A bit of jiggery pokery

That's what I had to indulge in to get this pattern to work. I've always loved this colourway - Breeze - in the Patons Fairytale Dreamtime baby wool but it's not shown to its best advantage in the ball. Cue a bout of baby knitting. Bur oh, did I choose the wrong pattern!

First off, there was a decrease row at the end of the rib. Maybe some people like that, but it seems contrary to me. Then there was the random insertion of 4 rows of garter stitch which added nothing to the design. Then there was something else I've forgotten. Of course, I should've chosen a different pattern to start with,  but the photo was just unclear enough to hide all these 'special' features. Hey ho, it's all good experience and splendid for the brain. I nearly always add shoulder buttons to baby jumpers, so I did that too - not keen on scraping little baby ears while tugging the neckline over their heads.

Anyway, it's done and I think it looks something like a normal baby jumper.

Teeny tininess

For those of you who would knit socks if it weren't for all those silly points getting in the way and the danger of losing your stitches off the ends of multiple double pointed needles...we present: the teeniest, tiniest circulars ever!

We've been selling the 12" circulars for a while for sock knitting and baby items, but these are an amazing 9" size. They take a bit of getting used to, but I'm going to feel much more confident knitting with these on the train this afternoon than I would with dpns, and I can put them away in a small project bag knowing there's a very much reduced chance of any stitches escaping. Yes, I think I'm sold on them.

(The wool in the photo is a lovely Crystal Palace sock yarn called Sausalito. I bought a single pack for research thinking I'd maybe stock it in the shop. Within a couple of weeks I'd tried out the first ball  and realised how fab it was, but in that short time they'd stopped distributing it in the UK. For crying out loud, there's a pattern emerging.)

Artesano/grab yourself a bargain

A couple of weeks ago, and very late in the week at that, Artesano were enquiring if I'd like to stock their Alpaca Heather. It looked like exceedingly good yarn and I thought I might take a chance. Would you believe it, before I'd even had chance to study the colours available, word had spread that Artesano were no longer going to be supplying retailers; their operation in future would be online direct to consumers only. I suppose I should be glad the timing wasn't worse - if I'd already bought the new line I'd have been even more fed up.

I understand that things are hard for everyone and that maybe actual wool shops, as opposed to webshops, are starting to seem pretty anachronistic. I know I would've loved to have bought more of their lovely yarns, because I never saw an Artesano yarn that wasn't fabulous and well-priced, but I was never in a position to and, as they went more upmarket, I had to remain pragmatic about what would actually sell in my particular location. But, even allowing for hard times, the possible demise of the bricks and mortar shop and the fact that maybe others, like me, could never order as much as the company needed them to, I wonder what would motivate them to treat their retailers, old and new, so shabbily? Or am I reading the situation all wrong? With no advance warning of the change and no explanation or background info it's hard to know what to think.

And the point of all this...is to introduce the fact that all Artesano Alpaca 4ply and DK on the Three Bags Full website (www.threebagsfulluk.com) is now priced at £3.95 - that's 20% off what we have been charging and nearer to 30% off the RRP. Reduced to clear!