We still can’t get enough of those delightful striped shawls. There’s still Color Affections underway, and we can now report a surge in Pauline Popiolek’s Cameo.

It’s a lovely knit – mostly garter stitch, with a lovely garter lace border and a little flirtatious picot edge. We’ve got two in the shop at the moment, the first in Hedgehog Fibres Sock, and it reminds us of marshmallows:

The other, made with Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply, is a shade more sober – a well-made caffe latte, perhaps.

And we’re fairly certain that there’ll more like these on the way, so we’ll keep you posted. We’d recommend that you keep an eye on the FO Parade thread in our Ravelry group (and don’t forget to post your own finished objects there – there’s prizes!).

As of the time of writing, the sun’s shining over Dublin out of a cloudless sky, there’s a Bank Holiday weekend within hailing distance, and people are talking of cooling drinks after work. So we’re thinking of airy summer garments in bright colours, and as ever, Louisa Harding’s come up with the goods.

That’s Oakley up above, one of thirteen patterns in her new Jesse pattern book. It’s quick and satisfying, with just enough interest in the lacy yoke to spice up the knitting and enough soothing stocking stitch to speed you along.

It’s made in Louisa’s new Jesse cotton yarn, which comes in a torrent of summery colours and which has a lovely firm ply. It’s a DK weight, so it’s versatile as anything.

And if Jesse and Oakley suggest a theme, then you’ve guessed right: there’s a distinct Wild West air to this collection, with Miss Kitty and Annie also starring in the line-up. So why not hit the trail and cast on?

We’ve shown you the amazing work of clareblove here before, most notably when we featured Speziale, her wonderful Latvian Garden Baby Blanket last year.

Well, she’s done it again. This time we’re in awe of her Tír Chonaill, which is a combination of several of our favourite things: Clare’s knitting, Studio Donegal’s delicious Soft Merino and Kate Davies’ clever and beautiful design.

Unlike Speziale, this blanket is unlined, and that means that you can see the admirable evenness of the stranding on the reverse of the knitting. This sort of work is less complicated than it looks, because no row uses more than two colours at a time. What’s more, all of the work is knit and there’s no purling involved.

The lack of purling comes from knitting the blanket in the round as a large tube. When it’s done, the tube is cut open vertically and opened out. It’s a process called steeking, and it’s much less complicated than you’d think. A bit of careful preparation and a deep breath, and it’s triumphantly done before you know it.

The exact technique used for Tír Chonaill is Kate Davies’ Steek Sandwich, and it results in the lovely plump borders that you can see in the picture above. (You’ll remember that Kate gave us a workshop on this technique last year.)

If you’re interested in learning to steek, then get in touch with us. Lovely colourwork cardigans and jumpers done completely in the round, with the front and sleeve openings snipped confidently open? It’s huge fun, and once you start it’s very hard to stop, as Clare has happily shown us.

We’ve already shown you that Debbie Bliss Luxury Silk DK works beautifully in accessories. We’ve now got evidence that it makes gorgeous garments, because this sample just went on display in the shop. It is Delfina, from the Luxury Silk DK pattern book.

The yarn’s a delight to work with, and the smallest size takes six balls, with the largest taking just nine.

And just look at those wonderful summery colours! A beautiful garment in the most luxurious fabric imaginable – what more could you ask for?

Well, decent summer weather, obviously, but we can’t help with that part.

If you’re looking for a perfect marriage of yarn and pattern, then may we commend this beauty? It’s Sivia Harding’s Heart to Heart Beaded Scarf knitted in Debbie Bliss Luxury Silk DK, and it’s lovely.

First, the pattern. It’s a very straightforward crescent-shaped shawlish scarf, knitted from one end to the other, with a clever and straightforward lace panel on one side, a garter stitch panel on the other, and the most satisfying selvedge edge we’ve seen in a long time. The lace is lightly beaded (we used a beading technique we hadn’t tried before, with complete success, which we’ll blog very, very soon).

Now, the yarn. It’s simply delicious. It’s like knitting with velvet. It’s got a beautiful sheen, and the gentle ply makes it comfortable to work and fast through the hand. The colours are a joy, and at 100m per ball, the yardage is very good. We can’t wait to work with it again, and we’re thinking of special occasion garments. Lisa’s Winterberry Shrug would seem obvious (but if you’ve got any other ideas, please tell us in the comments). The whole Heart to Heart took just under four balls of the silk (that’s 195g out of 200g) on 4.5mm needles, so it was fast to work too.

A lovely pattern in a beautiful yarn. with a touch of beading? Yes. That’ll do.

Every so often, a pattern appears which is just so worth making – for its cleverness, for the pleasure of working it, for the loveliness of the final object. Veera Välimäki’s Color Affection is one of them.

We’re simply entranced by this shawl. It’s so easy to knit and the finished object has to be seen to be believed. There’s currently three of them on display in the shop, not including two that were given as Christmas presents, and there’s several more planned.

The entire thing is made in garter stitch, so it’s perfect TV or travel knitting. The shape which fits so comfortably on your shoulders is made by cunning use of short rows, and the colour changes (ours are all made from Malabrigo Sock) come alive in your hands as you work.

So if you’re looking for a simple, satisfying project, 7,305 knitters can’t be wrong. That’s the number of Color Affection projects in the Ravelry database as of the time of writing (there’ll probably be more when you read this!).

And in the last day or so, we’ve been dreaming of a long line of these, photographed in the lovely light of the Powerscourt Centre. Could we make this happen? How many could we all make between us?

Well, Christmas is upon us: the shopping’s done, the wrapping’s almost done and the rest will be done tomorrow. That picture’s a fair idea of what we’ll be up to until the New Year begins. Unsurprisingly yarn, festive food and armchairs will feature prominently.

So we had a quick survey of what we’re relaxing with, patternwise. Lisa’s going for Golden Wheat with Malabrigo Rios in Jupiter – you might remember that she did Folded by the same designer earlier this year and loved it (we blogged about it here).

Jacqui’s making the dotiest little toddler’s baseball jacket from Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino Book Four. It’s the top right picture here (awwww….). There’ll probably be a shawl or two as well – watch this space!

Nadia’s making an In Leaf cardigan, also in Malabrigo Rios. There’s at least one Pax shawl planned as well, and the Portulaca cardigan whose sleeve you can see above will be finished (oh yes it will!). Portulaca’s a lovely example of the magic that Carol Feller works with cables, so we can’t wait for her workshop on charts and cables in February.

That’s a lot of crochet and knitting, so we’d better buckle down. A mince pie and a big pot of tea will help as well, of course. But before we go, season’s greetings to every one of you – we hope it’s all you could wish for and more.

The shop’s been echoing in the last few days to one sound: “Awww!”. The cause, you won’t be surprised to learn, has been this baby jacket, made recently by Lisa.

It’s a present for a little baby called T, whose mother is herself a fantastic knitter (we’ve marvelled at her projects on these pages before). It’s a free pattern on Ravelry called Snug, and it knits up fast in plump squishy yarn (Debbie Bliss Rialto Chunky is perfect, and comes in lots of happy colours).

It’s a terrific little knit – it’s entirely made in soothing garter stitch, but it’s kept interesting by an unusual sideways construction. It’s almost entirely seamless, with that cosy hood grafted to avoid an uncomfortable seam against a little head. So if you’re looking for something dotey that’s also fun to knit, then you couldn’t do better than Snug.

So welcome, baby T – the world is a better place now you’re here!

A final note to say that we’re open on December 22rd with our usual Saturday opening hours (10.30am – 5.30pm), and on Sunday 23rd from 1.00pm to 6.00pm. We’ll reopen at noon Wednesday 2nd January, ready for a whole new year.

We’ve been hit by a sudden dusting of snowflakes here! They’re all over the place, and they’re the simplest and most festive things.

It’s all because of this excellent book, which we’ve just got back into stock in time for Christmas. It’s called 100 Snowflakes to Crochet, by Caitlin Sainio, and it’s just that: a hundred pretty, easy to crochet and versatile patterns for six-pointed charm.

The patterns are both charted and written, and they use the UK terminology that most Irish crocheters are familiar with (though if the UK/US distinction needs any clarification, we talked about it last year in this post).

The book includes many ideas for using your snowflakes – in mobiles, appliquéed to accessories or as home décor, joined together to make stunning lacy scarves. There’s also seasonal uses on gift tags or greeting cards.

But we’ve got a wee trick to show you: how to make one of these beauties into a very simple decoration that would look splendid on the Christmas tree, or make a sweet last-minute gift.

All you need is your small crocheted snowflake, a simple wire bangle (we got ten for €1.50 in a chain store), plain white sewing thread and a sewing needle. For our flakes, we used Petra No. 5 crochet cotton in pure white, but they’d be so pretty in bright colours too.)

Thread the needle and run the thread through one of the points of the flake, and then round the outside of the bangle:

Continue like this, lashing the snowflake to the bangle. We found that twelve attachments to the bangle worked better than six, but this probably depends on which snowflake you’ve chosen.

When you’ve attached your snowflake, pull the thread tight enough to hold the flake firmly in the centre of the circle and fasten it off. And there you are: the small start of a blizzard.

Actually, we mean this last part. It’s really, really hard to make just one. And then it’s hard to make just ten. They’re fast and they’re easy and we just don’t want to stop!

But here’s some important news to finish: we’ll be closing at 6.00pm on Sunday next, December 23rd, and re-opening at 12 noon on Wednesday January 2nd, all ready for another year of crafty and fibery fun! So make that list and check it twice….

It’s so easy to get dazzled by choice at this time of year – either by what to buy in the first place or what colour to get. Well, we’re on the case, and the answer, we’ve found, is kits!

Whether you’re buying a present for a loved one or for someone else, we’ve got convenient little packages all ready for you to give. Each of them contains the yarn and the pattern for one of our very own designs, in a sturdy little gift bag which could go on to be a project bag in its own right.

There’s the Ringend Cowl, in luxurious Malabrigo Silky Merino – a simple piece of straight knitting with an ever-so-easy frilly edging:

We’ve got several versions of the Party Lace Scarf, in a variety of Debbie Bliss Angel yarns, and some of them even come with beautiful Swarovski crystals to sparkle along the edge (we have a handy tutorial for beading the edge here).

Debbie Bliss’s lovely mohair/silk blend gets used again in the Slushy Cowl with Louisa Harding’s delicious Grace:

A perennial This Is Knit favourite is the Scribble Lace Stole – it’s been featured on TV, it’s been knit all over the world and it’s had pride of place in many wedding outfits. We have kits for it in yet more Debbie Bliss Angel with Noro Mossa providing the flash of contrast.

Just room for one more: we’ve got the Glenties möbius cowl in Mirasol Api, a soft-as-anything alpaca/wool blend.

If you’re considering a present for a knitter who would like to expand his or her skillset in 2013, then we have lace and möbius knitting classes in the New Year, as well as beginner and intermediate classes. What would make a better gift than the materials and the class together? You can find details of all our classes over on our booking page.

And if you’re looking for a gift that will keep giving long into 2013, may we suggest a subscription to the Irish Indie Dyers’ Lace Club? Exclusive, hand-dyed yarn from Irish craftspeople: what could be better?

(Of course, if you’re a knitter looking for a gift, then you might want to leave this web page open on the monitor….)