Friday 30 March 2012

Grab yourself a summer bargain!


PLEASE SEE HERE FOR SHORT STORY COMPETITION DETAILS. THANKS.

This time of year it's tempting to simply get rid of the winter overstock and reduce those yarns that the majority of knitters would probably prefer to buy in October. Superchunky anyone? Nice warm aran? Okay, well, if we're honest, we're doing some of that as well or we will be once the relevant yarns are photographed and sorted.

But for now we have some more springlike and lovely Debbie Bliss Ecobaby - 100% fair trade organic cotton - which we're selling at £3.25 per 50g. This was a special purchase for us, hence the equally special price, so if you love Ecobaby, which knits to Baby Cashmerino patterns, please call in soon. There isn't a huge amount of any particular shade altho' plenty for baby garments and every shade is beautiful.

Sorry, the Ecobaby is only available in the Piece hall shop because of the relatively small amounts but we also have at present lots of the Eco Aran which will be going in the webshop over the next few days.

Monday 26 March 2012

On to the next thing...

PLEASE SEE HERE FOR SHORT STORY COMPETITION DETAILS. THANKS.

So, yesterday was the local Rag Market and a jolly time was had by all. Not as many stalls or visitors as last time, but lots of friendly faces, lovely sunshine and the same wonderful cakes. Well, not the actual same ones obviously - some that were very similar and equally delicious.

In the background, we're beavering away getting the electrics sorted in the new shop and arranging a date to sign for the lease, but we're also gearing up for the Easter Craft Market in the Piece Hall, which should be excellent. Very many stalls have been booked, including a Three Bags Full one for the Sunday and, all told, it should be wonderful. If the sunshine could just stay around over Easter it would add that last ingredient for a perfect day. Come along if you can.

And in my musing moments, I'm thinking about arranging a trip to Woolfest this year. What do you think? Would you like to come along on a minibus? Admission costs £6 per day, and then there'd be the cost of coach travel on top. Take a look at the Woolfest website and let me know if you think it's a goer.

Sunday 18 March 2012

Beautiful buttons

PLEASE SEE BLOG POST FROM 9TH MARCH FOR SHORT STORY COMPETITION DETAILS. THANKS.



I love buttons. I struggle very hard to stop myself from buying yet more. So it made sense to spend a good two or three hours this morning uploading to the website the first set of buttons that Mike kindly photographed for me last week. The ones shown here are just a small sample - there are lots more lovely ones on site. Can you resist really?

Tuesday 13 March 2012

New stock


PLEASE SEE 9TH MARCH BLOG FOR SHORT STORY COMPETITION DETAILS

Well, while we're waiting for the short stories to flood in we're sorting out some new stock...so far I've put out a couple of lovely, new books: Debbie Bliss's Eco Family and a gorgeous book of children's patterns, Noro Kids. Don't know why we haven't bought these two before.

And we've now got a small amount of ladder yarn. I'm going to have a put some aside for me because I've never knitted with ladder yarn. There's some Austermann Starlight Revue and some Schoeller & Stahl Variete, and we're selling it for £4.75 as an introductory offer.

Friday 9 March 2012

Short story comp now open for entries!!

Preamble
I can't deny we're a family of faffers but, despite lots of things still being in a state of flux, I feel I've been faffing enough over this competition (wait till we've got Paypal...wait till the shop's moved...wait for the sun to turn purple...there's always something, right?)

So, read on for all the official info you need. I'm hoping it's complete and clear but if you notice a vital piece missing, please let me know.

Background
Three Bags Full is our wool shop in Halifax, Yorkshire; The Knock On Effect is a fundraising project based in Ledbury, Gloucestershire. The link between them is Rosie Kilburn who was 1) our niece and 2) founder of The Knock On Effect. Rose's aim was to get people talking about cancer and to raise money to help cancer charities. Sadly, she died of her own rare liver cancer in Sept 2011, but TKOE is this year aiming to raise £20,000 in honour of what would've been her 20th birthday. This competition is our attempt to help towards that total. You can see what great charities have already benefitted from TKOE work on the webpage:
www.theknockoneffect.co.uk

Competition rules
Required wordcount is between 50 (yes, fifty) words and 1000 words.

There is no theme, but your story must include the phrase 'knock on effect' at some point. Please don't send salacious stories or stories aimed at children.

General info
Closing date for entries is 14th May 2012.

The competition is open to writers sending stories in English and able to pay in sterling.

Stories can't be returned, so please keep a copy.

Judging - all stories will be read in-house and a longlist of twenty produced. This list will be on the blog by mid-June at the latest. These twenty stories will then be read by TKOE team and whittled down to a shortlist of ten. The final ten will be read by award-winning South African writer, Ginny Swart, who will choose the first and second prize winners. The judges' decisions are final!

Copyright will remain with the authors, but first and second prize winners' stories will be published on the Knock On Effect blog.

All proceeds from the competition, over and above the payment of the first prize, will be donated to Knock On Effect funds.

Paying and sending your story
The entry fee is £2.50. It would be absolutely fabulous to receive this in the form of a cheque made out to K J Kilburn. Please write the name of your story, the wordcount and your email address on the back of your cheque or in an accompanying note.
If you'd like to pay electronically, you can 'buy' a competition entry from the threebagsfulluk.com website. The link is accessible from the home page. Because the site is generally geared up for commercial sales, small orders attract a p&p charge so you need to input the code TKOE2012 on the payment page. This initially reduces your payment to 70p, but when the 'postage' charge is added it takes it back to the full amount of £2.50. Does that make sense? It's a slight fudge, to accommodate those who would like to pay by credit card or Paypal, but it works! Please add the title of your story and the wordcount in the section marked 'customer note' at the bottom of the order page.

You can then post your story (along with the cheque, if paying by cheque), to:
Three Bags Full wool shop,
The Piece Hall,
Halifax,
Yorkshire,
HX1 1RE.
Or you can send it electronically in the body of an email to tkoecomp@gmail.com. Please type your story title and wordcount in the subject line and include all relevant details at the start of your email - name, address, etc.

Prizes
First prize is half the entry fees up to a maximum of £100.

Second prize is £20 of gift vouchers for the Three Bags Full wool shop or a £20 online voucher for threebagsfulluk.com, depending on the winner's preference.

Good luck!

Sunday 4 March 2012

The problem: replacing Truly Wool Rich aran

Oh, the difficulty caused by Cygnet's decision to phase out Truly Wool Rich Aran! I've started investigating other options but (unsurpisingly) there's nothing available for the same prce at the same quality. Today I'm test-knitting an aran of a similarish mix which costs a bit more money. I'll be honest; it's like knitting with shredded cardboard. We won't be pursuing that one.

So, I think it's now between this one

and this one


They're both available in plain and variegated colours and they're both lovely.

In the meantime, just off the needles is a dishcloth. Yes, a dishcloth - I told Mike it was a present for him, seeing as he does 95% of the washing-up, but he hid his excitement well. And just onto the needles is a tea cosy. I know, what's happening to me?