Memories are made of...

I´ve loved reading everyone´s comments. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is the lovely customer service from Lisa and Jacqui &co over the years. I remember the first time I went out to the shop in Blackrock back in 2006? I´m living in Spain, where there isn´t a great knitting culture, and am originally from Cork. I didn´t know Dublin very well and it was my first time on a DART! I found the shop and proceeded to spend about two hours in there oogling the yarn and chatting with Lisa over a cup of tea. I came away many skeins of Lorna´s Laces (some of which are still in my stash!).

Another memory I have is of my sister who went into the shop in Powerscourt to buy me a voucher for Christmas and she wanted to know if it could be used online and for the yarn to be sent to me. The person, I think it was Jacqui, asked where would it be sent to. My sister answered Spain, and Jacqui said “Oh, you must be Averil´s sister. Ya, there´ll be no problem.” My sister was flabbergasted!

My contact with the shop and the lovely people who work/ have worked there is mainly online, but a trip home is never complete without stopping into the shop to say hello and pick up a ball or two! I was sorry I couldn´t make the 5th year celebrations but count me in for the 10th anniversary!

Thank you!

oh and how could I forget the Maritime festival where I met Elana and got to name a skein of Dublin Dye Company, the very weekend it was launched! I called it Maritime, because of the blue and green colour. I was so proud :-)

[…] you for all the lovely memories of the last five years that you shared with us when we asked a couple of weeks ago. The Random Number Generator has picked out a winner for our prize of an […]

Hmm… I never went to the Blackrock shop, since I was living in Cork at the time, but I have a few lovely memories from the City Centre shop.
1) Taking the train from Cork to Dublin for the day for the first Spin in Sunday, and then being dragged off for nummy sushi with the gang before I grabbed the train home.
2) The yarn tasting. Oh the yarn tasting!!!
3) Getting a one-on-one lace knitting class from Iontach.
4) When future-mother-in-law went in to buy me a voucher, whoever was working at the time knew who the voucher was for (now that’s service!)

Ok, I’ll stop now, before I start feeling home sick!

Traipsing down from Dundalk as a complete beginner, with a sheath of print outs of various projects I wanted to knit for Christmas. I can’t quite remember when, but it must have been sometime in late 2006. I spent ages chatting to Lisa and Jacqui, choosing colours and learning about substituting yarn and magic loop and all sorts of exciting new things. I still remember that the bill came to €78 and that Jacqui apologised for it adding up to so much – I was a happy camper, I’d just got the entire family’s Christmas presents sorted for under a hundred euro!

Other stand out moments were traipsing back down when you guys moved into the “proper” shop unit in Blackrock, complete with congratulatory cupcakes. And Electric Picnic!

Also, eternal gratitude for advice and support. Chances are, I wouldn’t have opened the shop without your support over the years, right from the very beginning of my knitting career. Thanks. :)

I only discovered This is Knit in October 2009. A friend of mine had told me there was a nice wool shop in Powerscourt, and I went in once and couldn’t find it. I had been a knitter when my children were small, and had given it up and got rid of my (considerable) stash. I think it was the recession that sent me back to knitting, so I decided to make a scarf for my daughter for Christmas 2009. When I finally found the shop I was amazed! Knitting has changed since the 80’s! I continued with my scarves, each time getting beautiful wool at This is Knit, and then plunged right in with the recent KAL. I’m still working on breaker, knew I would never meet the deadline, but it was great encouragement to try a bigger project.
And then to have the Pepperpot right beside you, what a happy coincidence.

I still can’t believe that 5 years have passed since you started in Blackrock market in the small stall in the building at the back and wondered about whether you could justify moving into one of the garden sheds? Well done to both of you; you made a huge impact on the knitting (and crochet) community in Dublin?
Have you any photos of the 1st stall in Blackrock?

Awww, some of these comments are so lovely.
Too many ‘best’ moments to pick from; all the classes and the ‘oh yeah, it’s not that hard at all’ moments, all the yarn groping, the giggles & the proud FO show off moments, the one-off knitscapades.

funniest moment was probably when a family friend was buying me a gift voucher for Christmas, sent in another person to pick it up, & Aileen was able to correct her on the proper spelling of my name.
I think my family all thought I spent too much time in the shop after hearing that!

My first visit to TIK was winter 06/07 (not exactly sure if it was before or after Christmas) I’d started knitting again, and went to visit the stall in Blackrock market and bought some cashmerino for a pair of fetchings. Jacqui was manning the stall, and was what I now know to be her wonderful helpful self :)

My first visit to TIK was in Blackrock, I stumbled blindly into that treasure trove – there was so much yarn! Everyone was so friendly and knowledgeable, making sure that the novice knitter didn’t make too many novice mistakes. Then you opened two shops in the the Powerscourt centre! I’ve taken classes in finishing techniques & beginners crochet and you’ve turned me into a lace knitter/fiend. A trip into town isn’t complete without a stop in TIK. My yarn cup runneth over. ;)

I found your booth in Blackrock by accident and was amazed at the gorgeous yarn! I must have stayed ages talking to Lisa (wearing fingerless mittens to keep her hands warm!) I was so impressed at how enthusiastic a lovely young girl was about knitting and left with a hank of Lorna’s Lace. I still have the scarf i knitted from it and from then on became such a yarn snob! Thank you all for making it possible to feed my addiction!

My first memory of This is Knit is back in Blackrock. I used to work around the corner from where the shop was opened and I remember seeing the big sign hanging at the entrance of Blackrock market. The idea of a yarn shop around the corner from my work really made me smile. When I looked at the opening hours I realised that it was Wednesday – and the shop was open! So I dashed in, heartpounding. That day I bought a pair of 4mm Addi Wooden needles (still have them), 2 balls of a very, I thought, Irish green Debbie Bliss yarn and I also purchased my copy of the Stitch’n Bitch book which still is my first source to consult for problem solving. And there began my knitting adventure as I always had to ask a family member to cast on stitch for me – now I taught myself, thanks to a little shop that opened 5 years ago in Blackrock. I dropped knitting for a while and got back into crochet – but now the knitting bug really has bitten me and I am about to finish a knitted dress.
Thanks for getting me back into a crafty habit and all the best on your 5th Year Anniversary.

Congratulations on an amazing journey in just five years! My first visit to This Is Knit was to the booth in the market – I was just learning to drive and I think I bounced off every kerb between Rathmines and Blackrock. I think I’d come across you online and I was so excited to get out there in person just to see and feel the yarn – or ‘wool’ as I would have called it indiscriminately then :) I took many classes in your later shop in Blackrock – lace, socks, edgings – which broadened and improved my skills no end, and I was so delighted when you moved to, and then expanded, in Powerscourt. You, and all your staff, have always been so helpful, so encouraging and so inspiring – thanks to you, I’ve twice knit my way through morning sickness and had two woollen-clad babies to prove it! I don’t get in often these days but it’s so reassuring to know that you and your shop are there, full of beautiful, soft, bright, squishable things. Here’s to many years more!

Has it really been only five years?! It feels as though you’ve been around forever – in a GOOD way, like :-)

My good friend Helen (aka Glitzfrau) told me about you some time in 2006, but it was a little while before I got around to paying a visit. I grew up in Blackrock, and even though I hadn’t lived there in years I was delighted that you’d brought yarn back there after the Spring Wools shop shut.

I remember that feeling of … “oh my god, give me ONE OF EVERYTHING!” as I browsed through the wares. And the friendly, personal welcome – the sense that here was something immediately relevant to my life. (I’m contrasting this with the late and much lamented Needlecraft on Dawson Street, where the generation gap was palpable.)

Anyway, there you were, selling all the yarns I’d been ogling online. You were like the internet made flesh! It was wonderful.

I’ve always been dead impressed with how you run your business: you’ve created a complex, vibrant culture around it. It’s not just about the yarn. It’s a truly contemporary, experience-based thing, and it’s great.

I’ve been on a bit of a sewing jag these past few months, but I can feel my knitting mojo stirring somewhere under the surface. Also, I need to learn to spin. Expect a visit from me soon!

It has been a fantastic five years! This is Knit is the epicentre of the knitting community. Thank you to Lisa and Jacqui for building the foundations of This is Knit. Well done to you and your fibre team.

My first Knit Night was in Blackrock, in May of 2008. I was nervous. Nah: I was petrified.

I sat down beside Y and tried to think of something that a knitter would say in casual conversation with another knitter. I came up with “What are you knitting?!”, in what I hoped was a nonchalant and breezy voice.

“A sock”, she replied. Oh dear, I thought. These people make socks. Perhaps I am out of my depth.

I then had to think of another plausible knitter question to ask. I lighted on “Oh, what pattern?”, dimly aware that sock knitters might use patterns for their devilish antics. The answer came “I don’t know – it’s just a sock”.

At this point I realised that my depth was far behind me and receding fast. These people make socks out of their heads with no patterns.

But help seemed at hand. A nice person came and sat on my other side, to welcome the hapless noob. It turned out later to be Jacqui, but I didn’t know this as I tried out my first question again. “It’s a bag. I’m going to felt it. It’s a Christmas present”.

These people make socks out of their heads with no patterns and they felt stuff as Christmas presents and it’s MAY.

As for my own knitting, I spent the entire two hours trying to cast on forty stitches. I failed utterly. I simply could not hit on the right number, though I must have cast on every other number between thirty and fifty. I was close to tears with shame, but then I took a deep breath and approached the problem rationally. If I had some way of marking every tenth or twentieth stitch, this would make the task easier. What I needed, of course, was a stitch marker or two, but I didn’t know that such things existed or what they were called, and I had heard of stitch holders.

Sitting opposite me with an impressive toolkit was C., so I summoned up all my nerve and asked her if she could lend me a stitch holder. She looked at my few cast on stitches and said “A stitch holder? Are you sure?” “Yes, a stitch holder”, which I then sort of jammed in between cast on stitches (pointlessly – when I left, I still hadn’t managed the cast on).

It’s a miracle I ever went back. But I did, and I got to be a rather better knitter, largely thanks to youse. Many of those scary expert knitters became dear friends. Thank you all. It’s been lovely.

I honestly can’t remember if I first met you guys in Blackrock or at the Maritime festival but I do remember doing both, in fact Mac reminded me of the Maritime festival recently cause we’re planning to go to the Tall Ships in Waterford this weekend.
I do remember trekking out to Blackrock to go to a Knit Night, I think it was your Christmas Knit Night and meeting several people there for the first time who have become firm friends!

For me, my favourite memory was the first time I walked into the small shop in the Powerscourt Centre. I remember being completely dumbfounded by the wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling yarn. I’m pretty sure I turned into a babbling lunatic for a few moments until Aileen said Hi. Then, I managed to gasp “It’s like Aladdin’s Cave in here!” before going for a good, long root through the shelves. She must have thought I was completely mental!

You guys have made such a huge difference to the yarn scene in Dublin, and beyond, and for my part, opened up a whole new vista of yarny possibilities and lifelong friendships.

So many memories from the first encounter in Blackrock (your first small booth indoors) to the shop in Powerscourt – where do I begin! It was amazing to meet two people who understood how important quality yarn is to the whole experience of creating something – I remember discussing Lorna’s Laces yarns with you that first day and your plans to supply quality natural fibres to the knitting Irish public. It is mainly the welcoming smile and the genuine interest in project(s) on the needles that encourages us all back to your shop. There is also your role in the formation of new friendships and knitting circles. Not to mention yarn enabling staff!!!! :)

The whole ethos of your business to care and share your extensive knowledge of yarn, patterns and how-to is unique…………..and long may it last. Happy 5th birthday!! and many, many more years of trading so that the knitting/crocheting communities of Ireland can build new memories.