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June 29, 2007
New things
Yesterday was a day of new things for Trinity (and the rest of us) She had her first day of cloth nappy wearing, for a number of different reasons, and I think it was a partial success. She was fine through the day but leaked out everywhere through the night so we reverted back to Huggies at 3am. Its going to take a lot of getting used to for Wayne and I though after over 4 years of disposable nappy using. We're going to stick with it though and see how we go.
I got the nappies (and everything else) from here. Lucy is one of my HipKnits customers so we effectively did a yarn for nappies trade. I love it when that happens, I think I should poll all of my customers to find out which other ones of them have businesses where we can trade with each other.
It was also her first day of me admitting that I didn't have enough milk for her and trying her on a bottle. Results - disasterous but as expected. Brooke took a while to learn to drink from a bottle and Cameron was a total nightmare and I seem to remember him taking forever. See?
I hate admitting that I need to stop feeding her but she is now 15 weeks old and when she was weighed at 14 weeks she weighed just over 7 kilos / 15.5 pounds (which is the average weight of a 6 month old) and is 68cm / 27 inches long (which is the average length of a 9 month old) When you look at her centile chart for weight she is on the 2nd one from the top, for height she is about an inch above the top centile for her age!
What I'm trying to say is that she is HUGE. And so ready for solid food. She watches us eat, she pokes out her tongue and opens her mouth while she is watching. She reaches out for our plates and generally does everything except ask for a spoonfull. For the last couple of days my milk just hasn't been enough. She is unsettled after feeds, waking up in the night and I feel empty all the time.
They say now that you should wait until babies are 6 months old before starting them on solids but that's not going to happen around here. Cam and Brooke both started when they were 16 weeks and trust me, come next Saturday she will be on her lovely puree foods which I need to start making. That's if she lasts another week. If I can't persuade her to have some forumla milk from a bottle I may just sneak some proper food in her this week. What's the right thing to do? Any ideas..
Posted by Kerrie at 07:56 AM | Comments (23)
June 28, 2007
Enabler
Cath Kidston Sale! Cath Kidston Sale!
I've got my goodies, now run and get yours!
Posted by Kerrie at 05:33 PM | Comments (2)
Stormburst
For those of you who missed out on Stormburst the other day, don't worry. I dyed lots more of it in the Ophelia sock, cashmere sock and BFL sock. Its drying now (well, kind of drying in this boring weather!) and should be on the site next week. I'll send a newsletter out as soon as I update the site but I imagine that it will be Wednesday afternoon some time.
Later on today we wil have the last of our handspun cashmere on the site. This is lovely yarn but we're trying hard to cut down on all the different yarns that we stock and just concentrate on a core catalogue of beautiful yarns. They are on the sale page at a nice special price of £5 each. We have some handspun camel (and lots of other camel) which is also being discontinued, which will be on the site later on in the week or with next weeks update.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2007
Why do I do it
Here are a few things that I've done this week that I really wish I could learn not to do :
- watched the sixth sense with Colin Fry and cried a million times over for those people who have lost their loved ones. I know that is the whole point of the show and I know it always makes me cry so why do it?
- drank that half a pint of lager shandy at the christening. It tasted GOOD after a year of no alcohol but really, it made both Brooke and Cameron ill if I drank while I was breastfeeding so why did I think Trinity would be any different? It was only when I was trying to work out what I could have eaten to upset her stomach so much that I realised. Or should I say that Wayne realised. So sorry Trinity, I promise to stick to alcohol free from now on. xx
- picked up the hot crock pot part of the slow cooker without a tea towel. Yes, it might not feel hot to start with but when you have to walk 20 foot across the shop carrying it, trust me - you will burn your hands.
- stayed up for just 10 more minutes to keep up with emails. It is never just 10 more minutes and midnight is really too late for me to go to bed. I need to be asleep by 10 in order not to feel tired all the next day.
- left it until the last minute to do something. Fill in the blank with anything at all. I'm a by the seat of your pants type person when it comes to deadlines. I always get it done but not always in the most stressfree way. I think I need to mentally convince myself that the deadline is a week or 2 earlier than it actually is. THink that will work?
So, lets see. I think that I'm going to ask Michaela, Dee and Jo to list the 5 things that they wish they could stop doing. If any of you can't think of anything that you should have learned not to do then go have a cookie, you're a better person than I am!
Posted by Kerrie at 05:09 PM | Comments (4)
Sari silk City Shawl
One of our most lovely customers, Annette, made this shawl from one of our black sari silk City Shawl kits. Doesn't it look lovely? She made it larger than the pattern called for but it still only took 2 skeins of sari silk. I think it looks gorgeous. In fact I'm sorely tempted to make one as a sample for the shows, people are ALWAYS asking what they can do with a couple of skeins of sari silk and it would be great to show them how far it goes in one of these shawls. I'll add that to my list of things to do then, shall I?
By the way, we only have a couple of kilos of each of the solid colours of sari silk left and they have been on sale for a wee while now at half price. We're only offering the kits in the random multi sari silk now as well.. I have to say that the sari silk is not one of my personal favourite yarns but it is a solid seller, especially at the shows.
Posted by Kerrie at 06:04 AM | Comments (3)
June 26, 2007
Kids
We've had a busy few weeks around here. We went to the East of England show the other week where amongst other things we played on the lorry diggers and rode on the big wheel. (thought that AJ would prefer not to have the silly face she was pulling made public. Aren't I nice?)
Trinity is growing up too much. 3 months old now and already she is rolling from her back over to her side, cooing and shouting, trying to sit upright and laughing at everything that goes on around her. She is too precious for words. During the day she is carried around everywhere in her sling or her car seat. She sits for hours in the shop in her bouncy chair talking and watching me while I potter around. She is easily the most ameanable and contented child I've ever know. I kept her out late last night at the Braintree knitting group so it was 10pm before she fell asleep instead of her usual 8 - 9pm. That means that it is now 9am and we still haven't seen or heard from her. You've got to love a breast fed baby who sleeps for 12 hours without getting up at night.
Brooke and Cameron are still in love with her. To the point that they want to do whatever it is that she is doing.
and she wants to do whatever it is that they are doing (yes, we have another finger sucker!)
Life with 3 kids is a lot of fun. Crazy and hectic and slightly insane at times, yes. But a whole lot of fun as well. I wouldn't swap it for anything.
Posted by Kerrie at 08:38 AM | Comments (8)
June 25, 2007
smelling the roses
I dye so many colours and types of yarn each week that it is impossible most of the time to play favourites. However our new brand of sock yarn, Ophelia *, is in poll position this week.
A combination of Louet base fingering weight yarn ** and some new to me hand painted techniques has led to 10 skeins of each of these yarns being available on the site this week.
closeup of stormburst which sold out within half an hour!!
I just love them, the texture and tight twist of the yarns, the way the colours came out and look oh so pretty all rewound. I'm in love with these yarns. At £6.00 per 55g (approx) skein you'll need 2 skeins for a pair of socks, each skein has (approx) 175 yards.
So, these and lots of other yarns are on the site now. go and tell me what you think of the new style photos. Some came out a little dark but on the whole I'm happy with them. x
* Michaela came up with the idea of naming our brands of yarn after Shakespeares ladies - isn't that a fab idea? Ophelia is our first but the other ranges of yarn are being named even as you read this.
** This used to be the base for Koigu sock yarn but apparantly they now source it elsewhere.
Posted by Kerrie at 01:33 PM | Comments (5)
Weekend Off
I took the weekend off this week which is not something that I usually manage to do. I was supposed to be going away to visit a very dear friend but plans changed at the last minute and I spent the time out shopping for the day with Wayne and the kids on Saturday (together with spending a couple of hours at West Ham for the kids fun day!) and then at a family Christening on Sunday that originally Trinity and I weren't going to be able to get to.
It was a good weekend. A hectic one but one filled with family and good times which is the way that they should all be really, don't you think?
The downside of the good weekend is coming back afterwards. In this case I have over 300 new emails in my inbox (that's after I deleted the spam ones) to deal with so if you're waiting to hear back from me please bear with me for today. I'm beginning to feel as though HipKnits is becoming a victim of its own success. Since I quit the proper job last year we've escalated to the point where we are now working on one or two wholesale orders each week and sending out about 60 parcels every single day. I have Mandy back working in the shop 2 days a week now which is invaluable for getting orders out the door promptly and also gives me more time to answer emails. I'm trying to be as productive as I was before I had Trinity but the truth is that I just can't manage quite as much any more.
Wayne is helping out with putting a couple of systems in place to deal with order confirmations and the like which should be in place later on this week. So in short, if you're waiting for something from us please be patient while we go through these few days of reshuffling. Change is always a bit scary but in this case its all change for the better.
Talking of change for the better, my back garden currently has 20 kilos of yarn hanging up to dry in it which I'm hoping will be ready in time for the update on Wednesday. Weather permitting of course! Plus the 100 skeins or so of silk that I picked up from dad yesterday..
Posted by Kerrie at 08:04 AM | Comments (3)
June 22, 2007
Stuff and stuff
Ok, next time I ask for advice I feel that I need to add a little "dont pick this one because it is my least preferred option" after the appropriate choice. I thought you guys were my friends! Anyway, I will go with the majority (although I now love Cairi, Victoria, Jo and Jen more than the rest of you) and I'll be retaking lots of pictures over the next few weeks. Fred - awkward, you? No comment...
The project club has to end soon. I've extended the number of members twice now and there are only 2 spaces left and I won't be extending it ever again, until the next round if we get that far! Jam Mam is working on the shawl for the first project and I'm planning the socks and the fairisle at the moment. This is turning out to be a lot of fun.
Posted by Kerrie at 10:30 PM | Comments (5)
June 21, 2007
Photos
I'm looking at the way I take photos for the site. Which kind do you prefer?
Close up of the round part of the skein
Slightly less close up of the bottom half of the skein
Even less close up of the whole skein
Excusing the dark colours in the last shot which type of pic do you prefer?
Posted by Kerrie at 07:47 AM | Comments (27)
June 20, 2007
Our survey says
I decided that it was time to look back to my old life as a service level manager and start to think about some customer satisfaction measures that we could put in place for HipKnits. I won't bore you with all the details but I've made a start.
Over 200 customers who have placed orders with us in the last month were sent a link to an online survey to fill out just a couple of hours ago. They were asked questions about price, delivery time, communication etc and already many of them have filled it in which is brilliant. I seem to remember that industry average for returned surveys is somewhere at around 30% so if we get that many I'll be thrilled.
I'll publish the results here next week, I seem to think that the survey is only live for 10 days or so. I'm going to do this regularly (every month I think) and also I've started a SIP (service improvement plan) of which I'll share some parts with you. I've gone all ITIL again, never expected that to happen!
(so many posts in such a short space of time, what's the matter with me?)
Edited to add - yes, this should apply to the magazine as well. If you are still missing an issue email me and I will replace it. I have replied to all the emails I've received (I did have a few email problems a while back) so if you're still waiting to hear from me email me now and I'll sort it out. I promise. All subscriber copies have gone out and so have all replacements that have been requested (apart from the person that I emailed today!) I never ignore or delete emails asking for information about orders although I admit that it sometimes takes me a day or so to get back to people.
Oh - and to speed things up please please let me have your name and address when you send magazine queries. I get some queries that come from an email address that is not the person's real name and that doesn't contain any information about where they live so those ones obviously take a little longer to investigate.
Oh - and another thing (sorry) A huge number of people email hipknits.com and then wonder why they dont get a reply. Its worth checking that you have .co.uk at the end.
Posted by Kerrie at 01:04 PM | Comments (7)
Hat Box dilema solved
Thanks to Mel who emailed me a link to these beautiful boxes. A nice big number of them are now on their way to me and should be here just about in time to be filled up and sent back out again.
I love my readers!
Posted by Kerrie at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
HipKnits Project Club Blog
I've started a blog for the project club, I'm so excited about this. The blog doesn't look like much at the moment but it will do soon, trust me. This wordpress business is a whole new learning curve for Mrs Moveable Type over here but I think I like it.
Members will be able to choose the colour of their yarn for each project so the club blog will look lovely with all the different coloured projects on the go. I'm kind of thinking of offering a little prize to the first person to finish each project, what do you think? All current members should have had an email from me about colours, blog names etc already. Do let me know if you haven't had that and you're signed up for the club.
We have 9 7 6 places left and signups will close at the end of June so hurry up if you want to join us. This is going to be fun!
Posted by Kerrie at 06:00 AM | Comments (1)
June 19, 2007
Chance
This is a new colour of silk that is on the site, called Chance. I sent 600g of it over to Claudia for a prize donation for her MS ride that she is doing this weekend. Did you see how much she raised? I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again but aren't knitters lovely?
Posted by Kerrie at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
Two things and a thank you
Firstly thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday, I was offline for most of the day and it was lovely to come back and read them all. I'm glad that you seem to agree that grown up and sensible are over rated!
Now, 2 other things. Firstly I'm desperately trying to get my hands on 10 - 20 of these but preferably not at that price. I've tried ebay and googled my socks off but to no avail. Any ideas? The thing is that they all need to be ROUGHLY the same size so the lovely ones that I found on ebay that stack in each other just won't do. UPDATE - they no longer do them in
IKEA :(
Secondly I've been writing an environmental statement for HipKnits over the last few weeks and have noticed another couple of hand dyed yarn companies doing the same recently. I think its great that we are all thinking as much as we can about how what we do impacts the environment and hope that we can all go about doing our best and learning from each other. The HipKnits one is in the extended entry below (its a long one!) and it will be added to and updated each and every time I think of something to add to it. It will also eventually have its own page on the website.
In case you don't have the time or the inclination to read the whole thing, here are a couple of snippets of the bits that I am most proud of :
Without exception, each and every single one of our silk yarns are made from recycled silk fibre and fabrics – isn’t that nice?
Any leftover dye is not wasted, we keep adding water to the original dye mix to make more pastel colours and continue to do this until all the solution has been used up. Occasionally we will dye one off skeins of yarn using the teeny amounts of dye left over from bigger lots or combine 2 different dye colours to make enough for a larger lot.
All of our waste in the shop is split into different bins, we take paper, card and other recyclable materials along to the local recycling centre. Any food waste is composted and only waste that CANNOT be recycled in any way is taken to the landfill. On average this is 1 plastic bin bag a month.
HipKnits Environmental Statement
We are committed to helping the environment as much as possible, in our own little way. No one person or organisation can hope to undo all the damage that has been done over the years but we can all do our bit to help. We currently have the following measures in place and constantly search for ways that we can improve the impact that we have on the environment. Let us know if you can think of anything else we could do, we’d love to hear from you.
Sourcing Materials.
- As many of our yarns as possible are sourced in the UK. When we do order yarns from other continents we try where possible to order them well in advance so that they can take a leisurely trip over to us by sea instead of flying. Obviously this is not always possible but we do try. We are always looking for new UK based suppliers so do let us know if you may be able to do business with us.
- Our dyes are also purchased in the UK
Recycling
- We recycle as much as possible. See?
- Many of our cashmere and silk yarns are either made from recycled materials or are remainders, this means that they are leftover lots from large factories that would be wasted if people like my supplier didn’t buy them and then sell them to me to dye and sell to you. Without exception, each and every single one of our silk yarns are made from recycled silk fibre and fabrics – isn’t that nice?
- The water that we use to pre-soak our yarns is kept and then used to rinse the yarns after they have been dyed.
- We re-use packaging as much as we can, and are actively looking for an alternative to our grey plastic mailing bags.
- All of our waste is split into different bins, we take paper, card and other recyclable materials along to the local recycling centre. Any food waste is composted and only waste that CANNOT be recycled in any way is taken to the landfill. On average this is 1 plastic bin bag a month.
- We use old washing up liquid bottles and diet coke bottles to store our ready mixed up dyes in. This is both cheaper and better for the environment than throwing them away and buying jars.
- All of our scraps of yarn are either used in sample kits or given to local schools and nurseries to use in art lessons.
- All of our labels are printed on recycled paper on our printer at home using recycled ink toner. We halved the size of our labels recently to save the amount of paper that we use.
- All the cling film and plastic bags used in the dyeing process are reused where possible. They are often washed using the water that yarns were rinsed in if that water is still fairly clean. If not they are rinsed in watertroughs which are kept outside and collect rainwater.
- Any leftover dye is not wasted, we keep adding water to the original dye mix to make more pastel colours and continue to do this until all the solution has been used up. Occasionally we will dye one off skeins of yarn using the teeny amounts of dye left over from bigger lots or combine 2 different dye colours to make enough for a larger lot.
- We use reclaimed boxes for our large wholesale orders by visiting our local supermarket and asking them for any large boxes that they have no use for or that we have at home.
Saving energy
- We use energy saving light bulbs in the studio and ensure that all dyeing equipment are on timer plugs so they are not left on for any longer than is strictly necessary. All plug sockets are turned off before we leave the studio.
- No heating is used in the studio, the design of the building means that it is cool in the summer and we keep warm in the winter by huddling around the dye pots and slow cookers!
Posted by Kerrie at 12:24 AM | Comments (7)
June 18, 2007
Happy Birthday to me!
Wow, 31 already. I remember my 30th so well surely it can't be a whole year ago already? At what age should i start to feel grown up and sensible?
Posted by Kerrie at 11:15 AM | Comments (22)
June 15, 2007
Other people are more clever than me
Ugh, thank goodness its Friday. That means that today is the last day that I'm on my own with the kids, Wayne has been in Spain for a stag do and its made me realise just how hard single mums have it, even though its really olny been a very short space of time. Cameron has pushed every single boundary that he can find and despite being perfect all day yesterday managed to reduce us both to tears before 5.30am this morning. Impressive huh?
So in lieu of anything interesting at all happening around here, I thought I'd list some interesting bits and bobs from other people.
- A mllion good ideas for entertaining kids in the holidays. I love the draw around your kid idea - wonder if we have any old wallpaper I could use?
- Bee shawl from Anne over at Knitspot. I cant wait to see how it blocks out.
- These gorgeous needle cases, we'll be stocking them at HipKnits in a couple of months time.
- The BEST strawberry cheesecake recipe in the world. Ever. No doubt about it. I made this last week and it was perfect - all down to the recipe and not the cook I can assure you!
- These lovely bags that one of my HipKnits customers sells, I bought the chocolate polka dot one which is probably why it is out of stock. Can't wait for it to arrive.
- Lovely summery coloured rovings. Want want want.
- New Knitty! Not much in it for me this time but I love the girls skirt on the front cover.
There, that should keep you going until next week when hopefully I'll be a little more inspired. xx
OK - fixed the cheesecakey bag link, Sue - i used chocolate chip cookies actually - maryland ones. Yum. I always use whatever biscuits we have in the cupboard for cheesecake. Ambermoggie, email coming up now. x
Posted by Kerrie at 06:35 AM | Comments (5)
June 13, 2007
Funny old week
Its been a funny old week with all kinds of things happening that I never expected to happen and some things that I was so looking forward to not happening. I've let Carolyn down 3 weeks in a row for our lunch date - twice because cam was sick and this week was all about security alerts and trains that weren't running.
One thing that has kind of gone to plan this week has been tiara making. I made the tiaras that Brooke and I wore at our wedding and I'm making some for my friend Josie's wedding at the end of the month where Brooke is going to be a bridesmaid. I have them pretty much done, I just need to get some thin ribbon to finish them off.
Typical Kerrie though, I bought 100 tiara bands instead of just the half a dozen that I needed so there will be lots more princessy tiaras in my future.
I've been trying to update the shop today and we're nearly there. hopefully by this evening it should all be done.
Posted by Kerrie at 04:56 PM | Comments (3)
June 11, 2007
Bunked
Trinity and I bunked the day off today and leaving Mandy to do justice to the HUGE pile of orders in the shop we drove up to spend the morning with dad and the afternoon with Michaela. It was lovely. Dad got some time with Trinity without the elder 2 dragging him off to play hide and seek and Michaela and I got to drool over yarn and books while Trinity lay on the sofa and talked to us. Michaela makes the best cup of tea ever (not to mention the cakes) so if you're ever in Cambridgeshire pop in and see her. I would.
Yarn for Wednesday's shop update is drying in the garden and as of tomorrow all of June's wholesale orders will be dyed. I'll be starting on July's ones next week which means that the waiting list is getting shorter all the time, that has to be a good thing.
What else this week? Well, its lunch with Carolyn tomorrow and then so many other things that I can hardly think about them all let alone write them down. Lets see how they unfold as the week goes on shall we? Michaela helped inspire me to name the HipKnits range of yarns instead of just calling them silk, cashmere and merino / tencel sock yarn so expect an update in that area later on this week. I have the inspiration now I just need to work on the detail.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:03 PM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2007
New Yarns
The update on Wednesday is going to be full of sock yarns, lots and lots of them. Here are a few sneaky peaks :
Cashmere sock
Merino and tencel sock
See how shiny the merino / tencel is? It is a lovely yarn, 300 metres to 100g and the softest feeling shine ever. I can't wait to make some socks with it.
Posted by Kerrie at 05:16 PM | Comments (7)
June 08, 2007
Colour inspration
The June project spectrum yarn went out over the last couple of days, black and red cashmere sock yarn. I must admit to not being very inspired by the colours this time, I find black a very difficult colour to dye successfully and red a very difficult colour to photograph successfully so the combination together gave me lots of headaches. It is a striking combination though..
Yesterday to me was the first real day of summer. Strawberry picking after school plus an hour in the forest after dinner is my very favourite way to spend summer evenings. With Trinity in the sling and Brooke and Cameron climbing trees and hunting for deers in the forest I was free to look around at the gorgeous colours of the forest, the multitude of greens, the bright yellow buttercups, the bright blue sky and be so grateful that we live here and have the opportunity to get so close to nature so easily.
Cameron has always lived outside of London and is a proper country boy. Climbing trees without any hesitation leaving me on the floor looking at him 10 foot up in the air praying that he doesn't fall, he is fearless (and incredibly clumsy which isn't always the best combination) It was a lovely evening and one which has left me determined to dye some summery nature inspired yarns. Maybe in time for next week's update if I can.
Posted by Kerrie at 10:05 AM | Comments (3)
June 07, 2007
SewHip news
I haven't had that much time to spend on sew hip recently but I just received a HUGE box of the gorgeous hand printed fabrics from Sprout design in Australia. I couldn't resist buying some of them when I noticed them on Moopy and Me the other week. At the moment I am the only UK seller of these gorgeous fabrics, I really want to keep them all for myself.
Priced at £20 per metre I will be selling them in half metre increments when I get them up on sewhip later on in the week. For now if you want any you can just email me at kerrie at hipknits dot co dot uk and I'll save you some.
Which is your favourite? I'm planning some funky trousers, cushions, bags and aprons with the odd metre here and there that I have appropriated!
Posted by Kerrie at 05:06 PM | Comments (6)
June 06, 2007
Summer of silk
It is officially the summer of silk here at HipKnits. We have TONNES of our lovely aran weight silk all ready to become beautiful summer accessories and garments. See, we even unpacked it and threw it on the shelf in the shop. We started off being organised and piling it up according to colour (or should I say Mandy did) and then we got lazy and just threw it on the shelves willy nilly (or should I say I did!)
If you haven't knitted with silk before you'll see that it is lovely and cool to handle and creates a beautiful drapey fabric that just cries out to be knitted into shawls and wraps. It also knits beautifully into cardigans and vest tops, perfect for summer wearing.
Many many people have made Clapotis from our aran weight silk, 400g is enough for a full sized beautiful Clapotis. On average, 100g is enough for a good sized scarf, between 300 and 400g for a shawl and most cardigans take no more than 600g.
Knitted at a gauge of 18 stitches and 24 rows you can substitute our silk for many other aran weight patterns.
We have almost 30 different colours of silk in stock at the moment, something for everyone I think. Go ahead and spoil yourself to some silk.
If silk isnt your thing then we also have 20 Earth Faire beaded bracelet kits on sale at GBP5 each. Lucky dips, just like the other sales but oh, these colours are just gorgeous.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:07 PM | Comments (3)
June 05, 2007
new club
Now that Trinity is sleeping through the night I sometimes find myself awake at 3am with an overactive mind. Thats when I came up with the idea of this new club*
The new Hipknits project club.
The idea behind this is to stretch your horizons, to encourage people to try new techniques or knit with yarns that they would not ordinarily have chosen. The patterns will cover lace, cables, fairisle and felting and will all be in our beautiful range of HipKnits yarns. You can choose the colour of the yarn you receive with each kit or allow us to choose for you.
If you join you will receive brand new pattern and yarn to make the following :
1st August – lace shawl knitted in laceweight cashmere.
1st November – cable socks knitted in handspun merino plus a bonus kit
1st February – fairisle cardigan knitted in aran silk. The sizes will range from 30 – 52 inch bust for this pattern plus cotton tote bag filled with goodies.
1st May – felted bag kit
The cost of the patterns and yarn for all the projects if bought separately would be over £100, the club is on sale for £75 which can be paid in 2 installments. You must join for a whole year but you have the option of paying half when joining and the other half in 6 months time. A paypal invoice will be sent for the 2nd half of the instalment.
All projects will be on sale on the website a few weeks after they have been made available to the club but at full price. A bonus kit will be sent with the November project which will NOT be available online. Club members have the option to buy extra kits at club price (25% off) when they are on the website.
All patterns are printed on A4 card and are supplied in plastic pockets. There will be a blog for members of the club to post to with any questions about the kits or photos of projects.
You will also receive a cotton tote bag with your third project kit containing some HipKnits goodies.
What do you think? I’m thrilled to tell you that Jacqui will be testing the patterns for me and knitting the samples for the club. We’re hoping to launch in august but sign ups will start on the website later this week.
* i know, i know. Dee, Jeni, Cairi - you're all allowed to laugh at me.
Posted by Kerrie at 09:23 PM | Comments (8)
I think I broke the shopping cart
I've had to have a bit of a rethink of our free postage option, it is costing me a fortune and I can't keep up with it any more. So from now on all UK orders will cost £1.75 no matter how big and all orders outside of the UK will cost £3 no matter how big. There will still be the option to upgrade to special delivery or airmail with signature for an extra £3.
However, in trying to do this I think I have broken the shopping cart. I cant work out how to get rid of the free option but I've managed to add the correct prices and I "think" I've managed to set it so that you only see the options that apply to the country that you are in.
If someone in the UK and someone outside of the UK would be so kind as to order some sari silk and choose chq as payment and let me know what shipping options they have that would be great, thank you!
Posted by Kerrie at 04:35 PM | Comments (2)
Fabric skeins
As a knitter, what do you do with all that material that you bought with grand plans of making bags, dresses and quilts out of all those months ago? You know, the fabric stash that pretty much just sits there, taunting you. Taking up valuable knitting yarn space. You can either battle the sewing machine and make those beautiful bags and quilts or do what we at HipKnits like to do and make yarn out of them.
See? Pretty isn't it? It looks just as lovely when its knitted as well. You'll have to trust me on that one as I haven't managed to take any pictures of it yet. In its previous life this skein of yarn was a metre of the Amy Butler fabric shown below. I think it is just as happy now, don't you?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:55 AM | Comments (5)
June 04, 2007
Knitting for me
Knitting for me is not something that happens often around here. With the big book commitment and designing / knitting for HipKnits and other people's books there isn't much time for anything else.
Apart from now I'm going to a wedding in a few weeks time (Woolfest weekend actually, which is one reason that we won't be there) and then another one the weekend after. I've had a big dilema about what to wear, I have lost all of the baby weight but all of my smart weddingy type clothes are dresses which makes breastfeeding impossible. I'm reluctant to buy anything new as I'm hoping to lose lots more weight this year (I'll share more about the exercise and healthy eating plan once I've got around to starting!)
For those reasons I decided to sew a wrap dress from some Amy Butler fabric in my stash. I drafted the pattern based on a gorgeous dress that I own that first beautifully but is sadly too casual for a wedding. I haven't actually sewn it together yet but I will, very soon. I hope it works!
So I think that a nice shawl would be in order for the wedding, don't you? I have book related knitting to do until next weekend so that only gives me a couple of weeks to knit it but I think it will be OK. I'm thining aran weight silk for a nice drapey, heavy shawl that will be OK for British June / July weather. You just never know do you? I would love to do it in aran weight cashmere but that might be too warm, what do you think?
This is the fabric that I chose from my stash for the dress. It is from Amy Butler's Ginger Bliss range and I actually bought it from this store a while ago. So, the big question is blue or pink for the shawl? I'm usually a pink person but I'm not sure if a yellow based dress with pink shawl is going to make me look too pastelly. What do you think?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:23 AM | Comments (10)
June 02, 2007
New space
Wow, its been a while since I updated over here! A lot has happened in the last 3 months or so, a new baby and a new shop are the biggest 2. We're busy unpacking and organsing the new work space which is going to take us a good couple of weeks I think.
In the meantime I found around 200 kilos of undyed yarn so I'll be playing with that and getting lots of yarn ready for the shop. There will be an update this Wednesday I hope with the first batch of yarns from the new dye room.
Posted by Kerrie at 02:26 PM | Comments (3)