Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk
I hope you all had a lovely weekend - we had a great time catching up with a load of friends. We walked across to The Gurnard's Head Pub (about an hour and a half's walk from us or two hours if you take my mother-in-law's "scenic" route) and sat outside in the sun and lots of friends, coincidentally, popped in too so we ended up staying until 7pm and then walked back and got home just as the sun was setting - lovely.
Yesterday was spent doing absolutely nothing and I'm exhaused today - isn't that always the way?
On the knitting front - well, teddy is finished bar his nose and mouth (which are to be embroidered so I need to psyche myself up for that). I've done a tension square for his waistcoat, printed out the knitting square paper from here and now all I have to do is plot it out, knit it and dye it - hmm - well, nearly there - at least he's looking at me while I do it (and he hasn't got any stuffing falling out any more) - slow progress indeed.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Saturday, 2 May 2009
nitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk
The weather is glorious today so I guess everyone's on the beach as it's very, very quiet in here.
Now, I could have sat and knitted a few more rows of the Slowest Tank-Top In The History Of The World, Ever (at least 5 months and I haven't finished the front yet) but, no, I though of you, my customers and friends, and inputted two more pattern books from Rowan Classic instead.
The first is Tweed:
lovely patterns for men and women in Rowan Classic Wool Tweed or, of course, you could use our Yarn Convertor to knit them in any other aran weight.
The second book is Family:
patterns for the whole family (lots for children and men) - again in aran weight - Cotton Jeans is used but, again, you could convert and use any aran weight you liked.
We're planning a quiet "family" weekend, nice walk tomorrow if the weather holds and, who knows, I might finish teddy - OK, I know, you can all stop laughing now. Have a great weekend, one and all. Back Tuesday.
The weather is glorious today so I guess everyone's on the beach as it's very, very quiet in here.
Now, I could have sat and knitted a few more rows of the Slowest Tank-Top In The History Of The World, Ever (at least 5 months and I haven't finished the front yet) but, no, I though of you, my customers and friends, and inputted two more pattern books from Rowan Classic instead.
The first is Tweed:
lovely patterns for men and women in Rowan Classic Wool Tweed or, of course, you could use our Yarn Convertor to knit them in any other aran weight.
The second book is Family:
patterns for the whole family (lots for children and men) - again in aran weight - Cotton Jeans is used but, again, you could convert and use any aran weight you liked.
We're planning a quiet "family" weekend, nice walk tomorrow if the weather holds and, who knows, I might finish teddy - OK, I know, you can all stop laughing now. Have a great weekend, one and all. Back Tuesday.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk
The weather is glorious today - yes, that is typical Cornwall (4 seasons in one day) - so all my regulars are probably trying to tidy up their gardens. I've had some lovely visitors in though - who are most grateful for the weather improvement and very glad to see a nice wool shop - we love meeting people and hearing about where they live and their hols in the south-west.
As a result of all of the above, it's gone a bit quiet this afternoon so - teddy update, as promised.
As I've mentioned before, I've had no formal design training so I tend to chart/measure/fiddle until I get what I want. Inevitably, this leads to some disasters and quite a lot of tinking but, sometimes, it works out how I plan it. My first efforts were simple handbags for Cornish Organic:
and then: a fairly simple sweater and hat.
Note: I did not design the sheep!
But I did get into the sheep theme. This tea cosy was designed in the car outside a gym one cold dark winter when T was training hard! (Just try charting that out behind a steering wheel - at times the language was fruity)
The tea cosy is the most popular pattern we've every done - we've sold hundreds. The next most popular is this stole (modelled by our good friend Jules).
Then along came colours to the Cornish Organic range and things hotted up!:
and then we met Tina Barrett and she took over the "big stuff" and I took on the smaller "quirky" stuff.
So, everyone kept saying we should make a teddy bear and I started in the usual way - chart out the pieces and then start knitting, writing up each line as I go (very time consuming!). Again, some was done in the car outside the gym, the rugby pitch and the hockey pitch and gradually he came together. So I dyed the paws and hands, worked out the joints, sewed him up and then he sat and looked at me and I kept thinking "he doesn't look right, something's not looking right" and then it struck me - the tops of his legs and arms were all wrong. All completely and utterly wrong and, once I'd spotted it, it bugged me to death.
What to do? He's all stuffed and sewn up and virtually finished. Do I:
a) take his head off, unstuff him, take the joints apart, take the legs and arms off, unpick the tops of all 4, re-knit them (re-writing the patten as I go), replace the joints, re-stuff and sew the head back on or do I:
b) cheat. Unpick the tops of the legs and arms in situ, tink back the outside piece of each limb, re-knit (re-writing the pattern as I go), carefully sew back together putting the excess knitting of the inside piece of each limb inside with the stuffing.
I chose b). I know, I know - a real perfectionist would go for a) because option b) would keep them awake at night but, come on chaps, I do have another life and, honestly, you'd never know. I know and I am managing to sleep fine so please don't lose any sleep on my behalf, OK.
Currently I have one arm left to go - actually I have half an arm left as I tinked back one and then went to bed. Again, true perfectionists wouldn't have been able to sleep with a knitting needle half way up one arm with the stuffing falling out but, guys, I need to sleep, right? And a true perfectionist would have gone for option a) so I don't count now.
T has declared that "actually - he's a pretty good teddy, Mum" - which is pretty high praise in my house so I'm chuffed.
This weekend he'll get his ears attached (they're on my bedside cabinet - slovenly, I know) and a waistcoat knitted - if he's lucky - and I get the end of year accounts written up - see, I do have another life!
The weather is glorious today - yes, that is typical Cornwall (4 seasons in one day) - so all my regulars are probably trying to tidy up their gardens. I've had some lovely visitors in though - who are most grateful for the weather improvement and very glad to see a nice wool shop - we love meeting people and hearing about where they live and their hols in the south-west.
As a result of all of the above, it's gone a bit quiet this afternoon so - teddy update, as promised.
As I've mentioned before, I've had no formal design training so I tend to chart/measure/fiddle until I get what I want. Inevitably, this leads to some disasters and quite a lot of tinking but, sometimes, it works out how I plan it. My first efforts were simple handbags for Cornish Organic:
and then: a fairly simple sweater and hat.
Note: I did not design the sheep!
But I did get into the sheep theme. This tea cosy was designed in the car outside a gym one cold dark winter when T was training hard! (Just try charting that out behind a steering wheel - at times the language was fruity)
The tea cosy is the most popular pattern we've every done - we've sold hundreds. The next most popular is this stole (modelled by our good friend Jules).
Then along came colours to the Cornish Organic range and things hotted up!:
and then we met Tina Barrett and she took over the "big stuff" and I took on the smaller "quirky" stuff.
So, everyone kept saying we should make a teddy bear and I started in the usual way - chart out the pieces and then start knitting, writing up each line as I go (very time consuming!). Again, some was done in the car outside the gym, the rugby pitch and the hockey pitch and gradually he came together. So I dyed the paws and hands, worked out the joints, sewed him up and then he sat and looked at me and I kept thinking "he doesn't look right, something's not looking right" and then it struck me - the tops of his legs and arms were all wrong. All completely and utterly wrong and, once I'd spotted it, it bugged me to death.
What to do? He's all stuffed and sewn up and virtually finished. Do I:
a) take his head off, unstuff him, take the joints apart, take the legs and arms off, unpick the tops of all 4, re-knit them (re-writing the patten as I go), replace the joints, re-stuff and sew the head back on or do I:
b) cheat. Unpick the tops of the legs and arms in situ, tink back the outside piece of each limb, re-knit (re-writing the pattern as I go), carefully sew back together putting the excess knitting of the inside piece of each limb inside with the stuffing.
I chose b). I know, I know - a real perfectionist would go for a) because option b) would keep them awake at night but, come on chaps, I do have another life and, honestly, you'd never know. I know and I am managing to sleep fine so please don't lose any sleep on my behalf, OK.
Currently I have one arm left to go - actually I have half an arm left as I tinked back one and then went to bed. Again, true perfectionists wouldn't have been able to sleep with a knitting needle half way up one arm with the stuffing falling out but, guys, I need to sleep, right? And a true perfectionist would have gone for option a) so I don't count now.
T has declared that "actually - he's a pretty good teddy, Mum" - which is pretty high praise in my house so I'm chuffed.
This weekend he'll get his ears attached (they're on my bedside cabinet - slovenly, I know) and a waistcoat knitted - if he's lucky - and I get the end of year accounts written up - see, I do have another life!
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk
The good news is that the marvel that is Thomas has been resolving problems on the site. This means that most pictures are now showing but I've found some more missing today and emailed the links to him - he loves me, I know he does.
The bad news is we were well behind with inputting but the good news is I've been inputting like fury today because - more bad news - the weather here is still truly appalling which means - even more bad news - the shop has been really quiet (and, frankly, who can blame the customers as I wouldn't be out today if I didn't have to be). However, the really good news is there are lots of lovely things for you now to see on the site. Here goes:
more Mirasol Miski in navy and, new colour, cream - here;
new Baby Life patterns - here (scroll down and the patterns are on the left);
new Kon Tiki CROCHET patterns - here (scroll down again and the CROCHET patterns are at the bottom) - note use of capitalised CROCHET for all you CROCHET fans who bemoan the lack of CROCHET patterns;
new colours in Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed - here - I know it's coming into summer but, let's face it the weather's been/is like winter and you can always start those winter knits now!
new beads - here - I hope you note (and, dare I suggest, "like" the Gok effort I made out of packet of these lovely beads). You could, also, of course use them to decorate your knitting or make a necklace - or whatever, in fact, you feel like;
one new book - here - Kids Learn to Crochet - (scroll down again) - fabulous illustrations and probably good for grown-ups too who, like me, find crochet completely incomprehensible (how do you get the right tension with only one implement?);
finally, latest issue of Yarn Forward magazine - here.
I cannot begin to tell you who grotty the weather is here - I am about to get drenched on my velocipede again. G is playing the last game of rugby for the season - winners of the County Cup (Pirates) -v- the Cornwall team. I don't know how the match will go but I can assure you he'll come home wet and muddy - joy. T seems to spend a lot of his life at the moment in cricket whites - the whole thing is just too confusing for words.
I had a customer in today who was looking for a summer cotton yarn and pattern (she went away with the fabulous Samba - she is either:
a) massively optomistic;
b) going on a fabulous cruise; or
c) has a terrific sense of humour.
But then Samba is a truly fab yarn so who can blame her?
And how is teddy, I hear you all cry? I'll update you tomorrow - honestly, being an un-trained designer who designs as she knits is not all it's cracked up to be - poor teddy - he just looks at me balefully (and earlessly) as I unpick various bits of him - it's positivly tragic.
The good news is that the marvel that is Thomas has been resolving problems on the site. This means that most pictures are now showing but I've found some more missing today and emailed the links to him - he loves me, I know he does.
The bad news is we were well behind with inputting but the good news is I've been inputting like fury today because - more bad news - the weather here is still truly appalling which means - even more bad news - the shop has been really quiet (and, frankly, who can blame the customers as I wouldn't be out today if I didn't have to be). However, the really good news is there are lots of lovely things for you now to see on the site. Here goes:
more Mirasol Miski in navy and, new colour, cream - here;
new Baby Life patterns - here (scroll down and the patterns are on the left);
new Kon Tiki CROCHET patterns - here (scroll down again and the CROCHET patterns are at the bottom) - note use of capitalised CROCHET for all you CROCHET fans who bemoan the lack of CROCHET patterns;
new colours in Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed - here - I know it's coming into summer but, let's face it the weather's been/is like winter and you can always start those winter knits now!
new beads - here - I hope you note (and, dare I suggest, "like" the Gok effort I made out of packet of these lovely beads). You could, also, of course use them to decorate your knitting or make a necklace - or whatever, in fact, you feel like;
one new book - here - Kids Learn to Crochet - (scroll down again) - fabulous illustrations and probably good for grown-ups too who, like me, find crochet completely incomprehensible (how do you get the right tension with only one implement?);
finally, latest issue of Yarn Forward magazine - here.
I cannot begin to tell you who grotty the weather is here - I am about to get drenched on my velocipede again. G is playing the last game of rugby for the season - winners of the County Cup (Pirates) -v- the Cornwall team. I don't know how the match will go but I can assure you he'll come home wet and muddy - joy. T seems to spend a lot of his life at the moment in cricket whites - the whole thing is just too confusing for words.
I had a customer in today who was looking for a summer cotton yarn and pattern (she went away with the fabulous Samba - she is either:
a) massively optomistic;
b) going on a fabulous cruise; or
c) has a terrific sense of humour.
But then Samba is a truly fab yarn so who can blame her?
And how is teddy, I hear you all cry? I'll update you tomorrow - honestly, being an un-trained designer who designs as she knits is not all it's cracked up to be - poor teddy - he just looks at me balefully (and earlessly) as I unpick various bits of him - it's positivly tragic.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk
My parents have been down this weekend and it was my financial year end on Saturday so it's been pretty busy (year end involved a full stock-take, which means counting every ball of wool, pattern and set of needles in the shop!). This year, stock-take has been easier thanks to the web-site as a large proportion of our wool is now listed on the site so all we have to do is add them up. I say "all we have to do" but, you know, that's still quite a lot of wool!
The marvel that is Thomas, the web-site designer, has now returned from a few days away and all pictures should now be back on the site. If there are any missing, please email me and let me know and I'll pass your emails on to Thomas - he'll be delighted to receive them.
Tomorrow I plan to do a load more inputting of patterns so watch this space.
For today, I cannot end without briefly mentioning the tragedy which overtook our small community this weekend. By now, you've probably all seen the news of the torrential rain and floods which led to the death of 3 young people when their car was washed down a stream swollen into a torrent. The young man who miraculously survived is the son of friends of ours. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the young people who tragically lost their lives.
My parents have been down this weekend and it was my financial year end on Saturday so it's been pretty busy (year end involved a full stock-take, which means counting every ball of wool, pattern and set of needles in the shop!). This year, stock-take has been easier thanks to the web-site as a large proportion of our wool is now listed on the site so all we have to do is add them up. I say "all we have to do" but, you know, that's still quite a lot of wool!
The marvel that is Thomas, the web-site designer, has now returned from a few days away and all pictures should now be back on the site. If there are any missing, please email me and let me know and I'll pass your emails on to Thomas - he'll be delighted to receive them.
Tomorrow I plan to do a load more inputting of patterns so watch this space.
For today, I cannot end without briefly mentioning the tragedy which overtook our small community this weekend. By now, you've probably all seen the news of the torrential rain and floods which led to the death of 3 young people when their car was washed down a stream swollen into a torrent. The young man who miraculously survived is the son of friends of ours. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the young people who tragically lost their lives.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk
As you can see from the front page - we are still experiencing missing random pictures. I want to cry quite a lot but, as there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, there isn't much point! It's up to the computer geeks to sort it out and, in the meantime, I can only apologise.
I do rather suspect, though, that it will mean someone (me) re-inputting quite a lot of pictures over the weekend - that's the way it's looking and I'm not terrifically amused.
It also means that, for some reason which clearly I don't comprehend, I can't input any new images at the moment. When I try I get great big red alert messages pinging up. Obviously, I don't understand a word of these so all I know is that there's nothing I can do about it - frustrating is the understatement of the day - especially as we've had a Debbie Bliss delivery in and I can't share it with you!
However, orders are still being received fine and being despatched as usual so please don't let our technical problems stop you!
In my "other" life, the boys have exams and have both realised that, maybe, actually, they should have been doing some revision over the holidays! I remember those days, don't you? Not wanting to work in the hols and then getting to the exam and wishing you had - ghastly. Our chicken is still sitting on her eggs (1 week down, about 3 weeks to go), the burnt out cottage is still looking pretty black and - good news - G's rugby team won the County Championship on Sunday - yippee! Teddy doesn't yet have ears (G had shorts which needed repairing last night) and we've all agreed he needs some sort of clothing - hat, waistcoat, tie - not sure - but definitely something. So, I'll be charting that out tonight then. Mustn't grumble.
As you can see from the front page - we are still experiencing missing random pictures. I want to cry quite a lot but, as there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, there isn't much point! It's up to the computer geeks to sort it out and, in the meantime, I can only apologise.
I do rather suspect, though, that it will mean someone (me) re-inputting quite a lot of pictures over the weekend - that's the way it's looking and I'm not terrifically amused.
It also means that, for some reason which clearly I don't comprehend, I can't input any new images at the moment. When I try I get great big red alert messages pinging up. Obviously, I don't understand a word of these so all I know is that there's nothing I can do about it - frustrating is the understatement of the day - especially as we've had a Debbie Bliss delivery in and I can't share it with you!
However, orders are still being received fine and being despatched as usual so please don't let our technical problems stop you!
In my "other" life, the boys have exams and have both realised that, maybe, actually, they should have been doing some revision over the holidays! I remember those days, don't you? Not wanting to work in the hols and then getting to the exam and wishing you had - ghastly. Our chicken is still sitting on her eggs (1 week down, about 3 weeks to go), the burnt out cottage is still looking pretty black and - good news - G's rugby team won the County Championship on Sunday - yippee! Teddy doesn't yet have ears (G had shorts which needed repairing last night) and we've all agreed he needs some sort of clothing - hat, waistcoat, tie - not sure - but definitely something. So, I'll be charting that out tonight then. Mustn't grumble.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk
Some of our photos are still playing up - for which I apologise - apparently it's a "server" problem. I'm thinking tennis server, silver server (or, indeed, surfer), but, no, clearly it's computer "server". I'm none the wiser but it should be getting better and, if you don't get a pic, click on the red x and the pic will come up.
Brief input today - new patterns in Life 4ply:
8336
8337 - I really like this one - very "me"
and 8338.
One new pattern in the new Baby Life:
here for cardigans and here for jumper
which has both cardigan and jumper patterns - very useful. The rest of the Baby Life patterns are being formatted by the FB and will be with us shortly.
FB has also been very busy in the dye house so we have a new range of colours in Cornish Organic 4ply. All absolutely gorgeous and, for some reason I can't get the Baby Blanket pattern picture to show up so I'll get FB on to that one too!
My day has been a mad rush of appointments and banks and essential shopping (like ink cartridges for teenage son who has exams and realises he's run out the night before the first exam!). Tomorrow should be calmer - ha, ha!
Do you know, I've just checked that blog and I think my skills are improving.
Some of our photos are still playing up - for which I apologise - apparently it's a "server" problem. I'm thinking tennis server, silver server (or, indeed, surfer), but, no, clearly it's computer "server". I'm none the wiser but it should be getting better and, if you don't get a pic, click on the red x and the pic will come up.
Brief input today - new patterns in Life 4ply:
8336
8337 - I really like this one - very "me"
and 8338.
One new pattern in the new Baby Life:
here for cardigans and here for jumper
which has both cardigan and jumper patterns - very useful. The rest of the Baby Life patterns are being formatted by the FB and will be with us shortly.
FB has also been very busy in the dye house so we have a new range of colours in Cornish Organic 4ply. All absolutely gorgeous and, for some reason I can't get the Baby Blanket pattern picture to show up so I'll get FB on to that one too!
My day has been a mad rush of appointments and banks and essential shopping (like ink cartridges for teenage son who has exams and realises he's run out the night before the first exam!). Tomorrow should be calmer - ha, ha!
Do you know, I've just checked that blog and I think my skills are improving.
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