HRYC

Another new series of blog posts! Hooray! A wee chat about shop samples, what we made them from and where you can find the pattern.

Anders in Road to China Light

I actually knit this up way back in March, but as usually happens, it's been in want of buttons ever since. What is it with buttons that are such a stumbling block on the way to finishing? They always, always get me. Anyway, it now has buttons, and is about the most adorable jersey ever. 

 Anders by Soren Kerr, knit in Road to China Light 

The only reason I knit this was because I needed an excuse to knit with Road to China Light, and I'm a bit over knitting hats and scarves for shop samples. It is a luxury yarn and I made the yarn choice not expecting anyone else to follow suit. Alpaca, silk, cashmere and camel makes for an amazing fabric but perhaps not the best idea for a toddler. Having said that, after all the work put into making it, this would come under heirloom knitting for sure. 

There is about zero surprise in the colours I went for, either. Topaz and Grey Pearl. 

Anders is a really simple pattern and great for trying our fair isle knitting if you haven't had a go yet. If you don't want to commit to a high end yarn, something like Cascade 220 Superwash Sport would be absolutely perfect for this project. 

Details:

Pattern: Anders by Soren Kerr

Size made: 12-18 months

Needle size: 3.75mm and 4mm

Yarn: Road to China Light in Grey Pearl (2 skeins) and Topaz (half a skein)

Shop sample: in Grand Arcade, Willis St

We can sell you this pattern in-store as a pdf, if you fancy it.  

Hip hip hooray! After a wee summer break, Knit Night starts back today. It's also our third birthday - hooray! I can't believe how quickly three years have run past, and how much fun we've had along the way. Thank you so much for all your amazing support - we couldn't do this thing without you. 

So! Knit Night! Every Thursday, alternating between the two shops. If you can't make it out to Petone, we'll be keeping our Grand Arcade doors open longer every second Thursday for our town peeps to come and relax among the yarn. 

To further celebrate Petone's third birthday, we have a bunch of specials! 30% off all Cascade Sport (non-superwash), Zealana Willow, Echo cotton (all in Petone only) and 20% off all Waikiwi sock (both stores). Also in Petone - a basket of cheap treats! Huzzah! All specials on until Sunday 23 February. 

P.S Our Petone shop is back to normal hours again: 10am - 5pm Wed - Fri, 10am - 4pm Sat, 11am - 3pm Sun. 

It isn't terribly often we have trunk shows. So here's some exciting news! We have an extra special one organised for next week. Yep, next week. 

Hannah of Red Riding Hood Yarns is celebrating her third business birthday, so we decided to nab her for a one night only special. And what goes better with yarn than a very talented pattern designer? Julia Stanfield of Just One WIP is on board too. Hooray! 

What sort of things might you expect to see, exactly?

Delightful hand-dyed yarns...

and inspiring patterns for kids and adults, including lots of samples for you to nosy at.

I'm all excited about having a different kind of knit night. One where we have special visitors and you get to hang out and browse something different and knit and eat cake and drink tea. Come along! It's sure to be loads of fun. xx Tash

This year our Ravelry group has really picked up momentum in the Knit-a-long stakes. I'm not always the most organised person when it comes to running KALs, but they are always a bit of fun and so interesting to see the different paths people take with the same project. 

Spring sees us taking on Dianna Walla's Vasa tee - a simple, elegant and very very wearable tank. Knit in 4ply yarn, it really is amenable to pretty much any colour combination you might fancy. A great stash-buster or excellent excuse to buy new, i've finished my first and am already planning a second. Actually, I say finished, but really I mean that i've done all the knitting, and now the pieces are languishing in a pile waiting to be blocked and seamed. So photos of the properly finished version will come later. 

Vasa tee by Dianna Walla

Another reason to adore this pattern - it's perfect for knitters at the less experienced end of the spectrum. You don't have to worry about sleeves, it's a chance to play with colour, and pretty quickly you have a whole garment. A respectable achievement if you are new to knitting. 

We'd love for you to join us! Share your colour choices and talk about what you're up to here in our Ravelry thread. There's usually a prize or two to celebrate at the end of each KAL, and you have until 30 October to knit your tee. Loads of time!

Possibly the most exciting time is when an order of Malabrigo lands. This week was no exception - two giant sacks of gorgeous squishiness arrived on Wednesday and it was certainly a squee-worthy event. 

The arrival also dictated the need for new shelving. We have so much stock at the moment that no amount of rearranging was going to make it fit on our existing shelves. A terrible dilemma, isn't it? 'Oh dear we have so much yarn we have to buy more shelving. What a terrible terrible thing to have happen.'

Malabrigo Rios in Niebla, Sunset and Ravelry Red

More Malabrigo Rios in Azules, Bobby Blue and Playa

Now we didn't just get Rios in this order, oh no. There's stacks and stacks of Malabrigo Sock, and even more Silky Merino. Between those three I went waaaaay above my buying budget, and so there wasn't any room left for Lace or Silkpaca Lace. The good news there is we'll be doing ANOTHER order next week - hooray! If there's a colour we didn't get in this time and you're absolutely desperate to have it, just let us know. Malabrigo takes about three months to arrive and every day of that wait is absolutely worth it. 

Want more pictures? Sure! How about some dodgy ones taken at 9pm on Wednesday night?

Mmmmm Malabrigo sock....

And you'll have to make do with this pic of the Silky Merino...it's one of those yarns that takes awhile to puff back up to smooshy size once it's been pulled out of the bag. It's only really photo-worthy once it's had a week or so of breathing on the shelf. 

I'm going to spend my Friday finishing off a couple of projects and hunting out a pattern worthy of knitting up in Malabrigo. And, of course, packing up all the orders that are coming through quick and fast for this amazing yarn. We're getting low on a few colours in all ranges already...