Cultivating Comfort — Books, Bags, and Brooches to Make it All Better
This week is a week for comfort. For community. For crafting. With so much uncertainty and so much hurt in the world, we stitchers are so lucky to have the ability to put everything aside, even for a short time, and simply make something beautiful with our hands.
There’s nothing quite as good for the soul as an afternoon with friends, and that’s just what we’re going to indulge in on Saturday 23 November, when Dee Hardwicke and Jonna Helin join us in the shop for a meet + greet to celebrate the launch of their new book, Cultivate. This event is free and open to everyone, and there’s no need to book. We just want to open our doors to as many of you as we can!
To say these two women are masters of their craft would be a woeful understatement. Jonna, one of the creative geniuses behind Laine Publishing, has a lifelong love of knitting and more than 25 years’ experience in the publishing business — the last eight of them at the helm of Laine. Dee is one of the designers we admire most, and we’ve absolutely adored having her nature-inspired work in the shop over the years. Cultivate effortlessly combines the best of each of these artists for a truly unique collection. Dee’s botanical patterns are the perfect match for Jonna’s timeless garments, and the creative techniques they employ (most notably duplicate stitch embroidery or Swiss darning) bring their designs to the next level.
We love this collection so much that we’ve made a kit for one of the 20 incredible designs, the Rose Scarf Kit, which features some of our favourite yarns: La Bien Aimée Merino Singles, Madelinetosh Merino Light for the original colourway, and The Uncommon Thread BFL Singles for our exclusive Loop version. This is one of those patterns that lends itself so well to a kit because it’s mostly one main colour with some sharp colourful accents. Instead of buying four full skeins of yarn, we wind off exactly what you’ll need of the main and contrast colours so you don’t end up with awkward partial skeins. The kit includes 1 and 1/3 skeins of the main colour and small cakes of the two contrast colours. The kits are on preorder now and will be live ahead of our meet + greet, where Dee will be doing free demonstrations of the Swiss darning embroidery technique that is used for all of the shawls in the book.
We’re just thrilled to welcome Jonna and Dee, and to share their wonderful book with you. The book and our kit are available now, and all the details of our meet + greet are up on the website. No need to reserve a place, just stop by!
In addition to Cultivate, we’re welcoming two more really wonderful books to the shop this week. Also out from Laine Publishing is 52 Weeks of Chunky Knits, the latest in their series of books with patterns to last you a whole year. Plush and cosy, these knits are perfect for ultimate comfort. And since bulky yarns knit up so much faster, this is the perfect book if you haven’t yet started on your holiday gift knits.
Another new volume by Maja Karlsson celebrates one of the most versatile items in any wardrobe, Cardigans. From winter warmers to light layers for breezy summer days, the cardigan always has you covered, and Maja’s 20 designs are sure to spark your imagination!
Just Arrived from Re:Designed!
We’re so happy to have more gorgeous goods from Re:Designed arrive this week. The Project 14 case is all about interchangeable circular needles. With dedicated spots for 18 tips of different sizes and six snap tabs for cables of different lengths, you’ll never be without the needle you need. Plus the case includes compartments for little bits and bobs, whether you want to keep a few stitch markers with your needles or carry accessories like needle grips or tightening keys. Accordion-style Project 18 has arrived as well. This is like a portable filing cabinet for all your knitting supplies. Intended specifically for needles and crochet hooks, there’s still plenty of room here for envelopes or slender pouches of haberdashery bits. Project 39 is your everything-but-the-kitchen sink option. There’s tons of room for yarn and WIPs, interior and exterior zip pockets, a needle organiser sewn into the lining, elasticated storage pockets with great capacity, and even an optional cross-body strap. You could probably even fit in one of the smaller needle organisers from the Re:Designed range!
This Sunday 10 November is our first Crochet SOS session! Just like our Knitting SOS sessions, this is an opportunity for you to bring your biggest crochet stumpers to the lovely Loopettes for some free assistance. The session is open to anyone, and there’s no need to book. Just let us know if you have a particularly sticky situation you need help with, and keep in mind that these aren’t full crochet lessons, just a bit of assistance to get you un-stuck. If you can’t make it this weekend, we’ll have another session on 19 January 2025!
Holiday Hours & Last Shipping Days
We’re honoured to be part of so many of your holidays, and to make sure you can get everything you need, we’ve added some extended hours and provided advice on last shipping days for destinations worldwide. First up, we’ll be open until 6:30pm on Friday 22 November to celebrate the Angel Central Christmas Lights Switch On event, which takes place that day from 4pm to 7pm. Then, On Wednesday the 27th, Thursday the 28th, and Friday the 29th of November as well as Wednesday the 4th, Thursday the 5th, and Friday the 6th of December we’ll be open an extra hour and a half in the evenings, until 7pm.
During the holiday season, our recommended last posting dates for overseas and UK orders help ensure your packages arrive on time, but unfortunately due to the large volume of holiday mail, there’s no way for us to 100% guarantee your item will arrive in time. We have the following advice from our shipping partners on when you should arrange to have your items posted by:
Royal Mail UK Tracked 48: 18 December
Royal Mail International tracked and signed services
- 4 December: Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Romania and Sweden
- 6 December: Czech Republic, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- 9 December: Austria, Denmark, India, Lithuania, Philippines, Qatar, Slovakia and Slovenia
- 11 December: Belgium, Canada, China (People’s Republic), Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, South Korea, Thailand and USA
- 13 December: France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Pakistan, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan
We’ll also be closed for some days over Christmas and New Year to allow our staff to relax and celebrate. We will be closed on weekdays during the weeks commencing 23 and 30 December, but open the weekend of 28 December. We’ll be open as usual until Sunday 22 December and then again from Saturday 4 January. For more information on our opening hours and more, see our Visit Us page.
Enjoy every stitch
*Main image courtesy of Laine Publishing
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