It seems winter has arrived a month early, a switch was thrown yesterday and suddenly we’re plunged into cold temparatures and snow flurries on the nearby hills, ideal knitting weather! Woolybutt is currently drowning in tons of woolly stuff and Lana is doing her “Henny Penny” routine of “Too much wool, where are we going to put it all, this is ridiculous” as she somehow magically finds room and puts box after box of it away. She still found time to make me out a list of “stuff we really need” at the end of the day! There is some seriously gorgeous yarns around this winter season so if you get the chance pop into the shop and have a look. Amongst the new arrivals this week was some fun scarf yarn from Panda. Pom Pom is a chenille yarn with furry pom poms scattered through it. It is a one off and I believe we can’t get anymore once this is gone but it is quite different. Other fun yarns are Ribbon and Coco. Ribbon is similar to Katia’s ribbon yarn but there are some really amazing colours in the Panda range and Coco is a nobbly, blobby yarn in various multi-colours to brighten up a dull winters day.
Don’t forget that classes are now in full swing at Woolybutt. There are no vacancies in Saturday’s class but we have vacancies in Tuesday’s class. Suzanne is now taking both classes as Christine decided to end her long association with Woolybutt due to health reasons. She contributed much and she will be sorely missed.
Currently there is a waiting list on knitted garments as all our knitters are fully booked for the foreseeable future. If you are a good, quick knitter and would like to earn a bit extra please contact the shop and have a chat.
On a knitting note, don’t be locked into knitting a garment specifically in the yarn specified. Always check the tension. These days each ball of wool will specify the tension it knits to on the ball band, you then compare that to the tension specified in the pattern. I recently knitted the cute Aran Tweed children’s dress in Filatura di Crosa’s Charli and it came out lovely. The major reason for changing yarns was that the Aran Tweed didn’t come in “purple” and a certain young lady wanted a purple dress. She was very pleased with the result. Another thing to watch is that scarf and blanket patterns often specify needles bigger than one normally uses to knit that ply yarn, for example an 8ply(dk) yarn using a 5mm needle. The reason for this is simple, a scarf or blanket needs to have some “movement” in it, it can’t be as dense as a garment and by knitting it on bigger needles you achieve greater suppleness. If you are using an American pattern they often specify length rather than number of balls of wool or alternatively they talk about skeins. Mercifully most now specify meters as well as yards and from there it is easy to work out how many 5og balls of wool you will need as all balls have their meterage on them ( I always knew Maths would come in handy eventually)!
Current projects: a large drape in Inca from last month’s Better Homes and Gardens supplement (for a customer) and a funky Pom Pom scarf for myself which is a really quick knit.
Happy Knitting
Lorraine