It is that time of year which is really odd for the knitter. You get bombarded with summer patterns and cotton even though there is a tiny window of hot hot summer! A lot of people (us included) tend to carry on knitting winterish things regardless.

But…this year, there are some really tempting summer knits and yarns around which are not just the bog standard cottons that you normally see. In the window this week are 2 of best examples. The lemon cardi on the left is from Rowan Magazine 45 and is knitted in Cotton Glace. Yes, it is perfect for summer but also can carry through to all but the coldest weather with the 3/4 length sleeves. Perfect for layering.

The green cardi is the one on the front of the Rowan Lenpur Linen book. The Lenpur has beautiful drape and again is not just a summer knit. Penny is knitting another of the Lenpur Linen patterns and is loving it. It is knitting up like lightning.

The fantastic fabric and patterns in the trunk are mostly Amy Butler along with some of our new patchwork gadgets. I have just made Amy’s Barcelona skirt and it looks fantastic. I am definitely going to make another one as the shape is so flattering. Plus it’s really easy and quick to make.

As you can see our window is mostly about sewing at the moment. We have had some beautiful new Amy Butler fabrics and patterns in and we are also showing off our Clothkits. We had sadly neglected them over the winter in our knitting frenzy! We continue to stock one of everything as far as we can keep up. Not available on our website but you can always ring or come over to Malvern and browse. It’s beautiful here in the sunshine. Combine a visit to us with a walk over the hills!

The fantastic green cardigan is in Rowan Lenpur Linen, knitted by Pat and has been very popular. It’s on the front of the Lenpur linen book. We have also been selling lots and lots of copies of the Rowan Classic Reminiscence book for the tapered rib cardigan. You might be able to see the back of it in the picture, it’s a beige shade.  It’s knitted in Pima Cotton dk and is lovely. I started to knit it for the shop and then Rowan sent it as a sample so I stopped but I am going to finish it now as I feel like I’m missing out on something given how many people are knitting it!

We have some great Rowan wokshops coming up with a couple of places left on them for some lucky people! Sarah Hazell is doing a fairisle class making some mits. OK. It is Spring but you’ll have them ready for the winter and really, it’s about the knitting…

Pat and I went to a trade show last weekend at the NEC and at the Craft, Hobby and Stitch awards we won ‘Knitting Retailer of the Year’ 2009 for the Midlands and then went on to win the overall award for the whole country! It was voted for by the public, so we want to sincerely thank everyone who voted for us. We really appreciate your loyalty and support.

You may have seen that we had a discount card being given away with ‘Knit Today’ this month. The offer ends on 2nd March so if you are still contemplating your purchase there isn’t much time left! It is the first time we have had the capability to offer discounts on the website and it’s gone really well so please sign up to our newsletter to get details of future promotions.

You may have been lucky enough to bag some of the Rico pom-pom  yarn when it was fleetingly available in the shop! We have managed to secure further supplies which should be with us in a week or two so watch this space if you have been wanting more.

We also now stock the beautiful Knit-Pro symphony needles (formerly KnitPicks) which will soon be on the website.  As always, if you can’t wait please give us a call at the shop!

To get your special Knit Today discount, load your shopping cart, then when you checkout you will be prompted for a code at the bottom of the page where you enter your details. Please enter the expiry date of the discount card (it’s on the back) here in the format dd/mm/yy and the discount will show on the next page. Any problems, please email or call the shop!

We’ve just reduced the last of our sale yarns by up to 40%! There are some great bargains to be had, so make sure you check the special offers section.

It’s almost valentine’s day and we have a fantastic limited edition ‘Love is…’ treat bag to celebrate. You will find it in the kits: hampers section. It includes a beautiful skein of handpainted sock yarn in a colourway which is all ours! We comissioned Artists Palette to dye 25 skeins in an exclusive colourway and it is delicious, rich and purpley-red (my favourite colour). With a ball of Rowan Cocoon, 2 sets of needles and our very own handwarmer pattern, these can’t be beaten as a winter pick-me-up. So start dropping hints to your loved one now or just buy it for yourself to be on the safe side. Hinting doesn’t work too well for me normally…

Hurray! It is sale time! You will find all the sale items in Special Offers on the website and there are lots of yarns in there and all our fabrics are reduced.

In the shop there is a bigger range of reduced fabric which never made it onto the website and also little goodies like reduced Knit-Lite needles and crochet hooks and some reduced accessories that we had in for christmas. We also have the Rico Pom-pom yarn as seen in Simply Knitting magazine. We have hardly any left so it’s only £6.95 now, not on the website so you’ll have to call in or give us a ring for that.

Our opening times are back to normal now as of today. Hope you all had a great christmas. I have been knitting Bainbridge from the Rowan Purelife British Breeds collection. It has been in my queue for ages and it’s a real joy to knit even though it’s huge! I am hoping to finish it in 4 weeks ready for a girly weekend away in February. I am on target. At the moment…

Hurray! We got 3rd place in the town’s Christmas Window competition.  The theme was panto so we went for the 7 dwarves (neatly ignored Snow White as she’s too hard to knit quickly) and had an audience of Korknisse with corks kindly supplied by Catrin and Steve and yarn from Artists Palette. There are 143 of them and it was no mean feat getting them done. They are surprisingly knit-intensive so we had to farm them out to Janet and Claire as well as Mary and I doing our fair share. Pat and Penny were in charge of the dwarves. We bribed people with the promise of curry vouchers if we won, that was the prize last year, but this year was more frugal and we got a tin of Quality Street. Not quite the same but still usable!

The Korknisse are available to buy in the shop for £1 each. The money is going to St James CE Primary School in West Malvern who are trying to raise £60k towards having a school hall. Each Korknisse is numbered and will be entered into a raffle for an as yet undecided prize. It’s a great cause. Hurry, we only have about half of them left!

We have updated the website with all of the Rowan courses we have booked for next year. Take a look, there are some great subjects, something for everyone. Also, we have our latest kits on too. Some great gift ideas and it’s not too late to Christmas shop! There are still 12 days left until last posting…

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It’s Halloween tomorrow and we have some fabulous felted pumpkins in our window to celebrate. We are also showing off our favourite pattern book, Kim Hargreaves Heartfelt, with 2 Big Wool garments. It is almost the most expensive pattern book we stock BUT it is our current bestseller which says a lot about how fantastic the range of patterns are.

For Kim Hargreaves fans, we have just taken delivery of her new Amber book. This will be on the website next week, in the meantime we can take orders over the phone. Very wearable designs and great shapes.

Pat and I had a fabric buying trip to Manchester and we now have a small collection of gems to add to our extensive cotton range. Some needlecord, funky tartan, as seen above in the window, and lovely linen mixes and checked cottons among others.

For Christmas 2008 we have launched all new Knitting Parlour hampers! Even more luxurious than last year, each one comes packed in a unique handmade cotton tote bag. No two are the same! The best gift a knitter could get; start dropping hints now!

Only 2 weeks ago we were sunbathing on a beach and swimming in the sea, in England! It’s hard to believe that now it’s time to dig the woolies out.

If you need some knitting inspiration, our window may help you out. We have Cheri from the Rowan Cocoon Collection knitted in Bilberry Cocoon. It is only a 4 row pattern and 2 of those are purl and the other 2 are identical but just offset by 1 stitch. It’s a great autumn knit because you can layer other things underneath. The Cocoon book has a great choice of garments. One of our customers has knitted at least 3 things from it already.

A great new addition to our range is the Sirdar Big Softie. It is a super chunky with a brilliant book to get beginner knitters on to knitting easy garments. Look out for it on the website next week. We have all the colours in the shop; if you can’t wait you can give us a ring to order.

It is almost time for the Autumn Quilt Show at the 3 Counties in Malvern. We will be there again with a fabulous new range of kits which will be available in the shop and on the website after the show, at the beginning of November. We are also taking a range of sock yarns including Noro, Araucania and our fave Artist’s Palette.

We are winter fabric shopping on Tuesday so we will have some great additions to our popular cotton range very soon. We do already have a couple of nice needlecords, see my lovely pinafore here. We are also able to order Burda, Simplicity and New Look patterns now. The books are on the pattern bar for browsing!

Well, I finished the Cocoon tank. I am really pleased with it, it blocked out great and I loved knitting it. You can just see in  the front of the window how many colours there are to choose from!