We have a stand, in the Square at the wonderfully woolly Woolfest 2011 which takes place at Mitchell’s Lakeland Livestock Centre, Cockermouth, Cumbria CA13 0QQ on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th June 2011.

It’s a great show where you can see everything from rare breed sheep and angora rabbits to different types of spinning wheels to loads of gorgeous yarn and wonderful people.

Last year there was delicious ewe’s milk ice cream on sale and entertainment from Northumbrian (correct me on the regional nomenclature if I’m wrong here readers) clog dancers and hurdy gurdies. There’s something about browsing and buying yarn when you can smell that heady aroma of the animals they come from. Maybe it’s because I’m now a city lass hankering for the countryside. Who knows? But it’s a great show and well worth a visit.

If you are there be sure to visit us in The Square where our marvellous volunteer Mary aka Beanz52 has given up her free weekend (plus all the time organising beforehand) to run the stand for p/hop. If you visited us last year you will see we have lots of new patterns, nine to be exact and as usual you can have a good look at our samples, all lovingly made by our Ravelry group members, to see which patterns take your fancy.

Two new p/hop patterns, Molly Weasley's Gift Socks and Tzenni Socks

I’d like to say in advance a BIG THANK YOU to the organisers of Woolfest for their continued support of p/hop. I hope everyone has a great show.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
See where else p/hop will be over the summer here.

If you would like to host your own event please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

The lovely people who run Affinity Yarns are holding a Charity Open Day on Sunday 12th June between 2pm and 6pm.

Please see the flyer below for more details. There will be tea and cake as well as knitting. Yum yum.

See where else p/hop will be over the summer here.

If you would like to host your own event please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

I designed these socks in Cambridge and from the first I thought of them as ‘Cambridge socks’. The travelling cables remind me of the gentle meander of the river Cam around the backs of the colleges. My sample socks were knitted in a colour that is almost Cambridge blue (a sort of strange greenish -grey). But I am an Oxford girl through and through, and I wanted to reflect that in the name of the socks too. The official designation for a Cambridge degree is Cantab. (short for Cantabridgiensis), but in Oxford we always scathingly refer to Cambridge students as Tabs. So, when you are feeling kindly towards these socks, you may call them your Cantabs, but when you want to throw them across the rooms in frustration, they will be Tabs, spoken with all the scorn of an 800 year old rivalry to back you up!

The pattern has been designed to fit as many different shapes and sizes of feet and ankles as possible. The rib gives it lots of stretch, the heel flap and the horseshoe heel turn give some extra room, and the travelling cable adds interest to the pattern. The construction of these socks is somewhat unusual and there are times when you just have to blindly trust the pattern, but I promise it works.  I would say that this pattern is intermediate difficulty.
I hope you all enjoy knitting and wearing these as much as I enjoyed designing them.  You can download the (Can)tab pattern here and don’t forget to make your donation to p/hop too.

P.S. Thanks to Ruth (Grandy on Ravelry) for her beautiful photo of her gorgeous (Can)tabs.