I wanna tell you a story

You know those people who hate sewing stuff up? They spend ages knitting or crocheting away, making something beautiful and heirloomy and then they throw the pieces in a corner for several months because all that sewing and finishing's such a pain, and you can never be sure it's going to look so fabby afterwards anyway.

Years ago we cleared my mum's house ready for sale and what should there be in the boxroom but just such a garment - every necessary piece of a tiny matinee jacket, but all in bits. Goodness knows who it had been meant for...my brother? a cousin? my nephew? Anyway, whoever it was they never got it but I took it away and sewed it up and saved it because what else could I do? I wasn't a big fan of matinee jackets - my taste was more for brown spotty babygros and the like - but my daughter wore it on her Christening day for about an hour, and I've still got it now.

Anyway, this is all a totally unnecessary preamble to announcing that we're holding a Finishing Techniques workshop at the shop on Sunday, 19th May, from 12-4pm. Cost will be £25 and you'll need to book in advance please.

Here's a couple of photos of our previous workshop - Beginners' Sockknitting - to whet your appetite. Everyone went home with at least the best part of a sock completed!


Diane looks like she's having a good time!

Kate gets some individual tuition

Our little shop

March 22nd 2013. Very pretty.

(We'll be there at least part of today, but you could stay home in the warm and order online if you like - preferably from www.threebagsfulluk.com)

What we don't have...

...is a band of loyal internet shoppers. We have more crafters buying from the site all the time but while the bricks and mortar shop sees an expanding circle of knitters and crocheters coming back regularly to see what we have in stock, or just for a browse or a chat, the website doesn't seem to be having the same effect.

So, how to encourage people to re-visit and (I hope!) re-order? We already try and offer the best service we can; the vast majority of orders received are posted the same day. We're courteous and friendly on the phone and in emails. We try to offer a good variety of yarns. Hmmm, trying to get into the psyche of the average wool shopper and obviously failing!

What makes you go back to a website?

WIP completed

Well, I don't know how this little set is going to be received by the soon-to-be parents it's meant for - not sure if they're pastel-colours-from-Mothercare-only-please people or open to something a little more...what's the word?...garish? - but I like it anyway. So much colour, so much pattern, so little work...

The unanimous decisions were...

...that Fyberspates new Vivacious DK is a truly fabby yarn with great stitch definition and wonderful colours and texture. And that the chocolate cake was pretty good too!


Yeah, this was the  yarn tasting on Sunday - the first of a series, I'm hoping. There were loads of yarns available - mostly wool, with one or two surprises thrown in; I think I over-estimated how much knitting the average person can manage in a couple of hours.





Other popular opinions were that the Austermann Alpaca Silk is also very soft and lovely, and ranking high on the excellence scale are Debbie Bliss Rialto aran, Crystal Palace Kid Merino and the Adriafil New Zealand...

And for good measure, because no little scrap of wool need ever be wasted, I'm going to knit up a few of Ruth&Belinda's Heartsease Project bags with the remnants.

Okay, well, I did finally finish one...

What do you think of this? A sample for the shop to show off the Kid Merino using one of the free patterns from www.straw.com. The lovely thing about this yarn (and the same's true of the Debbie Bliss Angel) is that you only need one or two balls to make something beautiful.

Completed project!

Not mine, alas! I love it when customers take the time to show me what they've made with the wool they bought from Three Bags Full, and here we have a gorgeous baby blanket made by Charlotte for her lucky baby grandson. Isn't it lovely?

 

My own projects are getting out of hand again - in number, rather than behaviour. I can see I'm going to have to count and list them and then at least I can fool myself I've got a handle on the situation...