HipKnits

December 04, 2009

Hi from Reid

Hi my name is Reid and these are photos of me and me with my brother and sisters and my dad when i was 1 day old,
Love Reid

Posted by Richard at 03:10 PM | Comments (6)

December 03, 2009

Welcome Reid Mica Allman

Welcome Reid Mica Allman ,born 2nd December 2009 ,at 20.45 hrs ,weight 9lbs 10oz,Kerrie and Reid are both well and leaving hospital today.
Will post photo's later.

Posted by Richard at 09:54 AM | Comments (6)

October 03, 2009

Alexandra Palace

Over 600 skiens labeled and packed ,only another 200 either drying,ready to be skiened or awaiting labels ,its now i'm wondering why i do this every year.Ah i remember now, i love this show.
The Hipknits site will be mainly closed down until 13th October as i am taking most of the stock with me , any orders after Tuesday 6th will be posted on the 13th.
If your comming to Ally Pally call round and say hi,i know a few of you ,but it would be nice to put faces to the names and addresses i send parcel.

If your comming along don't forget to call at the Kal Media display its going to be very different,all i can say is it's going to involve loads of wallpaper and some young men !!?
Hope to see you there

Posted by Richard at 02:53 PM | Comments (1)

August 28, 2009

Self striping sock yarns

I know dad won't tell you himself but it was his 60th birthday last week and Wayne, the kids and I went to spend the weekend with mum and dad. We had a good party for him on the Sunday, bouncy castle, BBQ, lots of food and fun. The kids and dad were the ones who spent the most time on the bouncy castle, I only sneaked a few minutes on there when no-one else was watching or bouncing!

The day before the big party, I decided that it was time to involve dad in the winding of gigantic skeins of yarn and the dyeing of self striping sock yarn. Ha ha! As some of you may know, this takes huge amounts of time and effort but is really worthwhile because the effect is gorgeous. We ended up at the end of the weekend with 51 skeins wound and ready to dye, and 10 of them dyed and ready to wind back into normal sized skeins. These are the ones that we dyed :

This was the first time I've interfered in the dyeing of yarn for MONTHS and it was quite good fun. We have 8 of the brighter ones and 2 of the paler ones. All were done with the same dyes but the paler ones were the result of the bottom of the dye baths when a lot of the colours had exhausted already. I personally LOVE the brighter ones and think that socks with nice big chunky stripes in these colours would be great. Like any hand painted yarns, the stripes won't be the exact same number of stitches and there may be some overlap between colours but the shades work so well together I can't see how these could be anything other than gorgeous. What do you think?

I'll be popping back from time to time with the odd blog post whenever I can sneak in without dad noticing, at the moment I'm just counting the days until the kids are back at school and my chaotic life can get back into a nice semblance of order again!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:08 AM | Comments (2)

August 24, 2009

New organic yarns

Here are some of our newest yarns, organic merino in lace and aran weights.

The aran weight is really soft and springy, with almost 200 yards per 100g there is enough for a hat out of one skein and a good sized scarf out of two skeins. The colours are bold and vibrant in this yarn.

The laceweight is almost as soft as cashmere, enough for a small shawl out of one skein of approx 725 yards. We picked nice soft muted shades for the laceweight so that whatever shawl pattern you choose won't be overwhelmed by the colour.

What are your favourites? Kerrie likes the blue / purple / red in the aran weight and the caramel / gold colour in the laceweight. We've had some great feedback from customers who have bought these yarns already, there are not many left of each colour.....

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:53 PM | Comments (2)

August 05, 2009

August already

Where has the year gone already we are in August, and yet again in the UK we are still awaiting summer to arrive? Still August is a good month as both Brooke and Cameron have there birthdays in the next couple of weeks, although I cannot believe they will be 9 and 5 years old, they are growing up to quick.
On the Hipknits side I am currently dyeing some of the new Organic Merino ready to go on the site ,the laceweight is 736yards to 50g almost the same as our normal cashmere ,and is so soft and some Aran weight that is 196 yards to 100 gram , Cashmere 2ply 354 yards to 50 g and Cashmere 270yds to 100g Also have started to think about Alexandra Palace and what to take also must start some dyeing for it, I have to admit I still find Ally Pally very exciting and get a real buzz the nearer it gets ,not only for all the lovely people that come to the show ,both other stand holders and the shoppers but also for the place its self ,its very grand ,has a long history and the views of London from outside are spectacular, just a pity its not easier to get to.
The girls from Kal Media will be there also and after them wallpapering the stand, and adding a fireplace last year I hate to think what they are planning for this year, but time will tell.
Well time to get dyeing again just remembered I have to finish off a custom order

Posted by Richard at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

July 19, 2009

8 months later................

A first attempt at doing the blog, (hopefully not my last), will try to get you up to date first with what’s happening,
Kerrie is still working hard along with Lou and the rest of the Kal Media team producing Yarnforward , SewHip and Inside Crochet magazines which seem to be going from strength to strength, and I hear there maybe plans for more to follow.
I have taken over the day to day running of Hipknits , dyeing ,posting, doing the updates and now attemping the blog, we have some Organic new yarns just arrived which I will let you know more about soon .

The Family update, time goes so fast and the kids seem to grow even faster,
Brooke concentrating on doing what every young lady has to get right, painting her toenails

Cameron having just bounced himself out of breath on the bouncy castle

Trinity enjoying the sun and what every girl enjoys a bowl of Maltesers (chocolate)

And
“Sandwich “

<

Yes no 4 is on the way due 7th December the nickname came from when Kerrie showed the kids the picture, Cameron tried to explain to Trinity that mummy had eaten to much food and it had turned into a baby, they were then ask what they thought it would be Brooke thought it is was a boy, Cameron went for a girl and Trinity thought it looked like a Sandwich.
Somebody told me this was easy,no way ,have spent so much time adding the photos to the the blog am going to have a lay down and de-stress ,perhaps the next one will be easier,OH NO have just committed to another one

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:12 PM | Comments (5)

December 01, 2008

Broken shop

I broke the HipKnits shop.

We're fixing it this week.

We have tonnes of goodies ready to go on the shop as soon as I fix it, I think that it should be up and running properly tomorrow.

x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2008

Hello, and goodbye

This poor blog has been sadly neglected, like so many other things, recently.

After nearly 6 years of blogging I've finally decided that I just can't do it any more. Too many other demands on my time, too many days of feeling guilty because I can't post here. Maybe that will change, maybe not. I'm going to leave the archives up for a while but no guarantees how long they'll stay here for.

We're making some changes to HIpKnits so that the blog will be part of the shop over there, keep it all nice and tidy and together. Dad is planning an update for Friday this week and then every Friday after that, give you something to look at over the weekends!

I'll still be uploading pics to flickr, on Ravelry every now and again, posting on the YF and SH blogs as time allows and coming along to all the shows. So its not like I'm disappearing completely is it?

All HipKnits queries should go to infoAThipknits.co.uk all Kerrie queries to kerrieATkalmedia.co.uk but be warned, the kerrie email address fills up pretty darned quickly these days so bear with me. There is mucho going on behind the scenes that keeps me from emails these days.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2008

More sewing

I seem to have been sewing lots and lots recently, as well as knitting tonnes. Most things seem to be for the magazines but this one I think I can share with you. its a review pattern that I did for Sew Hip 2 so just to be fair I think i should not tall you what pattern it is or anything about the review. Only that I'm super super proud of it and how the gorgeous Trinity looks in it. She wore it to nursery the other day and I was slightly surprised that it had lasted the day without falling apart. I'm going to make her lots and lots more of them to wear all winter I think!

I love her cheesy face in this picture, if you can ignore the hula hoops then I think its pretty much a perfect picture of the funny little girl. I got to visit a very tiny little newborn this week (well, he is actually quite large for a newborn but you get the idea) and oh my goodness it made Trinity look like she should be old enough to drive. I'm feeling very broody about little babies at the moment, I think I need to borrow one for a while to remind myself how little they sleep and how much they cry.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:31 AM | Comments (6)

October 27, 2008

New Editor announced

See?

See?

See?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

Quilty fun

It was my gran's birthday at the weekend and I made her a quilt. Inspired by Manda's charm pack quilt in the current Sew Hip, I used a totally different colourway and its a bit lumpy and bumpy in places, but I think she liked it. I used the new Amy Butler fabric that I bought when I was in New York together with some charm squares that have been hanging around in my stash for a while. I seemed to have hundreds of the charm squares, I made a mini quilt with them, then this one and I still have a whole pile of them left. What to do with them?

The kids have been quite attached to the quilt as I've been making it and I'm wondering whether to make more for them. I think that there's a limit as to how many quilts you can have in one house though and I'm sure that Wayne would say we're close to nearing that limit. Maybe I'll make them for other people for Christmas this year and then wait to make more for us. Or maybe not, its a little addictive.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:57 AM | Comments (6)

October 26, 2008

Oh what a week

I thought I was getting to grips with everything last week but something turned around and bit me in the bum. I'm not going to go into all the details here (you'd never come back if I did!!) but the finale at the end of the week involved 2 disasters - firstly my lovely car breaking down on the M25 on the way back from an 18 hour day working in Bradford with Lou and the team. I had to be rescued home on the back of a truck at a cost of far too much money, but what could I do? My Green Flag cover is part of my car insurance and I'd never looked at the details closely enough to see that I only had a small radius of recovery, so I had to pay per mile to get home. What choice did I have though?

The second disaster was discovering on Friday that someone had kindly cloned my debit card and spent almost £10,000 of my money that I don't have in Amsterdam over 2 days. So until the fraud report and investigation have gone through I have no money and a whole pile of legitimate payments (mortgage etc) that have been returned as unpaid. Don't get me started on this one though...

Tomorrow I'm going to post a happy post, with lovely pictures and a press release announcing our new YF editor. See, ignore the bad and concentrate on the good. I feel like that's all I can do at the moment!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:21 PM | Comments (3)

October 22, 2008

A wee while

Its been a wee while hasn't it?

Ally Pally was great, we met so many lovely people that I can't begin to tell you all about it. Over 2 weeks now since we started its already becoming a dim and distant memory. It is always a great show, this year was a lot quieter sales wise than previous years have been, but i guess that's the economic climate at the moment isn't it? It is still the best show of the season, although we have Dublin next week and Harrogate at the end of November to look forward to as well so they will be good I'm sure. We're looking forward to meeting more and more of our customers at those 2 shows, Lou is doing one of them and I'm doing the other.

As well as the excitement of seeing YF on the shelves in Tescos et al I picked up a copy of Essex life last week which has an interview that I gave them on running a small business out of managed offices. They managed not to make me sound too silly and 2/3 of a page on KAL Media in a nice glossy county magazine can only be a good thing.

On the subject of magazines, does anyone know what happened to Adorn?

I'm still not properly around until next week sometime, I'm hardly home at the moment and when I am home I'm hanging out with Wayne and the kids so the blog has been badly neglected. Next week is the week when huge amounts of work are lifted from my shoulders as our new Yf editor starts on Monday and surely it has to get easier from then on, right? I'll share some pics of all the bits and bobs I've been working on recently soon as well, my camera is getting good and full of yummy things.

Oh and I need to set dad up with a HipKnits update, that will be Monday I think. HipKnits is now totally his really, he did all the work for Ally Pally and I'm happy to be photo taker / site updater from now on. Its odd handing things over sometimes, but always for the best.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:04 PM | Comments (7)

October 07, 2008

So. Much. Stuff.

So, we're right in the middle of Yarn Forward issue 8 production and Sew HIp issue 2 is right around the corner. We're in full on 2 magazines a month mode now so there will be no more rest for us, even before the current issues were back from the printer we'd almost forgotten about them as we were so busy with the next ones. Well, not really - there was MUCH excitement when the boxes arrived in the offices on Monday, more in my office as I didn't get many mags and I'm on the ground floor. Not so much I understand for the Wilts office who are up one flight of stairs and who had thousands of copies delivered for the subscriber copies. They look amazing though, I can't wait for you all to see them. Yarn Forward subs went out today and Sew HIp are going tomorrow I believe - its so exciting!

Then there is Ally Pally. I have had 2 stands to prepare for, although to be fair dad has done 99% of the work for the HipKnits stand. We're off early tomorrow morning for the build up and then there every day until Sunday. That means that I'll be away from email all that time so please be patient with me.

Everything is pretty much under control I think. (she says hopefully!) October seems to have become a busy month again for HipKnits with lots of custom orders and wholesale requests coming in. I'm not sure what I'm doing about wholesale at the moment, we're not taking on any new customers right now. Project club parcels are trickling out nicely, I heard from a dozen or so people today that their goodies arrived so the rest should be on their way any minute now.

Sewing is taking up much of my time at the moment. I've just finished off 4 samples I was making for SH2. I like them but I'm not as confident with my sewing skills as I am with knitting so I'll be handing them over to the rest of the team next week with the understanding that Manda is not allowed to see them in real life, I'd be embarrassed for her to see my work. Everything she makes is so perfect..

The new team is really finding its feet, Dave our amazing art editor has done a brilliant job at designing the 2 magazines from scratch this time. Manda is doing brilliantly as editor of Sew Hip and Sarah is a fab production editor. Lou and I are learning to delegate and take some baby steps back from the day to day stuff - that gives us more time for all the other plans we have. Mwah ha ha ha.

So, I'll be back early next week with lots of exciting Ally Pally news to share with you all. Then shortly after it will be time to prep for Dublin. Its neverending, I tell you. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:02 PM | Comments (7)

October 05, 2008

Neckwarmer pattern

I've had lots of requests for the neckwarmer pattern, it couldn't be simpler. I'm not going to make another one for me just yet, Brooke and Cameron have both requested one (as well as AJ but I'm going to make her learn how to knit instead of making one for her - ha ha) so I think I'll make theirs first.

Materials - 5mm needles (I used straight and seamed but circs would work well too)
1 ball of Mission Falls 1824 wool in purple and 1 in green (you will get 2 neckwarmers out of 2 balls) You can use any other aran weight wool as well - 50g seems to be enough for a good sized neckwarmer.

Using first colour cast on 84 stitches and knit 6 rows in 2 x 2 rib.
Change to second colour and knit 6 rows in 2 x 2 rib.

Continue in stripes until you have worked 3 stripes in the first colour and 2 in second.

Cast off in 2 x 2 rib, seam (if knitted flat) and give to your 18 month old daughter!!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:51 PM | Comments (2)

October 03, 2008

Neckwarmer

I made this neckwarmer out of half a skein of 2 colours of Mission Falls 1824 wool that I bought from the wool gathering shop in NYC. I loved the colours and wanted to make something warm and snuggly for winter. I tried it on and persuaded Cameron to take my photo and I liked the way it came out. Warm, striped - perfect now that I have my neck all exposed to the weather.

However, we soon came upon a problem. The smallest person in the house decided that she liked it and that she wanted to wear it and it became apparent that it looked a whole lot cuter on her than it did on me. See? She loved it and kept it on for ages, pulling it around in different styles and saying cheese for the camera quite happily.

What do you think, should I let her have it? I love the shape it makes on her neck when she wears it.. I'm also much less worried about her wearing this than a scarf in the winter, less chance of her pulling it tightly around her neck I think. It does look lovely on her so I think I've lost my new neckwarmer already.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:58 AM | Comments (16)

October 02, 2008

New York - part 2

The shopping. The shopping was amazing. The very first store we came across was Anthropology. This has been my number 1 website to drool over for months now and there it was, in the flesh. It was sooooo tempting, gorgeous knitwear, amazing knee length socks, lovely dresses but the product that tipped me over the edge was a queen sized duvet / throw. I saw it on the first day and went back to buy it on the second. I carried it on the plane as hand luggage and gave up most of my other planned purchases (new boots, winter coat etc) to make it fit my budget. I love it.

I did buy lots of funky long socks and tights which I wore for most of the weekend, a few jersey dresses and some presents for the kids. Then there were a wee few yarny purchases, some Mission falls wool for me (which has already become a neckwarmer) and a sparkly skein for yarn forward. I can't wait to show you what I have in mind for the sparkly artyarns yarn.

My other favourite shop that we discovered on 5th was Free People. I loved everything about it from the large balls of wool in their shop that we weren't allowed to photograph to their gorgeous funky clothes and their amazing cotton bags that they give away with purchases. We totally need one of these shops in the UK, really. It is gorgeous. I've been looking at their website ever since we came home, remembering how lovely the shop was....

Of course we visited the main shops in NYC, Bloomingdales and Macys. Gap was my favourite shop I think, I love it in the UK and the dollar prices on sale made it worth my while buying a gorgeous jersey dress in every colour they had.

Frugal sale shopping meant that I still kept within my (very small) budget despite buying 8 yards of fabric in Purl Soho..... The Seahorses print by Heather Ross is going to be dresses for Brooke and Trinity, the beautiful birds fabric will be something for me and the lovely Amy Bulter blue tones are going to grow into a quilt. Yummmmm. At around £5 a yard for each of them they are such a bargain and gorgeous at the same time.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:16 AM | Comments (3)

October 01, 2008

New York - part 1

New York was amazing.

I've been back for just over 24 hours and I still feel fuddled. I have no idea what day of the week it is or what time of day. I'm exhausted in the best possible way. Have spent all day today catching up with the many millions of things I should have done last week but didn't get around to and plan to spend tomorrow doing the same.

I blogged about NY on the Yarn Forward blog just now. I'll take lots of pics of my own stash of goodies and post them here tomorrow. I even had a funky new hair cut - just in time for Ally Pally!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:27 PM | Comments (1)

September 25, 2008

Sew Hip

At last, the preview page for SH is up! http://www.sewhip.co.uk/issue1.html

Now I'm off to bed and then tomorrow I'm off to New York. Back Wednesday next week.

xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:31 PM | Comments (2)

September 24, 2008

Reading

What have I been reading recently? Apart from 200 pages of magazines that are going around in circles from proofing to design and back to me and Manda to sign off? Ah, the joys of deadline week with 2 magazines..... You'd think I'd be sick of reading after all that but I never go far without a book in my bag. I bought the new Jodi Picoult one, songs from a humpback whale recently and so far its been the only JP book that I just can't get into. I notice on amazon as well that the only review gives it 1 out of 5 as well so maybe its not just me. I want to like it, but I'm finding it confusing and vague.

Wayne suggested that I put it down and read something else instead and since his most excellent advice (channelling Bill and Ted there) I've enjoyed both The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritson and Floating Dtagon by Peter Straub I got Floating Dragon from Borders in Lakeside when it closed down a while ago for £1. I had no idea that it was such an old book at the time, which shouldn't really make a difference but somehow it feels strange to buy a book that was first published in the 80s. Its a real shame that Borders has shut down there, now 2 out of the 3 Borders within an hours drive from me are gone. That limits where I can go to hunt out Yarn Forward and Sew Hip on the shelves in a few weeks time.

I also bought Ruth's new pattern booklet recently, its lovely. I'm going to play around with some of the designs and see if I can make them in a size that will fit the kids this winter, I'm sure that by using chunkier yarn and bigger needles that will work. I hope. The cover pattern is my favourite, it looks just adorable on Ruth's little boy Aran don't you think? If you haven't bought a copy then you should, its only £5 and just think that you're helping to support Ruth, Tom and Aran in their van - that's got to be worth it for a fiver.

If you're short of something to read at the moment then you could do worse than check out the Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:10 AM | Comments (5)

September 23, 2008

Trinity

There is so much I want to write about Trinity, she is growing up so quickly I'm afraid that if I blink I'll miss something. This photo was taken at the beach at the weekend, she loves playing in the sand, throwing stones and digging holes. She is not so keen on the sea which suits me, it makes me nervous enough to see Brooke and Cameron go running into the waves without any kind of fear. Its a fine line between making sure that they are safe and not wanting to make them lose their sense of fun.

Trinity is 18 months old. I can't remember the other 2 being as funny as she is, we were saying to mum and dad the other day that she has started teasing grandad earlier than all the others. Brooke and Cameron call my dad Stinky Pete (from Toy Story) and on Saturday Trinity kept running up to him and poking him in the leg before shouting PETE at him and then running away giggling. She had us all laughing out loud.

She is the bossiest child in the house. She tells Brooke and Cameron "SIt down. Eat" if they get up from the table during dinner (which they now do more than ever because it is just so funny to hear her tell them to sit down and eat. She alternates between calling Cameron by his name and calling him brother and she totally adores him. I think its because the 2 of them have 2 days a week at home with me together that they have an especially close bond. It could also be because they are closer in age than her and Brooke, I don't know.

Last night I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and she walked in to tell me that she had done a poo (which is becoming normal for her, she'll go and hide somewhere private when she needs to go and then come and tell you straight afterwards) but this time she had a nappy and the wipes in her hand and laid down on the floor in front of me with them. She is sooooo growing up.

She is sitting on my knee as I write this, babbling away in her funny mixture of sounds and words. She is finally calling me mummy which is lovely, she went through a long phase of not calling me anything at all. Then for a while my name was RA RA which was so funny and so totally unlike mummy that it used to make me laugh. We went from RA RA to MUM and now we've arrived at mummy. Its a lovely sound and one that I only tire of a little bit when she bellows it at me for hours on end.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:56 AM | Comments (3)

September 17, 2008

Love shawl

I knitted this one day last week. Its not much but every single stitch is knitted with love and prayers and good wishes. I think its going to be a top down shawl, this is what my hands automatically knit when I need to relax or am feeling stressed out. It is knit using a handspun yarn that I thought I had destashed last year but a random skein seems to have stuck in my cupboard. I spent the afternoon in hospital with a someone very close to me who was going for an MRI, the hour that she was in there seemed so long and I spent the whole time hoping for good news and sending good vibes.

I don't think I have any more of this exact yarn but I do have lots of other small amounts of handspun so this shawl could end up being quite colourful before it is finished. I'll keep on knitting it in my spare time until she has the results of the MRI, it will be a beautiful multicoloured handspun MRI shawl that will be filled with positive thoughts.

Did you notice the needles? I blame Lou for them. We've both been so good at all the shows we've been to this year and neither of us have spent much on other people's stock but at I Knit we were next to Loop and Lou bought a set of Knitpicks options needles and I couldn't resist copying her. I totally love them and never want to knit with anything else.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:18 AM | Comments (5)

September 16, 2008

Autumn

Autumn is on its way you know? I can tell you that for 2 reasons, firstly I have been loving wearing my new over the knee socks, long boots and skirts recently - that is going to be my autumn wardrobe this year. I bought one of these slouchy dresses from Cath Kidston which I totally love and I've made myself a skirt from some IKEA fabric and have piles more of it ready to sew. Handmade skirts, kooky long socks and boots. That's me at the moment. Lovely fall clothes.

Then last night we took the kids to the forest for an hour of therapy. The kind of therapy we all needed at the end of a long day when Wayne and I had worked our bottoms off and neither of us had anything to show for it. The kids were restless and we were tired and it was either all stay at home and argue or pack up and head off for forest therapy. The forest won.

While we were there we picked these. Almost 500g of blackberries. Yum. I'm going to get some apples today from the market and make apple and blackberry crumble for pudding tonight. Comfort food, that's a sure sign of autumn creeping closer.

It is one of my favourite seasons though so I'm really not complaining. Summer is OK but I'm an autumn person at heart, I love the colours and the clothes and the way that the trees look. The only thing I dont like is the way that the evenings draw in. If we could have the same hours of sunlight as we do in the summer then I'd be perfectly happy.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:20 AM | Comments (5)

September 14, 2008

Hurray!

Finally at closer to midnight than I would have liked the shop is updated! Wayne fixed my old laptop again and I took advantage of that tonight while we were watching Pirates of the Caribean 3.

So, lots of new yarns here and lots of sale yarns here. There are also lots and lots of other lace cashmere yarns

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)

What I did with my Sunday

I was trying to finish off the shop update today but I really can't get Squirrelcart to work on my Mac. I have logged a support call so hopefully it will get resolved soon. As far as I can see there shouldn't be a problem with it, all the updates are done via a web browser interface, I can add new products but the images don't show up on the site and the new products don't show up in the new products section. This is not very helpful when I have about 50 new items to add. My laptop battery has given up so a new one has been ordered from ebay and I hope that gets here soon. The site is kind of updated, the rest will have to wait until next week I'm afraid.

So instead I've been playing with hair. Both Brooke and Cameron have been washed and brushed and plaited and Trinity is next in line when she wakes up from her nap. The subject of Cameron's hair is a sensitive one, he loves it and we love it too but lots of people like to tell us how he looks like a girl, should be allowed to have it cut short blah blah blah. Let me just say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but Cameron loves his hair and so do we and until either one of us changes our minds his hair will stay long.

This is what he looked like after Wayne had finsihed washing and brushing him.

Now you can see why we don't send him to nursery with his hair out!
And this is what he looked like after he had been passed over to me for plaiting. Its a bit like a mini production line!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:01 PM | Comments (8)

September 13, 2008

Big stocktake weekend

I am surrounded by bags of yarn this weekend, sorting out, stocktaking, labelling, photographing, moving around on the website.

I've done a bulk of it this morning, there are now lots of odds and ends on the sale page.

Tomorrow there will be more YAK, Silk, Sock yarns, Cashmere sock, Silk and cashmere sock, Seacell (which just seems to breed, every time I think its sold out we find another dozen skeins of it!), lace yarns all to be added to the site and to the sale page.

This is likely to be the last big update before Ally Pally. The next big update will be mid October with all the leftovers from the show (of which I hope there are few)

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

Ally Pally

Plans for Ally Pally are hotting up for HipKnits. Dad has a garage full of stock, think we're up to about 2000 skeins of yarn ready now with lots and lots more to come. I'm working on some patterns that we'll be giving away for free with the yarn and EVERYTHING will be offered at a discounted price on the day.

This is the first of our new patterns, a gorgeous stole knitted for us by Rachel. Its done out of one skein of our camel and silk yarn and is just so pretty, measuring around 74 inches long it is just the right length to wear as a shawl or a scarf. The pattern will be available as a free download before Christmas, along with lots of others.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:52 AM | Comments (1)

September 12, 2008

New York, New York

How exciting, Lou and I are in New York for 3 days at the end of the month, we arrive on the evening of Friday 26th and leave Monday afternoon. Its a flying visit, Monday is a very exciting meeting with some very exciting people but Saturday and Sunday are ours to shop, visit some of our NY contacts and try and get to as many yarn and fabric shops as we can to spread the YF, SH word!

Any recommendations on hotels, places to eat, shops to visit and all things yarn and fabric would be welcomed. I haven't been to NY for about 9 years and Lou has never been so we're definite NY novices.

Also if anyone fancies meeting up with us for a spot of dinner or shopping just email me, that would be lovely!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:13 AM | Comments (4)

September 11, 2008

New Knitty

My favourites from the new Knitty :

Robynn's cardigan is just gorgeous,

versatility is very clever

Op Art - how simple and clever is that?

I am going to try and update the HipKnits shop today, there is a major communication problem between my MAC and the shop software so I'm borrowing a PC to try. Things will be slowed down somewhat by the fact that I have my first proper hangover for years. Mandy and I went out last night supposedly to watch Mamma Mia at the pictures but when we got there we found out that Wednesday night is the only night they don't show it. Not wanting to give up our night out we drove home, parked the car and walked over to our local pub where we sat, drank wine, gossiped and giggled until we were the last people in there. Feeling very sorry for myself this morning, and today just happens to be a day when I have all 3 kiddos home with me for various reasons. Ugh. Send paracetamol.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:43 AM | Comments (2)

September 09, 2008

Cupboards

I built some shelves in the office last week and they look so nice and neat and tidy now that I thought I'd show you. I'm quite proud of myself for building them and for them not falling down, I usually leave that kind of thing to Wayne.

See? The shelves on the left contain all the shade cards that we have from most of the yarn companies in the UK. It also contains the library of all of the issues that we have printed so far, some samples, a nice jug of needles and a lovely sock from issue 5 made from skein queen lovely yarn.

Inside the cupboard we have tonnes and tonnes of yarn that has been sent to us for review or for use in patterns. This needs properly organising, I'm hoping to get some nice cubby hole shelves so that we can have it all nicely on display.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:45 PM | Comments (4)

September 08, 2008

I Knit and photoshoot

So, another busy few days in the life of Kerrie.

Friday was photoshoot day for Yarn Forward / Sew Hip. It wasn't the most successful photoshoot in the history of the world, torrential rain, sick models, garments that didn't arrive but we had a good day nevertheless. We had a mother and baby model team and the baby was soooo well behaved all day, I think he was the only one of us that didn't have a tantrum at some point. Everyone had a little squeeze with him which helped moods improve slightly.

Sarah, Manda and Lou stayed over at mine on Friday night after the photoshoot which was lovely. It involved lots of drinking wine and laughing and gossiping. Perfect..

Saturday was I Knit day and we didn't really know what to expect. We knew there were only going to be 30 stands but we didn't really know how many people were going to be there and how many of them might already have YF subs. It turns out that we should have taken FAR MORE MAGAZINES with us. We sold out of the back issues that we took with us half way through the day and sold the very last copies of issue 4 in the world. That is now sold out for ever. We're getting really low on both issues 5 and 6 as well which is quite exciting, I'm not sure whether we'll have any of either of them to bring to Ally Pally. (good grief, is that really only 4 weeks away!)

Sarah blogged all about the day over on the YF Blog. I'll be blogging about the photoshoots this week as well....

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2008

Spoonflower

You may not be surprised to know that my poor old sewing machine has had a good dust off these last few weeks and that I've been sewing more than ever. The bridesmaids dress was the first of many, since then I've almost finished an Amy Butler tunic for me and made a few other bits as well. The most popular has been a smock dress that I made for Brooke, she loves it and has demanded more in other colours. It was so easy to make that I'm happy to oblige. I'll get some pics of her wearing it soon.

I've also signed up for a Spoonflower account. Have you heard of this site? It allows you to print your own designs onto fabrics, I am desperate to try it out - if only I was a better illustrator. My drawings are quite rubbish but I'm planning on persuading Brooke to do me some designs that I can get made up into fabric. I've been spending a bit of time looking at other people's spoonflower fabrics, this is one of my favourites at the moment. I also love the girls fabric that get made up into fabric. I've been spending a bit of time looking at other people's spoonflower fabrics, Heidi from My PaperCrane had made. isn't that just gorgeous?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:36 PM | Comments (1)

September 02, 2008

Holidays - part 2

Last summer in walton on the naze.

This summer in walton on the naze.

Look how much they have grown up! A year on from the first photo, Cameron is getting closer to starting school, Brooke is just a couple of years away from choosing secondary school and Trinity is settled into nursery and loving her days playing with her friends. I'm so proud of all of them, they are growing up to be gorgeous lovely kids.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:56 PM | Comments (2)

September 01, 2008

Project club shawls, round 2

Looky here, we have our first finished shawl from the Project club! Despite being one of the last to receive her yarn Barbara was the first to finish, isn't it lovely? The next kits are being put together this week and next so I wonder who will be the first to finish their Fairisle mitts? Any bets? Not me, that's for sure.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:45 AM | Comments (1)

August 29, 2008

Bits and Bobs

I've had a few emails from people saying that they would be interested in doing the etsy pages in Yarn Forward as well. if anyone is interested please email shirley@yarnforwardmagazineDOTco.uk so that she can let you know all the details and book you in.

We've also decided to extend the etsy pages on sew hip and yarn forward to include small indy sellers who are not on etsy.

I'm shocked at how much time I'm spending thinking about advertising these days...

I updated the shop yesterday with lots of yummy laceweight yarn but none of the thumbnail images seemed to show up. I'll try and fix that later but when you click on the product the main photo shows up...

Who's coming to I Knit next weekend? I can't wait for it, so excited. We're doing a photoshoot for the magazine the day before as well which is bound to be a lot of fun. I'm booking the male model today. Its a tough job searching through model agency books for attractive men but someone has to do it, right?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:21 AM | Comments (2)

August 28, 2008

Sew hip - editors choice

I've been working this week in the same office as our lovely new temp who is working hard selling advertising on Sew Hip. Now selling advertising really isn't my thing (all that talking on the phone, shudder) but obviously with Tereza sitting next to me I've been thinking about it more and more. We came up with an idea yesterday about how we can be more inclusive for the smaller independent people who run etsy stores and I think its going to work out just great. Manda and I talked on the phone and blogged about it at about 10pm last night and we've sold 1/4 of the spaces already.

You can read more about it on the Sew Hip blog or Manda's blog.

I wonder whether something like this would work for Yarn Forward as well. Not for the next issue because we've sold our ten pages already but maybe for one of the later issues. Hmmm.. Who'd have thought that advertising could be, well, almost interesting?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:31 AM | Comments (2)

August 27, 2008

The shop, it is updated

The shop, it is updated (sung to the tune of wonderpets if you can, you know "the phone, the phone is ringing." Everything is sung to the tune of the wonderpets around here at the momemt) and full of lovely stuff...

We have a few bits on the sale page and some silk that is half price in never to be repeated colours. Lots of lovely lace yarns, as well as some spinning fibre and lots of Ophelia. Goodies galore. Hurray. There is also plenty more that I didnt manage to get on the site today so I hope it will be there by the weekend.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:35 PM | Comments (0)

Brooke's book

Question in the comments from Tania - the book with Brooke on the front cover is the Debbie Bliss Family book. This one.

We were in John Lewis in Bluewater last week and she found the book and proceeded to move it to the front of the pile and tell everyone around us that it was her on the book. She spent the rest of the day talking about how she was famous and that she should have signed the book in case someone wanted to buy it. So funny.

Shop update coming today. By the time I would have got around to it last night I'd been up for almost 20 hours and really couldn't face it. This morning though, I feel like I can do anything again. Woot.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:24 AM | Comments (1)

August 26, 2008

Holidays - part 1

See these 3 kids? Wayne and I have had the best couple of weeks holiday with them, they have been amazing. We are all really sad to say goodbye this morning and make our ways off to work, nursery etc. We've lived in each others pockets for the last 17 days and it has been amazing. Trinity is growing up each day, she is talking loads and is just the funniest baby in the world. Cameron turned 4 and Brooke turned 8 when we were away in the caravan a couple of weeks ago and sometimes I just look at the 3 of them and wonder where my babies went!

There is so much to say, I don't know where to start. We had a great couple of weeks holiday, we were away for the first week and then at home hanging out for the second. The first week was almost perfect, but for the fact that I managed to trip over on the first day there and broke up my ankle. Not really how I had expected to spend my holidays but I've got used to the crutches now and I'm back on the mend again. It meant that I got a lot more reading and knitting done than I had anticipated while Wayne took the kids swimming, out on bikes, to the park etc.

Today is my first day back in the office (although I have had the occasional look at email and surfed a bit over the last week) and I have a huge pile of work to catch up on. There will be a HIpKnits shop update later on today although I suspect it will be an after the kids have gone to bed job rather than anything else. Lots to tell you about holidays, Yarn Forward, Sew Hip, HipKnits and other bits but there is plenty of time for that over the next week or so. For now I need to get my head down and catch up on all the events of the last 2 weeks. Trust me, it has been crazy around here in my absence.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:52 AM | Comments (7)

August 07, 2008

Happy August, back in September

For the first time ever I think I just don't have time to blog here. There is just SO much going on, a million more times so than usual and coupled with holiday season, birthday season and everything else I just need to bow out from here.

There will be another HipKnits shop update around the bank holiday when I'm back from holiday but apart from that I'll be MIA until the kids are back in school and some kind of normal (ha) routine is re-established.

I hope you all have a lovely lovely remainder of August, catch you in the autumn! xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:06 PM | Comments (3)

August 05, 2008

What happened to Monday?

Does anyone know what happened to Monday this week? I'm sure it was supposed to be yesterday and I'm sure that there was a whole long list of things that I was supposed to do but suddenly it is Tuesday and I can't quite put my finger on what happened yesterday and what (if anything) I actually did.

There is a nice HipKnits update on the site now, with some good discounts for the holiday month.

- discount code for brand new customers giving 10% off all orders from August 5th to 31st - type U71n0N into the coupon code field

- discount code for existing customers giving 20% off all orders from August 5th to 31st - type PRGv3f into the coupon code field

- Free Miriam Felton shawl paper pattern with all purchases of the correct amount of laceweight cashmere and Ophelia sock yarn whilst stocks last. (1 x 100g skein of lace cashmere gets you a free copy of either Mountain peaks, Hidcote Garden or Icarus. 2 x 100g skeins of Opheila get you a free copy of Seraphim) This offer can be mixed with the above percentage discount giving you an extra brilliant bargain.

- Free pattern with any custom dyed aran silk. You can choose any of the patterns that we have for sale. Custom dyes will be posted within 2 weeks of order.

- Free Della shawl kit when you spend over £50 in one transaction. This includes pattern and a skein of cashmere lace dyed in colours of your choice.

- Gift certificate to the value of £15 if you spend over £100 in August after all other discounts have been applied.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the winner of the July feedback gift voucher was Joanne. Thanks to everyone who left feedback last month, we'll be doing the same thing every month from now on so please feel free to leave us honest feedback about your orders.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:10 AM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2008

Saturday

Yay, you're all as excited about Sew Hip as we are. That's brilliant news, really really good news. We've been thrilled with the amount of interest there has been in the magazine, we've sold lots of subscriptions, pre orders of issue 1 and had tonnes of lovely emails and comments. What more could we ask for?

I dont usually work on the weekend and I am avoiding my emails this evening as I know that will suck me right into proper work and I won't escape for a long time but I decided to turn on the laptop and do a few bits this evening. I need to finalise the plans for HipKnits discounts this month, we have lots of freebies and giveaways to manage and I thought that tonight would be a good time to organise them. Wayne is out and the plan was that the kids would go to bed but for some reason its an hour past bedtime and NONE of them are showing any signs of tiredness. Isn't that always the way?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:11 PM | Comments (1)

August 01, 2008

Sew Hip

When Lou and I set up KAL Media back in January we talked long and hard about what we wanted the company to achieve. Obviously our primary objective was to publish Yarn Forward and as you've seen already we have had a big year with regards to that magazine already.

We also talked about what else we wanted to publish and one of the first things that we both agreed on was that the UK was crying out for a yarn forward type magazine for sewing. We knew that this was something that we wanted to do but that we had to do it properly and in a way that wouldn't mean us getting even less sleep and having to spend even more time at work and not hanging out with our families.

So, whilst negotiating the Tescos / Smiths deal for YF we talked to our agents about launching a sewing magazine at the same time. Everything went according to plan and here we are, 2.5 months away from or first issue of Sew Hip hitting the news-stands on October 16th along with Yarn Forward.

We hired a fantastic editor who I'm thrilled to say is doing a brilliant job on the magazine. I travelled up to visit her and her lovely family last week and its scary how similarly our minds work. The designs that we've had coming in look brilliant and we have some really big name sewing people involved with the first one. This also means that Lou and I can concentrate on being the publisher of the magazine and not get involved with the day to day fun and games that editing involves.

Or little KAL Media family is growing all the time. We have now hired a designer, a production editor, a Sew Hip editor, an admin assistant and an advertising manager. All we need now is to sort out the editor / dep editor vacancy for Yarn Forward and we'll be all set. Its very very exciting (and just a little bit scary) for me to be able to start to hand over big chunks of my work to other people. We've been really lucky with the people that we have managed to hire so far, long may that continue.

You can pre-order the first issue of the magazine here or subscribe here. A nice big list of all of our contributors is on the pre order page together with lots of other information on the magazine.

Now, if you'll excuse me I've earned a day at mum and dads playing in the garden and hugging my children. Catch you on Monday. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:18 AM | Comments (12)

July 31, 2008

Shop update

The shop was updated at long last yesterday, I'm in love with some of the colours of fibre that dad dyed last week. This one in particular is calling my name, I think I'm going to see if we can dye some yarn in these shades - doesnt' it look lovely?

Today is a bringing it all together day. It doesn't matter how long we plan for something it all seems to need finishing off at the last minute, does anyone else find that? Tomorrow is a big day (again!) and I'm so excited about it. I can't wait to finally be able to say that I have no secrets from the internet and that everything that is taking up my time is common knowledge.

Until tomorrow though I'll carry on with the odds and ends that need bringing together today. As well as answering the bat phone as well, the subscriptions have been POURING in this week and are showing no sign of slowing up at the moment. I'm not complaining though, honestly.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:13 AM | Comments (2)

July 30, 2008

Yesterday

Should have been a nightmare. It started with the broken laptop and disentegrated into pieces. Getting home last night to find Wayne with solder and tools all over the kitchen table was not the way I hoped the evening would go but when I realised that he had taken apart the laptop power cable and pieced it back together and fixed the problem I was SO relieved. Thank goodness for husbands with degrees in electrical engineering type things, love him.

I also managed to break my camera yesterday. Locked myself out of the office. Shredded an important document before I had looked at it and discovered that the Dreamweaver CD I have is not compatible with my new MAC. It wasn't a great day.

Today will be better. I'm going to meet a friend and her little one for coffee this morning (bunking off for a couple of hours, shock horror) and then will use my old camera to update the shop this afternoon / evening.

Edit - shop updated any minute now and a nice newsletter discount is about to be emailed out. I didn't make it for coffee. I need a new car. And an assistant to answer the phone. And a cleaner. And a cook. Sigh.....

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:02 AM | Comments (1)

July 29, 2008

New and Old

My lovely lovely laptop that I have had forever stopped working this morning. It has been struggling to manage both HipKnits and Yarn Forward work for a while and the funny thing is that today it was to be semi retired and turned into the HipKnits only laptop. I think it knew that this had arrived at the office, think that's why it stopped working?

Its not a major problem. Does mean that I have to get the new macbook up and running sooner than planned and its annoying that all the work I did on websites over the weekend is lost until I can get the laptop fixed but it will be OK. Nothing that a few hours extra work replicating all the templates can't fix tonight. Le sigh.

I'm going to try and update the shop later, have my camera batteries on charge waiting to be ready to take the photos. If the phone would just stop ringing then I'd be OK...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:18 AM | Comments (2)

July 28, 2008

Monday morning

- School holidays = summer camp = packed lunch needed = sun cream, hat and water bottle

- YF Ad in the guardian = MILLIONS of voicemails = phone ringing constantly = paypal caving under the pressure

- Busy weekend = tired = headache = no time to tidy house up before Lou comes round later

Its more chaotic than usual around here. I'm learning to get over my dislike of speaking on the phone pretty quickly this morning, I can see the voicemails piling up as I'm taking details from people over the phone. Expect a quiet week from me on the blog front. There will be some photos, a HK update and some (more) exciting news but on the whole it will be a short week for blog content.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:03 AM | Comments (4)

July 26, 2008

The Guardian

Have you seen the guardian newspaper today? They have published a whole booklet of knitting patterns with lots of interesting information about knitting in their Saturday paper. They anticipate selling between 300,000 and 600,000 copies of the paper today - that’s a whole lot of people learning more about knitting which can only be good, right?

You can read the article on line here but if you actually buy the newspaper you’ll get to see the lovely full page advert for Yarn Forward on the back page of the supplement. How exciting!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:19 AM | Comments (3)

July 24, 2008

The dress

I'm really proud of this bridesmaids dress. We did some serious customising of the bodice to ensure a perfect fit and the inside is not the neatest (in fact its quite scruffy) but seeing as the deadline that I thought I was working to has come forward from mid August to today I am really pleased with the way it all came out. Its pretty short but above the knee was the request and above the knee it is. I'm assured by the bridesmaid to be that she doesn't hate it and that it is very lovely and that's good enough for me. The photo was taken half way through hand sewing the hem in place. Pretty pink colour isn't it?

The bodice is made up of 5 pieces with 4 different layers so that's a total of 20 pieces plus boning which I've never worked with before and the shiny satiny material was also a first for me. It was a challenge to sew the pieces together around the bust and I had to rip that part out about 10 times but I got there in the end. I can see lots more sewing in my futre, I have well and truly got the bug.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:17 PM | Comments (1)

Wee shop update

I had some help this morning when I was taking photos for the shop. See?

Trin was sitting on my knee and squeeling with delight whenever I took a photo. She is really into the camera at the moment and will do the best grin and say cheese whenever she sees one.

Its the first day of the summer holidays today, yay! Brooke has a list of plans for the next 6 weeks which we'll try and fit in with my plans and Cameron's plans as well. Wayne gets to have a say in the 2 weeks that he is off too..

My HipKnits plans for August include some very very special offers for anyone who has bought yarn from us before. So if you've been lurking and wondering whether to buy from us or not you have until the end of July to place your first order so that you'll be entitled to the customer discounts in August. Did that even make sense? It is early....

I updated the shop this morning so go and have a look, see if anything takes your interest.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:08 AM | Comments (2)

July 22, 2008

Tuesdays

So, its 9.30pm and here I am, on the sofa blogging. Usually I update here in the morning but today has been tooo hectic for that. Now I'm settled down with a glass of wine and a slice of cheesecake and about 3 hours work to do I thought I'd make the effort to put a quick update on here.

You'll never guess how I spent most of my day today. I spent 5 hours making a bridesmaids dress for a friend of mine who is a bridesmaid for her sisted in a few weeks time. It was a fairly simple pattern but I'm so pleased with the way it looks. We made a muslin version last week which was unlined and fitted OK so today was all about the real thing. Satin dress, boned bodice, fully lined skirt and 3 layers of fabric in the bodice. I only have the hem to turn up and the zipper to put in properly and she is coming back on Thursday to pick it up. I'll get a pic of it then and show you, I'm really pleased with it.

That prompted me to cut out the pices for the Amy Butler Anna tunic that I've been meaning to make for ages. Maybe over the weekend I'll get to that.

I'm away all day tomorrow at a funeral, then Thursday is going to be a wee HipKnits shop update and hopefully I'll finish off some of my deadline knitting. Tonight I have to finish lots of work on the YF website as well as some other html bits that I've been putting off for ages.

I went through the HipKnits shop database this evening to pull names and addresses for a big mailing that I'm doing next week. We have almost 1000 registered customers on the site. That is amazing, I would have guessed about half of that. If you've ordered from us in the last 18 months you can expect a postcard with some special offers to arrive on your doorstep in the next few weeks.

Sorry this has been so bitty, its one of those weeks. I'm away again on Friday at a nice exciting meeting so hopefully next week will be more settled but somehow, I doubt it. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2008

Juliet

I was tempted by some Debbie Bliss yarn that was on sale in John Lewis last week, 6 balls of chocolate brown super chunky cashmerino for less than £2 a ball. Bargain. It is going to be knitted into Juliet from the Zephyr girls just as soon as I get a spare minute. I don't have quite enough to make the size that I wanted (should have bought more!) but a cropped version will be just fine.

I browsed some finished versions and I've decided that I'm going to use stocking stitch for the top section instead of garter stitch and start the lace below the bust line. Its vaguely similar to the Feb sweater I made recently, A line and lacy and I think the garter stitch top would make it too close for comfort. Has anyone else made this, what did you think of the pattern? I need to go browse Ravelry to see some finished ones I think.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2008

Similar yarns

A lot of our new yarns are a very similar yardage to our cashmere sock yarn. See?

Cashmere sock yarn - approx 500 yards per 100g skein
Yak - approx 470 yards per 100g skein
Silk and wool - approx 460 yards per 100g skein
Silk and baby camel - approx 450 yards per 100g skein

Here are a whole pile of Ravelry links to projects made using 1 skein of cashmere sock yarn, any of the other yarns would also work well in these patterns.

For those of you not on Ravelry you could try these shawls :

Swallowtail shawl
Diamond Fantasy shawl
Kiri
Forest Canapy

Or how about a Shetland shorty? You'd need 2 skeins for some of the bigger sizes.

Lots and lots of sock patterns here on knitty.

I'm trying to decide what to knit as samples for Ally Pally this year, I'm thinking lots of socks and shawls. What would you like to see our yarns made up into at the shows? Each skein is going to have a free pattern on the ball band for something, just haven't totally decided what yet. Decisions, decisions....

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2008

To Do today

Done

- Update HipKnits shop and share some pictures of the lovely new fibre and yarns here. All the new yummy stuff is here.

This is my favourite one, silk and baby camel. Can you say soft?

Loving the colours in this spinning fibre as well.

Shiny, shiny, silk and bamboo

- Bake desserts for village party tomorrow. Think that there are about 100 people going. That's a whole lot of desserts to make.

I've made a lemon pie so far. biscuit base and then cream, carnation milk and lemon filling. Nice and quick. Made while kids were eating toast at 10.00.

Next on the list is a choc cheesecake which is nice and easy as well. Then I think I'll make a banoffee pie and a big pile of muffins for the kids.

(edited to add The lemon pie didn't set properly and I ended up wimping out and just made about 200 muffins instead.)

- Tonnes of housework. Boring but necessary. (did little but not as much as I should have done)

- Knit a bit on each of the 7 things that are on the needles. (this is unlikely to be done) ((I finished 1 thing and worked on 2 others)

- Bank (didnt do)
- Tescos (check)
- Yf admin and paperwork (check)
- Go to printers (didnt do)

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:30 AM | Comments (1)

July 17, 2008

New Hair

Trin's hair is growing really long, she's been wearing it in little bobbles like this for a while now. To begin with she pulled out the hair bands but now she likes them, she'll go and pick them up and bring them over to Wayne or I patting her head and saying hair hair for us to put them in her.

Yesterday morning I happened to have everyone ready for nursery, school, work a little earlier than usual so I sat her down on my lap for half an hour and plaited her hair for the first time. It was a little scruffy but it stayed in all day and she didn't seem too bothered by it so that's a good sign. She sat nicely while I did it which is a great start, Cameron used to fight me every inch of the way when he was a baby. This means that soon Sunday is going to be a 3 way plaiting day, I'm going to need to put the whole afternoon and evening to one side to get them all washed, dried and plaited aren't I?!

I'm out all day today at a meeting up in Yorkshire but I have everything ready for an itsy bitsy shop update which I hope to get done tomorrow morning. The first of the silk / baby camel will be on the site and I really really want to keep it all for myself. Do you think anyone would notice?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:24 AM | Comments (1)

July 16, 2008

Some project progress

This is Sarah's shawl, she has started well even though reports being distracted by kids, TV and wine! (that sounds familiar!)

Alison had a bit of a problem with her cat and her skein of lace cashmere, eek! Hopefully her replacement skein will get her back on track soon.

Rachel is also knitting away, although she has had to rip out a couple of times.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:43 PM | Comments (1)

July 15, 2008

Tuesday

I knitted a bit of a shawl over the weekend using some of our lovely HK silk. The silly thing is that I only had a teeny ball to play with and now I've decided that I love the shawl and would like to continue with it I need to wait until mum comes to visit tomorrow to be able to carry on with the knitting. Its done in shade baby and is the 2nd project club pattern that is SUPPOSED to be knitted in lace cashmere. Whoops. (note on the project club progress, all but one parcels arrived. Only 2 people that I'm aware of have cast on, the rest are either finishing up current projects or waiting on injuries to heal. Pics from the group will be blogged here on Friday)

August is going to be the month of silk at HipKnits. Lots and lots of lovely patterns, special offers on our silk yarn (and probably some of the new silk blend yarns as well) new colours and new ideas. What better time to knit with silk than in summer? This is why I'm playing with the silk now..

We're also going to have some downloadable pdfs of pattern collections for you, with maybe 4 or 5 patterns in each one. Its going to be a lot fun putting the month of silk together, I'm rediscovering my love of all things silk like. And with that its time to go and wind some more silk into balls.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:49 AM | Comments (3)

July 14, 2008

Whoops

We have this amazing skein winder that will wind yarn from cones to hanks at the touch of a button. All we have to do is to line up anything from 1 - 10 cones on the machine, feed the yarn through, set the number of yards we want in each skein and press go. (this is fun when we get a new yarn in and have no idea how many yards = how many grams, this is why we often have smaller skeins for sale in the shop sale section where we are making different sized skeins until we know how many yards we need)

The machine stops winding when it has reached the programmed number of yards and hey presto, a whole pile of skeins ready to dye.

Well, usually this is what happens. Sometimes the machine has a total meltdown and just keeps winding. This is OK if you're standing over it watching but as this is the most boring job in the world we usually put the machine on to wind while we are dyeing or doing something else. The other day we were winding our brand new camel / silk yarn into hanks when disaster struck and instead of 3 skeins weighing 100g each we ended up with 3 GIANT skeins, one weighing 400g and the others weighing 600g each. Eek.

Here they are in their lovely undyed and natural state. Being all huge and everything,

What to do with them? I don't fancy winding them down into smaller skeins particularly but they are of little use and value to me like this. So how about a special blog offer? The first 3 people to email me can have these GIANT skeins custom dyed just for them and they will sell for half retail price. (normal retail price for a 100g skein is going to be £18) There is enough in them to make multiple scarves / shawls or even a whole cardigan / sweater. The yardage is approx 450 yards per 100g so you're getting lots and lots of yarn here.

Email me at kerrieAThipknits.co.uk and tell me which of the following you want :

Skein A - approx 400g and 1800 yards HALF PRICE - £36
Skein B - approx 600g and 2700 yards HALF PRICE - £54
Skein C - approx 600g and 2700 yards HALF PRICE - £54

All gone, thanks guys!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

Monday

Its 6am on Monday morning and I am soooo looking forward to this week. There will be no sickness, no teacher training days, no small people at home with me. There will be mucho productivity, boxes will be unpacked and todo lists will be completed. There will be a fun trip out by train and a big night out with ex work colleagues. There will be knitting. There will be sewing. Wine will be drunk. Cake will be eaten. This week is going to rock. I will make it so.

HipKnits wise last week was another quiet one, we only sent out about 18 parcels and one of those didn't arrive. Grrrrrr. Lots of nice feedback on the ones that did arrive and we're sorting out a replacement for Barbara so all will be well in the end. Its still frustrating though when parcels don't get where they are supposed to get...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:52 AM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2008

Hello?

What a few days its been! Trinity managed to do this week what Cameron failed to do the week before and pass her bug around the rest of the house. Wayne, Brooke and I have spent the last 2/3 days with serious stomach upsets, its been horrible. Looking after healthy children when you are ill is not fun at all, especially when both adults in the house are ill. Touch wood we all seem to be getting a little better now but its a slow process. Ugh.

I managed to update the shop this evening, for some reason though a lot of the nice new goodies are not showing up in the new products page. Some of them are, a lot of them are not. Who knows why? So you'll have to go

Here for the last ever skeins of seacell yarn that we have. Not sure if I'm going to get any more in.

Here for about 100 skeins of Ophelia sock yarn, most of them have at least 2 skeins per colour.

Here for some lovely bargains.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2008

Monkey

This little monkey is home sick with me today. Doesn't look very sick though does she? When I picked her up from nursery yesterday afternoon she had just finished throwing up on one of the teachers and she was sick again in the night, poor little poppet. She seems totally fine in between bouts of sickness but nursery rules are 48 hours at home so that she doesn't pass on whatever she has to the other babies.

Its going to be quite nice to have some time just me and her. Most of the time there is a house full of people around us, its been months since my days were spent just me and Trin, hanging out at home together.

Loads and loads of new Hipknits stock is arriving this week, laceweight yarns, plenty of BFL fibre and THE most gorgeous silk and baby camel blend ever. I think its a similar blend to the HandMaiden camelspin (but I've never seen that yarn so I'm only guessing as the composition looks similar). We still have lots and lots of the Emilia super chunky yarn as well which didn't really sell too well so that needs to be dyed up and put on sale soon. I might take it to Ally Pally with me.

I'm getting excited about Ally Pally already. We are going to have so many lovely yarns, and patterns, and kits to take with us. It is my all time favourite show of the year and its only 3 months away now. We already have a box put to one side and whenever we dye any yarn half of it goes in the AP box and the other half goes on the site. I've never been so organised!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:21 AM | Comments (1)

July 08, 2008

Weekend fun and games

What a weekend! I love the fact that we're so flexible as a family and that we can change plans at a drop of a hat and do what we want to, when we want to. Saturday night was supposed to be a big night out for both Wayne and I, he was going out with his mates and me with mine. The babysitter was booked and we were both looking forward to a good night out.

Plans were changed however when a little postcard dropped through our front door. It reminded us how good we are as a couple, how strong we are as a family and how we didn't actually need to spend any time apart from each other - so we cancelled the babysiters, texted friends to pull out of dancing plans and took the 3 kids to the seaside instead. It was exactly what the doctor ordered, we played in the sand, collected shells and stones, ate dinner on the seafront, played in the penny arcades, won stuffed toys and didn't go home until hours after everyone's bedtime when we were all about to fall asleep on the beach. It was perfect.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good as well, very different from how we expected to spend it but lovely and relaxing.

I'm in website mode this week, sorting out lots of bits and trying to get Dreamweaver working properly on the MAC. I'm still much more comfortable with the PC but that has to change :(

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:08 AM | Comments (1)

July 07, 2008

Change of plan

I had this whole post planned this morning about the weekend, some stuff that happened on Saturday and a few other bits. I feel as though it should wait now, we had quite an emotional night last night explaining to the children that someone they knew well on Wayne's side of the family had died and I'm not really feeling in the mood any more. Cameron is still to young to fully understand, he listened seriously and then when we asked him if he wanted to ask us any questions he said yes, please will you read me 2 Thomas books bedore bed. Brooke asked a lot of questions and went to bed but minutes later we could hear her sobbing. It had reminded her of when my gran died last year and she was feeling sad about both deaths all over again.

She got up and we spent half an hour or so snuggled up talking about death, heaven, what it is like to die and anything else that she wanted to talk about. I told her that its OK to be sad and to cry and that she doesnt have to try and be brave and that she can ask me anything that she wants, so she did. We had quite a grown up conversation which ended up with us sharing our happiest memories of both people who we had lost, she came up with some things that I had no idea she remembered. It was really special. She then managed to persuade us to let her come downstairs and watch some of Top Gear with us.

Its another busy week for me this week with mainly magazine work going on. HipKnits stats wise last week was a quiet one, I didnt update the shop until Friday night so we only posted out about 13 parcels all week. Lots of nice positive feedback on the orders that did go out so that's brilliant news for us.

I also need to get organised on some of my knitting projects, I'm working on 2 things for the magazine at the moment, want to make 2 lace shawls to keep up with some knitalongs and also really fancy making Juliet from the Zephyr girls. (Rav link) I could do with a second pair of hands! I might have a sort through the stash later on today, see what I can come up with.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:12 AM | Comments (4)

July 03, 2008

Nothing for ya

I'm empty today, I have nothing for you. I've been knitting a little, spinning some, planning some sewing and working hard on the magazine and other bits. Lou and I have been going through the notes we made while drunk in the hotel at Woolfest, some of our ideas after a few gins are inspired and others, well - not so much. We've given ourselves plenty to do over the next few weeks..

So tired though, so tired. I'm not sleeping too well at the moment and Cameron is still sick bless him. Today is a day on the sofa watching Scooby Doo and working on the laptop I think.

Keep an eye out on the YF blog and Ravelry group for details of our summer knitalong. Sarah is organising it for us and I think we're all going to be knitting the gorgeous Liz Lovick wedding shawl. Gulp. Its laceweight.

I really need to sort out the HipKnits shop update, its been a couple of weeks now since we did a proper one. I'll try and get that done tomorrow I think.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:02 AM | Comments (3)

July 02, 2008

A wee bit of spinning

We had some sad family news yesterday and I have a sick Cameron at home with me at the moment so no shop update today and not much of anything else is going on right now. I'm planning on going into the office when Wayne is home later I think.

While Wayne was out last night I finished off the yarn I was making from the pink / chocolate batt I bought from Natalie and started knitting it into a simple top down shawl. I have just about run out now so need to get my hands on some plain pink or chocolate fibre so that I can spin more yarn and finish off the shawl. I have a lovely lace pattern all picked out for the solid section.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)

July 01, 2008

Good grief?

Can you believe that it is July already? Over half the year gone, every day is moving us closer to Christmas (sorry to swear!), closer to 2009, closer to YF being available on the shelves in my local Tescos - scary stuff... I must be getting old, I can't keep up with the months any more!

I'm starting something new this month, every Monday morning there will be a HipKnits stats post - telling you how many orders we processed the previous week, how many positive customer feedbacks we had, how many negatives, how many times we had a missing parcel, that kind of thing. I'm hoping this will make us nice and transparant and show you all how well we're doing at the moment and how all the improvements we've made have made a HUGE difference to the HipKnits world.

There will be a shop update later tomorrow together with a July customer feedback entry in the review section, this is the place for customers to post feedback on their orders which were placed in July. ALL feedback will be entered into a prize draw for July where you could win a £5 gift certificate and ALL feedback will be approved whether it is good or bad, as long as it fairly applies to an order placed in July 08. This is not the place to moan about old orders or other issues, OK internet?

In other news I'm spending much of this week unpacking as we've moved into a nice big shiny office at Thremhall Park which means that I get to go into a proper office to work each day instead of working from home. I think this is going to make a HUGE difference to the way I work, including the fact that I'm going to try and cycle the 5 miles in every day so I should start to get a bit fitter at the same time.

I've also been spinning lots. I spun up the lovely pink and chocolate batt I picked up from Natalie at the weekend, isn't it pretty? I finished it after taking this photo so it is now added to the basket full of little skeins of handspun that I'm saving for something special..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:52 AM | Comments (1)

June 30, 2008

Woolfest

Lou and I had a great time in Woolfest. Again we sold so many magazines, we beat our subscription target for the weekend (which we had set based on Wonderwool and other shows) by 2pm on the first day. We met many of our subscribers as they came to pick up the new copy which was lovely and made so many new friends. At breakfast on Saturday morning it was really funny to see so many of the other people in the hotel with a copy of YF on the table with them!

Lou has photos of the weekend and will be posting on the YF blog later on today, I'm going to show you just one pic of the stash I bought for myself, I was very restrained I think. I narrowly avoided bringing 4 big bin bags full of raw fleece home with me, maybe next year...

I did treat myself to these though, some shetland roving (pink and green at the back already fluffed up and ready to spin) and a batt from Natalie at the yarn yard, some fibre from Krafty Koala, a lovely needle case from Nics knits and some white texel roving from Wingham. I had far more fun shopping for Twinkletoes though, I filled lots of bags of goodies for her from her list, I hope she likes them!

We stayed over Saturday night and drove home all day Sunday. It took over 6 hours and by the time we got back to mine there was jsut time for a quick cup of tea before I headed over to the school summer fete and Lou got back in the car for another 4 hours drive to her house. Both of us feel as though we never want to get in the car again at the moment!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:55 AM | Comments (4)

June 25, 2008

KAL Media Press Release

KAL Media Press Release, Wednesday 25th June

KAL Media, publishers of Yarn Forward Magazine, today announce that from October the popular UK knitting magazine will be published 10 times a year and will be available to buy through leading newsagents and supermarkets.

Louise Butt, Managing Editor of Yarn Forward Magazine and partner in KAL Media said “the magazine has been really successful this year and we have been thrilled with the response we have received from our existing subscriber base and new customers alike. An increase in frequency of publication and making Yarn Forward more widely available to the general public is the best way to make sure the magazine reaches its full potential.”

Yarn Forward is a 100-page magazine containing brand new and exclusive knitting and crochet patterns, price bracketed yarn alternatives for every pattern, realistic sizes from 30-50 inch bust and only 10 pages of advertising per issue. Each issue also contains in depth articles on topics that will be of interest to our readers - for example features on both small independant suppliers and larger yarn companies together with reviews of brand new products and books, interviews and technical features.

For more information, email feedback@yarnforwardmagazine.co.uk

For advertising, email shirley@yarnforwardmagazine.co.uk

How about that then?? You may already have seen this press release if you are a Yarn Forward subscriber, we thought it was important to let those people who have supported us through the first 6 issues know the news first.

So what does this mean for me personally? A huge amount. I can't begin to explain to you how it feels for the magazine to be a viable business, with cash flow forecasts and a business plan that has impressed everyone we have shown it to. For too long I struggled with it and was told a number of times that it was not financially viable and that it was worth nothing and would never make any money. The idea of it being on the shelves in WH Smiths, Tescos and other newsagents and supermarkets in the autumn is at once scary and totally thrilling. It is a major validation of all the hard work and time and effort that I have put into the magazine. I couldn't have done it without Lou, she has been the catalyst behind this change and we are both sooooo excited to take the magazine to the next level.

We are busy recruiting for more and more support staff to work on the magazine with Lou and I as we both know we cant do it on our own any more. I'm also taking more of a backseat with HipKnits, I think I'll be more of a creative manager while mum and dad are the general managers. They will deal with pretty much all of the dyeing, packaging, emails and other day to day running of the business while I will continue to be involved with choosing yarns, patterns, designs, colours, kits, promotions, and photographing the yarn. Its going to work out really well I think.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have a country to travel around distributing press releases, media packs and sample magazines to lots of lovely people before we make it to Woolfest to meet lots of lovely subscribers.

Catch you next week. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:53 AM | Comments (15)

June 24, 2008

Thought provoking

Wayne and I watched some interesting TV last night, from 8pm we watched Windrush on BBC4. This is the story of HMS windrush that sailed from the caribean to the UK after the 2nd world war bringing many black immigrants. Just watching what they went through when they arrived here was amazing, the mixed race couples who were spat at in the street, the signs on boarding houses saying rooms for rent, no blacks, no dogs. Frightening.

They showed some of the TV adverts from around that time. With well dressed upper class white people explaining that they were not racist, one of them said something like "its not that we don't like black people because of the colour of their skin, its because they smell bad that we don't like them" WTF???

Then we watched a panorama programme on Primark and how their cheap clothes are made in India, with children as young as 10 hand stitching sequins onto clothes for something like 14 pence a day. The average daily wage is £1 so 14p a day is ridiculously low.

It really makes you think about how lucky we are in our particular time and country. I can't imagine living in any conditions other than the ones we live in now, its sad to think that there are parts of the world where children can't be children because they are too busy working hard for pennies a day to give to their families..

Do you believe in miracles? Or Karma? Or fate? I do. I believe that everything that you do comes back to you, whether it be good or bad. I also believe that we can never understand the consequences our actions can have. I've done a few things that I thought were being helpful which turned out to cause more problems than they were worth and recently a very pants situation turned out to have a huge silver lining to it that I would never have expected. You just can't predict what the universe is going to do.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about miracles, I've seen a fair few of them around here recently with lots of babies being born, a friend being undiagosed with cancer (what a mistake to make!) as well as a horrific accident on the motorway that no-one should have walked away from, but they did. It makes you feel really good about life when things like this happen doesn't it?

A smaller example of fate happened over the weekend when Wayne and I were sitting around talking about buying some new furniture. I had seen some that I liked in Habitat and wanted to show it to him but we'd both turned off our laptops and I couldnt be bothered to get it out of the cupboard to turn it on and google it. We also couldnt be bothered to get dressed and drive to our nearest habitat and just as I was saying to him "damn, we should have picked up a catalogue last time we were there" the post dropped through the door containing by some bizarre twist of fate a habitat catalogue. See? Karma. I love it when things like that happen, don't you? Makes you realise that you are not alone in the world and that someone somewhere is looking after you.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:39 AM | Comments (2)

June 23, 2008

Feb Sweater

I really really enjoyed knitting this little sweater. I decided to make a sleeveless, cropped version as that seems to be the style I'm wearing most often these days.

The pattern was from here and I made the size L to fit my UK size 16 self. It used 238g of aran weight yarn which means that I have plenty left to use for something else one day.

I don't know why the self timer photos I took came out so bizarre, I am such a novice when it comes to my camera. Lets pretend they were supposed to be all whited out and artistic shall we?

I love this photo because you can see the gorgeous photos of Brooke and Cameron in the background and man it makes my hair look red!

I did manage to take a couple of pics without the scary white out effect but I look so cross (and fat!) in them that I'm not going to show you!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:02 AM | Comments (3)

June 22, 2008

Mini Update

I finished my version of the Feb sweater today and as Lou and I are now not away until Thursday I'll be able to show you all pics tomorrow. Bet you can't wait can you?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:44 PM | Comments (1)

New Hair

What do you think? My super star husband dyed it for me last week Saturday morning. We did it all over in a dark brown ish colour and then he put 2 lots of highlights in, first the coppery / blondey ones at the back and then the red ones at the front. I like it, nice and bright and summery. Really reflects how I'm feeling right now :)

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:45 AM | Comments (2)

June 20, 2008

That Friday feeling

I was the first one up this morning, that doesn't happen often. I have a big week ahead of me next week and the first specific stress dream happened at about 4.30am and that was it, no sleep for me after that. I've been having non specific stress dreams for a while now, you know the ones where you are dropping the kids off at school and suddenly realise that you forgot to get dressed that morning and are standing there naked in front of the whole school. Those kind of stress dreams.

This morning's one was a whole lot more specific than that which is why I've been here on the sofa for the last couple of hours waiting for the rest of the house to wake up. So far, nothing. Its kind of peaceful.

I decided to make the feb sweater into a short sleeved, cropped cardigan when I realised that my 3 most worn cardigans at the moment are that style. I was also getting a bit bored with the lace pattern and I have zero patience so just worked the garter stitch edge and cast off. Just the short sleeves to go now. If I get them done over the weekend I might be able to show you a snap of the finished cardigan before I go away on Monday. Maybe not though depending on everything else.

So next week is going to be a quiet week. There will be a shop update on Monday and mum and dad will be posting everything out and looking after stuff for me. I'll be around to check emails every now and again from Mon - Wed but then Thurs - Sun I'll be properly at Woolfest so that will slow me up a little.

I'm rambling a bit this morning. So much in my head that I'm trying to make sense of that I don't know where to start. I think I'll just sit here and carry on looking out the window and reflecting on life until someone from upstairs decides to come and join me!

I hope to update here on Monday and also on the YF blog, for those of you coming to Woolfest please come and say hello - one of the best things about the shows is getting to put faces to names.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:22 AM | Comments (2)

June 19, 2008

Thanks!

Thanks for all the comments, emails, birthday cards that came through yesterday - y'all are lovely. I had a great day, I went shopping in the morning and spent all my birthday money (and then some) on clothes and jewellry, KFC for lunch, then home for an afternoon nap. Wayne did the school runs for me and I chilled out and knitted more on the Feb sweater (have worked about 8 inches of lace on the body so far, have left 200g of yarn to one side for the sleeves and plan to work the body as long as I can with the rest of the yarn) and finished a book I was reading.

When the kids got home we had a birthday tea, chocolate cake and then played party games until bedtime. The only party CD Brooke could find was a Christmas one but it didn't matter, playing musical statues to Jingle Bells in June is a little surreal but sill a lot of fun. Best birthday ever I think!

Today I'm catching up with everything. I'm out of the office all week next week so I have lots of adminy bits to get straight first. There will be some magically appearing blog posts here and on the YF blog thanks to the wonders of technology, at least one of them will be a really interesting one. For now though, its time to get everyone dressed and ready and out of the house for our days.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:18 AM | Comments (1)

June 18, 2008

Happy Birthday to me

32 today. It still doesn't feel that old though...

I'm taking the day off work (yay!) but there is a special HipKnits update on the site with a 32% discount if you spend £32 or more in any one transaction not including postage for the rest of the week. The offer applies to everything on the site while stocks last.

For some reason the new yarns I put on aren't appearing in the new products section, I don't know why. Sigh. I mainly updated some sale seacell and merino and some new ophelia colours. There are lots of other yummy yarns still on the site though so go and have a rummage, see what you can find.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to go shopping, have lunch and generally be a lady of leisure for the day.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:58 AM | Comments (18)

June 17, 2008

New project club

The first HipKnits project club is just about over (I havent heard that all the packages have arrived but I hope that most of them have by now and I'll be refunding today all those that tell me they haven't arrived) and to be honest, it didn't run as smoothly as I would have liked. In fact, that may be an understatement. We had way too many people on it for me to be able to manage properly and we suffered hugely with postal problems. I totally over comitted myself. At one point there were over 60 people on the club in total, about half of them had blogs and keeping up with the colour choices each time and the changes of email address, postal address etc proved to be too much for me. I shouldn't have let people keep joining after the club had started. I'm really sorry that it didn't run as well as I intended it to, I learned A LOT of lessons from it = that's for sure.

Since beginning of May mum and dad have been managing most of the day to day HipKnits for me (dad is doing the majority of the dyeing and mum is doing all of the posting out of parcels etc) and things have been much easier. I should have given them the last batch of club parcels to post out but after making up all the little goodie bags I decided to drive to the nearest big town to post them, however there were about 1/3 of them that I still havent heard have arrived. Sigh. They'll come back to me at some point but its so frustrating for right now.

I thought long and hard about whether to run another version of the project club and despite the problems with the first one I am confident that I've made enough changes to the way HipKnits is run to ensure that the next club runs more smoothly. I had so many requests from people who wanted to join the first one that I have decided to stick with my plan to run another one but in a different format which will hopefully make it easier for me and more enjoyable for everyone else.

The biggest changes are that it is going to be run over a shorter period of time, with much fewer people and that all colour choices need to be made at the beginning of the club. Also, all of the parcels are going to be assembled in the first few weeks of the club so that mum can just post them out at the right time.

I sold a number of places to the newsletter list at a little discount a few weeks ago, the remaining places are going to be STRICTLY limited this time, I let too many people through after all the places had sold last time. I need to be tough this time to preserve my sanity! This is up on the website now here but will only be available for a few days, if you're interested.

HipKnits project club – round 2.

I've also made the decision to let the HipKnits project club blog go, it will be deleted later on in the week. A certain little mouse might have had something to do with that decision. Stupid and unnecessary anony "mouse" comments really annoy me.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:17 AM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2008

Feb sweater

We had a lovely lazy weekend, spent mostly at mum and dad's house. I napped, knitted, had my hair dyed, went to the cinema with Wayne, watched a film, read some book, played football in the garden (although only for about 5 minutes - Wayne lasted about 4 hours out there, much more energetic than me) and knitted some more.

I'm on my 3rd 50g ball of random unlabelled grey aran yarn that I'm using for the Feb sweater and I've finished the garter stitch yoke. Whether this means I'll have enough yarn, I don't know. I'm knitting the L size which should need 1050 yards and from the little note I had written to myself in with the unlabelled yarn I think I have 1080 yards. Im a fairly loose gauge knitter though so I'm a little nervous about running out..

I couldn't find a circ needle when I started and I've JUST about managed to squash all of the stitches on straight needles but it was close at the end - it is really squashy on there.

I'm just about to knit my 4 rows of the gull lace pattern and then I'll be separating for the body so there should be a little more room on the needles. I'm considering knitting the sleeves before the body as I really like long long sleeves and I only have 12 x 50g balls of this yarn and I don't want to run short. I'd prefer to have a slightly shorter body if I need to. We'll see though..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:22 AM | Comments (2)

June 13, 2008

Thursday pudding, will probably still be there on Saturday though

I'm no Michaela when it comes to cooking but I do love to make puddings. I have this magic power to make puddings out of seemingly nothing. When Wayne and I are sitting on the sofa after the kids have gone to bed and one of fancies an unhealthy snack I can usually make something yummy from the contents of our cupboards and fridge with not too much effort.

Last night was an unusual night, Brooke cooked dinner and made pudding for her and Trinity. The had cookery lessons at school and she came home with Greek Salad and a spinach and feta cheese pie made with Filo pastry. It was yummy. Then she made an apple crumble which was equally yummy.

However, I'd already made a dessert before she asked for apple crumble, a lemon and chocolate pie. Two desserts in the house is never bad thing though. It was a total experiment and I just made it up as I went along. It tasted pretty good though, both Wayne and I cleared our plates so that can't be a bad sign.

I'm not very good at measuring or weighing but here is the basic recipe that I used..

Biscuit base

1 packet of digestives
melted butter
half a dozen bourbon biscuits that were beginning to go a bit soft in the bottom of the biscuit tin (waste not want not)

make a basic biscuit base by crushing biscuits in the food processor and adding enough melted butter to make a sticky base. Pop in the freezer to harden while you make the pie filling.

Pie filling

1 284ml pot of double cream (I use low fat, not that it makes much difference!)
1 normal sized tin of condensed milk
1 teaspoon lemon essence (would probably use a little less next time)
Half a bar of chocolate, probably around 100g. (would probably use a little more next time)

Whisk the double cream until it stands up by itself. Add the condensed milk and the lemon essence and mix well. Melt the chocolate and stir into the pie mixture.

Spoon on top of the biscuit base and chill for at least 2 hours before eating. Yum. I'm planning a strawberry version of this just as soon as we make it fruit picking.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, we have lots planned as usual. I cast on for the adults EZ Feb sweater last night and got to the bottom of the garter stitch yoke before realising I'd messed up the stitch counts so I'm back to having just knitted 3 rows now. That'll teach me for trying to knit and talk to Fiona at the same time, I cant concentrate on 2 things at once!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:57 AM | Comments (3)

June 12, 2008

Mini cardigan

I wanted to make something for Trinity that was small, easy to make and hopefully used only just one ball of Rowan organic cotton. I was flicking through books for inspiration and couldn't find anything that was quite right until I remembered the February sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman. I didn't have my copy of the pattern with me but I remembered how the garter stitch yoke went from a previous incarnation of making the pattern and didn't think I would get further than the yoke before I got back home.

However, I did get to the end of the yoke and being eager to continue I decided to use stocking stitch instead of the lace stitch pattern that looks so lovely in the original. I hoped to have enough to make a nice little cropped cardigan and I "just about" managed it. I actually ran out of yarn on the cast off row 2 stitches from the end so I was forced to thread it through the last 2 stitches.

I think it looks lovely, the first ever Feb sweater I saw in real life was this gorgeous one that Trinity received as a present when she was tiny. It is still one of my favourite cardigans and I only wish that I could squeeze her comfortably into it still.

I struggled to get any good photos of her wearing it, I know that a striped bob the builder T shirt wasn't the best outfit to style it with but honestly, have you tried to get her to wear anything else recently? She is BOB obsessed, I blame Cameron.

Here it is on the floor, unblocked and desperately in need of a little love and attention.

In the split second before she tried to rip it off.

Get this thing off me, can't you see it's obscuring the BOB.

I have no idea what this is but I think it belongs to you. Here. Take it. Take it!!

If you make me wear it again, I'll eat it. I will you know. Yum, it tastes kind of good.

I tell you what, how about I take it over here, drop it on the floor and throw my ball at it for a while. That sounds like fun, don't ya think?

Trouble. That's the only word for her....

Its rare that anything I want to do is either fashionable or popular but as I was making this last week I was thinking a lot about an adult sized version for me. Lo and behold Flintknits has already written the pattern out for one and there is a whole Ravelry group set up for the knit along. I am soooooooo tempted...

In other news I fell in love with this in the new knitty. The day will come when my to knit list is for me rather than for the magazine or hipknits. Oh yes, the day will come and when it does I'll be making this. For sure.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:01 AM | Comments (6)

June 11, 2008

Knitting clubs

I had a lovely evening with the Roding quilters last night, I went along to their monthly meeting to run a knitting flowers class and it was great. Everyone went away with 1 or 2 silk flowers and I think they all had a good time. It was nice to see Fiona again who organises the club and also Jacqueline which was a surprise. (especially as she bought me goodies, thanks Jacqueline!)

It was a fairly late night for me (stopping off at McDonalds on the way home for McFlurry and milkshake didn't help) and this morning I'm shattered. I have a horrible day ahead of me today which I'm not really looking forward to. Plenty of admin to start with and then a little bit of accounts followed by some legal advice on a debt matter. This is my least favourite part of my job but it needs to be done. I prescribe an evening in front of the TV (child of our time and the apprentice) to get over it all. I also need to persuade Trinity to model her new cropped cardigan so that I can show it to you all tomorrow.

EDITED TO ADD

Today wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be for a number of reasons. Just a quick couple of bits.

- Have you seen the new Knitty? Do you like the Yarn Forward advert on this page and the HipKnits one here?

- Have you checked out the YF blog recently? Lou did me a fab jpg of all our designs from the summer issue, doesn't it look great?

- Its 7pm and I'm going to try and get all 3 kiddos in the bath and to bed in the next half an hour so that then when wayne comes home later on with my ice cream and wine I can just sit in front of the TV and knit all night. Wish me luck. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:20 AM | Comments (2)

June 10, 2008

Shop updated

The shop update is good to go and for the first time in ages I sent out a newsletter update with a 10% off doscount voucher. You can go here to see all the new items, here are some of my favourite.

Wool / Silk in experiment.

More yak

Pretty lace cashmere

Pastelly cotton and silk

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:25 PM | Comments (2)

June 09, 2008

Melancholy

I've been feeling a little strange for the last few days, I was trying to explain to Wayne yesterday morning how I was feeling and couldn't think of the right word. I'm not really sad, or down, or blue or depressed but I'm not quite right. (no comments please!) I finally lay awake last night and decided that melancholy is the perfect word to describe my mood at the moment, "A feeling of thoughtful sadness."

There have been lots of happy things happening around here recently but with all the happy things come periods of change and I think that is what is making me look back on the last few years and has pushed me into this deeply thoughtful and quietly sad phase. You know that saying when your daughter is getting married that you should look on it as not losing a daughter but gaining a son? Some days at the moment I can only see the losses, the things that are not going to be there any more in the next couple of years and other days I can only see the gains and all the good things that are to come.

This week needs to be a week of reflection, of carefully making plans and finalising certain things and of shaking off this thoughtfull phase. I sat down yesterday and knitted something that I wanted to knit for the first time in ages (photos later on this week if I can persuade Trinity to model for me) and this morning I had a quick 5 minute cuddle with my neighbours newborn baby. Its the little things like that which will keep me going until I can shake the melancholy.

I also self prescribe home made cheesecake (its on my list of things to do today), an hour or so of strawberry picking with the kids, EVITA soundtrack this afternoon while I'm writing some job specs out and the thought of teaching knitted flower classes at a knitting group tomorrow evening. Focus on the little things.....

Plan for the rest of the week - big shop update tomorrow, finish some sewing that I started last week, lots of website work and a wee bit of experimenting with new yarns and dye methods.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:36 AM | Comments (2)

June 07, 2008

All about the yak yarn

The good news, a little shop update is in progress now and will be done by 1pm - not much on today I'm afraid but the first 20 or so skeins of yak are on there.

Specs - 100% yak yarn, 470 yards to 100g, sock ish weight. Beautifully soft.

Sue made this gorgeous scarf out of 1 skein of the yarn, it looks lovely doesn't it? She said that she enjoyed working with the yarn and that it was lovely and soft. Some of the dye did come off on her fingers while she was knitting but we tested another couple of skeins and they seemed OK so I'm hoping it was just a one off. I believe this is her daughter modelling the scarf, see how many times it wraps around her neck? I dont know exactly how long it is but it looks plenty long enough to me!

There will be a nice big shop update early next week. I'm currently suffering from a short period of TOO MUCH DO TO itis but it should be lifting in the next few weeks. (she says hopefully) I'm strictly limiting my fun time until I've got everything done - think it should take another couple of weeks before I can start to breathe easily again....

PS - I'm having problems with comments at the moment, I installed a new anti spam thing a few days ago and now cant approve comments. Sigh. Feel free to leave a comment, I'll see it and it will appear here at some point when I work out how to uninstall what I installed. You'd think I'd learn to leave stuff alone now wouldn't you?

PPS - Sue commented just now to say this

"The scarf measures @ 104"/265cm long and 9"/23cm wide. Now it's been washed, it's even softer and very cosy. It was lovely to knit and my daughter (as pictured) says it's lovely to wear, too!"

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:44 PM | Comments (4)

June 03, 2008

Reviews

The reviews software has been installed on the shop site, you'll see when you open an item that you have the chance to review it at the bottom. Go and have a play if you like! I'm out of here now until Friday so more on how the reviews are working then. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)

Extensions

I plaited extensions into Brooke's hair on Sunday for the second time, I'm still not very good but I am getting better. The trickiest bit seems to be starting off, see below how the beginning of the extensions has slipped back a couple of inches from the front of her head? They are supposed to be right at the hairline. Must practice that.

She loves them though, tells me that it makes her feel really grown up. I didnt get too carried away, I wanted it to be reasonable for her to go to school with and not crazy. I might try and do some funky ones for the summer holidays but these only took an hour which is not much more than it usually takes me to plait her hair so I'm happy with them for school type extensions.

Cameron was fascinated by what I was doing with the fake hair and sat enthralled for nearly the whole time I was plaiting! I am all out of fake hair now though so a trip to Finsbury park in London is in order over the next few weeks so that I can restock.

I'm working away from home for a couple of days so I'll be back on Friday with a big shop update and lots of news. I've had a really physical day today, lots of carrying of boxes and moving large furniture around. I ache!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:20 PM | Comments (2)

June 02, 2008

New magazine subscription

I used to give myself a yarn / fabric / fun budget each month and I used to be sure to spend it fully. This year has been much harder for me financially now that Trinity has started going into nursery a couple of days a week and my fun budget has been reduced to just £20 a month. That's OK really as I don't actually have much time to do anything other than work and family stuff these days so I really dont need to be expanding the stash.

What it does mean though is that when I really want something I have to save up a bit to get it. I recently took out a subscription to Ottobre magazine which took 2 months fun budget but oh my goodness, it was so worth it.

My first copy of my subscription arrived last Wednesday (right in the middle of magazine madness, which is still ongoing but should be finished soon) along with the free copy that I received for taking out a subscription. I saved them to read at the weekend and they are just amazing. So many patterns that I want to try out and lots and lots of inspiration just by looking at them.

Brooke has been through them and chosen lots of clothes that she wants me to make for her and Trinity and Cameron (typically for him) picked the most complicated design and asked me to sew him a shirt. Hmm, think I'll practise on some of the easier ones for a while first!

We had such a busy weekend, we got all of the HipKnits project club final packages out in the post (more on that later in the week), went shopping at Lakeside, then out to lunch with some friends, out to a BBQ with family in the evening and finally I spent all day yesterday working on the magazine and cooking dinner. I almost feel as though I'm half way into my week even though today is first day back at school after half term. Speaking of which, its almost half seven and none of the kids are up (why does this only happen in the week and not on a Sunday?) so I need to go and start switching on lights and waking people if I have any hope of getting all 4 of us up and dressed and ready for the day in the next hour or so!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:28 AM | Comments (2)

May 31, 2008

Procrastination

So Katya must have known that I was in dire need of some procrastination, this meme is the perfect thing to do when I really should be doing a million other things.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:

Living in Ilford. Been seeing Wayne for about 6 months. In the process of buying my own flat. Working for Enron as Helpdesk Manager and putting in 15 hour days as we moved 2000 people from one building to another. Generally being young, free and single, working really hard at something that I loved and having a hell of a lot of fun. Sigh.

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Finish proofing some pages for the magazine
Make a picnic to take to Greenwich park at lunchtime
Go to BBQ this evening
Laundry
Buy birthday presents for various children

3. Snacks I enjoy:

I'm not really a chocolate eater (shock horror, I know) but I do love biscuits. I'd snack on digestives all day if they were in the house, which is why they are not!

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

Buy a house in the middle of no-where and one by the sea. Make sure family and close friends never had to work again, travel with the children a lot more and donate more to charities - making sure it actually got to where it was needed the most.

5. Places I have lived:

St Ives (Cambs), Cheshunt (Herts), Canonbury (Islington), Ilford (Essex), Dagenham (Essex)

So, Michaela, Marianne, WMK and anyone else who fancies having a go - consider yourself tagged!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:21 AM | Comments (1)

May 30, 2008

A recipe for disaster.

Take one almost 4 year old who seems to have totally lost his manners and has spent most of the last week or so on the naughty step.

Add one 14 month old girl who is obsessed with her dad (not overly interested in her mum at all) and has stopped sleeping properly at night.

Combine a busy deadline week with half term and sprinkle a twisted ankle and the inability to choose a photo for the front cover on top.

Place all ingredients in the same house together, mix and leave for a week to see what develops.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:32 PM | Comments (6)

May 29, 2008

Paypal

There are a lot of rumblings online at the moment about Paypal, has anyone here had problems with them? I think that on the whole they are OK but I have been looking around for an alternative for a while for both HipKnits and Yarn Forward and having read some of the forums, blogs and other news stories this morning I think I'll make that a priority for next week.

If anyone is interested then start here with the Statcounter blog and follow some of the links in the comments. They don't make very nice reading though, you have been warned.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:07 AM | Comments (1)

Modern (or not) Technology

This is one of the best buys I've ever made for HipKnits (the industrial multi cone to skein winder was THE ULTIMATE best buy) a mangle that I picked up from ebay for around £30 I think.

Its perfect for getting as much water out of the yarn as possible after it has been rinsed and before it is hung up to dry. The silk especially benefits from this as it is so dense that it used to take over a week of hanging up in the garden to dry, now with it going through the mangle it can be dry in just 2 or 3 days. Perfect.

I'm not sure I could face having to put a whole family's laundry through it though, it certainly makes you realise how hard housewives used to work!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:48 AM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2008

lovely photos of lovely kids

Seeing as it is almost midnight I thought I'd post this now. Lou and I are still up and sending proofs of the front cover of the summer issue back and forth between ourselves. This is so hard! Out of the 100 pages that Lou is designing the cover is the biggest decision, we have tried it with just about every pattern that we have in the magazine and still cant agree on it!

While we are going through the gorgeous photos that Marianne took and deciding which to use for the patterns, I thought I'd show you these 3 pics that she snapped of the kids chilling out at grandma's house during the photo shoot.

Brooke. Not sure why she was frowning, unless its because she was cold. She is wearing her grandma's coat so there must have been a reason for that which I can't remember.

Cameron. Laid back on the sofa watching the world go by. Lovely boy.

Trinity. Peeking around the side of Lou's skirt with lots of knitted samples in the background.

Lovely photos of my lovely kids. Now back to the Mac. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:01 AM | Comments (3)

May 27, 2008

Shop Update

The shop update is going to be completed at 2.30pm today (about 2 hours from now), sometime before my nervous breakdown but after lunch. I'll share pics here later of some of the goodies but for now I need to carry on uploading pictures and writing descriptions. Its a big update today with around 70 different types and colours of yarn.

EDITED TO ADD PICS

Beautiful shade of aran silk that was a custom dye for someone. We had 3 skeins left over. I am more tempted by these than I have been any other colour of aran silk for a long while.

New Wool and Silk sock yarn. Love this colour, there are only a few different colours on the site but they are all gorgeous (and dyed by dad!)

Another custom silk colour. This one would make a beautiful Clapotis, don't you think?

One of 9 packs of Cleopatra silk and mohair yarn. These are the last ever skeins of Cleopatra I think, there may be half a dozen more somewhere but we're pretty much all out of it now.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:37 PM | Comments (2)

May 23, 2008

Adminy bits

I'm about to log off for the weekend and won't be back online until Tuesday afternoon (all things going according to plan that is!) We've got a busy weekend planned, lots of spring cleaning and sorting out and organising the house - its very overdue.

If you are still thinking about whether or not to subscribe to the magazine we've reduced the price of a UK subscription by 10% for this bank holiday weekend only, go here to be tempted if you like.

The HipKnits shop will be updated on Tuesday evening with lots of yummy goodies.

Apart from the shop update I'm not going to be around as much next week for 2 reasons, firstly its half term (hurray!) and secondly and with some particularly bad planning on our part its press week which means that Lou and I will be up and online at around 5am and not finishing work until about midnight most days. That gives us time to hang out with the kiddos in between. So it will be a week of photo blogging from me...

Have a lovely long weekend, hope the weather is kind to all of us. Its not looking too bad here at the moment but you just never know do you?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)

Summer stuff...

We took a wee trip to the forest the other night (when the photo for the new header at the top was taken) and for the first time we left the pushchair at home and let Trinity wander about as she pleased. The meadows were full of buttercups and Trin was happy just walking around with a buttercup in one hand and either mine or Wayne's finger in the other. Isn't she sweet?

Not sweet enough to co-operate and let me try this skirt on her that I made yesterday though :( Its out of some lovely Heather Ross fabric with VW vans all over it. Not very feminine I suppose but super cute. I used a red velvet ribbon for the waistband and left it long enough to tie in the back to fasten the skirt. I used a matching red cotton to hem the bottom of the skirt so that it matches the waistband. Kind of! This is the first time I've made a skirt from my own pattern that doesn't have an elasticated waist and I'm strangely proud of it.

I wanted a skirt that was long and full but I think this is a little too long. It probably needs to come up an inch or two but as she refuses to stand up straight while wearing it I don't really know! Think that I need to try it on her while she is asleep and straighten out her legs to see how it looks.

I also made her this other skirt which is a better length but I really don't like the pleats or the way that I made the waistband a little too wide. I used the Heather Ross fabric as before for the waistband and some Amy Butler for the main piece of the skirt but it just doesn't quite feel right to me. More practice needed with pleats I think!

I cut out some trousers and a dress for her too but haven't gotten around to sewing those up yet. Maybe over the bank holiday weekend...
I'm off out with the kids today to meet up with another knitting blogger who lives not too far from me and her kids. Yay!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:22 AM | Comments (6)

May 22, 2008

Superyak

You guys are lovely. Thanks so much for not making that big sharing of very personal thing yesterday either scary or awkward. All the comments and emails meant so much to me. I think it will stay there, at least for the time being. Its strange to be so open about someting which is so personal and that I would usually keep to myself but I'm going to try and post lots of pictures over the next few days so that it gradually drops off the page!

I ordered a few kilos of yak yarn recently, just to see what it was like. I wasn't convinced how soft it would be but it is just beautiful. It feels very much like cashmere, and is pretty much the same gauge as our cashmere sock yarn. With 460 yards per 100g you could have lovely yak socks that feel just as luxurious as cashmere but at a more reasonable price. Michaela and Lou were both introduced to the yak yarn last week and agreed that it was a lovely soft yarn.

We only dyed 2 skeins of it to start with, these were both experiment skeins to see how many yards we would need to wind to get around 100g. The green and yellow skein was 500 yards so its a little over 100g and the blue, green brown skein was only 300 yards.

If anyone wants to try out some yak yarn I'm happy to send the smaller skein over to someone. The yak has found a home, thanks Sue, but if anyone else fancies tryong out some new yarn in exchange for a photo and review just send me an email. I have another couple of skeins that could do with a home. You'll need to be able to knit it up in the next couple of weeks though as in return for the skein of yarn I'd like a picture of something that you've made with it (even if its just a partial picture, like the first half of a scarf or something) and a few words on what you thought about the yarn. I've just purchased a new customer review module for the shop which should be installed and ready to go in the next couple of weeks. I thought I would co-incide it with the yak yarn going on the site and it would be nice to have a review written of the yarn.

If any other customers are happy to write short (50 words or less) reviews about any of our other yarns please email them to me at kerrie AT hipknits.co.uk. I'll put each review that I receive into a prize draw to win a skein of the yarn that you reviewed, I'll announce the winner on the day that the review module goes live on the site.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:50 AM | Comments (1)

May 20, 2008

New Yarn

This is the first of a few new yarns we have to offer at HipKnits, it is a silk and cotton blend - approx 300 yards per 100g skein which makes it around a double knit weight. The yarn is gorgeous, dense and yet soft at the same time. This would make beautiful summery tops, shawls or anything else that you are inspired to make. I'm planning on starting a wrap out of this test skein later on this week.

I'm hoping we'll have some on the website early in June.

Tomorrow, a preview of our new Yak yarn...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:06 AM | Comments (2)

May 19, 2008

Shop Updated

The shop has been updated, see all the pretty yarns here.

As a special happy week offer there is a 20% discount until noon tomorrow if you enter the code BLOG in the coupon code field at checkout. This week has started off better than I ever hoped it would, thanks to everyone that had needles and fingers crossed for me this morning - I got the news I hadn't dared to hope for and things are looking up. I realised over the weekend that last weeks bad mood was almost etirely nerves about this morning's appointment and also a good dose of PMT. This week, this week will be fab now.

Tomorrow, some pictures of our new silk and cotton yarn that will be on the site next Monday. It is beautiful. xx

Over on the YF blog, Sarah has posted a sneak preview pic of some of the garments from Saturday's photo shoot.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:59 PM | Comments (4)

May 15, 2008

This week is not my friend

I don't know, it all just seems to be getting more and more out of control. I spent most of yesterday morning dealing with the aftermath of some stupid people and banging my head against the wall. At 12.30 I sat down and ate leftover curry from the night before then gave up and went to bed for a couple of hours which is something that I haven't felt the need to do for ages.

I am taking your advice though. After WMK told me to dye more yarn I decided that today would be a get your hands mucky day skeining yarn from cones, dyeing yarn and generally playing with yarn. I'm hoping it will be a big sanity check. And spinning fishwife, just as SOON as YF pays me any kind of salary at all the first thing I'm treating myself to is a cleaner / housewife type person. I'm considering stopping paying into my pension at the moment in the hope that I can better use that money to get someone to clean for me. What do you reckon? I must be one of the few people that has paid into a pension every month since they were 18, perhaps its time to take a break for a year until YF can pay me a salary and use some of that money to help me be less stressed. Hmmm...

Oh and yesterday I learned the phrase drama llama. I love it and will aim to use it in conversation every day. I managed it yesterday by telling Lou by text that she was a drama llama when she complained that a shelf full of magazines had fallen off the office wall and onto her. Drama Llama. Go ahead, see if you can use it in conversation today.

I'm going to be busy prepping for the photoshoot on Saturday all day tomorrow so I won't blog again until Monday at which point I hope to be able to share lots of lovely photos with you. Now won't that be nice? Have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing and if any Cambridgeshire people want to come along and help out at the photoshoot on Saturday drop me and email. Michaela, its at a place you know well only a few miles from your house if you want to pop over. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:25 AM | Comments (5)

May 14, 2008

Things and Stuff

Thanks for the comments and emails yesterday, Ruth - I didnt get a box of anything lovely but if I had I would be rushing down the M11 with it to share with you right now. I hope you get the tooth / car stuff sorted out..

Its all feeling very mundane around here, I seem to be drowning under the little things. Data entry, laundry, checking and rechecking, laundry, stock takes, laundry, labelling oh and did I mention the laundry? None of it is a major problem, it just all seems to have hit at once this week. Usually my working week is full of exciting and interesting mixed in with the mundane and repetetive. Not this week though... This week we are all about the blah.

Next week promises to be more exciting. We have the yarn forward photo shoot on Saturday and 3 new yarns to launch next week. I'm also off to help shear some sheep at some point over the next couple of weeks (not sure that I'll be doing much helping though) which is really exciting. So I just need to get through three more days of blah before it all starts to get more exciting. I can do that, don't you think?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:14 AM | Comments (6)

May 13, 2008

Shop updated

Here

If anyone is in West Essex today and has a box full of cheer and good humour drop it off to me please would you? I'm sadly lacking in both at the moment.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:25 PM | Comments (4)

May 12, 2008

Big Weekend

We had a big day yesterday, Trinity was christened at our local church and then we had 52 people back to our house for a BBQ, party, general fun time. We were so lucky with the weather, most of us were sheltering under the gazebo trying desperately to find a little shade and the kids loved to be able to take off their posh church clothes and splash around in the paddling pool.

Trinity was lovely, she wore the same dress as Brooke and everyone commented all day on how similar they looked. She didn't sleep much all day (which became a bit of a problem at about 6pm) and was so good in church. She did have a good cry when the vicar took her from me and glared at him when he handed her back but apart from that she was so happy all day.

Its lovely to have so many friends and family over to celebrate the day. Lou and her family came over on Saturday and stayed over night (just so that I could have that extra pair of hands to help with the dessert making Sunday morning but don't tell her that!), this was the first time our kids and husbands had met and they got on just as well as we knew that they would. We all rather took over the church as there were only about a dozen people there who hadn't come for the christening!

Trinity was lucky enough to have 2 beautiful cakes. The first made by the ever wonderful Michaela (who had her own party yesterday)

and the second made by our lovely cake making cousin Kim.

If anyone wants cake including with their yarn orders this week that might well be possible as we have SO MUCH left over.

The only problem with having a house full of people on a Sunday is that you don't get time to clear up properly before the week begins. everywhere I look in the house there is stuff. Clean plates to be put away, dirty things to be washed, piles of stuff in the garden etc. This is when working from home is not a good thing, I either spend a few hours sorting it all out this morning or I look at it all day. Ho hum. I have a sick boy with tonsilitis at home with me as well so add that to me being shattered and having drunk rather a lot of wine yesterday afternoon - I think today will be one of my least productive.

There will be a shop update later on today though. I'll let you all know what time later on this morning when I can see how the day is going. I'll add pictures here as well when I find the camera...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:17 AM | Comments (4)

May 08, 2008

Yarn Forward news

Another quick one this morning, my to do list is ridiculous for today and I'm taking this time to blog while the smallest one in the house is still asleep while the rest of us are tiptoeing around trying to get dressed without waking her. Lucky its not my day for the school run (I share with another mum) so if Trinity and Cameron and I are late getting where we are supposed to go that's no big problem..

Have you checked out the yarn forward magazine blog recently? Sarah is busy working on our blog for us and will be giving you lots of insights into what is going on behind the scenes over here. Go and say hi to her and if you have a Ravelry account you can join in the discussion on the Yarn Forward Magazine group over there as well.

Our advertising sales manager for the magazine started with us yesterday, you'll be meeting her on the blog very shortly. The magazine is beginning to feel like a great business with lots of people all taking responsibility for different areas rather than just me trying to do everything. We have one more person starting with us in June and then a small gap before we look for another couple to join us later in the year.

The summer issue is in progress, we have the photo shoot in a couple of weeks time and the garments are pouring through the doors at the moment. Its all looking great and keeping Lou and I very busy at the moment. We are hoping to have it out in time to bring to Woolfest so if you subscribe and are coming to the show you'll be able to pick up your magazine there.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2008

Very quickly

We're changing contact email addresses for HipKnits, for now please send everything to kerrie AT hipknits.co.uk and I will let you all know the new email to contact our posting manager very shortly so that you can email her with any order queries. I've put an auto reply on the other email addresses and I'll keep an eye on the inboxes for the next couple of weeks but (fingers crossed, touch wood and any other superstitions that you might have) this should fix our email issues. Lets hope hey?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)

May 06, 2008

Shop update

We have SO much yarn to put in the shop today, it is going to keep me busy nearly all day photographing, editing the photos and uploading it all to the shop. I'm hoping that the quality of photos will be much improved as I'm embarrassed to admit that months after buying my new camera I have FINALLY worked out how to put it onto macro setting which takes the best photos of yarn. How silly that it should have taken me so long to find that little button...

Here is a preview of some of the silk that we have on the site :

A new pastel colour that was a bit of an experiment. It didn't work out as planned but it is so soft and pretty

A custom dye that was just soooo pretty we couldn't resist dyeing more of it.

Knox. One of my all time favourites which is strange because usually I don't do orange.

Bracken. This is an always popular colour of silk

The shop update is done and on the site. Click here to see all the new products this time. The newsletter list is not co-operating so I'll try again in the morning to send out the notification. As well as lots of lovely summery silk we have some great sale bargains as well. Like these packs of cashmere sock yarn and lace yarn. 200g for just £13.

Pretty pink laceweight

Cashmere socks anyone?

There is also this months choose your own sock yarn club yarn. Cashmere. Yum.

And some ophelia merino sock yarn. Sorbet socks for me please...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:19 AM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2008

Bank holiday

Wayne asked me a few minutes ago how come I hadn't updated the blog today (he reads here more than I realise!) and I didn't really have a good answer for him. Its been a lovely day today, I had the 2 small people at home with me but I've still managed to get a surprising amount of work done.

On Tuesday I'm handing over all of the HipKnits stock to our new manager (yay) and there will be a humungous shop update at 9pm Tuesday night so that I can do the bulk of the work after the kids are asleep. The May choose your own sock club yarn will be on there as well, its cashmere this month. Yummy yummy cashmere.

Also on Tuesday the free patterns page and the errata page will go live on the YF website.

We've just come back from pizza hut for dinner with the kids and I'm planning on turning off the laptop now until Tuesday morning. There will be lots and lots going on next week with new yarns arriving and the last stage of the project club yarn being finished off and the little goody bags made up. I'm really excited about handing over some of the day to day work to someone else, I thought I'd be sad about it but I'm really not.

Have a lovely long bank holiday weekend, lets hope for some good weather for all of us. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

May 01, 2008

School Trip

I'm going on a school trip later on today, this is the first time I've allowed myself to be roped in to help on a trip and I'm actually quite looking forward to it. I have my wellies and my rucksack and I think I may be the only one planning to knit on the coach.

The kids have to wear school uniform on the top half and jeans and wellies on the bottom half. I've decided to wear my Ravelry T shirt that says where my stitches at. I know where my stitches are, driving me mad at the moment. Not too sure what knitting to take on the coach..

Lucky the trip isn't until later on today which gives me time to be productive before I go. The summer yarn forward magazine is in full production mode, samples are arriving every day and pages are flying around being designed, copy edited and proof read. This is my favourite stage of the magazine production, I love seeing all the ideas and concepts come together. We're hoping to have it out in time for WoolFest at the end of June although the official on the shelf date is mid July.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:07 AM | Comments (3)

April 30, 2008

Send sleep

Why do things always happen when husbands are away? I didnt get anything done after 3pm yesterday as I was in hospital with a friend who thought she was in prem labour at 34 weeks. With her husband away on business Wayne looked after her 2 children together with our 3 (give that man a medal) and I spent the night in hospital with her on the other side of the giving birth fence. I've never been a birth partner before! Lucky for all of us things calmed down early hours and I think she is coming home today.

I'm just about to drop 5 kids off at various nurseries and schools and then come home for a much needed shower and couple of hours sleep. I havent looked at emails or orders since 3pm yesterday but I WILL be back online by early afternoon and will catch up then.

Its all good fun isnt it? xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:11 AM | Comments (1)

April 28, 2008

Wonderwool, the review

(OK, I'm a little more awake now so have added some more detail below!)

The weekend at Wonderwool was absolutely fantastic, we couldn't have asked for anything better. I was slightly nervous about the show, having been a bit unwell the week leading up to it and knowing that I really shouldn't be driving or bending over and lifting anything up but I'm really pleased I made the decision to go. Lou and I met so many lovely customers and sold lots and lots of yarn and magazines. We actually sold out of issue 4 of the magazine and came home with only 1 copy of issue 2. We need to check stock to see if we have any more of issue 4 but I think that might be the first issue to have totally completely and utterly sold out. How exciting!

The response to the magazines was amazing, it was lovely to meet so many new customers who had not heard of the magazine and for them to buy all the back issues, a subscription and then come back a few hours later to tell us that they had read the magazine over lunch and really enjoyed it. That makes all the hard work and effort that we put in worth while.

We tried to keep a tally of all the lovely Ravelry people we met and gave discounts to, it was great to see sooo many badges. We gave up when we reached 60, we just couldnt keep up with them all. It was lovely to receive so many hugs and smiles and have so many friendly chats with people we only knew from online. The vibe at the shows is great, from setting up and chatting to the other vendors to the hours when the show is open and you meet customers that you've seen before, people you only know from emails and then people who have never heard of you before.

The last couple of hours of the show quieten down nicely, allowing stall holders the chance to sit and have a cup of tea and watch the last few shoppers go by. I like that winding down stage of the day, its something that you don't always get at Ally Pally and the other bigger shows but it really helps you calm down at shows like Wonderwool where you have had a few hours of mayhem with people queueing up to subscribe and pay for yarn.

That quiet time allows you to wander around and say hello to other stall holders that you dont see between shows. I caught up with Jeni from Fyberspates, Amanda from the Natural Dye studio, DT Crafts, Dee and Tony from Posh yarn, Eirwen from Knitwitches and probably many more who I can't remember off the top of my head. I love the way that although we are all competitors the overall feeling of the shows is that you are part of a big family. Of course there is always an element of bitchiness, of people who you know have said things about you elsewhere coming up and smiling and being friendly but that's real life isn't it? It happens everywhere so why should shows be any different? It was also surprising to me just how many people took the time to say that they had read some of the negative stuff that went on the other week and how out of control they thought it had all become. That meant a lot to me (and Lou) and we really appreciate everyone who took the time to come over and speak to us. Especially those of you who had been motivated to buy from us as a gesture of support.

The 5 hour drive home last night was exhausting so I'm taking it easy with my little people today. I can see now that from a physical point of view I should probably have stayed home and as much as I tried to be good and look after myself I'm paying for it today. Lou took lots of photos so I'll try and get some from her today that I can share on the YF blog later. I'm going to have a cup of tea and some toast and then have a paperwork / catching up day instead of a yarn dyeing / skeining / physical day. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:54 AM | Comments (1)

April 24, 2008

Wonderwool

I'm heading off for wonderwool first thing in the morning, all the yarn is labelled, packed and ready to go. I won't update here again until mid next week now but I wanted to let you know about some nice special offers that we're going to have on the HipKnits / Yarn Forward stand.

- BOTH YF AND HIPKNITS - 10% discount for anyone who reads here or any of the forums where Lou and I post regularly.

- YF MAGAZINE - All 4 back issues of the magazine for £10 plus a free gift of yarn and pattern when you take out a new subscription at the show.

- HIPKNITS - Free pattern with every purchase while stocks last.

- HIPKNITS - special discounts on silk and sari silk.

We are also hoping to take part in the Sheepwalk so you'll get the chance to see some of the YF designs on the catwalk, we're really excited about that! If you're coming to the show we'll see you there, otherwise I'll be back here sometime next week when we're recovered from the long drive and all unpacked.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:18 PM | Comments (3)

April 23, 2008

Reading

I love a good read, I remember a few months back you all gave me some great book suggestions, I read a number of them which were great, and I thought that I'd share a list here of the books that I have read over the last two or three weeks. They are a bit of an eclectic mix...

- Penny Vincenzi, an absolute scandal. (lighthearted, trashy, chick lit. Quick and easy to read)
- Wilbur Smith, Quest. (Egyptian epic, brilliant. Have loved all in the series)
- Stephen King, Blaze. (lightweight horror. Average but easy read)
- Phillip Pullman, Northern Lights. (Fantasty, loved it)
- Harlen Cobe, Hold Tight. (Crime, thriller. Pretty good.)
- Richard Webster, Spirit Guides and Angel Guardians. (factual how to contact your guardian angels and learn about spirit guides. Fascinating)
- Brian Lumley, Necroscope. (Vampire horror, have read it countless times. Love a bit of blood and guts and gore every now and again)
- Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth. (religious cathederal building epic set in a monastery. Very good)

(oh and yes, for those of you who are wondering the kids have been locked in a cupboard these past few weeks while I read all these books. JOKE! Honestly, you'd think people would have something better to do with their time than to read this blog just so that they will have something to b**ch about elsewhere.)

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2008

Randoms

- I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again, an hour in the forest after dinner is worth a million. We saw a big stag deer close up last night, the last time I saw one of those was at the side of the road and I had to phone the forest ranger to come and collect him. This was lovely, he ran around us in a big circle twice before disappearing back into the forest. I've never seen one so close like that before, the children were shocked into silence by it which is a big achievement in itself I think. Wish I had the camera with me.

- Wayne and I went to Marianne and Barrys wedding last week, even a broken down car couldn't keep us away. We took Michaela with us which was lovely, it was a good excuse to get poshed up and spend a few hours talking and laughing. I get all sentimental at weddings, ours was such a great day - 5 years ago this August. Now that has gone super quick.

- It was lovely to get home and see these funny three in the morning though. When we stay at mum and dads Trinity sleeps in a travel cot in our room and she pops her little head over the top and shouts at us when she wakes up, its really funny and almost worth being woken up before 7am after a late night for.

- The flowers are all done and I've moved onto a project for the magazine that I need to get finished this week. I seem to be back in the habit of knitting a fair bit these last couple of weeks, that makes me happy.

- Go and send Jo a big virtual hug. She had a rough day yesterday and really needs one. Jo is the sweetest person I have ever met, her little boy is lovely and she makes a great cup of tea! What better recommendation could I give?

- Today is all about magazine work, proof reading, editing and chasing up some contributors. A day in the office is just what the doctor ordered I think.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:21 AM | Comments (1)

April 21, 2008

Flowers

Sorry about the long silence, its been a funny few days around here with lots of things going on in the background that have needed my attention and have taken me away from the internet. Shock horror! I've been carrying around some nice simple pick up and put down knitting with me for the last week or so, its all about flowers over here at the moment.

I'm teaching yet more knitted flower classes in a few weeks time at various locations and having followed the same class format for the last couple of years I'm busy experimenting with some new flower "patterns" to use in the classes. I use the term patterns in the loosest possible way as they are really just little recipes that can be changed as required. The number of stitches that you cast on, rows that you knit, yarn that you use, cast off and cast on that you use are not written in stone. The reason that I love teaching flower classes is that everyone's flowers look different and yet they are all lovely. That's another reason that I love knitting flowers as well, they are quick, easy to pick up and put down and look so pretty when they are finished. Just what the doctor ordered.

I'm booked in to teach at a few knitting groups this summer which I'm really looking forward to. I'm happy to drive anywhere within an hour or so of Bishops Stortford to teach classes so if any other knitting groups want to get together and have me come along with some magazines, yarns and knit some flowers let me know. I tend not to charge very much for knitting groups, just enough to cover petrol and yarn really. Its something that I really enjoy as well, which obviously helps.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2008

Chocolate Cheesecake

We have so much chocolate in the house and the kids don't really eat it which means that Easter has a habit of dragging on and on and on around here. Yesterday afternoon I did a terrible thing. I lined up these Easter guys, took off their wrappers and popped them into the microwave one at a time. When they were completely melted down I popped them into a bowl with some other good ingredients and turned them into a chocolate cheesecake.

It felt quite naughty to melt them down, poor little chocolately people. I didn't quite go as far as naming them before I zapped them though, I'm not that mean.

I've got a day of meetings today and tomorrow so won't be about too much. I'll check emails when I can and catch with all outstandings on Friday. Hopefully I should have some knitting related photos for you then, with any luck.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:10 AM | Comments (4)

April 15, 2008

...

I swapped places with my sister at the end of last week, she had my silly big car and all three children for a couple of days and I had her little car while Wayne and I had some time at home on our own. There were things that we needed to do which included going to Tesco at 8.30 pm and buying wine, steak and cheesecake for dinner. As you do when you don't have any children to look after, don't you?

As much as I totally love my children it gets really intense at times with 3 of them. Especially as I'm at home pretty much all the time, I get the brunt of the mundane day to day jobs (cooking, feeding them, brushing teeth, getting dressed, breaking up fights) which gets really wearing after a while. With all the stuff that has been going on recently (and this time I'm not referring to the internet hoo hah) it felt really important for Wayne and I to have some time on our own. We looked through old pictures of the kids, reminded ourselves how much they have all changed and grown up, talked about lots of things, made some plans and generally lazed around the house in our PJs and remembered what it was like to be able to do what we want when we want. That's something that it is easy to forget when you have 3 little people after your attention all the time.

It was only around 24 hours but it felt like a lot longer. We missed them terribly and wre both really pleased to have them back home again. I need to remember that feeling, especially on nights like last night when Wayne is out, Trinity hasn't slept all day at nursery, Cameron is grumpy for no apparant reason and Brooke is tired from her first day back at school. None of us were very nice people last night, I'm afraid. There were lots of tantrums, tears and tempers around last night. We all collapsed into bed at 8pm and woke up much happier this morning.

Trinity started taking her first proper steps over the weekend, she has been standing up for MONTHS and walking with help for almost as long but she has been reluctant to take those first unaided steps until now. This is probably not a bad thing, I'm hoping the fact that she has felt the need to wait a little longer is a good developmental sign for her. I'm hoping that they will discharge us from the hospital next time we take her in, the last few times they have asked if she is walking unaided yet - this seems to be a bit of a milestone that they are waiting for.

It reminded us of the other 2 and their learning to walk. Brooke was about the same age as Trinity but Cameron was much earlier. He met all his physical milestones nice and early. We found a photo of him playing football in the park with Wayne when he was just 1 year and a week old. He looked so cute, and so small. A little different to the way he looked on Sunday night when I finished washing and drying his hair. I was lazy and sent him into nursery with big hair on Monday which prompted him to come home and ask me to plait it quickly so that he didn't look like a girl. We've always said that we'd keep it long until he wanted it cut, I'm hoping he doesn't ask for that though. At the moment he seems happy with it long, he only seems to ask for it to be cut after spending too much time with his grandmas, both of whom I suspect apply gentle subliminal messages to him to ask for short hair. Ha ha...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:09 AM | Comments (3)

April 14, 2008

Orenburg Lace

The first batch of our orenburg lace is dyed and ready for sale. We have decided to sell it at £12 per 50g which is a pretty good deal considering some other companies are selling the same yarn for over £20 per 50g skein. Remember each skein is handspun and each spinner can only produce 2 or 3 skeins a day. This is gorgeous yarn, 1 skein is enough for a small lace shawl - 2 skeins would make a gorgeous large shawl. There are 600 yards per 50g skein.

We dyed it in solid and semi solid shades so that any lace projects that you use it for will look gorgeous. Some multicoloured or variegated lace yarns can confuse your lace pattern if you are not really careful with the choice of your yarn.

I was thinking about saving the yarn to take to Wonderwool, what do you think though? Should I put it on the site today or save it for Wales? I'm out and about for the next few hours but will check back in at 3 and if enough people vote for it to go on the site then I'll do that at 3.

The yarn is on the site now, or at least some of it is. See?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:36 AM | Comments (5)

April 12, 2008

Mad Woman

Sometimes I do crazy things just for the fun of it. Other times I do crazy things for a very very good cause. I like to think that this occasion falls into the second category, but I'm not totally sure yet.

On 6th July this year I'll be running (walking, staggering. delete as you think is appropriate) 10k around London to raise money for SAUK. My donations page is here. Please give if you can, SAUK is a great charity to support and is one that means a lot to me personally.

I'm sure lots of people who know me in real life are now rolling around on the floor in laughter at the thought of me running anywhere. Its a small thing for me to do though in comparison with what other people go through and one that deserves a little support, dontcha think? I firmly believe in doing what I can to support the people that I know and love without just sitting back and relying on the kindness of others in donating time and effort. Surely I can cope with 10 kilometres of running in order to raise money to support a charity that is helping out a very close friend of ours?

Thanks in advance to anyone who manages to donate. Every little counts and each donation will mean so much to me. Wayne is also running it with me, bless him - so if you happen to be there watching on the day make sure you shout nice and loudly to us. We'll be the exhausted but determined ones somewhere near the back!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:15 PM | Comments (1)

April 11, 2008

Shop updated

What a beautiful afternoon it is here, the sun is shining and the sky is bright blue and virtually cloudless - how can anyone be unhappy with weather like this?

I have just finished the shop update, lots of lace yarns today. Click here to take you to the new products page where you can see everything I added. The newsletter group have been given their weekend discount code as well as some other bits of information that I'll share here throughout next week.

The kids and I stayed overnight at mum and dad's last night. When it came to 7pm Brooke and Cameron were happy watching a DVD and Trinity was shattered so I took her up to bed and stayed there with her. That has to be the earliest night I have had for ages and I slept all the way through until this morning. Maybe that's why I feel so cheerful today, a GOOD nights sleep and sunshine. Perfect.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever you are getting up to. We don't have too many plans which is unusual for us. We're saving ourselves for the wedding of the year next weekend, I can't wait!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

April 09, 2008

Thursday

I'm a tad early with Thursday's post but I can't stay awake any longer so here it is! Thanks for all the positive emails and comments, I really appreciate them. I did hold back on 2 comments that were negative, there are plenty of places for those views to be aired but not here. Ho hum, lets hope this all blows over soon.

Friday's shop update is looking like a bumper one, I'm not going to be online Friday morning so the update is likely to be earlly evening, around 6 ish but as usual the newsletter list will be the first to know with their usual discount code included in the email.

The yarn forward website makeover has had a bit of a back seat since we started it a couple of weeks ago. We have the subs pages all fixed and up and running now and the back issues page is currently only available from the blog (until I get that sorted in the morning) but you can pre order your copy of issue 5 which will be posted out on Monday there.

I'm thrilled to hear of so many of hte magazines arriving already, 2nd class postage and they arrived the day after being posted. That says a lot for our new postage system I think, thank goodness. Its great to hear that people are loving the magazine, thanks for all the comments and emails so far - keep them coming!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:29 PM | Comments (11)

What to say?

I know there are many many people out there who are disappointed about MagKnits no longer being available and I am not going to defend my decision here too much other than to say that for the first time in MONTHS I feel as though a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

I can't tell you how soul destroying it is to work so hard on something and get very little back, no money and just a tad of positive feedback. Then when it appears as though everyone is out to complain about what you do to the point where every time I looked at my emails there would be more piling up from people who didn't like the new magknits look, didn't like the patterns, thought they saw copyright issues where there were none. It got really spiteful over the last 10 weeks ever since we took a break with the Feb issue and you know what, I have had enough. No more.

This was NOT a spur of the moment decision, I have been talking about closing down MagKnits for over a year now - yesterday was just the right day. All the designers payments are still going through and there are no advertisers to be paid so we'll be all square in a couple of days. Lots of the designers are republishing on Ravelry and various other places which is brilliant. If I could have given them all notice I would have done but it wasn't possible at the time.

While this was not a spur of the moment decision and was one that had been coming for a long while the timing was 100% caused by the nastiness on a particular forum that I'd appreciate if nobody named in the comments. For those that don't know don't need to know.

This can only mean good things for me. More time and less stress, how can that be bad. Remember when I said at the end of last year that 2008 was going to be about me doing things for me? This is one of many big decisions like that which are coming up. I'm tired of spending so much time helping other people who quite frankly don't always deserve the help. This year is about me making decisions for me and my family and doing what is best for us.

In other news there will be a big HipKnits update on Friday and I'm hoping a nice big announcement at the same time. I've got poorly babies here at the momemt so while all 4 of us are on the sofa with high temperatures watching DVDs I'll be labelling and photographing yarn in preparation for the update. Here are just a few of my favourites from the batch

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:34 AM | Comments (47)

April 08, 2008

April choose your own sock club yarn

I keep forgetting to show you April's yarn, it is so lovely I actually wanted to keep it all for myself. Not sure what I'd do with so many skeins of yarn though!

This month it is the turn of Desdemona, a lambswool, cashmere and angora blend. This yarn is so lovely and squashy it makes beautiful socks, shawls, children's clothes - anything you like.

Only available during April to those who have joined the choose your own sock club yarn, if there is any left in May it will go on general sale.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:25 AM | Comments (1)

April 07, 2008

What a weekend!

Ugh, that's pretty much all I have to say about it. What a spectaculary craptastic weekend. It started off with some bad news on Friday and disentegrated into a total mess by the end of the weekend. I'm sure most of you have seen the negative stuff that's being said, for those of you who haven't I'm certainly not going to send you to them. What you haven't seen is the emails and notes and downright nastiness that both Lou and I have been subjected to. What has really shocked me more than the nastiness has been the response (or not) of people who I considered to be friends. This kind of thing really makes you find out who your friends are and by god I know who mine are now. I think I've told each one of them how much I love them but this is just to tell them again. xx

Not wanting to dwell on the whole thing too much at the moment, I just wanted to say (because I know people will be clicking here desperate to see what I'm going to say on the subject) that if anyone has a genuine reason to want to get in touch with me about a problem they can leave a comment here. It won't necessarily be published on this site but it will be actioned.

There have been tonnes of changes this year to the way we work at HipKnits and many many more are in the pipeline. I was really excited about telling you about some of them, now slightly less so than on Friday, but they are still happening and you'll find out more later this week when the contractuals are signed and everyone who needs to know first does know.

Its the second week of spring holidays here so I'll be out and about a bit more doing non yarn stuff with the kids for the next few days. That will be including Dougal the dog who seems to go everywhere with Cameron these days, he cracks me up. Everywhere I turn there is Dougal, good job I have a car with enough seats for him to have his own chair and seatbelt isn't it.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:55 PM | Comments (13)

April 03, 2008

For sale

All the destash has gone, thanks to those of you who helped me clear out some space.

x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:39 PM | Comments (2)

Orenburg lace

One of our many new yarns that we have coming up this summer is this beautiful handspun mohair and silk Orenburg lace yarn. The yarn is handspun in the Ukraine, each spinner can only produce 2 or 3 skeins a day and it is beautiful. 80% Kid Mohair/20% Silk hand spun Orenburg Lace Yarn and 500yds per 50gm skein.

I know that Cherry Tree Hill sell this yarn (expensively though I think!) and that a few other hand dyers have also got some in stock. We're busy dyeing up our stock to take to Wonderwool wales at the end of the month.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:06 AM | Comments (1)

April 02, 2008

Spring is sprung

I love it when spring is finally here, the evenings are long and bright and the weather is starting to get warmer. The kids and I had our first after dinner trip to the forest last night, it bought back a lot of memories. I remember this time last year with Trinity only a few weeks old in her sling, with me sitting on tree stumps breastfeeding her.

I remember spring 2005 when Cameron was only a few months old and he fell asleep in the forest. I lay him down on a blanket on the grass while Brooke and I climbed trees and then had to run quickly to him when a passing cow came within a few hundred yards and I panicked that it would step on him.

This year I had the big kids running and jumping and climbing trees while Trinity and I chased behind them with her in the push chair. Fast forward to next year and I can imagine her running with them, I love the way that some things remain constant while everything else changes. Next time we go I'll try and remember my camera.

On another spring like note, isn't Michaela clever? I sent her my pile of tangles to take on holiday with her and she turned them into these, how lovely? They look so pretty in the basket, its almost a shame to turn them into skeins but I will. They will all be at Wonderwool with me in just a few weeks time.

Thanks Michaela..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:54 AM | Comments (3)

April 01, 2008

Shop updated

The shop is finally updated, with a special offer on cashmere.

MagKnits is also done for this month, with a fresh new look.

YF Magazine website will be up tomorrow, with a brand new look and feel.

Am I sick of playing in Dreamweaver yet? Almost.....

PS - Fran, my emails to you are still bouncing. Can you email me your phone number please?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)

Yo Yo Brooches

I taught classes again at Olympia, the yo yo brooch one was the most popular. I loved seeing how 15 people could take the same set of instructions and leave the class wearing a brooch that looked totally different to all of the others. Teaching is a great way to get to meet lots of new people (and also have a chance to sit down for an hour or so)

This is one of the brooches that I made, Brooke has claimed it now. I still have a few of the kits that I used to teach with in the classes, you get some little pieces of fabric, some ribbon, a safety pin for the back and some instructions. They will be in the shop update later on today, after MagKnits is up and running.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2008

Olympia recap

We're home! As usual the worst parts of the show were the set up and break down, there is nothing worse than having to take the whole stand apart and get it back to the car at the end of 4 or 5 days of hard work. Set up isn't so bad as the hundreds of vendors have a 12 hour slot in which to arrive at the venue and set up. We all want to leave at exactly the same time at breakdown though which leads to chaos.

The show was great, I sold enough yarn to keep me happy and the magazine sales were amazing. Lou is a brilliant saleswoman, Mandy, Jo and I learned a lot from her and the subscription target that we set ourselves at the beginning of the show was met and exceeded by the third day. So much for it being a stretch target that we didn#t really expect to achieve. We rocked. Probably about 90% of people that we saw hadn't heard of the magazine before so it was lovely to meet so many new people and see their interest and excitement. We also made some great new contacts for designs, product reviews and advertising so all in all it was a fab show. There was only one negative instance where one of the other vendors who came over to look through the magazine decided to be incredibly rude to us instead of give us a polite no thank you when we asked them if they might be interested in advertising. Manners cost nothing you know and none of us will be spending money with them or recommending them in the future, I can tell you that for sure.

Its good to be back home, a day on the sofa is planned for today. I looked at my emails this morning and saw over 500 waiting for a reply so I'll gradually work through those today and then hopefully get a website update in tomorrow.

I'll pull the pictures off the camera this morning and get them on here as well.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:40 AM | Comments (2)

March 26, 2008

Off to Olympia

I had hoped to get more done today but alas, there just weren't the hours in the day. I still have emails outstanding but I won't be able to get to them all until Monday, please bear with me. I left home before 6am today to set up and will be doing the same for the next 4 days so Monday is definitely a day for catching up on the sofa.

If you're coming to Olympia make sure you stop by and say hello.

x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:02 PM | Comments (1)

March 25, 2008

Ethical yarns

There is a LOT of talk out there at the moment about ethical yarns. It is something that has always been important to me, our environmental statement has been on the site for many many months now and its something that we get lots of emails on and questions about.

Jeni and Amanda have both posted recently about ethical yarns and I'm looking forward to chatting to them both more about it at Wonderwool.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

Easter weekend

I hope that the long Easter weekend bought you lots of chocolate and happiness, it certainly did for us. We had a super busy weekend (as usual!) - here are some of the highlights :

- a trip to the cinema with AJ and the big kids on Friday morning to see Horton hears a Who. Loved it!

- lunch at pizza hut afterwards, yum.

- Village Easter disco and egg hunt for the children on Saturday, the rain and sleet didn't put us off that much, it just turned into indoor fun instead of outdoor fun. Afterwards I served dinner for 10 adults and 5 kids, thanks to both grandmas for bringing along their speciality dishes which meant that the cooking I had to do was minimal.

- Snow day snow day! It didnt last long but we had a good 3 or 4 inches in the morning which the kids loved playing in, building snowmen and throwing snowballs.

- Wee trip to IKEA. Love that shop.

- Tea and yarn playing with Jo. The kids loved playing with her little boy (and all his toys) and Brooke now wants to learn the piano, nice expensive hobby she has got in mind there then.

And lots more. Today is all about getting ready for Olympia. Packing and checking lists and the last few skeins of yarn to label. What did you all get up to over the weekend?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:06 AM | Comments (1)

March 20, 2008

Thank you!

Thank you all for the offers of untangling, I was in Bath all day yesterday for meetings and when I logged on this morning I found over 50 unmoderated comments offering to help. You guys are amazing, I'll work out today what will be easiest to do and email the person / people today or tomorrow.

Don't forget, big site update tonight at 6 ish. 9pm ish.

Sorry for the 3 hour delay, I won't moan too much about what has led me to have to change my plans but the shop update will still happen (with a nice Easter discount for newsletter subs) albeit a little later than I had hoped.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:58 AM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2008

Great British yarns

Sharon from Great British Yarns was one of the new wholesale accounts that dad and I have been busy on over the last few weeks. She has some amazing yarns on her site, go and check them out.

Unfortunately, this pile of tangled cashmere sock yarn here was also destined for Great British yarns but it blew off the washing line at dads and turned into a big pile of tangles. Le sigh. None of it is unsaveable but it will take some time to work through it, untangle and reskein. :( Definitely not in time for Olympia but maybe for Wonderwool...

Does anyone out there (apart from mum!) love untangelling yarn? All offers of help in return for cashmere sock yarn would be welcomed!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:28 AM | Comments (2)

March 18, 2008

First EZ

I must be one of the few knitters in the world never to have knitted anything by Elizabeth Zimmerman. That all changed last night when I started a February cardigan for Trinity. I'm following the basic pattern but using aran weight yarn and 5.5mm needles in the hope that it will be large enough for Trin. I'm still on the garter stitch yoke so nothing really interesting to see but my plan is that she will wear it to her proper birthday party on Saturday. Anyone like to place a bet?

Thanks for all the Happy Birthday comments yesterday, we had a lovely birthday tea. Brooke and Cameron both wanted to wear special clothes for the celebration so we had Brooke in a bridesmaids dress and Cameron in his firemans outfit. Perfect. Lots of cake was eaten, presents and cards were opened, played with and chewed and songs were sung. They all went to bed early and exhausted. We love birthdays around here!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:00 AM | Comments (5)

March 17, 2008

What a difference a year makes...

One year ago today I was laying in hospital with my head on Wayne's chest, fast asleep. I was sleeping the sleep of the truly exhausted, the sleep of a brand new mum who had been awake since 2am busy giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. Trinity was born at 5.20am after a nice quick labour with no pain relief, weighing in at 9 pounds 6 ounces. Big girl. Beautiful girl.

The NHS hospital where she was born has a policy of private double rooms and allowing dads to stay with mum and baby afterwards for up to 5 days. In fact we left 8 hours after she was born to get home to the others but those few hours in the morning where I slept and Wayne lay with me resting on him and Trinity in her cot next to us were priceless. An hour after she was born all three of us were snuggled up in bed, with Wayne and I eating toast and drinking tea and Trinity having her first feed. The midwife came in to check on us and help out with breastfeeding, took one look at us all, smiled and left us to it.

When we showed Brooke some of these first pictures she asked us why we were in a hotel, she didnt think it looked like a hospital room at all. She is right, the NHS did us proud - it was a million times nicer than the experience we had at the hospital where Brooke and Cameron were born, although again - they weren't really bad experiences, just not as nice as the third time.

We were lucky though. It could have all been so different. When we arrived at hospital there was one other woman in serious labour and only one midwife and an auxillary nurse on duty. The other lady and I progressed at exactly the same time, quickly, and the midwife was frantically trying to call in another midwife to no avail. She was walking from room to room, leaving the auxillary nurse in the room when she was gone and just waiting to see which one of us gave birth first. This was the first time that my waters broke naturally, they were broken each time when I was around 8 cm dilated with both Brooke and Cam, but the midwife said it would be irresponsible to break them while she was unable to give me her full attention. So we waited.

They broke all by themselves about 10 minutes after I became fully dilated. Trinity was born within 2 minutes of them breaking, after only a couple of pushes. It was quick, intense and over before I even realised that it was actually happening. The midwife was with me as I gave birth and then had to quickly move back to the next room where the other lady's waters had broken. Her baby was born 5 minutes after Trinity. Perfect timing babies, well done.

The first year of having 3 children has been a rollercoaster. A combination of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, all bunched up together. I love the dynamics of our household with more children than adults, all the noise, fun, laughter and playing just makes me feel like the luckiest mum in the world. Wayne and I sat in the car yesterday just listening to all 3 of them playing in the back - they were so lovely it made us both all emotional. Love having a big family.

There are a lot of challenges that go with it, the age differences mean that all 3 of them have TOTALLY different needs and making sure that all their needs are met invariably means that there isn't much time left for Wayne and I at the end of the day. Our time will come again though.

Brooke and Cameron adore their little sister and the feeling is so mutual. She loves to play with them, gets all excited when she sees them and is desperate to chase around after them. She is not quite walking yet, despite the fact that she has been cruising around the furtniture for the last 4 months. But that's OK. Its better for all of us if she takes it steady, no need to rush anything at all little one, no need to rush. Just take care of yourself and take your time, please.

Trinity was supposed to be our final baby, completing the family. Neither Wayne or I are prepared to confirm or deny whether this is going to be the case though. We would both love more children, something that I didn't think we'd say - I really thought that 3 was the right number for us. For now, we'll just wait and see what happens, at least for the next year or so. Having her at home with me full time for the first 9 months while I worked from home was tough. It was harder than I ever dreamed it would be and sometimes I look back on those days and wonder how I ever got anything done.

She really is the most contented, happy baby ever. She rarely cries, unless something is wrong, and is so full of love. She blows kisses to us all at the table, snuggles up in my lap when she is tired and throws her arm around my neck and pats me on the back when I get her from her cot in the mornings. Despite all that she has been through, she still smiles. All the time.

Having spent so much time in hospitals with her during her first year, Wayne and I can now truly appreciate the good health that both Brooke and Cameron have. You don't realise just how scary it is to have to go through all of that with a tiny baby until you experience it. Seeing the same faces in the hospital waiting room gives you a bit of a feeling of community though. Experiencing the joys and the disappointments of other parents as their child's treatments either work or fail just reinforces the feeling of togetherness.

We met one of our neighbours in the waiting room at one of our appointments, having no idea that her brand new baby was going through the same thing that we were. How funny, that we can live 3 houses away from someone and exchange pleasantries with them most days without fully appreciating that they might be going through the same thing that we are.

Anyway, a year on she is doing well. She chatters all the time, smiles laughs and is the easiest of the three of them. Everywhere we go people comment on how placid she is, how calm, how happy. She is busy being thoroughly spoiled today with a little party with her baby friends at nursery and then a birthday tea at home with the rest of us. Just the way every first birthday should be.

Happy Birthday precious girl, can't wait to see what the next year brings us. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:18 AM | Comments (20)

March 16, 2008

Saturday treats

Yesterday I found a bargain in the sales. A huge bargain. Something that I have coveted for so long but never thought I would be able to afford. It still cost me almost £100 (which I actually don't have at the moment, ho hum) but it was so worth it. No, not shoes. Or clothes. Nor make up, jewelery or perfume. But a 6 piece Le Creuset cookware set. How sad am I?

I love it. I got the granite colour (can't stand orange) and it is lovely, I have an omlette pan, an oval casserole dish a large griddle pan, 2 rectangular dishes and a round dish. I almost can't wait to cook something with them this week. Man, I'm getting old.

I also treated us to some new flanelette sheets in the same sale. See, I told you I was getting old.

Then to top off a day of treating myself, some friends and I went out to Brentwood to see Colin Fry. Dinner, a few glasses of gin and a couple of hours with Colin were fab. None of us got a message from anyone unfortunately but it was great to see what goes on, hear some more about his beliefs and thoughts and see some people get messages from loved ones. I'm fascinated by all things spiritual, this is definitely a subject I'd like to learn more about.

Today has been about kids parties, shopping for the big day tomorrow and housework. Not as exciting as yesterday but very necessary. Oh, and labelling yarn of course - the big stock take is about 50% done. Yawn.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:26 PM | Comments (1)

March 14, 2008

Stock take weekend

This weekend I'll be sorting through stock and labelling every single skein of yarn that I can get my hands on. The reason for this is that from Tuesday next week all HipKnits orders are being posted out from another location, I'll be driving over there on Tuesday morning and handing over boxes of yarn and other goodies. My real hope is that this will beat the Post Office jinx that we have going here at the moment and show everyone that I am totally serious about providing good customer service and getting your orders to you on time. Try it out, if you've had problems getting parcels from us in the past I KNOW that you'll see a difference from next week.

It is a little hard for a control freak person like myself to hand over a big part of HipKnits but I am 100% sure that it is going to be for the best. It will allow me to concentrate on some other things that I have been meaning to do for a while but just haven't gotten around to and it will take away so much of my stress and worry over missing parcels.

It also means that there will be a little more space in my garage and a lot of bits on ebay next week. I like the idea of a bit of a spring clean, most of the odd skeins of HipKnits yarns will go on the sale page (at the risk of upsetting people, ha!) and the non HipKnits yarns will go on ebay.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:21 AM | Comments (2)

March 12, 2008

Wearing

Its really not like me to not know what to say but right now, I don't know what to say. Funny that really. SO much going on here right now, tonnes and tonnes of changes - all of which are good but all of which are taking just that little piece out of me and making me feel as though I don't have much left to give. Life is just feeling a little wearing at the moment, you know?

Lou is expecting the proofs back for the magazine any day now, we're both a mixture of nervous and excited to see what that looks like. We're working really hard to put lots of new processes and proceedures in place for the magazine which includes handing over the subscription management to our lovely intern, Jo. She will now be handling all queries with regards to the magazine and posting out all the sub copies and individual issues throughout the quarter. Her post office is much more reliable than mine (and how could it not be, after I found out that my postcode is the 2nd worst in the country in the post office league table. Ha.) so I think that is going to be great. Not to mention the fact that it will save me some magazine packing time which will be great.

Similar plans are in place for HipKnits to get around the postcode posting problem, they are not quite finalised yet though.

This post from Courtney really struck a chord with me. As a mother your mama voice is really important, I listened to mine when Cameron had pneumonia as a baby and the doctor told me it was just a cold. I've had lots of cause in the last year to trust my judgement (and that of Wayne) and google things that are concerning me. Sometimes this isn't the best way to find out information, but sometimes it leads you just where you needed to be led. The most important part of parenting is to trust your own judgement and know when to listen to yourself and not other people.

Sigh. My lovely husband is home with a takeaway so its time to go and sit and eat and reflect on life. Have I told you recently how fab he is? Last week in the middle of press week chaos he went out at 9pm to Tesco to buy me cheesecake and a bottle of wine. He peeled me off my keyboard and made me eat and drink for half an hour, it made SUCH a difference. I'm lucky to have him, x

PS - have you seen the YF blog with our new office address, the kids were very impressed when I showed them around. Brooke asked me if I was really posh enough to be there. I think so. Maybe.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:59 PM | Comments (3)

March 10, 2008

Cashmere sock yarn

Cashmere sock yarn, yummy don't you think? I love the way this particular type of sock yarn takes the dye, the colours just come out so vibrant and beautiful.

We have a few skeins of it in the shop at the moment, and lots more to come over the next few weeks..

Strange things happened with the sale last week, a lot of the yarn that I put on the website magically disappeared leading me to think that it had sold out but after printing all the orders and posting them I was left with a big pile of yarn. Most odd, I can only imagine I did something wrong with the quantities in the shopping cart, its bound to be a user error on my part!

So tonight there will be another shop update with lots more sale bargains. I found another box of bits in the shop move as well so there will be a lot of yarn, if you're quick. Lets say 6pm again shall we, that seems to work well for most of you.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:42 AM | Comments (2)

March 07, 2008

Today

Today is my final 15 hour working day of the week. I can barely keep my eyes open. Lou and I have been meeting online at around 5am and saying our email goodnights at around 10pm pretty much every day this week. We are so looking forward to signing this issue off at noon today and then sleeping for a week. Well, maybe not sleeping for a whole week but at least for more than 5 or 6 hours at a time. Doesn't that sound like a luxury to you?

We this this issue of Yarn Forward is the best yet. Can't wait to hear what you all think.

Does anyone know of a good website person who can help us out with some techy bits over the next couple of weeks? We're happy to pay in yarn, money or whatever combination works for them. Drop me an email or leave me a comment if you think you could help.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:55 AM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2008

Pirate day

Today is National Book day (I think that's what its called) and Brooke's school have decided to have a pirates day, dress up as a pirate or walk the plank were the rules. What do you think? Brooke is worried she doesn't look pirate like enough but turned down the offer of a eye patch or parrot. Any kind of cutlass, hook, weapon etc have already been disallowed by the school so I'm not sure what else I could have done to make her more pirate like. What do you reckon?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:25 AM | Comments (9)

March 05, 2008

Milk

Yes, Mook is her word for milk - or at least that is what it started off meaning. Now she uses it for any kind of drink, her water at dinner time, her brothers juice or my glass of wine. If you can drink it, its Mook.

Lets hear more about kids words for things, I love these stories. Brooke used to say baddit instead of rabbit which was a favourite of ours and Cameron's funniest one was funkit instead of something. With his hands behind his back he'd come creeping over and say "I got funkit for you" Hillarious..

x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:27 AM | Comments (15)

Mook

One of the things that can make me smile without fail is Trinity. She is talking so so much in her own funny little language, one word in particular brings a grin to my face whenever I hear it. Mook. Its a bit like magic, don't you know?

Mook, I think that's how you spell it. It sounds a lot like book when she says it but it defintely does not mean book. What do you think it means? No-one who knows is allowed to guess, (mum, dad, wayne and aunty jen are the only people I can think of that might know or do know) but does anyone else have an idea?

The funniest time she has ever said it was at around 4am the other day. She doesnt really wake up much in the night any more, she usually sleeps from 8 to 6, and when we heard her shuffling around in her cot both Wayne and I held our breath and waited to see if she would go back to sleep. Just as it went quiet and I whispered, "I think she has gone back to sleep, don't you?", she shouted MOOK at the top of her voice and both Wayne and I couldn't stop giggling.

So if any of you are having a bad day, or a stressful day just think of the word Mook and smile. Mook, how can you be sad when you think of a small person with big curly hair standing up in her cot and shouting MOOK?

Have a guess at what it means, I may even find a prize if someone gets it right.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:37 AM | Comments (8)

March 04, 2008

Shop Update

Shop is updated and newsletter list have been emailed. Go and see the goodies, lots of sale bargains here and all of the other new yarns here.

The yarn shown here is the March choose your own sock yarn club, handspun merino yarn - the softest yarn ever in the world.

Edited to add - well the sale yarns didn't last long now did they? (just over an hour to be exact) I've removed the sold out ones from the shop as it seems a but mean to let people look at them all knowing that they are sold out. There are still plenty of other goodies on the site though, all reasonably priced. I'm sure I'll find some more sale stuff soon as well, in all the boxes full of bits that I moved out of the shop last week.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:27 AM | Comments (1)

5am

The house is really quiet at 5am. I don't see this time of day often, I blame Lou for this really. She mentioned last night that she was going to get up at 5 and do some magazine work today and I found myself in bed at 5.01 wide awake thinking about some proof reading so here I am, on the sofa wrapped up in a quilt with the laptop.

It didn't used to be this quiet at 5am. From the age of about 6 months to 2 years Cameron would be wide awake and ready for the day at 5am every day. Thank goodness he grew out of that one. Trinity is now the earliest riser in the house (apart from Wayne but he is pretty good at not screaming and waking me up when he gets up) at just before 6am most days. That gives me another hour or so here on the sofa before peace is shattered. Shame its not light enough to take a photo of this months club sock yarn as it is GORGEOUS.

I should really be downstairs on the MAC but it is so cold down there, I need to wait for the central heating to come on first.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:23 AM | Comments (1)

February 29, 2008

kitchen table

Ah, the Mac and PC in perfect harmony together. Or something. Doesn't everyone's kitchen table look like this sometimes? Its madness around here, utter madness.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:25 PM | Comments (2)

February 28, 2008

pretty flowers

These flowers are sitting on my desk for me to look at all day. The lillies were some that I bought from tesco at a silly reduced price (they are still beautiful 2 weeks later) and the roses were given to me by a friend. Don't they look pretty together. I love fresh flowers.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:22 AM | Comments (1)

February 27, 2008

Squash

I know the pic is blurry but I love it. This is just the way that the children look most of the time, jumping on each other and tumbling all over the floor.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:35 AM | Comments (3)

February 26, 2008

Funny from Brooke

I was reading Dooce just now and Brooke looked over my shoulder at this picture of Chuck and said

"Oh my, a dog eating from a plate with a knife and fork. How pleasant"

She cracks me up.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)

Rules of parenting

has anyone else read this book?

The rules of parenting - Richard Templar

I bought it the other day and read the WHOLE book on the train last week. I love it, his writing style made me laugh out loud, the rules were nothing new but its nice to see it all written down in one place. Love it, every parent should read it.

Oh and Catherine, you were right. Option 1 it is. Hopefully between my hipknits server host and my ISP they should sort it out in the next couple of days.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

Day 1

Instead of a busy productive day I have spent almost 4 hours on the phone to BT trying to establish why I can receive email but not send it. The answer? No-one seems to really know but it will not be resolved quickly. I will try and use webmail tomorrow but replies will be slow - sorry :(

In the meantime, here is a lovely lovely design that someone is working on using our aran weight silk. Yummy, don't you think?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:58 PM | Comments (2)

February 24, 2008

Overwhelmed

But in a good way, there is just SO much going on here at the moment that I need to take regular deep breaths so that I can focus on what to do next.

MagKnits - the new site goes live on Saturday, its looking great.

Yarn Forward Magazine - short term busy as the spring issue is due with the printers next week. long term busy with a million other things including (but not limited to) summer and autumn issues.

HipKnits - SO MUCH TO DO. yarn to dye for wholesale orders, yarn to skein and label for wholesale orders. Friday's shop update to prepare. An entire shop to pack up and move out of by Friday (we're moving again for a number of reasons, too many to go into here) customer emails of gorgeous knits to browse through.

I really won't be around too much this week and next while Lou and I work super hard with the design team sending pdfs of pages back and forth until they are perfect. The mag has been through 4 sets of copy editing eyes so far and have 3 more planned for next week, it still won't be perfect but as near as we possibly can.

I think I'm going to concentrate on photos for the next 2 weeks and will try and post one picture every day of something important to me. Words will come as and when they can but I need to limit my blog writing / surfing / Ravelry time for the short term. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2008

Yesterday

Yesterday was lots of things, it was long, hard work, exhausing, fun, interesting and so so exciting. I spent around 16 hours out of the house on my feet. around 9 hours on trains and the rest of the time in meetings.

I usually slob around the house in crocs or trainers. Spending that amount of time on my feet in proper shoes was hell. If anyone saw a woman in black trousers, grey shawl carrying a Jordana Paige satchel sitting on the floor crying at one of the many London train stations I went through then that was me. They still hurt today but I stopped crying about it when I got home last night.

Off to filter through the 400 emails that are waiting for me and to pack up 2 or 3 sacks of post to keep Mr Postman happy as he had nothing to collect from us yesterday.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:13 AM | Comments (1)

February 20, 2008

Wednesday

I have so much to say that I don't know where to start. Its Wednesday morning at almost 9.30 and I've been up for 3 hours and achieved so much already that I'm tempted to have a cup of tea and some toast and go back to bed for a while!

I do not like early mornings, if I had my way I would not wake up until 8 am every day. 7am is slightly better but any earlier than that and I really feel short changed. This morning it was 6.30 and I had all 3 kids in bed with me, drinking milk, jumping around and asking for breakfast. I wouldn't wake up early for anyone other than them. They are so lovely together, it makes me melt. The other week they all stayed over at grandma's house and slept in the same room, Brooke and Cam in a double bed and Trinity in her travelcot. When grandma woke up at 7 she wondered why she hadn't heard from any of them and peeked into the room to find all 3 of them curled up in the double bed. Apparantly Trinity had woken up and cried and Brooke and Cameron had managed to get her out of her travel cot and tucked her up in bed with them. I wish I'd seen it. (not sure I'd have liked to have seen the getting her out of her travel cot part though)

The mornings are a busy time for us. Breakfast, wash, teeth brushed, dressed, bags packed for the day then if there is time we have a few minutes of TV before the various nursery, playschool and school runs. I have a car full on a Wednesday, another mum and I share the drop offs and pick ups which means that I dont have to leave the house on a Friday if I dont want to. Lovely.

This morning was lovely. First we go to school, then we go to playschool and then we go to nursery. Trinity has been at nursery part time since January and this has been the first week that she has gone in with a smile and a wave and a bye bye instead of tears. There is nothing worse than dropping off a baby who cries and holds her arms out to you as you walk out of the door. Until this week she has not settled in well at all. I thought that I was doing the right thing by keeping her at home with me until she was older and then only sending her in part time but maybe not. Brooke and Cameron started nursery full time at 6 months and settled in nice and easily, Trinity was 10 months and only going in part time - the transition wasn't as good.

I'd drive to work every morning feeling terrible. Wanting to turn around and pick her up and hug her all day even though I knew that wouldnt help anyone. The decision to be a working mum is a hard one, lots of people don't believe that mums should work when their children are small - I get some good hate mail on that subject, all from women which is sad. This week has made it all worth while. Dropping off a smiling happy baby who holds her ams out to her carers and waves bye bye to mummy. Peeking through the window at pick up time to see her happy playing with the toys and the other babies. Going into the room and seeing her come crawling over, smiling and babbling. It makes it all worth while.

So there you go, I said a lot without saying very much at all. I'm lucky, its all working out well for me at the moment. I love my kid free days when I can come home and get 6 hours of solid uninterrupted work done. I also love the days that both Trinity and Cameron are home with me, I can appreciate those days so much more now that I have the time on my own. Time to drink that tea and carry on with some Mac work now.

I won't be back until Friday now, I'm away all day tomorrow at a nice exciting meeting which you will all hear about in good time.. Keep your fingers crossed that it all goes well.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:17 AM | Comments (10)

February 19, 2008

YF Photoshoot pics

Are up on the YF blog, we had such a lovely day for it and the model and photographers were lovely, no surprise there though as I've worked with Marianne and Barry before.

Back to the Mac now for more YF work, I've never had a Mac before. Its a bit of a learning curve but a lot of fun! Lou loves it when I email her with daft questions about how to open the CD drawer and what button am I supposed to press to maximise the windows. Hee hee.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:04 AM | Comments (6)

February 18, 2008

Shop updated

The shop was updated at 11 this morning, yarn is selling quickly but there are still a few skeins of bargain to be had. Don't trust the new products page, its not working for some unknown reason so you'll have to browse the categories on the right. There are some back issues of YF mag on there nice and cheap if you missed any of them. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)

Little bits

Thanks for all the get well wishes, I'm still not totally well but I'm getting there. It is sooo foggy and cold here today that I would like to stay on the sofa all day but alas, there is lots to do so I'll be braving the outside later on this morning to go and pack up some boxes in the shop.

Lots of little bits for you this morning, I should be more coherent tomorrow - I hope.

The winner of the guess how many skeins of yarn in the pile was the crazymadknitterlady. 97 skeins, that's a lot of yarn! I'm starting the shop update now so it should all be done by 11am ish - an email will follow to the newsletter people with a little discount code for them so if you are not signed up already you have a couple of hours to fix that. The winner of the skein of yarn is one of my most lovely customers so I'll drop you an email and we'll sort out which skein of yarn you would like. Thanks to everyone who played along, I loved watching the comments come in..

The photoshoot was fab last week, really really good. The model was slightly slimmer than we had requested but the clothes fit her well and the photos that I saw on the cameras were brilliant. Lou and I are busy working with the design and proof reading teams to get the pages together this week and next before our print deadline so we're going to be pretty busy. I will get some of the behind the scenes shots that I took last week (in between carrying heavy bags and adjusting cardigans and shawls - Lou and I were stylists, photographers assistants, lunch makers and general dogsbodies, how glamourous running your own business, dont you think?) up on the YF blog in the next day or so.

Oh, and one last thing - the yarn on ebay is FLYING off the shelves which is really exciting for Mandy and I. Who knew so many people would want the fluffy stuff, the best is still to come but we are thinking of putting it on ebay slowly and taking HUGE amounts to Olympia with us next month. If anyone is going to the show at Olypmia and wants to see a list of what we have before it all gets put in a big pile Black sheep style just send me an email and we'll send you the list so that you can pre order.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:54 AM | Comments (1)

February 15, 2008

Ebay yarn

I meant to post this earlier, Mandy and I have started to list the yarn on ebay for sale. Full packs, £10 including free shipping within the UK. Fluffy ones on there first, more to come.. If they dont have pics then bear with us, we're doing a joint effort as I cant upload pics from my laptop so I'm doing the words then Mandy does the pics.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

Limited service

I'm sick. I don't get sick like this very often but both Lou and Wayne suggested that the 70 + hour weeks, stress and sick children have finally caught up with me. I've been on limited service since the photoshoot on Wednesday which just about finished me off.

I'll be back next week with all sorts of goodies, details of the winner of the contest, new yarn on the site, stories of the photoshoot (and some pics) project club fairisle cardigan photos. Lots. It makes me feel tired just thinking about it so me and my fever are back off to bed with some paracetamol. I know I'm properly ill when the idea of not working doesn't fill me with horror and panic about what I'll miss, I just can't do it at the moment.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:04 AM | Comments (12)

February 12, 2008

Fibre dyeing

I dont dye fibre very often, I've never really been able to get the vibrant colours that I love so much in other people's fibres. I have just 2 or 3 new lots of fibre that will go on the site 1st March (we have lots of sale goodies that I've found for you then as well), this is one of them.

While the pastelly colours are nice enough they are not what I was hoping for, I think I'm going to stop dyeing fibre for a while until I can work out where I am going wrong. Any tips or advice from other fibre dyers? I have tried using crockpots and direct dye approaches as well as different temperatures but still can't quite seem to crack it..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:09 AM | Comments (3)

February 11, 2008

Pay it forward

Ooh, lote of lovely contest entries so far, I came back to the laptop this morning and spent about half an hour moderating all the comments.

I had some time to myself this weekend so I started to make my pay it forward gifts, they are looking really good so far (even if I do say so myself!) I decided to make everyone who I am spoiling something different which will keep it more interesting for me.. I can't wait to see what everyone thinks of them, I'm hoping to have them all done by the end of the month. I'm looking forward to seeing what Clara cooks up for me as well, I tend to be very unlucky with swaps (I never received any sockapalooza socks from my original pal or a saviour this time around) but I'm excited about this one, its good to know the person who is making something for you don't you think?

I'm expecting an exciting post week this week, still waiting for the last couple of garments for Wednesday's photo shoot (nervous, yes? I hope they arrive in time) and Jam Mam posted the projects club silk fairisle cardigan to me on Saturday so hope that will be here today or tomorrow. Yay for exciting parcels in the post.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:15 AM | Comments (2)

February 10, 2008

Contest

I thought it was about time for a contest over here. I have been sorting through all of the HipKnits yarns this weekend and I knew that I had a fair few to get photographed and on the site (the problems with camera and photoshop meant that I only managed to get about half done before going to Center Parcs) but I didn't realise quite how many there really were!

I'm planning on putting them on the site Thursday evening, with a little Valentines discount for you all. In the meantime, have a look at this photo of all the skeins of yarn and make a guess at how many are in the pile. The correct guess made between now and 12 noon Thursday (UK time) wins a skein of yarn of their choice from the shop update on Thursday. If more than one person gets the answer right then I'll either give them both a skein of yarn or pick a name from a hat, depending on how many there are! If no-one gets it right the closest person wins.

Comments to this entry only please, I dont need any more emails to wade through. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:04 PM | Comments (97)

February 09, 2008

Housewife needed

We had a lovely night out last night, went to a local Italian restaurant and ate far too much. Brooke had arranged a chocolate cake for Wayne with candles on spelling out his name, Cameron ate a HUGE pizza and then climbed onto my knee and fell asleep and Trinity charmed everyone at tables around us by smiling waving and talking to them all. It was just what the doctor ordered, a chance to sit back with my lovely family and forget about everything else for a while.

Whenever I start to get a little bit down I like to sit back and look at all the things that I have achieved over the past couple of years. I know that I'm not perfect and I would never pretend otherwise but I am actually quite proud of what I do. HipKnits is going from strength to strength with a lovely customer base of almost 1000 regular customers, many of whom I have met at shows / open days etc. I send out around 40 parcels every day and have such lovely emails from people who enjoy knitting with our yarns. That makes me happy.

MagKnits has been around for a few years now and the number of hits the site gets each day is unreal. We have over 30,000 people signed up to our newsletter list - I sometimes can't believe that so many people are interested in what I have to say. The new format will allow for so much more flexibility in what we do, it is going to be fab. MagKnits will be back on 1st March with lots of new bells and whistles for everyone.

Yarn Forward Magazine is really coming together now that Lou has joined us. The first 3 issues were tough but despite all of the problems I think that I did a good job at getting a subscriber base together of over 500 people (most of whom have resubscribed which is fantastic) and making enough contacts in the yarn world to keep it full of patterns and features. There were big issues with communication and other things, it was a hugely steep learning curve for me and I made some silly mistakes (like setting up the subs databse without keeping email addresses, doh.) but the way this year is unfolding is going to be brilliant.

So on the whole, despite my moan on Friday I am doing OK. Obviously I could do with a few more hours in the day to deal with everything, especially the emails which mount up at an alarming rate if I have even a few hours away from the laptop.

I have a selection of goals, both business and personal, and Wayne and I were talking the other night about getting a cleaner. It is one of my early goals this year, to be able to afford to get someone to come in and help with the housework. The more we talked about it though the more we realised that I dont just want a cleaner, having to tidy the whole house before they come round seems to defeat the object to me. I want someone who will put things away, stack and unstack the dishwasher, keep the laundry mountain under control, iron and put away clothes. Someone to cook dinner, make sure we always have milk in the fridge and remember before we run out of toilet roll. In short, I want a housewife!! Apart from Wayne having 2 wives (which is an option we've discussed - ha!) does anyone know where we could get ourselves a nice housewife from?

Chinese takeaway and bottle of wine tonight on the sofa while I sort out boxes of yarn and generally get a little more organised. Gulp, wish me luck - it doesnt come naturally!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:00 PM | Comments (7)

February 08, 2008

Good cause

I'm feeling a bit blue today, nothing serious just feeling a bit taken for granted and unappreciated, there are lots of moans going on at the moment about the magazine, and MagKnits and various other things. I know that I shouldn't let it get to me but it does, I'm in a bit of damned if I do and damned if I don't place at the moment. I have received TONNES of lovely supportive emails from people but the few people that seem to like to complain about everything that I do are the ones that shout the loudest in public. I've just about had enough to be honest. Its a lovely sunny bright day and I'm wondering why I bother to do anything other than get wellies and coats on and go and walk around the forest for a few hours. Its tempting but I do have an awful lot to do so maybe not..

To disctract you from my grumpiness, I suggest you go to any one of these places instead :

- Lilith is organising a fundraising event to raise money for her 5k run she is doing in June. There are some great prizes to be had, I've got my eye on the posh yarn lucia or the fyberspates gift voucher to get me some of Jeni's lovely fiber.

- Michaela (sweet and lovely person that she is) has finished blanket number 3 for Oliver's fund. She has gone over and above the call of duty with these blankets, each one is more beautiful than the last - although number 3 isn't really my colours.

- Monkee Maker is raising money for a very good cause, go and see the prizes she has up for grabs.

So there you go, 3 people who are arranging lovely prizes all for good causes. Pop over and support them why don't you?

Oh, and while you at it you could wish Mr A a happy birthday, the kids and I have a bit of a birthday surprise planned for him tonight - not going to tell you how old he is though. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:08 AM | Comments (7)

February 07, 2008

Cleopatra yarns reduced

I bought the Cleopatra mohair blend yarns from Carolyn last year over tea and biscuits at her house just before she moved to France. I hadn't really intended to buy them, it was a bit of an impulse buy and now that I'm down to my last few kilos I would quite like the space for some new summer yarns that I'm ordering at the moment.

So, all the Cleopatra yarns are reduced, down to £5 a skein. Get them while you can. There will be one more batch to put on the site next month but after that there will be no more. Ever.

PS - remember the Cobweb shawl I made from one skein of Cleopatra last year? Just saying, it goes a long way. xx (PS - November 20th entry in the link above, not sure why I cant link to it directly but as Jam Mam said, it aint working.)

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:14 PM | Comments (2)

February 06, 2008

Random Wednesday

Did you all know that Yarnsmith has been taken over by new owners? The lovely Becky came to visit me last week at the shop, she is only a short drive through the Essex countryside away from me, and went away with a box full of yarn and magazines which are up on the site now.

We've had lots of new wholesale orders in this week, which will keepg dad and I nice and busy with dyeing for a while. Its funny how we go a month or so with just retail orders and then suddenly 3 or 4 new wholesale accounts open up at once..

HipKnits and Yarn Forward magazine (and lots and lots of packs of yarn from the ebay buying adventure) will be at Olympia at the end of March. We're also hoping to be at Wonderwool in April, Woolfest in June and then at Ally Pally in October. Don't think we are doing NEC or Harrogate this year though, they are just too far from home and too expensive to be profitable for us I'm afraid.

Lou and I are busy planning for the photoshoot next Wednesday, it is in a forest fairly close to us and we're so excited. I love all of the designs that are coming in, we are just waiting for one more now and then we have everything that we need. One of the lovely knit bloggers that you may know is coming to do the photos nad we have a model booked from a local agency. I finished the photoshoot style guide yesterday which is a printed out copy of all the shots that we want of each garment, the clothes that need to be worn with it and how the hair and make up need to be done for each one. That was a lot of fun to prepare.

What else? Center parcs is already a memory. Most of the bags are unpacked and put away and 4 out of 6 loads of washing have been done. I need to go and look on their website and book the next weekend away, give us something to look forward to.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:09 AM | Comments (1)

February 05, 2008

Center Parcs

We had a lovely few days away in Center Parcs, its such a shame to come back to the real world though. We went with mum, dad, Jenna and Jo which gave us lots of built in baby sitters and extra pairs of hands which is always useful when you're in the pool with 3 children!

We hired bikes, Trinity sat on the back of Wayne's bike and was quite happy - she fell asleep at one point which was really funny to watch.

We swam, every day for hours on end. Cameron LOVED the water slides, the wave machine, the bubbles, the water chutes and everything else about the pool. Brooke is grown up enough to swim without armbands so was able to come down the wild water rapids which she loved.

Trinity had her first swimming experience. Its the same inflatable that we had for Cam at Center Parcs all those years ago, she even fell asleep in the water at one point when she was floating in the waves with grandad. Bless her.

We played tennis, pool, walked, played at the park, ate too much, slept lots and drank plenty of bottles of wine. It was great and I want to go again. (if I look tired in the photo above its because I was, we had just come out of the pool on the last day and were about to head for home!)

The only downside was Cameron falling off his bike within minutes of hiring it and despite his helmet managing to bruise his head. Once they fixed the faulty bike, gave him a helmet that fitted and we were given the all clear by the medical team we got on with the holiday, allbeit with a HUGE bump on his head for the rest of the weekend.

So today, I'm catching up on emails and orders and washing and unpacking. I may have had a nice quiet few days but the rest of the world hasn't stopped!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:14 AM | Comments (4)

January 31, 2008

Shop update

IT will be done tonight, I promise. But it is looking like being closer to midnight than I originally thought. Photoshop has corrupted on my PC and I can't reinstall it so I've been having HUGE problems getting the photos done this time around. We're off on hols tomorrow morning and I still have a big list of things to do but update the site is on there and it will be done...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:44 PM | Comments (2)

January 30, 2008

Simple Knit

Simple Knitting is about all I can manage at the moment. My brain is full of complicated stuff, Lou and I are in the middle of a big legal phase at the moment wording contracts, confidentialilty agreements, terms and conditions etc, and I feel like I need my knitting to be a gentle quiet release for me.

So I started a simple garter stitch scarf in a skein of chunky BFL yarn that is going to be in the shop tomorrow. Its pretty shades of blue, coral, yellow and green and looks lovely all knitted up in simple garter stitch.

We're also having a period of simple dinners at the moment. Both Wayne and I are trying to eat more sensibly and exercise (although he is better at going out on his bike than I am at running) and I've discovered that nice simple low fat meals are the way to go. Nothing complicated that involves lots of measuring or weighing just simple, easy healthy food. Who knows if it is going to work out or not. I need to drop a dress size (2 would be lovely but 1 is more realistic) and although that is not going to happen by the time we go away for a few days on FRIDAY that's OK. I'm so looking forward to a few days relaxing and I'm not even planning on taking my phone or laptop with me. No way of communicating with anyone other than family. Perfect, don't you think?

So, now I need to hurry up and finish my contribution towards the weeks worth of paperwork otherwise Lou might not let me go on holiday! Then get the photos done and the site updated tomorrow and I'll be on my way. Mandy will still be here posting out orders while I'm away but there will be a few days of no email replies until mid next week.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:15 AM | Comments (3)

January 29, 2008

February Choose your own sock yarn

The Feb choose your own sock yarn offering will be in the shop update this Thursday, 90g of ophelia 100% merino superwash sock yarn. In lovely shades of blues, lilacs, browns and cream this yarn would make a lovely pair of socks.

I dyed enough for everyone in the club to choose a skein plus a couple of extras so if new people join they stand a chance of still gettting a skein. There are a couple of January's colours left over which will be on general sale from Thursday as well.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:50 AM | Comments (1)

January 28, 2008

All about Brooke

This weekend has been all about Brooke. The two of us went out for dinner on our own on Friday night which was lovely, she is growing up so quickly and I really enjoyed spending some quality grown up time with her. She ordered the food for both of us in the restaurant and chose our desserts as well (more calories in that one meal than I think I have had in the whole of January so far but it was well worth it!)

There must have been a table full of sick people near us though because she woke up in the middle of the night on Saturday with a bit of a temperature and a sore throat and then I had the same thing by the time I got up yesterday morning. All of our Sunday plans for knitting club visits and shopping were cancelled and we spent most of the day in bed.

I managed to take some photos for the shop update, this Thursday at 6pm, its going to be a HUGE one. We have lots of chunky BFL, tonnes of Ophelia sock yarn, plenty of Cleopatra silk and mohair and lots and lots of other yummy yarns.

I havent managed to edit any of the photos yet but here are a few straight from the camera :

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:50 AM | Comments (2)

January 25, 2008

Beautiful fabrics

I'm going to be playing with some fabric over the next couple of weeks, from left to right we have some Heather Bailey, Amy Butler, Heather Bailey and Rowan. Yum. I'm having a hard time choosing my favourite out of them. Its any one of the first 3 depending on my mood at the time. Right this minute now, its the raspberry and white AB one.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:52 AM | Comments (4)

January 24, 2008

Yarn Forward issue 4

I have been as busy as ever over the last few days, juggling babies and work again Poor little Trinity is still sicky, its nothing serious - just a high temp and general yuckiness. She has new teeth coming through but it shouldnt be that making her so ill, think she just has a lurgy. Poor little girl.

The magazines have all gone out. Hurray. The photographs were all taken (sorry Dennis's mum!) and HipKnits will be updated on Monday evening with ooh so much lovely yarn.

I'll show you some pretty yarn pictures tomorrow, this blog has been very much all words and no pictures this week, but for today I'm just going to point you to this post on the YF blog which tells a little of the story behind the current issue and this resubscribe offer we have on the website at the moment. It is a very special way to say thank you to all those people who supported us from the start and subscribed from Issue 1. There will be more resubscribe offers throughout the year as well as some new subscription offers very soon as well. Really, Lou and I need another 10 hours in the day for all the fab ideas we have.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:41 AM | Comments (8)

January 22, 2008

To do, or not to do

My to do list today was chock full. I have around 200 skeins of yarn to photograph for next weeks shop update, around 600 envelopes to prepare for magazines, a database of subscribers to update and organise and 3 sacks of post to pack.

Added to that list now is a sick Trinity to look after. I'll be doing what I can with a hot little cuddly baby on my chest until Wayne comes home tonight to take over. Send Calpol for her, and wine for me.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:41 AM | Comments (9)

January 21, 2008

Weekends off

This has been the second weekend in a row that I have not turned the laptop on at all or done any work for HipKnits / YF Mag / MagKnits / Other. This year is about working smarter for me, and not necessarily working every minute that I am awake. Now that I have a few hours each day that I am childfree I am getting so much more work done, my efficiency has improved hugely. To be able to start a job and finish it without having to stop to change a nappy, feed a bottle of milk or just have a quick cuddle and play a game of peek a boo has made such a difference. I can now get enough work done Mon - Fri to be able to turn off the laptop all weekend and not even think about it again until Monday morning.

Don't get me wrong, I still clocked 61 hours work last M - F so the silly hours have not stopped completely, they are just being squashed into a shorter number of days. It suits me at the moment very well.

This weekend was lovely. We did lots of house type things, 11 loads of laundry, a monthly grocery shop, cooked 4 meals which are in the freezer waiting for me to take them out and use them as the week goes on and I got a 2 hour nap in on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Who could ask for more?

There was plenty of time for knitting as well, I just about finished the pink / purple / gold thing that I swatched for last week and I swatched for another couple of projects as well. Its nice to feel in control of what I'm doing again.

I've got lots of paperwork to catch up on today, weekly reports, stats, accounts, emails. So a day on the sofa is in order. Or at least a morning on the sofa, I may pop into the shop and dye some more yarn this afternoon. Oh the freedom!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:10 AM | Comments (6)

January 18, 2008

Collages

If you followed the link in the previous entry to the yf blog you'll notice a theme to how I spent last night! Playing around with photos was a great way to procrastinate all the paperwork that I should have been doing.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:06 AM | Comments (1)

Yarn Forward stuff

Today is the last day for any applications for the Yarn Forward Intern position. We've had some good applicants through already but if you are interested in working with us then please drop us an email today.

Check out the blog for more details.

We also managed to negotiate a nice yarn discount from one of the UK online shops as the little something that we promised subscribers. So anyone who subs to the magazine should receive a letter with details, email us if not.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2008

What's in your bag?

I love bags. I'm not really a shoe person, in fact I only own 6 pairs of shoes - 2 of those are crocs and 1 is the pair I wore to get married in. Add a pair of trainers, some chuck all stars and one pair of knee boots and that's it. Shameful really isn't it? Bags, however are my weakness, I have tonnes of them. All beautiful gorgeous bags. Cath Kidston, Amy Butler, Jordana Paige, handmade, store bought, expensive, reasonable - I have the lot.

Wayne will tell you that I have too many bags because I never seem to know where anything is and I change whichever bag I carry around with me depending on my mood. All of them are big bags though that I can shove full of junk. This is my current goes everywhere with me bag, a lovely Amy Butler one that one of my customers enabled me to buy in her pre Christmas sale by letting me have it shipped to her US address. Thanks Anne!

Its reversible and a great size for all the junk I carry around. I thought I'd be brave and show you what was in it tonight.

Eek, a lot of stuff. A copy of Country Living, my diary, chq book and a letter to post. A change of clothes and nappies for Trin. Oh, and an odd sock. How odd. 3 jars of jam (dont ask) sunglasses, 2 christmas CDs, some leftover christmas cards, a pile of paperwork type junk, some make up Clinique and Borgeois - my favourites, a hairbrush, a roll of sellotape and a camera USB cable. Strange huh?

Anyone else brave enough to share the contents of their handbags? I'll post some more pics of my lovely collection soon, including the new Cath Kidston one that arrived last week. Squeel.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:02 PM | Comments (5)

January 16, 2008

Colours

I have these 3 skeins of yarn that I'm using for a design at the moment. I love the pink and the purple colours bit not so much the gold. I started off my little swatch thinking that the pink and gold would look good striped together and then tried the three colours all striped in together.

Then I carried on swatching a little more and now I really like the purple as the background with the gold and pink in little fairisle bands. What do you think?

I need to wash and dry the swatch now and see what happens to it. I'm hoping that the fabric will soften up a little and drape beautifully. It is DK yarn but I'm knitting it on 6mm needles for a soft open fabric. I cant wait to get started on the actual pattern now.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:03 PM | Comments (3)

January 15, 2008

Trinity

This is the beret that Chrissy made for Trinity, isn't it sweet? Unfortunately it only just squashes onto the big girl's head which is a shame because it would have been lovely to keep it for ages but that's OK, she will wear it every day until it is too small. I love it, what a kind gift. Thanks so much!

Touch wood, things are going well with Trinity at the moment. We are all settling into our new daily routines and she is beginning to sleep better at night. I would love to get back to the way we were when she was small, before all the medical hoo haas started. When she would sleep for 12 hours a night, go to bed awake and just lay there until she fell asleep. Sigh. Its been a real struggle to get that back, but I feel like we are beginning to get close now. We're not there yet, mind.

She has such a determined personality, she wants whatever the older 2 are having and is not afraid to shout for it. She will point to whatever food she wants from the table and shout loudly for it. She reaches for her cup and makes a loud swallowing noise followed by an AAH sound which means that she would like a drink. She babbles mamamamama and dadadadada and says Br when she sees Brooke or a photo of Brooke. She loves the pictures we have up everywhere of the kids and will hold out her arms to be picked up so that she can be face to face with the photos, and reach out and pat and talk to the pictures.

She really is the sweetest baby ever. Having 3 children is lovely and on a good day it is all that I ever thought it would be and then some. On a bad day, I long for the peace and quiet of life when I first met Wayne and was living on my own in my little flat in Ilford. Sigh. The good days are far outweighing the bad days though this year which is what I was hoping for. In fact the bad days seem to be keeping themselves to bad hours at the moment which is lovely.

When Lou came to visit last week she had a taste of the mad house that we live in. Designing pages with Trinity tucked under one arm, emailing people at the same time as cooking dinner, that is situation normal around here. Cameron kept pretending to forget her name and just called her "mummys friend" the whole time which was really funny. I've had a lot of fun this year with the kids, business etc. Long may it continue, that's what I say!

I'm in the shop dyeing yarn all day tomorrow, while today has been spent packing magazine and HipKnits orders. Mr Postman was not too impressed when he came to the door and found 3 sacks of mail instead of the usual one. Gives him something to complain about though doesnt it? He should think himself lucky that Mandy is managing the ebay yarn shop parcel posting and not me, otherwise he'd have even more yarn to carry around with him. Hee hee.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:32 PM | Comments (2)

January 14, 2008

Shop - good to go

Well, the shop update is getting there. There are 5 pages of new products on here and that will probably be up to 15 - 20 pages by the end of the day, depending on how quickly it sells that is!

Lots and lots of laceweight as well as plenty of beautiful bright sock yarn, I really think there is something for everyone here today!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)

Hello?

Oooh, its been a wee while hasn't it? I missed blogging but the last week has just ran away from me. We've had a combination of technical issues (broken shop, over our ftp disk space allowance, loss of internet, photoshop not working any more) as well as some user errors (having spent 3 hours taking photos for the update last week I deleted them all from the camera without uploading them to the laptop, duh!) and also having Lou over for a few days to put together page plans for the next few issues of the magazine. Every time I feel like sitting down and blogging it just doesn't seem to come together.

This week is going to be different though. It has started off well with our new sofa arriving at 7.01 this morning - not bad for a delivery slot of between 7am and 1pm. Its the first time in ages that we have been woken up by anything other than the children, and the first time in ages that we have been asleep at 6.50 in the morning, the ringing phone was a bit of a shock! Mind you, if the men who delivered it had been more helpful it would have been a better start to the day, they trod mud all over our carpets, scuffed up the walls and then decided that they couldn't fit the sofa up the stairs (town house, lounge in middle floor) so they left it downstairs in the hall and refused to help any further. Once the packaging was off Wayne and I managed to carry it up the stairs between us and now I plan to spend a good portion of the day sitting here :

(Doesn't Trinity look small in the corner there?)

List for today includes retake all the photos of the yarn for the shop update, find something other than photoshop to edit them in, get the site updated. I promise it will happen by 6pm tonight. Really.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:03 AM | Comments (7)

January 08, 2008

Yarn Spreadsheet

This cataloguing of the yarn is taking ages. We have probably done about 5 percent of the yarn so far. That 5 percent is all on a spreadsheet and will find its way to ebay / website at some point over the next week. Meanwhile Mandy will be making lists of more yarn so I dont expect to catch up with her for weeks!

I thought I'd share the spreadsheet with you in case anyone wants anything before it goes on ebay. Everything on here is full, sealed packs - most of them 10 balls some of them 20 - and costs GBP 10 plus postage. Email kerrieandmandyATkerriesplace.co.uk if you want to buy anything.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:28 PM | Comments (2)

Tipsy

Yay, the shop is fixed! Big update coming later on today.

In the meantime, meet my next big project. I fell in love with Michaela's tipsy when I saw it half finished at hers before Christmas. It was lovely and I was sorely tempted to sneak it out of the house. Instead though, I've decided to make my own out of some Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4 ply that I just happened to find a little of in the shop last week.

The pink is going to be the sleeve colour and the rest the fairisle. I'm so excited to start even though the thought of a cardigan for me using 4 ply yarn fills me with horror. I'm planning to wear it next Christmas so that's a whole year to knit it. Reckon I can do it?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:38 AM | Comments (6)

January 07, 2008

Shop = broken

Whoops, thanks Sara and Clara for pointing out to me that the shop is broken. I logged a ticket with my support team and hope they can fix it nice and quickly. Will keep you posted.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)

Shop Update

Hmm, you may have to wait until tomorrow for the January shop update. I'm at the Braintree knitting group tonight selling some yarn and the photos that I took today weren't great and will need some photoshopping before I can get the site properly updated. Newsletter will go out as soon as it is ready, we have SO much yarn this month.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:41 PM | Comments (2)

January 06, 2008

Open day

The open day was lovely yesterda, we had lots of people come to look at the Hipknits yarns and play in the bin bags full of bargain yarn. Mandy and I have decided to sell pretty much all of it at £1 a ball or £10 for a full pack and lots of people decided that this was a bargain not to be missed. it was nice to see some of the bin bags diminishing in size and lots of yarn being carried out of the shop.

I know I shouldn't pick just one person out of the many many people who came along but it was so lovely to finally meet Chrissy after emailing each other for so long. She bought gifts for me and the children and her husband was good enough to leave her at the shop for long enough so that we could dye her some special yarn and that she could have a good play with the yarn. Chrissy, I hope you get back to Singapore safely and I will post a photo of Trinity in her beret as soon as I can keep her still long enough to get a pic.

The January shop update should be done tomorrow, I will send out an email to the newsletter list when it is done so if you are not on the list already, drop me an email and get yourself added.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:51 AM | Comments (1)

January 04, 2008

Bin Bag update

Well, we have opened around 15 out of the 134 bags that we picked up in the first hit. See?

However it hasn't helped much. I got so over excited when we found that about 5 of them were FULL of Jaegar yarns, many full packs and hundreds of balls of Matchmaker merino 4 ply and dk. I want them all. Mandy and her husband are picking up the remaining 100 bin bags of yarn and 20 bin bags of fabric and haberdashery today and tomorrow. (despite being stuck on the side of a mountain in a snow slide for a while they are doing OK) We're going to try not to bring that in the shop until after the open day though, otherwise we will not be able to fit ANY customers into the shop at all. That wouldn't be good now would it?

We're looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow, between 11 and 3. There will be tea, coffee and cake. Oh, and plenty of yarn.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:37 AM | Comments (9)

January 03, 2008

Book Reviews

This Christmas has been one of reading lots and lots and lots of books. Many of them nothing about knitting but 2 that are relevant.

The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. This was lovely, written by a knitter about a knitting circle. A million times better than the Friday Night Knitting Club which I wasn't keen on at all. THe only critiscism I have of this book is that everyone in this book as a major emotional "something" that has happened to them. None of them are just ordinary people. It had me hooked until the end though and the ending, oh my goodness. The last few pages when she talks about Stella made me sob and sob and sob. Its not something that I've talked about here much, but apart from the fact that our ending was happy and her ending was sad I could have written those words, it bought back so many memories. Well worth a read.

Then Ruth's book arrived and its fab! I've never bought a book from Lulu before but I was really impressed with the quality. The hat patterns are great, i'll definitely be making some of them. well done Ruth!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:55 PM | Comments (2)

January 02, 2008

Choose your own sock yarn club

The first yarn for the choose your own sock yarn club has gone up in the shop, it is a lovely merino / tencel blend. I dyed enough skeins for everyone to have one each but if the current members dont all choose to take this yarn, anything leftover will be in the shop in the early Feb update.

You can see the yarn (and join the club) here.

I am going to be working differently when it comes to updating Hipknits this year. The website will be updated at around 6pm on the first day or so of each month. It will be a HUGE update each time in the hope that it will last 4 weeks. I am going to dye yarn every Monday, the first Monday of the month will be dyeing yarn for the following month's update and then the next 3 Monday's will be dedicated to wholesale orders, show dyeing, custom dyeing etc. I'm hoping that this will help me to focus a little more and stop me feeling like I am dyeing little pieces of yarn every day!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

January 01, 2008

Exciting News

They say that whatever you do on New Years Day you will do for the rest of the year. In that case, yay! This New Years Day has been amazing, as have the last couple of weeks. I have so much to tell you about the changes the last few weeks have bought to my business life.

Here is the first and one of the MOST exciting announcements I have ever been able to make.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:05 PM | Comments (3)

Whoops

This was the corner of the shop that we cleared for the yarn. Unfortunately the van wasnt big enough for all of it to fit into and we only managed to pick up half. We're going back for the other half later on in the week. Not sure where it will fit though, this is what the corner looks like now with 134 full bin bags of yarn!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:35 PM | Comments (8)

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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2007

Cashmere sale

All cashmere on the site is 50% off for the next 24 hours or while stocks last. I'll update the blog at 7pm tomorrow to tell you what is going to be in the 2nd days 24 hour sale.

Edited 8am Saturday morning. Stocks didn't last. As of now all that is left are 2 skeins of cashmere lace in frenzy, 1 skein of cashmere sock in frenzy, 2 skeins of cashmere sock in teddy and 2 skeins of cashmere sock in honey.

Wow. There are also over 400 non spam emails in my inbox. Monday is going to be a fun day as I am determined not to spend the whole weekend working, we've got lots of fun family things planned.

Come back at 7pm tonight for the next lovely batch of sale items!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:33 PM | Comments (1)

December sale, coming soon!

Well, the long awaited December sale is almost ready. Are you? I've had a few questions about the difference between the December sale and the January sale, December is all about regular stock being reduced for no reason other than it seems like a good idea! Each day from today through to Monday at 7pm GMT a different category on the site will be reduced. It could be any of the yarns, one day cashmere, the next silk, the next coast - each at at least 33% off - maybe even more!

Each category will only be on sale for 24 hours. At 7pm the next day the next category will go on sale, until Tuesday at 7pm when all bets are off and the sale is over.

All sale orders will be posted out on Wednesday and Thursday morning. There will be a postage option that says "I have placed multiple sale orders this week" so that you only pay for 1 batch of postage. This option won't be available until Saturday evening, do not use this option with your first order, you must pay for at least 1 set of postage.

The January sale is a different kettle of fish completely. Odd skeins, small skeins, colours that didnt quite go according to plan. Discontinued colours, discontinued yarns, tangled skeins - they will all be on sale in the proper shop for our first ever January sale open day on 5th January and then on the website from Monday 7th January.

Any questions? Good. See you all here at 7pm tonight then.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:15 PM | Comments (3)

Thankful

I know I'm over a week late for Thanksgiving and also that we don't celebrate in this country as a general rule but I was reading Lyn's blog the other day and she pointed out that we don't say thank you enough over here so here are the 4 things that I am most thankful for.

1 - Wayne and the children. Without a doubt. Wayne doesnt really think he is a better parent than me for managing to get Trinity to sleep in the day (but he is fab, much, much nicer than me - I promise). I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband and 3 beautiful children. With Trinity who is toddling around all over the place, Brooke who will tell you that her favourite subject at school is philosophy (and she can spell it!) and Cameron who manages to use the words "actually" and "you know?" in every single sentence; could I BE more lucky?

2 - You guys who come here every day and read (even if not many of you comment!), thanks for sharing the little snippets of life that I share with you.

3 - Fibery friends who are always there to share, support and swap with! Jeni in particular who has traded a good trade with me this week, I love swapping!

4 - Afternoon naps. Mum came over one day this week to hang out with the little people while I got some work done and I'll admit that I totally took advantage of her and went to sleep for an hour in the afternoon! I LOVE sleeping and really just don't get enough of it these days. Sigh. Soon, I hope.

So, that's my 4 things that I'm thankful for this week. Next week I will be thankful for anyone who wants to come and help me pack sale parcels to send out! Last year the 12 day Decemebr sale generated almost 1000 parcels. Gulp. I am hoping that the 4 day one will be slightly easier but I have stocked up on tissue paper, stickers and mailing sacks so we'll see! I'm offering mince pies and hot chocolate to anyone who feels like stuffing some envelopes next Wednesday and Thursday with me!

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. —Buddha
Quote via Angry Chicken

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:23 AM | Comments (4)

November 29, 2007

Green scrunchy cashmere scarf

Remember that Anthropologie scrunched cashmere scarf that I posted the link to the other day? Well I made my own by buying one of the scarves from here and then sewing it up in to scrunchy lines at each end. The scarf feels beautiful but I would have liked it to be a little longer (and more narrow) so that I could have scrunched it more and still made it wearable. I still like it though and wore it out to the school run about 5 minutes after finishing sewing it yesterday.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:02 AM | Comments (1)

November 28, 2007

Travel Cot / Play pen

Thanks Spinning Fishwife and Fiona for the tip but I'm afraid that Trinity is way ahead of all of us. I did try this but she just screamed and screamed and held her arms out until I picked her out of the travel cot, at which point she stopped crying and crawled away - happy to be free. Damn children with their own minds! x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:44 PM | Comments (3)

Trinity

Someone forgot to tell Trinity that she is only 8 months old and REALLY SHOULDN'T BE ATTEMPTING TO WALK just yet.

It is becoming harder and harder each day to take her into work with me and actually get anything done. In the past she would sit in her bouncy chair in the shop, or play on her mat in the kiddies corner and just be content to sit and play and listen to me talk and sing to her as I got on with my work. We would have lots of breaks for milk, cuddles and mummy time.

Now, she doesn't sit still at all. I put her down and 30 seconds later she is over the other side of the shop pulling herself up on the shelves and trying to reach down the yarn. We don't have lovely mummy cuddles any more because really, there is just too much to do and see to sit still. I spend more time picking her up and moving her back where I want her than I do anything else.

She also used to sleep for a nice big 2 hour nap during the day. Now, not so much. If we're in the car she will sometimes fall asleep but no guarantees. She fights sleep every inch of the way, rubbing her eyes and refusing to nap whether or not she is in her cot or not. It feels sometimes as though I spend more time trying to get her to sleep than anything else but that's not possible, because I know that I spent more time picking her up and moving her away from dangerous places than anything else.

Wayne worked from home yesterday (prompted to some degree by the nervous breakdown I had on Monday due to all the picking up and moving and trying to get to sleep) and wouldn't you know it when Trinity started to get tired in the morning he took her up, put her in the cot and she slept for 3 hours. Then in the afternoon when I was delivering yarn to Sew Creative she slept for another hour. He thinks this means he is a better parent than me. I think it means she loves me more than him and can't bear to be away from me for a minute. I'm sure none of us are right.

Love her dearly, how could you look at that face and NOT love her dearly, but please Trinity - sit still for a little while and give your mum a break. OK?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:24 AM | Comments (10)

November 27, 2007

Ball of doom

I'm making a Christmas present for someone* out of a skein of Yarn Pirate superwash sock in Malamute. I am loving the colours but oh my goodness this sksin is never ending! I knit and knit for hours the other day, weighed the ball and had 92g left. Lovely. A whole scary movie of knitting later (Room 1408 - loved it!) and I weighed the ball to find that it was only down to 90g. Huh?

A few more hours knitting yesterday and now we're down to 82g. Will this ball never end? I mean, the pattern is fun and the yarn is lovely but I would like to finish it one day. I have a ball of black koigu that I was going to use along with this yarn if I ran out but I can't see that happening now. I'm more likely to have to give up and throw the remainder of the skein in the bin at this rate. Damned ball of doom. I had assumed that the skein I bought was 100g but if the shawl and needles together weigh 50g (needles are around 9g if I remember rightly) then the skein must have been 120g ish.

I'm steadily adding all the yarn to the site, about another 100 colours have gone on today with the same amount ready to go on tomorrow and Thursday. I cant decide if my favourite is the BFL in chocolate cherries

or the cashmere sock in frenzy.

* No mum, its not your one. Ha Ha!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:03 PM | Comments (6)

November 26, 2007

Spinning

I hope you all didn't think I was too negative about Harrogate, as much as we love travelling and meeting new customers and generally having an adventure if its not profitable then its just not worth it for us. I won't rule us out of next years show completely, lets wait and see shall we?

I've been busy spinning some of the fibre that I traded with Jeni at Ally Pally, its lovely! I'm wondering whether to try plying for the first time ever or to leave it as singles. Any plying advice out there?

The shop was updated tonight but not with everything, it was always a stretch target to drive to pick up the remaining stock from dads, get home in time for a phone interview (more on that later) take photos of all 400 skeins of yarn, get the photos edited and uploaded and all the items created in the shop before 6pm. I'll finish off everything tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday so little bits will be added each day. Before the big sale at the weekend - very exciting - more news on that on Thursday.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:48 PM | Comments (2)

November 25, 2007

You win some, and you lose some

Harrogate this year was not a winner. A little better than NEC but really not that much. Its a shame because I like the idea of doing shows outside of London but they just don't tend to be financially viable. Dad had 2 particularly funny customers, one who asked him if he sold any "proper wool in balls" and then when he replied no they walked away muttering something about how did he expect to make any money selling THAT stuff. The second one was shocked that we were charging £10 for a ball of sock wool that would only make 1 pair of socks when she could buy 30 pairs from the market for that amount. Ha. I think that sums up his whole Harrogate experience really. Oddly enough the only thing that we sold out of was the seacell and silk that barely sold at all at Ally Pally. Strange, don't you think?

Still that means that this weeks shop update will be a BUMPER one, lots and lots of goodies in stock for you at 6pm tomorrow night (Monday 26th November). I hope you're ready. Its going to be a big one.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:25 PM | Comments (12)

November 24, 2007

Update

So, I had to redo all the work that I had done on Friday after the server crash. Shame really but thats the way it goes sometimes isn't it? All missing emails that were sent AFTER 2pm Friday are now starting to come through but I think mail is still queuing so lets not panic until Monday / Tuesday in which case if you haven't heard back from me please resend.

Today has been one of those days, I was in the shop by 10 this morning and here I am at almost 10.30 at night and I havent stopped all day. Wayne and the kids got home from their adventure a couple of hours ago and while I enjoyed being able to focus on work with NO interuptions all day it still baffles me how I can be super productive for over 12 hours and STILL have a to do list as long as my arm. Sigh.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:10 PM | Comments (1)

November 23, 2007

Just in case you are wondering

Supanames (my lovely web host people who are actually not that lovely really) lost the server that I host HipKnits and YF Magazine on this afternoon, careless huh? That means that although the blog is still OK (see, how we're on kerriesplace and not hipknits?) none of the new images show up as they are on hipknits. It also means that all the work I have done on the shop today has been lost (thanks for that guys) and I have had no emails since about 2pm. Quietest day ever.

Who knows if the images and emails and other bits will ever come back. I'm going to take it a sign that I need to stop working for a bit and so I won't be checking emails all weekend (shocking I know) but I'll be back on Monday. Promise. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:08 PM | Comments (1)

Amy Butler bag

Man, I have to stop lusting after new bags. I am in love with these new range of Amy Butler bags - this one is my all time favourite. remind me to show you how many bags I own at some point next week and you'll see why I really don't need one. I sure would like one though!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

Christmas Boxes

Photo by the lovely Marianne

One of my lovely customers, Rachel, gave me a good idea about selling
some Christmas gift boxes. I have a few hat boxes left over so decided to do just that.

They are on the site now priced at £50 for a small box (which will contain £70 worth of yarn and patterns) and £80 (which will contain £100 worth of yarn and patterns) for a large box. Beautifully presented with tissue paper, ribbons and a special gift card these will be delivered by courier / special delivery depending on the location. A high quality hat box filled with yarns and patterns of your choice* would make a gorgeous Christmas present for yourself, or someone you love, don't you think? The first 10 to be ordered will come with a mini bottle of champagne as well. So what are you waiting for?

* I will email you after you place the order to work out which yarns can go into the box. You can have as wide or small selection as you like, anything goes!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:10 AM | Comments (3)

Finland

Continuing with the theme of wholesale, we have our first Finnish stockist now in Helsinki. These are just some of the silk skeins that should be arriving with Hanna in Lankalikka any minute now. The silk will be joined by lots and lots of cashmere yarns and sock yarns next week some time. Hanna has been one of our most organised customers with her custom colour choices, she sent us some brilliant snippets to match which was a lot of fun. Very difficult to choose a favourite though, I'll wait until she has all the colours up on her website and then I'll show you.

I think I am about as fed up with this being the house of sick as you are with hearing about how sick we all are, honestly! Its nothing too serious at the moment thank goodness but poor Trinity hasn't shaken off the bug that everyone apart from Brooke suffered with at the beginning of the week, poor little chicken. It has been a horrible week of juggling that has seen me spending my days trying to send emails, pack orders and cuddle very clingy sick children and then my evenings rushing into the shop as soon as Wayne gets home from work and desperately dyeing yarn and sorting stuff out. I don't think I'm going to get away with having a weekend this week :( Sometimes running your own business just isn't that much fun, and this is one of those times. Ugh just about sums it up.

Its not all bad though, I've been having lots of fun flicking through the anthropology website and falling in love with this lovely scrunchy scarf, and this lovely loopy fluffy scarf. I also love this big plaited one and this pretty cape Finally, Oh, Oh, Oh - these are just the kind of tights I want! Wonder if they will ship to the UK? Off to investigate that one.

The coded text message that I received from dad on the Harrogate knitting and stitching show progress so far read "short arms, long pockets" I take this to mean that a lot of the yummy yarns I dyed for the show will be coming home with him and will be on the website next week for you all. sigh. Oh well, Harrogate's loss is your gain. Looks like next Wednesday's update might be a good one?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:19 AM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2007

Wholesale

We have taken on 4 new wholesale customers this last month, its been a lot of work but really exciting. One of them is Dublin Bay in the US, they have tonnes of our gorgeous cashmere sock yarn on the way over to them right now.

Botom row L - R Seaglass, duckpond, bouquet, biscuit, bluebell
Middle row L - R Chocolate Cherries, bracken, eat your greens, Knox
Top Peace

I can't decide which is my favourite colour. I have always loved chocolate cherries, the combination of cherry red, white and chocolate brown has always been a favourite of mine. This time around I love allo f them though, the eat your greens came out beautifully as did the seaglass, the peace, the bouquet, the duckpond oh - you get the idea.

Which is your favourite?

Oh and who thinks that I should show mum her Christmas present? I'll go with the majority of comments.

Other recent new wholesalers include Sew Creative in Cambridge, Norfolk Yarns in Norwich and the Textile workshop in Nottingham. All should have received their first order from us or will be receiving them in the next few days. This leaves me now with just 3 wholesale orders to finish off this year, and then on to the already growing list of orders for next year.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:14 AM | Comments (7)

November 21, 2007

Curly Whirly Cleopatra

I started off making a feather and fan stitch scarf from this BEAUTIFUL skein of Cleopatra merino but soon realised that it just wasn't showing the colours in the way that I wantedso I sat down and had a little think about it and then I decided to go for a curly whirly scarf. (I am soooo last year, I know.)

Recipe

1 skein of HipKnits Cleopatra merino, 100g and approx 200 yards
6.5mm circular needle

Cast on 100 stitches
Knit 2 rows
*Knit 1, YO* repeat to end (200 stitches)
Knit 2 rows
*Knit 1, YO* repeat to end (400 stitches)
Knit 2 rows
*Knit 1, YO* repeat to end (800 stitches)
Knit 2 rows
Cast off LOOSELY

twizzle around neck and wear with style!

Again, this one is off to Harrogate as a sample with dad before becoming a Christmas present, what do you think? I made it in just a couple of hours, it was pretty hard going by the end and the MASSIVE long rows but totally worth it in the end.

Christmas present making is going well, as you can see, wonder if I can keep it up with a finished object each day this week? Most likely not although I do have one to show you tomorrow as well...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:00 AM | Comments (5)

November 20, 2007

Cleopatra Cobweb

Started Friday morning and completed Sunday evening.
Approx 14 hours of knitting time.
1 x 100g skein of Hipknits Cleopatra in a semi solid blue mix.
6.5mm circular needles.
Shortened version of Cobweb to make it work with only 300 yards of yarn.
This is a Christmas present for a very lovely person but before then it is off to Harrogate as a sample with dad this week. I won't be going up to the show this time but all of our yarns and patterns (and the magazine) will be there with dad.

This is exactly how I modified the pattern :

CO 5 sts. K 1 row, P 1 row.
Work increase pattern twice.[17 sts on ndl]
Work rows 1 to 4 of main patt once.
Work increase patt once.[33 sts on ndl]
Work rows 1 to 4 of main patt once.
Work increase patt once.[65 sts on ndl]
Work rows 1 to 8 of main patt once, then rows 1to 4 of main patt once.
Work increase pattern once. [129 sts on ndl]
Work rows 1 to 8 of main patt once, then rows 1 to 4 of main patt once.
Work increase patt once. [257 sts on ndl]
Work rows 1 to 8 of main patt once, then rows 1 to 4 of main patt once.

To be honest knitting the whole thing in such a short space of time did mean that I was slightly sick of it but now that it is finished it looks so pretty and I'm really pleased with the way it worked out.

A few people have asked about Cameron sitting still to have his hair done, he actually sits still for about 1.5 hours in total, this is the time it takes to brush, dry and plait his hair after it has been washed. Wayne is in charge of the first 2 stages, he gets it washed and then dried and brushed and then I plait. The trick of getting him to sit still simply involves putting the TV on. He would sit still for HOURS if only he could watch cartoons!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:51 AM | Comments (4)

November 19, 2007

Monday again?

Miserable Monday, mainly due to the gloomy weather, a huge to do list, leftovers of last weeks sickness, Cameron and Trinity both having a bug that is going around here at the moment which means they are taking it in turns to throw up, poor little mites. I can see that this week is going to be one of the hard ones where I feel like I'm fighting a loosing battle and shout at everyone too much. I've been thinking a lot about what kind of parent I am recently, Sooz pretty much sums it all up in her post. I couldn't have put it better myself. Being a mum is pretty hard sometimes, especially when everyone is sick and busy all at the same time. Sigh.

There has been plenty of knitting and sewing going on over the weekend, but nothing that is ready to show you just yet. I did spend 7 hours at work in the shop yesterday and I'm so close to being caught up on all wholesale and custom orders. By the end of November they will all have flown from the shop and I'll be able to breathe a little easier. For now though we have wet yarn everywhere and not much stock left in the undyed corner of the shop. That's a good thing though.

What else? Well, I've been trying to get a little more creative with Cameron's hair recently, I wanted to do some sharp zig zag cornrows but couldnt work out how to turn corners properly. I seem to be able to curve the plaits around but I can't turn corners sharply. I found this site after I had done his hair yesterday so I think I need to practice more... Does anyone else have any tips or other sites I can check out? I'd love to go on a cornrow course somewhere, think I'd have to go back into London for that though, not much call for afro hair styling in the country!

This is what I came up with yesterday, I did big chunky plaits in case it all went horribly wrong and then I wouldnt mind taking it out if it only took a little while to do. I was really pleased with this, it only took 30 minutes and it looks very different. Next time I'm going to try for smaller plaits with sharper corners. How fun!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:35 AM | Comments (5)

November 16, 2007

Sick

Today was supposed to be a trip to the Country Living Fair in Islington with Chella, a spot of lunch and some good gossiping. Instead it is going to be a trip to the sofa with some knitting, the laptop and the TV remote control. Lets hope Trinity is happy with a lazy day because I'm not up to doing much else I don't think. Lots of pics for you next week, we've been really productive here this week.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:07 AM | Comments (8)

November 15, 2007

December sale, update today and last posting date before Christmas information

Last year we had a HipKnits 12 days of Christmas sale with a different item on half price (or very near to half price) sale each day from 1st to 12th December. Like so many things it was a good idea but really hard to organise with the manual paypal cart where I had to update the html of each item as soon as it sold and upload the new page so that it wouldn't sell more than once. Ugh, it makes me shudder when I think about how hard that sale was. We also had lots of people who wanted to save all their orders until the end of the sale and the admin around refunding postage and emailing people to find out if they had finished shopping and to see when we could post their orders was horrid. Simply horrid.

This year is going to be different. We are going to have a pre Christmas sale but it will last from Saturday 1st December to Tuesday 4th December (whoops, thanks for telling me I had the dates wrong!!) only with different items being on sale each day. The wonders of the magical shopping cart software will make it all a lot easier as will the fact that NO sale orders will be posted until Thursday 5th December when they will all go out and RM permitting will be with all customers in time for Christmas. I'll have a multiple purchase option set up at check out so you only pay 1 lot of postage over the 4 days.

These are the UK Post Office last posting dates for Christmas this year :

UK First Class - 20th December
Western Europe - 13th December
USA, Canada, Eastern Europe and Japan - 10th December
Australia, New Zealand, Caribbean, South and Central America, Africa, Middle East, Asia and Far East (not Japan) - 7th December.

HipKnits will continue to post out orders until Friday 21st December, then we will be closed until Wednesday 2nd January when we will reopen with a traditional New Year sale and lots of new goodies for you. I already have lots of yarns and colours in mind that will be discontinued next year, so look out for those in both the December and January sale.

Now, after all that - are you ready for the holidays? I'm getting there, really excited about Christmas this year with all 3 kids!

There will be a wee shop update today at 4pm. Just a few skeins as the bulk of the last weeks work has been for Harrogate next week. We have some pretty skeins for you though so make sure you check back at the end of the day.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:37 AM | Comments (2)

November 14, 2007

Tulips

Nearly done with Tulips, just the sleeves to go now. This is one of the nicest cardigan patterns I've knitted in a long while. I love the way that the applied i-cord edging looks (although it did nearly make me cry knitting it, seemed to take FOREVER) and I'm happy that using only 5 colours of aran cashmere made for just as pretty a cardigan as the one shown in the pattern. I still need to finish the sleeves and the edging but we are close. I do think that it would have been nice to offer the pattern in more sizes (how many people can get away with offering patterns in just 1 size these days, I do think if it hadn't been made famous by the harlot then more people would have been upset about this one size only thing) and as it is a simple shaped top down raglan it should have been pretty easy to do so. I'm already trying to work out how to size it up to make one for Brooke, she has fallen in love with the way the aran cashmere feels in Trinity's one.

At the same time as working on Tulips over this past week I have been working on a mini collection of designs for Farmyarns using some of their alpaca. I'll let you know when they have them up on the site. Working to another company's design brief using different yarns has been a lot of fun for me, I hope to do more freelance design work next year.

Oh, and changing the subject completely my new camera arrived in the post yesterday and I am in love. I have one of these, a Fuji Finepix S9600. I can't wait to play with it properly, it feels like a proper grown up camer. Love it!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:45 AM | Comments (2)

November 13, 2007

Babies

My baby is not a baby anymore, she is crawling around and pulling herself up onto her feet. She is fully weaned from me and loves her bottles of formula milk and her proper food. She shouts and screams for attention and misses Brooke and Cameron so much when they are at school and nursery. Monday's are particularly hard days for her after having the whole family around her all weekend, she seems so lost when it is back to just the 2 of us for a day. She is so grown up and every time I look at her I say a little thank you for letting her be here with us and for the fact that she is as healthy and as lovely as she is today. She has given us more worries than the others but she is sooo worth it. She is a privilege.

I know of 3 babies who were born in the last week. The first was to an ex work colleague of mine and was, sadly and unepectedly, stillborn. The second was born a couple of days later and immediately given to Jam Mam to foster, look after and love. The third was born to the daughter of a friend of mine on the same day as the Jam Mam's foster baby but died peacefully on Saturday evening.

I think that at times like this when you hear this kind of news that you *have* to believe in something. You have to believe that all of these babies are in a good place, you have to believe that there is a higher power at work that we know nothing about. Otherwise, really how could you get out of bed in the mornings? I know my thoughts and prayers are with all 3 babies and their families. Extra big hugs for my children this week, love them so much.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

Cam Asleep

Abi mentioned in the comments yesterday how she couldn't imagine Cameron falling asleep ever. This is probably because Mum, Cameron, Trinity and I met Abi last week at Blake House Craft Centre for cofee, gossip and a wander around the shops. Cameron was his usual crazy self and Abi very good naturedly spent ages playing cars with him and listening to his constant chatterbox noise. I'm sure she was very pleased to get back into the peace and quiet of her car when we had finished, unlike mum and I who got to listen to him chattering all the way home!

As we pulled into the car park Cameron looked up and said, are we going to the maze again? As well as all the yummy craft stores they have a HUGE corn maze each year which we went to back in July and got horribly horribly lost. Never again. Remind me of that next year, won't you? It was a HOT day and we chose not to take the pushchair which was the worst decision we could ever have made (and let me get on record here that it was Wayne's BAD decision and not mine!). We got horrifically lost in the maze and after about 3 hours of the sun beating down on us as we walked around and around in circles we opened the emergency map, forfeited our pound and followed the signs out.

Had we taken the pushchair we would have been able to turf Trinity out and let Cam have a ride when we turned around at one point and saw him like this. Bless him. As it was we ended up walking for most of that 3 hours with me carrying Trinity (and breastfeeding her at the same time as walking around) and Wayne carrying Cameron. Brooke was slouching along behind us complaining how it was too hot and that there was no-one to carry her. Not fun and not to be repeated.

The rest of the craft centre is lovely though, fab fabrics and other crafty bits. I'm going back at the end of this week for a wee little shopping trip. Anyone in the area care to meet me there?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:43 AM | Comments (2)

November 12, 2007

First Blanket for Oliver!

Michaela and I had a fun afternoon on Saturday playing with the squares we have received so far for Oliver's blanket. How lucky was it that we had exactly 150 squares? We played around for a while with the layout of the blanket by spreading all the squares out on her living room floor and then got to sewing strips together. It did stop being fun after a few hours but when I look at the final blanket, I think it was so worth the effort. Michaela's half of the blanket that she sewed is neater than mine but you probably won't notice that unless you look super closely. (and if you do notice, please don't tell me!)

(this is shown on a single bed)

I'm going to sew a fabric backing on it and then decide on what kind of edging to do, if it even needs an edging. This blanket is going to be raffled on 1st December (I think) and we're hoping to get enough squares in over the next few weeks to make another one, when our fingers have recovered from sewing 150 squares together in one afternoon.

Each and every contribution to the blanket is welcome, people have been so generous again with their efforts. I think Michaela has raised almost £250 so far in the raffle for this blanket. Tickets are £1 each and you can either paypal on Emma's blog and then tell Michaela how many tickets you need (you get 1 for each £1 you donate) or include a chq or cash with your squares.

Michaela also gave me a bag of goodies which included home made mincemeat, yum, and a gorgeous Christmas cake. Unfortunately Cameron fell asleep in the car on the way home and rested his head on the cake box so one of the penguins is a little squished - poor chap. It looks amazing though doesn't it? This is the 4th Michaela made cake that has come into our house and I promise you that they taste as good as they look. We've been tempted to have a slice of this one since it arrived but we're trying hard to be good! Whether it lasts until Christmas remains to be seen though.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:53 AM | Comments (11)

November 10, 2007

HipKnitters

ARE YOU A HIP KNITTER?

or do you know someone who is?

HipKnits is looking for knitters that break the mould and illustrate that you have to be hip to knit.

We all know that knitting is cool, but we want to show the world just how cool we are.

We want knitters of all ages and walks of life to help promote HipKnits and knitting in general. So whether you’re young and hip or old and hip, as long as you knit, we want to hear from you.

Are you a black belt in Tae Kwon Do?
Are you an actress or a fire fighter? Then we want to know.
Maybe you are an animator or an archaeologist.
Perhaps you are a forest ranger or you are following in Russell Crowe’s footsteps as a man who knits.
Are you an artist who uses knitting in your work, or do you knit unusual items?
If you are a modern knitter with a sense of style, then get in touch.
Maybe you discovered knitting through strange circumstances.

Contact us now for your chance to be a HipKnits Hip Knitter!

Everyone who comes forward will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win GBP50 worth of luxurious HipKnits yarns.

To enter simply email chellaramananAThotmail.com with the subject header HipKnitter and include the following information:

Name.
Age.
Gender
Address.
How long you have been knitting.
Occupation.
Description of what makes you a Hip Knitter in 150 words or less.

Closing date for entries is 31st December so declare your status as a Hip Knitter now!

Terms and Conditions:

The promoter is HipKnits.co.uk and reserves the right to cancel or amend the prize draw at any time. Promoter's decision is final
The prize draw is open to all residents of the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands excluding employees of HipKnits and their immediate families, agents or anyone professionally connected with the promotion.
The prize is non transferable. No cash alternative.
Entries must be received on or before midnight GMT 31st December
Winners will be announced in January both in writing via email and on the HipKnits blog
Privacy Statement. We will not share your details with any other organisation and we will not use your details for any purpose other than to update you on new products and services. Your email address will be added to our newsletter, please state in your email if you do not wish to subscribe.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2007

Blogs

Did you know that Melanie Falick has a blog? I only found it yesterday along with Kelley from Knitpicks blog which I now can't find again.. Which made me think, how many other interesting blogs am I missing out there? Thousands probably.

Outisde of the links list to the left I really dont read many blogs every day, I can't afford the time, but I do have favourites that I check up on once a week or so. Amanda from Soulemama will always be in my top 5 blogs to check in on, I love her style, as will Alicia from Posie. The other 3 places probably go to Jane from Yarnstorm, The Yarn Harlot of course and then probably Hillary from Wee Wonderfuls.

So, inspire me. Which are your top 5 "can't let a week go by without dropping in on them" blogs?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:26 AM | Comments (11)

November 08, 2007

Handmade

Have you seen this handmade pledge? I think I can half take the pledge as this year I am making Chrismas presents for the following people :

Mum
Mother in Law
Sisters in Law
Nieces
Kiddos

Dad, Wayne and Jenna - you're safe. No need to worry about soft squishy parcels under the tree this year. You have all been good enough NOT to get a handmade present this time.

There will be just a wee shop update today, some of the yarns that I'm offering are on sale as they got caught out in the rain TWICE and although I washed them again each time they still seem a little musty to me. I should have washed them again with a little more fabric conditioner but instead I decided to be lazy, put them on the site and offer 33% off retail price to make up for the not as gorgeous as they should be smell to them! I'll be coming back and adding in pictures later on today.

Lots and lots of the Cleopatra merino and mohair :

Oh, and I created a HipKnits group in Ravelry, for those of you who are on board there won't you come and join us?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:02 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2007

Book review

I'm in the middle of reading one of the best books I have ever read at the moment, it is called the Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky. The basic plot is white couple give birth to black daughter, you can imagine what happens next. It is brilliant, I can't put it down.

In addition to all the emotion of the main plot there is a surprising sub plot in that the mother is a knitter, designer, best friends with a yarn store owner. Knitting is a HUGE part of the plot of the story and it seems so real, the yarn store owner talks about yarns that I know and have used and the way that the characters talk about knitting makes me think that the author probably knits. I found it much more realistic than the plot of the Friday night Knitting club which I found a bit contrived and disappointing. This book doesnt try to be a book about knitting, it just is. I'm loving it. Planning on curling up on the sofa with it and finishing it today while knitting.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:36 AM | Comments (7)

November 06, 2007

So many new things

I have so many new things to tell you about that I almost don't know where to begin. So lets start here. With the new Choose Your Own Sock yarn club which we are launching today.

"We are excited to launch our new choose your own sock yarn club for 2008. We know that many people are put off joining sock clubs because they are worried that they will not like the colours that are sent to them, so we decided to come up with a way for you to choose your own colours of sock yarn from a selection that will be available throughout 2008.

How does it work?

• You join the club with an initial payment of £45 plus 1 lot of postage which entitles you to 4 skeins of hand dyed sock yarn.
• Only 50 places will be available on the club, these are available to international members as well as UK based people.
• On receipt of your initial payment you will be sent 4 x coupon codes.
• Each month 50 skeins of yarn will be available to club members, all dyed in a special one off colour that we have not dyed before.
• An email will be sent to the club members with a photo of the yarn announcing the time that it will be available in the shop.
• If you like the colour, you can choose to purchase it by entering one of your coupon codes at checkout. If you don’t like the colour, you can save your coupon code until the next month.
• You may only buy 1 skein of yarn per month unless there are some leftover a week after they go on sale. At this point they will be put into the shop for general purchase and you may use another one of your coupon codes to buy another skein (or 2 or three if you really like the colour and have enough codes left!).
• Coupon codes will be valid for 12 months from the month of issue. If you do not find 4 colours that you like during this time your money will not be refunded, but we are pretty sure you will!
• Each skein of sock yarn will be enough to make an average pair of socks. We will use a variety of base fibres, cashmere, merino, BFL etc.
• Signups are open now here and the first skeins of yarn will be available to club members on 1st January.
• If the club sells out then additional spaces will become available each quarter, with the 2nd batch being released on 1st March 2008.

Any questions please email us."

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Tulip progress

This Tulip pattern is a lovely quick knit. I've made a few changes to the pattern as per usual for me, I only have 5 colours of aran cashmere so I'm working slightly fatter stripes and I am working a row of garter stitch at each colour change. I started the cardigan while we were away at the weekend staying with Wayne's mum and I only scribbled down the basics so that I could make a start, I think I have gone a little wrong somewhere but it looks pretty so thats good enough for me.

I've just split the sleeves and am about to start on the body. I've only worked on it for an hour or so until now so I'm predicting the rest of the knit will be nice and quick, but it won't be finished today. Today is a day for errands. After the orders are packed and the yarns are in the dye pot Trinity and I have to go to the bank, the post office, Tescos and 2 local haberdasheries with wholesale packs. Think that means I can't hang out in my jammies all day, still - tomorrow is another day isn't it?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:14 AM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2007

Long time

I miss blogging when I have a week like last week, where I have so much on my mind that I can't (don't want to) talk about that I stay away from the blog and just get on with everything. I won't pretend that I have caught up with everything that I needed to do but I'm getting there. Only 1 more wholesale order to dye this week (but its a big one, over 400 skeins of yarn) and then next week will be all about getting it dry, skeined, labelled, packed etc. Apart from that I'm taking it easy this week with lots and lots of knitting on the sofa time scheduled as well as some pattern writing and designing time thrown in. Its going to be a productive yet relaxing one. I promised myself that and I'm going to stick to it.

I can't believe it is November already. That gives me only a couple more months with my current working routine before January comes around and it all changes again. I'm hoping it will be easier for me in the New Year but I'm reluctant to count on that until I'm there and it is happening. Only 2 months left of this year? That's another good reason to chill out a little and enjoy what I have now.

Although I wasn't really here at all, I did spend a fair bit of time surfing around last week and found some GORGEOUS designs out there, like Giselle by Marnie Maclean for Stitch Diva. I just love the long version and the shape of the sleeves, I feel as though wrap tops are really flattering for me - I would love to find the time to make this one at some point.

I am also hankering after the swiss cheese scarf that Dee linked to last week. I think that all of the casting off and on again would drive me mad after a while though so I'm going to just keep looking at that one and loving it from a distance.

I keep dreaming about shawls, and I mean properly dreaming about them at night not just thinking about them a lot during the day time. I dont really wear shawls (except as scarves but that doesnt count does it?) but I seem to be obsessed with the idea of making them and in my dreams I am always elegantly wrapped in exquisite shawls in bold vibrant colours. Maybe my sub conscious is trying to tell me something, lose the jeans and long sleeved Tees and smarten yourself up. Hmmm. I rediscovered the lovely Koigu book that I bought earlier on in the year and I'm thinking of making myself a Charlotte's web shawl from it. I tried to make one years ago but couldnt get the stitch pattern straight in my head. I'm not sure about the fringe though, you don't see too many shawls with fringe these days do you?

It is certainly one to consider anyway. I'm playing with kids designs this week, finishing off a collection that I've been working on FOREVER. Or maybe it just seems like it. I can't wait to show you. Oh, and thanks to a combination of Nic's suggestion and my poor will power I'm doing this again. Over here. You need to start with the first entry and read upwards if you want it to make any sense. It may still not make any sense, it is all unedited - just the words as they come out of my head. I've been searching around for the novel I wrote out of the last Nanowrimo I did back in 2003, I cant find it any where. I have been through a few laptops since then so its probably on CD somewhere, that was a lot of fun to write though - I hope I find it somewhere.

I also need to get my sewing machine out as I have lots of things cut out that now need sewing together. I have fallen completely in love with this quilt and although I can't justify spending £70 on it right now I want it!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:44 AM | Comments (4)

October 30, 2007

In which I ramble about lots of things in the hope that you will not notice how little progress is being made on anything significant around here

It is nearly the end of October which means a number of things. One of which is that Halloween is soon to be upon us, the night when I invariably forget to buy sweets so end up ignoring the door all night and when Cameron is too scared to do anything that involves moving from the sofa. It also means that it is almost the 1st November and the start of Nanowrimo. I did this back in 2003 and I can't tell you how tempted I am to do it again even though I KNOW THAT THERE IS NO WAY I CAN MANAGE IT. Just shouting at myself there in the hope that I will listen to myself.

Don't you wish you lived close enough to go to the Blue Moon Fibre Arts stash sale? Oh, I do.

All of the samples are starting to arrive for the Winter YF magazine, and oh my goodness they are looking lovely. Tracy and Catherine are hard at work on the design of the magazine, Dee is busy copy editing and we're planning the photo shoot very soon. I am working on some corrections for the earlier issues which will be up on the site as downloadable pdfs in the next couple of days. We're also going to get a pattern preview page up on the website as soon as we've taken the photos - bit of temptation for you all.

Talking of temptation I have taken on almost 10 new wholesale accounts over the last few weeks and I'm slowly keeping up with all of their orders. Add to that 2 international ones that seem to be having an extended time in customs and I've decided not to take on any more wholesale orders (from new or existing customers) after the end of this week, apart from sari silk which doesnt involve any effort on my part. That will give me the time to concentrate on getting the next stage of the Project club shipments out, the Harrogate show stock sorted out and our Christmas sale organised. I'm looking forward to our Christmas sale this year, with the shopping cart software it should make it much easier to manage for me - no having to manually watch the sales all the time.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:53 AM | Comments (2)

October 28, 2007

Ummm. Baileys.

Here we are at 9pm on Sunday night and I've just decided that I'm going to start this week off by looking at the positive side of everything. Like the fact that I have been able to polish off a good few glasses of Baileys this weekend AND one gin and tonic Saturday lunchtime that left me giggling all the way back to mum and dads house in the car and being banned from playing I spy with Wayne and Brooke again after they deemed my choices "too stupid". Lucky that I was too tipsy* to be offended really wasn't it?. (and for the record I don't think that spying something that begins with T T and that is actually The Time - which was 14.32 when I first spied it, 14.44 when they gave up and 14.45 when Brooke threw things at me from the back of the car and Wayne shook his head sadly - is too stupid. So there.)

See how I'm concentrating on the positives of having totally finished breastfeeding Trinity. I'm trying super hard not to focus on the negative or the sad side of it but to think of the alcohol. I've discovered that concentrating on the positive is easier after a glass of baileys. Magic huh?

*Yes you did read that right, 1 G&T was enough to leave me tipsy, but it was my first alcoholic drink since June 2006 so that's not tooo bad really is it? I worked out last night that since January 2000 I have spent 3 years and 8 months either pregnant or breastfeeding. That's a lot of making up to do isn't it? I think I should have another glass of Baileys RIGHT NOW. Don't you?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:46 PM | Comments (7)

Cartoons

These super funny cartoons depict the week ahead of me. As you can see the big clear out is still a work in progress.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:37 PM | Comments (3)

Coast - silk and seacell shawl.

Or "why Michaela's mum is as lovely as Michaela is"

Back at Ally Pally we only sold 1 skein of the silk and seacell yarn. 1 skein! Ridiculous. Everyone stopped to look at it but no-one was buying. I mentioned to Michaela that perhaps it was because we didn't have anything knitted up in it and she kindly offered the services of her mum to knit me an invisibility shawl out of it.

So we sent Michaela off with a skein of silk and seacell so that she could ask her mum to knit us a shawl hopefully in time for the Harrogate show in November.

Guess what arrived in the post yesterday together with a lovely little note from Michaela's mum?

Doesn't it look pretty? Didn't she do a good job? I LOVE it. What's the betting we sell more of the yarn at Harrogate now?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:58 AM | Comments (4)

October 26, 2007

Tulip cardigan

I blame Tracy* for all of this really. We were having an early morning Yarn Forward magazine meeting at her house last week Saturday and going through some of the bits that she and Catherine* had picked up at Ally Pally at the same time as planning issue 4 and eating biscuits. (we're women, we're supposed to be able to multitask!) I had a wee rummage through her goodies that she bought from Ally Pally and spotted a kit for the Tulip cardigan that I had seen Steph make ages ago and loved at the time.

Fast forward to 9pm last Saturday night, there I am sitting on the sofa watching the rugby and sorting out a few emails and orders and various other bits online. I remembered that Tracy said she bought the kit from Socktopus so I headed over there to have a little look. I just about managed to resist the cardigan kit and bought the pattern, emailing Alice at the same time to say that either a pdf or a posted copy was fine with me. I love other small business owners who also work long hours and within 10 minutes she had emailed me the pdf and refunded me the small amount I had paid for shipping. I love good customer service like this!

How fun. I'm sooo glad that I didn't get the kit now as I noticed that it takes aran weight yarn and also that it is only sized for 6 - 9 months. Trinity is a bit on the large size to be making cardigans that size for and then I remembered the multitude of skeins of aran weight cashmere that I have hiding in the cupboard downstairs waiting to be used in something fairisle. Michaela had inspired me to make my own version of Tipsy but as if by magic some of the skeins are going to become Tulip for Trinity. I cannot wait to start it but I do have a few more bits to get done first. Sometime next week Tulip, I promise you. I only have 5 colours instead of the 8 used in the original and I want to make it a little bigger so it will be a very Kerrie version of the pattern but that doesn't shock you does it? I may steal another colour of aran cashmere from the shop if there is any left next week. We'll see...

*Tracy and Catherine are responsible for the design of the new YF magazine. Love them!!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:11 AM | Comments (2)

October 25, 2007

Beautiful Books

These gorgeous books arrived in the post last week and I have only just found the time to sit and devour them. I have fallen in love all over again with Amy Butler, her book is just amazing. There are only a few patterns in it but the writing and the photos and the ideas in it are just so inspirational. This book is going to be looked at time and time again, her design sense and her style are just gorgeous. Beautiful.

The skirt book is equally amazing. I have skirts cut out already using a couple of the patterns and plan to make many more. I've been buying lots of long sleeved tops from Primark (£2 each - how can you go wrong) and I can see myself wearing them with handmade skirts and knitted vest tops a lot this winter. It will be my new uniform. I want to get some new boots from Duo Boots and I would love to get hold of some thick striped tights - any idea where from?

Finally Joelle's new patchwork book is also gorgeous. I really struck gold with these books all arriving at once, none of them are less than fantastic. I can see lots of quilts in my future and the puzzle ball looks intriguing as well.. Plenty of Christmas gifts to be found in this one. All in all I have lots of sewing to do over the next few weeks I think, must buy some new bobbins...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:02 AM | Comments (5)

October 24, 2007

Purple goodies

I really shouldnt tell you too much about this yarn that I'm knitting at the moment but oh my, it is amazing. You would think that it would be impossible for me to get excited about other people's hand dyed yarns what with HipKnits and all but that's not the case at all. I LOVE other people's yarns, I have a few skeins of Posh yarn goodies in the stash as well as some Fyberspates fibre and now some of the silky wool from Piece of Beauty. It is the softest most lovely yarn ever in the world and I'm really enjoying knitting with it. I have the aran weight (which I think is closer to chunky than aran to be honest) and I'm knitting it on 6.5 mm needles and loving it.

I haven't got much further with the big clear out list I'm afraid. I had big plans for yesterday that DID NOT involved taking Trinity to the doctors again but that's what we ended up doing. Our lovely doctor said something along the lines of "oh no not you again" when we walked in the door, I now have my own parking space in the surgery car park and hotline phone number to call. Or does it just feel like I do? Poor little girl spent much of the day on the sofa like this :

Trinity is not the only poorly one in the house at the moment, so sick children and half term are taking most of my attention at the moment (as well as packing orders and updating the website which is going to be full of new goodies by 8pm tonight) so the stash cupboard unfortunately still looks like this :

I did manage to empty it all out and then sort it out into piles on the hall floor. Material, HipKnits yarns, my stash yarns, paperwork, books, clothes, samples, toys, rubbish etc. But then everything got a little busy and I was forced to throw it all back in the cupboard (apart from the rubbish). At least next time I tackle it (this afternoon) it should be easier to put everything where it belongs. I'm up to 2 bin bags of clothes for the charity shop and 5 bin bags of rubbish for the tip so far. Not bad hey?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:52 AM | Comments (4)

October 22, 2007

And, she's off!

With all that has been going on over the last few months I really thought that Trinity's physical development was going to be delayed. One of the joys about a third child is that I was able to think that, and then promptly decide not worry about it at all. It doesn't matter when they learn to crawl, walk, talk or count to 10, or should I say it doesn't matter to the child - most parents would tell you that it matters a lot. Rivalry between parents is ridiculous, all that comparing and worrying because your child is not doing the same thing that someone else's child is doing. It puts so much pressure on you as a parent, much of it very un-necessary.

That's not to say I didn't compare and worry with Brooke and Cameron, because I did. I was desperate for Brooke to do everything on target and meet all her milestones. I obsessively checked lists to see what she should be able to do and when, and then obsessively checked to see if she could do them or not. Then with Cameron we compared him to Brooke with pretty much all his milestones (she didn't walk until 13 months, he walked at 10 months but she had her first tooth at 5 months and he was nearly 12 months before his first one came through) but this time around? This time I'm happy for Trinity to do what she wants when she wants to.

This is because I am I now trying to remember that by the time they are 4/5 years old and running around the playground with their new found friends at school that it is impossible to tell who walked first, who said their first words earliest and who took a long while to get the hang of potty training. As a general rule, by the time they are school age it is all transparent and doesn't matter who did what when. If you can manage it, just let them be who they are and develop at their own pace. That's what I'm trying to do this time around with Trinity.

So seeing Trinity crawling around the floor has been a real delight and a surprise this past week. For the record she is 7 months old and not having checked Brooke and Cameron's baby books yet I'm not sure whether this is earlier or later than they were, I suspect a little earlier. Seeing as I had accepted that things were going to be a little harder / slower for her with regards to moving around this is fantastic. Apart from the fact that it means we need to get the stairgates up and make sure that little pieces of lego (and yarn!) are not left on the floor ever.

Excuse the fuzzy photo, she won't stay still for me to take a good shot of her! She doesn't move that quickly and much of the crawling is still backwards (so funny!) but she doesnt stay still long enough for non blurry pics. The cardigan she is wearing was a gift from Alexandra, it is a little too cropped for her now but she still squashes into it OK.

The tidying up is going well! So far we are bedroom, dining room table and garage done. Car and stash cupboard on the list for today, paperwork tomorrow and the shop by the end of the week. I'll be buying myself a special present if I get it all done by Friday - not sure what though. Any ideas? Although now that I have it officially in writing from Wayne that he doesn't mind the clutter, perhaps I should just chill out and enjoy half term week instead? ;)

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:37 AM | Comments (9)

October 21, 2007

I hearby declare this the week of the clear out

I am not a neat and tidy person. No really, that is probably an understatement. I am probably one of the scruffiest people I know without exception. Wayne is one of the tidies people I know. I'm sure you can imagine that this makes for an interesting relationship and lots of head shaking in our house.

Every now and again the mess and the clutter in my life gets to me. Now is one of those times. Everywhere I look there is STUFF. All jumbled up in a pile, not organised, scruffy and in a mess. My wardrobe, my stash cupboard, my car, the garage, the shop, the dining room table, my paperwork - everywhere I look is the same. Stuff that needs to be organised.

So this is the week of the clear out. I'm employing a top down approach and starting in the bedroom today with sorting out my wardrobe and under the bed. There will be yarn, books, patterns, clothes and some handknits that need to move out of the house - I'll list anything that I think you might be interested in tomorrow. Then after the bedroom will be the dining room table and the lounge, moving down to the ground floor and the stash cupboard, the paperwork, the garage and the car. Eek. The shop is last on the list.

Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:14 PM | Comments (10)

October 20, 2007

Random Number Generator

Me - Brooke, do me a favour. pick a number between 1 and 64 please.
Brooke - why?
Me - Just do it!
Brooke - what for?
Me - BROOKE! Just pick me a number, any one at all, between 1 and 64. Go on.
Brooke - but why? What's it for?
Me - Oh for goodness sake, I'm having a contest on my blog to raise money for a breast cancer charity and 64 people are eligible to win the prize but I just need you to give me a number so that I know who will win.
Brooke - So if I tell you a number I win a prize?
Me - ARGH! No! Cameron, give me a number between 1 and 64 please?
Cameron - huh?
Brooke - no, no, I want to win the prize, ask me again.
Cameron - I want to win a prize, I want to win a prize.
Brooke - number 2, number 2. I pick number 2. What's my prize?
Cameron - me as well. I pick number 2 as well. I want a prize too like Brookie
Me (walking away) - thanks Brooke. Eventually!
Cameron and Brooke together (chasing after me) - Where is our prize, we want our prize!

So well done Amanda in Georgia. Send me your postal address and I'll send you Brooke and Cameron, oh sorry I mean your parcel of yarn and pattern of your choice.

Only 64 comments before midnight, never mind. I sneakily donated just over £100 in the morning before any of you commented, is that really bad of me to make you comment under false pretences?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:44 PM | Comments (6)

October 19, 2007

Breast Cancer awareness month

Did you know that October is national Breast Cancer awareness month? with today being the official "in the pink" day?

I have been trying to think of lots of clever ways that I could fundraise and donate some money to the cause but I ran out of both time and inspiration. So instead I'll donate £1 for every comment left here before midnight tonight (up to a maximum of £100, but I don't expect to get that many comments) and I'll enter everyone that comments into a prize draw to win enough (pink) silk yarn to make either one of our 2 new patterns that were released this week together with whichever pattern you choose. You dont have to be entered into the prize draw if you dont want to, just mention that in the comment that you leave. I'll get one of the kids to pick a number tomorrow and post to let you know who won over the weekend.

The only rule is that before you comment you have to check your breasts for anything unusual. Brooke and Cameron will tell you that I have a psychic ability to tell if people are not telling the truth so don't comment unless you have checked, I'll know if you do and then knots will appear in all your skeins of yarn and other bad things will happen.. This goes for men as well as women, did you know that men can get breast cancer as well? Around 300 men a year are diagnosed with the disease which may not sound like many but it is still a significant number.

I'm sure that there are not many of us who don't know someone who has been affected by breast cancer. I actually have 3 friends who have survived it and have been for an ultrasound myself for something that turned out to be nothing serious. It can be hard while you are breastfeeding to keep a track of everything that is going on and working out what is just a breastfeeding type change and what might be something more serious can be difficult, I mean - when you are feeding a baby your breasts change practically every few minutes. If I can keep on top of it then so can you. So now go and check yourself out and then leave me a comment. You know you want to.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:14 AM | Comments (69)

October 18, 2007

Another new pattern, and some teddy bear carnage

I have had this sample hanging around for ages now while I try to get some good photos taken. I've been wearing it a lot but never managed to get good pics. Yesterday I decided to give up and just get the pattern out there with mannequin pics.

It is an aran silk T shirt, designed by moi and knitted by Sue (who else?) The front can be worn one of 2 ways either with the hook and eyes done up, or left open.

It really doesn't fit my mannequin too well but it is the size 38 inch bust and fits me beautifully. Excuse the blurry photos of me wearing it, between the self timer and Cameron these were as good as it gets. Hopefully you can see the detail that you need from the mannequin pics and the fit from my pics.

It is a top down raglan and I love the way that the back looks as well. Pattern in sizes 30 - 50 inch bust, taking from 300g - 500g of silk. Shown here in pixie. Which pooled a wee tad.

I tend to wear it like this most of the time. Open and draping over the top of a long sleeved or short sleeved top. Its a bit like a uniform for me!

Now for the bear carnage. If you are feeling squeamish then look away now. This is (was) Bernard. A bear made out of a skein of duckpond aran silk that Carol from the Calico Cat who has had the stand oppostite us at AP for the 3 years that we have been there bought last year and returned this year knitted into a bear. He was our mascot at the show, he met Vera and Trinity gave him a good snugging when she came in to visit. I was only alerted yesterday to the fact that she had destroyed him while in her highchair waiting for me to cook dinner when I heard Cameron ask why I knitted a sausage and gave it to Trinity to eat. It was in fact one of Bernard's arm that she had ripped off and was munching on. His legs followed soon behind.

Poor Bernard. Never give a handknitted toy to a baby.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:42 AM | Comments (3)

October 17, 2007

Exclusive preview

Jennifer from Pie Knits has designed a beautiful sweater pattern for us using our aran silk yarn, it will be available here in the next couple of weeks. Sized from 32 - 48 inch bust, it is a beautiful garment that I can't wait to knit for myself! I love the way that the variegated yarn and the semi solid work together, the sample was made in Knox and baby - and look how the Knox didn't even pool too badly. Gorgeous.

The site will be updated very soon with all of the goodies that we bought back from Ally Pally with us. I'm super busy photographing and updating the site, expect an update later on this afternoon.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:03 AM | Comments (3)

October 16, 2007

Ally Pally - 2007

As I said yesterday, the show was amazing. We never seem to remember just how hard it is to spend effectively 5 days on your feet being nice to people! Both dad and I were exhausted by the end of the weekend.. We met soooo many lovely customers, there are too many of them to mention individually but it was so good to be able to meet you all face to face instead of over email. A huge thanks to the people who helped on the stand over the weekend, Tracy and Catherine did a great job helping to sell the magazine while Michaela and Heather both mucked in and helped with babysitting and selling yarn while I was out teaching the flower classes.

I think that our stand looked better than ever, I love the way the grid walls looked hanging up on the side of the stand and even though no-one really bought the super chunky yarn I thought that it looked lovely. Heather's bags had lots of interest, aren't they lovely? They looked gorgeous hanging up around the top of the stand and on the coat rack at the front. I have to admit to buying one myself and having a small panic attack when I thought that someone else was going to buy it. Lucky she saw the error of her ways and put it back at the last minute!

Louiz and Jo were both lovely enough to bring us chocolates (one box on Thursday and one on Friday) so we snacked well on Thorntons and Green and Blacks chocolates, thanks so much to both of you - how kind! We didn't have any horrid customers, or at least none that were brave enough to be horrid to our faces.

The show was without a doubt the best show we have ever done. Not necessarily from a financial point of view (were were a little down on last year) but just from the sheer fun of meeting so many lovely people and having such a good laugh. The other stands in our little area were so lovely and we had a really good time with them. There is something fab about walking into the show on set up day and recognising so many other stand holders. There is a real sense of belonging to be had from knowing most of them by name or just to look at. A nice little show community that we are part of.

I didn't buy a single thing from any of the other stands, although Jeni and I did trade fibre for a magazine. Dad did though, he is now the owner of a rather large pair of black crocs. Go dad! In the "my dad is more cool than your dad" stakes I think I win. My dad wears crocs, has an ipod and dyes yarn. It doesn't come much cooler than that, does it?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:48 AM | Comments (14)

October 15, 2007

Reason 398 why my postman hates me

The show was brilliant, I have so much to write but no time to do it today as I have a very sick Cameron to look after, poor boy. The response to issue 3 of the magazine has been amazing and hopefully subscribers should have started to receive their copies today. My business collection postman is used to picking up 2 or 3 sacks of soft mail from me each day but over 800 magazines is something new for him. He only moaned and complained a little bit, I told him he was lucky he hadn't had to stuff the envelopes and stick the stamps and labels on them all! More about Ally Pally, the magazine and lots of other bits tomorrow. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:26 PM | Comments (5)

October 09, 2007

We're off

This is my last entry now until after Ally Pally. The yarn is packed, labelled and on the inventory list. Today is all about picking up the patterns from the printers and also picking up Issue 3 of the magazine! How exciting is that? I'm being cheap and choosing to drive to the printers to collect them and save the courier costs. All of the envelopes are labelled, stamped and ready to be collected by Royal Mail as soon as they get off their striking butts later on in the week. I'll be stuffing magazines into envelopes tonight so 6pm today is your last chance to tell me if you want to collect it from Ally Pally. If I don't hear from you by then your magazine will be out in the post tomorrow morning.

Before I go I thought I'd share with you some pictures of my all time favourite HipKnits yarn - Ophelia sock yarn. This is just so pretty and so similar to Koigu which has always been my all time favourite sock yarn ever. I love the way it takes the dye, the way it feels and the way it knits up. I really want to sneak some of this out of the show pile and keep it for myself but I won't. I'll be good.

We have 12 brand new colourways of Ophelia coming along to the show with us. As well as over 100 skeins of lace cashmere, the same of sock cashmere, around 90 bargain sale packs, copies of the new Yarn Forward magazine, some of Heather's beautiful bags, tonnes of gorgeous silk, beautiful aran weight cashmere and BFL, our new Emilia super chunky yarn, scarf kits and oh my goodness - so much more!

We are on stand N32 in the main hall. That's over near the back in the right hand corner. Close to one of the coffee bars! See you there..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:35 AM | Comments (20)

October 08, 2007

Braiding fibre

One of my little jobs over the weekend was to braid up all the fibre for the show. It just looks so much prettier like this than any other way and for the show, presentation is everything. So I sat in front of my current favourite junk time TV show* on Friday night and braided up 72 braids of fibre. Can you say fluffy?

My favourite both to spin and to braid has to be the silk. It shines and shimmers and looks amazing. I love it.

The BFL and Merino are also great fibres to spin and nice and easy to manage. However, the Alpaca? Oh my goodness. It takes the dye beautifully and spins like butter but fluffy? Oh yes. Too fluffy for me I'm afraid. I'm going to stick with the silk I think. Expensive tastes, that's me.

* Dog the Bounty Hunter. I know, I know, I should be ashamed of myself - but I'm not! Its addictive, I love it.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:07 AM | Comments (6)

October 06, 2007

Last word

My mum rang up and told me a version of this story this morning which I then found on a Zen story website. I thought that this version was lovely, and very appropriate.

Gift Of Insults

There once lived a great warrior. Though quite old, he still was able to defeat any challenger. His reputation extended far and wide throughout the land and many students gathered to study under him.
One day an infamous young warrior arrived at the village. He was determined to be the first man to defeat the great master. Along with his strength, he had an uncanny ability to spot and exploit any weakness in an opponent. He would wait for his opponent to make the first move, thus revealing a weakness, and then would strike with merciless force and lightning speed. No one had ever lasted with him in a match beyond the first move.

Much against the advice of his concerned students, the old master gladly accepted the young warrior's challenge. As the two squared off for battle, the young warrior began to hurl insults at the old master. He threw dirt and spit in his face. For hours he verbally assaulted him with every curse and insult known to mankind. But the old warrior merely stood there motionless and calm. Finally, the young warrior exhausted himself. Knowing he was defeated, he left feeling shamed.

Somewhat disappointed that he did not fight the insolent youth, the students gathered around the old master and questioned him. "How could you endure such an indignity? How did you drive him away?"

"If someone comes to give you a gift and you do not receive it," the master replied, "to whom does the gift belong?"

Love it. I wasn't sure that I got many of the other stories on tha tpage but the Wooden Coffin one did make me laugh.

Busy busy busy this weekend packing and labelling and weighing yarn for the show next week. Lots of pics for you on Monday x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:07 PM | Comments (4)

October 05, 2007

Thanks, and yarn

Thank you all for yesterday's comments and emails, it means a lot to me. TO answer the 2 main questions, yes the main culprit does have a blog (and I have their address as they used to be HipKnits customer) and I have reported them to their service provider. Secondly, I'm not going to name and shame them at this stage. This is the first time I've ever mentioned it on my blog although the nasty emails have been going on since before Trinity was born. Lets hope this is enough to get rid of them shall we?

Onto a much nicer topic, yarn. AsI mentioned, yesterday was a 300 skein day which brings the weeks total to 992 skeins (I didn't quite make my 1000 skein target) and means that I never ever want to dye another skein of yarn in my life. They will all be coming along to Ally Pally together with all of the sari silk, and the chunky yarn and silk that dad has dyed. Its going to be a big show don't you know? We're just about all set for the show, my plan of the stand is drawn - my check list is printed off and my labels are ready to go just as soon as the yarn is dry.

Talking of yarn, do you want to see a few bits that are hanging up in my garden at the moment? First we have the pinks :

then some charcoal greys :

Some greens and blues :

The rainbow section :

A few more blues and pinks :

Some candy colours :

I also have tonnes of silk fibres all dyed up and just a few kilos of BFL and Merino spinning fibres. Pretty much everything that you could want, don't you think?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:20 AM | Comments (12)

October 04, 2007

Couldn't think of anything nice to say.

My mum always taught me that if you can't think of anything nice to say then don't say anything. Obviously lots of other mum's weren't quite so good at bringing up their children. The reason that I didn't post this morning is because I couldn't think of anything nice to say. I was too busy being hurt and upset at yet another fresh batch of hatemail that arrived in my inbox from my favourite stalker. *waves* hi there stalker!

It always surprises me that reading about how someone really hates me ends up upseting me so much. Of course I like to be liked and I think I'm a pretty decent person, but I'm grown up enough to realise that you can't please all of the people all of the time. I do know this though, I will never be OK about the hatemail. Every time I think I will just delete the emails without reading them or steer clear of the blogs / forums where the main culprits hang out I just can't quite manage to do it. So I read them. Then I cry. Then I wonder why these people dislike me so much and why they insist on reading the blog, buying from me if they do dislike me. It is baffling.

On the whole my customers are fantastic. It just seems to be these 2 or 3 people who are intent on causing trouble for me. And they live in London so I'm looking forward to meeting them at the show next week. It has already been suggested that they are going to come to the stand to tell me to my face what a bad person I am. I'll be the one hiding behind my dad then!

Anyway, today I hid from the internet nearly all day. It was great. Mum came over for the day and we played with Trinity, walked in the muddy forest, had chips from the chip shop for lunch and I dyed 300 skeins of yarn this afternoon out in the sunshine. Now I feel composed enough to come back and show you these pics of Trinity in the new cashmere sock yarn design that Janine worked up for HipKnits. Doesn't she look cute?

She really didnt want to sit still for the photo! There are some detailed and unmodelled shots over on the patterns page on the website. Its my all time favourite little girls dress, I love it.

I'm almost ready for Ally Pally as well. I've dyed almost 1000 skeins of yarn over the last 3 days. I'll show you some pics tomorrow. Now I have a family to feed!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:31 PM | Comments (25)

October 03, 2007

Yarn forward magazine Issue 3

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this issue of yarn forward magazine. The first 2 were a bit of a disappointment to me due to the problems with the printing, the colour reproduction, the way that the photos had been all squished out of shape, the delays, the HUGE amounts of money I lost - need I go on?

However, this issue? This one is perfect. I love it. Everything about it. You're all going to love it too, I promise. From Nic's gorgeous mittens on the front cover to Polly's fab socks, to Katy's mohair sweater and girls dress. I am in love.

The magazine should be coming to Ally Pally with us next week (fingers crossed, touch wood etc etc) Subscriber copies will be posted out next week Thursday so if you are coming to Ally Pally and want to pick up your copy there instead of having it posted please email me at kerrieAThipknits.co.uk and let me know to save your one for you.

I've also been working on the Yarn Forward Magazine website a litle, see? There is still more to come but you can now pre order Issue 3 if you are not a subscriber as well as upgrade your existing international subscription to airmail and lots of other clever things. The webiste needs padding out a lot but I'll get to that over the next few days I'm sure.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:09 AM | Comments (12)

October 02, 2007

Handspun hat

We're all about the hats over here at the moment, Cameron is proudly wearing his cashmere hat most mornings and Trinity is now the proud owner of a cute little earflap hat made out of some random handspun.

Again, the pattern is one that I just made up - knit from the top down in stocking stitch with a garter stitch border and earflaps. I made a little pom pom for it using my magical pom pom maker, less than 3 minutes from start to finish. I'll show you a photos of the hat with pom pom later on in the week. You can expect more pom poms around here this winter!! I could have made it an inch or so longer but it will do for now, I'll know better next time.

The yarn is from my handspun scraps box - not sure where it came from but it is lovely. Aran weight and less than 50g used. Nice and pretty. On the needles is another hat (this time for me) out of some of my own chunky handspun, Brooke is next in line - she has chosen a skein of cashmere and silk from the shop for her hat.

Talking of hats, I'm going to put on my enabler hat here for a minute, did you know that if you enter the word SALE into the promo code box on the Amy Butler shop website you can get 50% off your order? That will only be of interest to US customers as the USD 120 shipping fee to the UK makes even a half price bag too expensive. Lucky for me I have the best customers in the whole world and within minutes of ranting about it I had an offer to bring me a bag over from the US. Lovely Amy Butler bag, you will be mine. Oh yes.

Now, onto the winner of the chunky yarn kit. So many gorgeous names and so many great Shakespeare stories that I am not familiar with. It took me ages to choose the name and I changed my mind so many times but the final decision was to call the yarn Emilia so that makes Ali our lucky winner! Email me your address Ali and I'll pop your winning parcel out in the post to you today or tomorrow (beat that postal strike!)

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:05 AM | Comments (6)

October 01, 2007

Royal Mail strike action and this week's shop update

Damn Royal Mail.

Although that probably says it all for most of you I've just learned that there will be strike action from Royal Mail this week and next which will mean that I will be unable to send any parcels from this week Thursday to next week Tuesday. Sigh.

That means I'm going to bring the shop update (and the nice newsletter discount code!) forward to Tuesday afternoon at 3pm. If you get your orders in before midday Wednesday they will go out Wednesday afternoon. If not they won't be able to be posted until the following Wednesday. Sorry about that. If I could change it, I would. If there were an alternative to Royal Mail, I'd use them.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Saturday

Saturday was a big day for me. It was the first day that I have ever left Trinity for more than half an hour or so at a time. I sneaked out of the house at 7am and drove down to Get Knitted at Bristol to teach a silk dyeing workshop. That's around 160 miles and 2.5 hours of quiet crying all the way there, I felt terrible at the thought of walking out of the house and leaving her behind even though I knew she would be OK. She is kind of taking bottles and solids now although she is still very reliant on me for milk as well but it was only for a few hours and I had to make the break sometime. I was so tempted to turn around and go home and grab her and take her with me but I was strong (sniffly but strong) and arrived in Bristol without baby.

The Get Knitted shop is amazing, it is HUGE and with so many lovely yarns it was inevitable that I would come home with a few goodies. 2 skeins of Colinette Jitterbug in a colour that I just couldn't resist, a crochet hook, the latest copy of Selvedge magazine, Vogue knitting, 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Suri merino one in brown and one in palest pink (just about THE softest yarn ever) a pom pom maker and 2 metres of Rowan Kaffee Fasset fabric. Lovely. The jitterbug is destined to be a scarf / shawl for me as is the Blue Sky yarns. Imagine that, knitting for myself. How posh.

The workshop itself was fantastic. We had 5 people turn up and between them they dyed a good few kilos of yarn. Everyone had a turn at preparing the skeins, mixing the dyes, dyeing and rinising the yarns and I think everyone was happy with their colours and enjoyed the day. I took lots of photos which I have sent over to Hannah to put up on the walls in the workshop or on their website, they are all in this flickr set here.

I really enjoyed the day, I think I should try and get out there and teach a few more workshops this winter. I might run a couple at the HipKnits workshop space but also if anyone else has a venue that would be perfect for some classes let me know.

While I was in Bristol, Wayne took the 3 kids to the wedding of a friend of his. I made it in time for the speeches and apologised profusely for turning up at the wedding late and dressed in jeans and crocs! Trinity seemed pleased to see me, especially as I fed her seconds after walking through the door - my arrival co-incided nicely with her hunger and my DESPERATE need to feed her after being away form her for a few hours. It was a long day, we didn't get home until gone 9pm from the wedding - lucky for us the kids are all starting to sleep better at night again after their colds and bugs. Touch wood!

I'm going to sit down now and try and choose my favourite name for the thick and thin chunky yarn. I'll let you know tomorrow which one I choose, thanks for all the suggestions!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:25 AM | Comments (1)

September 28, 2007

New Super Chunky yarn

The show at Alexandra Palace will see the launch of one of our lovely winter yarns, a super chunky thick and thin handspun yarn which is the closest we have ever found to Colinette Point 5. Sold in skeins of 100g and around 60 yards this wool yarn is quick to knit into lovely chunky scarves, hats and little shoulder warmer capelets like Bella up there. A super simple knit this took me about 3 hours from start to finish, even including the loopy crochet border, and that's from someone who can't really crochet more than a chain.

We'll have the yarn and pattern on sale at Alexandra Palace in lots of gorgeous colours. I was having a Dulux moment when I named the above colour Apple White, it really is the palest shade of soft appley green. I love the HUGE button I found to fasten it but it would look gorgeous tied with ribbon or with any other kind of fastening. A shawl pin or brooch would be great as well.

To be in with the chance of winning a kit to make one of these in the same colour as shown here (but without the button, sorry) just suggest a name for this range of yarn in the comments. I'm naming all of our yarns after women in Shakespeare's plays. These ones are already in use Juliet (100% silk), Cleopatra (Carolyn's lovely mohair blend yarns), Desdemona (the lambswool, cashmere, angora sock yarn), Ophelia (the merino sock yarn), Cressida (BFL yarn) and Olivia (100% cashmere) Any other name of one of Shakespeare's ladies will be considered. I'll choose my favourite out of all your suggestions on Monday next week and the first person to have suggested the winner will win the kit.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:27 AM | Comments (36)

September 27, 2007

My boy

I *love* this boy so much. Cam is a typical 3 year old boy, he is full of energy, sometimes a little too rough and tumble. He has tantrums and sulks with the best of them. At the same time he is loving, cuddly, kind and just so sweet. A complete mixture of slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails together with sugar and spice and all things nice. He is my boy.

Lots of people still mistake him for a girl but that's OK. His hair is longer and thicker than Brooke's (almost down to his bum when it is wet in the bath) and he wears it in plaits pretty much all of the time. I love it when someone tells him he is a pretty girl or a good girl and he looks them in the eye and laughs his fabulous laugh and says "My not a girl, my a boy. I'm Cameron!" How people can look at him in his Bob the Builder T shirt and other boy clothes and still think he is a girl is beyond me. Its the long hair and those gorgeous big eyes and long lashes I think. It doesn't matter. He knows who he is and he's not afraid to correct people. I love that!

When he was first born and everyone shook their heads and told me that boys were MUCH different from girls and I really didn't pay them much attention. At that point I truly believed that it was a case of nurture over nature and really, if we treated him in the same way that we treated Brooke how could they be too different. Oh, how wrong I was. In my experience, boys are TOTALLY different to girls in just about every way I can think of. Cameron jumps and climbs and runs and shouts and takes things apart where Brooke used to sit and play and pretend to read. Sometimes he doesn't know when to stop but that's where we come in as his parents, to teach him his boundaries and make sure he grows up into a good man.

Sometimes I find it hard to remember that he only just turned 3. He is doing so well at nursery and I cherish the couple of days a week that he stays home with Trinity and I. The time that I spend with him is sometimes stressful, sometimes funny but always busy and full on. He does not stop for a minute. He talks and laughs and jumps and sings constantly. It can be really wearing but that's just the way he is. I admit that some days it is harder to deal with than on others and that I do lose my temper with him rather more than I am proud of but I'm working on that.

My super huggley (his word, not mine) grown up boy who last night made my heart burst with love and pride when I asked him to try on a new hat I knitted for him (posh yarn 8 ply cashmere, less than 1 skein. Knit from the top down using no real pattern, I have more to make him a scarf) and the first thing he said was "does it make my look cool?" yes, Cameron. It does make you look cool. When he followed that up with a hug and a unprompted thank you for the hat it made me well up. Love you so much my grown up boy. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:18 AM | Comments (8)

September 26, 2007

Scarf Kits and quilt tops

Sometimes things happen all at once and it seems like fate. I had 3 emails over the weekend. The first one was from a lovely customer of mine ,Gilraen, asking me if I had any silk that she could use to make the cover scarf pattern from the new Vogue Knitting Magazine. Then I had one from a new customer who was asking if I thought that the aran silk would be good to use to make a chevron scarf out of (YES!!) and if so could I tell her which colours would work well together. Finally I had another email from a new customer asking me how much of the aran silk she would need to make a scarf out of.

My brain started to tick and this is what we came up with. Beautiful scarf kits with colours chosen especially for you. Each kit contains 3 x 50g skeins of our aran weight silk in co-ordinating colours and would be perfect for either the Vogue flower scarf, the Chevron scarf or any other scarf you want to make! We can probably do these in any colours that you like but these are the ones that we made up for this week. I'll try and get some more done in time for Ally Pally I think.

The shop will be updated at 8pmm GMT tonight with these and lots of other goodies. For now, you can see all of the scarf kits on their very own flickr set , these are my favourites!

We also have some Sew Hip quilt top kits that give you enough rectangles of fabric to piece together a cot size or slightly bigger quilt top. We've done all the hard work for you by choosing and cutting out the pieces, all you have to do is sew them together into strips, piece together your quilt top and then choose what to do next. My favourites here are :

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:52 AM | Comments (6)

September 25, 2007

Yesterday

Ugh - I'm not feeling very creative this morning, something to do with the fact that Trinity was up twice last night, Cameron was up once and then Brooke was up twice as well. Lack of sleep really knocks me out. Shame I have so much planned for today otherwise I'd be retreating to bed and trying to persuade Trinity to sleep all day.

So in place of anything creative here's a wee peak into my Monday this week.

- I clocked up 8 hours of HipKnits / MagKnits / YF Mag work including sending out 3 wholesale orders, 18 retail orders, sending 108 emails, making 3 phone calls and taking 38 photos of new gorgeous yarn kits to put on the site for you tomorrow.

- I baked * a cheesecake - this was the first cheesecake I've made from a recipe totally my own after playing with so many cheesecake recipes for ages. Both Brooke and Wayne pronounced it the best cheesecake ever so that made me happy.

- I broke * my toe. This one didn't make me so happy. I'm getting it checked out this morning but I think that dropping a tin on it from a top level cupboard really wasn't the best move I could have made. A purple swollen toe that can't bear weight really isn't much use to me at the moment.

- I wrote out the pattern for and knitted a whole chunky shoulder wrap mini shawlette type thing.

- The kids and I went out on bikes (and in pushchairs) after dinner for an hour. Peaceful relaxing time that despite the hobbling from me was just what I needed to restore some sanity to my head.

I'm sure there was more but I can't remember it at the moment. Today was set to be even busier but a lot of that depends on the toe situation!

Oh yes, have you seen that Michaela is collecting 4 ply squares to sew together to make a blanket (or blankets) to raffle in aid of Oliver's fund? Raffle tickets are £1 each and you could win the beautiful hand knitted blanket at the end of it, now that has to be worth it, don't you think? So, knit a square and send it in together with some money to buy raffle tickets and you may just get your square back together with lots of other squares.

* No wonder the English language is so hard to learn. Who would have have guessed that the past tenses of To Bake and To Break could be so different?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:02 AM | Comments (6)

September 24, 2007

Pinwheelish cardigan type thing

Halfway through the pinwheel cardigan I was inspired to knit a shawl out of sock yarn that was kind of pinwheelish. Then I decided that I wanted to get the pattern written up and the sample knitted in time for Alexandra Palace. Yeah right, we'll see if that happens.

This caused me to lose interest in the pinwheel cardigan ever so slightly and I ended up making it a short sleeved version so that I would only use 100g of yarn. It still looks lovely and I made Cameron try it on to see if it would still fit a big 3 year old and you know what? It did. Not that he kept it on for long enough for me to take a photo but it did fit him.

Even without the frilly edging and with short sleeves I think it looks lovely on Trinity. Now I can get on with the new shawl and all the other bits and bobs that I really need to get ready for AP. Another busy week in line for me, I have lots of custom orders to dye today and 3 wholesale orders to finish off and get in the post as well. Oh, and the remaining 3 skeins of aran BFL that I dyed will be in the shop on Wednesday along with plenty of other goodies.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:32 AM | Comments (7)

September 21, 2007

Call for submissions

I posted this call for YF magazine submissions on the Ravelry designers board last night but thought I should share it here.

"For now I'm looking at our December issue and although we have around 20 patterns slated for publication we're a little accessory heavy. If anyone has any cardigan or sweater designs that are either complete / almost complete or can be completed and with me in the UK by the end of October then I would love to see them.

The rules :

No accesories this time around. Garments for children, men or women are welcome.

The design must be your own, original and not previously published elsewhere or currently submitted to another magazine for consideration.

The deadline for finished garments to be with me in the UK is the end of October. Allow a week's shipping for international designers.

Payment will be made in form of a monetary amount and a copy of the magazine. Full copyright is retained by the designer.

We are particularly looking for more complex designs, think intermediate or advanced knitters. However if you have a beautiful yet simple sweater design for us then send it over, we may well make an exception for the perfect design!

Please email me at kerrie AT hipknits.co.uk if you have anything that we might be interested in.

Take care Kerrie x"

Issue 3 of the magazine is coming together nicely and is still on track to be ready in time for Ally Pally. There are likely to be some big changes in the air for issues 4 onwards but I'll tell you more about those in a couple of weeks.

I've clocked up some silly hours this week, more than 55 hours over the last 4 days. Today I've inevitably woken up with a sore throat and headache so its a quiet day for me. I may even pick up the pinwheel cardigan again if I'm lucky.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:08 AM | Comments (1)

September 20, 2007

Fabrics

I am in the process of moving the sew hip fabrics over to the HipKnits shop to make it easier for everyone to order. I have the hand printed Australian ones from Sprout Design and Kristen Doran design on there at the moment. Go and take a look... I'm hoping to have all the Japanese ones on there today and tomorrow as well as some new sewing patterns.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)

Dresser

I bought this dresser from ebay the other week, lovely isn't it? It looks a little bare at the moment but soon it will be filled with yarn and fabric as it sits in the corner of the shop. I'm probably going to strip it and paint it at some point but for now it can remain pine. Inspired by Heather's beautiful studio pics, I've been looking for one of these for ages. Mine is not as grand as her one but I love it never the less.

Lime zest, raspberry torte and blue diamond are my current top paint choices, but thats sure to change.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:16 AM | Comments (6)

September 19, 2007

Touch wood

So far (touch wood) I'm the only one in the house not to have come down with this high temperature, bad cold, stomach bug type thing that is floating around. Wayne and Trinity are super sick with it (Trinity has added an ear infection into the mix!) and Brooke and Cameron are just about managing to keep it at bay although neither of them is properly well. This means that my nightimes are interrupted with 4 lots of high temperatures (3 of them needing Calpol regularly and the 4th one being left to fend for himself) and sad faces. Last night was the worst so far - I was under the duvet for 8 hours but got up 9 times. No wonder I feel half asleep today. Sigh.

No knitting either yesterday, it was another silly busy one with me clocking in another 12 hour day. Lots of paperwork and admin to be done after I packed up all of the parcels. I could feel the postman groan as he saw the 3 sacks of mail waiting for him to collect. I'm sure he likes our quiet days although there is always at least 20 parcels for him to pick up. Although it was another busy busy day I feel good about what I achieved though :

Redesign the Sew Hip site (will be live at the weekend)
Redesign the HipKnits site (will be live at the weekend)
New version of all our wholesale documents
Lots and lots of accounts and invoicing
PR stuff

It does mean that the pinwheel cardigan still looks like this though, which is pretty much where I left it on Sunday night.

I messed up the armholes and I'm not sure whether I need to rip back and fix them or if they will still work. I didn't cast on the extra stitches, just slipped the 18 onto spare yarn. What do you think, was the casting on important to be done at that stage? I need to read the pattern again properly when I'm not half asleep I think!

Wayne put together a pdf document yesterday with lots of photos of Brooke, Cameron and Trinity as babies called Who is who. I'm ashamed to say that I got one of them wrong, I was sure that the photo was of Trinity but it was in fact Cameron. How embarrassing. Little clones they are!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:48 AM | Comments (8)

September 18, 2007

Mini Photoshoot

Thanks for all the yarn orders last night, you guys just want to make sure I spend all day wrapping gorgeous yarns in tissue paper and putting them in envelopes don't you? I don't mind really... As long as I can knit some of the pinwheel today, I spent 12 hours working yesterday without any time to knit. It had to be done but I'd like just a leetle time to work a few rounds today, is that OK?

I've been wanting to tell you that I had a mini photoshoot one day last week, just another opportunity for my neighbours to realise quite how insane I actually am. Standing in a cornfield with arms full of yarn indeed! Its a good job that it was the nice postlady who walked past and saw me and not the grumpy one really..

Marianne (and Barry!) took the photos. You can see them here. Aren't they lovely? The ones of the yarn and Trinity that is, I still don't like photos of me very much but they're not bad - all things considering. It was a lot of fun having them taken, Marianne and Barry are both lovely people who made Trinity and I feel nice and relaxed.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:34 AM | Comments (10)

September 17, 2007

Monday monday

We had a lovely little hot chocolate break at Starbucks in Romford yesterday to meet Nic and Pete - the cutest little baby ever, he is just so sweet. Brooke had a cuddle with him and Nic took a photo I think, my camera didnt make it off the kitchen table, I'm rubbish at taking photos sometimes! Mrs Pao was there and Lucy (I think - sorry if I got your name wrong, brain fog!) so it proved to be a good place to stop for half an hour on the way to Sunday dinner.

I knitted a little more of the pinwheel cardigan, it should probably be finished today or tomorrow. Its such a quick and easy knit, I'm loving it. The yarn is looking quite pretty as it knits up as well - I'll get lots of pics of Trinity wearing it and show you as soon as I can.

The show at the NEC was almost as dire as last year unfortunately. We cut costs a LOT this year which meant that we made a small profit (enough for a visit to pizza hut this weekand not much else) but really it wasn't really worth it. Noonie had a good time teaching the classes and looking after the stand though and we made a few good contacts so it wasn't all doom and gloom. It is very unlikely that we'll be there next year though. Now we're looking on to Ally Pally and Harrogate over the next few weeks. I'm also teaching classes at Dublin but can't afford a stand over there, it will be a nice weekend away though.

Busy photographing all of the lovely lovely sock yarns that came home from Birmingham. They will be on the site at 8pm tonight along with hundreds of other skein of yarn. I hope you're ready, see you there?

EDITED TO ADD - I just finished the stock take of yarns to go on the site tonight. THere are over 500 skeins of yarn!! Oh My.

ANOTHER EDIT - Here is the flickr set for today's update. Forgive me for naming the yarns 01, 02, 03 etc but inspiration ran smartly out of the window when it saw all those piles of yarn waiting to be named. Its impossible for me to pick a favourite, I just keep looking at all the yarns piled up on my kitchen floor and change my mind every minute. There are a few ones that if they don't sell by the weekend have my name written all over them but I'm not telling you which ones.

FINAL EDIT OF THE DAY. Its done and updated and I'm "almost" sick of the sight of yarn. Almost. Go see. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:38 AM | Comments (5)

September 14, 2007

Pinwheel yarn

Well, the pinwheel sweater yarn has been chosen dyed and is dry and ready to wind into a ball and start knitting with. Andy took the time to email me and point out how perfect aran weight BFL yarn would be for the cardigan and I decided that he was probably right (but don't tell him that!) I dyed 400g of yarn so there will be plenty of yarn, I'm expecting to use up to 200g of it.

I started the sweater with some handspun yarn yesterday but it turned out to be the wrong gauge, too much on the chunky side. I think that this aran weight BFL will be perfect.

When I dyed this yarn I also dyed lots of other goodies which "hopefully" will be dry enough to take pics of this evening and get on the site for you all. I have some lace weight coast, some sock weight coast, some BFL sock and some lace cashmere hanging up looking beautiful in my garden. I'm out at a friends house tonight so it will be a little earlier than usual, say around 7.30pm?

Edited to add - well its 6.30pm and the combination of the good camera having been dropped on the concrete and broken, the backup camera having flat batteries, and a husband who is still not home from work means that the chances of me getting the shop updated before I go out is minimal. (we're currently not thinking about what will happen if he isn't home by the time I want to go out. You'll probably all hear the scream of disappointment if I get the kids all tucked up in bed and then don't get to go out just for a couple of hours)

So, how about I spend the weekend photographing all of the lovely yarns and fabrics that I have as best I can with the small camera, finish off some of the sewing patterns that I've been working on and get these and all of the leftover yarns from the NEC on the website Monday evening at 8pm. That will be a BUMPER update, definitely one to stalk. Have a nice weekend everyone, lets hope the sun keeps on shining. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:55 AM | Comments (4)

September 13, 2007

Things are looking up

Yesterday was tiring but good. Trinity seemed to like Birmingham and as far as I can tell Birmingham loved her, but then who wouldn't? Noonie and I set up the stand in super speed time (2 hours) while mum and Trinity wandered around outside and waited for us. We're in prime position, as soon as you walk in the main entrance of the show we are the 3rd stand you'll see. Don't be confused by the fact that we are in the show guide as MagKnits with someone elses address and other details - the HUGE HipKnits banner and pretty yarns should give us away. Make sure to say hi to Noonie or dad depending on what day you visit.

Some good news came in the afternoon (more on that another time) and Trinity made it through her first day with a tooth. I made it through my first ever day of breasfeeding a toothed baby, both brooke and cam were late teethers and safely onto bottles before they broke through. She seems to be getting more of an appetite for solid foods these days as well which bodes well for Ally Pally in 4 weeks time.

Also in the good news stakes yesterday, my sister suggested she buy me that necklace as a belated birthday present - thanks Jen - and One Planet yarn and fiber put up tonnes of our sock yarns for sale.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:28 AM | Comments (9)

September 12, 2007

Loving it

I had this big long post all written out and ready to publish but reading it back it was just too depressing to share. So I decided that I probably need to just stay under the porch for a little longer and get over myself. Sometimes you have to make a conscious decision to be happy and not just wallow and that's my plan for today. Be happy.

I was out of the house while it was still dark this morning packing up the car so that Trinity, mum and I can drive to Birmingham today and set up the show at the NEC. Its nice to come home and find everyone up and eating breakfast and happy to see me.

If we sell any yarn at all at the NEC (and it couldn't be any worse than last year) I'm going to buy myself this beautiful Cath Kidston necklace. Isn't it lovely?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:26 AM | Comments (6)

September 11, 2007

Under the porch

Thank you all so much for all the book recommendations, I've had a lot of fun looking them all up on Amazon. Some have been ordered already and many have been added to the list of authors / books to consider in the future so thank you to everyone who made a suggestion either in email or the comments.

I'm currently reading Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen and really enjoying it so far. So much of what she says is striking a chord with me, especially the bit about being under the porch. Those of you who have read it will understand when I say that's exactly what I do (and where I am at the moment) and those of you who haven't read it really should do. Its about a woman who on the face of it appears to have it all until she utters 2 truthful but explosive words on air as she presents a morning breakfast show. It reminds me a lot of the book I read a while ago, which I can't remember the name of, about a journalist who has a very public nervous breakdown while announcing the news of the death of princess Diana. I really enjoyed that one as well.

I thought I'd tease you with a couple more pictures of yarn that is on its way to the NEC this week. There will be similar beautiful yarns on the website on Friday again this week but these particular beauties are destined for the show.

5 beautiful colours of Ophelia in 113g skeins

Huge great big squishy skeins 113g skeins of Desdemona

5 more shades of Coast

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:33 AM | Comments (4)

September 10, 2007

72 ways to simplify your life

I cannot stress enough how excited I am to have found this site, 72 ideas to simplify your life, I'm in desperate need of some life simplifying right now.

Now, its slightly ironic don't you think that the list of things you need to do to simplify your life is 72 items long. 72 items! That is one very NOT SIMPLE list. Really. 72 ideas seems so un-simple to me but I am determined to work through it. This is important to me and you guys get to join me on my quest for a simple life - how exciting for you all!

So lets start by going through the list and working out which of the 72 ideas I already have sorted. Its a scary number, not as many as I would like (4 out of 72 is pretty poor) but these are the ones that I do already.

- Keep your email inbox empty. I get it down to under 10 every night before I go to bed. Granted its back up into 3 figures again every morning but still....

- Create morning and evening routines. I LOVE my morning and evening routines and wouldn't swap them for the world.

- Simplify your RSS feeds.. I have none. Simple enough?

- Live closer to work. Nuff said about this one.

Now, these are the first ones that I really want to learn to do.

- Make a list of your top 4-5 important things. This should be fairly straightforward (she says) and seems to be the basis for a lot of the other points. One for tomorrow I think.

- Evaluate your commitments. Hmm, this may take some time. I am the commitment woman. I'll do it though.

- Evaluate your time. Fairly straightforward, I have a fairly good idea of where my time goes at the moment.

- Simplify work tasks. OK.

- Simplify home tasks. OK.

- Learn to say no. This is going to be a big one for me. I spend my life doing favours for other people, rarely do I get the same extended back to me and in a way I don't mind but at the same time I know that I need to learn to say no a lot more often than I do now.

- Limit your communications. I like this idea. Email can be a real time waster for me so I like the idea of having set times of the day for email and I really should get all my phone calls out of the way in the morning instead of stressing about them all day given my dislike of the phone.

Hmmm, I appear to be working my way down the list with the ones I want to do. Lets take this one step at a time, shall we? I can see some serious list making this week. I don't want to complicate my life by working through the process of simplifying it (does that even make sense to the rest of the world?) but I do love a good system and anything that involves making lots of lists so we could be onto a winner here..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:35 AM | Comments (5)

September 09, 2007

Working From Home

Most days in the week I bring some work home with me. Whether that work is orders to pack or yarn to label or photograph - most days see me driving from shop to home and back again with a car full of yarn stuff. This is mainly because Trinity is obviously more settled at home than she is in the shop and at the first sign of her being unhappy in the kiddies corner we pack up and head home.

This weekend I had yarn to dye. Lots and lots of yarn to dye. 100 skeins of it in fact. I had hoped to pop into the shop a few times over the weekend while Wayne was home with the kids and get it done in stages. Then I had the bright idea of bringing the dyeing home with me. I packed up only my basic dyes (3 pots of primary colours) 100 skeins of wet yarn and some of the equipment and as Saturday was a bright sunny morning, I set up camp outside in the garden. 4 hours later our usually boring garden looked like this.

Pretty huh? I had to bribe the kids not to run around and knock off all the carefully balanced curtain poles but on the whole it was a worthwhile morning. I dyed 10 shades of our GORGEOUS new seacell and merino sock yarn, Coast, which will be at the NEC next week. Oh my goodness, this yarn is just gorgeous. I am in love with the way it takes the dye, the way it feels and looks. It is perfect.

Out of these 5 skeins I can't decide which is my favourite colour. I change my mind every time I look at them! What do you think?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:43 AM | Comments (8)

September 08, 2007

Reading

First some new to me blogs that I am loving at the moment :

Paper and String

Foofangle

I really can't decide which one of them I want to be when I grow up.

Now, I need some book advice. You know that I'm an obsessive reader - right? Recently I've overdosed on the thriller / mystery type books and I'm feeling a bit over them. I LOVE Jodi Picoult and The Time Travellers wife* was one of my favourite books ever - can anyone recommend other authors in that kind of vein? Not really chick lit, not thriller or crime, not horror but something a little different.

In another vein I have a big collection of Rowan Magazines to sell. There are 19 magazines in all, from number 18 to 39 – the only ones MISSING from the set are numbers 22, 24 and number 30. All of the other numbers from 18 to 39 are there just not those 3. I'm thinking of putting the whole set on ebay for a BIN price of £150 (around £8 each) or maybe listing them individually. Anyone interested? Drop me an email if you think you might be otherwise I'll probably list them all next week sometime. Sold. Thank you!

* Has anyone read any of Audrey Niffenegger's other books? Worth it or was the TTW a one off?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:26 AM | Comments (14)

September 07, 2007

Friday 5 or 6

1 - A few people have asked me about Trinity's jumper, I didn't use a pattern - just picked up my handspun and started to knit. I wrote down what I did to make her exact one which will fit around 6 - 12 months and no doubt at some point I'll get around to writing up the pattern for more sizes. I'll do it quicker if you nag me ;)

2 - The plan is that the next issue of Yarn Forward magazine will be posted to subscribers just before Ally Pally and available to the rest of the world at Ally Pally. Issue 4 will be out before Christmas with a little something for subscribers as a thank you for sticking with us through what can only be described as one hell of a year. After that, who knows? I'll be making the decision about whether to continue with the magazine in the next few weeks and I'll let you know when its clear.

3 - Shop update this evening with a newsletter only 10% off discount code valid all weekend. Shall we say 8pm tonight?

4 - I knitted this sleeve while Trinity and I were away. Pretty isn't it? Our very own aran weight silk, 4.5mm needles and nice shaping. Maybe one day it will have a brother or sister sleeve and the rest of the garment as well. We'll see.

5 - NEC Knitting and Stitching show next week. Noonie and dad are in charge of the stand so be nice to them if you go, OK? No nagging either one of them about the magazine as they won't be able to answer any questions. Save your nagging for me, I can take it! There will be some sale bargains there as well as lots and lots of patterns, kits, yarns and other yummies that you expect from us. Trinity is not really self sufficient enough for me to go along (who am I kidding, she is NOWHERE near self sufficient enough for me to spend even an hour away from her!) so I'll be at home hoping that the show is a million times better than it was last year.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:13 AM | Comments (4)

September 06, 2007

To be knitted

I fell in love with this pinwheel baby sweater that Alison knitted one for her wee one. How cute is that? Its one of those patterns that I had seen but wouldn't have considered knitting until I saw Alison's version. Reason number 3 million why I love the Internet.

The pattern calls for lovely aran weight yarn, my favourite weight of yarn to knit. I'm wondering what stash yarn I can use as I dont want to buy any new - HipKnits cashmere is probably a little too luxurious for a wee one do you think? Or maybe not, get her hooked on the good stuff from a nice early age. Or perhaps I could spin some yarn for it, now there's an idea. Hmmm, off to investigate the stash for some more options for this one, my non HipKnits yarn stash is teeny but if you include the yarn in the shop then my options are ENDLESS!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:41 AM | Comments (8)

September 05, 2007

Mini Break

Trinity and I have had a mini break. Not one of Bridget Jones' mini breaks unfortunately but a mini break from home, blogging and the shop nevertheless. We're back home now and man its good to be back. I tried to take some pics of her wearing her new little jumper but most of them came out blurry apart from the little one above. Its too warm again this week to wear it but I'm sure that will change soon enough.

I'm a little behind, forgive me. The shop will be updated on Friday this week instead of today. The ever amazing Sue has finished knitting some more samples for me so there will be lots of new patterns and kits available. For now, I'm off for a nap with my little one. We have lots of sleep to catch up on. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:21 PM | Comments (9)

August 31, 2007

Yawn..

Oh man, I'm tired today. Wayne and I arranged for one of the children's most favourite people to look after them last night (thanks for all the lovely comments and emails on our anniversary!) while the 2 of us (and Trinity of course) went out for a while. We ended up in Cambridge which is SUCH a beautiful city, walking around the streets and then went punting for a couple of hours. Unfortunately I left the camera at home but I took some reasonable camera phone pictures of Trinity in her little life jacket (remarkably hard to breastfeed a baby in a life jacket don't you know!) and some of Wayne punting, if I can work out how to get them from camera to laptop I'll show you. It was a lovely evening, just what I needed to close out the day yesterday.

I've added a number of the sew hip Japanese craft books to the HipKnits website here. I'm going to be adding the fabric there as well next week. I am so much in love with the shopping cart software that makes my life nice and easy that it seems silly not to use it for both shop sites, the books are all on special offer at £10 each - go and get one while you can!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:14 AM | Comments (1)

August 30, 2007

4 years

Together for 10 years in December, married for 4 years today and its still not long enough. Lets hope we continue to grow and change and always love each other as much as we do today.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:18 AM | Comments (11)

August 29, 2007

shop

The shop is now updated and good to go, I didnt manage to get all of the silk stock up - there is just so much but here is a list of the lace silk we have - aran to follow tomorrow. until this is all on the site at the weekend just use the custom order button to tell me which colour you want.

Mid Blue – 900g
Pale Blue – 200g
Pastels – 300g
Pillar Box – 400g
Baby – 800g
Lipstick – 600g
Bright Pink – 300g
Forest Green – 200g
Bluebell – 200g
Biscuit – 200g
Teddy – 400g
Moody – 100g
Fallen Angel – 200g
Seaglass – 900g
Vibrant – 200g
Surf – 200g
Bright Green 100g

I can't get into my notify list at the moment so you guys are the first to know!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)

HipKnits charity yarn auctions

Go here or here for a chance to bid on some HipKnits yarns in aid of Charlotte's trip to Peru for the rainbow trust. There will be 2 more auctions on ebay soon for lace cashmere and sock cashmere.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:07 AM | Comments (0)

New yarns

Wow, I have never spent so long on a shop update than I did yesterday. I still have lots more to do today so watch for the newsletter update at around 8pm tonight and then come and shop. On sale this week are the final skeins of cashmere and silk = 50% off most of them and up to 80% off a couple of tangled skeins. Someone more patient than me is in for a real bargain with those ones.

We also have lots of cashmere, lots of sock yarns and tonnes and tonnes of silk. Here are a few snippets. Apologies for the photos, I managed to drop and break my "good" camera the other day and these are taken with my tiny old camera. Sob sob.

Kisses - DK silk and cashmere. £5 per 50g skein

Delilah - DK silk and cashmere. £5 per 50g skein

Fashion - Wool and Nylon sock. £10 per 100g skein

Template - Cleopatra kid mohair and silk. £14 per 100g skein

Bright Blue - aran cashmere. £9 per 50g skein

Truffle - handspun merino sock yarn. £5 per 100g skein

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:00 AM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2007

Roundup

I love bank holiday weekends, its a shame that we don't have any more now until Christmas though isn't it? We had a lovely lazy weekend with lots of picnics, time with friends, trips to the park and EARLY morning visits to the shop to dye yarn while the rest of the house were asleep. Freak, yes I know. But its just so nice to get home at around half eight after a few hours work to find the rest of the house still in PJs, drinking tea and eating toast. To be able to hang up the morning's work out in the garden and have it dried and ready to photograph by mid afternoon makes the early morning sneak out of the house worth it.

This is now the last week of the school holidays and I'm hoping for a lazy yet productive one. We still have school shoes and uniform to buy, books to read and a few things on our summer holidays list to cross off. Farms to visit, friends to play with and penguins to make (don't ask about that last one, I'll show you if they work out).

The summer has been lovely, despite the wintery weather. Trinity has blossomed with having her big sister around her more, Brooke is so in love with her and they would spend all day just laughing and playing if Cam would let them get away with it. He is just as in love with her as Brooke but slightly more nervous about Trinity when she tries to "slobbo" (his word) his toys. Everything goes in the mouth you know, even Roary the racing car. Babies have no respect for other people's toys do they? Between Brooke and Cameron they sit one either side of her as she sits up surrounded by cushions and pass her toys, tickle her feet and generally make her give her silent laughs for hours. I love to watch them. Gorgeous children.

This week is also our 4th wedding anniversary (traditional gifts are flowers and fruit, not too appropriate for Wayne I dont think) and our check up appointment at the hospital to see if the first bout of Trinity's treatment is working or not. A week of highs and lows, I can see it now. We're hoping for the best news but mentally preparing for the worst (I'm researching surgeons online - did you know you could do that? Look up the surgeon at the hospital you'll be visiting and see what experience they have and find out what other parents thought about them? You are allowed to request to be transferred to any other hospital as well these days, you don't have to go where you are sent initially. However, if it comes to it for us we'll be at Great Ormond St so probably no place better than that) There is such a thing as too much information but I'm not there yet, I'm still at the frantic gathering stage.

Sigh, yes. A week of highs and lows.

On a high note, did you see that Annette finished her Della shawl last week? It looks AMAZING, she is so clever.

There will also be links to some fun charity auctions here later on today when I can persuade ebay to let me post them. Probably this evening.

Then a HUGE shop update tomorrow evening, I have around 300 skeins of yarn to photograph today - thank goodness for a little bit of sunshine.

Thanks for all the nice comments on the handspun raglan, I'm almost hoping for cooler weather so that she can wear it but not quite. It looks just as lovely hanging up in her room as it will being worn.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:38 AM | Comments (3)

August 27, 2007

Hand Spun, hand knitted Trinity Raglan

A few weeks ago I bought 2 plaits of different coloured Fleece Artist wool / silk fibre from One Planet Yarn and Fibre and spun them into beautiful aran weight singles, approx 100 yards to each 50g. I used the brightest one of the 2 skeins of yarn (can't find the colour fibre on the site any more, it must have sold out which is a shame because it is beautiful) to knit the sleeves and then used the remainder of it to knit the garter stitch border at the bottom of the body. Then I used the paler skein (which was spun from this fibre) to knit the rest of the body of the sweater. I just need to finish the neckline and then its good to go.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:24 AM | Comments (9)

August 22, 2007

Techy head

I had my techy geeky head on yesterday as I played around with the shopping cart software and managed to make it do a couple of things that I've wanted to do for a while now.

Firstly all wholesale orders can now be placed online, much easier than the current emailing me with what you want to order system. Basically you go through the shopping cart wholesale section and choose what you want to order. One of the HipKnits team (pretty much me or dad) will then email you with a total cost including shipping and an approximate order date. Pretty cool huh? I've thought for a long while about whether or not to do this but at the end of the day it makes it easier for everyone.

I also managed to work out how to add in options for custom dyes online. This means that you can now choose to order and pay for a custom dye yarn and you can free type in the colour that you want, either from our standard colour list or anything that you like. I have only added this option for aran silk at the moment but by the end of the day it will be there for each type of yarn we sell. One person who shall remain nameless who tested it for me yesterday asked for chocolate brown with turquoise spots. Very specific and probably very good fun to dye as well. So go ahead, challenge us for a custom dye order. They will take on average 1 - 2 weeks to receive and cost the same as ordering a ready dyed skein so what are you waiting for?

Oh and before the big site update this evening which will be between 8 and 9pm sometime, I managed to get a load of handspun yarns on the site last night. These are GORGEOUS yarns, handspun by the super talented and all round lovely Jo. Go and take a look at them, quickly before I buy all of them!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:47 AM | Comments (1)

August 21, 2007

When life gives you lemons....

Dye your hair a funky colour. I can recommend this as a way to beat off the blues, its hard to feel navy when your hair is red and gold.

Wayne dyed my hair for me recently, red base colour and big chunky gold stripes. I love it! This is what it used to look like, browny brown brown. Makes me feel like a whole new person which after last the last week or so around here is very very necessary. Who would I be if I could be a whole new person? Probably Dee. I'd still get to play with yarn and knit but I could do it in a nice quiet house full of books rather than a crazy insane house full of toys! Id only like it for a week or so I think, I'd be sure to get bored after that time.

Dyeing hair isn't the only thing we've been up to this week. The shop update tomorrow will have lots and lots of silk as well as cashmere lace, more Cleopatra and lots and lots more. I'm also going to try comments again now that I've installed a couple of extra anti spam plugins. Lets see shall we?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:25 AM | Comments (10)

August 19, 2007

Louet Messina - special offer

I have just 4 skeins left of the gorgeous Louet Messina yarn that I bought before the Cleopatra kid mohair and silk blend. Each skein is around 225g and is 70% kid mohair and 30% silk. It is a sport weight yarn which took the dye beautifully and shines like the moonlight.

They were originally on the site at £20 for a 225g skein. Then they went down to the special price of £10 per skein and now there is only 1 of each colour left in stock. See them here on the sale page.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2007

cashmere sale

All cashmere yarn half price. Go and shop.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2007

Typical

So, last night I was due to go out with a friend of mine (Lynn) who I haven't seen for MONTHS. We had left it until now in the hope that Trinity might be independant enough to live without me for a couple of hours while we had a girly gossipy meal on our own but no, that was not to be.

As an interesting aside, its been great finding the Yahoo Group full of mums and dads that are going through (have been through) the same thing that we're going through with Trinity. I had thought that it was just a co-incidence that she has totally refused any kind of solid food / milk from a bottle in the last 3 weeks when before that she had been showing some inerest but apparantly its a fairly typical reaction from a baby in her situation. There is so little help / support / information out there that over the next few weeks I am planning a page full of everything I've learned so far so that hopefully it will give people another place to read up. So far I can count the sites on one hand that have helped me in my quest for information. Its the one and only time that the internet has really let me down.

Anyway, last night was to be the first night that I'd been out with a friend since Trinity was born I think so I guess it was inevitable that it would all go wrong. From not being able to find my make up bag (Emma - did it get left at your house by the side of your sofa where my bag was) to Wayne being stuck in traffic on the M11 and late home from work to splashing dirty dishwater all over me and having to get changed - the whole evening was jinxed. Lucky that when we actually got out Trinity was an angel and we had a lovely curry and a good gossip.

So all the bad luck was yesterday and today is going to be a lucky day, isn't that how it is supposed to work? My list for today looks something like this :

Take Cameron to nursery and Brooke to summer camp
Take Trinity to hospital for check up
Home for coffee and gossip with Anna
Round to the shop to dye lots of yarn and pack parcels
Pick up Cameron from nursery and Brooke from summer camp
Home to cook dinner and play with toys until bedtime
The Bill on TV at 8
Bed at 9

What do you think, is it going to work out that way?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:29 AM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2007

New Chunky sock yarn

You know the gorgeous Cleopatra yarn that I'm selling at the moment, the one that I bought from Carolyn that is 80% championship winning pure baby kid mohair and 20% silk? Well, I also bought some of her sport / dk yarn from her which is 80% championship winning pure baby kid mohair and 20% merino.

Each skein is 100g and approx 200m. The yarn takes the dye beautifully and feels just gorgeous. At sport / DK weight this yarn would make BEAUTIFUL socks nice and quickly (depending on the size of your feet you could probably get a pair out of just 1 skein) or you could use it for scarves, hats, shawls, sweaters or cardigans.

These are the colours that we have left in stock, a lot of it has sold already and I'm sure that these ones won't be far behind. I'm hoping to update the site on Thursday this week instead of Wednesday and may even have some more for you then. Any special requests for colours?

Choc Cherry

Eat Your Greens

Mint Choc

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2007

Aran silk

I'm loving some of the new colours of aran silk that dad has been dyeing recently. These 3 are on the site now, I can't decide which is my favourite :

Colt

Rhubarb

Come Out

I really like the idea of a wrap made in rhubarb or Colt and the bright colours in Come Out are so tempting. I'm planning on keeping a couple of each for me to play with, just for research you understand.

In keeping with the wholesale theme that I started yesterday, have you noticed the new and very exciting (to me at least) link on the left hand side? Yes, that's right - some of our lace silk yarn and patterns for the starstruck shawl are on their way over to Janette's rare yarns. Everyone knows and loves Janette and I hope that the yarns sell well for her.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2007

Wholesale

I'm concentrating more and more on wholesale orders at the moment, after some annoying courier hiccups I've finally found a reliable team and you'll notice from the stockists list on the left that we're supplying more and more shops these days, with orders currently being dyed for even more at the moment.

There is currently around a 6 week turnaround time from placing a wholesale order to the store receiving their yarn. This differs slightly depending on what yarn you want to order - silk on its own is around 3 weeks but anything cashmere is queued up for around 6 weeks. This means that now is a great time to place orders for autumn stock, we're aiming to get any order placed with us in August delivered before the end of September AND we're offering free shipping for any order placed in August. What better time to place your first wholesale order?

So, if you happen to own a yarn shop and you're interested in receiving our wholesale terms and conditions and price list drop me an email and I'll send over the information straight away.

At the same time, if you're an existing HipKnits customer (or just someone who lurks but hasn't bought our yarns yet) you have the chance to win a skein of cashmere yarn. Simply email us with the details of your LYS who you think would like to find out more about stocking our yarns together with your name and if they place an order (any value within the T&C) you'll win yourself a 100g skein of cashmere yarn, sock or lace, hand dyed in any colour you like. How's about that?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2007

Now we are 3

Cameron, 30th June 2007.

Both this photo and yesterdays one were taken by Jon and Vince at True photography.

After yesterdays grown up day of princesses and pizza we've moved into Bob and Roary territory this morning with what seems like the entire contents of Toys R Us on our lounge floor. Love it!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2007

Wow, 7 years old already

Brooke, 30th June 2007.

Where does the time go? I'm fairly sure that I say the same thing every year but really, I cannot believe that she is 7. My beautiful big girl is all growing up.

Last night saw the now traditional cake baking night that starts off with best intentions and ends up 2 hours later with a sticky icing covered trip to Tescos to buy a Bratz cake. Why do I do it? Wayne and I had a slightly hysterical couple of hours as he watched me try to ice a fairy princess magic tower cake that I had attempted to bake later in the evening. Its in the fridge now and looks more like a giant purple mess than anything else but as Brooke said this morning as long as it is chocolate and has lots of icing it will be just fine. However, its not going to come out in public for her party - just to be shared between us at dinner later.

So, today has been about presents and cards and pancakes in bed for breakfast and tomorrow we get to do it all over again for Cameron.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2007

Shop Update

10 pages worth of goodies to see today, I'm off to devour a tub of Ben and Jerrys Cookies and Cream ice cream as a prize for all that shop updating. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

New patterns

This stole knitted in our HipKnits lace silk arrived from Chrissy this morning, isn't it just gorgeous? Pattern available in todays shop update, but in case you're interested now it takes just 2 x 100g skein of lace silk and measures 18 inches by 55 inches.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

Whipup

I did an interview with Whipup recently, check it out and maybe win some goodies?

BIG shop update later on today. Probably around 8pm ish. With the usual newsletter discount code.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2007

Bits and Bobs

I love this gorgeous bracelet.

Kisskus. Lovely blog.

I'm teaching a class at Get Knitted at the end of September.

Two Straight Lines. Lovely Blog, cute baby around the same age as Trinity.

Twirly Skirt, Twirly Skirt. I want to make me a twirly skirt.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)

Five reasons to be cheerful

As started by Peri

I'm working a few days behind here (no change there then) so these are the weekend's reasons :

- glorious sunshine and spending all day in the garden on Sunday surrounded by family and friends for an impromptu BBQ

- a hillarious 650 miles in the car with the kids over the end of last week going to visit Emma and Co. Oliver, Allan and Emma were fab hosts and we had a great time. The kids were amazingly well behaved for the 10 or so hours we were in the car over the 2 days, love them.

- Spontaneous hugs and kisses from Cameron. He can be such a sweet little boy - I love the affection he dishes out without any question or hesitation.

- 2 birthdays coming up this week, lots of planning and preparation for the Bob and Barbie extravaganzas

- Holidays. Nuff said.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)

August 05, 2007

Sad times

I found out some terrible news this weekend. Alice, the good khama bunny died suddenly and unexpectedly last weekend. She was around my age and had a young family a similar age to Brooke and Cameron, it breaks my heart to think what they must be going through. I was lucky enough to know Alice in real life as well as online and I can tell you that she was so passionate about her fibre crafts it was always a pleasure to speak to her.

(this is a photo of a photo, that's why it came out a little skew)

Before I found out about Alice I was already planning to blog about the end of an era today. Don't you wish that all nice orange horses could live forever? My horse, Korky, was put to sleep at the end of last week. Its funny how I feel like we've had him for ever (was it 91 that we got him dad?) and although I haven't ridden him since before Brooke was born and only see him once every few months I still consider him "my" horse. I've been remembering all the times that I ended up in hospital after being thrown off / kicked etc during the years that we used to compete - the 2 of us never quite got it right despite loving each other dearly and trying so hard. I wish he could have lived for ever but we all knew that the right time had come and although I offered to be there when the vet visited end of last week I have to admit that I'm glad that wasn't necessary. Its one thing to know that he's gone and quite another to be there when it happens. Love you Korky, you funny old orange thing. Hope the grass up there in horse heaven is always green. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:53 PM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2007

Wednesday

Visiting - the hospital for a quick Trinity check up. Met the most lovely consultant in the world who answered millions of questions and made us feel much better in some ways and worse in others than anyone else has done.

Eating - KFC. Naughty but very very nice.

Wishing - that I had time to update the shop today, it will be tomorrow instead. Lots and lots of fibres to get on there as well as tonnes of sock yarn. Tomorrow, I promise.

Enjoying - Wayne being on holiday from work, does he ever have to go back? I could spend every minute of every day with him and still love it.

Feeling - Glad to have the Della pattern (see pic above) ready to be sent out to HipKnits project club members. Parcels went out today and pattern will be out tomorrow. Yay!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)

July 31, 2007

Tuesday

Visiting - the shop to finish off the club yarns and Tesco to buy food for the BBQ.

Eating - Burgers, sausages and chicken kebabs. Yummy.

Wishing - that this article had not been written. Poor baby and poor mum for being in a position that made her vulnerable enough to say this out loud.

Enjoying - goodies in the post. So many goodies I don't know where to start. This beautiful bag from Raspberry, 3 lots of roving and a sweaters worth of yarn from One Planet yarn and Fibre, 22 oz of fibre from Adrian and something else that I can't remember but that was lovely.

Feeling - melancholy but strangely OK.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

July 30, 2007

Monday

Visiting - Walton on the Naze
Eating - chips and ice cream
Wishing - that I had remembered to put sun cream on me as well as the kids
Enjoying - watching Brooke and Cameron in the sea
Feeling - hard done by. The combination of frozen shoulder, mastitis and now sunburn in addition to everything Trinity is going through is just no fun.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2007

Perfect

Look at her, isn't she perfect? We think so.

We didn't get the news we were looking for today at the hospital and I'm feeling really quite down about it. I'm going to let myself be sad for the rest of today then tomorow we get to explain what's going on to Brooke and then I'll be firmly in capable and calm mode, for her benefit really. I had totally convinced myself that she was going to be OK and although the news we had today could have been a lot worse it has come as a big shock for me. It is nothing too too serious and we hope she will be right as rain in a few months but still, it means more visits to the hospital (tomorrow and again in a few weeks) which we didn't want or need.

We've been worrying about this day for the last 13 weeks. I never ever expected to hear anything other than the standard "everything is fine" at her 6 week checkup. I mean, why would I? I even took Brooke and Cameron along with me to the doctors and while they played with the toys in the corner I got to cuddle Trinity and listen to the lovely doctor talk about consultants and hospital referrals. Excuse me? Scary.

I know that we've had scares before with Brooke and Cameron. Both of them occured at birth, when Brooke was born with the cord around her neck and when there was meconium in my waters with Cameron. It was a similar kind of feeling. A pause, a "what does that mean", a refusal to accept that anything bad could happen. Its the same kind of feeling that I remember having when we lost Cameron recently at a family christening at the Catholic church in the middle of Cambridge city centre. When we were all standing in the car park and realised that none of us had him with us, I remember pausing and almost not wanting to do anything about it. (that sounds terrible doesn't it but all of this went through my head in less than a second) I knew that as soon as I moved, as soon as I ran, as soon as I called his name and started to look for him, as soon as I asked people if they had seen a little boy with big hair anywhere that it would be real. He would really be missing and there would be the chance that we may not find him. It makes me feel sick just thinking about it now. (I found him quickly enough, he had gone back inside the church and was sitting in a pew with the next christening.) We once lost Brooke at a playground in a zoo as well when she was 4 years old. That was when a 10 year old boy dragged her off to play on another toy that she didnt want to play on. Searching for her and then seeing her run towards me crying was horrific. Don't even go there, it still makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

It was that same feeling hearing that there might be something wrong with Trinity. I almost didn't want to ring Wayne and tell him what had happened at her 6 week check because doing so would make it real. More real than the conversation with the doctor and more real than the referral letter I had in the pocket of my jeans.

We've kept this very much to ourselves until now and I'm still not ready to share too many details. I'll be blogging minimally over the next couple of weeks as Wayne is off on holiday and we're looking for some quality family time together. Everything business wise will still run as usual with emails being answered and orders being sent out, it just may not be me doing that.

The Project Spectrum cashmere is dyed and drying, most of the project club lace cashmere is dyed and drying and there will be lots of goodies on the site next week together with our 10% newsletter discount. My new favourite thing to dye in the world is alpaca fibre, it just drinks up the dye and looks gorgeous. I have around 10 kilos of roving hanging up in my garden (BFL, Merino, Alpaca and some Silk) blowing in the wind at the moment. Much prettier than flowers.

Comments turned off for the duration. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2007

Shop Update

There will be a nice big shop update this evening at 6pm. Its tricky for me these days as it takes me around an hour or so to update the shop but during that time yarn will be available to buy as I add it. So, in order to make it fair I won't add any of the sale yarn until just before 6pm and I'll get it all ready so that it should only take me 10 minutes to get all of the sale yarn on there. The silk and other yarns that I have plenty of will be appearing on there in dribs and drabs from around 5pm onwards.

You really are better off waiting for me to send out the email and update the blog before buying, if you buy stuff earlier than 6 then you risk missing out on something even nicer that may be added just after you place your order. Of course, if you make multiple orders during the time you will have to pay shipping each time but I will refund the additional shipping fees probably on Thursday morning.

With that taken care of, here are some of the yarns for this update, Wednesday at 6pm remember :

Blue Faced Leicester - going to be £5 a skein in the sale

Lace silk - not in the sale

Aran silk - not in the sale

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2007

What I did yesterday

30 kilos of yarn - check.

300 labels - check.

1 stapler, a big pack of staples, a biro, some chocolate and a handful of sick people on the sofa - check.

It wasn't the most productive start to the school summer holdays but I do have lots of photos to share with you tomorrow before the nice shop update at around 6pm tomorrow evening.

I also may have (accidentally you understand) ordered more of that lovely fibre from Adrian so that I can spin up enough yarn to make something for me - how exciting will that be?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:45 AM | Comments (6)

July 23, 2007

6pm on Wednesday

At 6pm on Wednesday there will be lots of silk on the site as well as a sock yarn sale with all sock yarn 50% off while stocks last. What more reason do you need?

If that is not enough then how about this, 10% of all sales between now and the end of July will be donated to this Red Cross flood relief fund. It is scary to see how badly this rain is affecting people in the UK and although I am complaining about getting yarn dry I know that so many people have it much worse than we do. So get ready to shop and help those suffering in the floods on wednesday at 6pm.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

What I did at the weekend

Saturday - housework and laundry (yawn), new Harry Poter from Post lady, new Hello Yarn Fibre Club fibre from Post lady, christening and party, home about 10pm. Sleep.

Sunday - more laundry (double yawn) picked up dad's car which I'm borrowing while mine limps through its MOT (the less said about that the better), Wayne's mums house for family dinner, home about 9.30pm. Sleep.

So all in all it was another typically busy weekend for us. Do you know we have something planned every weekend now until October I think? Sigh...

In the middle of all that I did manage to spin the fibre into this (which is a million times prettier in real life than in the photo) :

This is 150g / 150 yards of corriedale fibre. I loved spinning it and am even more excited about knitting it.

and read up to page 289 of the new HP. I'm loving it. Not bad really. Now if you'll excuse me I have yarn to dye and orders to pack. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:14 AM | Comments (7)

July 20, 2007

Little goodies

Ugh, is it the weekend yet? I have had a horrible week and I'm so ready for Wayne to be here for a couple of days so that I can share the stress with him. Poor man has been getting in from work most nights this week to find at least 3/4 of the house in tears - everything that has been going on over the last few weeks all seems to have caught up with us.

Anyway, despite everything I've actually had a reasonably productive week. If you're a member of the HipKnits Membership club you can expect a little package in the post early next week (or later for the international members)

I've been dyeing these lovely little skeins of Merino / Alpaca yarn which are going on the website next week. With 4 mini skeins in a pack you get around 250 yards of dk yarn which is enough for a scarf or a mini shawlette. We even suggest a nice simple stitch pattern to make one.

One kit has been sent out to each club member today. Let me know when you get them and if any of you make the shawlette recipe then I would love to see a picture.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:01 AM | Comments (7)

July 19, 2007

Custom Dyes

I absolutely love doing custom dyes! We've been asked to match all kinds of things in the past from pieces of material to other yarns and most memorably a pair of shoes. That one was a lot of fun.

A couple of months ago I received an email asking us to custom dye some lace silk to be made into a shawl which needed to match a bride's wedding dress. Without actually seeing the dress I emailed back and forth with Emily a few times and then we took the plunge and dad custom dyed the yarn for her (along with another colour which I hope we see knitted into something very soon)

I'm fairly sure that we dyed her 3 skeins of lace silk but in her blog she mentions that she only used 2 of them. Doesn't it look beautiful? Can we see pictures of it modelled soon Emily, please? I hope your friend loves it! xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)

July 18, 2007

Shop Updated

Go and see! Some of the handspun yarns from earlier in the week are on there as well as the silk spinning fibre in the pictures below.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)

Spinning fibres

It was ineveitable wasn't it that with my sudden re-interest in spinning that I'd be dyeing up some more fibres for the shop. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some GORGEOUS top quality 100% silk tops recently and oh my, they spin and dye like a dream. I'm spinning a fine yarn out of one of the undyed tops at the moment, its coming in at a lace / fingering weight so I am hoping to get around 500 yards out of the 100g that I have. I'm planning to dye it a beautiful colour and knit a shawl with it. A handspun, hand painted, hand knitted silk shawl. Who could ask for more?

But I digress... A mini shop update is planned for this evening with a BUMPER one for next week including lots and lots of spinning fibres. I have 100% BFL at 2.50 per 100g, some 100% alpaca at 5.00 per 100g and some 100% silk also at 5.00 per 100g. The only question I have (and I'm sure you guys can help) is how best to take the photos. I dont have a preference this time around so go ahead and tell me what you think.

Number 1 - as its dyed twisted around into a circle

Number 2 - wound into a hank

Number 3 - plaited - nice and traditional

Number 4 - plaited and twisted around into a circle

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:13 AM | Comments (8)

July 16, 2007

Sock

#

This is part of a sock. Who the sock is for I don't know. Maybe me. Maybe my Sockapaloooza Pal or maybe Brooke if it doesnt start to look like its going to be big enough for an adult soon enough.

It is knitted with a skein of fields of flowers sock yarn from Dani over at Sunshine yarns. I love it.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:05 PM | Comments (7)

Spinning

I've been spinning on the good old drop spindle an awful lot recently and these are some of the skeins I now have in my stash.

Merino - approx 40g and 50 yards

Merino - approx 30g and 30 yards

Hello Yarn Fibre club for June. approx 100g and 120 yards

Merino / silk - approx 50g and 70 yards

BFL - approx 50g and 70 yards

Merino - approx 60g and 90 yards

Merino - approx 30g and 40 yards

Now what am I going to do with them all?

PS - tentatively trying comments again. Fingers crossed. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:08 PM | Comments (10)

July 13, 2007

Frozen shoulder

It feels odd blogging without comments, rather like talking to myself (not that I don't do that, because I do. A lot. I also talk to Trinity a lot and she doesn't answer me much so I should really be used to it. Still, it feels odd) but I'll carry on bleating away until I've worked out the spam comment stopping technique needed. OK?

You know what they say about when policemen start to look young? Does the same apply to radiographers? I had an x ray earlier on in the week and the man doing the x ray barely looked old enough to be out of school let alone wielding an x ray machine. I left wayne in the waiting room with a Trinity who was due a feed and poor x ray boy was mortified when I stood with my back against the plate waiting for the x ray with milk pouring all over my gown. Not cool, Mrs Allman, not cool. He offered me a tissue but I knew it would stop if I ignored it for a couple of minutes and it did. Ah, inappropriate letdown. The joys of breastfeeding. Too much information? Sorry about that.

The reason for the x ray was to confirm a diagnosis of frozen shoulder which looks highly likely to be the cause of the pain I've been having for the last couple of months. Its not great news really, no-one likes to hear the words "there is no cure" in relation to a medical problem or to be told that the first phase (the painful one) that I'm in at the moment can last from 2 - 10 months. Physio, steroid injections and possibly an operation are the best forms of treatment so I'm starting physio next week. Oh joy. If left untreated it can last for up to 3 years. I asked how long it is likely to last if treated and was told a couple of years. Oh, so that's much better then. Sigh. I'll just be busy getting used to not being able to brush my hair with my right hand or do anything else that involves lifting it above my shoulder then if its all the same to you.

It does mean that I've had to take away the offer to wind yarn into balls from HipKnits. I have this kind of rule that I won't ask Mandy, Wayne or anyone else to do anything for me that I wouldn't do myself and so now that I cant wind yarn any more it seems unfair to always ask them to do it. I'm sure you understand.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:18 AM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2007

shop update

I have some yarns all dry and ready to go on the site tonight. Amongst them are some lovely skeins of cashmere sock yarn,

some new to me chunky sock yarn in a lambswool, cashmere and angora blend which is just beautiful.

This one comes in sock sized 100g skeins with 350 yards (as shown above) and shawl sized 250g skeins with 875 yards which is more than enough for a good sized shawl. See below.

I also managed to get some of Carolyn's beautiful yarn ready (thank you for the sun today!) which is 80% kid mohair (from prize winning goats no less!) and 20% silk.

The yarn is 4 ply and has approx 300 yards per 100g skein. Carolyn assures me that she made a good sized shawl with one skein and little bit from a second so I'm sure that one skein would get you something pretty. I'll be casting on in the skein that I kept for me this weekend so hopefully should be able to show you just how far it goes next week some time. I love this yarn, it is so soft and sheepy feeling (or should that be goaty?) but not hairy as mohair can sometimes be. Just soft and lovely. I only have around 15 kilos of this and when it is gone its gone. Until the next time she has enough fleece to make more that is!

So, the shop will be full of these goodies and lots more this evening at around 8pm if all goes well and kids fall asleep when they are supposed to. Or a little later if it doesn't and they don't!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

July 11, 2007

Destash

I cant seem to get on ebay at the moment so I thought I'd destash a little right here. Everything is on a first come first served basis and postage is £1.75 no matter how much you order. Email me at kerrie AT hipknits.co.uk and I'll send you a paypal invoice and remove photos when things are spoken for. OK? All set? Lets go..

Update - we're done. Thanks. All destashed and happy over here. xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)

Little update on stuff

- firstly there won't be a shop update today but I should have one ready for Friday. Maybe with some of Carolyn's beautiful kid mohair / silk yarn if the sun shines today and tomorrow.

- update on me - mouth ulcer and headaches have just about gone, the nightmares are still persisting every night (so if you get middle of the night emails from me you'll kno wwhy!) and the neck just gets worse each day. I couldn't even lift my cup of tea with my right hand this morning! I've sprained the ligament in my neck but my doctor helpfully pointed out that I cant take strong painkillers or anti inflammatories while breastfeeding so he helpfully suggested I "get her on formula milk asap" Interesting. I've asked to be referred for physio and also to our GP practices Bowen technique person. Lets see if that helps. Untik then I'm struggling along one handed.

- Trinity is doing amazing, my week of laying in bed really helped my milk supply and we're back on track with breastfeeding - most of the time that is! She is still refusing a bottle but seems to enjoy her little bowl of baby rice and milk that she has in the mornings so we'll carry on as we are for a while. Wayne remembered the other day that for a while brooke was the only person who could get cam to drink from a bottle so perhaps we'll try that at the weekend.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2007

oddments

Still all spammed out here with comments, also at my kerrie magknits email address. If you're waiting for a reply from me there try my name@hipknits.co.uk I get around 200 spams an hour at the magknits one, time to move on I think.

My first ever knitalong from one of my patterns, that I'm aware of anyway. Yay the Invisibility shawl knitalong!

I'm just a tad addicted to this site. this is the saddest one ever.

i cant think of a current better cause than this. There but for the grace of god go all of us. i know that the nhs can be awful but rally, at least we have the option of free health care. I see that Ruth's husband is suffering from the same thing, what a horrid co-incidence.

When I started at HipKnits almost 2 years ago now (wow!) 2 of my very favourite customers swore they would never get blogs. I'm so glad that both Michaela and Annette have now changed their minds! I've met both of them and their families a few times and they are as lovely in real life as they are online..

I finally caught up with Carolyn today, and came away with a car full of yarn. Watch this space, hopefully next week once I catch up with custom orders and wholesale tomorrow. Pray for sun over the next few days for me..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:28 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2007

Referrers

At the bottom of each order that is placed through HipKnits I get this information :

Referer: http://www.hipknits.co.uk/

Referral Date: 2007-06-25 07:40:55

Interesting huh? That means that if you have a link to us on your site and someone clicks on that link and places an order with us, I get to hear about it.

As an incentive to get you to link directly to our shop I have decided that each month the site that most orders are referred from will win a £10 HipKnits voucher. I’ll let you know at the beginning of August who was the winner for July and then at the beginning of each month. Here’s the small print :

- you must link to www.hipknits.co.uk/shop.php in order to qualify and NOT just hipknits.co.uk
- only referrals that lead to orders will count, I will not be checking site stats to see how many people simply click links to the site
- the only prize on offer is a £10 coupon code that can be redeemed online as payment of a whole order or part payment.

Comments aren't switched on at the moment due to some serious spam issues. :(

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)

July 01, 2007

Taking the hint

I love the internet. Where else in the world could a mum sitting at home worrying about weaning and breastfeeding get so much advice from so many people around the world? I think I received 3 or 4 times the number of comments below in emails from people, thank you all. I'm hoping that I can carry on feeding her myself with the occasional bottle (please?!) and some solid foods as well being introduced over the next couple of weeks. In a month or so I'd love to be doing the first and last feeds of the day myself with forumal milk and food filling the daytime gap inbetween the mummy milk. I'll let you know how it goes.

This week though, I'm listening to my body and taking some time off. I've had a headache that has gone through all the stages of migraine and has been here on and off for over a week now. I've also had a mouth ulcer for the last few days which is now turning into the biggest ulcer in the history of the world. Add to that the worries about feeding and almost 10 days of not sleeping at night due to horrendous nightmares and I'm exhausted. I also managed to pull a muscle in my shoulder this weekend and as well as exhausted and run down I'm in pain.

So its a week of rest for me. Orders will still be posted, emails will still be answered - but not necessarily by me. I will update the site on wednesday and let newsletter subscribers know first when it has been done. Apart from that I'm going to spend the whole week laying on the sofa with Trinity, relaxing, making milk and trying to give myself a chance to catch up with some rest. See you in a few days. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:29 PM | Comments (12)

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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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!!

closeup of playful

closeup of regal

closeup of princess

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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:26 PM | Comments (3)

March 13, 2007

I mean it this time, this is the LAST HipKnits shop update before the baby. Really. Unless the baby is very late that is in which case I might find time to squeeze some more dyeing in!

We have lots of cashmere / silk.

Lots of cashmere.

Some cashmere on the sale page.

Go check it out! I'll be here, waiting for the baby to be born! x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:42 PM | Comments (4)

March 10, 2007

Resting? Hmmm

New colours for the site next week depending on whether or not baby has put in an appearance by then. Lots and lots more where these came from, don't you just love them?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:19 PM | Comments (4)

March 09, 2007

Hannah's shawls

This is what happens when you come into the shop to show us shawls that you've knitted with our yarns, we take your photo and put you on the website!

Lovely Hannah popped in earlier in the week to show us these 2 beautiful shawls. The first was made with 2 skeins of Schaeffer Elaine, she cast on 3 stitches and increased at each end of evey row before casting off. It was HUGE, even after making tucks along the cast off edge to bring it in it measures around 90 inches from corner to corner. Gorgeous. I love these colours!

Then this beauty was made from 1 skein of the novelty silk laceweight, how pretty is that? Made the same way this one has a row of double crochet along the cast off edge. Close up anyone? Perfect, thanks for sharing them Hannah!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:38 AM | Comments (5)

March 07, 2007

New cashmere sock yarn

From left to right - Hyacinth, Solar, Petals, Pebbles, Shoreline

We just couldn't resist. 5 new shades of cashmere sock yarn, 10 skeins of each colour. That should keep you all going for a little while, don't you think? Anyone who buys enough yarn to make the beautiful top designed by Melissa can have the pattern for free. Just email us when you're placing your order and we'll send you a copy.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:51 AM | Comments (6)

March 02, 2007

Lady of Leisure

I'm quite enjoying this resting on the sofa malarky! I have wireless internet and daytime TV, who could ask for more. I'm not being quite as good as I should be, I spent the morning dyeing just one last wholesale order yesterday and having a spring clean of the shop but on the whole I'm learning to be pretty good at letting other people help me out where I need it.

I just updated the site with lots of goodies, this WILL be the last big update for a few weeks, I'll be sneaking little bits on here and there when I get the chance but for now go and see all the lovely new shades of silk and bargains we have. All the new items can be seen here http://www.hipknits.co.uk/shop.php?crn=1

There are over 30 new shades of Schaefer Anne sock yarn and a similar amount of Schaefer Elaine which is a beautiful chunky weight yarn - enough in one skein to make a shawl or extra warm scarf. New alpaca silk yarn in just a couple of shades, some more cashmere sock yarn and just a few bits on the sale page.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:25 AM | Comments (4)

February 21, 2007

Big site update

Phew, I just spent this morning taking photos of all the new yarn we have in the shop. Having uploaded them all I had a quick count and realised that there are over 100 items to go on the site! Now, that is going to take me a little while to upload so lets say that the site will be updated next week Monday at 3pm UK time. An email will go out to the newsletter when it is live, many of the items are sale items at nice big discounts so check back soon. We have the last of our Schaeffer bulky yarns (see pics above) and a few skeins of Anne sock yarn at a discount price, we're also picking up 10 kilos of new colours of Anne sock yarn tomorrow so you can expect to see them sometime soon.

I'll also be offering another 10% off discount day to newsletter members on the 1st March which is next Wednesday so if you're not already on our newsletter list it would be a good idea to drop me an email and get yourself added.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:45 PM | Comments (1)

February 16, 2007

Help no longer needed

Edited to add - wow! Thanks so much guys, I had over 20 offers of help within 2 hours of posting this plea. I've replied to everyone who emailed me and lots of cones of yarn have gone out in the post today, more are packaged up for tomorrow and someone very local to me offered so they will be popping in to the shop to pick up the yarn. Woo Hoo! You guys rock, thanks.

It seems that everyone loves the self striping sock yarn! I've wound and dyed over 40 skeins of it in the last few weeks and as much as I love to see how it looks knitted up it really is time consuming to make. The last few skeins of it are going out in the post over the next few days so if you are waiting for an order of self striping yarn, you won't have to wait too much longer.

As I'm sorting out details of how the business is going to run over the next few months while I'm on maternity leave I've been worrying a lot about the self striping sock yarn more than anything. I know that I won't have the time to wind the skeins myself for the next few months. I've roped in so many members of the family and friends to help with dyeing yarn and posting orders etc that I probably can't persuade any of them to wind up giant skeins of yarn for me.

This is where you guys come in... Anyone fancy earning themselves a little bit of cash, some free yarn and my everlasting gratitude?

The offer is that I will send you via Royal Mail special delivery a package containing the following :

- A cone of yarn weighing around 1 kilo.
- Full instructions as to how to wind the HUGE skeins.
- A pre paid return address envelope.
- A HipKnits voucher code for £20 worth of any HipKnits yarns. This can be used as part of a large order or on its own.

All that I ask is that you send me back in the pre paid envelope 10 skeins that I can dye into self striping sock yarn. In addition to the £20 voucher you can also choose to have 1 skein of the self stripe dyed IN ANY COLOURS and returned to you or £15 paypal payment. It's up to you.

Other information - I would need the turnaround time to be around 1 - 2 weeks from me sending the cone to receiving the skeins. It takes me around 12 minutes to wind 1 skein so you're looking at a couple of hours work. The only equipment you will need is 2 chairs and a space measuring around 18 foot - I tend to use our hall! This is really only open to UK people initially due to the cost of postage and turnaround time required although if you are outside of the UK and desperate to play making big skeins, send me an email and I'll see what we can work out.

So, if you're interested please email me at INFO @ hipknits . co . uk

xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:10 AM | Comments (1)

February 15, 2007

New yarns

Just a quick one to let you know that there are lots of new yarns on the site today, and that there will be lots more sale yarn coming on Monday. You can see all of the new ones here, we have lace cashmere, Opal sock yarn and some sock cashmere as well.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2007

Yarn on its way to Sweden

Yummy laceweight cashmere on its way over to Garnkorgen in Sweden this week. I wound some smaller skeins than I usually do for the shop and I love the way they look, so cute. There is also lots of aran and lace weight silk on its way over to them now as well.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:31 PM | Comments (1)

February 08, 2007

Laceweight cashmere

There are a few new colours of laceweight cashmere on the site today. Basically I've been adding 1 or 2 skeins to the pot every time I dye for a custom or wholesale order.

Just the one new colour of sock cashmere for today, there is lots more coming next week though.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:14 AM | Comments (1)

February 06, 2007

Project Spectrum

The Project Spectrum yarn went out yesterday after a cold and miserable few days slowed up the drying process. I did an extra skein for myself, now - should I make socks or a scarf out of it?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:39 PM | Comments (3)

February 05, 2007

New Photos

Here's a question for you. What do you think about this photo of a new colour yarn that we're offering? Personally I love the colour, bright and bold and beautiful. I want cashmere socks in this colour, don't you?

I'm experimenting with different ways to take photos of the yarn and I quite like this one. Am I the only one though? Do you prefer pics like this or the ones on our colour page at the moment?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:43 PM | Comments (6)

January 26, 2007

Sale update

OK - we're all done with fixing the stock numbers on the sale page. Now if anything says sold out that's because it really is not just because the software and I fell out over how much was in stock of each item. Sorry for the confusion, these things are supposed to make life easier - aren't they?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:05 PM | Comments (3)

Lots of bits

Lots of little bits for you today, that's the way my mind is working at the moment!

Firstly, the sale pages will be updated later on today, (check back at around 3pm UK time) with lots of goodies and treats. No sooner had we decided to discontinue our range of banana yarn than we found another 10 kilos of it hiding away so there are lots of lovely colours of that going in the sale pile at very reasonable prices. We'll also be adding more stuff to the sale pages next week.

We have also got 20 out of our 30 standard colours of aran weight silk available in stock right now. That's pretty exciting, don't you think?

We have just 2 spaces left on our Project Spectrum club and we'll be closing the entries as soon as they sell or on Monday morning at the latest. The yarn is all dyed and ready to be posted out next Thursday, it looks gorgeous..

Some changes to our workshop opening times on this page, note that we're no longer going to hold open days. It is always nice to see people though so if you want to pop in any time just email me and we'll work out the details. I had visits from 3 people this week which made a lovely change to the day - it can sometimes get a little lonely dyeing and skeining yarn on your own all day.

Now if you're not already subscribed to our newsletter you should be. Next Wednesday we will be sending out an email to our newsletter list with a coupon code valid for 10% off any purchases made on Thursday - 1st Feb. The code will expire at midnight on Thursday and will ONLY be sent to Newsletter subscribers.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:57 AM | Comments (4)

January 21, 2007

Self Striping sock yarn

A lot of people have emailed me and asked me why the self striping sock yarn is more expensive than the standard sock yarn. The answer to that one is nice and easy to explain, it is all to do with the amount of work that goes into making the yarn.

The undyed sock yarn (wool / nylon) arrives at the shop in 100g skeins. All I need to do is to soak it, mix up the dyes, apply the dyes, cook it, rinse it, dry it, reskein it (maybe), photograph it, label it and post it out when it arrives. (although now that I've written all of that it sounds like an awful lot doesn't it?!)

The undyed BFL sock yarn arrives at the shop in big 2 kilo cones. In order to make the yarn self stripe it has to be wound into BIG cones. Seriously large cones. I like to make them so that they measure 32 foot all the way around - or almost 13 metres. That tends to involve 2 pegs on the slatwall in the shop and me walking backwards and forwards around 30 times to get the right yardage for one skein.

Then I mark out where I want the colour changes to be by tying little pieces of different coloured yarn around the HUGE skein. Then over to the dyepot where each section is dyed a different colour, cooked, rinsed, dried and wound into a more manageable sized skein.

I'm dyeing 4 kilos of self striping tomorrow so I'll try and take some pics then to show you. In the meantime, here are a few links to pics from other bloggers.

Eunny.
Streets and YOs
Anita

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:45 PM | Comments (4)

January 18, 2007

New Hat design

Here is another new 1 skein hat, this one was made with 1 50g skein (£9) of the silk / cashmere yarn. You could also use 1 50g skein of the 100% cashmere yarn if you like.

This was designed and knitted in just 1.5 hours in front of a DVD last night, it is a 4 row stitch pattern with just one row containing eyelets, the others are just rib. This makes for a nice and easy pattern to remember, perfect for advanced beginners or someone who wants a nice and quick knit.

Shown in the colour seaweed, here is a close up of the stitch pattern.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:47 PM | Comments (2)

January 17, 2007

New Hat pattern

I will get this on the site later on this evening but here we have a free hat pattern which uses just 1 skein of our handspun camel yarn (£8) , with some left over to make a pompom if you like!

Nice and easy and quick to knit this is a lovely little hat. Brooke has claimed it as hers but asked for one to be knitted in a more girl like colour. Sigh. Maybe I'll just try to redye this one instead!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:15 PM | Comments (1)

January 16, 2007

Temptation

I've been adding lots of patterns and kits to the site this morning.

How do you feel about making one of Stef's gorgeous Orangina lace tops in fingering weight cashmere for just £30? Or one of her One Skein Wonders in Silk for £10 including pattern and yarn?

Maybe you'd prefer to make Icarus out of our laceweight cashmere (pattern and yarn for just £23) or Seraphim from fingering weight cashmere?

Or maybe you are in the mood for beads? We have over 30 Earth Faire Beaded Bracelet kits on the site in some gorgeous colours. The pot luck option gives you a £1 saving if you don't mind what colours you get - they are all gorgeous.

The choices are almost endless and its such fun to browse..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:47 AM | Comments (1)

January 15, 2007

Problems ordering

Is anyone having problems ordering with the shopping cart software? I have had lots of orders through today but have also had 3 emails from people saying that when they have put in their shipping details and try to confirm it keeps looping them back to the same page. I tried with one of my fake accounts and it took me back to the same page the first time and then worked fine the next 4 times (I have now joined the Project Spectrum club 4 times!! Don't worry, I went back and added 4 extra spaces)

If you are having problems can you please leave a comment or email me. If you want to reserve a space on the club I can do that for you and invoice you through Paypal or sort something out. Don't worry.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:47 PM | Comments (5)

To Do this week

I love making lists and thought that I'd share the HipKnits To Do list for this week with you.

- Ship all orders * DONE
- Dye 4 wholesale orders
- Get the Schaeffer yarns on the site
- Dye Custom Orders DONE
- Get the Earth Fairies Bead Bracelets on the site (20 new colours just arrived) DONE
- Get the rest of the sale yarn on the site
- Sort out Project Spectrum page, send out notification and dye yarn * DONE
- Get HipKnits club information on the site * DONE
- Miriam Felton patterns and kits - photo and on site * DONE
- Glampyre patterns and kits - photo and on site *
- Get rest of patterns on the site *
- Wind custom orders into skeins
- Finish photographing yarn DONE

Should keep me busy for a while don't you think? The ones with * next to them are on the list for today and the rest of them as and when I can. A lot of customers have asked for their yarn to be wound into balls which is great, the laceweight cashmere ones will take a while though so they probably won't all be done until mid week.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:39 AM | Comments (6)

January 13, 2007

Project Spectrum

I know that I have mentioned already that I will not be running the clubs this year. (apart from the HipKnits membership club which will continue, I just need to get the page up.) Having the extra time and energy to dedicate to other areas of the business is going to be great and is allowing me to do lots of things, the first one being this :

Project Spectrum

February / March
Blue, White, Gray

April / May
Green, Yellow, Pink

June / July
Red, Black, Metallics

August / September
Brown, Orange, Purple

So, our first little fun venture of 2007 is going to be a Project Spectrum club. Spaces are limited to 30 people only and yarn will be shipped on the 1st of February, April, June and August. I'm thinking of cashmere sock yarn each month so that we can all have project spectrum inspired socks. What do you think?

The cost for 4 skeins of cashmere sock yarn should be £72. The club will instead run at the lovely reduced price of £50. That is a significant saving and you'll recive some lovely one of a kind colours. The yarn will be posted free of charge, first class or airmail.

I'll be adding a page to the site for this early next week so watch out for it if you're interested in joining. I'll also be sending out an email to the newsletter group at the same time so drop me an email if you'd like to be added. This is pretty exciting, isn't it?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:51 AM | Comments (3)

January 12, 2007

Knitting Clubs

I just had an email conversation with Samantha which reminded me of a plan that I had last year but just never managed to put into practice. If you run a knitting club anywhere in the world, drop me an email with your contact name and address and the approximate number of people you have attending and I'll send you a free HipKnits goodie pack. It will contain yarn, patterns and maybe even some magazines. I'm really excited to have the time to do this, its been something that has been on my mind for a long while.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:35 PM | Comments (5)

Paypal currency

Whoops, thanks for pointing out that the shop was charging you all in USD rather than GBP - good catch Bronte! I have now changed it so that it is correct and during the course of today will refund the payments that came in dollars throughout last night and send you an invoice in GBP instead.

I'm pleased to say that this seems to be the only teething trouble we've had so far - I can't tell you how happy that makes me!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:26 AM | Comments (1)

January 11, 2007

New Shop

Well, it has taken me long enough but the new HipKnits shop site is prety much there.

http://www.hipknits.co.uk/shop.php

There are still a number of images missing from the sale page and we have TONNES more yarn and patterns to get on there over the next couple of days but I just can't wait any longer to show you the new look and some of our new yarns and colours.

We'd love to hear what you think, Happy Shopping!!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:22 PM | Comments (7)

January 09, 2007

Good things come to those who wait

And right now you guys are being so patient with me, I really really appreciate it. The new site is so close to being ready, I'm fighting the temptation to just run out and show you all but I'm being sensible and bug checking as much as I can. There is still a little problem with some of the pictures (and really, that's the most important part of the whole site don't you think?!) but that will be resolved today.

I'm not promising anything but tomorrow or Thursday both look good for the new site to go live. If that doesn't happen for any reason then I have another lovely sale page all ready to go which should keep you going for a little while.

When the site does go live you'll see all this and lots more :

New colours
New yarns
Free patterns with every purchase
Free first class / surface mail postage
We'll for us to wind your yarn into balls at no extra cost!
New competition
10% off day once a month
Regular sale pages
Workshop open day once a month

I can show you a sneak peak at some of our new variegated colours that we'll have on sale though if you're interested?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:56 AM | Comments (6)

December 21, 2006

New Year, New Colours, New Yarns

Next year is going to be a big year for us at HipKnits. We have lots of new yarns, lots of new colours and lots and lots of new plans. The picture above shows 2 new colours that we're working on together with our new labels that we are going to be using. There will be a nice big sale on the first day that we open, many many discontinued colours, discontinued yarns etc at nice bargain prices.

What else is going to be new next year? You'll have to wait for most of it but here are a few points :

- new shopping cart software
- confirmation emails for all orders giving a shipping date
- free surface mail or first class postage on all orders
- option to upgrade to airmail or special delivery at a cost of GBP 3
- free patterns with every purchase
- lots more patterns for all yarns
- new shop opening hours, including one Saturday a month with big discounts
- lots more regular sales with new colours, new yarns and lovely prices.

Does that sound exciting enough for you?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:55 AM | Comments (7)

Comment Moderation

As a general rule I do not delete comments from any of my blogs. I am always open to discussion and interested in hearing people's views. I have freely admitted here that I have some issues getting all of my post out on time and if you go back through all the comments on the site you'll find many where people have highlighted to me that they haven't received goods or replies to emails.

However, I reserve the right to delete any comments that are not left in good faith. For instance, comments from people who don't have anything constructive to say and are not prepared to post their contact details. Complaints about service from people who have never ordered with us or emailed us and who are complaining because of something they have heard from someone else will not be allowed. I can take constructive critiscism or comments with the best of them, but I won't have random bitching or complaints made with no substance on my website. There are plenty of other places on the internet that you can go if you want to post comments like that.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2006

More on the postal issues

Some interesting points being raised in the comments section of the last post, I thought I'd open up the conversation again today.

Currently I send everything out first class post and I do get a certificate of posting. However, I also seem to have a large number of parcels that are either slow or don't turn up at all. I send out on average 50 parcels a day and probably have 1 or 2 a week that don't get to where they are supposed to go. Thats around 1%. Not great.

My policy on parcels that don't arrive whether they are large or small is that I either refund or replace. No questions asked, whether the parcel is 1 skein of yarn or 10 skeins of yarn. If I dont have the yarn in stock I'll offer an alternative / custom dye - whatever suits the person who placed the order. Royal Mail ask that you wait 15 postal days after sending something out first class before they will consider that it hasn't arrived, I don't make customers wait this long but will start the process of replace / refund within a week or so of non arrival. Obviously at this time of the year the postal service is slower than normal and parcels have been taking around 7 working days for first class. Not too impressive huh?

So what to do? Part of the reason for wanting a new system is to improve customer confidence. I've had a fair few complaints recently about non arrival of parcels and that's just not nice for anyone. I want my customers to feel secure in ordering with us and know that I will do my best to get their yarn to them as quickly, painlessly and cheaply as possible. Another part of the reason for change is just to get a more reliable service.

As was pointed out in the comments, recorded delivery would not help the 2nd part of the problem but it would help the first one. I think that customers would be more confident if I could give them a ref number when their parcel had been posted so that they could see that it was on its way. I know that realistically it is just as likely to go missing though, which is very frustrating.

The points raised about couriers being expensive and difficult to deal with logistically are good ones as well. I'm beginning to see that there is no clear answer here, apart from maybe to give customers the option of choosing how they want their parcel sent to them. Thanks for all your input so far in comments and emails, keep them coming so that I can really make an informed decision. Whatever I do next year has to suit all you lovely customers as much as it suits me, after all.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:42 PM | Comments (7)

December 19, 2006

Time to vote now...

I'm sorting out lots of bits for HipKnits next year and one area of the business that needs a major major overhaul is the way I post orders out. Royal Mail first class / airmail is no longer enough, it is causing me untold headaches with regard to missing orders etc. So, I need a new solution.

Here are my choices as far as I can see.

1 - do nothing and continue to charge around £2 or £3 postage on orders under £40 and send out Royal Mail first class and deal with the late deliveries / missing parcels / unhappy customers.

2 - charge a little more and send out all parcels recorded delivery. This is not my preferred option as it means more time standing in queues in the post office and would probably mean I have to charge £3 or £4 postage per order under £40.

3 - send out all parcels by courier. This one would be nice and easy. Guaranteed next day delivery on everything, all insured and signed for etc. However it is not cheap. The cost would be in the region of £5 per order and that would still be subsidised by me.

What do you think? I could maybe offer a choice when you place the order (must check and see how clever shopping cart software is) but again that's more admin overhead for me. Its not an easy one to figure out is it?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:06 PM | Comments (9)

December 16, 2006

Huge Thank you

If there was such a thing as a prize for the most thoughtful customer (and there really should be, don't you think?!) then Julie would have to be this weeks winner. Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of my customers are lovely people and I really enjoy seeing orders / emails come through from people who I've "known" for the last 18 months since I've been running HipKnits. However Julie really cheered up what turned out to be a pretty rubbish week last week by sending me a box of Thorntons chocolates as a thank you for replacing some missing orders that we'd been searching for. How lovely is that? Thank you so much Julie, you really made my week. x

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:48 AM | Comments (1)

December 14, 2006

Miriam Felton Patterns

HipKnits are lucky enough to have in stock 4 gorgeous shawl patterns designed by Miriam Felton. They only arrived here about half an hour ago but I can't resist sharing them with you, here on the blog for a limited time only. I'm busy redesigning the site pages for New Year launch but in the meantime you'll be able to buy the patterns here, there will be kits available as well in the New Year...

Pattern number 1 - Seraphim Shawl. Requires 900 yards of fingering weight wool or wool blend yarn. Gauge 5 stitches per inch using 3.75mm needles. Finished size 72 inches across and 36 from neck to point.

£4 - this is for a printed copy on card stock folded to approx 1/2 A4 size, perfect to pop into your knitting bag.

Pattern number 2 - Icarus Shawl. Requires 1500 yards of lace weight wool or wool blend yarn. Gauge 5 stitches per inch using 3.25mm needles. Finished size 72 inches across and 36 from neck to point.

£4 - this is for a printed copy on card stock folded to approx 1/2 A4 size, perfect to pop into your knitting bag.

Pattern number 3 - Hidcote Garden Shawl. Requires 1300 yards of lace weight wool or wool blend yarn. Gauge 6 stitches per inch using 3.25mm needles. Finished size 90 inches across and 44 from neck to point.

£4 - this is for a printed copy on card stock folded to approx 1/2 A4 size, perfect to pop into your knitting bag.

Pattern number 4 - Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl. Requires 800 yards of light lace weight wool or wool blend yarn. Gauge 8 stitches per inch using 2.25mm needles. Finished size 60 inches across and 30 from neck to point.

£4 - this is for a printed copy on card stock folded to approx 1/2 A4 size, perfect to pop into your knitting bag.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:35 AM | Comments (1)

December 12, 2006

Phew

Wow, I never expected that kind of a response to the sale. Seriously, you guys know how to shop! 2 weeks after the sale started here I am having sent out over 400 orders and with another 200 or so to go for the rest of this week. Insane, but a lot of fun.

Our last posting day before Christmas will probably end up being next Monday. I'm caught up on club postings, the sale orders and other website orders will be out by Thursday this week. Any remaining wholesale orders will be shipped before next Monday and then I'm going to relax and spend some time finishing off hte website redesign and photographing all our lovely new yarns.

I think I've caught up with everyone who was waiting to get hold of me, if you still have an outstanding query please please please email me one last time and I'll get back to you. I'm down to less than 50 emails in my inbox now so beginning to feel in control and organised. For once.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:29 PM | Comments (2)

December 07, 2006

ARGH

So sorry about missing the sale update last night, we went Christmas shopping after Brooke's tennis lesson which was straight after school which included nativity plays and christmas parties. By the time we got home at gone 10pm the last thing I was capable of was updating the website, I barely managed to get up 2 flights of stairs and fall into bed.

Never fear though - the site was updated at 7 this morning and the half price cashmere sock yarn will stay there until 8pm tonight. Have fun!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:48 AM | Comments (9)

December 02, 2006

Sale again

Oooh, this is fun! The aran weight silk has ALL SOLD OUT so I've updated the sale page an hour early with all of our laceweight silk colours, again HALF PRICE. I didn't imagine that the 12 kilos of silk would sell out in less than 24 hours but its great that they did. Now we can concentrate over here on our plans for the silk range for next year, its going to be great!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:11 PM | Comments (3)

December 01, 2006

Festive sale news

The sale page today has the last 5 4 of our shawl kits on it, at half price. I will not be buying any more of this yarn to dye into shawl kits so these really are the last ones available. One other has already sold but the person hasn't let me know what colour they want yet so go and have a look and see if the one you want is still available.

This offer will end at 8pm tonight at which point we will have lots and lots of aran weight silk on special HALF price offer. That's down to just £3.50 per 100g, bargain prices. I'm not too sure what will be on offer tomorrow but its just possible that it will be lace weight silk at half price, followed by our new and beautiful range of hand dyed cotton / silk yarn at half price on Sunday and then on Monday I think it will be the Schaefer Anne sock yarn. Isn't this good fun?

Go and grab a bargain while you can!

PS - yes, I will combine shipping for the entire duration of the sale which is due to end next Friday. When you place your first order please note in the comments to seller section of the paypal form if you want me to hold on to your order until Saturday 9th December and post it then. Any orders received after the initial one will have their postage refunded and I'll ship everything together in one lovely parcel on Saturday 9th. This is still in time for a pre Christmas delivery, even to the US. So now you really have no excuse not to shop for some lovely bargains..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:21 PM | Comments (2)

Yarn - named!

Thank you so much for all your thoughts on the name that yarn post a few weeks ago. I had loads of fun reading through them all and must admit that I changed my mind so many times before I finally chose the winner which is...

Sea Glass

Thanks to Amanda in GA for coming up with that one, drop me an email with your address and I'll pop the yarn in the post to you early next week.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2006

New Colours

I've been frantically dyeing some of our new yarns into new colours to take to Harrogate. What do you think?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:32 AM | Comments (6)

November 13, 2006

Thanks and Sale..

Thanks for all the comments on the new site layout, I'll be working hard on that this week in an effort to have it up and running before our big festive sale that will be running from 28th November to 8th December.

We have lots of nice new yarns in the shop today, I've been busy labelling and photographing this weekend.

First the sale page, as I explained to the newsletter list this morning there will be no more sale updates like this until the new year. That sounds like ages away doesn't it? The reason for this is that I'm in full on Harrogate mode now (there will be a sale basket there) and after that its our special holiday themed sale (as mentioned above) that will run from Tuesday 28th November to Friday 8th December. Then we'll be having a couple of weeks off over Christmas (with the shopping cart software set up to manage orders while we're away!) and back in the new year with a HUGE sale made up of lots of goodies including 2 whole yarn ranges that we're discontinuing and lots of other bits as well.

Yummy new aran weight 100% organic merino yarns in these 4 colours. There will be more for Harrogate!

Gorgeous new heavy weight sock yarn in an Alpaca / BFl blend. Softest most buttery yarn ever, I love it!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:19 AM | Comments (2)

November 10, 2006

Advice please

So, the last couple of days have been spent playing with new shopping cart software for HipKnits. I am nowhere near finished with it yet, the image on the front page needs to be changed (this was just the first one I found) and none of the categories are populated yet. The look and feel of the site still needs some work and I know that some of the links from the top right hand corner are not working yet.

With all that in mind, what you do you think? I'm puzzling over the categories on the right, I've been through lots of variations and I'm still not sure I have them right but its time for a break and a cup of tea and toast before I fiddle again.

As you are the people who are going to be using the shop, I'd welcome any feedback from you. I'm hoping that the site will be nice and easy to navigate with a proper shopping cart system that will inventory the yarn on the site and prevent you purchasing something that has already sold out. The current site setup relies on me being available to receive the paypal notification of an item being purchased, and then editing the html of the page and uploading the new page to the server before someone else clicks on the add to cart button. Its not ideal.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:18 PM | Comments (6)

November 08, 2006

New Yarns

Oooh, I've been sneaking some of our new yarns on to the website today.

We have new beautiful http://hipknits.co.uk/noveltysilk.htm,

some gorgeous crunchy silk cotton blend,

a couple of colours of merino aran (with lots and lots more to come),

a sneak preview of the alpaca yarns that are to come next week

and also some beautiful, beautiful Schaefer Elaine yarn. This is my personal favourite, I've made a lace scarf that is almost 8 foot long out of less than one skein - its gorgeous stuff..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

Name that yarn

I'm currently working on our spring / summer range of colours which will be launched in the new year. The plan is to have a set of colours that will be replicated throughout our whole yarn range, we will also have lots of special one off batches of new colours for you to buy as well. I'm looking at having around 30 colours in total, mixture of variegated and somewhat solids. I'll be asking for your opinions, advice, favourite colours in the next few weeks but for now we have this :

One of our new colourways for 2007. Isn't it beautiful? I'm offering someone the chance to name the yarn and to win this skein pictured here which is aran weight silk, 100g. To be in with a chance of winning leave a comment here with your idea for a name before the end of November. Winner will be announced on 1st December. Get creative, anyone but dad is allowed to enter as I know he would suggest something like 12345 which isn't quite what I'm looking for!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:16 PM | Comments (79)

November 06, 2006

Sale

Just to warn you that I'll be updating the sale page this evening at around 8pm UK time. I will send a message to the newsletter group when its up so if you are subscribed to that then you need to keep an eye on your emails. There is lots of cashmere, the last couple of skeins of Fleece artist, some kid mohair and other bits and bobs that need to be cleared from the shelves of the shop to make way for our new ranges of alpaca, Blue Faced Leicester and Merino that are coming very very soon. Maybe even next week soon!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:06 AM | Comments (3)

November 02, 2006

New wholesale order

A big order was packed and shipped to the Sweet Sheep in Canada today, they are our first Canadian supplier which is really exciting. The shades of aran silk and lace cashmere shown above will be available from their website in the next couple of weeks.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:50 PM | Comments (1)

October 31, 2006

Aran silk colours

There are lots of lovely aran silk colours on the site today, my favourite is Bracken (shown above) which was originally dyed as a custom order for someone and we loved it enough to make it part of our standard range. It's great when that happens.

I also added lots and lots of new laceweight cashmere to the page, it is so hard to choose a favourite but I think that Damson pudding has to beat the others for me. I love the pinks, purples and custardy yellows all mixed up together. This would make a beautiful cropped lace cardigan, don't you think?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:13 AM | Comments (1)

October 30, 2006

New cashmere sock yarn

I'm such a child! To be as excited as I am over this new colour of cashmere sock yarn is quite silly really but I do love it. Named bumblebee (what else?) its only going to be available for sale here on the blog. Usual price of £16 plus postage. Email me if you're interested in knitting up some striped bumble bee socks and I'll reserve you a skein. There are only 5 of them in the world and I have no plans to dye any more for a while so snap one up while you can.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:52 PM | Comments (1)

October 26, 2006

Not impressed

We have some serious website problems here that need to be resolved this morning. HipKnits domain expired yesterday and after lots of conversations with the support team about how to renew it under my own account details (where this site, yarn forward mag and various other bits are registered) I followed their instructions to the letter.

I now find myself with a domain that doesn't work. No emails in my inbox and a support team who tell me that I didn't follow the correct procedure and its out of their hands. If I could get into my emails I would be able to show them their email telling me to do what I did but of course I can't.

Their suggested solution at the moment is just to rebuild the site and forget about the 50 or so emails I had in my inbox. How helpful is that? The emails were to remind me to do things, people to chase up, customers to add to the newsletter list, orders to place with suppliers. Not impressed to have lost them all. Not impressed with being told to "just" rebuild the site. Even less impressed with being told that there is no way I can phone them or they can phone me, all communication has to be done via email.

All the time this is going on, I'm losing money and probably customers as well. Did I say that I am not impressed with the whole thing? Lets hope that by some miracle it all gets fixed this morning otherwise I can feel my blood pressure beginning to rise and that's not going to be good for anyone.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:43 AM | Comments (4)

October 25, 2006

New Yarns

I've spent the morning at the shop playing with lots of new yarns, such fun. Here's a snippet of what we'll have in store for you over the next few weeks :

Alpaca
Alpaca / Silk
Organic Merino
Bluefaced leicester
Cashmere / silk
Cashmere / merino

I've also just received another big big box of laceweight cashmere from my supplier so I'll try and get some more of that up on the site next week and take plenty to Harrogate with me next month as well.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2006

New sock yarns

I love big baskets full of brightly coloured yarn, don't you? This is the new superwash sock yarn in fingering and dk weights that went on the site last week. It is the softest most gorgeous Louet yarn ever, the fingering weight is the same base yarn that Koigu dye I believe and I'm sorely tempted to keep it all for myself!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:20 PM | Comments (1)

October 20, 2006

Laceweight cashmere

If you're looking for some of our laceweight cashmere Yarnsmith have just one skein of black / grey left here, Get Knitted have lots and lots of new colours here and the knitting hut also have some in stock but I'm not sure in what colours.

We've had orders from lots more stores since Ally Pally last week so I'll be adding them to the list on the left as soon as they are shipped. Its very exciting!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2006

Contest Winners

Finally, some pictures of the HipKnits contest winners.

First place was given to the teddy bear in a carry cot with his own blanket and little teeny tiny teddy, knitted by M Rowlands.

Second place went to the mermaid scene knitted by Donna Osbourne.

Third place went to the beach scene complete with knitted parasol, knitted by Shirley Downey.

Around 30 of the entries were on display in the West Hall at Ally Pally last week, they looked lovely! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest, we have a new idea for next year's contest details of which will be announced in the new year.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:33 AM | Comments (2)

September 25, 2006

Sweet Georgia Speed Demon sock

Yum. That's pretty much the first word that comes to mind when thinking about the new Speed Demon sock yarn we have in the shop at the moment. It looks gorgeous, feels beautiful and knits up like a dream. One skein is enough for a pair of socks and I happened to find a free pattern online this morning. Check it out.

Edited to add - I heard from Heather the designer of the free pattern today. She is asking that people knit a pair of socks to donate to the Dulaan project in exchange for the free pattern. Now, doesn't that sound like a nice thing to do?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)

September 22, 2006

New lace cashmere

These are 4 new colours of laceweight cashmere that will be on the website on Monday. I have 1 kilo of each of them and they really are the softest skeins of cashmere I have ever felt. They used to live in a a mill in Italy this time, rather than the usual Scottish cashmere I buy. I kept the colours nice and simple this time. We have a beautiful sunflower yellow, a pale buttermilk lemon colour that is so close to ivory but just a fraction more yellow, a peaceful pale pink and a lovely soft teal colour.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:49 PM | Comments (1)

August 26, 2006

Holidays

HipKnits will be closed from Saturday 26th August through to Saturday 2nd September, reopening on Monday 4th September. During this time orders will not be shipped, the shop will not be open and emails will not be answered. Business as usual will resume on Monday 4th September with all orders placed while we were on holiday being shipped that day.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:46 PM | Comments (1)

August 23, 2006

New laceweight silk designs

I was emailing one of my lovely customers, Jackie, today talking about the laceweight silk yarn that we sell at HipKnits. Jackie asked if I had any new patterns coming up for the laceweight silk and unfortunately I had to say no. I love the silk and as much as I love knitting with it I just don't have the time to play around with it too much at the moment.

So, this is an open call for any designers who would like to get their hand on some of our yarn. I'm looking for someone to design me some projects with the laceweight silk. You need to send me :

A sketch of your design
Detail about stitches etc
Proposal about how much yarn you would need (in metres preferably)
How long it will take you to make

I'm on holiday next week but sometime in the first week in September I will email you if I really like your designs and arrange to custom dye you some yarn and send it over. Here are a few rules

The design must be original and must be your own
I will provide the yarn and a one off payment for the design
I will then choose the best vehicle to show off the pattern. That may be MagKnits, Yarn Forward magazine or on the HipKnits site.
I will need to keep the sample that you make but on receiving it I will send you the same amount of yarn again so that you can make one for yourself.

Anything else I should be thinking of? I have a migraine today so I'm fully aware that I may not be making too much sense...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:20 PM | Comments (1)

August 21, 2006

New pattern

We have a new pattern designed by Alexandra available on HipKnits, the lovely camisole made from just 3 skeins of our aran weight silk.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:54 PM | Comments (2)

New pattern

We have a new pattern designed by Alexandra available on HipKnits, the lovely camisole made from just 3 skeins of our aran weight silk.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2006

New goodies

The shop is updated with some new goodies and some changes have been made to the clubs. Go and have a look and tell me what you think?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 01:29 PM | Comments (1)

August 08, 2006

Laceweight cashmere

For those of you who have been disappointed that we sold out of laceweight cashmere so quickly this time here are a few good pieces of information for you.

Kerrie is dyeing another 2 kilos tonight which will be available on the site next week.

Yarnsmith have some in stock right now.

The Knitting Hut will have some in stock next week.

We can custom dye some for you if you like?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:48 PM | Comments (1)

July 27, 2006

Fruitstock

What are you all doing the first weekend in August? If you are in the London area and looking for something fun to do then check out Fruitstock, the Innocent drinks festival in Regents Park. HipKnits are one of the sponsers of this festival and we will be in the relaxation area equipped with yarn, needles, deck chairs and umbrellas encouraging people to stop by and knit a hat for the Innocent Supergran project. There is no excuse to leave without knitting a hat as we'll be happy to teach you if you can't knit, bring along your needles and yarn or use some that we'll have available and join us for a relaxing knitting session in Regents Park. What better way to spend your weekend? If you look at the fruitstock website you'll notice that Innocent are asking people to bake cakes to bring along for their cake stand, I'm planning to knit them some tea cosies to take along just for a laugh.

If you haven't looked at the Innocent website recently you really should. They are so funny and such lovely people. Its been a pleasure working with them on Fruitstock and I cant wait for 2 days of relaxing and knitting in the park.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:12 AM | Comments (2)

July 26, 2006

New things

We've been busy over at HipKnits dyeing lots of pretty things for you. Here are some of the aran weight silk colours and also some merino / silk fibre. Yum.

We're going to be getting all the fibre on the site for an early August update and offering a free copy of Heidi from my paper crane's Spin Spin zine with each 100g plait of fibre. Now you have no excuses not to learn to spin!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:27 AM | Comments (1)

July 17, 2006

I need your advice

We're currently trying to work out the best way to sell our HipKnits yarns so that the colours are displayed accurately, customers find it easy to work with the yarn and we are not spending any more time than we need to repeating the same job over and over again.

Will you take a min to place your votes? I will seriously listen to every single one of you who wants to leave a comment, send me an email or vote here. Thank you so much.

xx

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:01 PM | Comments (7)

July 03, 2006

New sofa

One of the lovely ladies that works at the shop just happened to mention that she was throwing out a perfectly good 2 seater sofa as she had a new one coming and didn't have room for the old one. That happened just a couple of days after I was looking at our budget and working out if we could afford to buy a couple of armchairs for the shop as it gets a little crowded on knitting club nights sometimes. Perfect timing or what?

So last week Mandy and Emma turned up in a borrowed van with sofa and some bonus shelves in the back and we had a good old rearrange of the shop. I love this corner, its been rearranged even more now but its the perfect place to come and sit down and relax. I love to see customers who stay a while and sit and knit at the same time, it makes it all worthwhile!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:51 PM | Comments (2)

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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:25 AM | Comments (2)

June 13, 2006

Quick Quiz

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) 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 Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2006

Kit crazy

We're kit crazy today at HipKnits, with new flower kits, shawl kits and dye your own sock yarn kits. Go on, dive in!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2006

Shawl Kit teaser

I'm hoping to get the kits on the site on Tuesday. Here is a little teaser pic of one of the patterns that you'll get in your kit :

Honestly, its not often that I curse the fact that we're in the middle of a heatwave here in the UK.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 03:07 PM | Comments (1)

May 11, 2006

Pure Knits

Check out our first US stockist - PureKnits. Go Yaharia!!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2006

Shawl kits

Oh, the shawl kits are getting close to being ready. I have all of the yarns dyed, one of the patterns almost finished and the other pattern is being worked on for me right now. There will be 10 shawl kits available, 2 in each of 5 colours. I can show you the purple, green and blue and pink and brown and pink ones now. The black and white version is not dry yet.

If anyone wants to reserve a kit, please email me at info@hipknits.co.uk. I'll let one of each colour go now, otherwise they will be on sale on HipKnits from early June. The kits will contain 100g of 100% merino wool, 100g of 100% mohair, 100g of kid mohair twist and 100g of alpaca / BFL blend together with 2 shawl patterns. The cost per shawl kit is going to be £35.00 plus £3 postage to the UK and £4 postage internationally.

Please note if you order one now your order will not be posted for another couple of weeks until the patterns are written up and ready to go.

Purple kit - sold
Pink kit - sold
Black and white kit - available
Blue and green kit - sold
Pink and brown kit - available

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:49 PM | Comments (0)

May 08, 2006

Get Knitted!

Our first lot of yarn is up at Get Knitted! with more to come in a couple of days when package number 2 gets there. Thanks Sue!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2006

Site update

Good Morning HipKnitters!

Its time for that big monthly site update, and it’s a good one again this month.

On the silk side of things, we have 29 colours of aran weight silk, and 12 colours of lace weight silk

Do I hear you ask for cashmere? Not wanting to disappoint we have 6 colours of aran weight cashmere , 4 colours of lace weight cashmere , and a whopping 12 colours of sock cashmere .

On the sock yarn page we have 12 different colours and you can expect to see some new discounts appearing on our existing wool range as well as some new wool colours later in the month.

As usual, if you don’t see a colour that you like just email me and I’ll see what I can do.

The cashmere club and the competition are both now closed for new entries. I’m dyeing the cashmere club yarn tomorrow so it should be set to be posted out on Monday to everyone who has joined. I’m so excited! You still have another couple of weeks for the silk club, although places are again filling up fast.

There is still one place left on the next dyeing yarn day, let me know if you are interested.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2006

Dyeing course - part 1

The dyeing class went really well on Sunday, everyone had a great time and just look at the beautiful yarns they dyed between them? Thanks to Lisa for stepping up and taking the pics when I realised I'd left my camera at home.

I'll be updating the site later with some new handspun yarns, a reminder about the cashmere club and the dates for the next dyeing class.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006

New yarns

New Yarns - on the site soon..

Blue Faced Leicester and Alpaca Blend :

Merino :

Mohair :

Kid Mohair :

These were all dyed in the same pot using the same colours of dye. I'm intrigued by the way that they all take the colours differently and come out looking similar but not the same. Beautiful.. I'm thinking of putting together some shawl kits that would use the different textures and colours in one garment for a truly individual look.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:47 AM | Comments (2)

April 17, 2006

Clubs and Contests

I hope you have all enjoyed the long weekend that we have had, the weather here in London has been lovely and sunny so its been a real treat for us.

The website has been updated again with some new handspun yarn by the talented Hello Mango, see?

I have also added 2 pages that are currently linked from the side bar of the blog. They are the competition page and the Cashmere Club page

The competition is an exciting one, a selection of entries will be on display at the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace this October and the cashmere club is going to be such fun. You need to sign up quickly to the cashmere club as there are only 20 places available and I think that they will sell out quickly. You will receive 100g of cashmere yarn in either lace, sock or aran weight at the beginning of May, June and July in an exclusive colour with a free pattern. Let me know if you think a similar club for our silk yarn would be of interest and I will see what I can work out. For now, go and check out the details on the pages and email me at info@hipknits.co.uk if you have any questions at all.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2006

Update

The website has been updated and its a bumper update this morning, 32 new colours of aran weight silk, 4 new cashmere sock yarn shades and 10 new laceweight silk colours. I'm sure that there is something there for everyone..

Thanks to everyone who came to visit us at Olympia last week. It was lovely to meet so many customers or blog readers! I still have a backlog of custom dye orders from the show but I should be finished with those in a couple of days. Do let me know if I can custom dye any yarn for you, the price is the same as for the regular colours that are on the website.

Course update, the dyeing course is now sold out and there are just 2 places left on the spinning course. Future dates are being planned for another dyeing course, just drop me an email if you have a preference as to dates.

I just spent the weekend dyeing some gorgeous new yarns that arrived with us just before Olympia. If any of you are coming along to the open day on Saturday you'll get to see, stroke and squeeze them for yourselves. Gorgeous, I tell you, just gorgeous.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:05 AM | Comments (6)

March 27, 2006

Stitch and Craft 2006

I really must be getting old, Olympia really took it out of me this weekend! I had a great time, it was lovely to see so many old friends again and meet lots of new HipKnits customers as well! I didn't get chance to take too many pics but the ones below show the HipKnits stand quite nicely.

I can't remember what Ruth and I were laughing at in the photo above but it must have been good. Ruth came along on the Wednesday to help me set up and man was I grateful! Set up and breakdown have to be the 2 hardest pieces of the whole thing and that's saying something seeing as the bit in the middle of set up and break down involves standing on your feet for 4 days and being nice to people! Ruth also came along on the Thursday, Friday and Sunday and was a huge help on the stand. Thanks Ruth.

Anna came along on the Thursday and between her and Ruth they managed to calm my nerves about teaching the flower knitting classes and managed the stand while I was gone. I was so nervous about teaching but the classes went really well each day, phew.

We were directly opposite the Get Knitted stand and had a lot of fun taking the mickey out of David (sorry David) and gossiping about customers and other bits. Dad was there at the weekend and we just managed to meet our deadline of breakdown and out of the car park within an hour. Are you proud of us? Huge thank you to Nic who manned the stand for us on Sunday morning when we were late arriving due to a puncture on the M11. Dad changed the tyre only to find that the spare was flat and we had to wait nearly an hour on the side of the road for the AA man. Stressed out? Us? Never....

I didn't spend a single penny all weekend (apart from travel and lunch etc), isn't that good? I am planning on treating myself to something from the new Kim Hargreaves collection at some point this week but I'm not totally sure which one at the moment. Oh yes, I cannot wait to show you the GORGEOUS crochet shawl that Sue Powell is designing for me out of the laceweight silk. I never thought I'd fall in love with crochet but this has made me want to learn. If I get time that is. More tomorrow, must run out of the door and get the kids now..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:33 PM | Comments (4)

March 20, 2006

Courses

HipKnits are pleased to announce their first set of 1 day courses planned for April and May. More will be arranged depending on the popularity of these first two.

Yarns to dye for.

Sunday 23rd April, from 10am to 3pm
Cost - GBP50 including 100g cashmere yarn, 100g wool yarn, 100g silk yarn, a Kool Aid kit and full instructions to take away with you. Lunch and refreshments are also included in the price.

Come and join Kerrie for a day of creative colour work at the HipKnits shop! We will start the day with an introduction to dyeing yarn. Kerrie will show you how she dyes the different yarns for HipKnits and you will get a chance to dye your own skeins of wool, cashmere and silk using 3 different dyeing techniques.

Then we will break for lunch and sit down and knit, eat and gossip while the yarn completes the dyeing process quietly on its own in the workroom. After lunch we will return to the dyeing, check out how our yarns are doing and finish them off. Kerrie will explain the best way to dry your skeins of yarn and give you an idea about how long they should take to dry. Then Kerrie will show you some of the next steps in caring for and knitting with hand dyed yarns.

This course is suitable for people with little or no dyeing experience.

Maximum 5 places available. To book please email info@hipknits.co.uk. A place will be reserved for you pending payment which needs to be made with either paypal or personal cheque with 7 days of booking your place)

Spin Spin Sugar

Sunday 21st May from 10am to 2pm
Cost - GBP35 including materials to make your own drop spindle, full instructions, all the fibre you need on the day plus a kit to take home which will include 50g hand dyed merino fibre, 50g sari silk thrums as well as lots of other odds and ends. Please feel free to bring your own scraps of fabric, ribbon, fibre or other bits and bobs that can be incorporated into your yarn. Lunch and refreshments are also included in the price.

On this short course you will learn how to spin your own yarn using a drop spindle that we will make first thing in the morning. You will receive all of the materials you need to be able to come up with your own funky yarns, Kerrie will explain how to include ribbons, scraps of fabric and other oddments of fibre in order to create truly individual skeins of yarn. Ideas and patterns will be shared for small amounts of handspun yarn that you may come up with and everyone will go home with a couple of mini skeins of their first spun yarn.

This course is suitable for people with little or no spinning experience.

Maximum 5 places available. To book please email info@hipknits.co.uk. A place will be reserved for you pending payment which needs to be made with either paypal or personal cheque with 7 days of booking your place)

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:18 AM | Comments (1)

March 15, 2006

Knitting night

We had a great knitting night last night at the shop, 4 of us sat and knitted and gossiped the night away. Come along if you are close enough, every Tuesday from 6.30 till around 9.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:06 AM | Comments (1)

March 13, 2006

Araucania

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the Araucania pages are up. I'll be adding the last few details later on today.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

Aran weight Cashmere

Yum. That's all I have to say about the new aran weight cashmere that we're stocking. We currently have 2 shades in stock (pale pink and pale blue) and we are going to be handpainting some further colours later on this week when the last 2 wholesale orders are dyed and dried. This yarn is like butter, it is so so soft and beautiful to knit with. If you have a particular colour that you'd like to see some in do let us know and we'll see what we can do!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2006

Shop shop shop shop shop

Thanks for being patient with me while I slept the day away yesterday, now I can share some pics with you. The whole weekend was great, dad and I were there from about 9 on Saturday finishing off the last few bits and we had people knocking on the door just before 10 asking when we were opening. We sent everyone to the cafe around the corner, apparantly at one point nearly all their customers were wearing handknitted garments and waiting for us to open!

Saturday was great with lots of old friends and HipKnits customers coming in. It was lovely to meet people that I'd only spoken to on email before and also to see others who I hadn't seen since Ally Pally last October. I imagined that Sunday would be the quiet day but again, dad and I noticed 2 cars sitting outside the shop from about 10.30, as soon as we opened the door at 11 they were in! It was lovely to have so many people who stayed to sit on the sofa and knit a while after their shopping and also to see how many people took advantage of the basket of balled up yarns on the table that were available to swatch and sat and knitted.

Michaela made me this lovely cake, don't you think she should set up a website and make them for everyone? I do. We didn't cut it until Sunday and let me tell you that it tasted just as good as it looked, that's no small feat considering it looked so amazing!

This is the left hand side of the shop as you walk in.

You can see the beautiful Trudie jacket that Minxxie made for me at the far end, the baskets full of handspun yarn on the wall, the table with gorgeous flowers that Wayne sent me and jug of needles with basket of yarns to swatch, the sofa and hand dyed chunky yarns hanging on the wall.

Now this is the other side of the shop with the metal floor to ceiling racking that I did my very best to make pretty by covering with Laura Ashley wallpaper and Cath Kidston spotty material. This is where the bulk of the yarn is stored, underneath the spotty material are all my undyed skeins and boxes.

Now for a few close-ups. This is the basket of swatchable yarn that sits on the table. This pic was taken before anyone actually picked up the yarns and started knitting so its not quite that neat any more! A little table full of Lyn's beautiful brooches. Basket of Hello Mango handspun yarn and one of Felt Studio handspun. The row of goodie bags in the back room, just waiting to be taken home and finally the first wall again, just because I really like the way you can see the whole sofa in this one.

Phew. Enough pics for you? I have lots more but that should give you a taste of what you missed if you weren't able to make it at the weekend.

I'll be updating the HipKnits store tomorrow with LOADS of goodies. I'm going to update the website once a month from now on instead of every week or so, this will make it much easier for me. I'll still be doing all the custom dye orders and I'll make sure that the once a month update is MASSIVE so it should hopefully last nearly the whole month. If you did miss this weekend you can see us at Olympia at the end of the month, that's coming round faster than I really want to think about at the moment!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:10 AM | Comments (7)

February 14, 2006

Shop update

Oooh, the shop is updated and full of lots and lots of nice treats for you. We have some new colours of aran weight silk, some new handspun yarn from Miss Bell all with free hat patterns, beautiful handspun yarn from Felt Studio and the most amazingly gorgeous knitting needle cases from The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands. I have favourites in each section and I've given myself a certain amount of time for them to sell before I'm going to snap them up myself. Don't tell Wayne though, OK?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 11:58 AM | Comments (2)

February 13, 2006

Cashmere scarf anyone?

Just look what Maeve made from the skein of cashmere sock yarn that she was gifted from Ally Pally last year?

Using the short row rib scarf pattern on MagKnits and 1 skein of cashmere she ended up with a scarf that from the looks of it is about 13 foot long! So long in fact that you could easily make 2 from 1 skein.

The site will be updated at long last tomorrow. I've had a few camera issues but should all be OK now. I'll spend some time today making all of the thumbnails and then update the site in the morning. I have so many beautiful new yarns I can't wait to get them up on the site!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:13 AM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2006

Malabrigio on its way!

Oooh, I just heard that my first shipment of Malabrigio yarn has left Uraguay and is on its way to HipKnits. Depending on how long it takes to get to me I may debut it at the open weekend and then get the remainder on the website afterwards. Yummy..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 07:13 AM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2006

new Handspun

I have some new Handspun hat kits from Miss Bell as well as some brand new yarns from Daniella over at Felt Studio to get up on the site today. I alos have a few more of the merino / nylon sock yarns ready to go so if I have time I'll upload them as well.

You'll all be glad to know that I dyed lots and lots of cashmere sock yarn yesterday as well as 8 new variegated shades of the aran weight silk so they should all be up on the site next week, as long as they dry in time that is. There will be more cashmere snippets on the sale page over the next few weeks, it was a lot of fun watching them all sell out so quickly when I put them up earlier this week!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:11 AM | Comments (1)

January 31, 2006

Big News

Do you guys want to hear something exciting? I recieved the paperwork in the post this morning which kind of makes it official that from the 1st March HipKnits is no longer going to be based in my garage, I've signed the lease on a lovely little retail shop unit in Sawbridgeworth. How exciting is that?

Full details of address, phone number etc will come later but for now I can tell you that we'll be in Allen House at the Maltings, Sawbridgeworth. All of the other units around us are lovely places to look around, antiques shops, yoga and pilates studios etc. Its a gorgeous listed building next to a river with a very exclusive feel to it. Sawbridgeworth train station is the other side of the road with trains to London taking about 40 minutes into Liverpool st and Harlow and the M11 are about 5 minutes away. Nice and easy to get to..

Bringing you all back down to earth slightly, I'm not quitting the day job to do this. I was originally looking for storage space rather than retail space but when this came up I just couldn't resist it. I'll be juggling more and more stuff for the next few months until I work out a permenant solution. I'll be having an open weekend once a month, knitting group nights once a week and the shop will be open at all other times by appointment only. I do have a couple of people who are ready and willing to work in the shop but not enough to open every day. If you are ever in the area and want to come and have a look around, send us an email first and we'll make sure that someone is there to welcome you.

So, the first open weekend is 4th and 5th March. As well as all of our HipKnits yarns there will be many other new yarns to look through, some of which are not available anywhere else in the UK. There will be champagne, cakes, goodie bags for the first 20 customers, toys and activities for children as well as a very excited Kerrie to meet! I'd love to see you there if you can make it...

As well as HipKnits yarns the shop will also be stocking some other goodies. A range of children's clothes that I've been working on for a while now, some gorgeous vintage fabric, eiderdowns and quilts and other handmade goodies from other artists. Its going to be great, can you tell how excited I am? Do drop me an email if you have any handmade goodies that you'd like to suggest I sell for you, the more the merrier..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:24 AM | Comments (7)

January 25, 2006

Sale page, sale page

I just finished uploading the sale page a few minutes ago. Right now it is full of super chunky wool that I don't think I'll be stocking any more, too many exciting other yarns are coming in over the next few weeks... Next week I'll be adding some skeins of sock weight cashmere that are either too small or too large to go on the usual cashmere page to the sale page, watch out for that one! they are bound to be popular..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2006

Site update

The site has been updated with a whole pile of new aran weight silk colours and a couple of new sock yarns as well.

Check back mid week for more handspun hat kits from Miss Bell and some super bulky wool on the sale page, keep an eye here on the blog and I'll tell you when that has been added.

Next week's big update will include lots of cashmere sock yarn as well as lots of other sock yarn and of course some more shades of aran silk.

Now I need to go finish cooking dinner, don't order too quickly - I'm going to be away from the laptop for about half an hour or so!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2006

Over to you guys..

Thanks for all the button submissions, I'm working my way through them now and I'll let you know when I pick the winner!

Now, I'm looking to start buying some more interesting yarns to sell on HipKnits. The kind of one of a kind, luxurious and beautiful yarns that you can't usually get hold of in the UK. I have samples coming from all over the place at the moment but I thought I'd ask you guys, what brands of yarn do you wish you could get hold of easily in the UK? What should I stock? Any special requests?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 12:51 PM | Comments (6)

January 17, 2006

New Handspun scarf kits

I've uploaded a few of my handspun scarf kits this morning. With each kit you get between 2 and 5 mini skeins of different coloured handspun yarns that total around 60 - 70 metres in length and a pattern for a drop stitch scarf.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:04 AM | Comments (3)

January 12, 2006

Check us out!

Go and check out the HipKnits yarns page at the Loop website. Pretty cool huh?

Thanks Susan!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 09:31 PM | Comments (2)

Handspun on its way

Handspun yarn by Miss Bell and Hello Mango are both up.

There are yarns in each section which I'm kind of half hoping don't sell so that I can buy them. I promised I'd wait a month though before snapping them up. Can I be patient for that long, what do you think?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2006

All fixed

The site is all fixed, lots of lovely handspun will be going on this evening, I'll send a note out to everyone when its ready. Just waiting for Wayne to come home with his camera cable and an extra pair of adult hands to help with the kids.. I'll update here too when its done.

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2006

Paypal

It seems I have a little problem with the Paypal options, no matter which colour of yarn you select it defaults to the final colour on the list. Until I work out what to do about it the best thing to do is to place your order and write in the comments section which colour you would like to order... I'll let you know when its fixed later..

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 06:51 AM | Comments (2)

January 09, 2006

Shop, shop, shop, shop

Good Morning to you all! The site is just about up and running this morning, the silk, cashmere, patterns, fibres and sari silk pages are all stocked up, later this week the accessories, sale, handspun and wool pages will join them as I find a little more time to code the pages.

Do let me know if you find any broken links or errors, I’ve been over the whole site with a fine toothcomb but you just never know, it may not have been fine enough. Happy Shopping!

PS - I'm trying to work out which part of the stylesheet for MT makes the links at the top of this page go so big and brown. I'll work it out at some point today, until then - sorry that it looks so scruffy!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 10:44 AM | Comments (3)

January 07, 2006

Button contest

Anyone want to make me a button? I can't seem to get one that I like well enough, I'm up to button 20 but none of them are right. I want it to be about 100 pixels wide by about 30 pixels high and to contain the words HipKnits. That's all. How hard can it be?

So its contest time. Closing date is end of day 16th January, please email your created buttonsto info@hipknits.co.uk. The prize? 100g of HipKnits silk in any one of the colours that I happen to have dyed at that time or in a custom colour if you don't mind waiting a while.

I would need to be able to use the button on this blog and also offer it to other people to link back to us from their blogs. Oh, and my choice of button is final ;) although I may enlist the help of Brooke and Cameron to choose the winner. Them's the only rules. Now, go make me a button!

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:18 AM | Comments (3)

January 06, 2006

Sneak peak

I've fixed the problem with the comments, thanks to everyone who emailed me about that!

I've taken nearly all of the photos for the site update, I'll probably get it all finished off and an email sent out to everyone on the list tomorrow morning. This is what I'm updating with :

2 different colours of merino roving,
7 different colours of aran weight silk,
9 different colours of lace weight silk,
3 different colours of lace weight cashmere,
3 different colours of sock weight cashmere,
4 different colours of merino blend sock yarn,
new handspun yarn from Miss Bell,
new handspun yarn from me!,
new handspun yarn from Hello Mango,

I think that should keep you all going for a few days, don't you agree?

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 02:06 PM | Comments (1)

January 05, 2006

New Year, new look

Welcome to the new HipKnits blog! I'm going to try and update here most days with up to date HipKnits news. I'll be looking for your advice on new products and colours so you can expect to find a few polls here and also lots of pictures of the yarns and other fibres that we are dyeing for the shop and wholesale orders.

The shop should be open again at the weekend, I've had a few technical difficulties (namely losing both mine and Wayne's camera cables) but they should be resolved in the next day or so. I can't wait to show you all of the beautiful new yarns we have...

Posted by Richard (kerries Dad) at 08:29 AM | Comments (1)