Adriafil

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

We've had an amazing delivery from Adriafil today - lots of boxes of lovely goodies - sometimes my job is like the best Christmas Day you could imagine! I've updated the stock for Knitcol, Duo Plus, Baba and New Zealand Stampato and I've got some really, really gorgeous things to add to the site, including the softest 4ply alpaca imaginable. Watch this space. Balls have already gone home with FB for photography.

For those of you deeply concerned about Deidre -















we have persisted (with much angst and swearing), his ears are smelling much better, he sees the brown blanket now and tries to run a mile (he forgets, though, that we're a tiny bit smarter than him and close all doors and windows prior to producing said brown blanket), the house is trashed, my cuts are healing and the vet wants to see him again tomorrow. £53 last time. FB and I are still debating whether a re-visit is necessary. I'll let you know.

Cats

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Those of you who've been reading this for a while will know that - accidentally - we have 3 cats.

Eric - the boss, huge, black, very vocal, "my" cat, wanders off for days on end, only 3 legs (complicated story involving wandering off and cancer), prone to worms due to eating vermin on wandering sessions.

Tabitha - siamese looking, boss eyed, adopted us 6 years ago, c21 years old, stone deaf, showing signs of dementia (was found asleep in the dishwasher last week), very rarely moves from the side of the Aga.

Deidre - despite his name he's a boy, tabby, abandoned in the farmyard at 5 weeks, came home in FB's pocket, had a stroke at 1 year old, consequently dodgy eyes, now c3 years old, smells really, really bad.

Deidre is very friendly but the smell had got so bad last week FB couldn't have him in the office when he was working (Deidre never moves far from us) so a trip to the vet was arranged. By the simple method of sniffing every orifice, we'd ascertained that the truly appalling smell was coming from his ears.

Vet took a look inside and there's a raging infection and lots of grunge going on (especially in the left ear). So - treatment goes like this:

1. Get cat into house and lock all doors and windows to prevent escape.
2. Catch cat.
3. Wrap cat tightly in towel, blanket, coat/whatever is to hand after two hours of trying to catch cat who is now well aware that "something is going on".
4. Squirt cleaning solution into cat's ear.
5. Wipe cleaning solution off yours, and your partner's face, whilst still clutching growling cat.
6. Insert wads of cotton wool into furious cat's ear to remove grunge.
7. Drop precisely 3 drops of medicine into cat's ear.
8. Repeat from 3 with 2nd ear.
8. Release cat, simultaneously opening all doors to allow escape of now hissing, ball of feline fury.
9. Clear up mess, replace all unbroken ornaments on to shelves, find superglue to repair broken ornaments, find antiseptic cream for scratches on face and hands, drink stiff G&T.

Repeat every day for one week.

It's going to be a very, very long week.

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Working late tonight to get as many patterns on to the site as possible. I've managed to get all the King Cole Riot patterns on and all the King Cole Haze - so I'm feeling pretty chuffed.

Here's a quick sample of Riot:

























































and a quick sample of Haze:

























































The yardage of both is really, really good so you'll be amazed by how few balls these patterns take. Check them out by clicking on the links.

G got his final GCSE result today - an 'A' in Computer Studies - quite clearly he doesn't get his skills in that area from me.

More Lovely New Yarns

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Phew - what a day I've had! The weather has been truly ghastly (spot on forecast for once) so we've been really busy and I've been manically inputting lovely new things on to the site.

Firstly, we have the wonderful new scarf yarn Can Can from Rico. One ball (200g) knits up this glorious scarf, the pattern is on the ball band (8mm needles) and it only costs £9.95 - perfect for Christmas present knitting:

















It comes in a huge range of colours - some plain (as per this picture) and some multi-coloured - all gorgeous. Start your Christmas knitting now!

Next we have the wonderful Riot DK yarn from King Cole. This has been absolutely flying out of the shop and, as it has a fantastic meterage and an amazing range of colours, it's guaranteed to be a sure fire winner for everyone - check out these colours:












How can you resist those?!!

Next (and finally, you'll be pleased to hear if you find it hard to resist things like I do) we have another wonderful yarn from King Cole called Haze. Haze is 100% brushed acrylic but is so soft it feels like it must have mohair or angora in it and it's so light it's won us over completely (and I'm not usually an acrylic kind of girl!). The colours are great:










Patterns for all of these will follow over the next couple of days but Riot and Haze are both standard DK's so - if you've got a pattern you've been dying to do but haven't found the right yarn yet - either of these could be the answer to your prayers.

At home we've had the anxious wait for the GCSE results but we needn't have worried - both boys did very well indeed (T took his French one year early) and G is now guaranteed his place at VIth form college to study the IB so - huge relief all round and we now move on to the next stage. Still not entirely sure where all the years have gone though.

I've managed to get back into the routine of cycling into work but today could have been a filthy November day so FB gave me a lift. I'm also back to my winter boots and trousers and am really praying that this isn't the end of summer - surely, it can't be? The nights are definitely drawing in though so it's back to evening knitting in front of the fire m'dears.

Rico

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

I had an early night and couldn't get to sleep - should have stayed up knitting - think of all those rows I could have done .........................

Head is feeling slightly better today though so it obviously did me some good - still not totally back on planet earth but have definitely left planet zog and am on my way back.

I managed to input our lovely new Rico yarns today - not as many as I'd have liked as, disappointingly, quite a lot of colours were missing from the order but all we have are now available to you and the others are following on, we've been assured. The totally gorgeous "Poems" looks very much like Noro, is a standard Aran weight and felts as well! Check out these fab scarves and felted bags:







I can feel some Christmas pressies coming along already!

Tina Barrett has been in touch about the H4H End 2 End Sweater and she's been manically busy finishing Christmas knits for the magazines! Next week she starts on spring/summer 2011 (that may not be strictly true but old father time does seem to be rattling along at the moment)!

Back in The Loop (Sort of)

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Going away for 3 weeks out of 4 in a row seemed like an OK kind of idea at the time of booking but it's turned out to be insanely manic at times and I'm still not up to date even after working 5 hours on Sunday (which broke my 2010 New Year's resolution [not to work on Sundays] for the 2nd or 3rd time this year). The "In Tray" is definitely looking more empty (it's never totally empty, obviously) but there are still big jobs to do like type up the "End To End" sweater pattern and enrol the boys into the "End to End" club, which I think they definitely deserve.

We actually had a gentleman in the shop yesterday who is going to walk the End to End and want us to knit him THE sweater - yay! - result!

I also seem to have gone down with a horrible sinus/head virus which makes me feel like I'm in a parallel world to everyone else. I open my mouth and speak and then think to myself, "good lord, did that make any sense at all" and then I re-run what I said in my brain and, usually, think, "yes, that was OK". It's very bizarre but I had a customer in this afternoon who has the same thing so that re-assured me that I'm not going totally insane yet.

Today is something of a red letter day as I asked the boys to sort all their clean clothing in the baskets on the landing (I leave all their clean clothes as I never know whose is whose and some items seems to be pretty interchangeable between them) and, when FB left home to come down here THEY WERE SORTING THE CLOTHES. Teenagers - sorting clothes - hold the front page.

What with that and the head/sinus/virus thing, I'm having an early night!

Patterns Galore!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

I worked late last night (Saturday) inputting patterns - don't say I don't do my best for you! There are new patterns in Life Prints DK (as always on our site, patterns are down the left hand side of the yarn pages) - I particularly like these two:





































Also patterns in Life Super Chunky - here's a quick sample:





































and for children:


















and even two for men:


















Finally, we have patterns for the new "Phases" yarn:


















and for children:


















More new yarns to follow this week - it's that time of year!

On the cycling front - the boys went for a "blast" yesterday and FB knocked 17 minutes off his time for their usual circuit. He was chuffed to bits and obviously is fitter now, having done 967 miles, than he was before (even with the weight gain, which is still smarting a bit). We have had one suggestion in from someone who has friends who did "900 miles in 9 days through 9 countries". That would take some route planning but would, basically, be a blast around 9 European countries within close proximity of each other. We toyed with plans last night but I'm slightly concerned about the huge possibilities for me getting lost!!

A friend sent us this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10965608

about Mamils - Middle Aged Men in Lycra - brilliant!! Can't think who he's thinking of ..........