Knit 1 Blog 1

Hey Ewe!

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:50:00 +0000

Fairly recently, as I was whiling away my time on Twitter, I stumbled upon a worthy cause; Saving Rare Breeds struck a chord with me as my brother was passionate about organic farming and rare breed livestock. Coupled with this is the obvious fact that I own a yarn shop which lends a certain affinity, and no uncertain obligation, towards our fleecy friends! °l°(,,,,); °l°(,,,,); °l°(,,,,);

As I currently live in a cottage with a small garden (albeit surrounded by fields of Welsh sheep!) it's unlikely that I'll be rescuing any rare breeds personally any time soon. However, with the help of @sheepsaving I am now the proud sponsor of a North Ronaldsay ewe called Izzy. Okay, I know this is hardly a flock but it is a start and she is extremely cute!

Izzy

I'm on the lookout for sock weight yarn from native rare breeds; I currently stock Opal's Schafpate2 which is from a German rare breed but haven't come across any wholesale equivalent in the UK...

Giveaway Winner :)

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:51:00 +0000

Zauberball Tropical Fish

Thank you to everybody who entered the Giveaway.. I always enjoy reading your comments and chatting on Facebook and Twitter!

Congratulations to Floortje who chose Zauberball in Tropical Fish :-) ><> ><> ><>

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Yarn Giveaway :)

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:42:00 +0000

To celebrate the completion of my Tax Return I'm hosting a Giveaway :-) The winner will receive their choice of 100g of yarn from The Sock Yarn Shop.

To enter please leave a comment stating your preferred yarn and shade along with a way for me to contact you.

To receive extra entries:

Follow and RT @SockYarnShop Giveaway on Twitter

Like The Sock Yarn Shop on Facebook and Share the Giveaway post

One extra entry will be given for each.

International participants welcome :)

The winner will be randomly chosen on Saturday 29th January 2012 at 12 noon... Good Luck!

Simple Cable Hair Tube Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:16:00 +0000

This is good as a close-fitting cowl to pull up over your nose in cold and windy weather or as a hair tube if, like me, you have longish hair and like to pull it back while keeping your head warm.

I used:
100g of Manos Silk Blend in Pisces
4.5mm 40cm circular needle
cable needle
stitch marker

Cast on 110 sts. and mark start with stitch-marker

Row 1: *P4 K6 *repeat to end
Row 2: *P4 C6B *repeat to end
Rows 3, 4, 5 and 6: Repeat Row 1

Repeat pattern 11 times then on the 12th repeat cast off after Row 3.

Note:

C6B - Slip 3 sts onto a cable needle and hold behind work. Knit 3 sts from main needle, then 3 sts off the cable needle.

Giveaway Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:09:00 +0000

Fyberspates Scrumptious 4 ply

Thank you to everybody who entered the Giveaway.. I have really enjoyed reading all your comments and connecting on Facebook and Twitter!

Congratulations to Yvonne Philippa who chose a skein of Fyberspates Scrumptious 4 ply in Teal :-)

Wishing you all a very happy 2012!

Pip x

New Year Yarn Giveaway :-)

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:31:00 +0000

To celebrate the New Year I'm hosting a giveaway :-) The winner will receive their choice of 100g of yarn from The Sock Yarn Shop.

To enter please leave a comment stating your preferred yarn and shade along with a way for me to contact you.

To receive extra entries follow and RT @SockYarnShop Giveaway on Twitter or like The Sock Yarn Shop on Facebook. One extra entry will be given for each.

International participants welcome :)

The winner will be randomly chosen on Sunday 8th January 2012 at 12 noon... Good Luck!

Manos Silk Blend Hair Tube

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Forest Canopy Cowl in Libra and Fingerless Mitts

Having recently added the Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend range to the shop I went in search of a suitable cowl to keep back my unruly hair and keep my ears cosy. I found the Forest Canopy Cowl over on Ravelry which turned out to be an easy and enjoyable lace knit and, after blocking lightly in order to keep elasticity, fits perfectly as a 'hair tube'.

One skein of yarn was needed and there was a note on the pattern to say that I would come extremely close to running out. So I was delighted to find that there is a nice amount of yarn left and that it matches the purple Fyberspates Scrumptious I have left over from Fingerless Mittens beautifully! Together there's enough to make a pair of gloves or, possibly, another hair tube :)

Bonfire night

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:26:00 +0000

The dam at Cwm Elan was overflowing beautifully today so I caught a shot for Macro Monday...

We wandered through the woods keeping an eye out for wild mushrooms; I'm only sure of a couple of varieties so wasn't holding my breath..

Then down through Elan Village to see if there is a fire built for bonfire night. Luckily there is so we'll probably go there for the event :)

Part 2: Play to your strengths :)

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:47:00 +0000

Made by @Mwmyn

It can be easy to feel intimidated by big firms who seem to dominate the market but there is definitely room for small business. In fact, being a small business has some distinct advantages over the big players.

The obvious one is personal service... customers get to deal directly with you through email and social media and this isn't limited to office hours.

You get to see the bigger picture as you are the accounts department, sales, marketing, buyer, web designer etc. This means that it is easier to have a clear vision for where you'd like to go with your business. It's also a lot of fun :-)

Raven's Stained Glass

It would, of course, be lovely to have a bricks and mortar shop... and maybe one day I will but there are again advantages to being online only. Costs are minimised as you don't have the extra overheads which means you can offer competitive prices. Also stock is kept in pristine condition; the only time it sees daylight is when it is packed.

Top Tips :-)

SEO... once you have your shop live on the internet you will probably find that it doesn't appear in google searches. This is perfectly normal as it takes time for a site to be found. There aren't any secrets to SEO and I just followed the guidelines set out by google. Here's a good link

Use a simple spreadsheet on your desktop for stock-keeping and update immediately an order comes through.

Use paypal... it costs 5% of turnover but it's worth it!

Add a little extra... a handwritten note/free gift..

So if you are thinking about setting up your own webshop, I'd say give it a go...

How to start a Webshop

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:43:00 +0000

Over the last few months the one thing that I get asked about most by friends, family and acquaintances is how I set up The Sock Yarn Shop. People from all walks of life are interested in setting up their own online business so I thought I'd blog the initial part of my journey in the hope that it may help one of my readers..

My background: I read Economics at Queens, worked for a while in an accountancy firm and have spent the last 10 years teaching in a primary school.

I decided to open a sock yarn webshop over Christmas 2009 (it needs to be something you're into... )
Once the idea is born:

1. Decide on the products you would like to make/sell and find suppliers.

2. Build a website... this was a whole new area for me so I went halves with my mum for my 40th birthday, which was approaching, and got a MacBook (my first laptop :). I then spent a couple of months designing the website... tiring after a days teaching but well worth persevering!

3. Uploading the site to the internet... this is the area I find the most difficult (probably because I'm not in control) but you need to pick a web-hosting company and just go with it.

So, now you have a webshop... next thing is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) ..

If anyone's interested I'll carry on... :-)

FO Winner

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:34:00 +0000

Thank you for all the entries on the Finished Object competition over on Facebook. I've enjoyed seeing all your fabulous FOs and have been torn as to which one to pick.... whether to choose on technical merit, overall appearance, effort...

Congratulations to Amy Stokes who has made a fantastic job of her first pair of socks...

Made with Regia World Circus Sock Yarn

So, Amy, please choose 100g of yarn (currently in stock) from The Sock Yarn Shop and let me know your address so I can post :-)

Yarn Giveaway on Twitter :)

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:25:00 +0000

Today the postman arrived with a surprise gift from Artesano, one of my yarn suppliers...

The box contained a skein/ball of each of their yarns which I don't already stock... it made my day :) I love when companies use feel-good marketing methods!

I'll keep some to test for the shop and, to spread the goodwill, I'm running a Twitter giveaway for the others...

Twitter giveaway :)

To enter just follow @SockYarnShop and retweet the giveaway :)

If you're new to Twitter... I'd love to tweet with you :)

FO contest

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:36:00 +0000

I'm hosting a giveaway on Facebook... all you need to do to enter is post a photo of something you have made using sock yarn.

The winner at the end of the month can choose their favourite 100g of sock yarn from the shop :)

International entries are welcome.

Giveaway Winners

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:41:00 +0000

Happy Wool Week °l°(,,,,);

... and thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway... all the comments, facebook likes and twitter retweets added up to a grand total of 229!

Congratulations to:

Karen (darthknitty as there are 3 Karens) who will receive Mini Mochi Storm Clouds and Bodega Bay

and

Sadie who chose Fyberspates New Scrumptious in Gold

Please send me your addresses and I'll post first class :)

I've really enjoyed the giveaway so plan to host another next month :-)

Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:34:00 +0000

To celebrate National Wool Week which runs from 5 - 11 September I'm hosting a giveaway :-) The winners will receive their choice of 100g of sock yarn from The Sock Yarn Shop.

To enter please leave a comment stating your preferred yarn and shade along with a way for me to contact you.

To receive extra entries follow and RT @SockYarnShop Giveaway on Twitter or like The Sock Yarn Shop on Facebook. One extra entry will be given for each.

International participants welcome :)

Two winners will be randomly chosen on Monday 5th September at 12 noon... Good Luck!

Plum Jam, Plum Gin

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:27:00 +0000

As the plum tree in LLyndafydd was full of fruit I decided to have a go at making plum jam and plum gin :-)

For the jam I put 4lbs of plums which had been cut in half and de-stoned into a large pot with a pint of water and simmered for about half an hour.

4lbs of sugar was gently warmed in the oven and stirred into the stewed plums (off the heat) until dissolved.

I looked up the pectin content of plums, and as it is meant to be high, thought I wouldn't need to add shop bought pectin in order for it to set.

The next part got a little messy... the instructions are to boil the jam rapidly until setting point is reached. To test if the jam has reached this point you need to drop a little onto a cold saucer and see if it is beginning to jellify... sounds pretty straightforward!

Rapidly boil

The first thing I realised is that you need a very large pan to rapidly boil this quantity of jam without getting jam everywhere. Secondly, as I continued to rapidly boil, it wasn't reaching setting point.

Luckily I had bought 4 lemons, which are also used to increase pectin levels so I started adding lemon juice to the jam. This worked and by the time I'd added the juice of 3 lemons setting point had been reached. Also the lemon gives a lovely tang to the jam :) Then stir in a knob of butter.

The jam was then put into jars which had been sterilised in the microwave (wet and leave a quarter filled with cold water. Then microwave for 1 minute) and dried in the oven...

... poured into the pots, a disk of waxed paper placed in the top wax side down and the jars covered and left to cool.

Plum Gin... prick plums with a fork all over and half fill a Kilner jar. Add 100g sugar and top up with gin :-)

Shake every day until sugar is dissolved and store in a cool, dark place... for as long as you can ;-)

Fingerless Mittens Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:38:00 +0000

This is a basic pattern which my sister, Nikki, wrote for me. It's also a good pattern to tweak and experiment with.

Using 2.75mm dpn's and sock yarn

Cast on 52sts reasonably loosely

Both left and right are the same...

On first round of k1, p1 rib, join into a round (13sts on each of the 4 needles)

Then k 21 rounds

Start shaping for thumb...

Next round: M1, Place marker, k to end.

(M1 - using the left needle, lift the bar between the stitches from front to back, then knit this stitch through the back to twist it. It is possible to create a left or right slant to this new stitch)

Shaping Round 1: k to marker, slip marker, k to end
Shaping Round 2: M1, k to marker, M1, k to end

Repeat these two rounds until there are 21 (thumb) sts between the marker and the start of the round

Then: k 5 rounds (remember to leave the marker in place and just slip it when you reach it)

Next: Place the 21 thumb stitches onto a piece of waste yarn. Remove the marker.

Cast on 2 sts (the easiest way is to make loops onto the needle you have just finished knitting). These new sts will be part of the thumb. Then knit to the end of the round (54 sts)

Next k 21 rounds

Then work 4 rounds of k1, p1 rib. Then cast off reasonably loosely in rib.

Thumb

Place the 21 sts onto 2 needles
Starting in the centre of the two cast on stitches pick up and k 3 sts then k 5 sts from needle (8 sts on Needle 1), k 10 sts onto needle 2, k 6 sts onto needle 3 then pick up and k 2 sts (8 sts on Needle 3) (26 sts on thumb)

Then: k 3 rounds

Work 4 rounds of k1, p1 rib then cast off in rib.

Caerwedros, Kipper and the Rosettes

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:16:00 +0000

Macro Monday

On Saturday we went to Caerwedros Show. It's held every August in a field near the Coastal Path which heads North to New Quay and South to Llangrannog in West Wales.

There were lots of well-groomed sheep..

Vintage tractors and farm machinery...

We entered Kipper, our little scruffy rescue dog into the dog competition...

And she won 4 rosettes!! coming first in the categories for 'best long-haired', 'dog the judge would most like to take home' and 'best rescue dog'.... it's always nice to be appreciated, especially if you're a deaf and nearly toothless canine ^..^

The hedgerow wines and liqueurs looked particularly good..

Think I may try to make some of these ;-) just need to find a good recipe/instruction book...

A Fairy Godmother and a Wife in a Day

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:11:00 +0000

So I got married yesterday, and became a Godmother (aka Fairy Godmother ;) to my niece in the same service. As friends and family had long distances to travel guests began arriving on Friday afternoon and continued to arrive until just before the wedding/baptism on Sunday so I got to spend 3 full days in their lovely company. There were 33 guests from Wales, Ireland, Germany, France and Italy... we are blessed to have such a wonderfully cosmopolitan family.
Nikki wound ribbons into my shoe ties in the morning...

I had a photoshoot with the lovely Ziggy ^..^ before we set off

I wandered down the driveway with my bridesmaids and page-boy (picking the ready apples from the garden). My brother, Paul, planted this garden which now produces a steady stream of apples, pears, plums, cherries... at any one time throughout the season there are always 2 or 3 fruit trees which the children and adults can enjoy.

We walked up the road to All Soul's Chapel (aka Poundsbridge Church)

We all traipsed over the fields to the Church (it felt a bit like a Little House on the Prairie Wedding)

This is where I become (Fairy) Godmother to my little niece..

... and this is the wedding part

After we put my flowers on my brother's grave

Then we had a wonderful reception at the local golf club...

And finally a garden party + bbq back at the house..

I think it was the perfect day... thanks mum :-)

A Ring and a Story

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:33:00 +0000

After the events of the last few months Euros (my Welsh other-half not pronounced like the money ;) and I decided to get married... we've been together for 10 years and never considered ourselves the marrying kind but with my brother and Euros' mum and dad all passing away during the past year a celebration involving the families sounded like a great idea :)

The pretty Church in Kent

It's going to be a joint Christening/Wedding (a first for the minister!) with my brother's two girls being Christened first (we're Godparents to one) and then the wedding after with the girls as flowergirls.

Mum has totally taken over and arranged a lovely reception (thanks mum :) and I've chosen a simple linen dress...

We decided on plain white gold wedding bands bought from the jewellers in Aberystwyth (where Euros grew up) and I had decided not to get an engagement ring... as I rarely wear jewellery of any kind.

Today my next door neighbour knocked the door and said she had something to ask me and a story...

"About 35 years ago I was friends with a girl from Sweden. She was an au pair and unhappy and wanted to move back to Sweden... but had no money. So she asked me if I would buy some of her jewellery to pay her fare, so I gave what she asked and still have the jewellery. There's a ring which I would like you to have as an engagement ring (as long as Euros isn't put out)..."

... pretty :)

Sky Watch Friday

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:53:00 +0000

Go to here if you'd like to join in :)

Straight Out of the Camera

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:42:00 +0000

To join in visit here

Macro Monday Zauberball

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:35:00 +0000

To join in Macro Monday visit Lisa's Chaos

Weekend Reflections

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:32:00 +0000

Doggies in the window ^..^ Check out other weekend reflections here

Y Cei

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:14:00 +0000

The place in Llwyndafydd (West Wales) where I've spent many happy times has been put on the market so we spent the weekend there and, for once, I didn't just take pictures of the coastline...

Doggies in the window of a local hairdressers ^..^

Inscription by the River Teifi in Cardigan

Ceri Wyn Jones's poem 'Y Cei'... For those leaving or returning, and those bidding farewell or welcoming loved ones home, it is a place of beginnings and endings, of sunset and sunrise; it can be as bitter as brine or as comforting as a breeze.

A neighbour moving his small herd past the house

A friend's cute schnauzer puppies

Looking on the bright side, the housing market is so slow, I may get to spend many more days there :)