The trouble with sample garments, and then rambling off at a tangent...

Sample garments - the trouble is that people keep wanting to buy them. Mostly if something's for sale I'll put a price tag on it but, of course, people just wandering past the window don't know that - they see something nice inside and think 'that'd be great for whoever' and before you know it you're explaining sadly that no, it's not for sale. I do have the phone numbers of a few people who will knit for money but in the case of larger items the price would almost certainly be prohibitive. How much is dozens of hours of knitting worth? More than most people want to pay.

Knitting's slow. I'm a fast knitter, but it's still slow. Compare running up a pair of curtains on a sewing machine - all you have to do is edge the fabric, add a little tape maybe. With knitting, before you do anything else, you have to make the fabric itself. It's never going to be viable, is it? Except sometimes for cute little things.

And y'know, I think there's an image problem too. Everyone's mum knitted so everyone thinks it's dead easy. Well, so is everything once you've learned how to do it - playing the flute, growing herbs, re-wiring a house. It's all easy if you've been trained and you've got a slight predisposition towards it.

What knitting needs is a re-launch. We need to nurture the idea that handmade is fabulous, that artisan knits are preferable to shopbought in the same way artisan breads are preferable to white processed. Sometimes anyway - there's a time and a place for everything (and you can't beat Warburton's white for toast...) but wouldn't it be great to see knitting skills revered?

No, I don't know how I got to re-launching knitting from a sample garment problem either.

This week's star question

A lovely lady visited the shop while researching for a book she's writing about her dad. We chatted for a while and she gazed around the shop, then turned to me and asked: 'Are you Debbie Bliss?'
I don't think she's a knitter.

And while we're having a Debbie Bliss moment, look what I finished:

It's the stripey hoodie, Charlie, from the Rialto DK Print pattern book, knit up as a shop sample. Not something you'd want them to wear for school maybe - bit too nice for that - but it'd make a great Christmas present for a special boy or girl. Sizes up to 12 years. (If anyone tries the pattern and works out the point of the markers near the tops of the sleeves, please feel free to enlighten me.)

Sale time

I'm weaning myself off the exclamation marks. I know any sale announcement traditionally should have many exclamation marks, but I type them and then think: that's so not me. The ellipsis is way more me...

So, what's this sale of which I speak? Y'know the bargain basement baskets in the shop? The ones with many wonderful yarn packs at lovely low prices? Okay, for this week only, everything in them is reduced by a further 20%. I'm loosely tying this in with Wool Week, because if you can't give people a yarny treat in Wool Week, well, when can you? But also, it'd be nice to reduce the amount of stuff we have to move to the new place. But more of that anon...

Remember this week only - 20% off already reduced prices! (I knew one'd creep in somewhere...)

Prices!

It goes without saying that basic prices at Three Bags Full are generally lower than those of the 'UK's Leading Online Retailer' or however it is they style themselves. You can hold out for a short-lived sale on their site of the very thing you're looking for or you can buy from us, knowing that we always try and keep our prices as low as we possibly can. (That doesn't mean we ever claim to be way cheaper than anyone else, just that we try hard to offer really great yarns on good long-term deals that still allow us to pay the rent and the electricity bill, etc...)

Anyway, all that aside, I'm even more delighted to realise that currently we're also cheaper in several areas than our local discount yarn mill. It's not exactly Sainsbury's v. Tesco or even Aldi v. the Co-op but, y'know, 50p cheaper per ball on several lines must be worth having, n'est-ce pas?

You never forget your first knit

What was your first knit? Mine was an aran jumper. I seem to remember someone suggesting a few dishcloths first, but I'm not a great one for dishcloths even now, and I thought how difficult can a few variations on knit and purl be? And so I went ahead with the aran. It came out fine and lasted several decades.

So I just had to show you this gorgeous beret, which was the first knit of Stephanie, who runs the lovely teddy bear shop, Serendipity, across the Piece Hall courtyard.

Wow! was my reaction...

This vegan thing

I'm not a vegan, okay? I'm a vegetarian who tries to avoid dairy products as far as possible. I eat eggs because, as far as I can see, if they're unfertilised, they're a waste product. If we're out and the place everyone else wants to eat at only goes so far down the no-meat route as to offer vegetarian food in a creamy sauce, well, I'll eat it. I think animals should be treated nicely, but me starving myself and making the rest of my family feel awkward isn't going to help a single newborn calf. And while I wouldn't wear fur - you have to kill the animal to use it, for goodness sake - I don't have a problem with wool; I don't believe sheep are usually distressed by being shorn.

Is using wool really exploitation of the sheep as some - true vegans - would have us believe? Or is the fleece a happy by-product of the shearing that's necessary to keep the sheep comfortable through the warmer months? Would it be exploitation if you just gathered the wool left behind on fences and tree trunks? Is it exploitation to use a cocker spaniel as a companion? Or a collie as a working farm dog?

It makes my head hurt a bit, but -  allowing that anyone else's, possibly opposing, views are just as valid as mine - it seems to me that a vegetarian-who-tries-to-avoid-dairy running a wool shop is fine and dandy, ethically-speaking. Not conflicting in any way.

Glad we sorted that out.

Springtime baby cardi

I need lots of shop samples just now for various yarns, so I'm knuckling down to some very serious knitting. Here's my first garment - Springtime Baby Cardi, designed by Kaity von Rader - simple and quick baby knit. You can find the pattern for free on the internet.

And it's knitted in our new Cristallo sparkly aran - very soft, very lovely. Would be perfect for scarves and hats. It's not too early to think about Christmas presents...