Cafe Knit, 46 High Street, Lavenham, Suffolk, CO10 9PY



Cafe Knit 46 High Street, Lavenham, Suffolk, CO10 9PY

 I haven't blogged for ages.  And this is the reason why.  On Saturday 12th November we opened our first high street store in the beautiful historic wool town of Lavenham in Suffolk.

It all seems a bit of a blur now, but we were up till 2am the night before trying to stock the shelves.  there were still some empty gaps come Saturday, but none of our visitors seemed to mind.

We are coming to the end of week 4 and we have been manically busy, and we are still putting stock on the shelves !  I have a feeling that will never end!  We have a new member of staff, Kate, who is learning to knit and is well on the way to finishing her first scarf!

If you are in the area, please come by and say hello and have a delicious coffee (the best for miles around, so they say!) and cake whilst you browse our yarns and patterns.



On our opening day Saturday 12th November 2011


























The team; Jen, Mike and Me after a hard day (and nights!) work



Elladora Doesgood

On one of my recent forays to the village park last week with Dom, I bumped into a lovely lady, Amanda, who was walking three gorgeous and excitable whippets, much to Dom's amusement (the sight of them bouncing and racing everywhere caused a fit of giggling!!)

We got talking and I mentioned the impending launch of Cafe Knit on the high street in Lavenham, at which point Amanda dashed off in the direction of her house and came back minutes later waving a small yellow book.  It turns out she is the author of a lovely book Elladora Doesgood, which I have seen for sale in many little shops in Lavenham.  She is currently writing the sequel and one of the main characters in the book starts knitting!!  What a coincidence!

I have just begun reading the book; you can download it of buy it using the following link ; Elladora Doesgood .  Already I'm hooked and hoping Dom and Milly decide to have a lie-in (though it is a school day, so there's a limit to how far I can push it!!) 

Jarol Heritage 4 Py

More and more stock is arriving everyday as we expand our range, ready for the shop opening.  Today it's the turn of Jarol Heritage 4 Ply.  A hardwearing yarn, that wears and washes well, it is great for any 4-ply project and good value too at only £4.99 for a 100g ball!

KnitPro's are here!!

After a long wait my Autumn/Winter stock of the gorgeous KnitPro needles are here!  Delivered, unpacked and loaded on the website this afternoon, ready for purchase immediately.  Although with the shop opening soon, I don't see them lasting until Christmas!!  (I've already nabbed a pair of 7mm Symfonie Wood Straights for a shrug I am knitting for a friend in the new Debbie Bliss Riva yarn!)

My sister's coat

It's finished!  A beautiful coat for my beautiful big sister, who celebrated her birthday last week. A labour of love, as a friend aptly pointed out.

Knitted in the gorgeous Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweed Chunky yarn, I am so pleased I started knitting this in May, for completion in September.  The pattern was so complicated!  I was doing fine (back knitted up quickly, 6.5mm needles, my kind of knitting!) until I had to decrease for the armholes, when I just completely lost the lace pattern and the will to live at certain points.  It was only through sheer willpower and the help of my friend Paula from the Harrow Knitters that I completed this at all! 

I finished it off with two gorgeous vintage purple pear mother-of-pearl buttons.

Anyway, I hope my sister likes it; I thought it was perfect for walking the dog on a blustery autumnal day.

Tour of Britain Hits Lavenham!

Fantastic morning this morning,cheering on the Tour of Britain, which in it's 7th stage from Bury St Edmunds to Sandringham, came through Lavenham.

Sadly we didn't get much of a glimse at the cyclists as they were soooo fast!!

Lots and lots of sloes!

I have been very productive today (of sorts!) Dominic woke early again (6am) so I made the most of the time before school to make a pumpkin and carrot soup (courtesy of  half a homegrown pumkpin from Mum), clean the kitchen & hoover.

Mum and Dad popped over to supervise my sloe picking!  Having been the very grateful recipient of homemade sloe gin from Mum and Dad for many a Christmas, I was keen to make my own for Christmas gifts this year. The parents were slightly concerned that what I had seen on one of my many countryside walks were not sloes, so came along to check, just to make sure I didn't poison any close friends!

Anyway, we came home with a bumper crop, Dominic even helped, and ate some along the way, though he was keener on the blackberries!!

Watch this space to see how the sloe gin progresses.  I need to work out how much gin I need to buy now, although Dad has a more laissez faire attitude "You can never have too much gin, buy about 4 bottles.....!!"

Jarol Pure British Wool Aran

Cafe Knit are delighted to now stock Jarol Pure British Wool Aran yarn!  One of the first 100% pure British yarns to be commercially produced in the UK for many years (British fleeces, spun in Yorkshire) - it is utterly gorgeous!  It still smells of sheep!!

It comes in 6 lovely colourways - all natural, and it would make gorgeous winter jumpers and accessories (hats, scarves etc).  It is featured in this months The Knitter magazine too (issue 36), a stunning sweater design called 'Trail' by Kyoko Nakayoshi.

Hello Lavenham!

Well, it's been ages since I've blogged, but life has been so hectic recently!  The day after the end of term we went off camping in Cornwall for 10 days or so, came home and then less than 2 days later moved home and business from Harrow to the gorgeous village of Lavenham in Suffolk.

The fun doesn't stop there, as the house we have bought has a shop attached, which is being turned into Cafe Knit!  There is a lot of work to do, but we have already demolished two internal walls, so we can now begin in earnest with the shop refitting.

Here is the shop as it stands today......

The shop front is lovely, and I had a meeting with my signwriter today, which is all very exciting.  It's beyond my wildest dreams to take the logo my sister in law designed for the website three years ago, to a 'real' shop front!!!.  And the shop space itself is much bigger than I remembered, especially now we have taken down two partition walls.  Hopefully plenty of space for a spacious cafe and enough room to display all our scrummy yarns.....

I do hope if you are visiting, or live in Suffolk, you will stop by when we are open.  As well as a bite to eat and drink and browsing through all the fab things we have to offer, we will be running various classes too.

Cast on....and cast away stress

My sister kindly posted me an article by Sarah Stacey taken from 'You' Magazine (which comes with the Mail on Sunday) 15th May edition, entitled 'Cast on .....and cast away stress'

It confirms what we knitters have always known: knitting is a form of meditation, therapeutic, and a way to forget all about the problems of the day.

But it also mentioned the calming effects it can have for women with anorexia, the help it gives them in clearing their minds of eating disorder preoccupations.  It shouldn't surprise me, but I guess I had just never thought about it in that context.  It's a subject close to my heart as my 21 year old niece has an eating disorder, and our family is desperately worried about her.  I am going to speak to my sister and pack up a knitting parcel straight away!

Sweater Stone

We have just discovered this fantastic new product for removing all the pilling and bobbles from your handknits!

Sweater Stone is a natural pumice which has the unique ability to remove pilling from knits with each sharp edge of a broken cell. It actually cuts the filament that holds the pill to the garment while the cell breaks off, removing pilling and restoring the nap on fabrics.


Sweater Stone is made in the USA in sheltered workshops for the disabled and costs just £7.80

Vintage Mother of Pearl Buttons

I've always been a big fan of buttons, I can remember many a happy hour spent during the summer holidays sorting through my mother's button tin.  (my 2 year old god-daughter is currently sorting through my button tin as I type!) So imagine my delight when I took delivery of the first of many batches of these gorgeous vintage mother of pearl buttons. Although they date back from the 1960's, these buttons are only just seeing the light of day. They were originally from a button factory in Yorkshire, but the button holes were never drilled - in fact they are being hand drilled for me now.

The pictures just can't convey the fabulous colours and quality of these buttons - they are around 2mm thick and the colours are so rich, they would be a lovely finishing touch to any knitted garment, and we will have many more colours and shapes coming soon.

Clover Soft Touch Crochet Hooks

Happy New Year!  Oh my it's been so long!  The Christmas period was so busy I have had no time to stop and reflect.  And 2011 is proving just as hectic!


One of my New Year resolutions is to provide more and better products for crocheters, and to that end we have introduced Clover Soft Touch crochet hooks at www.cafeknit.com. 

Clover Soft Touch steel crochet hooks allow you to enjoy easy and ergonomic crocheting.


The light, easy to hold handle feels flexible in your fingers. Made out of stylish tortoise-shell looking material with large size numbers printed on the handle (both US and UK) making it easy to select the correct size.


Many people with arthritic hands find Clover Soft Touch crochet hooks very comfortable to use.
 
And now I just have to remember all the other new products I have introduced over the festive period!!