The adventures of 8518 and owner

Hello guys it is me again. The balance has been achieved Dulcie is back at the shop after her illness and she is looking so much better. Yeah!

I had the great delight of visiting my doctors surgery for some sort of eye thing to do with the annoyance that is Neuralgia. I always know that no matter what there will be a delay or I will arrive an hour too early so I took my knitting with me.
Boy was there a delay today, a man had to be put in an ambulance and taken to Southampton general and a small baby was really rather poorly so I waited and knitted my back ribbing. By the time that I actually went to see the doctor the stabbing pain in my eye had almost gone and it seemed a little pointless having somebody looking at me.

I know that knitting and crocheting have really good health benefits, and I truly believe that it helps with my pain management at the moment. There has been a lot of research into the benefits of knitting, crocheting and crafting done by Betsan Corkhill, she has written articles about it, recently she wrote in simply knitting about men knitting and in issue 4 of knit on the net http://www.knitonthenet.com/issue4/features/therapeuticknitting/
She also has a group called stitchlinks found at www.stitchlinks.com.
The most recent pain magazine also had an informative article on knitting.

My thought is that if it helps a little it is better than nothing now where are my needles I want to get my back panel finished.

Moira Ann x

Moira Ann's misfit knitting adventures

Good morning one and all....

Purlessence has received a bumper crop of rather lovely cotton double knitting yarns and knitting patterns. The first rather lovely yarn is Sirdar's Summer stripes, there is rather good yardage on all the cotton dk yarn and this one is no exception. There are very nice patterns available and I'm thinking long and hard about knitting 9422 in the lemony shades.

Of course being a rather fun loving larger lady there never seems to be patterns that particularly take my fancy. I have tried on many occasions to start a jumper or cardie, I knit the back and I normally get to about the cast off for arms part of the pattern hold it up and think whoa that is never gonna fit and rip the yarn back and make something exciting out of the rip back and left over balls of yarn.

This week I will be challenging this fear of all things knitting for myself and I have casted on a rather lovely  cotton DK yarn from the Classique range by Stylecraft. Thinking that Lime green yarn would make me stand out a little too much I have opted for Nocturne which would be classed by normal people as dark blue but I think it is more petrol blue. I'm really not too sure that my cardie will be finished in 8 balls of the wonder yarn I will have to wait and see.

Paula has cast on the same pattern but ever so slightly smaller in the lime green but using pearl by stylecraft.

Dulcie is feel a little under the weather so I hope that she will feel a whole lot better soon.

Signing off for now

Moira Ann x

Knit and natter,patterns and yarn.

The knit and natter days are fast becoming my favourite days, the groups have been going from strength to strength and I don't think it is just the knitting that keeps people coming back. Paula and Dulcie are the hostesses with the mostest always on hand to help and there is always an anecdote or two throughout the three hours.

On another note the WI have decided on their topic for the knitting competition in the new forest show, I do believe that it is wild and wacky "tea cosies" what fun. Dulcie has been searching out all the knitting pattern so we are ready for the onslaught  of WI tea cosies knitters. I'm thinking a lovely cow tea cosy might be the way to go but I'm sure there will be more designs of much better quality than the one in my imagination.

Nothing would be complete without yarny wooly stuff! At the moment I'm loving the Bamboo yarn in many different colours the stitch definition is superb and the rather lovely Lana grossa basic tiramisu print yarn that feels just like teddy bears.

There is a special offer on the small balls of pompon £1.50 a ball, the colours that we have are most the light pinks and blues.

Paula and Dulcie are back from the trade show

Whoooo hooo, Paula and Dulcie had a jolly over the weekend, they will say that it is work but who can complain about squidging wool for a day. It was the wool trade show in Birmingham, a mecca for all wool shop and sewing shop owners throughout the country. Of course there are many different stalls and I have yet to find out the true extent of the loveliness that was held in the four walls.
I do however know that the lovely Paula and Dulcie have chosen wisely and decided to add to their James Brett range, new colours of marble and the King Cole yarn. They also have brought back with them a small selection of cross stitch, only the small sampler kind though. I'm sure that they brought back and have ordered more exciting stuff but I have a tendency to forget. I suppose that we will all have to wait and see until the orders roll in.

knit and natter...what about sewing bee and tea

Knit and natter has expanded again and there is now an extra club on  Monday afternoon, if you want to join a session you will need to put your name down at the shop as there is now a bit of a problem with space, chairs and dreaded "elf". Don't let that put you off though as there is plenty more sessions and classes that you could join.
Patchwork for beginners starts on Saturday with the delightful Carol. There is plenty of new materials that you can choose out of to create your first masterpiece. There is an array of different coloured fat quarters to choose out of priced at £2.50 singularly, or 5 for £10.

Carol has also made up colour coordinated scrap bags that are great value for money and proving to be very popular, all scrap bags are individually priced.

On to the next exciting club, we are starting a sewing bee and tea on the 3rd March. It will be along the same lines as knit and natter but with people bring their sewing. During the sewing bee and tea there will be chat and at some point there will be yummy tea and cake. This little package of fun will be £2.

There will be more course and workshops coming so check out the website and the blog for more info....I will remember to write on the blog more often.

Knit and Natters

Purlessence currently has two different knit and natter groups, One on a Wednesday afternoon and the other on a Friday night.The Wednesday group is homely and small, people usual start arriving at about 1.30, there is always a good chat and Paula and Dulcie can show everyone the new yarn that has arrived. Of course there is a little bit of cake and tea on the side which is always welcome. The Friday night group is a little bigger and again there is cake,tea and chat and the delight of being surrounded by woolly loveliness. Each session is £2 which covers the drink and cake side of it.

Purlessence always welcomes new people with a happy smile so why not sign up to join us.

Either on Wednesdays 1.30-3.30 or Friday 7-9

If you really like it you are quite welcome to come to both.

Loyalty cards a go-go

There has been a  big change at Purlessence over the Christmas break but we still sell the same things as we always did in the old shop. However we all are feeling the pinch at the start of the year, we know that knitter will always be knitters and buy yummy yummy yarn no matter what.We at Purlessence feel that we need to reward our customers and have brought out our loyalty card (it looks like a leaflet though).

So every time that you spend more than a hard earned £10 in one purchase you will receive a stamp. Collect 10 stamps and you will receive 10% of your next purchase.

New shop! what fun

Purlessence has moved to bigger more spacious premises during the Christmas holidays. It was quite evident for some time that 125 Hampton lane was getting a little bit small for our needs. Although all the wool fitted in and the store was friendly in our old dwellings there was always a little bit of a problem. Knit and natter nights on Friday's were very popular and although we all managed to fit in some times somebody would end up with a knitting needle poked in an inconvenient place. There was also the matter of finding room for the courses that Paula and Dulcie wanted to run, the patchwork class that Carol ran was brilliant but again it was almost impossible for more than two people to patch work using the table stowed at the back of the shop.The last little problem was that it wasn't the dream shop. The dream shop, was a shop that ran courses, helped the community with their wooly and habedashery needs,ran knit and natters and had a rather squidgy sofa.
The dream shop became a reality when 175 Hampton Lane came onto the market. It was bigger but it needed a lot of work doing to it.
Over the Christmas Holidays work started to make the premises fit for purpose and amazingly it was all ready for the big opening on Wednesday last week. Purlessence looks beautiful with all the wool being shown off, Tara's Jewellery shiny and bright and a big yellow sofa for the customers to check out pattern,drink a nice cup of tea and chat to the wonderful Paula and Dulcie