ZENTANGLE

Do you do Zentangles?

Our friend Jo has just directed us to www.zentangle.com

A website in America, where they give a doodle a better name, and you can 'study' it with a lesson plan and a 'kit' and everything! Patterns like verdigogh, opus, paradox, jonqal, and cadent,  you probably drew when you were young, but never knew it had a name clever name!

It's repetitive and beautiful and satisfying and a healthy way to leave the world behind, which makes it important.

SCHOOL OF EVERYTHING

This morning was sunny, so I spun on the street, where words always are.

I met a lady called Mary, who runs "School of Everything" www.schoolofeverything.com

It's a school where you can learn anything anywhere. She's put PYF on the map, and gave us a lovely sticker that says

"THIS IS A SCHOOL"

You can learn whatever you like, where ever you like, whenever you like, by following the link above. 

So what do you want to learn?

If I can teach you anything, just let me know.....

BONBONKAKKU

There's nothing worse than having a design in you head and not being able to create it. The other Rachel came for tea last night, and we were discussing our new summer dress wish list and she mentioned this brilliant website....

http://bonbonkakku.com

Bon Bon Kakku invites you to submit designs for your fantasy fabric, and then they go up on the site and you and other designers will vote on each other's designs. If you win the most votes, your cloth will be printed and not only can you buy it by the meter and make the dress or curtains you always wanted, or never knew you wanted, but so can everyone else!

what a good idea....

SHEEP OF THE WEEK

This week, we are loving the Black Welsh Mountain sheep. Louise is from Wales and she drew this picture of a fully grown Black Welsh Mountain sheep, which has very tight black curls a bit like Tom Jones. In fact, these darlings have been breed for centuries by the Welsh monks to be as black as can be, and very tasty.

Louise says it rains a lot in Wales, but if the sun does shine, it turns the wool a red / brown colour, otherwise known as Cochddu (red/ black)

I have to say, the Black Welsh Mountain is the best smelling yarn in the shop, probably because it comes from the mountains where they roam free, just doing their own thing.

(We sell sherling BWM Ropey and DK for 80p / 10g. )

PS> Oh and they have black mouths and tongues too...BAAAAA!

LEG UP ON THE SPINDLE

Louise has just calculated that if she spins 13g of yarn on the drop spindle, every morning whilst having her breakfast and waiting for the bathroom, she can make enough yarn for a small cardigan in just over a month. 

Tomorrow night at the late opening of the Museum of London, Louise will be rolling the drop spindle on her thigh, and teaching the joys of the most ancient of textile crafts. We will have ' Three Bags Full And A Spindle' kits for sale. 

INSTANT PORRIDGE

One of our knitters, Fleur, has a solution for our hectic haberdashery routine.

Grasshopper Instant Porridge is saving our mornings. You might think we are lazy not opening until mid day but while you are waiting for us, we dash around on bikes doing all our other jobs and sometimes miss breakfast. To stop my hunger, I put Fleur's bio-degradable pot in an old sock, pinned onto my handle bars, and armed with a spoon, I can stuff it down at the traffic lights or on quiet roads. Yum. Order porridge pots from www.teamgrasshopper.co.uk

GONKS

Thank you to Tower Hamlets Occupational Health Group for donating lovely set of patterns and old buttons. We especially love this pattern for Gonks. 

There's a different pattern for each member of the family, but they are all basically as follows.

They used Dk on 4mm needles.

MAIN PART (3 sections alike)

Cast On 6 sts. Inc 1 st. each end of first 5 rows. (16 sts.)

Inc 1 st. at beg. of every row until there are 22 sts., then inc. 1 st. each end of every 3rd row until there are 36 sts. ** work 40 rows. * Dec. 1 st each end of next and every 3rd row until 22 sts. remain. Work 2 rows. Dec 1 st. at beg. of every row until 16 sts. remain. Dec. 1 st each end of next 5 rows. (6sts) Cast Off. Join 3 pieces tog. to form a round, leaving an opening for the stuffing. Stuff firmly and close the opening.

ARMS ( 2)

Cast On 15 sts. K. 20 rows. Cast Off.  Fold arms in half and join side and cast off edges, stuff and close opening.

HANDS (4 pieces alike)

Cast On 6 sts. k.5 rows. inc. 1 st. each end of every row until there are 18 sts. K. 3 rows. Cast off 5 sts. at beg. of next 2 rows. k. 5 rows.

Next row - k. 4 turn and k. 10 rows on these sts.  Cast Off. Join yarn and k. 8 rows on rem. sts. Cast Off. Sew hands tog. in pairs, stuff lightly, stitch to arms.

  

FEET (4 pieces)

Cast on 2 sts.  Inc. 1 st. each end of first 3 rows  Inc 1 st. at beg. of every 6the row until there are 12 sts. K 5 rows. Next row - * k. 3, turn and k. 3 rows on these sts. Dec. 1 st. at beg. of next 2 rows. Fasten off *, rep. from * to * 3 times. Sew feet tog. in pairs, leaving an opening, Stuff lightly and close opening.

If you can knit this, then I don't need to type up the patterns for all the clothes, because you are clever and could make it up yourself. Or...just pop in the shop and we will photocopy the whole thing for you...