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We feature regular blog posts about all things knitting and alpaca, not to mention guest blogs and interviews with our knitters, knitting techniques and news.  If you’d also like to receive regular free patterns and exclusive Toft offers click here to sign up to receive our newsletter.

 

 

 

 

               

* click here for more information, advance tickets & to preview the marketplace…

Well we did promise a photo so here we are wearing our alpaca pom pom hats for Age UK.  The actual Wear Your Woollies day is tomorrow ,10th Feb but as it's so cold here in Warwickshire, we've started wearing them today and will probably live in them until this cold snap disappears!  Rob managed to chop Kerry in half in this pic so here she is wearing her pom pom hat en piste earlier this month.

Will you be wearing a woolly hat tomorrow, not only to keep toasty but to raise awareness of Age UK's spread the warmth campaign?  Remember you can always share with us photos of you in your woollies via facebook or Twitter.

Now that the Christmas and new year chaos is behind us (although the mince pies that Shirley keeps bring into the office are a constant reminder - particularly for our waistlines) it's time to get down to some serious knitting of our own.  Not only are we working on the new designs for the Spring collection but we've actually got time to do some knitting of our own - for ourselves - I know, amazing!!

Carrie for example has cast on the Toft Stripy Jumper and is already wondering if the 3.25mm needles are going to get the better of her. It's her knitting style to have at least 3 projects on her knitting needles at anyone time and although that is sort of the case right now (a pair of ugg style slippers 3/4s finished, and a new pattern for an intarsia baby-growbag 1/3 on the way) but a new years resolution to finish one project at a time and use up the huge stash hidden throughout the house is causing some her some guilt about casting on anything more!

Which made us think.  We all have different knitting styles just like our tensions. Kerry is project in an evening kinda girl - any longer and she's not really interested.  Big needles, thick yarn, finshed!

Myra (she of Toft Alpaca Stud fame) has rediscovered her love of knitting, clicking away over the Christmas period. So much so that she's missing it now that her projects are finished.

So what's yours?

It's that time of year when those who love to ski and board are dusting off their kit ready to brave the slopes. Kerry will be heading off in a week or so and with that in mind we thought a little look at the fashion of skiwear through the ages would be fun, culminating in Kerry's outfit of choice for the 80s themed ski day (or could that turn into the whole week?). Hopefully she'll bring back some pics of everyone wearing their matching alpaca pom pom hats complete with initials!  As Vogue Knitting of old says what "Gay Glamorous Gadabouts" they'll be!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at Toft- we hope you had a good one.

To celebrate the beginning of 2012 we are offering FREE* delivery on all parcels from 9am Boxing Day until 2pm 31st January. 

The SALE also continues online with great savings on garments and lots of accessories. 

*on all standard delivery UK mainland parcels

As you may have guessed from our last post, we were feeling fully festive as of last weekend and the Toft Christmas Decoration Workshop, so today, on Christmas Eve Eve, that feeling has more than tripled! 

On Wednesday Carrie braved Coventry went along to the Christmas party at BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire's Afternoon Show with Vic Minnett and a whole host of her lovely (if slightly random) guests who have featured on the show throughout the 2011.  Vic's red reindeer jumper was a treat for the eyes (!) so much so that it was all too much for her to resist a beautifully homebaked gingerbread cupcake, so she didn't, it went down very nicely with a good cuppa.  She even had a quick chat with Vic about the completed Knitivity, the characters of which stood proudly in a specially commissioned stable. 

Yesterday was Christmas lunch day at Toft towers and what a feast it was!!  All thanks to Shirley who made a delicious meal for us all complete with crackers and cranberry sauce, plus black forest gateau for pudding - yum!

So today is the last, last minute shopping day in the shop.  Until 4pm this afternoon we'll be serving those who live life on the edge with their Christmas shopping and we have a lot to offer, so pop in and we'll fix all those present emergencies.  After today however the on farm shop will be closed and we'll see you again on 3rd January 2012 - you can of course order online and we will aim to get your parcels out just as soon as we can in the midst of all those bank holidays!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The tree is up, the lights and music are on (much to Kerry's dismay) and we all feel that we've already had a few too many mince pies, but what really starts Christmas at Toft? A felt bauble Workshop of course and what a great time we had at said workshop yesterday. Shirley treated us all to one of her walks and the chilly sunny views were to die for.

Once back at the farm the knitting and of baubles, hearts & candy canes commenced, ready to be felted during lunch. Everyone was very creative with their needle felting. We had spots, stripes, stars & hearts adorning the fluffy alpaca decs, great effort ladies!!!

When approached back in late October by The Afternoon Show on BBC Cov and Warwick Radio about a potential 'Knitivity' we may have thought we were busy- we were wrong.

Since then we have been posting hundreds of kilos of our alpaca yarn out across the UK (and global) and now the Christmas grip has really taken hold there's no stopping us. Despite a ram packed work schedule including three shows in November- we managed to get on with our task of creating the animals for the charity Knitivity. Due to our range of natural colours we seemed perfect donors for the four-legged attendees of the cattle shed. Using only our finest dk yarn and of course alpaca fleece stuffing we set to task knitting up the animals. It was very much a joint effort- non of us having ever knitted toys of any form before. I think it was a bit of an eye opener how long these things take to sew up- and how much difference a wonky eye can make!

The weeks continue and the giant to do list gets longer- so we outsource to many hands including Shirley (Toft Alpaca Stud) to turn her hands to knitting for the first time in thirty years.

Then Carrie went back onto the radio last week to boast of our progress- and she couldn't help but take up the challenge to teach a total newbie to knit the baby Jesus! So on piles the pressure...Toft is now providing more than the brown extras...the main man! Following a great afternoon masterclass in knitting the tiny oatmeal baby took shape. I think it nay well be the first time an alpaca Jesus complete with fudge hair, steel eyes and a chestnut smile has existed- I may well be wrong, but putting it out there.

Carrie will be back on-air this Thursday at 2pm to discuss the process of knitting up this fun project. The full Knitivity will be auctioned off for Charity later this month (we'll keep you posted). We hope to help raise some money with the softest Knitivity yet made!

So thanks to the help of many a knitter we have finished with our three sheep, a donkey and the ox (that's the bog brown thing!), and of course the man himself.

It's hard to lock the Christmas spirit out!