Someone else has knitted an allotment!

I just love my LYS. The ladies who work there are often knitting the most amazing things while they staff the till, and this window is just fab. It's an allotment, with the caption "Knit Your Own", above a display of a carrots, beetroot, sweetpeas (my favourites), and more! I love walking past this shop with my toddler as there's always something more to see in the display. Well done, ladies!

 

 

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One nearly-knitted toddler tunic - oh, and a knitted garden

So, the Sirdar knitted tunic is SO nearly done! This is despite me sewing the sleeves on to the wrong sides ... Still, despite me changing needles to a smaller size, it's still huge for my daughter, so there's no hurry. I'm really looking forward to seeing her in it. Though it certainly isn't cheap to knit, I am loving the Sirdar DK cotton so it's been very enjoyable to work on. In fact, variegated yarns must be en vogue at the moment, as several of my knitting group are working with similar yarns. In contrast to some, the colours in this cotton have worked out spread quite evenly through the knitting, giving it an even appearance too. Lovely.

Love, love, loving our local wool shop, too. Here is their knitted allotment!! Vegetables, fruit, sunflowers, bees - it's ace.

 

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Good Books and A Good Cup of Coffee

This week has been a very good week for coffee, books and crochet! First: I've finished the excellent novel, Night Waking, by Sarah Moss.

I've been very lucky with my book choices recently. It wasn't my plan only to review books I like - but that has been what's happened, and this book is no exception. Sarah Moss wittily depicts family life on the remote Scottish island of Colsay through the voice of Anna Bennett, an academic who is supposed to be writing a book. Her husband is also an academic as well as the owner of the island. Anna's struggle with the competing demands of looking after her two boys and writing her book is brilliantly written; Moss creates a believable portrait of twenty-first century family life where Anna's husband automatically assumes his 'work' is outside the home while hers is inside - despite the fact, as she tells him, that her maternity leave ended some time ago. A discovery in the garden of their house, as well as some Victorian letters, give this novel a page-turning mysterious element, too. Every character is well drawn and the sometimes weary, sometimes incredulous commentary by Anna on her life in the rainy, lonely landscape of the island is amusing and completely convincing. This is Moss' second novel - I'm going to search now for her first!

I've also been enjoying Nicki Trench's book, Cute and Easy Crochet. I personally don't like the word, 'cute' so I can reassure you, if you have a similar dislike for it, that many things in this book are lovely, and not too 'girlie'. There are some really good present-projects in here, like mug cosies and baby gifts. There are also bags and scarves - I like the Chunky Seashell Scarf in particular. I'm currently adapting the Floral Purse into a pencil case - the instructions are clear and there is a really good number of pictures to help you make sure your project is on track. Much as I love the granny square, I was pleased to see in here that there are plenty of projects which don't rely on it! So, for quick gifts for babies and adults, I would recommend this book - pictures of the purse/pencil case soon!

And, to close - a picture of my lovely flat white coffee at Baker and Barista in Ipswich on Saturday - Heaven!

This was my treat before going to teach a Beginners' Knitting class at the wonderful Jenny Wren's Yarns. It was a great afternoon: a lively, fun group of people who really enjoyed getting to grips with their needles. Looking forward to Improvers' Knitting in November, now!

 

 

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In Which Not One But Two Wool Shops Get Bigger and Better!

 

Wool shops are like buses ... well, nearly! Anyone who thinks that huge resurgence of interest in crochet and knitting is a fad need look no further than sunny Suffolk, where our interest in things woolly goes from strength to strength! This week, Lyndsey Hurrell moved her shop, Wibbling Wools, from Eastgate Street to Churchgate Street. This has more than doubled the size of her shop, as the picture below of the front window shows - it stretches quite a long way...

 

 

This is fantastic news for Bury St Edmunds knitters - she can now stock more colours and brands, developing the slightly cheaper end of the market as well as keeping stocks of the more luxurious wools.

 

There's more room to sit and browse the patterns, and plenty more wool spun in Britain - and some 'grown' in Britain, too.

 

Once the cafe here gets up and running in July, this will be an even better venue for Bury St Edmunds' knitters! 

 

Now, not content with Wibbling Wools' expansion, this evening I popped to Ipswich for the Opening Evening of Jenny Wren's Yarns. I've blogged about this shop before, when I went to interview Lois about it. She runs the business with her mother, and has been able to expand into a luxurious two-roomed new building, just over the road from their old site:

 

 

 

She too has much more yarn, as well as lovely jars of buttons. She also has some lovely vintage pieces of furniture - including a desirable red vintage sewing box which I found it hard to leave behind - from Betty Blue Hat 's vintage store, over the road.

 

Like Wibbling Wools, Jenny Wren's Yarns is stocking what looks like a great British wool brand, Diggle DK from Woolyknit.com. I had a sneaky pinch and it has a lovely, proper 'wool' texture as well as a good range of tweedy and matt colours. Unbelievably, I'd gone to both shops without a project to buy for! How did that happen?!

 

It's fantastic that two local businesses, run by businesswomen with lots of knowledge and enthusiasm for their field, are doing so well. Long may it last!

 

 

Ipswich, Part 2: LYS, Jenny Wren's Yarns

 

On a freezing cold day in Ipswich, I set off down St Peter's Street to find Jenny Wren's Yarns. Luckily, it was well signposted, and I was armed with the great @BettyBlueHat vintage Ipswich map! You can see the map here on the @IMakeFunStuff blog: http://www.imakefunstuff.co.uk/2012/11/vintage-shopping-in-ipswich/

 

I was going to interview Lois Mickleburgh, who owns the business with her mother. It's named after Lois' Grandma, a keen and busy knitter - and I really like that detail, as my Grandma was a great knitter, as I've mentioned before here.

 My stealth plan is to interview lots of women wool-shop owners - so I started here, in a lovely room in a shop shared with Cathy Frost of LoveOne.

 

 

This room is stuffed full of wool: great selection of Jarol (my mum's current favourite wool - it has lovely, rich colours and is a mid-price wool), but also lovely Debbie Bliss and Artesano, including the latter's British wool - here, under the Rico Chunky (also very nice!):

 

 

Look how lovely this knitting corner is! I could just imagine myself (if I lived in Ipswich!!) popping in here to knit in my lunch hour:

 

 

There are more lovely things in here which I didn't photograph: lovely button jars and lots of patterns - when we went back last weekend I managed to buy two completely unnecessary Rico patterns - as well as all the needles you could ever want.

 

Upstairs is fab vintage furniture shop, @BettyBlueHat - with all the 1970s lampshades and 1960s ceramics you could want, as well as some gorgeous crochet and dark wood bedside cabinets. @LoveOne, too, has got great gifts: I couldn't resist their "Practically Perfect in Every way" gift tags.

 

Meeting Lois was really heartening: we discussed the persistent interest in knitting and crochet; the fact that it hasn't turned out to be a fad, but a really enjoyable and, now, sociable past-time too. We looked at British wool and talked about the increasing number of British spinners. I did buy some lovely mustard-coloured SMC double knitting (merino) for some lovely gloves I've seen in the Grannies, Inc knitting book, and left happily, having found a great LYS that I'll certainly revisit next time I'm in Ipswich. Thanks, Lois, for such a brilliant visit!

 

Ipswich, This Time Last Week: Part 1!

This time last week, I was exploring Ipswich! First stop, lovely pop-up coffee shop in the rather imposing Town Hall:

Inside the Town Hall is a craft shop, with some gorgeous ceramics and textiles. After a little browse in there, I headed for Snobs. This was  true Twitter success: I heard about them on Twitter and was *so* glad I'd found it. Now, inside it just gets better and better:

You can just make out Abby at the till. She told me that there's a strong BuyLocal element to the cafe, with the coffee locally roasted and local foods too.  This is a great space, with a wall of art curated by Cathy at LoveOne, and vintage chairs around nicely buffed old tables. My cappuccino, in a vintage cup, no less, was gorgeous and looked like this:

 

 

There seems a healthy mix of professional types, gallery viewers and customers popping in, as well as the DJ for the vintage music night the following night. I very much hope this pop-up stays put!

Next stop: Jenny Wren's Yarns!