We seem to be getting quite a lot of visitors in the shop which is really nice and a lot of nice comments about the shop and the range of wools we have.

There are some super patterns in all the new books from Rowan and Noro and at the moment the refurbished stock room is brimming with new stock.

We are off on holiday in September and earlier in the year I started a cardigan in Sirdar Blur as I thought it would be light to pack and warm on chilly evenings. I suddenly realised I need to get on with it so everyhing else has been put on one side to get that finished. It knits up quickly so I should be alright.

Looking forward to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC next week. Rowan has a stand there so maybe there will be some of the samples from the new magazine on show

We have taken our sale yarn out of the window as we don’t have an awful lot left.

We have an RYC cabled cardigan from the Coast book, knitted in RYC Cotton Jeans. It has been very popular over the past couple of weeks, people really like the style and the yarn is gorgeous.

If you’re a fan of our free patterns, you may recognise the egg cosy! Any 4ply yarn will work for the pattern but it does look great with self-patterning yarn.

The tea cosy is also featured on the free patterns and we are doing a kit of this although it’s limited so won’t be on the website. Give us a call or e-mail if you’re after the kit, it’s £9.99.

You can find the tablecloth pattern in Tracy Ullman’s book, Knit 2 Together. A wonderful collection of garments and homewares.

In the next couple of weeks we will be updating with all the new Autumn/Winter stock. The Rowan collection is released on 1^st August and the Louisa Harding, Noro and Debbie Bliss is coming in bits and pieces. If you can’t wait to see it appear, please e-mail or call if you want to order anything.

Happy knitting!

As some of you have seen, our huge plans didn’t materialise as we’d hoped! Our knitting area in the window went by the by when we thought about how fragile and expensive the curvy glass for our window is and how easily a chair could get bonked into it. But on the bright side we have a proper counter now and a new till which will say exactly what you’ve bought! Very exciting.

The men helpers had plenty of opportunity to use various powertools but were reluctant if we wanted a go. We did do something with the drill but I forget what. We planned to go to the pub after but it was closing time when we finished so I just went home and had a cuppa.

Anyway, the general consensus from our customers so far is that they think it looks better, makes the shop look bigger and has made room for an extra unit. That part I love because we just moved a unit but if people think it’s new that’s only good! Maybe that’s why we’ve sold more Noro this week…

We are very excited as we’ve decided to give the shop a bit of a face-lift. It’s all happening tonight, hopefully. We’re moving the counter and making our stock area better, streamlining the yarn shelves so that we can get more stuff in and generally having a sort out. Pat has gone off to Wickes and Staples to get supplies and the men in our lives are standing by with their powertools. It may turn out to take a lot longer than we thought and we may be at it all night as we can’t open to a mess in the morning!

Pat’s top idea is to have a seating area in our window for knitting. It’s quite a narrow shop (although we do have it packed with loads of great stuff, more on the way) so there’s no seats but there’s a bit of empty space in the window and it’s a great place to knit because you can watch the goings on outside.

So if you are around our way soon, come and knit in our window for 5 minutes and see what you think!

It’s July already, it’s sale time! We have our window crammed with bargains at least 30% off our sale lines. Its mostly Debbie Bliss, Louisa Harding and Colinette which we’ve reduced. The garment in the window is a Colinette Giotto cardigan from the Femme Fatale book.Our new autumn/winter stock will start to come in at the beginning of August and we’ll try to get it on the website super quick!

I thought I’d impart my thoughts on the cost of yarn and the relevance of it to your project. I know it may seem a bit biased as I own a knitting shop but it is based on fact.
We had a customer last week who had knitted a jumper for her husband and was disappointed with it because the yarn didn’t have as much oomph or elasticity as she thought it should. She had picked a mixed fibre yarn which was mid-range price. This issue is a common problem with men’s jumpers because the cost of knitting a big jumper is quite high and so people choose something economical without worrying so much about how it will turn out.
Anyway, this poor lady’s husband was refusing to wear the jumper so she was going to give it away which I thought was such a shame after she took all the time to knit it and I thought it looked great. This got me thinking….
At the time of choosing, the price of the yarn is uppermost in the decision making for a lot of people. It’s not that cheap to knit these days and that is a major issue. But think about it. How much of your time are you going to spend knitting a jumper or other garment? If you counted up the hours and worked out in money how much that time is worth, guaranteed it is a lot more than the cost of the yarn. If you’re going to spend that much of your time on something isn’t it better to have something at the end which can potentially last forever?
The bottom line is that the bulk of the cost of knitting is time. Weigh this up next time you’re making a choice in your local knitting shop. If it’s anything like us they will have a lay-by to help you pick great yarn without forking out for it all at once!

Lots of customers have been in the shop to buy some wool to knit while they watch Wimbledon. I use this excuse too but I find that I have a lot of reverse knitting to do as it gets more exciting.
We have a Rowan jacket in the shop at the moment and I had a sneaky try on, and really fell for it. It’s in the book COAST and uses Cotton Jeans yarn, there are lots of cables so I think it will be a long term project. I like knitting cables there’s always the impetus to do a bit more.

We had a Knitting Parlour staff outing to Royal Ascot for Ladies Day on Thursday. We equipped ourselves with fascinators, loads of food, umbrellas and pretty frocks and obviously our knitting!

We had a picnic in the coach park when we arrived which sounds really naff but it was quite a nice grassy field and the coach was useful shelter when it started chucking it down. Then we had to queue for maybe 45 minutes to get into the ring. It was because you have to cross the racecourse and they put down a tiny board so you don’t ruin the grass but it does create a bottleneck and it was touch and go whether we’d get across before they have to close it for the Queen.

This is us when we arrived.

Pat and Mary waiting for the Queen.

Mary and me waiting for the Queen. That brown is my shawl completely covering up my pretty frock but it was chilly and most likely about to rain.

There were 6 races and we bet on all of them but only won twice out of about 20 bets between us! We were getting tips by text from Mary’s husband but ignored them (we knew best) until it turned out they were pretty good.

The Queen and the Duke. The Queen was in Oatmeal.

We did LOADS of knitting on the coach. Pat was knitting a summer top with some yarn she got in America and which I can’t remember the name of, Mary is making a Mission Falls scarf for the shop and I was knitting the baby surprise jacket with Colinette Jitterbug.

Our next trip to the races will be closer to home. We’ve decided to have the shop’s 2nd anniversary do at Worcester races sometime in July.

In other knitting news I had a bit of a hiccup with my Louisa Harding Coquette shrug so the pattern won’t be on the website anytime soon until I knit it again in something else. The Surfer cardigan which is in this week’s shop window was quite a success. I have to come up with a red white and blue theme for the next window for Malvern in Bloom. I’m thinking of making a union jack out of balls of yarn but that may prove to be too ambitious.

Have just returned from two weeks in Cornwall,with the family. Had a really good time and the weather although mixed didn’t stop us doing anything. It was really great spending time with Jess our grandaughter who at 19 months changes all the time. She was great fun , loved the sea and didn’t seem to feel the cold. I have to say there wasn’t a lot of time for Knitting but I finished my Fleece Artist Tumbling Block socks and started knitting a Sirdar Luxury Cotton jumper for Jess. It is a really nice simple pattern (2182) and has sizes from birth to 10 years so will be a good investment.
Jess also loves the Log Cabin Blanket I knitted, inspired by the Mason Dixon book and I think I will knit her one of her own in shades of pink. I used the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and I think she likes it because it is so nice and soft.

This week in the window we have a gorgeous summer cardi in Sirdar Surfer.
It is a raglan pattern with a wide neck and 3/4 length sleeves.
It’s great to knit with and pretty quick. We haven’t got the pattern on our website,
but please e-mail if you want to knit it. Instead of a press stud fastener we
have used a Rowan kilt pin.

Pat has knitted a great hat from Tracey Ullman’s Knit 2 Together book.
Yes, I know it’s not woolly hat weather but it’s a nice small project for knitting
over the summer. It’s knitted in Noro Iro which is a typical Noro yarn which
self-stripes. You can just about do it with 1 ball but will go into a 2nd
to do the small band.

We’ve been trying out the new Clover felting needle on some bits of felting we
had lying around the shop. I had knitted and felted some Colinette Skye into a bag.
Just 2 squares for a front and back and then a long strap. It took 200g.
I’ve jazzed it up by cutting out a flower and some small hearts from a piece of
felted Noro Kureyon and using the felting tool and mat to attach it.
It looks pretty good and was a lot of fun to do.

We have reduced our back issues of Simply Knitting. The price for back issues
if ordered from Simply Knitting is £5.99 but we are offering them for £3.50.
Please e-mail if there is a specific issue you are looking for.