How to knit tinsel for Christmas.

When you think of making Christmas decorations you may recall struggling with glue paper and card.
However you can make fantastic decorations with sewing and knitting. We've shown you how to make an advent calendar, a Christmas bauble and how to use ribbon and cinnamon for a simple decoration. To knit  this tinsel we are going to knit a scarf almost, of 5 stitches in width. But with a little twist. I must stress I'm very new to knitting, and I suffer from "sausage fingers" and even I managed this project!

Now our wonderful COO has shown me how to make tinsel by knitting! you will need:
Can Can knitting yarn.
Double Knitting Pins. 4mm

Can Can yarn comes in a ball like other yarns, at first glance it looks like a thick cord.












However when you tease it open you find it's more of a ribbon of mesh.













Casting On
Casting on with Can Can is simple.
Just slide one needle through the yarn on one side.

 3 cm along the yarn slide the needle through the yarn again. DO this until you have the needle through the yarn five times. That's it, we've cast on, see, simple!

 The Knitting. 
Slide the second needle UNDER the first THROUGH the loop it's made in the yarn.

 Loop the yarn around the front of the first needle.
Slide the second needle through the yarn about 3cm along from the first loop in the first needle.

Slide the second needle around  to the right and poke the needle through the loop on the first needle again.

 Just like this. Slide this new loop off the first needle, it should now be on the second needle. Repeat this for all five stitches.

 Rotate the second needle and then wrap the yarn around the front. Then slide the first needle under under the second (which now has the stitches on) and knit as you did before.  And that's all there is to it.

 Keep up this process until you run out of yarn and you should have a beautiful length of tinsel, or indeed a scarf.

 These lengths of tinsel look beautiful in any colour, and make fantastic boa style scarves for the new year.










You can also knit up multiple lengths and twist them together for this beautiful candy cane effect.

Finally we have a video where I attempt to knit on film! As I've said before I'm VERY new to knitting but even I have managed this project!

We Love Rico Wool & Yarn

Over the last few months we have been working hard on our website.  The over all design has not changed much but we have been working on increasing our range including Steampunk Fabrics and Christmas Fabrics. We've also been changing how our wool and yarn is displayed in our virtual shop. Before each style of yarn was  categorized by manufacturer. However many people found having to go in and out of all the categories frustrating. Now all of the categories of yarn are on one page.

Knitting and crocheting  by hand is a fantastic way to spend the evening. You can chat, listen to the radio or audio books, watch TV and still have an amazing garment when you finish.
Many interesting effects can be achieved with Rico yarns and wools. So here's a rough guide to help you experiment over the cold Autumn  and Winter months as you knit on the sofa.

 Rico Baby Teddy Aran is a light and fluffy yarn perfect for projects for babies such as hats and fluffy cardigans.

Rico Big Moment is a soft and fluffy yarn. One of these giant balls makes a beautiful warm and soft scarf.

One of the balls would make a fantastic gift as all someone would need is a pair of knitting needles to go with it to complete a full knitting project!




Creative Can Can is an easy to knit scarf yarn. One 200g ball knits a long ruffled scarf.  Can Can yarn comes in solid colours as well as glittery colours and blended colours as well.  Again a fantastic early project or gift for someone keen to get crafting.

Rico Creative Cotton Aran. The crochet and craft yarn! Creative cotton aran is perfect for crocheting and knitting accessories and useful household things. Used to make cute animals and other stuffed toys.

Rico Creative Filz is a very strange but useful yarn. You can knit up a project quickly and then "felt" it by washing it in a machine. . This creates a sturdy fabric suitable for bags, hats and even slippers. You don't have to felt your project however.

Rico Creative Galaxy DK  is a double knit yarn with colour matched sequins attached along it's length  and self-stripping colours. This makes fantastic glimmering  shimmery hats and scarves.








Rico Creative Liesl.  The voluminous yarn with glitter effect. One 200g ball of creative liesl makes one beautiful scarf in brioche stitch. This yarn is especially easy to work with and is therefore perfect for beginners. The thin shiny thread gives the scarf an especially pretty glittery effect.







Rico Creative Loopy Pompon and Rico Creative Loopy Pompon Neon

A loopy yarn that also has small pompoms upon it. This makes a beautiful light weight scarf suitable for Autumn and Spring. I've also seen this worn as club wear when made in Neon!










Rico Creative Pompon Party and Rico Creative Pompon Print.
Pompon yarn can be used in lots of different ways: whether for knitting scarves and accessories or in crafting! When knitted into a scarf the pompoms swish about creating a beautiful sense of movement.
However the yarn can also be knitted to give a tight fabric of bobbles!




Rico Essentials Cotton DK.  A yarn made from 100% mercerised cotton. It is fine, smooth and has good definition. It is available in a wide range of shades all with a lustrous sheen. It knits to a standard double knit and would make an excellent replacement for more expensive cotton yarns.

Rico Essentials Merino is an ultra fine yarn renowned for being very easy to knit with. Suitable for both clothing and accessories.







Rico Fashion Fluffy.
The trendy faux-fur yarn fashion fluffy gets its name from its soft, fluffy feel. It is a yarn in in the trendy faux-fur look available in harmonious pastel tones and in great colour change patterns. One 100g ball makes a scarf.



Rico Fashion Métallisé has a long length and makes a very light knitted garment with a lovely metallic-effect.


And there you have it. A brief guide to our Rico Wools and Yarns. Even the most ardent sewing machine fanatic has to admit the knitting has it's advantages.  Remember the key to learning a new skill is to allow yourself to play. Many fantastic creations begin with simple "messing about".

Why do we love Rico Wool so much?

  Sewing and knitting are back in fashion (to my mind they were never out of fashion). People are starting to realise that creating your own clothes and accessories is without doubt the finniest way to express themselves. If you are tempted to take up kitting and crochet there are many knitting books and crochet books out there to guide you.

What many people  new to knitting and sewing may not realise is that you can create truly dazzling and unique things with only basic techniques. My waistcoats often receive compliments  but the pattern is basic, it's the choice of fabrics that sets them apart. And so it is with knitting. Rico do a huge range of yarns than enable to create breath taking tops, bags scarves, hats and so much more using pretty basic techniques. The secret is in the yarn!

Rico Creative Cotton
The crochet and craft yearn. Rico Creative Cotton is the yarn of choice for making household items as well as the popular Patchwork Family Crochet animals. knitting  as well as crochet. It forms a firm fabric with an even tension and is very comfortable to wear.

£1.99 for 50g

Rico Essentials Cotton Lurex
A fine cotton yarn, however this also has metallic lurex thread giving your project a glittering effect.

£3.69 for 50g

Rico Essentials Merino
An ultra fine DK (double Knit). Easy to knit with this yarn is renowned for giving very even knitting.

£3.99  for 50g

Rico Creative Pompom Print 
One of the more unusual yarns out there.  Useful for knitting truly unusual scarves or very cute tops and blankets.

Rico Creative Big Moment
Just one of these giant 200g balls will give you a beautiful scarf. The soft thick yarn subtly changes colour along it's length giving your work a soft cuddly and dreamy feel to it.

£14.99 for 200g

Rico Creative Micro Print
Another colour changing yarn. This acrylic yarn makes light and comfortable clothes  that are also easy to care for.

£4.99 for 100g




Rico Creative Reflection 
A light weight shimmering thread, available in regular or colour changing.
Clothes knitted from this thread take on a  beautiful  ethereal quality as the glimmer and shimmer in the light.

£3.49 for 50g

Rico Creative Filz Print
A strange little yarn. it has a very lose twist to it. Designed to be knitted up and the washed to turn it into felt.

£2.99 for 50g

Rico Creative Loopy-Pompom
Combining loopy yarn with pompom yarn.
Perfect for lightweight scarves for the spring and summer. In the brighter colours this also makes fantastic clubwear!

£6.99 for 100g


As you can see there are many types of yarn out there, each with their  own unique uses giving very different results. If you are new to knitting and crochet, or if you want to expand your horizons in the realm of crafting , we recommend just getting a few balls of yarn and playing. Playing around with fabrics and yarns is not only fun, it's the best way to learn and discover new techniques.

Knitting, Circler Needle or Double Point Needles?

I've been sewing for over a decade now and have lost count of the number of wedding dresses and waistcoats I've brought into the world. However I do occasionally have a go at knitting. Although as a bit of a nerd I tend to make Tom Baker era Doctor Who scarf when ever I can.

 Knitting did not always come naturally to me though. Before I only ever used wool on my loom,  for making medieval belts and cords.

After looking into knitting more I found out many of my friends are accomplished knitters (including many guys. Boys love gadgets and knitting is full of them).

One subject that has come up in knitting conversations regards two different techniques for tubular knitting. Some friends like to use a circular  knitting needles  others like to use a selection of double pointed needles. 

The Case for Double Point Needles.

When you first see double point needles you may be forgiven for wondering how on Earth you can use these to knit a tube. When  I first saw them I thought they were  beefed up toothpicks.

Double point needles are the traditional way of sewing a tube, such as  a sock. As many of my friends are historical re-enactors  they have chosen this method to knit socks and snoods. The needles are used to hold stitches in place whilst another needle is added for knitting more stitches.

Aside from just looking impressive there are some advantages over this older (and some may say trickier) method. 

Double Point Needles are easier to store

Double Point Needles offer you more control. Circular needles can normally only be used for one size of tube with a circumference  slightly larger than the needles you use. (there are ways around this, but they tend to negate the extra ease of using circular needles)

Circular needles don't tend to come small enough for socks.

Hints

If you are worried about the wool slipping off the needles then you can use commercially available stoppers (or make some out of corks). Whilst popping these on and off your needles can slow down knitting they can help someone new to DPN's to keep control of their wool. 

Learning DPN knitting and turning a heel at the same time may be daunting, so start making a simple tube scarf before going on to socks.

The Case for Circular Knitting Needles.

I have blogged about circler knitting needles before. (click here). A circular needle is in fact two needles joined together by a length of nylon or other smooth cord.

You can use these needles for more than knitting tubes. You can use the length of cord to help manage a larger flat panel as well as for knitting tubes.

Many people find knitting tubes with circler needles less complicated than with double points. The wool is certainly easier to control!

However as I  said before, smaller tubes such as socks need smaller needles and these may be very hard to find. 

In my opinion if you are making a sweater or other large project then the circular needles will give you constant and speedy results. However it is worth learning double point needle knitting for smaller tubes.

What do you think?

Our thoughts at the end of the year.

Of late these blogs have mainly been tutorials for sewing projects. However when they  began they also included views from and of the  textile world. This entry is our little wrap up of the year.

Gathered around a Christmas meal organized by our newly promoted manager,  we took stock of the last 12 months. We also spoke about how much we enjoy our work, and why we enjoy it. Good workmates obviously help, as does creative management. But there is also something inherently good about working in our field, mean people tend not to sew or knit. All of our customers are -by the very nature of requiring supplies form us- creative and imaginative. They all have a wonderful drive to create, to fashion something new into this world. This is why we changed the name of the shop 3 years ago. We used to be "The Remnant Shop" and under this name we carried similar  stock to what we have now, but we were well known for having a LOT of remnants. But we came to realize that what we stocked wasn't as important as what we enable people to do, and that is simply to create. Hence the new name Fabric8, we sell fabric to help you fabricate new things into our world.

  In the last 12 months our customers have been as creative as ever, and we've adapted to help them. We now stock much more knitting wool and knitting tools for instance. We've held sales and maintain a clearance section on our website to help people try out new ideas without so much financial risk. We now carry more woolen fabrics for the reenactors who visit  us.  For those who come to us to make smaller craft projects like fascinators and hats we have added more clips, feathers glues to our range.

We even stock daylight simulating work lights and magnifiers to make it easier to work where ever you wish.

  However this blog isn't just about our wonderful little shop, the shop each and every staff member is determined to make into the best fabric and haberdashery shop in the world. It is about you. This blog is read by people from all over the world, people who can't visit us in person. Some still visit our website, but you  don't need to order from us to use this blog. We're excited by the idea of people near and far becoming more creative and we see it as our mission to inspire and help them in every way. And so as Christmas comes near and the year draws to a close we ask this, how can we help? Feel free to ask for help with  your projects, if you're struggling others may be too. And please share the information in the blogs. And thank you for visiting us, whether it would be the website, the shops out there in the real world, our Twitter feed or our Facebook, we really do appreciate it.
Merry Christmas to you all, or winter festival of your choice, and a happy new year.

Circular needles
Circular needles are a pair of knitting needles with a piece of nylon or other smooth cord connecting them.
With a circular kitting needle you can can knit hats or snoods without the need for a stitched seam at the end.
Depending on the way the button bands and collars are knitted on a cardigan or jacket can also make a circular needle more appropriate.
They are available in different lengths depending on job.

40cm, 60cm, 80cm and 100cm

These are available in many different sizes of needles to cover the spectrum of different yarns.


Large number of stitches make it useful to use 1 circular needle as opposed to 4 standard knitting needles. e.g knitting a skirt or a yoke of jumper.

Although I have been knitting 30+ years it is only in the last decade have
I been more willing to use a circular needle and have found it is easier
in some situations.

The yolk of this silk sweater was knitted by the model  with a curricular needle 

One of the only drawbacks of using a circular needle is if you attempt to
use the wrong length. So as with all sewing and knitting projects, check and double check your measurements.

Remember, wool and yarns are available in our fabulous summer sale. Pop into one of our branches for some inspiration and get knitting.