Scratching the Knitting Itch

Hooray, we have more Fyberspates in stock! There are more colours expected to arrive next week – it’s the perfect yarn to play with over summer, with a nice dash of silk in there to help the wool keep things cool when needed.

It is extremely sad to see the environmental disaster unfolding on our shores – the stranding of Rena and the consequent oil spill which is very quickly affecting animals, the beach and the water. What is more horrific is the fact the pilot was drunk* when he grounded on the reef.

The picture below is thanks to the Stuff.co.nz website – looking through the images of dead sea birds covered in oil is heartbreaking (yep, totally had a cry).

If I could, I’d be heading that way as quickly as possible to do what I can to help clean up. There is a fantastic way knitters can lend a helping hand, though: knitting Penguin Jumpers (PJs!!)

You can find the pattern here on Ravelry or the original source of the pattern, the Tasmanian Conservation Trust. There is a thread about the jumpers in the Kiwi Crafting forum on Rav, and you can either drop finished jumpers of to Holland Road Yarn Company (281 Jackson St, Petone, Wellington) or post directly to Maree Buscke, 109 Waghorne St, Ahuriri, Napier.

xx tash

* this hasn’t as yet been confirmed. I really hope he wasn’t.

For the last 6 months, I’ve had constant requests for hand-dyed DK – so, at long last, they are being added to the Knitsch Yarns family.

There will be (with much more exciting names):

100% merino DK

and

80% merino 20% cashmere DK

The 100% merino will retail at $22/100g and the cashmere/merino at $28/100g.

And because I love you all so much, I decided a sneak preview is in order!

Be the first to play with Knitsch DK bases!

Advance sale:
200g of 100% merino – $45 including postage
200g of 80/20 merino cashmere – $55 including postage

These will be in exclusive, one-off colourways and are STRICTLY limited to 30 x 100% merino and 10 x 80/20 merino cashmere.

You can purchase one of each.

Advance sales go live at 10am Thursday 13 October, and will be posted on Thursday 20 October – 10 days before the yarn goes up for sale online and at Holland Road Yarn Company.

As the cost of postage has been built into the price structure for the advance sale, pick up orders will receive a $2 discount for one skein, and a $5 discount for more than one.

Hooray!

It’s Spring! There’s lots of sunshine! I need new shoes! 🙂

What better reasons to have a sale?

There’s 20% off EVERYTHING in the online shop until Sunday 2 October – just enter the code ‘NEWSHOES’ at the checkout.

Hooray! and happy shopping…

And it’s a good’un! So many fabulously wearable projects. For now, let’s just nosey at the socks, shall we?

The wonderfully textural Paper Moon socks by AnneLena Mattison are a wonder. I can see these translating beautifully as man socks in a nice deep moody colour, like Auburn or Davey Jones.

If you are after a real challenge, take a peek at Glomerata – now that is what I call a lace sock! Or, if you have a geek in your life (or are yourself geekily inclined) Mircoprocessors has a real sense of humour.

Having not looked around the Knitty site for a while now, I decided to have a good browse to remind myself what is on there. And came across this:

The gorgeous Interlocking Leaves pattern. I’ve wanted to knit these ever since I first discovered knitty, yonks and yonks ago. Ok, maybe only 3 years ago, but still. So guess what I’m going to cast on today?

(All images thanks to www.knitty.com)