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.