It’s nearly 2018 and knitters and crocheters online have started talking about yarn diets again so here are our guidelines for sorting your stash.

Three Steps to Slimming Your Stash
​
Step One:  Sort Your Stash
Make three piles:  Keep; Discard; Unsure

Step Two:  Sort Your Keep Pile
Divide the pile into projects.  See what you can make with the yarn and bag it up with the pattern.  Ravelry can be a real help with this (ask us how?).  You might retrieve yarn from the unsure pile to make up projects here too.  Any unretrieved yarn goes on to the Discard pile.

Step Three:  Get Rid of the Rest *
Donate to charity crafting groups, your local school or charity shop or bring it to a stashbuster session.  De-cluttering your yarn stash will feel so virtuous particularly if it has gone to a good cause.

You have now got rid of your stash and instead have a queue of projects which you can put it in order and add to as you wish.  You know what you have and what can be done with it so when you next visit your local wool shop you can buy with a clear conscience that you have space in your house and your head for this project.

* Getting Rid of the Rest
Donating and charity shop options are simple.  Another option is to go to a stashbusting event. Keep an eye on our website for details of the next one here.


Congratulations -- You have now achieved your Stashbusting New Year Resolution and the diet is no longer necessary!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day.  It's now that kind of slow time between Christmas and New Year you might want something other than food and drink to fortify you!  We are in the shop between Christmas and New Year so if you need some knitting or crochet to keep you going we will be open between 10 am and 3 pm.

You might also be thinking of your New Year Resolutions and plans.  If craft is on your agenda then we have lots of workshops planned with some new skills offered this  year too.  We will be offering knitting and crochet classes for all levels and Eva will be back to share her felting skills.  New to us for 2018 will be Gina's Spinning Workshop -- that's spinning fibre not the torture offered at the gym!

So if you want to learn a new skill in 2018, take a look at our workshop pages.  You can also give us a call if you want to arrange bespoke classes.  

If, like me (that's Jenny, not Ruth!) you are exceptionally unorganised when it comes to Christmas, then you may have a few more bits and pieces to sort out. 
We can help!
Our selection boxes offer a taster of different yarns and come in different price ranges.
We can put together a yarn pack for a garment for you and we already have some on the website.
You could buy a course so that the New Year can herald in a new skill -- we have knitting, crochet, felting and spinning courses and workshops lined up.  
And if you just can't decide, then what about a gift voucher.
We'll be open until 1 pm on Saturday or you can buy via the website.
​

We've finalised our Christmas Opening times -- we will post on facebook and the website if any of these change.

Saturday 23 December we will be open as usual from 9 am till 1 pm.
Sunday 24, Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 December we will be closed.
Wednesday 27, Thursday 28 and Friday 29 December we will be open from 10 am till 3 pm.
From Saturday 30 December our opening times are back to normal (Tues to Fri 9 am till 5 pm and Sat 9 till 1 pm).

You can order from the webstore at any time and we will,l pack and post the orders within two working days (Christmas posting times allowing).

It's the time of year when crafters go into overdrive in readiness for Christmas Fairs.  Ruth and I (but mostly Ruth) have been busy crocheting  for her son's school in Cardiff including Candy Cane Cosies, Hair Scrunchies, Hair Bows, Bookmarks and Phone Cosies.    Ruth will also be taking yarn kits, project bags, shawl pins and felted Christmas ornaments plus, especially for Rudolph, some biodegradable reindeer food.  

I'm a bit of a chocoholic so have always loved receiving selection boxes at Christmas.   I'm a  'yarnaholic'  too which led me to think about lovely it would be to receive a yarn selection box or even better a yarn and chocolate box!  So Ruth and I have put together a collection of boxes different price brackets and for knitters, crocheters and chocolate lovers.   The boxes range from baby boxes, through, (yarn) cake boxes and skein boxes to luxury yarn boxes.  Take a look at our range for inspiration for the yarnaholics in your life.  Don't forget -- if you can't find a selection box, you can always go for a gift voucher instead.
Boxes below £25 have p&p added at the checkout.  Over £25 are free postage.  
​

It's that time of year when Pontyclun switches on the Christmas lights.  On Saturday there will be the switch on of the lights and the tree as well as the annual Victorian Fair.  Traders have been asked to decorate their windows so here is our Christmas display.  We thought we would go for a spinning theme so this is our take on Rumpelstiltskin.  Have a great time tomorrow!

​