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June 30, 2006
Peony Silk
Could whoever it was that emailed me a few weeks ago about custom dyeing some silk in the peony colour that Annarella had on her blog email you again. I have the silk ready for you but can't for the life of me find your details. thanks!
Posted by Kerrie at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)
June 27, 2006
Knitting and Stitching
Good news, HipKnits are going to be at 3 out of 4 Knitting and Stitching shows this year! Come and see us at NEC in September, Alexandra Palace in October and Harrogate in November. Full dates and details are on the Twisted thread website.
I'm also a little scared to notice that the classes I'm teaching at both NEC and Harrogate are selling already. Gulp. That's pretty scary, but good at the same time. I think that they have me booked in for beaded jewellry and knitted flowers at both shows so if you want to come along and take a class with me you'll have to be quick, places are limited to 20 per class and some of them only have a couple of spaces left!
Posted by Kerrie at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2006
Somebody stop us!
We just can't stop giving away free patterns with purchase at the moment, that's a good thing though right?
From now on every skein of cashmere sock yarn will come with one of these standard sock patterns designed by the ever lovely Fiona for us last year. The pair pictured are worn so often that we really must get around to knitting up another pair for display purposes!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:45 AM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2006
Coming Soon and Silk Club
The merino / silk fibre that you can see here will be on the site in the next few days. Its so soft and addictive to spin, I love it. I'm kind of hoping that no-one buys any so that I have an excuse to spin it all myself. We will be giving away a copy of My Paper Crane's Spin Spin zine with each purchase of fibre while stocks last, this lovely little book tells you everything you need to know about making your own drop spindle and spinning yarns.
The July silk club yarn went out on Friday as a special early treat for all of the silk club members. We have one more batch to dye for the August club and then we'll be opening membership again probably in a couple of weeks time.
Posted by Kerrie at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2006
Short and Curly
Its so hard running a company like HipKnits. Every time a new shipment comes in you want to keep one of everything for yourself. Store samples, that's the way to do it!
This little short and curly scarf was made from just 1 skein of Fleece Artist chunky weight silk / cashmere yarn. 50 yards of pure indulgance plus an hour or so knitting on the sofa and voila. So chic. So easy. So Hip.
Pattern free with any purchase of the above chunky silk / cashmere yarn. A little summer present from us to you. Enjoy. x
Posted by Kerrie at 07:24 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2006
Chocolate anyone?
I can't begin to tell you how disappointed the kids were when they realised that these were knitted! They spent all day playing tea parties with them and pretending to eat them before they were sneaked away and hidden in the shop.
I asked Michaela to knit up a few chocolate patterns that I developed for the children's society at the beginning of the year. I'm pretty sure that she added a few of her own design in there, I don't remember coming up with a pattern for Walnut Whips or anything with beads?! Want me to nag her to write up the patterns so that we can put it up as a freebie on HipKnits? Write and tell me if you do and I'll forward your emails on. Then you too can disappoint your families with beautiful hand knitted chocolates that really are too good to eat!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:09 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2006
Flower Kits
The Flower kits are a HUGE seller on the website and also in the store. Everyone wants to buy the sweet little skeins of silk and make pretty pretty flowers out of them. We don't blame them one little bit. Do you?
Posted by Kerrie at 07:01 AM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2006
Silk Club Scarf
This is the first finished scarf from the June silk club that I've seen, doesn't it look beautiful? Ruth did a great job on it, I love the way it came out..
Posted by Kerrie at 09:25 AM | Comments (2)
June 13, 2006
Quick Quiz
Posted by Kerrie at 08:11 AM | Comments (4)
June 12, 2006
Silk Club
The first shipment of silk club yarns were sent out at the beginning of June, beautiful calming shades of blues and greens. Good enough to eat don't you think? Wait and see what we have in store next month for our lucky club members, its so exciting. Most of them are dry already in this beautiful weather we've been having so we're a little ahead of ourselves this month. We're going to be strong though and wait until the beginning of July to send them out!
We'll be opening the cashmere club for new members in a few days time. This is for the August / September / October run and spaces will again be limited to 20 people so make sure you watch the email notify list for details.
Posted by Kerrie at 08:27 AM | Comments (2)
June 09, 2006
30 things
OK, so it seems that I owe you all 30 things about me. You can all play along with this, if you don't have a blog just email me your list of 30 things and know that if you win I'd like to post them here on this blog with your name. OK?
1 - I cannot start the day without the same breakfast every day. 2 weetabix crumbled up small with cold milk and a little sugar. I also make a cup of tea every morning and never drink it. I always really want it when I'm boiling the kettle and then just don't drink it.
2 - Despite working in IT for my full time job I am a bit of a techophobe. I have no worries in admitting that I can't work out how to record something using our DVD player.
3 - I just got an ipod this week. Wayne has been very excited about setting it up for me and Brooke listened to it last night when she was doing her homework. I haven't even tried to switch it on yet.
4 - As you might have guessed from number 3 I'm not really into music. I can listen to most things (apart from drum and bass, sorry Wayne) but much prefer silence when I'm in the house or car on my own.
5 - I love jigsaws but don't get time to do them any more.
6 - I'm rubbish at remembering to put on make up or paint my toenails.
7 - On the days that I work from home in the winter I have been known to put on jeans, jumper and cap over my jammies and drop the kids off at school without getting properly dressed.
8 - I love to eat plain white rice mixed up with baked beans. This is my dinner if I ever cook for just myself. I haven't cooked for just myself for a long while.
9 - My feet, hands and bottom are always cold. Really, I have no idea why but they are. Ask Wayne, he'll tell you.
10 - I like to sleep on the left hand side of my bed, on my stomach with my arms underneath me. I know this will mean I wake up half a dozen times in the night with pins and needles in my arms but that's OK. I like to sleep like this.
11 - I always said that I would never knit socks. Now all I seem to do is to knit socks.
12 - I love to drive my car too fast. Especially on the winding country roads between the shop and my house.
13 - I drink way too much diet coke and not enough water.
14 - I wear a lot of black. I think this is because its easy to match things and also because I mistakenly believe it makes me look slimmer.
15 - I don't enjoy excerise. I would like to drop a dress size but don't have the time or the inclination to do anything about it.
16 - I love to read. Most happy when I have a book or knitting in my hands.
17 - Lillies and roses are my favourite flowers. Especially together.
18 - I never wore a ring on my hands until I got engaged. Now I have 3 rings and I never take them off.
19 - I love to doodle when I'm on the phone or thinking. I'm a fiddler. One of those people who taps pens against the table in meetings. I can't sit still.
20 - I am more than happy to wear odd socks. I would never worry about wearing a pair of socks if it wasn't for the fact that Wayne hates odds.
21 - I'm not as organised as I'd like to be. I am always losing my mobile phone and rarely remember things without making lists.
22 - I love lists. Lists, lists, lists, lists, lists. Love them.
23 - I learned to ride a horse when I was about 6 and my sister and I shared our first horse when I was 10. I fell off every horse I ever owned and ended up in hospital more than once. It took having Brooke to stop me from being interested in riding although mum and dad still have my horse living with them. His name is Korky and he is bright orange with no white on him at all. Love Korky. xx
24 - I'm not really a cat person. I don't mind dogs but I'm happy with our pet less house.
25 - Brooke used to have goldfish. We did something very wrong with them. Towards the end they would die after 2 or 3 days even though we did everything the fish store told us to. In the end I flushed the last fish down the toilet and hid the tank. She still asks for her fish occasionally.
26 - I'm having my photo taken for a calender on my birthday. This is to raise money for a local breast cancer charity. Yes, its one of THOSE calenders. I'm assured that there will be a make up artist there and that they will airbrush my stretch marks before publishing the calender.
27 - I'm obsessed with handbags, I love them. The more room in them the better so that I can carry round lots and lots of junk.
28 - I'm not into shoes. I think I only own about 5 pairs of shoes total from trainers to long boots to sandals. That's pretty poor isn't it?
29 - I haven't worn earings since my wedding day. I think the holes in my ears have closed up. This doesn't really bother me until I go into Accessorise and see all the lovely earings they have there.
30 - I am so so excited about turning 30. I can't wait for next Sunday to get here so that I can party.
Posted by Kerrie at 05:42 PM | Comments (29)
Crockpot dyeing
I love dyeing yarns in the crock pot. I have so many different techniques that I use for dyeing wool yarns but this has to be my favourite for ease and randomness of colours. All the yarn here was dyed in the same pot using the same pink, silver and green dyes.
See how the ones on the left are much brighter than the oh so subtle ones on the right? That's because they were at the bottom of the crock pot and so absorbed more dye than the ones at the top. Pretty cool huh?
The yarn is a beautiful 2 ply cashmere which I think is somewhere in between fingering and double knit weight. I'm saving these yarns for blog readers, if you would like a skein weighing 100g and measuring approx 500 metres just leave a comment or drop me an email telling me whether you prefer the subtle or brighter colours and I'll see what I can do. Special blog price of £13 per skein with free shipping. Tempted?
Posted by Kerrie at 07:12 AM | Comments (5)
June 07, 2006
Birthday celebrations
Some of you may know that its my 30th birthday later this month and because you only get one shot at turning 30 I decided to have a special themed birthday sale at HipKnits.
The official HipKnitters membership club. Are you truly a HipKnitter? By joining our HipKnits club for just GBP20 you will receive the following :
A member ship card welcome pack
A quarterly newsletter with exclusive HipKnits news and free patterns.
A card and gift on your birthday
A card and gift at Christmas
A GBP 5 gift voucher for every GBP 100 that you spend with us.
It couldnt be simpler to join. Just go to http://hipknits.co.uk/membership.htm to purchase and we will add you to the club straight away.
These special offers apply for the next 30 days or until stocks run out.
Spend over GBP30 and receive free postage. All orders under 30 within UK and Europe will be charged at GBP2 apart from the patterns which are free downloads.
30 percent off HipKnits hand dyed fibres. Merino now 3.50 and Merino / Silk now 4.55 http://hipknits.co.uk/fibre.htm
Sock Club GBP30 special. Sign up for the HipKnits sock club, 4 skeins of hand dyed Opal sock yarn (75% wool, 25% nylon) for just GBP30 including shipping. This offer is valid worldwide. Be among the first people to receive our new range of self striping sock yarn and an exclusive sock pattern each month. The club will run from
1st August through to 1st November. http://hipknits.co.uk/sockclub.htm
30 things about me. I will be sharing 30 facts about me over the next few days. If you do the same on your blog and send me a link to your entry you could win GBP30 of HipKnits yarns. The winner will be chosen 30 days from now.
We also have 30 new skeins of sock yarn in our new summer shade collection. Based on flowers and all things summery these sock yarns are beautiful and well worth a look. http://hipknits.co.uk/wool.htm
Posted by Kerrie at 09:10 PM | Comments (4)
Drying Dyeing
The weekend was perfect weather for drying dyeing, do you know what I mean? To be able to dye 2 kilos of yarn in the morning, hang it out to dry and have it skeined, labelled and ready to post out by the evening is an amazing experience. I wish for lots more sunny days where we can have the yarn hanging up to dry outside the shop in the beautiful weather. Here's to uber productivity on sunny days!
Here is a couple more kilos of bouquet sock yarn headed out to Get Knitted. The last batch sold out too quickly but if this gorgeous weather is here to stay then keeping the shelves stocked with this pretty summery colour shouldn't be too hard.
Posted by Kerrie at 06:49 AM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2006
Hip tee
The amazing Stef has gone and done it again for us. Check out this GORGEOUS Hip Tee designed using our aran weight silk. How perfect is this? We have one on the needles in our Fall colourway which is very similar to the one shown here only a little brighter. Its the perfect summer top, light and soft against the skin. Check out the close up of the fastening as well.
How could you not want one of these? Available here as an instant download.
Posted by Kerrie at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
Customer Knits Tuesday
We thought it was about time to start showing you some of the totally gorgeous Hip knits that our blogless customers are working on. Michaela was one of the first people to buy a shawl kit from us and before using the hand dyed yarns from the kit she decided to experiment with some hand spun yarns and other oddments from her stash.
Doesn't it make you wish you had a stash like that to dive into? Brilliant job Michaela, I love it. I bet you were the best dressed person at the wedding.
We'd love to see more of our customers Hip knits so please send us any photos that you have so we can be as proud of you as we are of Michaela. We'll endeavour to show one knit every Tuesday so that gives you a week to send us a pic. Go on, you know you want to.
Posted by Kerrie at 06:42 AM | Comments (1)
June 05, 2006
Don't your feet deserve a treat?
I mean, if you think about it your poor old feet spend their whole life carrying you around, squashed into the latest fashionable yet not completely comfortable shoes and what do they get in return? Very little from most people but HipKnitters have the chance to give something back to their feet with a little socklette love.
We've developed this pattern especially for use with the Hand Maiden Silk / Cashmere 4 ply yarn. We made a pair for average size 6 UK feet using less than 1 x 50g skein. Pure luxury at a not too expensive price. Don't you love your feet enough to treat them too a pair of silk / cashmere socks? Click here for a close up of the foot decreases, couldn't you just eat them up?
The socklette pattern is free with any purchase of Hand Maiden Silk / Cashmere 4 ply yarn, but as we are nice people we could be persuaded to send you one if you buy some of our cashmere sock yarn as well. Just add a little plea for "socklette pattern please" when checking out and we'll include one in your parcel for you.
Posted by Kerrie at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)