Monday 17 December 2012

Merry Christmas!

Yay - nearly Christmas! The lights are in the window; the cards are displayed; the cake's ordered; the presents are wrapped; the Phil Spector album's on the turntable (anyone else still use an actual turntable?) and all is infused with goodwill within the Three Bags Full shop and home...

So, time for a little message to say many thanks to everyone for your custom this year. We're wishing you lots of gorgeous knittery presents and a lovely time over the holiday, and hope to see you again in 2013. We'll have lots of new stuff - when haven't we? - including, we hope, the wonderful printed and self-striping BFL arans from West Yorkshire Spinners. Can't wait to get those in stock and start knitting up a couple of samples.

In the meantime, we'll be closed (sorry, we have a winter wedding to attend!) this Saturday, the 22nd, but will open from 12.30 till 4pm on Sunday the 23rd. We're then closed all Christmas week but will re-open on the 29th.

Happy Knittery Christmas!

Sunday 9 December 2012

The Piece Hall Christmas market's on this weekend, plus many of the shops are open and there's a brass band playing - can you beat the lovely sound of a brass band playing carols in the run up to Christmas?  - and the sun's shining! Come on down and get your pressie problems sorted with lovely handmade, one-off items.

Markets continue next weekend and the 22nd and 23rd.

Monday 26 November 2012

The shame of it

I can't believe it's almost a month since I posted on here. Where does the time go? Well, I know where it goes at this time of year - it goes on serving customers and ordering new stock and knitting up new sample garments and wondering whether the start of December is too late to Christmasify one or all of the windows. Hardly squandering precious time, but still...

Anyway, a week and a half ago six or seven of us spent the afternoon making 6" squares for the Big Issue Foundation as part of their Big Knitathon. Altogether we managed 17 (big yay for us!!) and I just need the final three to arrive safely back at the shop, then they can be sent off to be made into blankets for people without homes. It was such a lovely afternoon - we sat and chatted and knitted and chatted and...very relaxing and pleasant. Shoppers came in and out now and then, but local knitters are pretty cool generally and don't mind squeezing behind chairs and striding over bags.

So now we're seeking out a different cause for our first-Thursday-of-the-month charity knitting. Any ideas?

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Vintage patterns! For free!

I'm at it again with the exclamation marks.

Anyway, what I'd planned to do was follow up that recent post with one aimed at those who like a touch of nostalgia knitted into their woollies. And I was going to recommend freevintageknitting.com and freevintagecrochet.com, because they're such wonderful sites, each of them with thousands of patterns, in sensible categories, with pictures, the lot.

But as they're both down tonight for some reason, I'm hesitating...

So, I think for now I'll just point you in the direction of something completely different - a modern vintage site:
http://vintageknitwit.com, which belongs to Mary Beth Petrone, who designs the most gorgeous baby hats with a vintage favour.

Here we have the Lace Brim Medallion Daisy Hat and the Ladybug Roll Brim Hat - pictures from Mary Beth's site and used with her permission. Gorgeous, huh? Pity my baby girl's eighteen now!

Monday 22 October 2012

Patterns! For free!

It's half-term, it's drizzling, the fair's on...everything's just as it should be. (Was going to indulge in another exclamation mark there, but I don't want to give you a headache and, in real life, I'm not at all an exclamation mark sort of person, so I won't.) Anyway, in keeping with the mellow autumn mood, I'm being kind today and offering a little helpful info. Because, when the children have gone back to school you'll want to be knitting, right? Or crocheting? So, here's some free pattern sources:


First stop, obviously, is ravelry.com. Most of you will know about the patterns on rav but, if you don't, well, there are lots - knitting and crochet - some to pay for, some free. Quality varies, but they cover the entire range of whatever in the world you could possibly want to knit and many, many things no well-balanced person would ever consider knitting. Except possibly as a joke.

Then there's allaboutyou.com - knitting and crochet patterns. These were mostly originally published in Prima and similar mags, so good quality, mainstream patterns.

The coatscrafts.co.uk site has lots of 'projects' (aka patterns) - many for yarns we stock.

If you don't mind U.S. terminology, take a look at both knittingpatterncentral.com and knitty.com. Knittingpatterncentral in particular is great for unusual requests. Dog coats, perhaps, or golf club covers. I suspect it was on there that I found the posing pouch pattern - what an interesting knit that was.

Knitty has beautiful clothes - proper clothes - ones you might want to make. Fewer knitted bikinis; more cabled ganseys. I'm generalising - there could be hundreds of bikini patterns on knitty, but I get the impression of a site featuring good stuff, that's all. Comes out every season too like a real magazine so always something new.

And just finally, sneak a peek at frabjousfibers.com - great patterns for weird and wonderful yarns like the banana fibre and the ribbons. I love daft fibres that anyone with any sense would give a wide berth and it seems like the people at frabjous fibers do too.

So...have I whetted your appetite? Go on, have a google - lots more out there.

Monday 15 October 2012

Knit a Christmas Clanger competition

Yorkshire Cancer Research are running a comp to knit or sew the best-dressed Christmas Clanger; enter and you'll be in with a chance to win a luxury hamper. Sounds good, huh? See this page for more info and inspiration.

Friday 12 October 2012

My first shawl

This is my nearly-finished Elise shawl, made from a ball of Kureyon sock yarn. In fact, it's a ball that a lady brought back to the shop, disappointed that she couldn't get it to cast on without falling apart... Luckily it hasn't fallen apart for me altho', like all the Noros, it's a bit thick and thin. Full of rascally character, I like to think.

The lovely Rachel stood beside me for about an hour last Saturday morning (thank you, Rachel!) while I started this over and over again till, by Jove, I'd got it... Possibly full of errors obvious to a more discerning eye than mine, but who cares, it's clearly a shawl, and it's clearly quite pretty. That'll do for me.

Monday 8 October 2012

Light Garden

We had a trip out to the lovely Bradford Light Garden yesterday. It's only there for a few more days, but do visit if you can. The photos speak for themselves.
Right in the city centre, so no real transport problems, just beautiful effects and lots of families having a good time.

Monday 1 October 2012

New Zealand Print

No idea why it's called New Zealand - but there it is, as Harry Worth used to add. Notwithstanding that, it is a really beautiful, reasonably-priced, multi-coloured, soft and entirely excellent aran weight. Not self-striping, it knits up into a pretty, heathered effect. One of our lovely regulars described it as 'magic'.



We're going to be buying NZ in plain colours at some point too, as a replacement for the dear, (almost) departed Cygnet Truly Wool Rich Aran. There were other, slightly cheaper replacement possibilities but the NZ is the best in our opinion. We're not going to start trying to sell you anything we wouldn't knit with ourselves.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

The reluctant facebooker

Heaven knows, I'm not a natural for facebook - it requires you to be outgoing and proactive, and display other fine personality traits, which don't feature in my makeup.  Notwithstanding that, Three Bags Full now has its own facebook page. There's not much on there at the moment, but I'll be posting sales, events and interesting snippets just as soon as I can sort myself out. Creating the page was a major step forward - I need a break now before I start actually adding info. (Three days in a darkened room should be sufficient.)

Anyway, if you'd like to like the page, I'd be truly thrilled and delighted. Here's the link.

Saturday 22 September 2012

Something a little lighter for the weekend

I got all cynical and depressive there for a minute, so here's a lighter post about my little Granny square cushion.


 

When we made the afghan for Forget Me Not last year there were some squares left over in a slightly different size, so here they are, put together into what I'm hoping is a pretty cushion. We'll probably put this on the stall this weekend and just give what it raises to one of the local charities. I feel better for having used up all the lovely squares people made - another WIP completed!

Have a great weekend - don't forget: Craft Fair in the Piece Hall today and tomorrow.

Friday 21 September 2012

Very quick price info...

A brief Goliath and David price comparison...

Online Knitting Retailer of the Year 2012 = OKRY
Three Bags Full = TBF

Adriafil Knitcol:
OKRY £4.09     TBF £3.75

Debbie Bliss Andes:
OKRY £7.95     TBF £5.95

Debbie Bliss Paloma:
OKRY £6.95     TBF £4.50 till end of Sept (normal price £5.95)

Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply, DK, Aran:
OKRY £5.50     TBF £4.50

Patons Cotton Twist:
OKRY £2.39     TBF £2.15

Patons Shadow Tweed:
OKRY £6.89    TBF £5.50

Patons Diploma Gold:
OKRY £3.29    TBF £2.95

Patons 100% cotton:
OKRY £5.19   TBF £4.50

These are just examples. Of all the prices I compared only two were cheaper with the UK's leading online retailer. Our carriage charges are the same. Just thought it was information worth passing on.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

And now for something completely differerent...

Presenting Adriafil Bloom!


Not our usual kind of yarn, but I couldn't resist. It's 100% acrylic and has, as you can see, flashes of gorgeous neon shades running through it. Would be great for a young teenager's hat or scarf, or maybe a cushion for a child's bedroom? Selling at £3.25 for 50g. Knits up very fast on 12mm needles.

Will be added to the website as soon as I can manage it.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Fish and chip babies



Here we have the results of our knit group's time spent knitting for Fish and Chip babies in Africa. That's such a great name for the project - how could anyone forget a name like that? The idea behind it is that if no one knits for these babies, many of whom have AIDS, they'll go home from hospital wrapped in newspaper for warmth. Like fish and chips.

Check out the link above for UK contact details - a small donation towards the cost of shipping would be appreciated. (All details are on site.)

You can see from this picture that one knitter forgot the request to knit in dark or darkish coloiurs. Yes, it was me.

Monday 3 September 2012

British Wool Weekend

Well, I nearly got sidetracked into a rant about the Halifax deli I visited with friends at dinnertime, but no, I'm going to control myself on that score, even tho' my mood on leaving after lunch was much less buoyant than it had been on my arrival. And that's not meant to be the case when you've been looking forward to your posh butty. Anyway, no matter, there are lots of other eating places.
But no, let's talk of jolly fibre-y things! And I just love British Wool Weekend: it's so lovely and full of gorgeous wools and crafty things and it's so close to where we live - Harrogate being just a few dozen miles up the road - and it's on over the whole weekend so I can go. I'd love to go to Woolfest but I think it takes place over Friday and Saturday. There's possibly an excellent reason for that, but if you have a one-man-band kind of wool shop, how do you get there without losing a whole day's takings?

I got sidetracked again. British Wool Weekend. Here are a few photos.

The Sheep Show man, with Nobby the ram.
The Clervaux Trust got into the spirit!
Aren't they gorgeous?
There was so much else to take note of..I loved the Teeswater Wools hand-dyed hanks and the lovely, muted colours of the wools on Woolly Chic's stand. Cuter still were the photographs of the individual sheep from Brough Lea Farm - how could anyone resist buying gorgeous British wool when they've also seen a picture of the actual sheep it came from? And when they've been told its name? That's practically forming a relationship.

I only bought 300g of tops and two end-of-line balls of 4 ply (I have a wool shop!!). But what I really wanted was a drop spindle. Very nice man selling them was doing a roaring trade but I was too anxious to approach - maybe he'd ask me questions about my spindle needs that I wouldn't be able to answer? Maybe he'd, even more scarily, offer me the chance to practise in public? Some folks would think that was a good idea - find out what suits you, make sure you have a chance of doing a half-decent job... Not me. I just want a spindle to play with in private, without embarrasing myself. I don't mind admitting I'm useless at stuff; I don't need to confirm it by public demonstration. Oh no.

British Wool Weekend will probably be held around the same time next year. I'd go if I were you.

Debbie Bliss Paloma

I want to post later today about British Wool Weekend, which was fab, but for now I'm just putting it out there that, to link in with our recent newsletter, Debbie Bliss Paloma is currently £4.50 at Three Bags Full, both in the Piece Hall shop and online.

This is a special price till the end of September so if you love soft, light, beautiful, luxury yarns, this'd be a good time to treat yourself.

You don't have to subscribe to the newsletter to get the great price, but if you'd like me to send it to you 3 or 4 times a year, just email me on threebagsfullwoolshop@googlemail.com and I'll add you to the list.

Wednesday 29 August 2012

The best part of this job...

...is opening the parcels that arrive thick and fast this time of year, ready for the main winter knitting season. Yesterday the first instalment of our recent Designer Yarns order arrived. Inside the box were some new colours of Debbie Bliss Rialto DK, some new shades of lovely, mohairy Angel, some Angel prints (the multi version) and the fab, new scarf yarn, Bolero.

The photos aren't great, but here goes:


My favourite Angel shade is the rich gold, which is squashed down at the bottom of the pile, but they're all pretty. We've held the price at £8.25, despite a recent rise in the rrp.

On the right are the six shades of Bolero that we bought, along with the sample scarf I've started knitting up. It's kind of like Rico Loopy, but with a gipsyish edge to it. One 100g ball of Bolero makes a scarf and it costs just £5.95.

Later in the week the Adriafil should arrive and then more Designer Yarns and then...I love this time of year!

Sunday 26 August 2012

Scarf-without-a-name pattern

I looked for the scarf pattern for the scarf I uploaded a couple of days ago and this is what I found:
Useful, huh?

You might find this clearer:
Using 4.5mm straight needles, cast on 44 loosely with DK yarn.

Row 1: Slip1 purlwise, knit to last to stitch, ktbl.

Change to 4mm needles.
Row 2: k2 *yfwd k1, k3, ssk, k1, k2tog, k3, yfwd, k2. Repeat from * to end of row.

Row 3: purl all stitches

Repeat rows 2 and 3 till your scarf is as long as you want it to be.

Change to 4.5mm needles. Knit one row. Cast off loosely.

When knitting scarves, I usually slip purlwise the first stitch of every row and knit into the back of the last stitch of every row. It makes the edges uniform, altho’ I’m not sure it’s any more neat than just knitting (or whatever) the edge stitches. Sometimes it looks better, sometimes it doesn’t; see what you think – it’s easy enough to change edge stitches if you decide to.

The cast on and cast off edges will be slightly at odds with each other – one’s wavier than the other. I suppose if that really bothers you you’d have to knit two halves and sew them together or knit a three needle cast off or something.



Friday 24 August 2012

A new scarf or two

Every so often on ravelry there's a 'someone stole my pattern!' thread. They vary from people caught selling photocopies of someone else's design (downright illegal) to people taking a little more inspiration from a previous pattern than was wise (bit cheeky) to two designers having very similar ideas at exactly the same time. That's not so unlikely, is it? But how wonderful is this? I was flicking through a new pattern book from Designer Yarns two days ago - I'm not sure if the pattern book's even been released yet - and saw 'my' scarf!! This one!



Okay, so the pattern isn't really for my scarf. But it is for a scarf that looks similar to this one above, which I put together in July with a view to selling. I didn't have a good look at the book; it was the rep's copy. It could be - okay, it's pretty likely - that the professional version is way superior to mine. But mine's okay too. For a second or two there I felt like a budding designer. Then I remembered it's a scarf, for heaven's sake. Just a little scarf. (And also yes, there's an element of not being fit to lace whoever's boots - look, I was just tickled, that's all I'm saying!)


Anyway, I'll post the pattern when I find it so you can make yourselves one if you'd like. Alternatively you can buy one of these two from my folksy shop when I sort out the listing.

Friday 10 August 2012

The girl can't help it



A few more new starts!

Hot on the heels of the ice-creamy chevron scarf and the blue chevron scarf, we now have...
a browny one, and...
a mixed greys one.

Oh, and there's now also this:
I can't tell you how much better this looks in the flesh than it does on this flash-ruined photo.  It's mostly different shades of sludge - blue sludge, red sludge, plain old grey sludge. And yes, it's going to be a shawl! I've never made a shawl before and, while loving to gaze at other people's gorgeous lacey creations, I'd never seriously wear one, so this is very much a sling-round-your-shoulders-without-feeling-pretentious kind of thing.

I haven't even photographed the dress I'm making as a shop sample but I will tell you the pattern is called Meredith, it's knit in the round and it's available for free at present on the Let's Knit website here. You can find more of designer Ruth Maddock's lovely creations on ravelry.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

The garden centre and the humble stitch directory

Garden centres are so full of promise, aren't they? They fire your imagination in all sorts of ways - a new border there, a hanging basket to add a little height, a splash of new paint on the shed... The same goes for a visit to the DIY shop - you come home with loads of ideas for colour combinations and wonderful transformations in your living room. Mike gets the same kick from maps - where shall we go, how shall we get there...

For me, it's stitch directories. You look at a book chockful of different ways of combining knits, purls and yarn overs and you're filled with inspiration: hmmm, what would that stitch work for?...would that one look good with a variegated yarn?...will that come out stiff and solid or loose and drapey?...what if you tried it on really big needles or with ribbon yarn?



I only have these two but I love them, even tho' one's damp-stained and  they're both looking a bit scruffy these days. Yeah, bit of a knitting nerd really.

Monday 23 July 2012

WIPs

Are you a one-project-at-a-time kind of knitter or a can't-wait-to-start-something-new kind of knitter? I'm a serial starter. I do finish stuff as well but love starting things more. Yesterday wasn't an entirely successful day for us, (birthday outing gone SO wrong...) so I couldn't wait to get home and get on with one of these:

These two are scarves I'm knitting in the gorgeous Manos Silk Blend, both just a very simple chevron pattern from a stitch directory - I didn't even need to add a border. Love these.

I'm knitting Mike a pair of socks. It's taking a long time.


This is a wool/silk mix that I've been gazing at for ages. On Saturday I finally succumbed, brought it home, made it into a ball and started knitting another scarf. But it was too stiff and solid. I didn't fancy using a bigger needle so I think it's now destined for a bag or a belt or...something anyway. So, not stricty speaking a WIP at the moment, but was and will be again soon.

Well, I know what the yarn is - it's lovely Artesano alpaca - but what was I making with it? Fingerless gloves possibly? The pattern's disappeared from the basket, so I might have to pull it back and start again.
A Noro scarf using two balls of the same colourway of Kureyon. It was coming along nicely but then I thought it would make more sense to continue with it in autumn. Very simple: choose a number of stitches according to the width you want the scarf, cast on and away you go in stocking stitch. Just remember to swop balls every couple of rows, and don't start both balls at the same place in the colour cycle. 

And this one's my vintage jumper from a 1944 book Mike bought me. I was knitting this originally to wear for Armed Forces' Day but it became clear I wasn't going to finish it in time so it's on a back burner for the moment - I just add a few rows when I'm in the mood. I'd be sprinting through it much faster if I didn't have to knit into the back of every single stitch. SO slowing. Cygnet Truly Wool Rich 4 ply; perfect for vintage knitting.

That's just the WIPs at home. At the shop there's more...

Saturday 21 July 2012

Fairtrade, eco and all that jazz

We like to think we're pretty ethical people here at Three Bags Full but if we limited ourselves to selling only officially fairtrade yarns we wouldn't have the breadth of stock that we want to offer.

But now and then someone will pop in and ask what we have that's fairtrade or whatever. And well, put me on the spot about anything and I flounder about, mind totally blank. So, while I'm on the ball, these are a few examples...

Artesano yarns: Artesano are 'socially conscious' wool suppliers and each hank of their beautiful Manos yarns from South America benefits the community it's produced in. At the moment we sell mostly the Artesano alpaca (also South American, from Peru) but are trying out some special purchase Manos Silk Bend, which is gorgeous.

Mirasol: Mirasol yarns support the children of Peruvian shepherds. A percentage of each sale is donated to the funding of a school in the Puno region. The project is named after a real little girl called Mirasol and you can read more about it here. We have Mirasol K'Acha and Akapana.

Zimame: okay, not yarn, but we buy most of our buttons from Zimame who supply beautiful carded, handmade, ceramic buttons, the sales of which support women in Africa. This is what their website has to say:
Zimame Trading Co supports fair trade companies, selling high quality, hand-made goods from producers in Southern Africa...
The term fair trade does mean different things to different people, but to us it essentially means that products have been sourced from companies who pay a fair wage and assist their workers, mainly women, to maintain a better standard of living. They are often the only, or main wage earner, supporting large extended families. A fair wage means they can send their children to school, have proper food and gives dignity and hope.
Some of the companies we support were set up to directly support orphans and their carers.

So, those are the main contenders, altho' we also have other odd things - the Debbie Bliss Eco Aran springs to mind, both fairtrade and organic - and we'll aim to add more as and when we can.






Wednesday 18 July 2012

Final results...

...of the Knock On Effect/Three Bags Full short story competition can be found here!

Monday 9 July 2012

Totally Locally. Or As Locally As Possible in our case...

Today the brand new Totally Locally shop and café opens at Dean Clough. This is great for lots of reasons: Dean Clough's a fantastic collection of mills, very significant in Halifax's history, and deserves more brilliant companies there to attract visitors and increased use; shopping local means cash stays local; reduced transport costs mean lower prices and a healthier environment; shopping local might just help re-build a sense of local community. Plus the Totally Locally shop crew intend ploughing profits back into the area. I'm sure there are even more reasons to support this venture. Mike and I will be moseying down sometime this week for a look around and a coffee and something delicious.
I'll be honest, I have questions about what's happening that don't seem to be answered in any of the website info: I feel like I want to understand the ethos more thoroughly than I do at present. What are the aims and how will they achieve them without damaging other local suppliers that aren't included on their favoured suppliers list? How will competitor shops fare when the TL shop is selling the same things and open for longer hours? I don't know, but I do have faith in the TL ideal and the good intentions of the movers and shakers involved, so maybe that's all taken care of behind the scenes? Anyway, overall, yeah, I think it's a great idea.

And it made me wonder about what we sell in Three Bags Full that's local. We do obviously use a lot of local companies for undertaking any work we need doing - the electrics, the decorating etc - it's all been done by local firms and one-man bands. But what about the actual stock? Well, there are some problems with wool - we can only stock what we're able to buy and it has to be of a certain quality. There's probably more, but this is what I came up with without thinking too hard:

Pretty beaded stitch-markers - crafted locally
Woodland Whiteface - spun and supplied locally
Blue Faced Leicester DK - locally supplied
British Breeds arans - locally supplied - these are getting harder to get hold of nowadays but I've sourced another local supplier for when we've sold the present stock
Hipp kits - crochet bag kits supplied by local crafter and designer
Sheepy notelets - made by me, from photographs supplied by my very talented husband!

In addition to those, we deal with several bigger companies within the region - Designer Yarns and Cygnet are both in the Bradford area, for example. I can't claim their products are 100% local but things are moving in the right direction: Designer Yarns are introducing  a locally spun Debbie Bliss BFL aran for their winter collection which we're hoping to stock when we're able.

So local products for local people - shopping's coming full circle and it's great, isn't it?

Sunday 1 July 2012

Old-fashioned fun

Yesterday in the Piece Hall  we celebrated Armed Forces Day with the emphasis on the 1940s, so we had lots of people dressed like this:

 and lots of simple pleasures like this:


some great singers:



and some weaponry, just in case:



and to top it all off we had a fly past by a Spitfire:


So, all in all, a pretty good day. and a big well done to the organisers. At Three Bags Full, we dressed for the occasion - well, I did anyway. I'd pulled back the Ever Fashionable Bolero on Thursday because clearly I wasn't going to finish it on time and I could think of a dozen better uses for several balls of Baby Cashmerino. But I made a snood - not a very good one, but a snood all the same. The morning saw more customers than usual nudging past the Saturday knit group and one gentleman, on his way to an ordination at the Minster, who needed a button sewing on his suit! And the evening saw me too tired to change before heading off to meet Mike and Joe in the pub, which explains why I was out early Saturday evening in a red polka dot dress and vintage green jacket. Yeah, it looked a bit weird out of context.

Planning on a lazy week next week...

(All photo credits: Mike Hodgson)




Monday 25 June 2012

A touch of vintage

It's Armed Forces Day in the Piece Hall on Saturday 30th June so I thought I'd run myself up a little vintage number. First it was going to be an 'afternoon jumper with contrasting vest' but the pattern entailed knitting into the back of every stitch, which was pretty tiresome and time-consuming, so that's on a back burner and I've switched to the 'Ever fashionable Bolero' - dodgy capitals just as they are in my 1944 book.

So this is how far I've got:
It's Monday evening and I've completed two fronts and part of the back. And it's moss stitch, which I love but it's not the fastest of stitches. Hey, it'll be fine. Except, of course, that with the emphasis being on the style of the 1940s, I'm going to need a snood as well... Something tells me I might be turning up on Saturday in my Fat Face Dress and TK Maxx shoes as usual.

Monday 18 June 2012

The longlist is announced!

Short story competition longlist available here...

Thanks everyone for entering. Second round judging now taking place.

Friday 15 June 2012

Sorry, it's been ages since I posted - we're still righting ourselves after the topsy-turviness of the shop move: still sorting out where the Baby Cashmerino should go; wondering how long we'll need the dehumidifier in the new shop; re-ordering yarns that are selling quickly and thinking about what might be popular this winter. In case that sounds like a complaint - nope, we're loving it! Immediately after the move downstairs, we had four days of the Jubilee Craft Fair which was well attended for the most part. The Sunday was very wet. Even Mike, who's been known to sit at a cricket match long after the team have left the pitch and are probably waiting for the bus home...even he decided enough was enough at dinnertime on the Sunday. But Monday was a much better day and on the Tuesday there was lots of free entertainment on offer in the courtyard as well as the market. It was lovely to see the place full again and everyone smiling in their red, white and blue. And we sold some Jubilee wristbands! I'm saving the ones that are left for the next Jubilee in ten years' time... Then on Saturday 9th June we had the inaugural meeting of the Sat am group. Here we all are looking cheerful and knittery: And on Sunday 10th Three Bags Full hosted a meeting for World Wide Knit In Public Day, and very enjoyable it was too. We had several visitors from Todmorden (lovely to see you all!) as well as some more local knitters, The weather was very kind so we sat outside and knitted and chatted and munched our way through some sugary goodies and generally enjoyed ourselves. Just two things I'd like to add... 1. many thanks to those people who very kindly helped with the move. 2. The winner of the Debbie Bliss free prize draw was Judith Lunn Well done, Judith - I hope you love the book.

Sunday 3 June 2012

Our view from the new shop, featuring Jubilee window decs - Three Bags Full entering into the spirit! And here's someone else who entered into the spirit...
Yes, that's Mike wearing a newspaper hat as part of the world record attempt yesterday. (We know how to enjoy ourselves in Halifax!) Might look weird to you, but honestly, there were lots of people looking equally strange... Don't forget the Piece Hall Craft Market, with a great range of stalls, continues tomorrow and Tuesday.

Sunday 27 May 2012

More red, white and blue

For those of you caught up in Jubilee fever knit yourself a patriotic wristband...
(photos: copyright Mike Hodgson) Here's what you do: Cast on 9 stitches in red yarn. Knit 10 rows garter stitch, slipping every row's first stitch purlwise and knitting through the back of every row's last stitch. Row 1: slip 1 purlwise, knit 1, knit 1 through back of stitch. Put other 6 stitches on a holder and continue to work on the first three stitches. Row 2: slip 1 purlwise, purl 1, knit 1 through back of stitch. Repeat rows 1 and 2 until the band is long enough to fit round your wrist. Keep these three stitches on a spare bit of yarn, join white yarn to the next three stitches on the spare needle and work the same number of rows 1 and 2. Put the white stitches on spare yarn, join blue yarn to the last three stitches from the spare needle and work the same number of rows 1 and 2. Return all stitches to one needle and knit another 10 rows of garter stitch as before across all of them, adding a button hole, by casting off the central stitch on the 5th row and casting on over the gap on the 6th row. Sew all ends in. Sew a button on. Wear on your wrist while your chest swells with pride and you join in with Land Of Hope and Glory. Too much? Hmm, possibly... I made my first one by knitting all the single sections in the middle at one time but it all got a bit twsited and messy. If you don't have time to make your own, we'll be selling them at the Jubilee Craft Fair.