Working in a yarn shop is a lovely job and we really enjoy helping our customers to choose yarn and inspiring them with new ideas.  We also love to see the finished projects.  Here are a few that you might like.  

Bev recreated the Honeycomb Blanket using Silver Lining instead of Toasted Almond and Gina used Bashful Blue instead of Mellow Yellow.   Considering each blanket only makes one change from the specified Stylecraft Bellissima colours, they look so different -- The original is shown as well which uses Single Cream, Toasted Almond and Mellow Yellow.

We'd love to see more of finished projects, so why not pop over to our Yarnmanglers facebook page and add some of  your own.
Honeycomb Blanket Pack with exclusive, hand finished bag and stitch marker  

On a hot, sticky day like today, when you don't feel like working on your projects, what else can you do.  Why not take the opportunity to find out about the online community that calls itself Ravelry.

We love Ravelry and use it constantly as a resource both for ourselves and for the shop but lots of our customers have never heard of it.  If you are one of the uninitiated, here is a beginner's guide.

• To use their own word, 'Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, weavers and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, project and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.'
• So how do you access this feast of fibre-ey goodness?  Just join!  To do this you go onto the website and click on 'create an account' at the top right of the screen.  Choose a username and password and you are in! 
• That's all you have to do!

So now you are a member, what next?

• Don't worry about spam -- we've never received any on our personal accounts or the shop's and our details have been secure.
• Fill in your profile details and friend other Ravellers  (the shop's username is AmmoniteYarns, so send us a friend request first!)
• Use your notebook (accessed at top right of screen).  Here you can keep records of your projects, your stash and  your library of patterns.  You can create a queue of projects you would like to make and keep notes about yarns you would like to make them with.
• Trawl the pattern database.**  There are almost 400,000 patterns available as Ravelry downloads, many of them free, so you can find almost anything you would like to make.  When you find a pattern, you can check the projects already made for the design and see how it turns out on different shaped people and in different yarns to the specified ones.
• If you have a pattern but can't get the yarn, you can look it up in the yarn database and find all the details so that you can substitute.
• Go on to the Forums and find out what other Ravellers are interested in.
• Add your own designs to Ravelry so if you are a budding (or experienced) designer, you have a platform for your sales.
• There's loads more you can do but you'll need to join to find out!

We always have Ravelry up on the shop computer and on the tablets so you can browse patterns here and as many of them are available to buy in-store so you can you pay us for the pattern, give us your Rav details, and let us do the rest.


** warning --  you can get 'lost' on Ravelry for hours and may spend more time online than crafting!

I'm sure you all remember our Honeycomb blanket pack which we launched at Wonderwool this year.  We've crocheted up some sample honeycombs in different colours and sewn them together in sets of nine to show different colourways.  At the moment they sitting in our window making a lovely summer display together with some crocheted bees just for fun.  Later we will make seat pads for the chairs in the shop from the samples but in the meantime why not come over and take a look.  The pattern and yarn packs are always available but we have a limited number of bags and stitch markers so pop over to our store page and grab a pack before we run out! 
Honeycomb Blanket Pack with exclusive, hand finished bag and stitch marker