New Yarns!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

In between all the other excitements of our lives, I have been slowly adding new yarns to the site.

Our basic baby acrylic/polyamide mix has gradually been moving over to Rico and we now have a very good colour selection in their Baby Classic DK and the start of a selection in Baby Classic Aran. It's been a bit of a struggle to find a really good baby acrylic that's good quality and a good price (some are ludicrously over-priced, in my opinion, at over £6.00 for 100g). Customers who've been knitting with the Rico have been very impressed and say it's the best quality they've used for a very, very long time. Here are the latest DK colours:














We also have some lovely new sock yarn from Rico - Superba Tweed which, as the name suggests, knits into a fairisle/tweed effect. Very pretty - I have some on the sock needles e'en as I type:

















We've also just had a delivery of ........ fanfare .......... CAN CAN!! It only came in yesterday and is selling well so buy now to avoid disappointment!

Finally - for now - I've just put our new Icelandic Lopi wool on the site. Icelandic wool and patterns are really coming back into fashion and, seeing the wool and patterns, it's not surprising. We have some patterns on the site already and there are more to come. The rep's pictures of the wool were so vague that I've got a slightly bizarre mix with not enough brown/grey. They are on their way and will then be available for the patterns that take 4+ colours. In the meantime, Tracey is knitting me this:



















in cream and 3 shades of blue - yum! It's worth noting that, although many of the patterns are modelled by men, the smaller sizes are suitable for women!

That Sunday Night Show

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

For those of you who missed it, last night's "That Sunday Night Show" featured our Guinness World Record giant knitting needles being knitted on by Jenny Eclair!

You can see the programme on ITV iplayer here (our bit is towards the end).

It was all in aid of National Knitting Week and started off with the iconic picture of me(!):











and then the giant needles were brought on:










(that's Richard Madeley on the left, then Jenny Eclair and then Alan Johnson MP.

Jenny tried to knit with them but realised they were the wrong way round so they had to swop them round:

you can see here, the knitting's on the right hand needle:











Up and over Jenny's head:











But, then they were crossed at the back:










So had to be uncrossed (here's Richard going under Alan's needle and Adrian Chiles trying to help):











and, finally, Jenny could knit!:










She managed 2 stitches and got a rousing ovation from the audience:










and we got mentioned in the credits (below Getty Images!):











All good fun - and well done to Jenny!

And thanks to FB for screen catching those images (absolutely no idea how he did it!).

Creative Stitches, Exeter

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

One week on and I'm finally going to talk about last weekend. Some time ago I received an email from Belinda and Ruth, those crazy ladies who make up Knit Expo, inviting people to come and teach knitting on their stand at Creative Stitches, Exeter. I was going through a phase when my testosterone-packed house was driving me insane so I jumped at the opportunity to spend a weekend with (mostly) ladies knitting and said "yes". That was last weekend and I had a great time! This was us:














and this is Belinda teaching someone to knit:














The thing about the Exeter show is that, apart from knitting and stitching, there's loads of other things going on as well. There's lace:














quite exquisite lace:














Quilts:

























































embroidered postcards:

































and Sugarcraft:



















Yes, these flowers are made from sugar:



















There was also The Newbury Coat:



















which was of particular interest to me as a few years ago I met one of the ladies involved in the re-enactment in 1991 and that re-enactment was sponsored by, amongst others, Camp Hopson in Newbury, which is owned by not-so-distant relatives of FB!

And then, and then people - there were costumes from Downton Abbey!! Can anyone resist Downton and can anyone resist the costumes from that elegant era:




















































remember the scandalous trouser suit?!:






































All in all I had a fantastic crafty, testosterone-free weekend - and I did some knitting!