Knit Norfolk

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

Firstly, the soundtrack:

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

But ended up with a feast: 

 

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

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

 

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

And just because:

I found out what corbels actually are. 

Then we wandered around Castle Rising itself:

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

Then I had Pimms.

Natch. 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

 Look at how beautiful that water is! And more:

 

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

 

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

But we did. Because Boyf got it in his head that he wanted fish and chips on the beach but there was no fish and chips in Old Hunstanton. So we walked back along the top of the cliffs that the council have planted with a load of grass and some seats, through some gorgeously old fashioned gardens, past the hubble and bubble of a Victorian seaside town to the fish and chips which were delicious and we've finally worked out that even though we're tubby ('fat as pigs' - thanks mum, haha) we're more than happy to have a fish each and share chips. Trust me, this has been a revelation. What?! You mean you don't have to eat ALL THE FOOD?!?! 

 

 Feeling uncharacteristically romantic Boyf decided that we'd watch the sunset on the nature beach. And that was a bit of a damp squib but what we did see was jellyfish! I'd run out of the water earlier convinced that I'd been 'got' by one and he'd brushed it off. Then he had what looked like sunburned knees but when we got back to the tent they were red and angry and kind of damp and veiny in a way that sunburn isn't (sounds as disgusting as it was). As we sat down on the nature beach we started listen to a loud and happy family who were out on the muddy watery bit where the tide had gone out exclaiming loudly about how many jelly fish there were and how big they were! They were also swearing a lot (in a nice way if that's possible) and having a whale of a time. We got chatting to them and found out that the girl had autism and the boy had tourettes and that they therefore have more important things to worry about that swearing. The mother told us that she'd seen a Portugese Man O' War!!!! I'm not entirely sure I believed her but Boyf's legs looked pretty angry - he's not dead though. Anyway, this is not a man o' war:

 

 

But it is a jellyfish. Blurgh. 

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Right. I'm offski.

Love Eleanor.

Dirty Rascal Yarn Box

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

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

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

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

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

Your Pattern: 

 

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

- it's crochet - 

- it's an accessory -

- it's worked all in once piece but there are three 'bits' to it -

- one of those bits is entitled 'murder holes' -

- if that doesn't make you want to do it then you're dead to me -

- the stitches are simple - 

- the construction is unusual -

- it will come in printed format and with a code for a Ravelry download -

Your Yarn:

 

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

- the yarn is a wool blend -

- it's not a solid colour - 

- it's one of our best sellers and I adore it - 

- it's easy to crochet with -

- and easy to look after - 

Your Other Bits:

- hand made stitch markers on the theme - 

- a code for free shipping on the same yarn - 

- a sneaky peek at a brand new yarn only available in the shop from September - 

- other gifts that I'm going to find when I'm on holiday - 

- a walk through of the design ideas that will be absolutely fascinating! - 

The box will be beautifully presented and sent to you  like a gift. The idea is that you receive something really special to brighten up your day. It's an awful lot of effort going in to this - especially as you all know what a slattern I am... 

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

Once again, click here for the link. 

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

Love. xxxxxxxx

WOWOWOW!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxx

Three Ships Came Sailing Pi Yarn Box

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Buy by clicking here.

Your Pattern: 

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

it is knitted

 it is an accessory

 it is simple

it is interesting to knit and wear

 it is well explained and tested

 it does involve *some* intarsia at the very end but that is explained and optable-outable

in printed format and with a code to download on Ravelry. 

Your Colours: 

two options

both equally beautiful

plenty of yarn (with leftovers)

pure, natural fibre

plant based

washable

soft 

genuinely one of my favourites

Other Bits:

hand made stitch markers on the theme

a code for free shipping on the yarn used in the pattern

a sneaky peek at a brand new yarn only available in the shop from September!!!!!!!

other gifts that I'm going to buy for you when I'm on holiday next week so I've no idea what they are!

my love, respect and gratefulness till the end of all time

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

Buy by clicking here. 

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

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

Love Eleanor. xx

Voting is now liiiiiiiiive!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Eleanor. xxx

Deffo Not On Top Form.

You can tell I wasn't on top form yesterday. My lunch, as a grown woman buying her own food, was four dry ryvitas and a punnet of strawberries. Right-o. Mooooooving on.

I need to tell you about Knit in Public! It was marvelous! But not very debauched and I do believe that debauched-ness makes a KIP event, yes? Certainly last year we were *this* close to getting chucked out of the poacher - I took offense to somebody's definition of sock yarn (NYLON people NYLON!). Anyway, lovely stuff happened this year too. I'll show you:

We went to Fade and the Hard To Find Cafe just up Mansfield Road. It wasn't very busy and we took over one of the back rooms. A few of us turned up and then the Picnic organised by Knit in Notts turned up so there were many more. I reckon there were about 20 of us at the busiest point which was just perfect.

I set myself up near the entrance and started some steady drinking:

I laid the free stuff out on the table and people dived right in. Elaine was particularly pleased with her horrendous candy pink fun fur:

Hmmmm. Different strokes for different folks. To be fair, the plans for this stuff do sound pretty cute. Maybe I'll remember to keep you updated??

Steph baked AMAZING biscuits!

As did Singing Bird Artist but I forgot to take a photo because I am a tit. 

We discussed important upcoming projects, like this:

It's the Pearl Clutcher from Ravelry and once you've seen it you can't unsee it. I have genuinely spent some time trying to decide if I could get away with it? Perhaps in reallllllllly subtle colours?

On the way home I saw a friend I haven't seen in ages and we went for a drink and then I went to Boyf's where I made a giggly tit of myself infront of the in-laws. :) GOOD DAY!

I'll end this once more with an apology. This next super secret is taking it out of me a bit. It's consumed every day of my life since I first stumbled upon the idea and there's no end in sight just yet - especially seeing as the meeting about it that was supposed to happen last week isn't happening until the end of this week. I'm spending my time making more of the stuff but I'm not actually sure if I should be but where one door closes another one opens yes? So I'm in a weird place where I'm making stuff but I'm not sure what for but I have a self-imposed semi-deadline which is a lot more relaxed than it was the week before last but is still taking it out of me physically and creatively. My pointing finger on my left hand will never be the same. Suffice to say, in the three weeks since I've been consumed by this and therefore not blogging as much I've made, five and three halves of a blanket, two dresses, two jumpers, two cardigans, a soft toy, some booties, some bunting and a bowl. It does not stop. Anyway, I have some photos that I can show you without giving too much away.

 

That's certainly not all the bits, but they are the photos that I've already released and I've not been doing the secret for about an hour now so I'm starting to feel a bit antsy like I want to get back to it so I couldn't work out which of the ones I haven't released that I'm allowed to release. Oh. fml. This is going to be my whole summer isn't it? Haha. But once it's done it will be worth it! And you'll love it toooooooo. :):):):):)

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

 P.s. The Knit Now Mag's in and it's bloody brill!

Introducing Bobica!

 

I am SO excited about this! I guess you could call it my first 'proper' crochet design. It's got a bloody chart and everything... 

First and foremost therefore, here's the Ravelry link. Buy my pretties, you're paying for my coach trips! :)

If I remember rightly, I drew this on the toilet whiteboard on Love Your Local Yarn Shop Day.

I had an idea about a plump round thing in the middle of a lattice as a shawl and I started swatching. That's about as far as I got because then there was the Great Flood of 2014 and of course I went gallivanting with the oldies. I really got going with the pattern on a Tuesday - I know this because I was at knit group and I nearly drove them mad because I didn't reveal what or why or for whom I was doing it. It's the first time I've kept a proper secret I reckon (about myself anyway, I'm relatively good at other people's secrets...).

It started off  that evening looking a little like this:

Which morphed into this:

And I've got an idea for that, don't worry... But that had worked it's way by the end of the evening to looking an awful lot like this:

That's the image I sent to Vezza to ask if she wanted me to write a pattern for her Grad Club. She LOVED it because she trusts me, god only knows why. She was as excited as I was, so the next day I started on the 'proper' thing - crocheting a bit, writing a bit, taking photos.

And then came the holiday bit. I did take the pattern as written, and a gorgeous Truly Hooked Seafoam grad with my on holiday but I got caught up in doing something else which will appear on the blog at some point just as soon as I've sewn in ends and worked out how/when I should wear it/if it needs something else. 

I'm pretty proud of myself that I got back on it and didn't leave it languishing too long. I think part of that is that Verity was so excited and had already started dying the yarn. I need a deadline/somebody that I like relying on me for shit to get done apparently... Look:

In my head the pattern was always going to be called 'cherries' and we discussed  the colourway she was going to make with reference to yarn in my shop. We gathered together a little collection of Bamboo, Cottonsoft, Pricewise, Patons' Diploma and Merino DK and it looked a little something like this: 

 

Can you see that's a little more 'berry' than 'cherry'? On top of the fact that by now I'd blocked the first full version of the shawl and the 'cherries' were much longer and less round than they'd originally been.

 

I still love them. I love the way that they look like they're hanging by a thread - like plump and delicious berries waiting to be picked by greedy fingers. Nom nom nom. I haven't shown you these have I? They're the very first strawbs from Boyf's garden - honestly the most delicious thing ever apart from the mushroom croquette thing at Verity's wedding.

 

 'Bobica' means 'berry' in Bosnian and Croatian. I like the jaunty sound. :)

Anyway, less about food (I think it might be lunchtime). It took me four full days to write the chart. It took a lot of the stuff that I've learned about internetting, patience and bloody steady fingers to do. I first drew all of the symbols and scanned them, then I cropped and saved the individual images. Then I had to 'rub out' the background of each bit so that all that was left was a see-through background and the symbol itself. I did this because in order to lay the symbols near enough to eachother the background of the individual ones were definitely going to overlap therefore they needed to be see-through. To save see-through things on a computer they have to be 'pngs' rather then 'jpegs' which is fine and I knew that. BUT if you save one that points right as one thing and then flip it so it points left and save, the left hand one turns into a bloody jpeg so it no longer has a see-through background. GAH! I lost about another half day to that, but I won't be doing it again, I can tell you that for free. 

 Each layer of the chart is then worked painstakingly on top of the last one. Making sure everything lines up is like trying to herd cats. Speaking of which:

AWWWWW. IMAGINE TRYING TO HERD HIM!

I must admit, I am dead proud of this pattern. I think it's interesting - certainly, I didn't get bored doing three of them. I think it's neat - I love the way the body moves into the edge. I think it's a perfect size - more than a shawlette, less than a shawl so perfect for using as both - ta dah! YEAR ROUND USE! I think it's adaptable - looks great in Verity's Grads, looks just as good in the Truly Wool Rich 4ply. And most of all it's written with love. 

It's been tested a couple of times and we've ironed out some problems, but as always, let me know if you get stuck - it might well be you but it could equally be me and if you're having a problem then somebody else will be too. 

Apart from that, ENJOY!

Once again, click here for the pattern.

 

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxx

P.s Since I wrote this yesterday (it was released with no fanfare because the Truly Hooker's were getting their boxes but not all of them had turned up so I didn't want to spoil the secret...) I've made the top ten Hot Right Now crochet patterns on Ravelry. THIS IS MY MOMENT! HA! It doesn't get better than that. :):)

Appreciation.

I forgot to show you these videos. The first one is the cat enjoying the mouse that Lou (I think?! I will get your name one day...) from Loobylou Creations made for him.

Sorry it's sideways (unless it's righted itself now, it does that sometimes...).

And the second one is the cat, catnipped up to the eyeballs, enjoying crochet more than Boyf would like. Mwahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahaha:

I really enjoy Lou's creations and her blog. Chronic pain affects a fair few of my customers and I love that knitting and crochet (not so much crochet in Lou's world... One day!) offers a bit of gentle solace. And it's useful too. Look at this photo:

It's a cat from an adoption centre looking particularly happy with a mouse that she made. Ahhhhhh!

Check out the blog here and enjoy.

That's it. I can't talk about cats anymore because I'll be looking up ones to adopt. Off for more coding.

Love Eleanor.xxxx

Oh Dear

It appears that I'm up to my old tricks again... But I have a good reason! Just not one I can share with you... My Mum and I had a good discussion a few days ago based on an idea of mine and it looks like I'll be putting in quite a lot of behind the scenes work that'll have to stay secret until I've spoken to some other parties. It might not stay secret for long depending on what other people have to say but if it does stay secret then we're looking at about a timeline of a year or so where I keep things secret but work on them pretty much non-stop. Which is not v. good for having a blog is it?! Hmmm. At least today I have other things to speak to you about - new wool! YEAH!!!

So, Mark from King Cole came to see me t'other day and as usual, I'd seen most of what he had to show me on their facebook group before he came. That freed us up to talk about wildlife photography which is his real passion... He even won a place on the Countryfile Calender 2013 with this photo!!

 

Click here for his website - he's actually brilliant. 

But, I knew I wanted something new - something a bit different, something a bit exciting! With weather like we've been having (blurgh. not good for a ys...) you need something new and fresh to keep the interest don't you? So I've invested in the lovely Shine DK. 

 Now, this has been out for a few months and I'll admit outright that I forgot about it. I remember the Meadow colourway, which is really much more of a rainbow, making a massive impression on me but I was ordering a lot of something else at the time and couldn't afford to get anymore (I think it was when I got all of the Merino DK. Ahhh). For some reason this was back in his bag this time and I had the money to get it so I did. It's pretty much an acrylic but it has a thread of polyester running through it. It won't be everybody's cup of tea but I think that even people that don't like acrylics tend to not mind them for kids and seriously, they have cornered that with the Glacier, Blossom and Meadow. For those of you, like me, who don't mind a bit of acrylic for ourselves then worry not. This is spun in a very specific way which makes it super smooth, it has four plies in total which means that the fibres are packed tight into their tiny little plies and therefore lie smoother - kind of like the idea of cashmerino type yarns, yeah? I think it's going to mean that the yarn takes texture really well, I was going to say cable then but it'd have to be a special cable or design to work with the colourways. Lace, however, looks bloody lovely!

That's 3846. Imaginative... There's been a bit of discussion on this. Firstly, somebody reckons that nobody would wear it... well the model in the shop will be and then I will be. But I'm gonna knit the model first because I'm not convinced I'll wear the meadow. I may be more like to knit it in the slightly more sedate quicksilver or glacier. We'll see. Secondly, a few people have mentioned that they'd cast on all of the stitches at once so that you don't get the blockiness between the front and the back. That would deffo work, until you get to the armholes and I guess if you do a machine steek you could also do the rest of it like that. But I like the blockiness of it - I think, especially in the meadow, it makes it just a little more obnoxious which is part of the appeal for me. Anyway,  here are the rest of the patterns. I think they've done really well.

So that's the Shine DK. Enjoy.

Secondly. And this I'm really super excited about. Might we introduce to you the Bamboo Cotton 4ply. ARGH!!! I've been asking for this for a LONG time!

 

 Now, they've chosen the top ten colourways from the DK version but that's left us with a slightly muted palette. These probably aren't the best sellers in our shop but certainly the Opal and the Dusty Pink should smash out like they usually do.

The patterns provided are stunning delicate things:

King Cole 3920. Hope you can see that there's a little cable in there. Perfect for summer and layering going into Autumn. 

There's also this pattern: 

King Cole 3938. Which is style pretty horrendously. But I can see this. I have a vision! I'm going the left hand version in white and I'm going to put it over a bright bikini not a bloody outfit. This is for the beach! It is a better version, because it's handmade of course, of a kaftan! But I don't expect you to believe me, I feel like I'm on my own with this one but you'll all be on my level soon! Mwahaha!

And click here for the rest of the patterns. 

 I was going to tell you about the brand new colours in the Fashion Aran but the lovely Chrissie's just gone and bought most of it! Haha. The Rum is now out of stock and we only have one left of the Lewis (I should have bought a million packs of that, I knew it'd sell!). Anyway, you can admire it by clicking here and look at this photo:

 

I feel like the Orkney needs more love but that's probably my fault - it's the blacky-grey hiding in the background there and it's lush! There are some new patterns for it too, they're right at the end of this list here.

And fiiiiiinally, we got two new colours of the Comfort Prints in.

Delight on the left and Spearmint on the right. Delight doesn't show up very well, it's a delicious mix of cream, dusky pink and beigey/browns. You're going to love it!

So that's the new stuff! I feel like there's a new energy in the shop now I've had a little move around and sort out.

And I was going to say more but customers have been in all afternoon and now it's nearly home time! So I'm offski.

Love

Eleanor. xxx

Machine Knitters :)

Afternoon Everybody. :)

I had the loveliest time last night and I want to tell you alllll about it! I went to see the Mapperley Knit and Natterers - a group of lovely ladies (and a few gents) who meet to talk about all things machine knitting. Now, I don't machine knit. I did it once and wasn't very good at all. Blurgh. But the garments that these ladies produced was just incredible! One lady I was talking to after, I could tell that her top was knitted but I had no idea that the skirt was too! It was a midi length pleated skirt in tiny tiny black yarn and it draped like a dream. It was so lovely to see the talent there! I was invited a few months ago to give a talk at one of their meetings and I said yes straight away without really thinking what I was going to talk about. My first inclination at these things would be something that I feel pretty passionate about like fairisle or socks but I couldn't work out whether that crossed over to machine knitting. So I decided to talk about the shop, which is the reason I was asked there in the first place so it seemed as good a subject as any.

Thing is, and you know me, when I start thinking about the shop, or anything, it just comes out in a big burble. The important part about giving a speech is that it has to have a backbone. A frame to hang all of your anecdotes and jokes and pithy one-liners on (not many of those I'm afraid...). I've had a dead busy few weeks and and even busier weekend so the first time I really got to thinking about it was yesterday in the day time. I decided I was going to talk about why I love being a YSO. My backbone was essentially - introduce the shop, when we started, why we started, how we started, our ethos and then I thought about six different reasons I love owning the shop - the wool, the people, the community, the freedom, the confidence it's given me and the free stuff (mwahaha). Within that frame I talked about neon things, knit club, affairs, the Healthy and Every Size Movement, Love Your Local Yarn Shop Day, the Christmas jumper, setting up a dating event for knitters, Verity, the Bead Shop, having stupid coloured hair, going to London, the birthday parties, the blog and all sorts of other things. I'm glad with the way I organised my thoughts because I was able to shorten a few of the points when I was running out of time. RUNNING OUT OF TIME!?! I HAD AN HOUR AND I RAN OUT OF TIME! Does anybody want to pay me to talk for 24 hours? I could totes do that. Totes. I summed it all up with the plan for the future and a nice cup of coffee (which meant I was awake till like three this morning - bad call, Eleanor).

The ladies were lovely and very appreciative - I get the impression that mostly their speakers were a little bit more sensible than me? They kept telling me how 'bubbly' I was. Well, yeah, I am. :).

I took a single solitary photo:

 

Which doesn't show the ladies to their best effect really. But I tried. the boss took a few photos of me as I was speaking so I'll share those if she sends them to me.

Now, the deets. The ladies meet on the first Monday of the month at Haywood Road Community Centre which is dead easy to find even if it is a little tucked away. I believe you can get there from six and they have a bit of a chat and buy some machine yarn from eachother etc. Then they have a speaker from 7 to 8 and then there's a bit more chatting afterwards and everybody left at about 8.45 or so. I have contact details for you so please don't hesitate to e-mail or comment for them but I'm loath to put them out there for security purposes. Do go on down if you get the chance though, it was seriously lovely!

  And now, why was I so busy? Bloody gardening. That's why. Boyf has a lovely but small garden that was covered in concrete. We started smashing the concrete last Sunday and that made me ache all week and then his parents decided on the spur of the moment to come up to help us take it to the tip. We got rid of loads of stuff! Smashed up a bit more concrete. Moved a completely full compost bin. Moved the normal and recycling bins out of the garden and into a ginnel that belongs to them but has been kind of co-opted by a load of nosy neighbours that have a legal (equitable actually. blah. law degrees) right to use it as a cut through and they do even though it's actually farther for them to walk. Whatevs. And then we started putting up a decking - which I didn't want but Boyf did but we ran out of wood. So that's why they'll be doing next Saturday whilst I'm at work. Thank the Lord! We borrowed a drill from my dad and I took the opportunity to photograph his cave:

Which goes some way to explaining the shop and why I'm so pleased that it's in the state that it's in. What I call tidy.

 Yesterday I spent some time moving the pots of things that we planted a few weeks ago into the raised beds which are the only part of the garden that we're not changing and cat helped a lot. Can you see him? Incidentally, he's deffo a he because I saw him spraying in a manly way t'other day. Knowledge is power.

Incidentally, have you seen this?

It's a decoy wasp nest knitted in super chunky. Find the pattern here: Robin Stephen's Wasp Away Decoy Nest and it's amazing!!! The idea is that wasps are terratorial creatures and if they see that there's another 'nest' nearby they'll bugger off somewhere else. I have an irrational fear of wasps (and bees but I am bothered about that and trying to stop myself) and I've seen a wasps nest and it made me feel sick and I would hate my life if I ever had to see one again so I'm going to wack up these buggers all over Boyf's garden whether he likes it or not. I'm thinking it'd be great in the Seriously Chunky but I reckon you'd have to up your needles to an 8mm so that it's still sturdy but you don't do your hands some damage trying to work it.

And, once this is finished and posted I'm going to get on with the final touches on the super secret project. Actually, the penultimate touches. Because Boyf's parents were down I couldn't use him spare bed for blocking so I still need to do that and photograph them and the weather hasn't helped with that but if I can get that done then I can photograph on Wednesday. It's really taken far too long to do.


And finally. A competition! Can you remember at Love Your Local Yarn Shop Day I said I'd be giving away a free Yarndale place and then promptly forgot? Well, I'm making that good now! I'm going to be asking a series of questions about Yarndale and the shop over on the Facebook and Twitter pages and every time you answer a question you get entered into a draw to win a free place! Only one entry per question though so don't go answering 20 times on Facebook and Twitter. ;) For those of you who have already booked you can have your money back (in shop vouchers) if you win and for those of you who haven't booked, I'm saving a space on the coach but separately from that there are only six spaces left so if you definitely want to go then you really need to book a ticket and then do all your entries for a chance of getting that money back. 

Click here to book your place.

And that's it! I'm off to tidy for twenty minutes and then get down to the super secret project.


Love Eleanor. xx