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December 31, 2007
Sofa
We've treated ourselves to a new sofa and put our old one on ebay. Just in case anyone is interested.
Mum and dad are currently in Scotland collecting our yarn store. How excited are Mandy and I? Really excited. x
Posted by Kerrie at 04:55 PM | Comments (2)
December 30, 2007
Christmas News
Just popping in quickly from one of the most relaxing and enjoyable breaks I've had in a long time with some exciting news.
Many of you will know Mandy, my lovely friend who helps out with HipKnits stuff every now and again. What you may not know is that Mandy is almost as crazy as I am and that we are very very bad influences on each other. This is how we have ended up buying the contents of a yarn store between us on ebay.
Whoops. How exciting though? A little field trip to Scotland to pick up the yarn is in order tomorrow, and the next day and then the HipKnits shop will be half full of other yarn as well.
So, this means that the open day next Saturday will give you the chance to not only buy HipKnits yarns at nice bargain prices but also to rummage through an estimated 3000 packs of yarn from Jaegar, Sirdar, Patons and other places as well. Gulp.
Posted by Kerrie at 02:17 PM | Comments (6)
December 20, 2007
Looking back on 2007
Not wanting to be too negative but this year has been without a doubt the very hardest one of my life. The one bright spot in the whole year was Trinity being born, back in March. She is growing up into a lovely little girl, we're going through a difficult clingy stage at the moment where I feel as though she is constantly attached to my side but I am trying to remind myself that this is just a phase, it will pass and we'll all be much stronger the other side.
Adjusting to life as a family of five has been tough. Dealing with all the new baby stuff together with running a business (or three) has been harder than I ever imagined it would be. I wouldn't advise anyone else to do it.
Being let down time and time again by people who I trusted and who I thought were my friends, has upset me more than I can tell you. There were tears of anger and frustration shed here last night when I realised quite how badly I was being stitched up by 2 people who I thought were on my side. Self preservation kicked in though and I found a fairy godmother who I "think" is going to help me out.
Spending so much time in hospitals and doctors surgeries since Trinity was born has made me realise just how hard some other families have it, and how heartbreaking it is when something is wrong with your child.
It has been a year of loss. My gran died shortly after Trinity was born, then Alice died a few months later. Poor old orange horse Korky was put down later on in the year and then there has been a collection of still biths and babies who only survived for a short while born to friends and acquaintances in the last couple of months of this year.
HipKnits has been a lot of fun this year. Our number of orders fulfilled each month has steadilly increased from around just under 100 in January to over 600 in November. (December's figures are fantastic but skewed slightly by the sale so we won't count them) There is still lots of room for improvement in our proceedures, although the postal service has improved a lot for us since moving from Sawbridgeworth in the summer we are still experiencing some problems with slow post. The CM postcode area that we are in is still in the bottom 5% in the country in terms of performance but there are plans in place to get around this.
I feel as though I will have done well to make it through this year, only another couple of weeks to go now until I can put it all behind me and move on. New year, new start. 2008 is going to be all about me. Its going to be a selfish year where I try very hard to learn to say no and to put myself first as much as I can. No more stressing myself out helping out other people, it doesnt seem to have done me any favours this year.
Thanks to all of you for sticking with me and reading the blog regularly. I won't be blogging again now until the new year and although I'm officially on holiday now I'll still be checking emails and stuff so you may still hear from me. Don't forget the January sale that starts on Monday 7th January, we have lots more goodies in store for you next year including free gifts with purchases of over £50 and lots more.
Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy, Happy New Year. xx
Posted by Kerrie at 08:37 AM | Comments (18)
December 19, 2007
Open Day
HipKnits are going to be closed from this Thursday afternoon right through to Saturday 5th January for a lovely long Christmas and New Year break.
We'll be opening the doors to the studio on Saturday 5th January from 11am through to 3pm for our first Open House January sale day. Directions from Junction 8 of the M11 are in the extended entry bit below, you will need to drive as there is no train station close by. There will be tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits as well as big sale bargains on the yarn, a kiddies corner with toys books and games and the chance to have a good old nose around HipKnits house, where most of the work gets done.
See you there?
M11 - junction 8 go towards stansted airport on A120. Follow A120 to Great Dunmow. Come up slip road and straight over first roundabout at the top of the sliproad, left at 2nd towards great Dunmow, straight over third (with Tescos on your left) left at the next one and then left at the mini roundabout (with Fire station on your right). Left at the next mini roundabout, straight over the next larger roundabout then straight on for ages until you go through a 30 mile an our zone and past a school in Great Easton. Then you come to a sharp bend to the left and on the bend is a turning on the right signposted to Great Cambridge.
Follow this road for a couple of miles (Note - this is a windy narrow road so go slowly), go past a turning on the right but do not take this turning and then you'll see a farm bungalow on your left with large farm barns just after it. Turn into the farm yard next to the large metal barn and you will see in front of you a low white building with a brown door. That is us! If you come to a turning on the left you have come too far.
Unit 2 Kerwyns
Gallows Green
Great Dunmow
Essex
Cm6 3QS
Posted by Kerrie at 07:38 AM | Comments (5)
December 18, 2007
Borders
I sneaked a little trip to Borders at Lakeside yesterday armed with a 50% off voucher (courtesty of spinningfishwife) and a list of things to buy. Fortunately for me I managed to get the books that I wanted for me (I know I shouldnt be buying for me just before Christmas but I deserved a treat) as well as the latest Blueprint, Martha Stewart Living, Simply Knitting (they review our coast yarn this issue) and Interweave Knits. That should see me through the next few weeks, I love magazines but don't buy them too often.
Unfortunately for me I didn't manage to get any of the things I wanted to get for the kids. Brooke read the first Kernowland book over the weekend and really enjoyed it so I wanted to get her the next 2 in the series. The nice man in Borders suggested I drive home and order it from Amazon so that is exactly what I did. (I have to admit here that I also read the book at the weekend, I had nothing else to read and picked it up and LOVED it!) Brooke was spurred to finish it when she realised that I was reading it and made it to page 137 and the end of the book while I was plaiting her hair yesterday. She is such a mini me when it comes to books! I love to see her walking around with a book in her hand.
With my 50% off voucher I bought this set for me. I may even wrap it and put it under the tree for Christmas, I'm pretty excited about opening and pouring over the books. I love interesting cook books and these seem as though they are going to be fab. Its time my cooking got a little more interesting, I feel like I churn out the same half a dozen meals over and over again at the moment.
Other shopping trips this weekend included a super fast trip to Freeport designer village at Braintree where Wayne finished his Christmas shopping in record time and a wee trip to Clarks to get miss almost walking her first pair of shoes. She looks soo cute in them. Also purchased a pair of running trainers for me so Twinkletoes - get nagging in the new year, OK?
I also finished off the last wholesale order for YarnBox, I'm delivering at the weekend. Check them out, they have lots of yummy yarns on their website (apart from our ones that is!)
Posted by Kerrie at 07:41 AM | Comments (1)
December 17, 2007
2008 Calender
I have a limited number of HipKnits 2008 desk calenders for sale. Made using a selection of these lovely photos taken by Marianne (don't worry Marianne, I have a free copy here for you, will post it with the other bits asap) they would be a perfect New Years gift for yourself.
The only way to buy one is to click on the button below, they are not going to be up in the shop. £5 including free postage worldwide. Did I metion that I only have a limited amount of these available?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:49 PM | Comments (1)
To reskein or not to reskein?
The great reskeining debate is one that has been around the houses since the day people like me started to hand dye variegated yarns. If I weren't so lazy I could probably find a hundred links to blog entries, forums etc where people are asking the 2 big reskeining questions, should I reskein variegated yarns and what is the easiest way to do that?
I recently finished a big wholesale order of variegated sock yarn for the textile workshop in Nottingham and as ever, I'm torn. I LOVE the way that the skeins look when they are rewound but the way I am set up to do it is a total nightmare. I am working on a way to make this easier for myself but I'm not sure that there is a very good method out there.
Yarn that has not been reskeined.
The same colourway that has been reskeined.
Sigh, doesnt it look much prettier in the 2nd picture? When I sell the yarn on the site it is not as important whether or not it is reskeined. People seem to buy it either way just as well. It is when we go to shows and sell wholesale that we notice the difference. All of the rewound skeins of yarn sell first at shows and the non rewound ones just seem to take a lot longer to move. Wholesale customers also prefer the rewound skeins and when I'm often doing 100 skeins at a time for wholesale this is where I need a better system, rather than winding each skein to a ball and then back into a skein again.
It doesnt seem as though there is an easy answer to this, apart from to buy some big industrial equipment to do it for you. Which is an option, just not one that I'm keen to follow at the moment.
Edited to add - reskeining from one swift straight to another does work sometimes, but it can be a nightmare. There is the problem of tension, the yarn needs to be held taut as it goes from one swift to another. Then there is the problem of constant speed, you get baggy bits on the skein that you are winding if you stop and start or if the speed varies too much. And have you ever tried to turn an umbrella swift around without ripping your fingers open? I am the woman of many plasters on my fingers for that very reason.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:42 AM | Comments (8)
December 16, 2007
Being taken seriously
There is a group on Ravelry for people who work from home and one of the threads on there at the moment is about being taken seriously. One of the things that I love most about the internet is being able to find and connect with people who are in the same place that you are, to be able to share ideas and listen to other people's stories and opinions.
Being taken seriously with what I do is something that I am struggling with at the moment. I think that I know why, its because I also do the bulk of the childcare as well as working. Because I can be flexible enough to drop off at school, pick up, go on school trips and paint faces for the christmas play people assume that I don't work when in fact I'm working harder now than I have at any other point in my life!
When I was a full time IT bod in the city I worked around 35 hours a week and earned a very very good salary. Now I work about twice those hours and bring home about a third of the money. I'm not complaining, the quality of life I have now is amazing and I truly wouldn't swap what I do for anything. I just wish sometimes that other people would appreciate what I do, or at least not make silly comments about it.
In the last week I have had 2 conversations that sum up how people seem to feel about what I do. One was from a close friend who asked me if I was enjoying being at home with the kids and whether I had any plans to go back to work when they were all 3 at school. She went on to add (probably when I looked blankly at her) that she knew about the "knitting thing" but wondered when I was planning to get back to a proper job.
The second conversation was with a mum in the playgroud who KNOWS what I do, she is a knitter and has been to the shop - buys the magazine etc. I ranted just a little and said that I'd had a stressful day at work and her response was "oh, where do you work?" Um, excuse me? When I explained to her what I meant she said "oh, that, sorry. The way you said that you'd had a bad day at work made it sound like you'd got a proper job, I didnt realise that you meant the knitting"
How frustrating. Do you think its because knitting and related industries are not seen as "proper" jobs or do you think it is the work from home, can be flexible with time part of it that makes people think that I don't work? It can be really frustrating, especially when I have spent most of the weekend working on a wholesale order and then know that I'll be busy right up until Friday evening and then working some over Christmas as well.
So if you know someone who is self employed or works from home a lot go and tell them now how much you appreciate what they do. Trust me, you'll probably make their day.
Posted by Kerrie at 05:01 PM | Comments (15)
December 14, 2007
Yarn Forward blog
The next issue of Yarn Forward magazine is due out mid January. We are trying to get subscriber copies in the post in the next couple of weeks, but there has been a little delay and I'll keep you posted on how that is going. Subscribers will definitely get their magazines before they are available on the site or in the shops, that's a guarantee. In the meantime we've started a new blog that you can see over here, I'll try and update it regularly.
There is also the chance of winning a free subscription to the magazine if you can persuade your Local Yarn shop to stock the magazine, go on - print off the flyer and take it into them. You know you want to!
Oh, and go and check out the preview pics of just a very few of the designs that will be in the next issue. I really can't decide which is my favourite, they are all lovely.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:17 AM | Comments (3)
December 13, 2007
New patterns and samples
Sue sent me 2 more of the samples she has been knitting for me, they are so lovely! The Miriam Felton lightweight mountain peaks shawl is just gorgeous, so pretty. I didnt send her quite enough of the main colour of cashmere so she used a contrast colour I had sent along for the edging, I think it looks beautiful in the 2 colours, don't you?
Then she made me this simple shawl / scarf out of 200g of our aran silk. It is quick to make, an interesting shape and lovely to wear. The pattern will be available in the new year.
Chrissy came through with the final 2 projects she was working on for me, a lovely pair of Ophelia socks and another lovely pattern that I sent out to the HipKnits club people for their Christmas present so I won't tell you any more about that right now. You can see a pic of the pattern if you click here, the pattern and yarn should be arriving on their doorsteps any day now.
Posted by Kerrie at 08:24 AM | Comments (2)
Paying it forward
OK, so seeing as I didn't moderate comments for ages last night and seeing as I'm also a bit of a soft touch when it comes to things like this I'm going to make little somethings for the 5 people who said they'd be interested in joining. So that's the three blogless : Hannah, Fran and Karen, and then Janin and Nicola. So if you can all email me your postal addresses (actually, that would just be Karen as I think I have everyone elses, not sure about Janin though!) and I'll see what I can come up with early next year.
Posted by Kerrie at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2007
Pay It Forward
It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. I just signed up to be part of Clara's exchange and now I'm making the promise here.
This exchange---which is going around the net craft blogs right now--- is based on the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return,---just passing the kindness on---with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness pass on their own act of kindness. Thus starts a "PIF"... which continues on...and on..and on...
So here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU--the recipient--- have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
See, its easy, and the thought of something lovely in the post is currently cheering me up after my car ran out of petrol outside Brooke's school this afternoon. Yes, that's right. I had to walk home with Brooke and Trinity and call in a favour to get someone else to pick up Cameron from nursery while my car sits quietly outside the school until I find a full can of petrol this evening and fill it up. ARGH!
Posted by Kerrie at 04:05 PM | Comments (6)
So much to tell you!
I have so much to tell you, lots of entries half started but do you think that I can find the damned camera cable to download the pictures onto my laptop? Nope, not a whisker of it.
These last 2 weeks before Christmas are really busy, as usual. I'm finishing up some holiday knitting - I have one shawl just about off the needles and one more half done. 2 hats are done, 3 quilts, a whole host of scarves and corsages and other bits and bobs. I will show you them in the new year when they are all safely with their new owners.
I'm also really busy organising 2008 for HipKnits. We have lots of new yarns arriving this week all ready for their debut in January and are busy refining our custom colours. I'm particularly excited about one of our new yarns, it is just so soft and lovely. We will have new additions to our laceweight range and our sock weight range early next year, these seem to be the most popular weights of yarn.
New patterns? Oh yes, we have lots of new patterns as well. Scarves, shawls, socks, garments, toys, children's clothes - its all good. Lets hope I find my camera cable tonight then I can show you lots of goodies tomorrow INCLUDING the beautiful kit that was sent out to the HipKnits club members yesterday.
Posted by Kerrie at 01:43 PM | Comments (1)
December 10, 2007
Monday's To Do list
Today was supposed to start bright and early for me to make up for the fact that we were away from Saturday lunchime until about 9pm Sunday night and I knew I would have an inbox full of emails to catch up on. That plan failed when we woke up just before 8am, all 5 of us had over slept. Wayne and Cameron are usually up first at about 6.30 ish with Brooke and I following at around 7am. Trinity normally gets up anywhere between 7 and 8 depending on how much noise the rest of us make!
Wayne rushed out of the house quickly in the hope that he would make it to his 9am in London meeting on time while I rushed about the house trying to get me and 3 kids up, washed, dressed, fed and sorted out for the day before leaving to pick up the rest of my school run at 8.45. We all made it to where we were supposed to be on time but it really didn't help my stress levels much, I prefer a quiet start to the day!
Here is my list of things to get done today. It is nearly 10am and almost time for Trinity's nap so I'm going to tuck her in her cot with some milk and then get productive.
1 - pack HipKnits post from the weekend and get ready for postman to collect at 2pm
2 - prepare, pack and post HipKnits club Christmas presents. These might have to go in the mail bag tomorrow if I dont quite get them done in time today. I'm soooo excited to show you all what I've sent out this year, it is a fab kit! Pictures probably on Friday in the hope that some have arrived by then..
3 - Go through recent MagKnits submissions and send out yes / no emails.
4 - Invoicing and credit control. Send out invoices and chase up late payments. I have 2 wholesale accounts that are over 60 days late paying. Sigh.
5 - Bank - pay in cheques and make some international supplier payments
6 - Write out 2 more patterns for Farm Yarn Alpaca and send over.
7 - Paint infant faces at school for Nativity play. (this one is the highlight of my day, I love painting faces and its a nice chance to stop off somewhere for an hour before I go to the bank.)
Then when I pick up the big kids later we're off to buy a tree! We had hoped to do this at the weekend before going out Saturday lunchtime but it was toooo rainy. I can't wait to get all Christmasy in the house this evening, I so love this time of year!
Posted by Kerrie at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2007
Living in the country
I've been thinking a lot recently about living in the country, and wondering if we did the right thing by leaving London. On the whole I think that the lifestyle we have now and the opportunities that we have for the children are much better than they would have been had we stayed in London, but it can be so hard to know for sure.
I love being able to look out of the window at night and see all of the stars shining brightly in the sky. I love the fact that everyone in the village that we live in seems to know each other and even if they dont know you they will say hello and chat. I love being so close to fields and country lanes and miles and miles of off road tracks where we can walk, ride our bikes and play when the weather is right.
The place where Marianne took these photos of me and Trinity is about a 2 minute walk from our house. It is lovely and one of our favourite places to spend time.
I love driving around the narrow country lanes that are sometimes only wide enough for 1 car even though they are 2 way lanes. Every morning on our way to the shop Trinity and I see the same old man walking along the road in the middle of nowhere. He always steps onto the grass verge and waves us past as we approach him and now he waves, nods and says good morning as we pass him. I wonder who he is and where he is going at the same time every day, perhaps he thinks the same about me.
I have the phone number of our local forest rangers in my mobile phone so that when we come across a dead or injured deer on the road I can ring them and let them know where it is. I once saw an injured stag at the side of the road, rang to let them know and when I drove back past it 10 minutes later they were there lifting it onto a trailer. Knowing who to call when something like that happens and knowing that they will be straight there is a really empowering feeling, we are part of the community.
Once a week we have a HUGE police bus that pulls into the village and parks on the green. They put big signs up saying "village police station now open" but I have never seen anyone go to them. I wonder what the police officers are doing inside the bus, are they just sitting there waiting for someone to come and report a crime to them?
The dynamics of a small village fascinate me. The way that we only have one shop, that is open for limited hours and few of the take aways in the big towns will deliver food to us. The village school that has fewer children in the entire school than some schools have in one year. The village hall that hosts every event from the farmers market to shoe sales to brownies and birthday parties.
It was hard when we first moved here, Cameron was only a few weeks old and I didn't know anyone at all. As soon as Brooke started school though it got easier to meet people. Not long after we first moved in, we received a card through the front door inviting us to dinner with the vicar and his wife. A few of us from the new housing development we had moved into went along and it was a lovely evening, the chairperson of the parish council was there and they filled us in on all different aspects of the business. The vicar also delivers the monthly village newsletter, I saw him this morning walking up to the doors popping the pink booklet through letterboxes which is what prompted me to think how much I love living in a village. I wouldn't move back to London for all the tea in China.
Posted by Kerrie at 09:11 AM | Comments (8)
December 05, 2007
New Knitty
Have you seen the new Knitty? Lucky for my to do list nothing there is screaming at me to knit it. The cat hand puppet is pretty scary, don't you think?
This week isn't going according to plan so far. Heather kindly came over and helped me pack parcels today and then I was soooo frustrated when the postman who is supposed to come at 3pm to pick up the parcels arrived at 2pm and instead of knocking on the door just turned around and drove off! So I had to carry the 2 sacks of parcels to the post office.
Trinity was so unsettled that I didn't get all of the parcels out as planned today but the good news is that I only have around 50 left so they will be all done tomorrow. Then I should know what was left over from the sale and I can start to get organised with the new products and patterns for 2008. Its going to be fun!
Posted by Kerrie at 04:42 PM | Comments (4)
December 04, 2007
Fundraiser
You know me, I love a good cause. I'm currently trying to think of a more organised way to give to charity through HipKnits next year instead of just stumbling over good causes throughout the year. However, just as I was thinking about donating some of the profit from the very lovely sale this December to a charity, I read about this fundraiser in an email newsletter from Stitch Diva.
It is organised by Offhand designs and they are looking for either money or "stuff" for their chosen families this year. The super plus side is that if you want to you can receive a free bag from them depending on how much money you donate. I'm such a bag collector I couldn't resist this. I found the form to complete here that tells you what you get for your money, its a great cause and YOU get something in return as well. It has to be worth it, don't you think?
Posted by Kerrie at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
Christmas cards
I spent a HILARIOUS hour or so last week trying to take a photo of all 3 kids together that we could use to make Christmas cards out of. I ended up with a beautiful one and the cards should be here with us today, but some of the rejects really made me laugh. I think these are my favourite outtakes.
Today is all about emails. I have neglected them slightly over the weekend sale period just because there has been so damn many of them but today is all about curling up on the sofa and catching up with my inbox. If you're waiting to hear from me, you will do today.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:32 AM | Comments (3)
December 03, 2007
I'm late!!
I've been out of the house all day and had every intention of being back hours ago but the motorway was shut and I had to wind my way around spooky old back country roads with no idea where I was going. ARGH!
In apology the following categories on the website are on 50% off :
aran silk
fabric
coast merino yarns
cleopatra yarns
sock yarns
sari silk
This will only be valid until 9pm tomorrow night. So go enjoy the last 24 hours of the sale on any stock we still have on the site. x
Posted by Kerrie at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
Man, I'm ready for a holiday
Seriously, is it Christmas yet? The sale is going so well and Heather has volunteered to come and help me pack orders on Wednesday so that is fab, thanks Heather. One person has been the first to place an order at 7.01 every day so far, I wonder if she is going to keep it up tonight? Hee hee.
Our weekend was bought to you by the number 2. Number of birthday parties attended? 2. Number of kids indoor play areas visited? 2. Number of people who came around for dinner on Sunday? 2. Number of nights sleep I didn't get? 2. Number of times I went to Tescos? 2. Number of wholesale orders I finished packing? 2. Number of children who fell asleep on chairs at the 40th birthday party we went to Saturday night? 2. (Cameron fought it until the end and stayed awake until past midnight!) Number of people who upset me at the same party - 1. But congratulating me on being pregnant again is bad enough to count as a 2, don't you think? Sigh. Just when I had looked in the mirror and thought that I was losing weight nicely since stopping breastfeeding. Note to the rest of the world - Never ever ask someone if she is pregnant unless it is so obvious it can't be anything else. My answer of "no, just fat - thank you" was a real conversation killer, I can tell you that for free.
More sale tonight, it will be a little late though. Shall we say 9pm instead of 7pm? As always, I'll update the blog a few minutes before with details of which yarns are on offer.
Posted by Kerrie at 08:03 AM | Comments (2)
December 02, 2007
Sunday's sale
Tonight's sale at 7pm is going to be sock yarn and Emilia super chunky yarn. 50% off. x
Posted by Kerrie at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2007
Saturday's sale
At 7pm today (in about 15 minutes) all sari silk, cleopatra yarn (mohair and merino and silk and merino) and sew hip fabrics will be 50% off. For 24 hours only or while stocks last. Have fun! x
Posted by Kerrie at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)