STOCKIST PROFILE - Ribbon Circus

Every so often we like to bring you an interview from one of our lovely stockists, as we firmly believe that the first step in keeping our local yarn shops alive and thriving is making sure you all know about them!

Ribbon Circus in Hebden Bridge is a crafters paradise that has recently expanded into bigger premises and is now filled with even more delightful fabric, delectable yarns and a dazzling array of ribbons and buttons. As dedicated (some might say obsessive!) crafters themselves, Helen and Caroline can almost always offer advice, pick up dropped stitches and help winkle out the meaning behind even the most difficult to read pattern!

1) Thanks so much for agreeing to feature on the stockist profile. Please introduce yourselves and your lovely shop!
Helen and Caroline bought Ribbon Circus in 2011 it was a really lovely small shop specialising in gift wrapping, ribbons and haberdashery. Amy, the previous owner, had just started to sell yarn. Helen had a ‘proper’ job in Bradford and was still earning from her DJ job too. She was trying to give up both when this opportunity came along. Running a small retail business proved to be immensely hard work but increasing the yarn and fabrics side of things increased the shop’s popularity. The move to bigger, more lovely and more central premises was a bit of a make or break move really. Happily it seems to be going well and the increased space means that Helen and Caroline can run more workshops and events in their amazing workshop/lounge.


2) How do you go about choosing brands and products for your shop? There is a vast array of beautiful yarn available now, so what is it about a particular yarn that persuades you to carry it?
Helen chooses most of the stock and is responsible for the day to day running of the business. “I choose yarn brands and products if I like them, I really only buy good quality yarns, things I would like to use, colours that I like, patterns that I would knit, I know that sounds a bit selfish but if a product is gorgeous or local or natural or beautiful or a combination of these things I know people will like it. Caroline often says the worst that can happen is that we have to use it up ourselves! Bummer!”


The new shop front is filled with fun bunting and some very tempting looking yarn!

3) What is your favourite MillaMia product and yarn colour?
The Aran in Cherry Red or Emerald Green - no red! . . . er or green. Too hard to decide!

Helens beautiful cable cardigan in Cherry Red Naturally Soft Aran - perhaps red really is her favourite!

4) Do you run any workshops or a knitnight?
Crafternoon Tea on the first and third Sunday of each month. 2-4pm. An elaborate afternoon tea and all the knitting, crochet and crafting you can fit in between feeding your face with delish locally made cakes and cheeses.


5) What is the strangest/funniest request you’ve ever had?
“I’m making these boots for my neigbours’ dog that’s allergic to grass…”
“Can we borrow your workshop table for our contortionist to perform on at the weekend, please?”


6) Tell us something unusual about yourself.
Every year my brother and I dj to 10,000 people in a large marquee on the opening night of the V Festival at Weston Park, Staffordshire. I once cleaned Princess Anne’s bathroom. I am a keen Lindy Hopper.

 

The annual lamb day ensures plenty of cuddles - although Popsy the cat doesn't look too impressed

7) Lastly, if one of our readers has never been to your shop, what is the one thing that you offer that means they should?
If you have never been to Ribbon Circus then you really should! There is a riot of colour going on, it is bright, light and we are cheerful, experienced knitters with an opinion on everything and usually the answer to anything. We love wool, we love creating beautiful things and we think you should too. We believe that the only thing that can improve an hour or two knitting something lovely from the finest quality yarns is a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake (gluten free).

You can find the shop at 18 Market Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 6AA and the phone number is - 01422 847803. You send the girls an email at info@ribboncircus.com or find them on Facebook and Twitter.

(posted by Max)

Midsummer - a Scandinavian tradition

It was Midsummer on Friday 19 June this year.  We Swedes love Midsummer - to us it symbolises the start of summer.   Although when you are living abroad it sadly does not quite hold true as our schools seem to go on forever - way into July - before we can start relaxing. In Sweden school finishes already in June.

Midsummer represents the longest day - and in Sweden this means almost 24 hour daylight - it barely gets dark. For that reason it is fantastic to celebrate this nice event in Sweden every now and again.

This year we were all in England - however our design assistant Tanya is half Finnish and was lucky enough to visit Finland for Midsummer. We wanted to share some of her gorgeous pictures. We are half tempted to visit Finland rather than Sweden this year as a result!

Posted by Katarina, Photos from Tanya

TUTORIAL - 3 Ways To Cast Off

The final few centimetres of knitting always seem to take longer than the rest of the project put together don't they? Like staggering over the line having run a marathon, or losing those last 2 stubborn pounds to reach your target weight - the end in sight but needing one last push to achieve ultimate satisfaction!

We knitters know, that finishing one project often means beginning another that is likely very similar to the one we've just completed - that familiar combination of knit and purl, rows or rounds, increasing and decreasing. Nevertheless, beginning and ending projects is always momentous and that final act of casting or binding off is another area that bears some careful consideration.

Like casting on, there are multiple ways of casting off - each with attributes suitable for particular garments, stitch types or decoration. If your pattern hasn't stipulated what type of cast off to use, it's worth having a few techniques in your Knitters Arsenal with which you are familiar enough to select and create the perfect edge.

The most common cast off is the Standard Knitted Cast Off which uses the knit 2 sts, pass the first st over the second method to securely fasten off all the live stitches. It's important to keep this final row fairly loose so that you don't end up with a tight, drawn-in edging that won't fit over a head, hand or ankle! It's difficult to say just how loose these stitches should be, but as you get more familiar with casting off you will get a 'feel' for it without casting off so loosely that you end up with a flared edge.

Standard Knitted Cast Off

 

 

1) Begin by knitting 2 stitches. Next lift the first stitch (this is the one nearest to your hand holding the needle) on your right needle over the second (this is the one nearest to the pointed end of your needle). Don't pull tightly! Knit another stitch from the left needle onto your right so that you again have 2 stitches on your right needle and repeat the lifting first stitch over the second. Continue to end. To secure the very last stitch after all other stitches have been cast off, cut your yarn leaving a tail of 10cms and pull this end through the loop.

 

 

2) The picture on the left shows the cast off completed with each stitch knitted. On a ribbed edge you may prefer to knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches as you come to them - the picture on the right shows how this looks.

Some knitters find that the Standard Cast Off really doesn't give enough elasticity to their finished edge and so the Decrease Cast Off is a great alternative - just as simple to execute but resulting in a much more stretchy edge. It's perfect for the top ribbed edge of socks, or roll neck sweaters, cuffs and ribbed welts. As an extra tip, if you know that you are a tight knitter and whatever type of cast off you use tends to be rather tight, then go up a couple of needle sizes - it will force more yarn into the stitches and so create a more elastic edge.

Decrease Cast Off

 

 

1) The Decrease Cast Off works by knitting 2 stitches together and then passing this stitch back to the left needle in order to knit it together with the next stitch and so on. When you come to the last stitch, cut the yarn and pull through the last loop.

 

 

2) You can choose to knit the 2 stitches together through the back of the loop or through the front - each gives a different look to the finished edge. The picture on the left shows the stitches knitted through the back and the right shows them knitted through the front.

One of my favourite cast off methods is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Sewn Bind Off which creates a beautifully neat and stretchy edge that is incredibly versatile and can be used to finish almost any garment or accessory. I've found it particularly useful on the top edge of fingerless mitts as it gives just enough stretch to get them on, but is also nice and stable so that the edge holds its shape. This method uses a tapestry needle - as the name suggests, it is a sewn edge - but remember that you will need to cut your yarn at least 3 times the length of the edge you want to cast off.

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Sewn Bind Off

 

1) Cut the yarn 3 times longer than the length of the edge you want to cast off and thread onto a darning needle. For the first step, put the needle purlwise through the first 2 stitches on the needle.

 

 

2) You can see the yarn holding these 2 stitches still on the knitting needle. Next put the darning needle knitwise back into the first stitch and lift this off the knitting needle.

 

 

3) In the left hand picture you can see the stitch just lifted off at the beginning of your cast off edge. Carry on in this way, putting the darning needle purlwise through the first 2 stitches on your knitting needle, and then the needle back knitwise into the first stitch and lifting it off until you come to the end.

 

 

4) You can see the cast off edge clearly and just how stretchy it is in the right hand picture!

As ever, there are many more cast off methods than I can mention here and it's worth doing some research to find some of the more obscure ones. Youtube will show you how to work a Tubular Bind Off to match your Tubular Cast On to create the ultimate, invisible professional edge, a Suspended Bind Off, various Picot Cast Offs to make the edge a little prettier or an Invisible Ribbed Bind Off as well as a plethora of others. Which one you choose, is up to you!

(written by Max, posted by Katarina)

Beautiful Butterflies

With apologies that we are a week late with the post (already missing Max's efficiency and whip cracking on blog posts!) we wanted to share a quick update from TNNA. Ideally we would have posted this last Friday as we arrived in Columbus - but at the moment crafting a blog with photos via an IPAD on the road is beyond my technical capabilities. A goal for the future instead.....

Exhibition centre Columbus

Segue tour - something you don't see in Europe!

TNNA was fantastic this year again. We are always impressed with the professionalism and spirit in the US yarn market and this proved to be the case this year again. We exhibit in the booth next to our US distributor Classic Elite and really enjoyed the camaraderie of being part of this bigger team. With an amazing team of sales reps across the USA working with Classic Elite has really helped us grow our US presence and it was wonderful to spend time with the many shop owners now stocking MillaMia who visited the show this year.

Helena hard at work pinning up the backdrop

Having won the 'best booth' award last year the pressure was on for Helena to come up with another brilliant concept. And she did not disappoint. Mixing the current trend for colouring in with her source of inspiration for the jewel like colours in our Aran yarn palette she came up with the beautiful dot to dot Butterfly background. Ably helped by our design assistant Tanya they brought it to life stitching in Ochre, Magenta, Cobalt, Emerald and Cherry Naturally Soft Aran yarn.

Free Milly Pattern is always popular

Beautiful Butterfly

The backdrop earnt us lots of compliments and was a real talking piece which is what we had intended. I was also thrilled it could be packed flat in our suitcase and was relatively easy to construct on site once Helena and Tanya had already done all the hard work in the UK before we left!

The finished booth

TNNA is also an opportunity to catch up with friends from the UK community who were also exhibiting or visiting. We bumped into Verity from Baa Ram Ewe and Titus Yarns already on the plane on the way into Columbus (and again on the way home!) and also Jenny from Fyberspates, Rachel (Rachel Coopey knits). I also enjoyed getting to know Carol Feller a bit better during a quiet part of the show.  It's not just the independents that visit from the UK however - established operators like Ramsdens, Bretts and Sirdar are also making big inroads into the US market which is a great testament to our industry.

Catching up with Rachel Coopey and Jenny from Fyberspates

Finally a super breakfast with 3 of the most amazing knitwear designers from the US - Michele Wang, Olga Buraya and Bristol Ivy. It was so nice to spend some more time with these amazing women who are forging brilliant careers combined with their love of knitting. Their technical know how and perseverance and dedication to their concepts really sets them apart. Even more importantly - they are great company!

Helena and  Bristol Ivy

Breakfast with Olga

This is one of Olga's latest patterns that is just beautiful - the Asanagi wrap:

Asanagi Wrap

Next year its Washington apparently. A change will be fun - although we will miss Columbus and the friends we stay with.

Posted by Katarina