather shop in the Poundshop or Lidl or Aldi or Asda or whatever shitty shop has decided to sell wool than come to a proper shop and generally because they think it's cheaper. Never mind that it's usually not or that you don't get the service or the options or repeated orders of the same yarn (the amount of times I've had to explain that I can't 'just get the Aldi wool in' because they've run out of it, ugh).

At the same time as dealing with this woman, I was uploading a vlog, designing for a lesson that I'm teaching in a couple of weeks (crochet edgings - still space if you want it) when chatting to customers, e-mailing back and forth about the 'thing' for the Christmas boxes, planning the Christmas window, and thinking about when or earth I'm going to fit in doing my accounts before Christmas. On a daily basis I'm writing blogs, tidying, sorting, making orders, sorting accounts, paying people, reaching out to potential indie makers like Gill, Helen and Jem, helping customers who've got problems, helping customers choose wool, speaking to customers 5000 miles away about design options, adding more stuff to the website, answering facebook messages, e-mails and phone calls, dealing with the advertising, designing the advertising, making stuff to sell, cleaning the toilet, making designs, social working, counselling, being friendly to children, cashing up. I love it! I genuinely love it. But the bigger we get the more work there is. Obviously, the easier some of it gets - getting shit on the internet is now second nature, finding time to do it.... not so much...

I don't want this to be some sort of sob story, because it isn't. I know for a lot of you it's a dream job and in a lot of ways it is. But you don't get the flexibility of a lot of self employed work when you're in a bricks and mortar and the overheads are much more than say a wahm. We're stuck somewhere in the middle between big businesses who have people doing stuff and tiny businesses who have more options. It's a difficult position to be in but also exciting because what I want to do, if I put in enough effort, I can do - Christmas boxes, going to Yarndale (remember that only started because I was desperate to go and couldn't afford to so I made you lot pay for me... ;)), boozy birthday parties...

In return for this I get an incredible insight into your knitting and crocheting lives, a chance to celebrate when it goes wrong and the chance to help when it goes wrong. I'm there for new babies and divorces and birthdays and Christmasses, new jobs, new partners and and and! It's hard work but it's not all doom and gloom. It's a fucking community, isn't it? That's what we're building here. Love it.

So, today, we're celebrating, a little. Not a full on party but a nice relaxed day where I hopefully finish these bloody socks for Chris (his birthday falls on Small Business Saturday, fancy that!) and make a bit of money. The weather has not been great for us this year. I'm still in summer dresses, albeit layered with winter cardigans. We're making more than summer but this is the time of year when I get to get up to date with all of my suppliers and this year that is later than usual. Blurgh. The Daily Mail promised me snow goddammit! Anyway, I have two brilliant reasons for you to spend your money:

The first one is that when you spend £30.00 tomorrow, in the shop or online, you'll get a £5 voucher to use in July or August. Where you spend your £30.00 will be where you can spend your voucher i.e. in the shop will be a shop voucher and online will be an online voucher (I know I'm great but I just can't work out how else to do it, or rather, I can but I know I'll not get round to the admin involved... Just another reason to love small businesses, we're honest... ;) ). And, just as an insight into what it is to be a small business, the £30 cannot include the beautiful bags from Gill or the gorgeous pins from Helen because we only make a tiny profit on those because we're trying to give as much back to the makers as possible. Hope that makes sense.

And the second one is a new pattern from another small business - Jem Weston! Most of you will now Jem, she's a regular at Knit in Notts, a regular here and a general all round good egg. She used to work for Rowan, becoming my rep for Coats for a year or two before deciding to go it alone and become a full time, freelance designer! And here we are supporting her supporting us! Love it!

She's designed the beautiful Dice Cowl which is available from us, in print, for £3.00 but for a little while (probably until I run out to be fair, I expect this to sell well) you can get it for £1.50 if you buy one of the colourways that me and Jem chose when we filmed this vlog a few weeks ago. Have a click here for the internet version of this offer or just come into the shop, it's good to chat. :)

And that's your lot! Really excited about both of these things! But, being a small business owner, I can't sit around chatting all day, I got shit to do.

Love Eleanor. xxxxxx

P.s. I don't think I've said THANK YOU enough for allowing me to be a small business owner. This shop could so easily have gone down the pan so many times and yet, you keep coming in and fawning over our wool and attending lessons and celebrating at parties and generally being bloody fantastic. Love love love.


P.p.s. Just as I was writing this, somebody came in to put a poster up and asked if I'd like a free ticket to the event, I said nope because 'I hate people' he said 'I hate to tell you this but you work in a shop' and I said 'yeah but, they're knitters, they're not like normal people'. Applies to crocheters too.

P.p.p.s. LOVE.

Knit Nottingham's Super Secret Christmas Boxes

I reckon I'm preaching to the converted here. I reckon you must have heard about our Christmas boxes that are not coming in boxes? Yeah?! No!? Well, even if you have I have more to tell you here. I can let a little more go in these blogs (as opposed to the vlog) because I can think about what I'm saying. When I'm doing the vlog I'm all like 'don't say anything, don't say anything' but here I have time to weigh stuff up, so I'll let a little more go. Wooohoo!

So, first thing's first, there are four options: knit or crochet, basic or festive. Find the knit ones here and the crochet ones here. I suppose there are actually eight options because each of those four options can be sent to the UK or abroad (I've averaged out the price of postage for the International orders to £6 per box to make my life easier).

What are they?

BOXES! Well, actually they're not boxes. I've written two patterns, one crochet and one knitted, for the same thing. Kind of. They're the same object but each design is different, playing to the strengths of knitting or crocheting respectively. The patterns are for homeware. It's something that everybody has in their house in some form. In order to make the object, you definitely need a 'thing'. This 'thing' is available around the internet, or possible in real life although I've no idea where you'd go, but I've designed the project for a specific size of the 'thing' which means that we're getting those made especially for you. There are actually two parts to the thing (well, eight parts if truth be told). You need all of these parts to make the thing. The pattern is useless without the thing.

That brings us to why there is a basic box and a festive box. Normally, I'd just do a festive box - this has the pattern, the 'thing', the yarn and a load of little bits and bobs that are nice little gifts to yourself but I'm aware that not everything has the funds for the festive box (£25 or £31 for international orders) so I've made it as fair as possible to everybody by offering the basic box which is essentials only - the pattern and the 'thing'. There's honestly no point in having the pattern without having the 'thing'. The basic box is £13 or £19 with the international postage. If you can, I would really recommend the festive box. The idea is to have something really pleasing to open - a full project with lots of luxurious bits to make you feel like Christmas has started (I really hope you get some time off your duties, jobs, kids, caring, to take some time out for yourself over winter and I hope the boxes will be part of it - I LOVE CHRISTMAS!).

I can't tell you what the thing is, as I said above, but I will give you another clue that you won't have had anywhere else, I did the photoshoot yesterday:

   And all the way through I kept thinking..... Dave Gorman.

There's a clue for you. Haha.

So the boxes will be sent out on the 14th (earlier hopefully for the international orders so guarantee they'll get there in time, but that's dependent on the 'things' being made in time). This should mean that you can open them on Christmas Day. And that means that even if you get your parcels and open them and love them earlier than that, you've got to keep your mouths shut. Everybody needs to have the chance to enjoy the surprise!

The thing to remember about these boxes is that it's all about the pattern. Lots of people buy indie dyer boxes all the time, maybe even monthly, but they're about the yarn and then you go and create. These ones take longer to put together because of the pattern, and this is a proper project, not a little thing that you can knock up to use up a bit of wool, which means that they can't happen very often which is why people are getting excited about it. INCLUDING ME! EEEEE!

Which leads to the final thing to talk about is difficulty level. It's hard to explain without telling you what it is. The crochet one is definitely easier than the knitted one - I'd say the crochet one is beginner/intermediate (but with enough interest to keep experienced crocheters going). The knitted one is definitely intermediate. It involves knitting in the round, either on circulars or double points but after that the stitches are simple, it's just a case of sticks and string and I'm hoping to do a sheet of handy hints for you so you won't feel alone.

And I think that's it! I ended up having a good old chin wag with a customer so I don't have as long to write this as I would have liked, therefore there may be another blog if I think about stuff that I haven't talked about.

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. I FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT THE COLOURWAYS! It's so hard to name colourways when you're a creative invalid like I am, so I just named them after all my favourite things about Christmas including PIGS IN BLANKETS! Which is the pinky colourway in the crochet version. You are going to LOVE it and not enough people have ordered this. Not enough by far.

P.p.s. I ought to link to them again didn't I? Bad business woman. Here are the knitted boxes (not boxes) and here are the crocheted boxes (not boxes).

P.p.p.s. There aren't enough photos in this blog are there? That's the nature of the thing. Have this instead:

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

Pattern of the Weeeeeeeeeeek - Union Onesies

You knew it was coming. It couldn't not, could it? And what a way to relaunch Pattern of the Week!

I'm going to start early with my top tip.... Don't enter into a speed knitting competition. It'll only break your heart when you lose/you fingers when you can't stop.

The Union Suit. 

So, let me set the scene. Toni has started covering the shop on Wednesday morning for an hour or two whilst I have a regularly scheduled appointment. So far, every single time she's covered, for one reason or another she's ended up staying all day. One of those days somebody came in looking for interesting baby patterns and ended up with a onesie type suit. Toni speculated that it might be bloody brill for her to have a onesie and started looking on Ravelry. I started wondering whether it might be reasonable for me to have one too. She found the Union Suit. I couldn't resist and we both cast on that evening. The photos that really set this in our minds were these:

 

Look how much fun he's having chopping wood! 

And this one:

Cheeky.

We got over excited and started talking about pockets and hoods and detachable feet but we were both very definite on there having a fairisle bumflap.

The pattern is fantastic. Fan-bloody-tastic. This is not for the faint of heart. This is a lot of knitting, knitting in the round, knitting flat, fancy increases, fancy decreases, picking up stitches, short rows, counting rows, knitted all in one, button holes.... Anybody who's made a jumper confidently should be fine but be warned. It is really well explained and all the way through there are options for short or longer or wider or thinner or curvier or less curvy bodies. Both me and Toni made adjustments, some of which worked and some of which didn't. I'd definitely do my legs shorter next time and Toni would definitely make hers a little baggier. Overall though, we felt pretty well supported throughout the pattern but I think it helped that we were doing it together so you know when you don't read the pattern right? Well, the other one would. And to be honest, once I got down and finished the legs I didn't touch the pattern again.

At some point, the knit-a-long turned into a competition. I think it turned seriously when Jean offered Toni £50 to beat me. Toni was in front for most of the way and then, somehow, when she went away for the weekend, I got ahead. AND THEN AT THE LADY MINUTE SHE BLOODY FINISHED! But have you seen the side of her compared to me?

Although that photo makes her look almost as tall as me I'm about a good 6 to 7 inches taller, and to give you some idea of sizing.... my thigh is two inches smaller than her chest... Haha. I believe, even though my knitting finished the day after hers, that I won. Also, she never got a single pocket on hers.

The bumflaps were dead fun. For some reason I got it in my head that I should definitely have my name on mine. I roughly worked out how many rows I'd have to work and split that into seven sections which, give or take, gave me seven rows per letter. So I spent a bus journey working that out meticulously...



As meticulously as I get anyway... If you can't make that out (and I barely can) it's a series of scribbled grids with letters blacked out. It's all I needed anyway. And it ended up looking like this:



You can probably tell that I spent very little time centering the patterning, just went with it. I'm of the passionate belief that fairisle really should be done in the round and steeked where you want it flat, so every row of doing this made me cringe. Better than leaving this though...

Toni's not so bothered about how to make fairisle though so she just ploughed ahead with the cutest bunnies ever in the world.



I think she roughly took the pattern for a monster eighties jumper, but basically looked at it and made it up from there. Each bunny is separated by a line of fairisle jamming and there was a little bit of heartache about whether she could fit another bunny and another line of fairisle in. Especially seeing as she decided on having a useable bumflap. I was convinced I wouldn't use mine so I sewed it up (forgot to put buttonholes in anyway....) but Toni assures me that it is useable!

Which leads me to. I'VE GOT TO MAKE ANOTHER ONE! I decided to put a zip up the front of mine - no idea why seeing as I hate sewing - but I did. Only, I decided this on a day when I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to a sewing shop before I had to wear it at the party so I had to send Chris in. Good old Chris. Only, I couldn't decide on the colour, seeing as they didn't have burnt orange in a 30" zip. (You mean not everybody is making burnt orange plus size onesies around here!?!?!?) so I got him to pick up a red and a black. But then I didn't want to take the black back because I want another onesie. I was tempted to make an all black onesie. I have a beautiful long black velvet dressing gown that I wear all the time and it almost makes me feel classy in my sleepwear. Surely I would feel classy in an all black onesie - perhaps with some crystal beading detail around the yoke??? But then Steph from Nettynot suggested a multi coloured onesie and it all came into focus because a loooooong time ago I got a bag of all of my aran bits together fancying making a big oversize sweater for me and never got round to it. Add a few full balls in there and I have enough for an all over mental onesie! IMAGINE THAT!

Anyway, for these original onesies, knitted in three weeks and one/two days respectively if you must know, we both used the big balls of aran. Everybody loves a big ball don't they? Toni used the Grousemoor Aran in Pink Mix (marked 'Pine Mix' on the internet.... how have I missed that?! It's on the list of stuff to fix. It's a very long list...), three balls of it. And I used the King Cole Fashion Aran in Mull, three and a bit balls of it. Note the difference in metreage - the Cygnet Grousemoor has 660m and the Fashion Aran has 800m so even though I only used half a ball more, I used a good 600m more. We shared a ball of Cygnet Grousemoor Aran in cream for the contrast and used most of that although there's some left over that might make it into my next onesie seeing as I don't have that much cream.... not usually my thing... It's knitted on a 4mm needle and I think a 3.75mm for the ribbing and we both ended up using a circular all the way through even though some of it's back and forth. It's just much better for your wrists this way because the extra weight is not being supported by your arms or wrists but laying on your lap as you knit (or under your arm if you knit whilst waiting for the bus like I do). This might seem like too small a needle, and technically it is, and parts can be hard going to be honest but you really don't want a loose gauge on something like this. You'll be wearing it when it's cold and probably without a bra and can you imagine a nipple peeping out of your loose weave? Nobody wants that.

And I think that's all I've got to say! I really, genuinely recommend this. It's one of those projects that you really regret casting on when you're half way through but we've both worn these to death since we made them and they so impressive and technically interesting that I say just bloody go for it! £30 for a woolly onesie made by oneself? Boom.

One last proper photo:

I'm off to prepare for tomorrow's lesson.

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxx

P.s. Just to help her our a bit, here's the pattern again - Union Suit by Megan Grewal.

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

Eleanor's Pattern of the Weeeeeeeeeek - 3528

I've had two weeks off pattern of the week! Two whole weeks! One week because I was on holiday and the next week because I was catching up from my holiday, I was too busy in the shop and I couldn't think of what to so. I still kinda can't think what to do because I haven't got the best photos of this one and I haven't got a yoga pose but I wanted to redress the crochet/knit imbalance so I'm settling for this and some timed selfies. Beautiful. I'm talking about 3528.

I've always loved this little t-shirt. If you know me you know I love a knitted t-shirt. They're an easy way of looking a bit smarter than a general t-shirt but still cool and comfortable to wear on days like this. For the longest time I couldn't work out what yarn to make it with. You know I love the Bamboo Cotton more than life itself but I've made so much stuff with that it sometimes feel a bit like a cop out. Not that long ago the lovely Jean came and took the Crimson (actually a beautiful, deep, Mexican-y type orange - stupid King Cole) to make herself a version. And seeing the photos and then the thing in real life made me need to cast it on.

 

Jean is a fabulously fearless knitter. I love it when she comes in because if she loves it, she'll do it, no messing. She was half way through this and wanting to start it again in the Opium which I just thought was the best idea evah. I wouldn't have done a year ago, it wasn't until the newer patterns (from 4178 onwards) for the Opium came in that I realised that patterning - cables and lace - looks great in the Opium. So I wasn't fearless then. There's a balance though isn't there? Doing something a bit out there and fabulous could turn out brill or terrible so you have to work out how much work/money it will be and whether that's something that would be worth the chance of it turning out like a nightmare. Yeah?

Anyway, Jean chose the Cobalt for her Opium which is very her. But before we settled on the final thing we'd been through the Purple and the Peacock so they were all on the table just hanging around looking FIT! It was also the week that I'd practiced putting the tent together to prove to Chris it could be done in 15 minutes so apparently that colour combo was on my mind. Camouflaged knitting photo:

 

Now, if you remember from the holiday blog post I wrote, I went sincerely wrong with this pattern. The problem is that I'm a cocky sod who thinks I know what I'm doing. So, if you've been following the Pattern of the Week blog posts from the beginning you'll remember right back at the beginning I was talking about leaf shaped lace patterns and how they always come back to one number and are offset by another leaf getting fatter then the first leaf gets smaller. This one is something different. Slightly. One set of the leaves goes back to one stitch and one set goes back to two stitches. Which means that at the end of each leaf, you have to know whether you're working the leaves that end on two or one stitch. Not a problem if you're not a cocky bogger - I on the other hand 'fixed' the problems numerous times only realising that they didn't need to be 'fixed' when I got to the end of the next leaf and the were the opposite kind. Gah! So this top tip comes back to, read the pattern!

My other top tip is, feel free to make garments written to be made on the flat in the round. That's what I did. I popped a marker in to denote the beginning of the round and the half way point and got on with my life. Much less purling (although I don't hate purling and everybody should just learn to suck it up because it's like yin and yang, booze and fags). You need to think about whether it's appropriate - if you're making a big old cabled thing, or something in something very slippery like silk or bamboo then you might not want to do this - the seam there can provide some much needed support. But for me, in this top which is lacy and in a light weight cottonish thing with no sleeves and very little yarn, I went straight ahead and knitted it in the round. Only stopping when the arm openings happened when I split the stitches into half, left half of them on hold and followed the pattern as it was written before casting off and doing the other half.

I doubt you'll be wondering, but if you are, I lost the pattern at about half way up the sleeves so I did my own thing at the top which was my favourite and ridiculously bloody easy slash neck which is basically just cast off straight and then when you're ready sew the shoulders together from the outside in so you can try it on and work out if the neck works for you. It does work for me.

One day I might get a proper photo or two done. But not today. I have the shop to tidy - can you tell?

And again, if you're wondering, and I doubt you are, the two t-shirts have met and they like eachother.

 

OOOOOOOOOF! WHAT COLOURS!

I hope that's enough of a pattern of the week post. I'm hoping for something a bit different next week but I haven't got very far on it so maybe not. We'll see.

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. I'm trying to proof read this (as much as I ever do) but I haven't got anything that's easy enough to knit/crochet and read so tough tits, have my spelling/grammar mistakes.