Taking it nice and sloe....

When Gerard appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh Show last month ( a now legendary TV moment) he met Jonathan from Sloemotion. This small company, based in Yorkshire, handpick sloes from hedgerows and steep them in vodka, whiskey and gin to make their gorgeous, syrupy drinks. G sampled some live on the show and it was only a matter of time before it arrived, by the case load, at IKL. G has been sampling all week (in the interest of customer service, of course) and can safely say it's worth the £15 a bottle price! We'll be dishing out shots at the Christmas party next week. Yesterday, we had some friends over for a Christmas lunch (our flat is so small it's nice to have a knitting shop to do this in!) and the sloe gin and champagne went down a treat, alongside G's famous salmon en croute. It was a lovely afternoon, and we got our first handmade card of the year courtesy of Hannah - you can't beat a bit of glitter glue and plastic diamante.

The 'sloe' pun is slightly misleading as, actually, we are both knitting furiously having left Christmas pressies too late yet again. I've just finished the Chulo hat in Artesano Hummingbird alpaca for an old friend, Ann (can't show a pic cos she reads the blog and it'll spoil the surprise), Gerard has started a shawl for his stepmother-in-law in the new Habu stainless steel and silk laceweight (below), and I'm now working on a really cheesy Poodle wine bottle cover from Erika Knight's New Knits book (although I've seen this particular pattern in many an old knitting pattern book from the 60s and 70s.

Of course all this means that my own Cobblestone Pullover by Jared (from IK Fall edition) will probably have to wait until the New Year, although we are going away to Spain for Christmas so I could start whilst lounging by the pool! In fact, Jared's a bit of a favourite at the moment, Gerard is working on the amazing Koolhaas hat too. Could it be for my Crimbo? Mmmm, probably not. Looks like my Secret Santa at work will be getting a quick knit Rowan Big Wool chunky scarf too so there's lots to be getting on with over the next week. I must remind myself to take my knitting along to the knitting group at The Cock this week - last pub meeting I grabbed my bag and discovered on arrival that I was both witless and knitless.

Our Sunday ended in the same way as many of our nights seem to end these day - in the Vauxhall Griffin. It's our local and it's a great antidote to going home and being sensible. If the Aspall's blush cider wasn't enough we are now completely addicted to the Carry On Quizzing game on the quiz machine....oh, and we get a few rounds of pool in too....

Son of Stitch 'n Bitch is here!

I have, right now, in my sweaty little hands one of the only copies in the UK of the new Son of Stitch 'n Bitch book! Oh yes, it's here, and it's brill. We have shipped over a special batch of copies exclusively for the UK SnB Day on November 10th - you'll be able to get the book there first before anyone else, and ask Debbie to write her name in it too. But before then, is it worth it? Of course, we're going to say it is...but it really is. As a man who knits it is genuinely frustrating at how little there is in the way of fashionable men's knitwear patterns in just about every knitting magazine. Sure, most of them pay a passing nod and include maybe a boy's or man's pattern per issue, but only one, and even then they are generally pretty bland. So it is with honest excitement that I say the book is full of really sexy, gorgeous stuff (and that's just the models. Ho ho). I was walking down Oxford Street just the other day, looking in the window of BHS I was disappointd to see the usual contrast - the ladies knitwear was stylish, interesting, textured, cabled, sexy....the men's knitwear was plain, brown, bland. Why?

For obvious reasons I can't scan the images and post here but believe me if you're a bloke, or if you have a bloke, there will definitely be at least one thing here that you can knit.; from really simple hats and scarves, to socks, stylish and silly. For the more experienced knitters there are some great sweater patterns, including my favourite the Ernie sweater, by Andrew Steinbrecher in bright day-glo stripes (sounds hideous but I love it!) and a really sexy white cabled jumper by our old pal Heather who we met last year at I Knit London. Of course, Jared's stylish smoking jacket stands out too (Jared I hate you, you are a crafty genius!) All this, and cushions shaped like beer bottles, 'beer gloves', beanies, hats, caps and more, plus Debbie's 'Lucky Socks' with dice motif...now you have no excuse why you can't knit your man something for Christmas this year, and I have no excuse not to do more knitting. There are genuinely loads of things here I'd love to make, with 45 patterns in total, both knitting and crochet.

Debbie will be holding a workshop at 10.30am at the SnB Day to work on the Argyle scarf featured on the cover of the book. We expect this to be oversubscribed, so we plan to choose ticket numbers for this workshop beforehand at the show. It seems the fairest way! And, if you're still waiting for your tickets they are in the post as we speak!

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