New Gloves!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Now that the weather has turned somewhat chilly, I discovered that somewhere between Newcastle (upon Tyne) and Penzance I've managed to lose  (let's be optimistic) mislay one of my hand-knitted fingerless gloves with optional finger muff.  I have hunted high and low (and found FB's hat but, sadly, not my one glove).  I feel sure it will re-appear but, in the meantime, I needed a new pair of gloves somewhat urgently.  I knitted this pattern:

but wanted pure wool for extra warmth so I chose Adriafil's Knit Col (2 balls):

and having knitted one glove on Thursday and the second on Friday I was all ready for a wintry walk on Sunday.

We headed off to Levant Tin Mine on the north coast.  Now in the hands of The National Trust, Levant is the only place in the world where you can still see a steam beam engine working at its original site.  Needless to say, it wasn't working yesterday and the place was almost deserted:

(the beam engine is in the left hand building, seemingly perched precariously on the edge of the cliff - which, indeed it is!):

It was cold but glorious:

as we made our way to our favourite (summer) beach (Portheras) which, needless to say, was also deserted:

who knew that Transitions lenses go dark in the cold as well as the sunlight!:

We came back past the (growing) Geevor Tin Mine complex:

and the gloves??

- the gloves are fab!

Things That We've Knitted But Hadn't Photographed - Until Now

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Way back at the end of November (can that be true - have I just slept-walked into January - what happened to December? - oh yeah, Christmas, burglary, Christmas, New Year - that's what happened to December) - I digress, way back in November I blogged about all the knitting I'd we'd been doing but hadn't photographed yet - due to the weather (and Christmas).  So we put some of that right this weekend - not all as some garments are still on display in the shop - but it's a start.

First of all, I knitted this:

and I love, love, love it.  It's the perfect jumper for crisp, winter walks and cosying up in front of the telly:

It's big and warm and cosy and just gorgeous (and, being a Super Chunky, it's a quick knit too!)

We also knitted two different snoods from Rico's Liesl yarn - one long (which can be worn 2 ways):

and one which is wider and shorter (basically, a wide scarf which we then twisted before sewing together):

We also did a sample scarf in the amazing Dakota yarn (just 3 balls):

which is wonderfully soft and cosy and cuddly!

And, finally for now, we did a diagonal garter stitch blanket in Riot DK.  I'd done one before in Debbie Bliss's Bella:



















which had resulted in LOADS of ends needing to be dealt with (cunningly covered over by the stocking stitch border) and then I'd thought it would be really pretty (and easier for new knitters!) in a self-striping yarn so, voila, we did it in Riot DK (just 2 balls - we used shade Fab):

and, I think you'll agree, it's really pretty.  Dead easy and a blanket any new Mum would be very happy to put on their baby - and Riot comes in loads and loads of colours to suit every taste!

So - that's it for now - but, yes, there is more - coming soon!

Welcome to 2013!

Knit Wits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Happy New Year to one and all and I hope the festive season passed in a blaze of fun, time spent with friends and plenty of "me" time to knit whatever your heart desired.

Our Christmas was more than a little fraught as the shop was burgled a week before.  Perhaps I'm lucky as this has never happened to me before but the shock of walking into the back "office/store room" and finding the back door swinging open still hasn't quite left me.  Obviously the main thing they took was the shop laptop - well used (and looking it) but set just how we needed it they probably got about £30 for it and, for us, it was the loss of 6 years work.  Because I was about to upload some new things to the site the external hard drive was also in the office so they took that too - probably got about £5 for it and took less than a minute to clear off all the information on it (mostly photos for the site).  Fortunately, many of those are backed up at home but it all means more work for us and the senselessness of the crime is still overwhelming.

The Police have been very good, the insurance company less so.  I guess there are an awful lot of people who put in false claims and insurance companies spent a lot of time sorting the wheat from the chaff but the general attitude seems to be that, firstly, I need to prove that I've been burgled (the Police can definitely help with that) and, secondly, apparently I really need to consider whether I should put in a claim as I'll lose my no claims bonus.  The wool shop has been here for over 25 years and I've owned it for 8 and, so far as any of us are aware, this is the first ever claim - a little bit of understanding and - good Lord - sympathy, would have been nice.

However - looking on the bright side (and hopefully not tempting fate) we weren't flooded like many, many poor souls were over the Christmas period and we're not having to deal with the horrendous impact of that.

We are now back online and I've spent the last 2 days fulfilling, sorting and packaging up all the orders and requests that came in whilst we were offline.  Apologies to all whose packages didn't arrive in the usual speedy way that we pride ourselves in.

The only problem that now remains is that we've lost ALL emails prior to December 20th.  So - for anyone who has pre-ordered online, requested yarn online or is even expecting a reply from us to a query, I'm sorry but we no longer have your emails and have no way of contacting you!  Please do email us again and - if we don't hear from you then I'm afraid we won't be able to fulfil your requests.

Thank you for your understanding at this difficult time.

PS: I should also say that - at no time was any security compromised.  Orders placed with us are transacted by our bank so no card details are kept on our system and, furthermore, everything is passworded and, now, all passwords have been re-set.  It's been a nightmare but we're getting there!

Pre-Christmas New Yarns

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Just because Christmas is just around the corner doesn't mean we're resting on our laurels here in Penzance!  In fact, it's just as busy as ever and - with today's cold weather - it's the perfect time to be knitting!

We have - yet another - new scarf yarn - Poodle from Stylecraft!  Can we ever have too many scarf yarns?  No!!  This one knits with just 3 stitches - yes, you read that right - so the whole scarf knits up in about half an hour - perfect for very speedy last minute presents!  This is how it knits up (so you can see the subtle colour changes):

and this is how it looks in the ball:

at just £7.99 that's an ideal and very quick present!

Next we have another new sparkly yarn - and, again, can we ever have too many sparkles?  No!  Twilight is a black yarn with a different coloured sparkly strand running through - from left to right turquoise, amethyst, gold, silver and red:

lovely patterns for evening wear too:

Finally, from Stylecraft, we have a new, standard chunky, multi-coloured yarn called Harlequin:

Loads of great patterns and lots for accessories too - like this snood, leg warmer and wrist warmer combination, which also has two other hat and scarf combinations as well - a really good value pattern!:

and I love this cape, even if it's not hugely practical on a bike!:

and there are patterns for girls too:

I've knitted up a hat and wrist warmers and it's a lovely yarn to work with - very soft and easy to knit.

Finally, finally, we have new Angel Prints from Debbie Bliss.  Angel Prints follows on from the huge success of Angel and is a multi-coloured self-striping version with exactly the same tension so the patterns are totally interchangeable.  Still in the same blend of luxurious 76% Mohair and 24% Silk, this is a truly gorgeous yarn!:

I can feel a cowl coming on!!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Blogging has gone awry for the past couple of weeks - not because I've been lying in the sun somewhere sipping a genteel G & T (sadly) but because life has been a teensy bit frantic.  A perfect example would be this Wednesday just gone.  My plan for the day was to work in the shop in the morning, inputting a few new patterns from Rico at the same time as serving customers, get home in time for a latish lunch with the much beloved, go for a 3 mile run (delayed from last weekend due to the atrocious weather) and then shuffle some papers around.

The reality was that a HUGE delivery arrived from Stylecraft (somewhat delayed and therefore gratefully received) at about 10.00am and I left the shop at 5.00pm having stock checked everything, put it away, phoned all customers who had requested yarn to be reserved for them, updated the website and put balls of both new yarns aside for photography.  I then took the web orders to the Post Office (just in time) and drove home.

Thanks to the truly appalling weather last weekend our lane (over 1/2 a mile of dirt track) is the worst I've ever seen it in 14 years - the irony being that the contractors who are in the process of repairing and renovating it started work just before the weather descended and have been unable to return since.  Thanks to the deluge that has come from the skies over the past week or so 2 underground springs have been overloaded and have "sprung" up in the middle of the lane in close proximity to each other.  I had been warned and we have a car suitable for such terrain.  Unfortunately, our neighbour hadn't been warned and she drives a low-slung BMW.  She ended up in one of the springs, stuck and immobile with me behind her and another neighbour behind me - in our neck of the woods this constitutes a traffic jam!  The farmer was called and duly came down in his tractor but - because she was stuck almost in a gateway - he couldn't get past her to tow her out.  In the end, he managed to get a rope on her rear axle (thank goodness he did this as he ended up wet and muddy) and yours truly towed her out!  I arrived home - cold, wet and exhausted and 6.00 o'clock!  And this is how life seems to have been for a while.  All the best intentions - and all that!

Today a 32 ton delivery lorry got well and truly stuck in the other spring.  It took 2 tractors to get him out with quite a struggle.  Our lane is now, almost, impassable.  Ironically, the best form of transport on it seems to be bicycle!  Our Tesco weekly food delivery driver witnessed the lorry being dragged out and decided (wisely) to proceed no further so we FB had to drive down and transfer everything into our car at the end of the lane.  Such is the joy of living in the depths of the countryside!

In the meantime, knitting has been progressing apace but very little no photography has been done - yet.  I've knitted this sweater:

which I love, love, love and is the perfect sweater for a bracing winter walk.

Way, way back in September I knitted this jacket:

and even had myself photographed in it:

but don't appear to have ever blogged about it, which is a little bizarre.  It's a really simple knit and the collar is incorporated in the two fronts so - no picking up of stitches, which is a definite boon!

Tracey has knitted this:

and, in the process, we translated the Italian/English translation into an English translation that English knitters could actually understand - the garment is gorgeous, the yarn is gorgeous, but the English translation was not gorgeous!

We have designed - and Tracey has knitted - a new blanket in Riot DK.

I have knitted this scarf:

in red - which is very festive and really lovely.

Tracey has knitted a scarf in this colour of Dakota:

and it is really funky!

We've designed, and knitted, 2 snoods in Liesl:

Tracey has knitted a number of private commissions and I've almost finished a slash neck sweater in this lovely Reflection yarn - the pattern for which was/is one which I'm due to next put on the site.

So - as you can see, we haven't been resting on our laurels.  In fact, I can't quite believe how much we've been doing - and quite how little we've managed to photograph!  Stick with us - photographs will be along in due course - all we need is a dry day - ha ha!!

NEW - Superba Tweed Sock Yarn!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Amazingly - as promised - the new sock yarn from Rico's Superba Tweed range is now up on the site!  6 new, tweedy colours - perfect for those Christmas socks which I know are now being frantically knitted!:

MORE New Yarns!!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Sincere apologies for the long delay in blogging but I've been away!  We decided that, following our non-existent summer, some hot sun was required before the onset of winter so we shot off for half term in the Cape Verde islands.  Now, I love hot weather but this was HOT - almost too hot for me (and that's saying something).  But it was a lovely break and coincided with the first lot of really cold weather here in the UK so we were lucky and had one heck of a shock when we got back to Heathrow in our summer clothes!

Just before we left (literally the day before) we had a big delivery in from King Cole, which included 2 new yarns and loads of new patterns.  I've been working away like a dervish and they're all now on the site - hoorah!

The first yarn is Galaxy Chunky:

which is the fantastic yarn WITH SEQUINS!  Perfect for cheering you (and others) up as winter draws along this warm cosy yarn sparkles as you move!  We've had Galaxy DK (and there are 4 new colours in that - the black and white have gold sequins):

 for some time now and Galaxy Chunky is a welcome addition to the fold.  I've rattled up a lacy scarf in it (currently blocking on the Aga) so watch out for piccies of that in the coming days (in festive red, of course!).

The second new yarn is brand new Candystripe:

which is a self-striping baby yarn.  Comes with a load of gorgeous patterns.  Here is a sample:

(how cute is that?!!)

There are also new patterns in Galaxy DK, Riot DK, Bamboo Cotton, Bamboo Cotton Prints, Cottonsoft, Cuddles, Riot DK and Splash - so, you see, I've been quite busy!! (Click on the links and the patterns all appear down the left hand side of the page - click on each pattern for details.)

Tomorrow - new sock yarn from Rico!!