Hello and welcome to our Halloween newsletter ...
Well, actually it hasn't got much to do with Halloween - it's not spooky and it doesn't mention witches or black cats (well, only a little).
Our title is from a quote by
H L Mencken, a US journalist of the first half of the 20th Century famed for his pithy comments (more later).
Now,
on to business!
This month we have
- John Clayton charts from Heritage Crafts
- Another re-released Lavender and Lace pattern
- New Nora Corbett patterns
- A sampler from Needle Work Press
- Halloween (there, I've said it) at Hawk Run Hollow
- Hardanger kits from Permin
- Printed Cross Stitch
- What's happening in Canada?
- Bargain Basement: Mini-kits
Charts and Patterns
Heritage Crafts have released some of
John Clayton's Collections as
charts -
Dancers,
Flights of Fancy,
Flower Panels,
Internationals and
Power and Grace. We are happy to order any of these. The kits are still available should you prefer to work that way.
Lavender and Lace have re-released
Miss Cherry Blossom is the latest design by
Nora Corbett of
Mirabilia Designs «
she wanders through a tranquil lush garden ...»
We are collecting
new pattern from Needle Work Press based on an original sampler by a girl called Jannet Speirs, she couldn't resist buying it. Her grandmother shared a name with this girl and both were Scottish although born a century apart. Anne's grandmother was an accomplished needlewoman knitting, embroidering table cloths and her speciality was crochet but we don't believe she ever worked a sampler!
We finally managed to get copies of
hardanger kits for Christmas a gift card wallet, bookmark, biscornu, pin cushion and scissors case.
Anne has been trying out a
printed (as opposed to
counted)
cross stitch kit from
Needleart World. These no-count cross stitch kits have coloured squares some with symbols, printed accurately on Aida blocks with a key along the edge of the fabric. Unlike printed needlepoint canvases where the printed colours match the wools or cottons used, these kits have brightly coloured contrasting printing. When the stitching is complete you wash away the temporary printing leaving only the stitching plus the permanent background. It's colourful and works really well!
The
Koi Carp project was very successful so we're planning to add more of these to our catalogue.
Stranded Cottons and Dye Lots
Anchor stranded cottons now come with batch numbers on the skein labels, as do
DMC stranded cottons. If you place an order for several skeins, we'll try to make sure that they come from the same dye lot.
Canada
If you don't live in Canada then you can ignore this section!
A lot of packages to Canada - especially the west - have been severely delayed recently. The east seems largely unaffected. There are conflicting reports as to the cause of the considerable delays but we believe they're due to a new Customs facility at Vancouver into which packages go, never to be seen again. We have been forced to add transit insurance to all Canadian orders but those in the east can claim a refund (but not after despatch!).
We strongly advise customers in the west of Canada not to purchase anything at the moment as delivery times are unacceptably long. We are constantly reviewing the situation and we will remove these restrictions as soon as we are sure the normal, very good service has been resumed.
Bargain Basement
There are mini kits in our
Babayaga by Nimue Fee Main of France which comes in chart and kit formats.
We hope you and yours enjoy your Halloween celebrations. We ourselves will turn out the lights and start looking for that black cat.