Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Jacqui

Sounds strange to blog about this but here's a little dress for Jacqui's special doll that her dad gave her just before he died - thanks to sibling squabbles her original sailor outfit got destroyed (brothers - eh!) Just thought I'd share her present (knitted in Millamia and Baby Omega) with you all. Honestly I just hope it fits, I have only glimpsed the doll once - it was wearing a pair of yellow knitted trousers. Hope this will be more like it!

Knitting club today and we are still on our Innocent Smoothie hats - I am relegated to pom poms because of all the cake I manage to stow away during the sessions!

Next week we are going to knit poppies for a yarn bomb appeal in Gloucester - not loving the dark nights - but very good for indoor projects - the garden will have to wait!

Winter Nights New Hobbies

Yum yum yum - after the last 6 years of continuous rain it is sad to see the end of the Summer, but it has held on well and with my added bit of solar power (courtesy of those lovely hospitable Greeks) we can now look forward to the cosy darkness that's on its way. That means, folks,  you can't garden, you can't sit about chatting, you can't keep saying 'Ah I only knit in the Winter' because here it is!!

In celebration of the enforced bringer of hobbies and pastimes The Wool Garden has loads of new courses on offer. They are nearly all taught by me, although there is a mega hard fairisle one all about damask knitting (double knitting) This one is taught by Marianne our resident fairisler (bound to be - she is Norwegian after all!)

BA BA (Batchelor of arts) black sheep

http://thewoolgarden.co.uk/courses.html

Mainly though, these courses are all designed for those with less time to spare. Some of them are in the evening for those poor folks who still have to do their hobby as an extra (unlike lucky old me!) Best not rub it in, but do keep an eye on us for all the new excitements on the way. (Including the much requested reinstatement of the knitting club - more news of that on Friday . . . )

Be sure to look on the new courses section when you get browsing.

I am out of the shop tomorrow saying goodbye to my lovely daughter Alice (featured with her knitting on the Beginners Knitting course) She is off with her partner Seb to meet up with her brother in Vietnam - ah small world eh? Its all very emotional but I might just have to squeeze in a visit to a wool shop on the way!!!!

Tomorrow we have our spinning course. Four lovely spinners and four lovely spinning wheels.

One Happy Yarn Maker

As I only own three - lets hope they remember to bring theirs! Lunch - as ever - will be the main focus after we have spun our wonderful fluff into gorgeous bobin-filled yarns. It's all practice, of course but the workshop aims to cut out the swearing and crying that my husband had to put up with before I could get anwhere with it at all.

What I did on my holidays!

Yep - you guessed it - knitting and here are the results. Our wonderful team at sailingholidays.com who looked after us like billio on our boat - but despite the Ionian Regatta, the anchor and a lot of tacking - I still managed to make three hats - just call me obsessed!

I even had time to swap Continental versus British techniques with a lovely Greek lady at Efemia in Kefalonia where we were all bound to port in a storm.

Granny Squares

After a gorgeously sunny day, with the sun dipping ever lower in the sky - it is time to turn your thoughts to learning new things and creating something warm and cuddly for this coming Winter.

Good job we have the Granny Square course tomorrow. Students will leave having completed four squares and may even have moved on to crocheting them together, as this looks so much better than sewn up seaming.

I am off and away on my Greek hols in a mo - so will come back replenished and with a whole pile more courses on offer from the the beginning of October. So for all you poor people who still have to work for a living - you should now be able to find something bookable from the end of September - keep your eyes peeled for more classes on lace knitting; Fairisle and a range of evening and day courses which should give you all more flexibility. 

Individual lessons are available on request as are our new range of children's classes which are designed to create a whole new generation of Knitters. A new Knitting Club will also be available from October, times and dates to be announced.

Beginner's Knitting

Looking forward to today's lesson in the The Wool Garden. Firstly I know there will be egg sandwiches, which I find go very well with a bit of knitting. Then of course my lovely student. Holiday time means lessons are less crowded and dear old Katherine will be getting a private knitting lesson for four hours - let's just hope she can stand all the attention!

The last lesson we did together was painting our own glorious wool. I wonder if she will bring that as hers were particularly lovely loads of blues and great combinations. Now all she has to do is learn how to knit them up.

Stayed up too late as ever knitting my great new yarn from Noro - OBI. A chunky version of Silk Garden give or take a percentage of angora. Lovely - I decided to knit a beret and the colours are amazing. All good practice for my fairisle tams for Christmas presents. One ball is one beret - so great for kits and pressies for knitters.

Ah well - off to the sarnies right now.

Knit Knit

Bank Holiday

Just loaded some new yarn onto the website (Debbie Bliss's newest yarn called Milano) - then I am going to spend the rest of the day catching up on my knitting tasks but mainly spinning some alpaca blanket - lovely to work with. So what do I do with all this fab fibre I am making fro myself? Well I have recently knitted some socks from hand spun wool and here they are:

These are made from Blue Faced Leicester and I am a proud mummy of these little babies!

I spun the colours and then plied with a light blue - so they have a marled look to them. My photo does not really do the colours justice but they are bright blue and orange - such a good colour combination and one which all those Michaelmas Daisies just opening up seem to have understood for years.

Autumn Folks

Hey all

Just letting you know that all the lovely Autumn yarns have come in. These include a great faux fur yarn which is like the posh version of all that eyelash stuff - far nicer but a lot more pricey - mind you it looks it too. Then there's Debbie Bliss with her newest Milano - this is a vintage yarn all bobbly and I can remember my wool shop working grandmother in just the same sort of stuff - the full monty - jacket skirt and waistcoat! All in vogue patterns of course.
The Sami Mirasol and Paqa Pura have made up into  some great hats and - despite the sudden reemergence of the heatwave - thoughts are turning to curling up for those long dark nights with the newest and latest trends on the needles. So much wool and so little time . . .

Finishing Off

Just letting you know we have a Finishing school course tomorrow - where our lovely students are coming for  a brush up on their knitting know how. We will go over mattress stitch; buttons holes; sewing shoulder seams (always a bit annoying) and ways to avoid doing this at all. We will also cover blocking and finishing; joining; knitting in the round and a bit of Continental knitting for good measure. How is it I am such an expert? making mistakes, of course!

Ah yes - and then there is the lunch . . . 

The Wool Garden: The Wool Garden: Knitting and cricket

The Wool Garden: The Wool Garden: Knitting and cricket: Hey everyone who sees this - I don't know because I don't know anything about social media - except the probs it causes in our schoo...

The Wool Garden: Knitting and cricket

Hey everyone who sees this - I don't know because I don't know anything about social media - except the probs it causes in our school!
Just to let you know though, that I have gone live - if not viral - whatever that means!!
Happy days - and if you need my help give me a ring for gawds sake - I am a real person!

Knitting and cricket

This is our lush shop so packed now - we can hardly move. I am always on the lookout for new and exciting yarns - so let me know if you think I should be stocking something!

Can't wait for the website to go live (very soon now!) Who would have thought that I would become an expert data inputter for Magento and their complicated backend!!! And I thought I was going to be running a wool shop!

What knitty things have I done today - well I have half finished a cardigan that a customer gave up on. Looks nice too! To break off from the pins and needles that I keep getting from staying up too late and knitting I am wandering about the garden looking mournfully at all the dandelions in the lawn! Good job there's a bank holiday coming up. I really want to get on with my cashmere pashmena for the winter. I love knitting lace and knitting in a thicker yarn to a soothing leafy lace pattern turns out really nicely. 

I am also knitting a tarantula (as you do!) from the Knitted Pets book. It is cool and I have made it smaller so that the customer who wanted it can put it in the pocket of a garment - I like her sense of humour!

That's about it for today as I need to go down the shop and relieve my wonderful manager - Jane - who is off to make the cricket teas in Ross on Wye - how jolly British of us!

Interested in knitting? why not come along to one of our courses.  We run beginners courses, courses for dyeing, spinning, sock making and crochet.  Call us on 01531 820472 or email for details.