Stuffing cushions and wool, wool, wool…..

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I apologise for not blogging for  a while but there has been so much happening here lately that I haven’t seemed to find the time!

We had a fabulous weekend 21st/22nd May when we combined Woolsack Stuffing Event with a yarn review for Knit Now Magazine along with the monthly Knit and Natter………so it was indeed, very woolly!

I’ve also spent hours upon hours loading up the new website with products and I have to say, I’m quite proud of it!  Still lots to do but it now looks a lot healthier!

I love the MillaMia page, and the Adriafil KnitCol page….the tiny balls of yarn for colour pick are sooo cute!

The Namaste bags have been really popular and all the images are now on for those.

Twilleys of Stamford Echo - 100% recycled T-Shirts and Jeans has been a big hit too and is surprisingly nice to knit with…..the rep told me it was like knitting with string, I beg to differ, knitted on KnitPro Nova Metal needles, it’s a dream!

Malabrigo, another popular yarn, in fact so popular I’m getting more

I’ve now ordered the bulk of the Autumn Winter yarns, I have two new yarns coming in the full range of shades from Debbie Bliss, I’ve also chosen to stock Rialto 4ply and Rialto Aran both a beautiful tight twist merino and Riva which is a colour change yarn with a loose twist in a chunky weight.  The pattern previews are devine, I don’t want to wish away the summer but I am looking forward to winter woollies again!!  The Bergere rep is coming tomorrow, and as usual, Bergere have some fantastic designs and premium fashion yarns at not so premium prices!  I have no idea how much I will end up spending as it’s so difficult to hold back with so much choice!!

Sock Yarns remain ever popular, the kits are not on the website yet but are still available if you contact me directly.  A kit consists of the sock yarn of your choice, KnitPro stitch markers, dpn’s and a sock pattern.  Kits start at £10 and are upgradeable with more expensive sock yarns and KnitPro dpn’s.

Our own yarn, not all on the website yet, is selling very well!  There are limited quantities in the dyed yarns, generally just enough to do one large garment (ladies coat, man’s aran) with a few balls to spare for a  matching hat and gloves.  I’m knitting an aran from the Bergere Irish Mag at the moment in our own 100% Suffolk X and I’m loving it!

Lorna’s Laces are here now too, again, not yet on the website but they should be on this week.

I’ve got quite a few Mafana Bags on the website now but also a lot that aren’t on so if you’ve seen one you like on the Mafana site and can’t see it on my site, it’s always worth dropping me a line!

I hope you like the new website, it is worth logging yourself in to an account to benefit from the ‘wish list’ feature!!  Also, with an account, you can subscribe to offers and newsletters so I can send you discount codes etc!  Also, please do feel free to add comments to pages about products you have tried, it really does help others to see a real knitters opinion on the product!!

Bye for now!  I’ll go an add more products

A Woolly Weekend…….

We’ve got a very woolly weekend coming up at Little Houndales Knits…..

Knit and Natter at Little Houndales Bungalow, 12 till 4pm on Saturday

Woolsack Cushion Stuffing Event 9am till 6pm on both Saturday and Sunday………If you haven’t knitted a cushion but would like to participate by helping to stuff a cushion that someone else has knitted, please do come along…..I have volunteered to take 50 knitted but not stuffed cushions to finish…….all help will be very welcome!

Knit Today Magazine yarn review, mainly for the knit and natterers but anyone coming to stuff a cushion who would like to have a go, you will need to knit a 10cm square with one of the yarns we are reviewing and then give your opinions on how you like it etc! The yarn review will then appear in Issue 10 of Knit Today!!!

So come on knitters, lets get together and enjoy the wool!!

LittleHoundalesKnits (@LittleHoundales) has shared a tweet with you

We’ve got a busy weekend coming up at Little Houndales Knits….this weekend we have 3 fabulous events!!!! -… http://t.co/YiypTwVi — LittleHoundalesKnits (@LittleHoundales)

LittleHoundalesKnits (@LittleHoundales) has shared a tweet with you

This weekend @WoolsackUK stuffing station here at LHK ! — LittleHoundalesKnits (@LittleHoundales)

The new Website!

Well it’s nearing the time when all my hard work loading products and images on to the website will be deleted, courtessy of Microsoft.  As I mentioned in my previous post, as from the 1st May, everything will be hosted on the new 365 platform and everything on ‘live’ will be deleted.  I’ve been working with a company to build a new site which when it’s ready, will be much better than the old one.  I could have rebuilt the old one, exactly as it was on 365 but if I was putting in the time to rebuild it, I wanted to rebuild it better!  It’s not going to be ready by the 1st of May, we are going to have some down time.  We will still be business as usual and customers can contact me either on here, Facebook or Twitter or email (kath@btinternet.com) as I don’t know if I’ll still be able to access the Microsoft emails! 

I’ve lots of new products, the summer cottons are devine and the pattern support is fab.  If you haven’t had chance to pop up and have a look then please do call me and arrange a time to view and have a cuppa with me.  Our own yarn is now back from The Natural Fibre Company and I have to say, it is fantastic!  And that’s not because I’m biased, it’s because it is fantastic.  We’ve had 2 qualities spun – a 100% Suffolk X but this time worsted to stretch out the scratchy fibres and it’s made a big difference, the other is the 50:50 Suffolk X with Alpaca, 2 natural shades – Ivory and Grey and then 4 colours overdyed on the Ivory and Grey to give 8 dyed shades which are all gorgeous!  The majority is balled in 50g balls and will sell at £4.00 a ball for the Suffolk X and £5.00 for the 50:50.  I’ve started knitting in one of the dyed and I’m loving knitting with it, I’ve had a really frustrated couple of days – I’ve had a nasty knock with tonsillitis, so bad I couldn’t even knit!  I think my antibiotics are starting to kick in now otherwise I wouldn’t be blogging!

I tried to log on to my new website earlier but either the server is down or something as I keep getting an error page!  So frustrating with so little time to go before the old site goes down but not a lot I can do about it!!  I’ll try again later but I have so much to put on, it’s going to take weeks!

Anyway, time to do some knitting me thinks!

Shout if you need anything!

Kath. x

An exciting new website……….

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Well it’s been a while since I last had time to sit and write a blog post but today, I’m having a chill out day.  I’ve got lots of knitting done, I’ve put a rhubarb crumble in the oven and now I’m blogging!

I don’t know whether you’ve heard but Microsoft Office Live is disappearing at the end of April to be taken over by Microsoft Office 365, the new 365 incorporates various Microsoft Office products but the website platform is very similar.  When the change over takes place, any existing websites hosted on Office Live will be deleted….yes DELETED!  So, you have to manually rebuild the website on the new 365 platform, there is no option to bundle and carry it across all in one go so everything has to be done manually, page by page, picture by picture.  When I first heard the news of the changeover, I had a go at moving everything but I was a bit miffed that my domain name had ‘onmicrosoft’ between the littlehoundalesknits and the dot com, I thought, wow, what a mouthful.  I struggled with the how to transfer the existing domain name, there were instructions on microsoft but the pages and links they were talking about didn’t exist!  Then I thought, well if I have to rebuild the website, I want to build it better.  So, I set about rebuilding on a user friendly website host, only to find I was struggling to have enough space to fit all my products!  The shop space itself was limited to 150 products – well realistically, 15 shades of each yarn………I could only sell 10 yarn types!  So, dilema’s continued.  Then I had a long chat with a ‘techi’ person who is knowledgable on websites and it seems I am better with an e commerce website to sell the amount of products I want to sell, and so we are now taking that route……I’ve got someone coding up a template right now and I’ll soon be loading it up with products!!  I trully can’t wait, I’ve got so many new products to add to the website but its hard to add them to the existing site knowing it’s going to be deleted in a few weeks.  At the moment, our ranking in the search engines is really low too, I think thats something to do with google etc being aware of the microsoft status and they’ve de-prioritised us!  We’ll soon be putting that to rights with the new site!  So hence if we’re not ranking in the search engines, there’s not much point spending lots of time adding new products……I’m better off hanging fire and going in all guns blazing with the new site!  The new site will probably .co.uk, at least until microsoft will release it in October when the registration needs renewing!  I don’t mind being .co.uk, after all, we are in the uk!

So, what’s new…….the Malabrigo is new but has been added to the website, other’s not added include Rumba Fantasy, Bergere de France Ideal, Angel, Magic + and Cocoon.  I’ve got Lorna’s Laces due any day, blocking wires have been added to the website, I’m putting an order together for Namaste Bags…..loving the lime, peacock, hot pink and eggplant!  I’m getting Monroe, possibly Messenger, and all the accessories cases!! I’m increasing the range of shades in some of the existing yarns….more have arrived in the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, more Noro shades and of course the new Louisa Harding ranges and shades!

I’ll be back soon with more info and updates about the new website, bear with us in the transition…..it will be worth it!!

 

 

 

 

A bit of a story…….

Little Houndales Knits…….Calling all Knitters!

 In June of 2010 the sheep were being sheared, masses of springy, fluffy fleece fell away from the sheep to be then rolled into a bale and bundled off destination unknown.  As an avid knitter, the urge to create with this fleece was overwhelming.  I had been out of work on long term sick for 3 years and felt incapable of ever having any drive or ambition ever again but a glow of creativity sparked inside.  My husband (the shepherd) thought my idea of sending the fleece to a spinners and getting our own yarn was a crazy idea but went along with it, I assume because he saw an enthusiasm he hadn’t seen of a long while.  Three months later, 2 large bags of knitting yarn, spun from our own Suffolk Cross sheep arrived.  I set up a website, I applied to the Farmers Market and I decided to complement the yarn with an exclusive yarn for children’s garments and some fancy knitting needles and accessories.  The venture continued to gather pace and the enthusiasm and passion of knitters for ‘nice yarns’ was inspiring, demand exceeded supply and I took on stock of several popular but ‘hard to get’ yarn brands.  In January 2011 I held the first of our ‘knit and natter’ sessions which has proved unbelievably popular.  Knitting in general has made such a massive comeback, ex-knitters are picking their needles back up, existing knitters are bursting with creativity and non-knitters are wanting to learn to knit!  The knit and natter sessions that we hold once a month are bursting at the seams and it’s either a case of build an extension on the house or find a venue and with this in mind, I approached The Kings Head at Nafferton, which has recently re-opened under the new ownership of Guy and Claire Mayger, they are a lovely couple, very warm and welcoming, they have very tastefully modernised the place giving it a warm and homely feel with a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, a perfect venue!  Clare was delighted to support the local knitting community and has agreed to open the doors to knitters every Wednesday from 1pm until 3.30pm, the session will be just as relaxed and informal as the knit and natter groups at the Farm (which will continue alongside), there is no charge and no membership, it really is a case of turn up and knit and have a natter!  Of course, the option of a lager or a latte is yours and the baguettes may just prove too tempting, but for those you’ll need your purse!

I will run an informal ‘knit clinic’ in the session where I will be able to offer advice on ‘most’ knitting queries and I’ll happily set you off and give free tuition from the basics of learning to knit through to cable’s, lace and intarsia.  There will be a small display of yarns and patterns available to see and the use of the free WiFi at the Kings Head means I can take the laptop and you can browse through our virtual stock on the website which you can order from or purchase on the day.  We even run a system where by you can buy a ball a week to budget for those more expensive projects!

Our stock of products is now huge, we stock yarns from Debbie Bliss, Noro, Lousia Harding, Araucania, Mirasol, Opal, Lorna’s Laces, Adriafil, Bergere de France, Malbrigo and MillaMia, we have patterns to support all the yarns and we also give you the opportunity to browse the massive database of patterns available at Ravelry, an online community for knitters and crocheters where you can download patterns (many of them free!) and you can browse a database of projects and see how the sweater you want to knit looks on someone a different shape and size to the models in the pattern books!

We really do hope you will pop along, there are no time restrictions, come when you like and go when you like so long as it’s between 1pm and 3.30pm on a Wednesday!  First session Wednesday 28th March 2012!!! 

For more information contact:

 Kath Foster

www.littlehoundalesknits.com

01377 255093

or find us on Facebook – Little Houndales Knits

Hjertegarn Lima!

It’s now on the website!  Hjertegarn Lima is the yarn in which the sweater made famous by Sarah Lund in ‘The Killing’ is made.  It is 100% Peruvian wool, is surprisingly soft and has a good twist for good stitch definintion.  I have in stock Natural, Cocoa Marl, Chocolate, Charcoal, Black and Red.  At £2.75 for 5og ball with the pattern FREE, it’s a steal!

See www.littlehoundalesknits.com/hjertegarnlima.aspx

Louisa Harding Grace Hand-Beaded

I have now got most of the shades in stock of the Louisa Harding Grace Hand-Beaded, several shades of Grace and Grace Hand-Dyed and also the pattern support in Three Graces and Fade to Grey.

Grace is a luxurious blend of Silk and Merino Wool and the Hand Beaded version is just beautiful.  Hand-Beaded can be used to knit a complete garment or to just add a luxurious edge to something!

The pattern support in Three Graces and Fade to Grey range from small 1 ball projects to garment, there are some of the most delightful hat and fingerless mitten patterns I have ever seen!

Rumba Sparkle!

Rumba Sparkle has arrived!…

Rumba Sparkle is the same type of ribbon which opens up to make the lovely frilly scarf but it has a fine gold lurex thread running through.  It is soft like the Rumba – the lurex doesn’t have the same ‘scratch’ that you get with some yarns. 

It comes in 8 amazing colours from subtle cream and gold to vibrant purple and with fushia pink! 

I’ve also added some instructions on How to Knit a Rumba Scarf!