I've recently added a few new colourways to the Ziggy Stardust collection. The speckled effect is really popular so I thought I'd have a go and base it on song titles from David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars album.

Below are the first four colours. There are four more to come, I just haven't been as happy with the colours as I'd like to be so I'm still working on them. I reckon I'll be happy by next week, though, and so they'll be ready and online for sale.

buy them now at www.iknitshop.org.uk

Lady Stardust

Soul Love

Five Years

Moonage Daydream

I Knit or Dye STRIPES

I've been dyeing sock blanks for a while now to offer I Knit or Dye self striping sock yarn. They are a bit messy and take a little longer but I love the effect. I love the way the colours interact with each other when the sock blank is re-knitted into socks, I call this yarn Lazaretto. The most popular colour has always been the freedom rainbow flag. However while the Lazaretto is fab I have always dreamed of doing some 'proper' self striping sock yarn.

A few weeks ago Catriona tasked me with dyeing her some self striping sock yarn, she wanted purple and lime. Cat was a volunteer for me at Bestival in our knitting tent last September and so I couldn't refuse, really. Or rather, I couldn't resist. It took a while to get the right colours but it took a little longer to reskein the yarn and dye it and then ball it up!

This is my first Grotbags colourway sock. Cat loves the yarn, btw.

It was a matter of moments before I thought about dyeing red and white to make my dad some Liverpool FC socks!!

But the main event is really the freedom rainbow flag colour way, Love Wins. This is a super duper duper set of colours and I love it.

All these colours, plus a couple more, are available in our online shop, www.iknitshop.org.uk 

Gxx

Fyberspates Vivacious Pattern collection launch at IKL

We are super excited to welcome Jeni from Fyberspates to shop on Saturday 29 November.

Jeni will be with us to launch the new Vivacious pattern collection. Jen will present a trunk show of all the new garments for you to squish and squeeze and you can talk to Jeni about the patterns and yarn and it will be lovely.

Hard copy books will be available and a code for you to download your own electronic version will accompany each book sale!

Everyone is welcome! We'll have nibbles and cake and tea and cider and, of course, loads of time to knit and crochet.

Vivacious is one of my favourite yarns and one of IKL's best selling. That's because it's gorgeous! Superwash merino with a high twist in 4ply and DK, the yarn is soft and squishy and the colours are amazing! You can see some of the colours below.

So come and see us on Saturday 29 November and buy the book and craft with us.

I Knit BOOK GROUP

For the past few years IKL has hosted a book group on the first Tuesday of each month. It has a small but committed number of people attending every month. It would be great to see more people at the group knitting and chatting.

The next meeting is 4 Septemberfrom 6.30pm. The book is Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I read this book years ago and although I've forgotten most of it I remember that I loved it. Dennis Potter wrote the BBC TV series, made in the 1980's, but I don't think I ever saw that.

I'm looking forward to reading it again, I'll probably start it on the train up to Liverppool tomorrow for my cousins wedding.

Everyone is welcome to the book group, all you have to do is read the book, or some of it, and come along with your knitting!

See you there.

Camp Bestival 2012

IKL and a troupe of volunteers spent last weekend at Camp Bestival in Dorset teaching and army of kids to knit. As usual (we've been to Camp Bestival every year) we had a brilliant time and we taught approximately 150,000 kids to (mostly finger) knit. OK, it probably wasn't that many but it felt like. Thanks to Deborah, Angela, Ros, Tania, Lorraine, Graham, Nicky, Heather and Becky, you are stars and I love you and I appreciate all your hard work. And so do the kids and their parents.

Camp Bestival really is a great festival. There's so much for the kids to do, the organiser really put a great deal of thought and work into it, then at night we get to dance and sing along to Kool and the Gang and the Happy Mondays!

There are so many photographs, here is a small selection.

This was our view.

Tania teaching. It's so rewarding when a person as small as this gets it and become a knitter.

I wont lie, several bottles of Pimms was consumed, after hours.

Ros, a vetaran CB Knitting Teacher, was only ever to be seen surrounded by 1000's of kids.

Lorraine (on the left) is teaching Lucia. I was thrilled to see Lucia and her mother Michelle. Michelle owned the Bonnington Square shop

Heather in pink t-shirt and Angela in black surrounded.

Graham teaching.

Graham always brings his spinning wheel. Sadly it saw no action this year as we were too busy.

The tent was gorgeous, I think you'll agree. This is the best use of a bird cage I have ever seen. The ceiling of the tent was covered in crocheted doilies.

We took the sheep and asked people to cover it in bits of finger knitting.

Deborah became obsessed with finger knitting.

Nicky, left with pink bandana, lost her voice from all the hard teaching!

just a little ciggie break.

see you next year!!!!

I've been knitting presents

There is a birthday coming up and I've been organised. This is the Forest Canopy Shawl, by Susan Lawrence, in Adriafil Cashmere. It's nice and chunky and so soft.
The yarn works really well with this lace leaf pattern and it took no time to knit. It feels like real luxury and I can't wait to send it to the birthday girl.
I've also made a surprise baby jacket, Elizabeth Zimmerman. This is for Rosie's baby - as yet unborn but due last Friday! Rosie taught me to knit and I'm especially excited about making stuff for her baby.
I've noticed a green theme. I love green. I used Manos Wool Classica for this jacket, a solid and a variegated in lighter tones to make the stripes. I'm not very good at determining the size of surprise baby jackets. The last on I made was for my nephew, Louis, who was six months old. It came out just the right size to fit a very small newborn. It wasn't wasted, it went to my other nephew, James, who was then yet to be born.
You may not be able to tell from this photo but this jacket came out just the right size for a toddler. Oh well. Rosie still wants it so that's marvelous.

Gxx

aren't they lovely?

Thank you all for your comments. I know I'm part of a community of brilliant people and I appreciate your support and sentiment. I'm sure the person who took the hat was not a knitter. How could they be?
This is a picture I took on Thursday night. Aren't they gorgeous?! We had a special visitor from the North. She brought good tiding and fabulous hand made wood buttons and shawl pins. Chris, just at the end of the table with short hair and teal sweater and a raised arm, is just gorgeous, she runs A Fine Yarn, a wool shop in Darlington.

Gxx

2009...

We've been a bit quiet as we were having a lie down! Now it's 2009 we're gearing up again for another year of yarny things and we can't wait. It's only the 5th but already Gerard has been on the telly (he jokes that he'll do anything to get on telly...and I';m starting to believe him). His 2009 debut was on today's Working Lunch where he spoke, very briefly, about how knitting, although not cheaper than buying from Asda, is a quality alternative to having clothes that fall apart and that handmade clothes simply mean more than those made on machines somewhere in the world. He took along some qiviut and some affordable wool to show that there's a huge choice...but didn't really get to speak about it much. You can watch it on BBC iPlayer this week (programme dated 5th January).

So, the world is falling apart...but we're still knitting. It looks like the knitters are going strong too. We've been closed over Christmas and New Year but opened up again on Friday and were swamped with yarnoholics after their next fix. It was a stampede. OK, it wasn't a stampede but it was encouraging to see that not everyone has retreated into hibernation until this credit crunch thing is over. Of course, for every ball of cashmere there's a ball of Emu Superwash so even with tight pursestrings there's still opportunities to make stuff. We splurged over Christmas and actually spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in a lovely hotel overlooking Big Ben and the London Eye. Sadly, despite the shop being closed I still had to go to work on Boxing Day (and every day since then) but the 2 days were a nice little respite. Locked away in our posh hotel room felt very decadent - but it was more chocolate and crisps than champagne and cocaine. Still, it felt good!

We both got a little bit sick after that and we spent NYE watching the telly at home instead of venturing out. Is it age or common sense? Or both? London on NYE just doesn't do it for us anymore. We like a comfy sofa... and it's too bloody cold to go out!

So, what happens now...? More of the same I suppose. We are starting tonight with our second annual Big New Year Knit-In at the Royal Festival Hall. An excuse to get the year started with a group of knitters, lots of chatter and all the chocolates we didn't manage to get through...

tea party

we had a marvelous time yesterday at the tea party. The special event was to celebrate the publication of two marvelous books - Wild Tea Cozies, by Loani Prior and Knitted Cakes by Susan Penny.

We served about 150 cups of tea and there was probably an equal number of slices of cake, biscuits and brownies. There was a huge turn out and competition for the 'bake off' was fierce. We thought the bake off was a great way to ensure that knitted cakes were not the only cake on offer and I for one am glad we did it and grateful to everyone who spent their time baking.

I couldn't manage more than 4 servings of cake but between us - the panel of judges - we did manage to indulge in all the offerings. All the cakes were amazing, from the walnut cake to the tequila and lime cupcakes, the ginger cake to the lemon drizzle, the brownies and the cookies, I also loved the scones! Consequently, we wanted all the cooks to win first prize. As it was we did award 2 winners, Jo's heavenly chocolate brownies with white chocolate chunks and Emily's New York cheesecake. The cheesecake came out overall winner as most of the panel were self-confessed chocoholics and were naturally inclined to go with the brownies but they still felt compelled to vote for the cheesecake.

I thought they were all winners. i missed the perfect moment to be Brucie, though! I could have told each person they were my favorite but I think the sugar rush hindered me considerably.

We even had fruit!

Thanks to everyone for being brilliant and baking all the cakes. It was a marvelous afternoon, should we do it once a month?

I leave you with a couple of shots of some very content I Knit London shop staff.

Gxx