Lapwing

Been a little silent for awhile, mainly because I've been enjoying sharing through Instagram more plus working at A Good Yarn keeps me pretty busy. Please do come say hi on Instagram.

A Good Yarn is moving at the end of this month and the grand re-opening is going to be on Saturday September 2. You're all invited. I've done all the artwork for the logos and the invites and love how they've turned out.

I've just released a new pattern for sale on Ravelry. Lapwing - Buy Now

It’s a very versatile shawl pattern, it can be made with any weight yarn and you just keep knitting until it’s the size you want. It's quite a simple design - perfect for TV knitting. There’s details in the pattern for optional beading too. Once you get passed the initial point then it's essentially just a 2 row pattern except for adding in the picots. The picots make blocking on wires super easy as all you need to do is run the wires through them all and you're done.

The multi-coloured sample is made from Louisa Harding Amitola in Elvira 124 and takes 2 balls. It takes about 370m to make it this size but it's very adaptable and you just do more or less repeats.

The pink sample is made in Debbie Bliss Rialto 4 Ply and again the sample took 2 balls.

We've been running a KAL in the shop for this pattern, so please feel free to share any progress or finished object photos - either in the Facebook group or on Ravelry.

Here's a link for the A Good Yarn facebook group. Even if you're not a shop customer, everyone is welcome to join the group - it's like an online knit and natter. Hope to see you there.

Knitmas

This is a bit slow in the writing but last week, we had a Knitmas event at A Good Yarn.

Kate and Ruth from Practical Publishing came for the evening to give a talk. There was games, food and fun.

Kate Heppell is the editor of Knit Now magazine and her talk was on the process of making a design from inception to publication in the magazine. It was very interesting and they brought lots of lovely samples to show us.

We had a prize draw and a couple of competitions – how many stitches can you cast on in a minute and how many rows can you knit blindfolded in two. Lots of hilarity ensued as you can imagine.

We’d prepared lots of knitting kits and many of them had a Christmas theme.

There’s an advent calendar in the shop for customers this month. The first customer that spends the first £10 of the day gets to open the calendar. I had a peek – the prizes are good.

The window display this year is pretty cool. Everyone contributed green strips and Carolyn and Kate have produced the most wonderful Christmas Tree.

I am knitting lots at the moment but they are all for Christmas presents, so I can’t share them with you yet. 

Holly and the Wee Mouse

I bought (among many other things) a kit from Sue Stratford at Yarndale. She has many gorgeous and sweet kits. I got the Chunky Holly kit.

I quickly got started and after only a couple of nights work. I have a fabulous chunky holly.

And if you can see her hiding behind the berries, a wee little mouse.

All the materials are included in the kit. The little mouse is made from angora, so she is lovely and fluffy.

One interesting surprise was because of the sewing down the centre of the stuffed leaf, it’s mouldable. The leaves stay in the position that you put them in.

There’s a range of other Christmas based kits too. Including a chunky robin and a Christmas tree tea cosy. If you’re based around Cleethorpes, then you can get your own kit from A Good Yarn or if you are elsewhere in the world, then you can get them directly from Sue Stratford at the Knitting Hut

It has quite an interesting construction that makes them look so good with the centre and side veins. The berries are a bit glittery too. I’m planning on mine having a home centre stage above my mirror in my lounge over the Christmas period.

That’s one project I’ve finished recently. There are literally dozens of others that I haven’t shared but I hope to, so wait for the next instalment.

Buzzy Bee

Well, this is something I just have to show you as it's just so darn cute.

This is one of my latest finished objects. The pattern is Man's Bee Friend from Debbie Bliss's Woolly Woofers book and I think it's in the latest issue of the Debbie Bliss magazine too.

The very lovely recipient is Milly from A Good Yarn.

Milly quite likes the cosy jumper but not as thrilled with the antenna hat, which quickly came off.

Then back on again.

 

The yarn is Rico Essential Soft Merino Aran.

Pow!

When these gorgeous new colours of Rico Soft Merino Aran came into A Good Yarn - well I may have got slightly obsessed. It’s not the first time I’ve used this yarn, nor the last. There’s a beautiful array of colours, it’s supersoft, pure merino, good yardage and a decent price too.

I’ve got tons of knitting to do but they were beautiful and squishy and warm and well….

Last week, we had a lot of driving to do (he had a very nice birthday at Alton Towers Water Park) and Mr was happy to drive so over a few days I managed to get this lovely, squishy and colourful shawl finished. Can you tell I like it?

The pattern is the Betsey Shawl by Amy Miller. Here's my Ravelry project page.

It’s a very simple shawl and in my infinite wisdom, I thought I didn’t need stitch markers. Well, turns out I did.

I was fine until I started the stripes and just assumed the double decreases lined up on the middle stitch. They don’t. This meant I had an extra stitch on one edge and one less on the other. Once I realised what I had done (took awhile to figure that out), I just kept it as it was and did one less increase on one side and one less decrease on the other. You can’t tell.

Anyway, 4 days later, I’ve got a lovely shawl for winter. I love how the stripes lie when it’s on. The colours really sing.

I was playing about editing the photos and just love the effect of the one below. It looks like it’s been drawn with coloured pencils.

 

AGY Stitch Markers

In conjunction with a A Good Yarn at Cleethorpes, I’ve helped produce some handmade exclusive stitch markers.

  

All the colours are individual and have their own names, which all have a seaside theme. My colourway is called “Starfish Wishes”.

 

Of course, I had to buy a pot for myself!

Wish Upon a Knit

Last week we had great fun at A Good Yarn, Cleethorpes. It was the Wish Upon a Knit events all week. It was to raise money for When You Wish Upon a Star. 

It was very busy with lots of knitting, laughter and cakes. The last being the most important.....we ate a lot of cake. All the cakes were homemade by several of our lovely knitters and were very, very good. Obviously, I found the cakes to be the standout feature of the week! Maybe, I should tell you about the rest and forget about the exceedingly good cakes. Hold on - how about a piccie of ..... cake.

Every session had different cake too and of course, we had to test it all.

Anyway....

Everyone who took part received a kit with materials for four different jewellery projects.

They involved lots of different skills and hopefully, some new ones for people to have a go at.

The room looked very pretty, with fresh flowers, white tablecloths and vintage china.

The Saturday session was that busy that we had to expand into the shop.

Hopefully, everyone had a fabulous time. We certainly did. A big thank you to everyone who took part.

Dyeing Workshop

At the weekend, I went to a workshop at A Good Yarn, Cleethorpes. It was a "Dye your own yarn" workshop with Jonathan from Chroma Yarns. It was great fun and everyone made gorgeous coloured yarn.

The dyes

The aftermath

Everyone's gorgeous yarns

My finished yarn

Yarn wound into a cake

Hopefully, it'll find itself made into a pair of gloves (for a friend) at some point.

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