Holidays

After a break from blogging whilst getting the house up together it is now time to take a break from blogging whilst we have a short holiday. For my birthday Lucy bought me a flight to New York (and return, before you wonder!). So, Lucy, her boyfriend, Malcolm, Ian and myself are off tomorrow. Joe will be keeping an eye on the dogs. Or, the other way around, I'm not sure...

We will be away from Wednesday until May 10th. Posting will start again on the 11th! Volcanos permitting of course.

We have arrived...

We are now in our new home. Moving day was exhausting. Obviously we had to finish cleaning after the removal company had left. As it was a property with high ceilings and generous room sizes, this took an age. A visit to the tip and then to kennels to pick up the dogs ensued before we could leave Devon. There wasn't chance to feel sad.

Once we arrived in Bath, we left the dogs with mum and went to collect the keys, only to be told that the garage of our new home was still full of stuff but that it would go today. Not best pleased. Still, we arrived at our new house to find that it was absolutely filthy dirty! In fact, so dirty that we had to tell the removal company not to bring any stuff in until we had had chance to at least clean up a bit. Now, let me assure you, I am absolutely not known for being houseproud. I aim for hygenic. That's it.

Whilst we spent a long evening cleaning, we also found that: the integrated fridge/freezer was broken, black and smelling. The boiler didn't work properly and that a number of the spotlights around the house were broken. The bathroom light needs a new switch and won't work.

Still, all of these things can be sorted in the fullness of time. We really like the house and it's very convenient for family and friends. The dog walking isn't quite so spectacular - there is no cliff top or sparkling sea, however we do walk around fabulous Georgian architecture and formal landscapes.

The business has been up and running and the stock room is on it's way to being completely sorted. So far, so good.....

We are on the move!

My excuse for not blogging this week is more genuine than usual. We have a moving date and should be leaving Brixham on Tuesday 23 February. I will be very sad to leave my lovely house, but I have enjoyed living here and am looking forward to moving back to Bath. This is, of course, a lovely City, but it is also where most of our family live and so it will be good to spend more time with them.

So, with regard to Great British Yarns, we will be shipping until noon on Friday and then after that we won't be able to post any more parcels until TUESDAY 2 MARCH. We should have access to emails at all times so if you have any questions, please contact us.

Joe

Firstly, here is a photo of Joe's new sweater as knitted by me and modelled by Ian. Joe couldn't model it as he is back at university. This was knitted in Rowan Big Wool. Pattern from Rowan Magazine 40. It took just over a week of not particularly enthusiastic knitting to make. I have decided I am not keen on using large needles, but very much enjoy the speed with which projects get finished. The stripes, which were put on after the sweater was sewn up, became a right pain. I can't believe the pattern said sew them on once the sweater was finished. If my brain had been in gear I might have thought to sew them on the flat pieces. Anyway, my brain was mentally packing the house up - the body just sits and thinks about it - and so I didn't think about it at all. The sewing in of these stripes was so painful to all concerned that even Rex the dog hid from the cursing and bad temper. Eventually peace was restored and the sweater posted special delivery to a grateful Joe.

Speaking of Joe, he is currently composing all sorts of music for his dissertation - his degree is in Music Composition. He has written a song for which he needs to have some feedback. So, if you would like to listen, it's called Party Over Here and the link is Here to his Myspace. Do have a listen to the Party Over Here track and if you would like to leave a comment, either on his Myspace or this blog, we would all be very grateful!

Spring/Summer 2010

For those of you who have been coping with snow, ice, freezing conditions and other bad weather, you will no doubt be looking forward to spring and summer. This must seem a very long way off, particularly as some people had more snow last night. If, however, like us, you haven't seen any snow or ice, in fact, we only had a heavy frost once, the coming of spring and summer seems very close.

In order to focus our thoughts, the Rowan Magazine 47 arrived yesterday. This showcases the Spring/Summer 2010 yarns and patterns and very nice they are too! As usual the magazine has three different 'stories'. My favourite is the Jamboree which features fifties style, brightly coloured cottons.




This one is called Torquay and so I had to post a photo. I also very much liked this men's cardigan:



I may well knit one of the Jamboree patterns, but sadly not this cardigan. Ian would look ridiculous in it and Joe would probably refuse point blank to wear it on the grounds of it being colourful and interesting. Does anyone else have the same problem - men who won't wear knitted garments?

Woolly Board anyone?

Does anyone know of a supplier in the UK of Woolly boards (or wooly board or jumper boards as they are also called). I would like to have one but haven't been able to find them anywhere in the UK. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, these are sweater blockers and look like this:

You either wash or damp down your knitting and then place it on this adjustable frame. Once on the frame, the jumper or cardigan can be pulled into shape and then it is left to dry. Dryer takes much less time than lying flat.
It appears they are pretty available in America and Canada but then, they do much more fairisle knitting in the round than UK knitters. If anyone knows of a source, please let me know.

Happy New Year - Just!

Happy New Year to you all - I have just about got this in before it becomes a bit embarrassing. I hope you all had a good Christmas holiday. We had a great time here. After a few worrying hours on Christmas Eve when we thought Lucy would not be able to fly from Glasgow because of the bad weather, it all went very well.

In the end I decided to give Lucy all three hats in the Alice Starmore Hat Trick. The reason is that I am a complete sucker and like to give her things. Anyway, here she is, modelling the beret:

I did mention that my sister might be the lucky recipient. Well, she ended up with a scarf made from Bracken Colourscape, which matches her golden hair rather well. Don't feel too sorry for her though, she may be getting a spectacular birthday present in March. More details of that later.
Great British Yarns is having an end of year sale. We have some lovely Rowan yarns on offer, together with a bit of handdyed stuff and undyed yarns. Hope you find something to tempt you.
This year we hope to introduce new ranges to the shop, more details will follow. I am particularly looking forward to getting the new Amy Butler Love range of fabrics which should be due in during February and the new summer yarns from Rowan which look great.