I started writing a blog in January to wish you all a Happy New Year, but didn’t finish it and now it is February already!  The year is flying past for me - I  hope it has started well for all of you.

It has been a lot colder recently so I am sure many of you will be staying at home in the evenings where it is warm and will have time to do some knitting.  We have some new Alpaca DK (Alpaca Dreams) and some new shades from Manos del Uruguay of Manos Lace and Silk Blend.  The new Spring/Summer collections start arriving this month and I will try to keep you updated when they come in - the first is Rowan’s Summerspun.  We also have a lot of new sock yarn from Rico and Bergere.

The Thursday morning knitting group is thriving and there were 15 people around the table when I took some photos last week!

Penny also had a very successful Beginners’ Workshop with three generations from one family coming to learn to knit!

I look forward to seeing you all in the shop!

Malvern town has a window display competition in December and for the last few weeks I have been frantically preparing for that with help from Penny and some of the ladies from the knitting group. The theme we were given is The 12 Days of Christmas. I should have taken the photos before I put the things in the window! We have a knitted partridge in a tree (a cut branch) with knitted pears.

Our 2 turtle doves are knitted - but Mrs Turtle Dove is knitting a sweater for her husband, who is wearing it while she finishes one sleeve. (The inspiration came from a cartoon at https://sketchedout.wordpress.com/tag/two-turtle-doves/ ).

Our 3 french hens are a knitted mother hen with a tricoleur apron holding two chicks, each wearing berets!

4 knitted robins sit beside 2 walkie talkies for the “calling birds” while the 5 gold rings are embroidery hoops covered in gold ribbon.

For 6 geese a laying we have one lovely wooden goose standing over 6 balls of Rowan Fine Tweed.

The 7 swans swimming are 4 balls of white dish cloth cotton (Sugar ‘n Cream) with swan necks and heads poking out and 3 dish cloths knitted with swan pictures on them.

To knit 8 maids milking would have been a mammoth task so we have one milk maid with a yolk to carry her buckets made out of a cable needle, standing beside the milking shed - a knitted tea cosy!

The 9 ladies dancing and 10 lords leaping are beautifully painted cut outs covering the side wall and there are 11 trumpeting felt angels hanging from the ceiling as the pipers.

Finally we have 1 bass and 11 side drums grouped together with a sign above saying “Gone Knitting” to represent the 12 drummers. I do hope the passers by have as much fun looking at the window as we did making everything - so far we have had a lot of compliments!

We are gradually updating the web site and I hope to offer some ideas for Christmas gifts soon - kits, vouchers, etc. We are always happy to try to make up gift bags to suit anyone you know who is a knitter or for someone you think could be encouraged to start knitting with the lovely inspirational yarns that are now being made. Please phone or email us with your requests.

There is a small amount of Frilly scarf yarn back in the shop after a long period when we could not get it from the manufacturers and I have been promised more angora for the beaded fingerless mittens that have proved very popular (should arrive early next week). Sekku is also back in stock for the beaded scarf and we have a large range of beads. Both of these come with a free pattern.

Some of the workshops for next year are already attracting participants and I am looking to source instructors for more courses.

If you live nearby - pop in and have a look around!

I forgot to say that the suppliers are hoping this will be available again by the end of November.  I will keep you posted!

Well my first stand at the Quilt show has come and gone!  It was really good to see what happens and with the help of my daughter and grandson, the stand was erected and stocked and The Knitting Parlour had something different to offer from the majority quilting stands.

Thanks to those of you that came to see us and we hope you will visit the web site or come into the shop when in the area.

I have a much better idea of what happens and by the next show hope to have an interesting array of products for the quilters that are also knitters.

I am getting into the swing of ordering for the shop and have managed to open accounts with most of the suppliers now so online orders should come through more easily.

Sadly Sarah Hazell has had to postpone her Learn to Crochet course for Thursday because of a back problem but we have 2 new dates and if there are any available spaces once everyone who was booked on Thursday’s course has decided what they want to do, we will offer them through the web site.

Now it is getting colder perhaps more people would like to start a knitting project - great for evenings in front of the TV - and I am sure there are a lot of Christmas presents you could start making.

Hello all - this is my first blog!

There have been some very successful workshops recently with Sarah Hazell from Rowan.  All have been well attended and everyone had a lot of fun (including me as I attended one to get to know what happens).  The lunch provided was superb thanks to Paul from The Crusty Cob Sandwich Shop and I will continue to get lunches from him - he catered for gluten free, vegan and vegetarian at the last one.

There is one place left on the Learn to Crochet course on Thursday 3 November, unfortunately the Introduction to Lace Knitting on the 10 Nov is fully booked but as it has been so popular I will ask Sarah to do another one in the New Year - let me know if you are interested and we can phone you with the details.  The Learn to Fairisle workshop in October was also very popular and completely booked up so I have requested another for 1 December 2011.  Do contact us as soon as possible to get your name on the list.

You will know now that The Knitting Parlour has changed hands.  I would like to wish Vicki all the best with her new online venture and Pat many happy hours of retirement - I am really privileged to take over such a well run shop and I hope everyone will continue to come in and see what we have in the shop.

Jackie

It had to happen one day!  Thought I had missed the bug but it kind of crept up on me!  Now I am hooked and planning sekku two for the Almanac Knit A-long in July!  The first one I made in the hot pinks, cool greens and zesty lemons of colourway no14 - its really fab and I am so pleased with how it turned out!  Not instant knitterly gratification but almost as after just a few evenings of knitting - hey presto beads were on and it is finished!  I have worn it lots already as in this changeable weather it is perfect for a little extra warmth when needed but it’s one of those curious yarns that acts cool when you are not!  So, unlike with a cardi, I can put it on and forget I’m wearing it!  The bright combination of scrummy colours means it will go with absolutely everything.  Yes, you can probably tell I am really, really pleased with it and am looking forward to knitting up a second one.  I just can’t decide whether to go ahead and knit in another sekku colourway - marine blues and purples with blue beads, or perhaps do it in a 4ply sock yarn on 4mm needles and see how that turns out!  Or, I think it would work beautifully in one of the subtle but very yummy Manos lace colours ….   it was so quick to knit up that I may even do one of each!  I may make some for gifts and get the sekku shawl out of my system, though I think this is one bug that I may not (and don’t really want) to shake off any time soon!  I ought really to be knitting a hat for the Almanac K-A-L  but I’m just not feeling the inspiration for that project like I am for the shawl.  I suppose if I do the hat in something chunky ( I love all the colours and softness of Cocoon by Rowan or one of the Noro self striping yarns) it should be quite quick to do and that would then mean I could knit another shawl in June and start number 3 in July!  Oh dear, this is now looking more like a serious addiction than a mild bug! 

The felted tweed mittens-for-May have turned out well!  They have been tried on by various family members and now I have been asked to make some for christmas gifts!  I really enjoyed knitting them and I am tempted to make more,  though I think if I do I will knit them plain on the outside and use two different colours of kidsilk haze for the lining to add a little va va voom!  This will greatly speed up the process of knitting them.  I don’t know what it is about my family but they see me using a colourway chart (more complicated the better) and immediately can’t think for themselves!  Their interruptions were so frequent that I would find several hours of knitting resulted in a meagre two or three rows of progress so I would resort to some sock knitting to remind myself I could still knit and quite a bit faster when not dealing with allsorts of silly enquiries!!   Perhaps they see a chart as competition for my attention? 

Well, even though the weather forecast suggests that I may appreciate a hat by Wimbledon week (!), I am off to look for some nice needles (knit pro interchangeables probably) and a bit of Manos lace to start Sekku 2 the sequel!