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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Some cheery yarnbombing appears!

Just when I am feeling I never get enough time to knit, someone nearby clearly has time to spare! This appeared on a lamppost and it is just lovely. A lovely sight, and a lovely thing.

 

 

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This weekend: a cracker!

Firstly, lovely local yarnbombing spotted at the pub:

Then, feeling in need of a treat, I bought Mollie Makes, after a quick Twitter poll about which crafty magazine people rated at the moment. By the time I got to sit down and read it, we were on the coast and you can just see the sea in the distance here:

Sunday in Suffolk saw the opening of lots of gorgeous gardens in Bury St Edmunds, in aid of St Nicholas Hospice. This is such a good cause; we've been three years running now, and somehow the sun always shines! So many people take the time and trouble to open their gardens - businesses, churches and private homes of all kinds. There are so many moments where we wandered through little alleyways beside houses, only to emerge gasping at the size and beauty of people's gardens. We had some real #CuriousCounty moments: where else would you hear a recorder group play What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor while you look at an informative display of Victorian lawnmowers, or drink Pimms down a lane lined with plant and cake stalls? People must have found the gardening hard recently with the terrible weather, but all the plots looked great and the atmosphere was fantastic.

And, finally - roses from my mother's garden. Their scent is everywhere - finally, a hint that Summer may be on its way!

 

 

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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!

A British Wool Week Trip to Cafe Knit, Lavenham. Oh, and a Chunky Snood #FO!

 

Lovely jaunt through the Suffolk countryside today, along beautiful autumnal country roads to Cafe Knit. Somehow, courtesy of HeartFM, this journey was set to an 80s/90s sound track of the Pet Shop Boys, Simply Red and Tina Turner: not my usual choice, but I was singing at the top of my voice as I hurtled along.

Cafe Knit never disappoints: a lovely cappuccino with good conversation from a friend and the other customers. We had a good rummage around the Debbie Bliss yarns and looked at Louisa Harding's hat patterns - I really want to make one these, and what a good cause:

http://www.louisaharding.co.uk/macmillan/

Indecision prevented me from buying wool today, but I will be making the pompom hat soon . . . or the green heart cable one . ... or the beret-style green one . . .

I did buy a great shawl pin for my Sarah Hatton jacket: picture of this to follow. This means the jacket is finally wearable - a genuine FO!

Oh, and Louvera The Sheep is outside the cafe to celebrate British Wool Week!

 

In other FO news, I made this snood for my sister's birthday last week:

 

 

It is a version of the hugely-popular Gap-Tastic Cowl by Jen Geighley over at Ravelry. It's a lovely dark teal colour - not as navy as it looks here. She was very pleased with it (or very polite!) so I hope she enjoys wearing it!  Still, what with that and the crochet snowflakes for the Workwise shop, I'm rather behind on my Lady Friend's jumper... better get to it!