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 ..........

Green Superstitions

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

tinebeest (of the comments) raised an interesting point about the superstitions around green clothing in Cornwall. I've done a bit of research and discovered that, apparently, in Celtic tradition, green was avoided in clothing for its superstitions associated with misfortune and death. Certainly some of our older customers avoid it.

There's also a lot written about green boats (very bad luck, apparently) and my Mother will certainly never have a green car. In the old days of motor racing the GB team never won when their cars were green!

Lime green has, of course, been the hot colour for the past year or so and green, generally, is still very much "on trend".

Which raises another question - who decides which colours are "on trend" and which aren't? We all know that if black is the trendy colour it's impossible to find brown shoes - and vice versa - but - who decides?!

Autumn/Winter is Upon Us

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

I'm back into the swing of work now and I regret to say that our travels seem like a far distant memory - not helped by the fact that the autumn/winter yarns are starting to arrive and I hardly feel like we've had any summer yet. I've gone straight from cotton summer top to super chunky waistcoat, which is more than a little alarming (and I haven't even worn the summer top yet!).

We had a huge delivery in from Stylecraft while we were away - 2 new "Nepp" colours in Life DK - blue and green - this is the green:



















The Cornish used to be very superstitious of wearing green but it's still "on trend" and selling really well.

Also in the Life range there is a brand new Super Chunky - in 8 really good colours and with excellent pattern support. (Patterns should be on the site by Saturday but, in the meantime, here are a couple of the colours):






































The first colour is called "Tarn" and is what I'm using for my waistcoat.

Finally, Stylecraft have brought out a brand new chunky yarn called "Phases" - it's 20% wool, very soft and is marled by also knits in bands. Again, patterns will be here by Saturday but here are a couple of colours to whet your appetite:






































Very, very pretty - I can see this one being a real winner.

So - lots of people have been asking "what next" after the grand bike ride. At the moment we're undecided but I did have a visitor in the other day who is catching the ferry to Santander and then cycling home from there - sounds like fun apart from the small matter of the Pyrenees! We may just go back to the original idea of cycling the canal tow paths of France but I think G&T may not find that challenging enough. Any ideas? Drop us a comment with your thoughts!

In the meantime, G has entered a cycling time trial tonight - there's no stopping that boy!

Back In The Land of The Living

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk
www.justgiving.com/TheHopsons

Apologies for disappearing off the face of the earth but we took off last week for a much needed break in Devon. The trouble with being self-employed is that it's all sitting there waiting for you when you get back so the week between the two "holidays" was utterly manic and insane. 654 emails of which 634 are rubbish and Spam offering various enhancing medicines. Today there were 364, of which 20 are of any interest at all.

Whilst we were away we re-charged the batteries (much needed after 967 miles in 12.5 days - the camper and I, incidentally, did 2,150 miles in total), ate far too much (huge respect to my sister-in-law who organised all the meals), drank a fair bit and managed one lovely walk on Dartmoor between the rainy days:














Here are the 4 cousins in height order (my brother and sister-in-law are both very tall so G&T are enjoying the few years when they are taller than their cousins - it won't last long):















After that we moved down to East Prawle for our annual camping expedition with friends. Last year East Prawle looked like this:


This year, as we put our tent up, East Prawle looked like this:














Here the car is acting as a rather fetching wind break:














We are, as a family, rapidly getting known as the family not to holiday with as we seem to attract the very worst of the British weather. (We even have one set of friends who took the rather drastic step of booking a 2 week holiday in Kenya to avoid this weekend in Devon - a tiny bit extreme we thought but, maybe, just maybe they had a point.) Obviously, there was only one thing to be done:


















(That's a Cornish Organic Wool blanket, cream and rose 4ply for those of the knitterly persuasion.)

After a very late night in our communal tepee, some of the more insane of our group decided on a morning swim to blow away the cobwebs. I went along as official photographer:














Barking I tell you - absolutely barking (that is Salcombe in the background, not Monte Carlo or Mombasa).

So we're now back at home for the foreseeable and serious training is commencing for the forthcoming rugby season (boys, obviously, not me). Lord help us all, blink a couple of times and it'll be Christmas.