Leave your Christmas Wishlists at Manfield Crafts
Ladies, you can now host your knitting and crochet wishlist at Manfield Crafts. Just pop in or telephone to record your wants wishes and needs so your family can buy something you really want this Christmas.
And, to make birthdays, anniversaries and Mother’s Day more enjoyable, you can keep your list updated throughout the year!
1/2 Price Artesano Superfine Alpaca 4ply
Manfield Crafts is offering our regular customers 1/2 price on Artesano Superfine Alpaca 4ply before the sale moves to our ebay shop in a fortnight.
This beautiful yarn is a popular, all-year-round staple for any 4ply project, so we are delighted to be able to offer such a discount on all our stocks of the yarn. The following colours and quantities are available:
5340 Brazil x 9 balls
C743 Fern x 4 balls
NZ95 Caramel Twist x 10 balls
SFN24 Demerara x 13 balls
£2.50 per ball
100% Superfine Alpaca; 24sts x 33 rows over 10cm; 3.25mm needles; 180m/50g
To take advantage of this marvellous opportunity, visit the shop or contact us via email or telephone.
Shop Closed 6th October
The shop will be closed all day 6th October while we swan off to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. We apologise to all our customers for the inconvenience and assure you we will open as normal from Friday onwards.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
Remember to put Manfield Crafts’ Macmillan Coffee Morning in your diary!
Join in the Mad Hatter’s tea (… Er, we mean coffee) party by wearing your favourite hat, embellished with something knitted or crocheted, and you might win a KnitPro chart holder. For those of you who blush at such tomfoolery, bare your head with our compliments and just join in with some applause.
We are also looking for donations to our raffle. These should be along knitting or crochet lines, such as a knitted pair of socks or sock blockers or some stitch markers. Anything is welcome. As a start, Rowan has donated a year’s membership to it’s International Club as our 1st Prize and Laurie-an has knitted a shawl in Louisa Harding’s Grace as 2nd Prize. Other prizes will be numbered.
For those of a more general crafty bent, we will have a table full of cooked or sewn goodies – again, donations are welcome – for sale on the day.
Finally, to prevent everyone having to think of what to bring to knit while sipping tea and coffee, we will have a Lucky Pattern Dip. All patterns follow the tea party thematic, but what you will actually pick out is up to Fate.
Emily Holmes Workshop
Ladies, two places have opened up for the Beautiful Snoods workshop with Emily Holmes on Saturday, 8th October. For those interested, Emily will be taking us through various methods of lace and bead work, which will result in lovely and very wearable snoods for each and every one of us.
The day begins at 10am and finishes at 4pm. Lunch is included in the cost of the workshop, which is £50, as is all refreshments throughout the day.
UFO Day: 13th September
Fed up of seeing that unfinished project peering up at you from the depths of your knitting bag? Need an incentive to bring it out into the fresh air and finish it? Well, join us for our UnFinished Object day for an all-day, dedicated knitting session, full of laughter and high spirits to urge new life and love for that sad little pile of wool.
As places are limited, any who wish to attend should contact Emma or Laurie-an to reserve your seat immediately. The day begins at 10am and finishes at 4.30pm, with a charge of £5 plus a contribution to the picnic lunch. Refreshments throughout the day are included.
See you there!
Debbie Abrahams Workshop 7th September
Due to a cancellation, a space has opened up for Debbie Abrahams’ workshop on 7th Sep. Participants will learn colour- and beadwork, pick up handy knitting tips and techniques from an expert, and laugh from start to finish.
Contact the shop for details or to confirm your place.
Macmillan Coffee Morning 2011
Manfield Crafts will again be helping Macmillan Cancer Support raise funds with its World’s Biggest Coffee Morning 2011.
For all those who need inspiration for knitting their Mad Hat, pop into the shop and browse the library shelves for ideas. Alternatively, dig out that 1970s hat you wore for Cousin Muriel’s wedding and knit flowers, insects or objects to sew onto the brim. No idea is too wacky or strange; the theme for the day is, after all, mad with a capital ‘M’.
Likewise, any ladies kind enough to knit something for our raffle, let Emma or Laurie-an know so they may plan for the day. Things to knit would be up to you, but the above notice includes a few suggestions. In advance, we thank you.
New Arrivals!
New in last week were three gorgeous yarns from Rico and one from Louisa Harding. If looking for an autumn project for yourself, it will prove difficult to choose between any of them. While each has its own particular characteristic, all are feminine, delicate and have a little something that smacks of indulgence.
The first is one half of this year’s Louisa Harding delivery. Grace has a lovely silken sheen, which is hardly surprising as this yarn is a silk and wool blend. A DK weight, as well as beautiful garments, it is ideal for knitting shawls and long, lacy scarves. Especially ideal when the second half of the Grace delivery arrives. This will be a complementary finer weight yarn with beads woven into the strands to make a string of girly goodness.
Can you just imagine this as the fringe or edging to a beautiful Grace shawl? Yes, one’s on my to-do list, too.
From the three arrivals from Rico, we must straight away blow the trumpet of one: Romance. This is an aran-weight mohair mix that, while not set to rival Kidsilk Haze, is a serious contender for those who balk at Rowan’s price tag. At just £3.99 per 25g, Romance will encourage more people to use mohair in their garments. It feels a tad coarser, not having the silk content that Kidsilk Haze has, but one can ignore that when it’s more than half the price. The colours Rico have chosen for this range are beautiful. No other word will suffice. From a gentle dark cream, through a soft terracotta and duck egg blue, to anthracite and black, there is surely one shade to please everyone.
Then there is the Cashlana. The stress here is on the first syllable, with the yarn comprising a blend of cashmere and superfine merino. We can well imagine there are some readers drooling already and we will encourage that reaction in more by revealing a price tag of £3.50 per 25g. For cashmere? That certainly brings cashmere within the reach of the average purse.
The palette is small and geared towards the baby clothes end of the market, but with a mid grey added, a pair of fingerless mitts or socks is another to-do project for this winter.
Lastly from Rico is their newest chunky weight yarn, called Galaxy. Several of you have already earmarked this as the perfect winter yarn. And it is. Similar to the Poems range, this chunky is strong, a warm wool, and a perfect blend of subtle shading. This one, though, has the added bonus of sparkling sequins woven into the strands.
At £5.50 per ball, this is another yarn that suits most pockets, making that warm winter jumper a possibility without having to cut back on shoe/handbag money.
Success at Fibre East!
Thank you to all our customers at Fibre East — both old ones and new ones!
The first Fibre East wool show was a huge success for all who participated, with plenty to arouse the interest of everyone there – from the touch-friendly alpaca yarns to the Must Have knitting and crochet kits. Of course, we will also remember the Aussie sheep shearer, who talked us through negotiating the Blue Faced Leicester’s bikini line. But for us, it was seeing the wonder when eyes alighted on our stall. So many complimented us on our range of Fyberspates, Herdy, Toft Alpaca and KnitPro, that we couldn’t help but return the pleasure with a wide smile of our own.
So thank you, everyone, for making our first show enjoyable and such a success. Let us hope for the same for next year.
