More New Yarns!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

I have no idea where the days are going at the moment - apparently I last blogged 6 days ago but it feels like yesterday, so much has been going on.

If you check out the front page you'll see our new "Keep Calm and Carry on Knitting" range of accessories:














I think the idea was born about half way down the second, or possibly third, G&T one night and FB put his photoshopping skills to work and, voila, we had the artwork done. We have mugs, cards, posters and car stickers and I'm currently embroiled in a battle with the boys to get a sticker on our car. We currently have Cornwall Farmers and Help For Heroes and the like and they're not keen on a knitting sticker but then, as I point out, the car does have "Cornish Organic Wool" slapped down the sides of it, across the back and the bonnet so one little car sticker can't really lower the street cred much further than it already is. Don't worry, I'll have won the battle before the day is out. And, anyway, whose name appears on the ownership docs? Mine! Buy yours now and pass on the message!

We've got two new yarns on the site as well - Rustic Aran, which follows on from the popular Rustic DK range and is proving very popular in the shop - a nice range of colours:



















There's also the new range of Fusion from James Brett. Fusion is a slightly textured, colour changing yarn with marl running through it too - very pretty. Patterns are to follow when I get a spare couple of hours (hoping that will be tomorrow):



















We also had a new baby yarn in from Stylecraft - Merry Go Round - which is proving very popular already. Colours are lovely:

















Baby patterns to follow.

Put like that, it doesn't seem like we've been up to much but we had a huge delivery in from Stylecraft last Monday (9 enormous sacks) and then James Brett on Thursday (4 enormous sacks). This means that we're currently very good on stock of all the yarns from these companies. We are also now stocking 2ply, 3ply and 4ply in Stylecraft's Wondersoft range so you know where to look when you're planning that 2ply baby blanket!

On the finished items front, the M-in-L and I sat down last weekend and worked out the lining for my Baba bag:

















It was incredibly simple to make - just 2 balls of Baba, one for each side, then sewn together. Lining made slightly smaller and then handles which I sewed in between the lining and the knitting. Baba is an expensive wool (it is pure wool!) but, at just 2 balls, most of us can afford this lovely treat!

Yesterday I finished the most fantastic scarf - I absolutely love it - watch this space for photos. Now back to the sleeves of G's sweater! Talking of which, G took his driving theory test this morning and got 100%! Proud parents - well done, G! Tomorrow T has GCSE Maths - the stress is unbearable - good luck, T!

I'm going to get my knitting out, keep calm and carry on.

Felting

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Felting seems to have been growing in popularity of late and, with several new felting wools around, we thought we'd better get in on the act and have a go at some samples. First up is Rico Poems - very like Noro (aran weight) but not the Noro price (not quite the intricate Noro colours either if one is being brutally honest but jolly nice just the same). First of all we (when I say "we" here I'm obviously using the royal "we" and, in most cases, "we" means that I thought of the plan and Tracey did the knitting) knitted up a Poems scarf - moss stitch, 2 balls - lovely:


















Then "we" knitted up the bag for felting. Actually in this case I did do quite a lot of the work as Tracey knitted up the pieces and then I crochet-joined them and then she sewed on the handles and bunged them in her washing machine and then I finished it off with a felted button loop and pretty button - talk about a joint project! In any event - it turned out fantastically well and exactly to the size quoted on the Rico pattern (which was pretty blinking spectacular):













Here they are together - knitted and felted:














I never cease to be amazed at what an fantastic fibre the humble sheep kindly produces for us every year.

So, after that cheering success we decided to have a go at the Rico Filz & Fun which is a wool designed specifically for felting. The knitted piece looks like this:









Despite the moss stitch edging it's still rolling a bit at the top and our highly trained photographer (FB) didn't pin in out - sorry. With gay abandon Tracey bunged it into her washing machine again and it came out like this:











Other side:











Hmmmm - so - if we're being absolutely honest - not quite what we were expecting. Very thick and stiff and not brilliantly colourful. Overfelting? Possibly. Try again:













Ah ha - slightly more what were expecting - felted but not overfelted - with the different colours showing but, frankly, no sign of the fairisle from the knitted original. So - what's the difference I hear you cry. Well people, I felted the pink one in the tumble drier thanks to brilliant customer's suggestion. It took longer than it should have done as I didn't know what on earth I was doing. It went a bit like this:

1. Bung knitting in tumble drier, put on for 5 minutes (or approx 2 rounds of 4ply shooting stocking);
2. Remove knitting and observe that absolutely nothing whatsoever has happened;
3. Replace knitting for 4 rounds of shooting stocking;
4. Remove - observe that still nothing has happened, consider that brilliant customer may, in fact, be having a laugh;
5. Engage brain. Wet knitting and replace along with a towel for added friction;
6. Knit 4 rounds of shooting stocking;
Repeat 5 & 6 again for about 16 more rounds of shooting stocking et voila - felted piece. Brilliant! The brilliance of this method is that you can keep checking as the felting proceeds which you can't do with a washing machine unless you have a top loader. The 3 squares together look like this:



















If anyone was wandering past my house on Sunday afternoon and wondered why I was sitting on the floor in front of my tumble drier knitting a shooting stocking - now you know!

Stuff We've Been Knitting

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Somehow the planets all aligned today and we had a spare half hour, a bag of garments to photograph, a camera and the sun shining so we shot out into the garden and rattled off some photos of things we've been knitting recently. Turns out I wasn't in the most photogenic of moods (blame the sun in my eyes if you will) but, here goes:

Riot waistcoat sent to us by King Cole - not knitted by us - Tracey would never in a million years allowed that really obvious join on the right front! I like it although we've agreed it doesn't necessarily suit those who are - how shall I put this - more generously endowed than I am. FB likes it as he says it makes me look more generously endowed than I actually am!


















The pattern looks like this:


















and it seems to suit her! Glad to see she's also having a slightly dodgy hair day.

Second garment is in King Cole Misty:


















As you can see - FB cunningly blended this with the plant in the background (these things aren't just thrown together, you know). This sweater is lovely and light and only took 4 balls, which was a real bargain.

Third garment is my personal favourite. We took this pattern in King Cole Haze:


















and shortened the sweater so it looks like this:














it only took 2 balls and, because of the ribbing, is very flattering - a good result all round (and, again, makes me look more endowed than I am [or is that just the angle and light?]).

You may remember, back in August when the sun was occasionally shining, I started a pair of socks for my brother for his birthday in Riot. Well - finally - here they are (to be fair, they've been finished for a couple of weeks and sitting in the bag waiting to be photographed):


















I did Tracey's 2 needle/sewing up method and have to say, I'll never do it again!! Will stick to 4 needles in future but I'm glad I gave it a go. Am v pleased with the way they jolly nearly match. Bro will have his present just over 2 months late!

FB then had red sheep to photograph:














For some reason they've never been photographed properly before but they have now so you can now buy them (and all their friends) on the site - here.

After all that, Deidre came to see what the fuss was about:


















Here he is quite clearly wondering what the h*"l those red things are:


















and, quite possibly, debating whether they'd be worth eating.

Have a good weekend - extra hour in bed tonight - oh yes!

Rizos Is On The Site!!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

For once I've actually kept my promise and the new scarf yarn, Rizos, is on the site! It's another one of these fab trendy scarves and is sure to sell out ridiculously fast so buy now to avoid disappointment - no, really - do! I expect it will all be gone by Monday. It looks like this when knitted:


















I got my new varifocal glasses today - very weird - and have realised that FB's new, fab computer screen is too wide for the glasses so the edges are out of focus - have to move my head to read from one side to the other - am concerned I might look a tad stupid but at least there's no-one else in the office to see! Can't decide whether to cycle in them tomorrow or not - could be a bit dodgy.

New Patterns!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

We've been busy, busy, busy again today but, in between serving customers, I managed to update some patterns on the site. Two new patterns for babies and small children in King Cole's wonderful Bamboo Cotton:




































two for children in the incredibly popular Splash:





































and a load of patterns in the new yarn "Twist" - some for children:


















some for ladies:




































and even one for men!:


















I've also uploaded the new Debbie Bliss magazine, which is full of fairisle and flying out of the shop - so get your copy now if you want one:


















and the latest edition of Inside Crochet (which includes a pattern for mittens in Cornish Organic Wool!:


















Tomorrow I'll be inputting the latest scarf yarn from Katia - Rizos - which is flying out just as fast as the Can Can and Triana. By the time I got Triana onto the system, I think we only had 6 balls left - sorry! We'll get more in soon and I'll let you know when it's here - it knits up like Can Can and looks like this:


















Rizos costs just £8.49 and one ball knits a scarf. These new yarns are brilliant and look fantastic and are really easy to knit. You'll need to order as soon as they're on the system though as I reckon they'll all be gone by Monday!

Weather was grim today so I didn't cycle but still had a slice of rich chocolate birthday cake when I came home - very naughty! Forecast is better for tomorrow so I'll work it off on my trusty velocipede. Never forget - a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!

Happy Birthday T!!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Today my baby - T - is 16. Old enough to procreate (Lord help us - fortunately, he's far too sensible for any of that nonsense) and old enough to buy a lottery ticket (which he's just gone and done) but another year before he can learn to drive - thank heavens.

I usually write a bit about my boys on their birthdays but the sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed that I didn't for T last year - not because I didn't care (obviously) but because he spent most of his last birthday in hospital, with the lovely nurses desperately trying to get him home for birthday tea (which they did and he slept for the rest of the day) so it didn't really feel like much of a birthday for him.

Those of you who read this regularly will know that T has never let hospitalisations and the consequent tests and stress get in the way of living life to the full. In the last year he has represented the south-west schools at triple jump, came 2nd in the School's 7.5 mile cross country run (behind his brother - watch out this year as G isn't there any more!), played rugby for School and the Penzance Pirates, came 2nd in the Penwith Cross Country Championships and is captain of his local boxing club (even though he isn't allowed to fight - which is a rare achievement), he lead his team to a phenomenal time in the 35 mile Ten Tors Challenge and, of course, cycled from John O'Groats to Land's End for Help For Heroes. He is - even if I say so myself - a remarkable young man and a role model for us and his compatriots.

There is absolutely no doubt that he's going to go on and do great things.

In the meantime, this year we're all going out for a meal to the restaurant/pub of his choice - steak and chips at The Turk's Head - and we'll raise a glass to "our" remarkable young man.

Happy Birthday T.

Is This The Effect of The Recession?

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

As all of our customers know, we do try and go the extra mile and help whenever we can. To this end we offer a layby service (where customers can buy their wool a bit at a time over the course of a month) and we do take back unused balls which are re-saleable (ie we don't accept really scruffy ones or ones that smell of smoke or yarns which we don't stock any more and we don't give refunds but do give credits against future purchases).

Incidentally - as an aside - do you know that the layby system started during the last War when wool was rationed? Yes, wool was such a rare and previous commodity that it was rationed along with your butter, eggs and meat. In this day and age of acrylics and polyamides, it's an amazing thought.

Anyhoo - I digress. As I said, we will accept unused balls and, in fact, sometimes it can be really useful as we may have a customer desperate for a bit more of a particular dye batch and on numerous occasions we've managed to marry the returned ball with the desperate customer and everyone's very happy.

Well we - and at least one other local shop I know of - have been having a spate of balls returned which have been partly used. Presumably the knitter has only needed to knit a row or two of a new ball and has cast off so they've thought, "well, I'll re-wind this really carefully and no-one will know". I had a case on Monday where I was fiddling with the returned ball and I wasn't happy and thought it didn't feel right but I didn't have electronic scales in the shop so I couldn't prove absolutely that the ball was underweight. Took it home and weighed it and the 50g ball weighted 41g. 9g had been used. I can't re-sell the ball but I've already credited the customer as she bought more wool at the time.

I've now brought the electronic scales into the shop and have put up a big notice to say we will weigh returned balls if they feel underweight. The reaction from customers has been unanimously one of shock that fellow knitters would steal off a wool shop like that - for that is what it is - stealing.

Am I being naive here - is this a common problem? - or does everyone else out there in cyber space agree that it's outrageous theft?

Is this the effect of the recession?