........enough to make you tense!

I have been a knitter for  more years than I care to admit to, and in all those years I have never ever had an issue with tension. If a pattern says use 4mm needles and DK yarn, my tension is spot on. If a pattern says use 6mm needles and a chunky yarn my tension is spot on. Cables, rib, bobbles...you guessed it, spot on. 

So last year I taught myself to crochet Granny Squares and never even thought to check tension as my knitting has never given me any issues - I have crocheted several lovely blankets and have been as pleased as punch with them. However, I have now hit a problem.....deciding I wanted to learn more crochet, I went to a Crochet a hat workshop where we were learning to crochet a beanie hat using chunky yarn and 7mm hooks. After a few rounds of crochet, my piece of work was literally half the size of everyone elses and to rectify this I had to change up to a 9mm hook as I realised I was a 'tight' crocheter....
 
Today, I decided to try to follow a pattern and crochet some baby booties. I stuck to the 4mm hook and DK yarn, and merrily followed the pattern, getting more and more pleased with myself that I could actually read and follow a crochet pattern......until I finished and realised that I had made a GIANT bootie .......

The pink bootie is crocheted in DK yarn with a 4mm hook. The green booties are knitted in DK yarn with 4mm needles. I am confused as to what the heck is going on with my tension?!?! With chunky I was crocheting sooo tight I had to go up 2 sizes, now with DK I am going to have to go down to a 3.5mm or even a 3mm hook to get it right! I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!

What I think I am most cheesed off about is that I have found that I LOVE crochet and want to do more, but that I will, after many years of never needing to do a tension check, I now am going to have to start checking it with every crochet project I do......or, just continue make randomly sized garments that is decided on on the day by my very loose or very tight crochet hands!!

Anyway, if anyone as a baby girl with a very large right foot there's just the bootie waiting here for her.....

Chat to you soon

Tina xx

All Change...


There's some big news from The Wool Stop...we are moving premises to a larger shop where we can run all our workshops on-site (yay). This means much less running up and down the High Street for me when one is taking place and much less time spent carting all the equipment around town. I shall have my own little workshop/craft room where I'm hoping people will want to come and spend some time..there will be tea and coffee available and a cosy place to sit and natter - not quite the Wool Shop/Cafe I always wanted but we could have cakes too if required..!!
 
So here's the new shop as it is now, I have 4 weeks to paint, decorate, change the plumbing and alter the kitchen area, move a zillion balls of wool from the old shop to the new, undo old shelving and remake it AND keep the old shop up and running at the same time....I'm a little bit daunted by all of this but also touched by all the offers of help - knitters are lovely people :-) I dont usually ask for or take offers of help as I cant pay in anything other than cups of tea and copious thank-yous, but this time I might just do so as I cant actually be in two places at once!

       


I will keep you posted with news of the new shop of course, and for those of you who are local the new Address will be: 15 The Plain, Thornbury, Bristol, BS35 2BD. We will be in and open by Easter (Fingers crossed!!) Feel free to pop your head round the door if you see me in there painting, hammering, building shelves or counting balls of wool.....I'd love to see you

Hope to see you there soon

Tina xx

I really should take my own advice.....

Just a quick blog to show you a wrap I have knitted in Manos del Uruguay Alegria, a beautifully soft 4 ply yarn designed for socks but equally lovely used in other projects. Here is my finished wrap....

Which was made with this colourway. Beautiful.

I shamefully have this garment on display in the shop, because what you can't see in the photo (because I photographed it from the 'good' side) is the GLARING mistake I made because I did not follow my own advice from an earlier blog and I did not READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST!!

There are short rows in this pattern, and halfway through I was not happy with how the 'wrapped' stitch was showing, and couldn't work out what was going wrong.......until I read to the end of the instructions which told me exactly how to knit up the wrapped stitch so that it doesnt show. AAAARRGGGHHHH. Usually I would have taken the whole thing out and started again, but with so many projects on the go, I decided to carry on regardless and display it as a lesson to all who look at it to (as my Mum used to say) 'do as I say, not as I do'!!

Even with the mistakes, its still pretty though and I will wear it - with the good bit on the outside.....

Speak to you soon

Love from Tina xxxx

About time for another blog.....

Blogging really does not come naturally to me, and I have sat here for aaaages wondering what to write about, and have come up with nothing!! Any bloggers out there who have any tips for me please please pass them on - some people seem to do it with such ease and so well, and I am wondering just how I can match up and become a 'more often than once every couple of months' blogger!! You would think with running a wool shop I would have lots of tales to tell, and I do - but I start to write stuff, then worry about offending anyone it might involve....so I try to rewrite it and then end up trying to think of something else!! Blogger Block Big Time.... 

So, today I am going to share a couple of photos of my Grandson George who visited the shop yesterday (with his Mummy of course) and hopefully be able to come up with something knitty to blog about soon :-)

Heres George....

As you can see, he liked the crochet blanket, but only to eat! One day I'll teach him to knit and crochet, I'm hoping for the next Kaffe Fassett and someone else in the family to share my love of yarns with......!!
Or maybe he will be much more creative than I am and I can get him to write blogs for me.....

Well thats is for now, hopefully I will chat to you again very soon

Happy Knitting and crocheting

Love from Tina xx

An inspirational customer

So today I met a wonderful lady who was buying wool to knit hats for homeless people. She bought 6 balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran at nearly £6.00 a ball and when I commented how lucky whoever got one of these was going to be, she put me in my place and firmly told me that actually homeless people were some of the unluckiest people and that she was once homeless and that she certainly didnt feel lucky when she was!! She added that if anyone smiled at her or gave her something no matter how small it was back then, it made her day and made her think that not everyone thought she was a worthless lazy good for nothing - that someone actually cared and wanted to help.

So now she knits hats made in 'nice real wool' to keep the recipients properly warm (her words), refusing to use 'the cheap stuff' as she doesnt think that shows much care. She also tucks a £1 coin in every brim......what a lovely lady. 

I gave her 2 of the balls just because in this instance she was right! I have so many customers knitting for charities all over the country and all over the world which is fantastic, but the phrase I hear a lot is 'whats your cheapest ball of wool?' or 'they dont need expensive wool'. I sell hundreds of balls of 'Value yarn' for this purpose which is great as where the finished garments are going to there is very little, so 'value' is better than nothing . But, how nice would it be if every now and then we thought of the people in need as worth more than 'the cheapest yarn' and made someones day by making them something of worth - this lady has made me think hard, and I have just cast on a hat in Pure Wool Merino to pass on to her if she comes in again......

She has inspired me. I have contacted some Homeless Charities in Bristol to see if my next Charity Campaign in the shop can be for them and I will get in some 'nice real wool' which I will discount to people knitting for this cause.....lets see how many homeless people can end up with a properly warm head this winter!!

Heres a few hats a homeless person might NOT want though.....

 

If you are interested in Knitting Hats for homeless people this winter you can find patterns, cheap and not so cheap wools in the shop from January 2014!

Take care and keep warm

Love
Tina xxx
www.thewoolstop.co.uk
info@thewoolstop.co.uk

For the love of Knitting....... 

It seems that all I do these days is Knit! At the last count I have the following projects on the go:
1. Baby Jumper for my Grandson in Baby Crofter (Back and half of front completed)
2. Beret hat for shop in handspun wool (Band and pick up stitches completed)
3. Knitted Bag in Rowan Colourscape Chunky (Knitted up to the handles)
4. Aran Jumper for my Daughter in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (2 Sleeves and Back completed)
5. Shawl for me (Hurrah!) in Sirdar Softspun chunky (Half completed)
6. Crochet baby blanket for my Nieces new baby (2/3 completed) 
7. Crochet Granny Square blanket (squares completed, need to join them together)


I also have several projects that I would like to start on but MUST NOT START YET, mainly due to the large array of new yarns that have arrived in the shop (each time I open a new delivery I say 'Ooh I'd like to knit that') and a couple of customer orders that I really must start right now! My life is choc-a-bloc full of knitting....so much so that I am feeling on the edge of losing control!! 

So, to help me stay 'on the edge' and not fall off into a dark woolly hole I have made a list and prioritised what I need to do first and last, lets see if it helps!

First I have to finish the baby blanket because baby Chloe is already here!! 
Then it will be Georges jumper as I am knitting size 3-6 Months and he is 3 months old and growing fast!
Then the Beret for the shop or winter will be over....
Then my daughters aran jumper as she chose the yarn in April..
Then lastly the stuff for me

Now this does help, however it makes me sad as the stuff for me takes a back seat again so should I rearrange my list and put me up there first somewhere....?? 

No, I will stick to the list and try not to add anything to it and eventually all my projects will be finished. I am sure I am not the only knitter who has this problem and I know I have so much to do because quite simply, I love yarn and I love knitting........and its not all bad, here are some of the projects I actually have finished recently...

 

......and finished projects make me smile :-)

I hope you are all knitting happily and finishing your projects
Speak to you soon
Tina xxx

Helping hand....

I am always encouraging my customers to come back if they have any problems with their knitting so I can try to help. This happens fairly often that someone comes in and 'cant do it', has 'lost my place', or simply 'cant understand the pattern' - and usually all it takes is for me to show them once, or give a simple explanation to get the 'light-bulb' moment where they say.....'oh of course, why couldn't I see that?'.

One lady came in who just couldn't get her increase row get the correct number of stitches. She had tried for hours and had unpicked the row many times - in desperation she had trudged up to the shop to ask me what she was doing wrong. The simple answer was that she had cast on too many stitches! She just hadn't counted properly right at the start of her knitting and never thought to count before she started to increase!

Needless to say she was a little embarrassed, but how often have we all not been able to see the wood through the trees, or the 'knit through the purl'?? I certainly have done some daft things with my knitting over the years - I once knitted a whole back of a jumper with two different size needles having forgotten to change BOTH needles after the rib resulting in an 'interesting' effect...why hadn't I noticed while I was knitting? The answer is....I have no idea! But it seems we are not alone (thank goodness). 

So using the most common mistakes/questions I am asked in the shop, I have compiled a few tips for those of us who do get in a tangle every now and then whether we have been knitting for 5 minutes or 50 years:

Simple Top Ten Tips to stop you Fraying at the edges

1) Read the pattern through before you start so you can find out if theres anything you dont understand BEFORE you start to knit 

 2) Use a highlighter to mark on the pattern the size you are knitting - this is especially useful if you are knitting one of the middle sizes and helps stop you knitting different sizes throughout the garment (hands up who's guilty of this one!)

3) COUNT your stitches regularly to make sure you are on the right track, and if you have lots of stitches place a stitch marker every 10 or 20 stitches to help you keep count

4) If you are anxious about a new stitch or pattern, do a sample square before you start the garment so that when you come to the pattern you know you can do the stitch

5) Do keep checking your knitting - there's nothing worse than getting right to the top and then finding a mistake halfway down!

6) Use a row counter, especially for complicated patterns with a repeat - its easy to forget where you are if you are distracted. There are simple row counters everywhere, but also some great 'Apps' on your Smart phone which you can download easily and often for free :-)

 7) Make sure your stitches are pushed to the back of the needles when you have finished knitting, or use point protectors to stop your stitches coming off the needles when your knitting is in your bag

8) If you do need to unpick, dont just pull the yarn - unpick the stitches carefully one by one (this is sometimes called 'Tinking') if you only have a few stitches to undo. If you have to unpick several rows place your work on a flat surface, carefully remove the needle and gently pull the yarn to unravel one row at a time until you get to your mistake (this is called 'Frogging'). Using the flat surface makes it easier to control the unpick and to re insert your needle when finished

9) Dropped a stitch? Don't panic, you can pick it up with a crochet hook and work it back up to your needle 

10) Do have a look on line for tips and tricks on 'how to's'  - YouTube is very full of simple videos and tutorials, and there are so many bloggers out there also giving tutorials and help. 

My main tip though, is to have a go! While I take my knitting seriously, it IS just wool and is not life and death stuff so if you do make a huge mess of something, it really can be as simple as undoing it all and starting again....or popping into your local wool shop and asking for help

That's it for now, I'm off to start a new project with cables as I really do need to read the instructions first!

Have a great weekend 

Tina xxx