Today I went to a shop called Honor Parry.
http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/honor-parry-london#query:knitting%20shops
I had read reviews (see link above) that it was a lovely shop (old fashioned with shelves upon shelves of different types of yarn) owned and ran by a retired lady - Mrs Jones. The opening hours are not for long each day. Monday - Wednesday 10am - 1pm, Thursday 2-4, and they are also some Saturday's but I can't remember what the opening times are. The 344 and 44 buses (going southbound towards Clapham) stop right opposite the store on the left hand side of the road. The shop is on the right hand side of the road if you are coming from Queenstown road railway station.
I asked for some help straight away as i didn't really know what to look for. I told her I was a beginner knitter, and that i had gone into another shop but I felt the needles were too small and the wool, even though it was nice was not chunky enough for me to practice on. She pointed me in the direction of some cheap wool (I think around the £2.99 mark). The wool she pointed me to is 75% acrylic and 25% wool. I asked if she had any of same stuff but in black as I wanted to make some black and white scarves! She came back with a charcoal colour which I said would do.
Mrs Jones also asked me how I cast on. I told her I used the Thumb method (the method shown in the Stitch 'n Bitch book) in which she said "it's not a good way of casting on, and it curls up at the ends. I don't know why the young and trendy use that method!". She then proceeded to show me the 2 needle method.
The way to do it is, to create a slip knot leaving about 6 inches left at the end of the wool and put it onto the needle. Using the right needle, slip it through the hole in the slip knot - front to back, and underneath and create a cross. Using the yarn create a loop by putting the yarn round the needle anti clockwise. Bring the right needle back out of the left loop. Then put the left needle through the loop on the right needle, by bringing from the back towards the front. You should now have 2 loops over the left needle and still one over the right. Slip the right needle out of the loop that is still on there and tighten the yarn. I'm sure my explanation isn't great, so here's a link to a you tube video on how to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T43J_cYlSU
She then sat me down in the shop and using the needles and yarn I was going to buy and got me to practice. The yarn I've bought is a skein. It's great as you can keep the label on, and as mentioned before (in previous blog) if you dig around in the middle it pulls out nicely for you to knit straight from.
She had to show me twice how to do it, as I managed to get the first part but had quickly forgotten the second part. After I had casted on a couple of stitches, she had a look commented how it was looking and got me to carry on until I had done 19 stitches. I manged to do 20, which she didn't mind. Once I completed my casting on, she then asked me to start knitting using the knit stitch (also known as the garter stitch). I done a couple of rows and she showed me a tip on how to make it look neater.
Tip - Once you complete a row, look at your needle (The yarn at the end must be facing you), and to make the whole row neater and more even using the spare needle pull gently at the yarn in middle of the loops just below the needle.
I then knitted a couple more rows and didn't feel the need to stay in the shop for much longer. I could have stayed there until she shut as I'm sure Mrs Jones would have given me more tips. She was pleased with what I had done and complemented me on my work so far. I didn't know what to say so I ended up saying it's inherited, in which she said I think there maybe something in that!
There were a constant stream of customers (even a couple of male customers) coming through the shop and she makes sure she helps everyone. A couple of the customers that came in had been there before and she remembers them which is really nice! I can't wait until I'm next in the store to see her.
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