A couple of questions

So, yesterday after realising that the number of people - usually about 2 - per hour that pass the shop isn't going to increase any time soon, I decided to think seriously about a new shop in a more sensible position. I love the Piece Hall; I loved the whole idea of bringing wool back to a place which is so tied up with the history of the wool industry in the area; I love the other shops here. But the low footfall I was expecting has turned into virtually no footfall at all since the markets were removed, and the fact that there will apparently be even fewer retail units when the place is refurbed isn't a good sign for future trading hopes... The council has a lot to answer for.

Anyway, so where do you think a new Three Bags Full should be? Somewhere in Calderdale and prefereably within 3 miles of Halifax itself. We have six months to find somewhere! What do you think?

Second question: hmmm, actually I'll save the second question for later...

Ranco

Just a quickie to say I've uploaded a couple of discontinued semi-solid shades of Araucania Ranco to the Clearance section: rich olive and paleish nude. (Well, 'nude' if you're of the pink variety; other skin colours are available.)

Reduced from £8.50 to £5.50.

Poor old Canada

What's Canada done to upset 'the UK's leading online retailer of yarns' (description according to their rav group header)? While their US customers enjoy the benefit of free shipping from the UK, potential customers in Canada - who presumably could be living less than a mile away from their US neighbours? - have to pay for the privilege of receiving their parcels. Even customers in Ireland have to pay. Surely shome mishtake?

OK, this is by way of explaining that at threebagsfulluk.com we price postage and packing according to vaguely how much it'll cost us to send parcels rather than any other reasons. UK orders over £15 are sent out free and, other than that, areas are separated geographically following the Royal Mail system. We don't, y'know, pre-judge or consider how lucrative their markets might be or anything.

And I'm not even going to point out that the Three Bags Full price for eg Shadow Tweed is currently £5.50, while certain other retailers are charging a whopping £6.49. Oh go on then, I will.

Anyway, Canada, we love ya. Shop with us.

Brilliant pattern cards

Well, clearly we needed a snazzier title than that, but it says it all really. Austermann have produced seven of these wonderful pattern cards for use with Step sock yarn - yes, that's the yarn with aloe vera and jojoba oil and the funky stripey effect.

A card alone will cost £1.50. Buy a card and the necessary Step yarn - many of the patterns take only one ball - and the pattern will be reduced to £1.

Blue, blue, my elephant is blue

This is Bertie...

I don't generally knit soft toys; maybe you can tell. He looks fairly okay slumped against the bread bin but get close up and you see the flaws. Go a step further and actually pick him up and his head all but falls off. Poor Bert.

Work in progress

Okay, it's not totally the Flowers in the Snow design it was meant to be because I decided if it was going to be used in the local children's hospice then it'd probably better be more heavy-duty than that, so I'm just crocheting it all together to give it a bit more strength. But the little medallions were all Flowers in the Snow inspired and if you ever have need to make an afghan simply to rest delicately on the back of your sofa then I'd recommend the pattern for sheer prettiness.

See all those ends hanging down? - there'd have only been half as many with a bit of forward-thinking on my part.

Thanks once more to ravelry's Blue-Linen-Rose and Nittynora for their many medallions - should be ready soon.



I edited to add this photo of the completed afghan, simply because it was going to take me forever to work out how to use both flckr and ravelry...anyway, here it is. The smaller baby cot size afghan that will supplement it will be ready soon too. Oh, and we got a nice letter of thanks from the hospice for the afghan donation.

Voila! - a new scarf

The photograph's rubbish, but look...my new scarf! And it took all of about 15 minutes to make using Adriafil's new scarf yarn, Voila. We've got this in five different colours and we're selling it at £9.50 per 'ball'. Like the other scarf yarns: one ball makes one scarf.