Lil' Louis' Liverpool mittens, and hedgehogs dressed as postmen...

It's been a very long week. Thanks to everyone who has sent messages to both of us this week, me with my trapped nerve (not getting any better I must say) and Gerard on his new uncledom. G went home to Liverpool at the weekend for his first avuncular cuddle and took with him a bounty of knitted goodies. I couldn't travel so stayed in London, watched films ate pizza and chocolate. Here's some pics of little Louis' first gifts...

The hat has been around for while just waiting for a baby to be honest, but it's so adorable and has three cute little pom-poms on the top that just top it off perfectly. It's in Rooster DK. The mittens are part of a double act along with a pair of similar striped bootees in Liverpool Footbal Club colours - these are in Artesano's Inca Cloud 100% alpaca and are just so soft,

Louis will be snuggling up in them right now! And the second set of bootees... well, how cute? I think G is already on his third set of bootees, and has just bought Zoe Mellor's 50 Bootees to Knit book...so another 49 will be heading up to new nephew in the coming months. I do believe Louis will be the most spoilt (knitting-wise) baby EVER!

Edit - the pattern is Saartje's Bootees, I got the link from Brooklyn Tweed's blog.

Meanwhile, back on home ground we have been enjoying the last (first) of the summer's sunshine. A brilliant knitting group on Wednesday night at the shop, more knitting out in the square a) because it was a balmy summer's eve and b) because there was no room inside. Once again, lots of new faces, lots of cider, lots of banter. And, if we may big ourselves up a bit, we even have a quote for the billboards outside - "This is the only knitting group worth travelling across London for!" - aw, thanks. Honestly, and I know how cheesy this sounds, but, the knitting group only works because of the people who come, and maybe we just get the coolest, friendliest knitters at IKL...who knows? Anyway, I know we love our Wednesday nights and will continue to do so!

Tonight was the film night (we showed the original Hairspray) and, again, it was great. We finally met with Justine too, who has been organising, via the omnipresent Ravelry, a book club for knitters, which we agreed tonight we would host at IKL. Funnily enough we thought of hosting a book group last year just after we opened, but couldn't decide if knitters had time to read (!), and then once all our evenings filled up the idea waned. We were also slightly reticent to take someone's idea away, so it's not an I Knit book club, although it'll be here once a month, and the name will be decided soon. I'm actually really looking forward to getting into it. I haven't read a book in almost two years - shameful. But what with running the shop, full-time job, knitting dos and now Facebook and Ravelry I just don't know when I've got time! So, basically having someone organise for me what I'll read and when is brilliant. The first book is Patricia Highsmith's The Cry of the Owl and the first meeting is on 25th September. Can't wait!

One other thing this week which opened my eyes was the response to the newsletter. Knitters are a funny lot and I try my best to put as much in there as I can without becoming too boring and rattling on (like now). But we've started to feature, each week, one of the most exciting things we've had delivered that week to the shop - honestly, sometimes we even fight over which of us gets to open the parcels! Last week I finally managed to get stock of Jean Greenhowe's knitted dolls/toys books. Well, call me old-fashioned but I think they are genius...and the reputation of IKL was at stake choosing them over, say Rowan Magazine 42 (yawn). But, thankyou to all those who have shared their JG love. We ain't high-end down here in Vauxhall...and how can you resist a hedgehog dressed up as a postman?