So we’re now well settled in to our new luxurious surroundings and looking forward to our first Knit Night. This will be a casual drop in knitting group from 7pm onwards every Thursday night (but come along whenever you can make it). We’ll pull out the folding chairs and the bean cubes, get the kettle on and the biccies ready. All you have to do is bring yourself and your knitting (or crochet, embroidery, cross stitch, beading – we’re not exclusive!) 
Bloggers Tangelled Angel and Tea and Cakes called out to the shop today. They are both co-ordinating the Knitter’s Treat Exchange, which is no mean feat as they have well over 100 sign ups from all over the globe! I ended up adding to their workload today by being a very belated participant. This is my questionnaire:
Knitters Treat Exchange Questionnaire
1. What’s your favourite type of yarn?
Any silk/wool blend. I love the combination of the shine of silk with the squishy comfort of wool.
2. What’s your least favourite type of yarn?
Sorry, this is just one word. Acrylic.
3. What’s the first thing you do when you visit a new yarn shop?
Squeal. Then spend about 10-15 minutes doing a general “sweep” of their stock, half an hour browsing pattern books and probably another good half an hour to 45 minutes deciding what to buy!
4. What other crafts do you do / would like to do?
I dabble in beading and jewellery making and I have serious intentions to improve my crochet skills this year.
5. What magazines do you currently subscribe to?
Interweave Knits (as of a day ago!)
6. Put this type of magazine in order of preference:
Knitting / Crochet / Other Craft / Food / Home / Fashion / Celebrity Gossip / Garden
Knitting, crochet, food, other craft, home, fashion, garden, celebrity gossip
7. What items do you like to knit / crochet?
Everything and anything! Socks are a current favourite though.
8. Are you allergic to anything?
Nope Not that I know of…
9. What do you like to smell of?
Strong perfume gives me headaches so generally something fresh and light. I make an exception for Allure though.
10. What’s your favourite way to relax?
Knitting (obviously). A long walk on the beach during the day or a swim in the evening.
11. You’re stood in front of a Victorian style sweetshop, an Italian cafe, an old fashioned bakery and a dainty tea room. Where do you go first?
Italian café, definitely. Hmm.
12. What do you come out with?
A caffeine buzz from the double espresso! In the summer I drink it over ice – something I picked up from a trip to Barcelona and I can highly recommend. If the coffee is very good and they sell the ground beans than I’ll more than likely come out with that too!
13. Where do you go next?
The bakery to get a treat to bring home to have with the coffee I’ve just bought…
14. Any other words of wisdom for your pal?
I love quirky things and I’m very easy to please. So thanks for signing up and for taking the time to brighten up someone’s day (in this case, mine!).
And now we have daylight pictures with actual people in them
The new shop has had a great reaction so far. We kicked off with Intro to Sock Knitting Part II, which took place in our on site “classroom” (which was just a bit untidy, but the girls forgave us…). We had lots of visits from friends, regulars and new customers and we generally had a ball. Jacqui and I are really pleased and we’ll continue to plot and plan to fill the shop with the best yarns and to run some great events. Keep an eye out for news of the “Grand Opening” on the 10th of May – it’s going to be a great one!
Thanks so much to everyone for the shop warming gifts and to all for the good wishes and supportive comments on the blog! We have to share this inpsired contribution from Antje – not only are these the best fairy cakes we’ve ever tasted but they spell out “Yay Yarn!” too. This girl is just the salt (and sugar) of the earth!
And in a continuation of the “we are ridiculously spoiled by the people around us” theme, the wonder-counter-construction duo showed up last thing on Saturday with these goodies:
It has been all about recovery today but I can guarantee you we will be back up to full strength for our first weekday opening this Wednesday. See you then!
This is (new) Knit!
Just shy of a few finishing touches… but now we’re sitting down with a well deserved glass of red wine. A big thank you to the “handy-men” for all their hard work this week – we couldn’t have done it without you
And we’ll add them asap
So here’s the reason for the lack of blog and general web updates. It’s a good reason, so I think you’ll forgive us!
From this Saturday the 31st of March, TIK will be open five days a week in our new shop in Blackrock. We will be located in the Old Georgian House (the shop on the left hand side) within the market grounds and this will allow us to open shortly before lunch Wednesday through to Friday (with late opening planned for Wednesdays and Thursdays) and the weekend hours will remain the same. We’ll be planning a Stitch n Bitch group for one of those late nights and extra knitting classes (in addition to the current run of Saturday morning classes) for the other.
There’s still lots of work to do before Saturday so we’ll get back to it now but we just wanted to share the good news!
Sorry for the relative lack of updates this week. There are so many things to show you, lots to be added to the website and some gorgeous customer projects to share. It will all make it’s way here but for the moment I’ve been distracted by and absorbed in some new developments and grand plans for TIK… All will be revealed soon
In the meantime if you pop by the shop this weekend you will find:
- Some delicious Laines du Nord Cashsilk yarn (50% Merino 25% Silk 25% Cashmere), and it’s on special offer!
- Laines du Nord Simple Knits Books 4 & 5
- The New Debbie Bliss “Special Family Knits” Book
- More Addis back in stock
- Rialto superfine merino yarn now available
- DomiKNITrix (not as scary as it sounds!)
- All that lucious Lorna’s Laces. Mothers, put in your gift requests now
- Yarnplay!
We also have new shades of Cashmerino in the Baby, DK, Aran and Chunky ranges.
See you Sunday or Monday…
Just a note to say TIK will be closed on St Patrick’s Day, but we will be open in Blackrock on Sunday 18th of March (from 11.30am to 5.00pm) and Monday 19th of March (from 12pm to 5.00pm).
On Sunday evening we’ll be heading off to Skyfest, which I would highly recommend. I have been nearly every year since it began and it’s one of those great things in life that is just fun for the sake of it. Wrap up warm though!
Knitting, that’s what!
I just wanted to share a few of our latest projects with you all. We finally gathered them together for a bit of a photo shoot, which the resident three year old wanted desperately to feature in and so, first and foremost, here are his socks:
These were knit from leftover in Lakeview, after Jacqui completed her anklet socks. He absolutely loves them! So much so that when the first sock was completed, he wandered around the house for a whole afternoon with just one sock on
A work-in-progress, which has shamefully stalled, is the baby sleep sack. Why did I think that 7 stitches to an inch in an ever-increasing round was a good idea? It does give a nice professional-looking finish though, so I will persevere. I made up a side-opening, where three buttons will be sewed onto the underside of the moss stitch, which lays over a button band and should close “invisibly” . I am sure there is a technical design term for this so pop it into a comment here if you know – thanks!
Next up is Jacqui’s simply gorgeous Knitting Pure and Simple (Un)Hooded Tunic. We both reckon the collar could have been more generous, and there’s room to go back and lengthen it, but for the moment there are no breezes on the back of the neck so Jacqui’s happy. The pattern was excellently written and very easy to follow, and makes use of a really nifty technique for creating a cross-over join at the base of the neck. There are some clever people at KP&S.
In sock news, I cast on for a toe up pair of socks last week, using Opal Feelings sock yarn. This picture is totally out of date now, as the first sock is complete and fits like a dream. We are serious fans of the “try-on-as-you-go” method of knitting around here! Updated pics soon…
And Jacqui was test-knitting some sock yarn, but we have since discovered the company don’t do wholesale anymore. It’s a pity, cause it’s lovely stuff. Both socks are now off the needles and being put to use. Yep, sock knitting is addictive…
And finally, Butterfly from Noro Knits, made from Silk Garden Shade 225. Due to an over-blocking accident this is now a present for Jacqui. We’re going to try to re-block, but I don’t see it recovering. On the bright side, it fits her perfectly and, as a fellow knitter, I know she appreciates the gift.
I have lots more news and plenty of customer knits to share with you too. Stay tuned for more!
It was a really fun weekend over at TIK in Blackrock. The title of this post is fairly indicative…
Top Down Knitting kicked off the weekend. Jacqui stole some of the new Rialto yarn in her all time favourite colour (Teal) to get that baby cardigan started. Rialto will be up on the website soon, promise! Jacqui’s getting a bit distracted test knitting a new sock yarn we are considering stocking and knitting a swatch of a yarn we had delivered today. I made the mistake of thinking aloud … “We need a swatch to show how gorgeous and soft this yarn is when knit up” – And the ball was whipped from my hand. Sheesh. More news on that soon…
Back in the shop, Aileen called by to discuss some fantastic pattern ideas and we spent a great half hour picking colours, textures and stitch patterns for her first two TIK projects. They’re going to be great – watch this space!
Later in the day, we caught up with Carrie and Kate and, as always happens when these two girls get together, much giggling and hilarity ensued. Of course, when chocolate muffins, cadbury’s cream eggs and coffee were thrown into the mix “hyperactivity” earned a new definition! We’re looking forward to Carrie’s housewarming because, when she can turn a yarn shop into party central, we’d love to see what she does with her own place…
Mary was also in over the weekend attending the Top Down Knitting Class and sharing some of her recent projects. As you can see Mobius knitting can be slightly addictive. Here are Mary’s second and third in just over a month. Version 2 is knit in Rowan Tapestry, and the colour is better represented in the detail picture. Version 3 is a Cat Bordhi pattern available here, knit in an Alpaca yarn that Mary picked up at the Knitting and Stitching Show
Mary’s been busy because she also had with her a stunning Boa Scarf. The pattern is from Interweave’s Scarf Style and the yarn is the delectable Lion and Lamb in the Motherlode colourway.
Oh, and there’s just one place left on Mary’s two-part Introduction to Sock Knitting class, which begins on the 24th of March. There’s a little advance preparation necessary for this class so if you are interested in taking part please contact me soon
I hope you are all staying wrapped up well against this windy day! It’s definitely scarf and shawl weather out there…
I’ve been keeping busy listening to Snow Patrol and getting a few new books ready to go online. No Fitted Knits, Lace Style or Yarnplay yet. It seems the babies are taking priority today:
Both really beautiful books. I wish I had them a few weeks ago when I cast on for my makey-uppey Baby Sleep Sack. My poor friends’ three week old baby girl is still waiting on a knitted gift from me… Jacqui is coming to the rescue as she is going to make her a top-down cardigan this weekend at Saturday morning’s class. I have every confidence it’ll be off the needles by Sunday night as she is already nearly finished this:
Ok, ignore the sunglasses. This is a really nice pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple. We got a few copies of this and a few of this wrap cardigan:
Anyway, Jacqui cast on for the Tunic last Thursday night and she’s at the end of the second sleeve. There’s just the hood to go, but she’s thinking of changing it to a shawl collar instead. I have lifted some instructions from another project on my wish-list Something Red from the Garter Belt and it would seem easy enough to do (famous last words…) So her progress has been such we don’t even have photos but the FO will be posted here as soon as.
We’re loving Knitting Pure and Simple and will be ordering more patterns today. Most of them are Top Down and seamless – what’s not to love?
One item of bad news for today I’m afraid. The Debbie Bliss Cashmerino range will be going up in price during the month of March. There has been a 20% increase from our supplier and the new RRP is now €5.95 – we’re not going to put this on all at once but the price will have to go up over the next while. Sorry everyone.
