Saturday 26 March 2011

The next thing...


(photo courtesy: dailymail.co.uk)

...coming up is the Three Bags Full loyalty card! Starts next weekend.

And you don't even have to get the tattoo. Altho' don't let me stop you if you'd like to...

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Scarves - final word, honest

Well, it's officially spring now and we've even managed a few bright days. The sun doesn't much touch the lower reaches of the Piece Hall so the units remain chilly, but it's still lovely to see blue skies through the windows.

So, scarves. Much too late in the winter I decided I really should knit myself a good, thick scarf so I've just recently finished this prettily-edged one:



You only get to see one end of it (sorry about that!) but it's knitted from a pattern called Saroyan by Liz Abinante and it's one of those great patterns which have sections where you can race along and then other sections where you have to concentrate a bit more. The pattern recommends worsted, but I used aran - really thick aran - and the resulting scarf is so cosy I'm almost wishing the snow back. Just almost, mind. By autumn I might have knitted myself a few more in different weights of yarn.

If you're looking for a scarf pattern that's a bit more interesting than five feet of stocking stitch with a garter stitch edging, take a look.

Friday 18 March 2011

Busting the 'expensive' myth

Gentleman, passing window, to wife who has shown no interest:

'Here, there you are, Three Bags Full - it's a wool shop.' (I'm liking this man.)

Woman, carrying on walking:

'It's expensive. I've been in. It's all expensive.'

Aargh!! I wanted to nip outside and ask whether this lady really thought that £3 for 100g of aran (75% wool) was expensive. Or whether charging 50p per ball below rrp for most of our Debbie Bliss wools made us expensive. Or whether selling off Smoothie at less than you can buy it at The Range makes us expensive. Or...or...or... I could go on.

Can you tell this 'expensive' thing is getting to me??

On a brighter note, for all Can Can fans...

Rico have a new scarf yarn out - kind of a sister to Can Can. Loopy is more open and summery than Can Can (it reminds me slightly of ringlets) and will be with us shortly. As will more multi shades of Can Can itself.

If you're interested in either of these, let me have your phone number or email address and I'll contact you when they arrive.

Thursday 10 March 2011

On another planet...

Dear Mars,

I've had enough of your bad behaviour. I'm assuming it's you up to your usual tricks - causing arguments, financial difficulty, delays and misunderstandings. You could try giving people a break now and then. And, quite frankly, I don't care whether you're in retrograde or Belgrade, it's no excuse for the constant low-level havoc you've wrought this week. (Please don't tell me it was Pluto and Jupiter - nobody likes a tell-tale, and anyway, I know you of old.)

Next week I want peace, quiet and good communications.

Love

Kath,
Three Bags Full

Saturday 5 March 2011

Danger! Woman knitting!

There are ongoing, endless threads on ravelry about which airlines allow the use of knitting needles on their flights, and which won't. Advice for tricky airport v. person-with-needles situations includes taking an addressed jiffy bag along so, if the needles are in danger of being confiscated, at least you can post them home. Or using dpns as hair decorations until you're actually in the air. Or using bamboo instead of steel needles. On and on it goes. I'd just got used to the idea that people might think of straight needles as stabbing weapons (and admittedly it's not that daft an idea - it happened in NCIS) when someone pointed out that a circular could actually be used as a garotte. What a great world we live in when we have to think along those lines.

It seems the local charity shops have similar fears. Evening Courier letter writer, Carol O'Neill, described her experience trying to buy needles in a couple of local charity shops. One didn't sell them at all on the basis that they're 'dangerous items'. The other had them safely stowed beneath the counter and seemingly could only sell them on the manager's say-so.

Now, of course, I'm wondering whether I'm acting a bit wild and irresponsible having all these Brittany and Pony pins on display. Should I have a licence? Will it be my fault if someone runs amok with a size 11 inside or outside the shop? And can I cope with the responsibility?

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Have you seen...

...this month's Yorkshire Life? Brilliant article on the Piece Hall traders and some of the shops, making it clear to all of Yorkshire (well, readers of YL anyway)that we're all still welcoming business.

The YL piece followed on swiftly from February's unexpected Three Bags Full mention in Writers' Forum. I was seriously tickled by that one!

Next month? Who knows?