Lichen Mists

A little while ago... myself, WoollyWormhead and RockandPurl met up in London, and of course I filled a bag with yumminess and let them choose whatever floated their designer boats :D
Ruth chose a turquoise/teal skein of 'Perfection' sock (amongst others... powerless to resist you see *GRiN*) ... and turned it into this beautiful shawl... !!
It never ceases to amaze me how people can design and make such beautiful things with my yarn, and it makes me very proud when they do...
'Lichen Mists' is available to download on Ravelry, here, and when I get my act together, I will list some 'Perfection' plus pattern slots in the shop...

(all photographs are used with the very kind permission of their owner)

The new school year obligatory blog post...

... and they grew so much :O

Daniel is almost as tall as me now, and Joel just gets more mischievous by the second :P
*sighs* ... man, I feel old!!

For those about to Shop (on Sunday) ... I saluuuute you :D

As well as this WALL of Yarn, I will also have lots of NicsKnots Project Bags, and a couple of signed copies of WoollyWormHeads 'Bambeanies' up for grabs too :D
Also, don't forget to bring your 10% off vouchers, as I will be writing your names on the back of them, putting them in a hat to win a prize draw at the end of the Trunk Show !!!

See you on Sunday, at Purl City Yarns in Manchester :D

Stuff, and myTrunk Show at Purl City Yarns

I am sorry to have been so quiet lately, things, as always, have been pretty chaotic around Casa Longlegs, what with House Renovations, Rock Concerts and Royal Garden Parties, I've hardly had time to think, let alone concentrate on dyeing wool! This is all set to change, as I have two very popular trade customers keeping me on my toes, and two upcoming public appearances... hehehe *GRiNS*

Husbeast is still unemployed, *Sigh*, but is keeping himself busy with his music, and I am also trying to train him up to take over the Shop Update side of things. For me, the dyeing is the easy and exciting part and he is much better at the techy side of things, so it's the logical way forward. For a while anyway. So, hopefully soon, I'll be able to offer you all more regular shop updates, instead of the notsoregularOMGIhavetodoitallagain shop updates :P

This time next week sees me in Manchester, at Purl City Yarns , and I am very excited about it, as it will be the first time this year I have ventured out into public :D
I'll be there with my lovely friend Lottie from 12-3pm ... so please, if you are near that part of the world, do come and say hello!! I have been working/and will continue to work really hard on lots of yummy colours, and as well as the usual retina burning shades, there'll be a selection of less burny ones... hahaha :P

Some pictures below, to whet your appetites :D

'Caramelicious' Perfection Sock

'Butterscotch' Perfection Sock

'Autumn' Flump Sock

'Desire' semi-Precious

Free Day? It had to be a Green Day!

So, yesterday, we all got a free day, and I got a new green dye...
So, there was only one thing for it. Green, as you all know, is my favourite colour, so, I could think of no better way to spend my free day :)
All these will be available to buy, in my next shop update... which I am currently planning for a week tomorrow.

'Perfection' sock (above) and 'semi~Precious' (below)

Happy Monday?

Well, the colours are, at least :)
I had to get this yarn out today, so I could show Monday who is the Boss...

It's the lace version of 'Perfection', 800 m/875 yds... takes colour just as well as its sock~weight sista, and I can't wait for you guys to try it out!!

Clever Husbeast!!!!

Husbeast found out yesterday that he's been offered the job he was interviewed for on Wednesday!! It's with the same company that currently employ him, but in a completely different department....

He'll now be a Campaigns Officer, helping to organise and promote NIACE's 3 main campaigns, namely Adult Learners' Week, Quick Reads, and World Skills. It's only 6 months to cover maternity leave, but it gives him a whole new skillset (that veer quite sharply away from IT and web work) and more time to look for something else.......or choose the new direction he secretly craves...hahaha

So...there will be a tiny shop update tonight in celebration of this, from 8pm... and if you put enter code WHOOP in at checkout, you'll recieve 20% off...

NB This code will only run for 24 hrs...not made of money you know *WiNKS* so take advantage of it while you can.

*** I LOVE YOU HUSBEAST***

Lara

This is Lara from the Twist Collective Winter 2010, made by a veryVeryVERY talented customer of mine, Manda :)

Such a beautiful finished item, made from semi-Precious DK, dyed in my "Buttercup" colourway :)

It took 2 skeins...

Manda made a "Centrique" for herself in the same colourway, when I had my Centrique KAl on Ravelry, and the two go together beautifully :)

Thankyou so much for letting me share your wonderful creations in Yellow, Manda!!

(Photos reproduced with the very kind permssion of the owner)

Baby Iced :)

The most awesome Carol Feller (the designer of both Ziggy-Zag and Centrique) has used some of my Radiance Aran to make an ickle version of her Iced Cardigan, that was recently featured in Knitty.

This version took 3 skeins of Radiance, and was made to fit a 4 year old.

The pattern should be ready in January... so start stockpiling your Radiance now ;)

And the winner is........

Thankyou to everyone who left me a message... it was wonderful to read why you all come here to my little Blogging corner of the internet!!

It's also reminded me (as if I NEED reminding) that there's not been a lot of spinnerly content lately...but that's another story, for another day ;)

Who said child labour was wrong?

Delving deep into one of my many wonderful WoollyWormhead hats!! Can you tell which one it is though ;)

ooOOOGE Congratulations, Jen :)

Buttonette

This is WoollyWormhead's latest design, Buttonette, which I test knitted....yes, I had time to test knit!!! As soon as I saw it I knew I HAD to make it, it's just the right shape of hat for me.....like Urbanista only a completely different construction...

I made two of them, the first one in some Posh Yarn Martha DK... that one has now gone off to a new home, as a good friend of mine needs a happy Hat at the moment :)

This one is made with my own handspun, "Rambos Whirled" and the seed stitch brim just picks out all the colours of the handspun and gives just the most stunning depth of colour....

My new favourite Hat, for sure....

Ally Pally

So, 5.45AM on Saturday morning saw me and Lottie getting up to get a coach to Ally Pally...can't say I was entirely happy to be getting up that early, in fact I was quite grumpy, but it was worth it, because I got to spend the day with my two best friends :) I don't get to spend whole days with them very often, especially Woolly Days, as me and Lottie are usually working together selling yarn......

The Three WoollyTeers...all sporting chapeaux a la Wormhead

This was my first purchase of the day...an awesome, hand drawn picture of a Pirate Sheep, called Vern !!! The artist, Sarah Macintyre, was on the Stitch London stand, and I fell in love with her illustrations and commissioned something with a skull in it.

Isn't he just brilliant???

We wandered around all day, looking at fabrics and yarns and lots of other things too... and I decided I'd like to make myself a Morsbag, as they had a big display and 4 sewing machines all set up, so people could just sit down and make one. I think it's a wonderful idea...using recycled fabric to make reusable bags.

Here I am, proud of my sewing Skillz ;)

A rock and roll themed Morsbag, in the huge display they had set up. There were so many, all on different themes, the only limit is seemingly the creators imagination...!!!

We caught the coach back to Leicester at 5pm...and I was totally shattered by then...havn't fully recovered from it even now...I am getting old!!!

The end of an era ......

(photo reproduced with kind permission of Andy Robinson)

At the weekend, my lovely friend, and wool supplier Andy Robinson, lost all of his current white wool stocks in a horrendous fire at his storage facility. At latest count, it comes to around 5 tonnes, if you include his discontinued stocks of Rowan Scottish Tweed.

That is one helluva lot of wool..... and a big blow for him, and all us Indies in the UK who depend on his awesome skillz as a Fixer ;)

But, despite it all, despite this huge event and its repercussions throughout the Woolly World, he put his own worries and shell shock to one side, and worked hard to make sure people have undyed yarns and fibres !! I recieved an order via the courier this morning, goodness knows where he *found* it all, but I have wool again, thanks to Mr Wool *grin*

What can I say, but thankyou, Andy. Your strength and consideration for others is second to none.

Amongst the stocks that were lost forever, were 4 of my staple base yarns, British Merino Aran, DK and Sock, and my Radiance Aran.

As these were all one-off spin runs, all he had, is all there is :(

The British Merino Yarns in particular were very special. A few years ago, he bought a huge amount of British Merino (as in the top 2% of the clip, therefore the finest) at auction, to celebrate his company HW Hammond being in the wool business for 150 years. This was then spun into the above yarns, and some being left as tops too, for handspinners.

Now, for me it's just the most amazing yarn. Outstanding quality, as those of you who have used it can testify to, being sturdy and soft all at the same time. It also takes colour in a wonderful, powdery way, a dream to dye for me, and you have to be really rough with it to harm it, which is right up my street ;) I am not a habitual wool boiler, but you know, I have known to be distracted once in a while!

So, this weeks shop update is all about my remaining stock of British Merino Aran. I had 600g of undyed yarn (plus a few 50g hanks for trims) left before the fire, so that has been dyed into my 3 favourite Babylonglegs colourways...

TreeHugger

Olivia

Blue Banana

Colourwork WIN !!!

So, have loved this hat, Urbanista, ever since it was first published in last Summer's Knitty, but have never had the courage to start making it, as I just thought I'd get cross with it/myself/the world for not being able to do it.

Plucked up courage to make a start on it, and had to do some really serious stash diving to find the perfect colours to go with my handspun panels (the greeny ones)

It knitted up a dream, so NOT complicated at all!

As always, Woolly explained everything perfectly...AND I worked from a chart AND I didn't muck up the graft!!

So...a general all round WIN situation I'd say ;)

Hayley Too

"Rambo's Whirled"

"Hayley Too"

This hat pattern is my contribution to the 4!Oz!Challenge!, I WILL write it up, promise!
I have already made one using the challenge yarn, but it needed another handspun test knit, so I chose this yarn for it, a 3ply, made from ITW Merino “Emerald City” and some Rambo from Julie Spins.

I am so glad I did, as it’s knitted up wonderfully and I am now wishing for cold weather so I can wear it all the time :D

Hayley

So.

This is what I came up with to compliment my 4! Ounce! Challenge! Handspun.

Called her "Hayley", because the idea was conceived whilst on a beach in Hayle, watching all 3 of my beautiful boys having the time of their lives in the sea.

Now, as you know, I test knit hats for the venerable WoollyWormhead, and I have to say I was a bit worried that this looked a lot like one of hers, but when you have a friend who is one of the most innovative hat designers ever, it'd be hard not to design something totally different.

I am not really a pattern designer, but when I do dip my toes in to the arena, I do it with care.

This hat flew out of my brain and onto the needles, no question, the yarn knew what it wanted to be.

It is my design, 100%, as it was designed for the yarn I spun from scratch.

It does translate over to millspun, as I test knitted it twice with some Radiance I took with me on holiday, but they don't drape and shine like this one does. They don't have the uniqueness of pure inspiration this one does.

I'll be writing the pattern up over the next week or so, as my deadline to be eligible to be a player for nice prizes is the end of September.

It'd be nice to win a prize, don't get me wrong, everyone likes to win something and be recognised for their work...but I took part in this challenge for me.

To see if I could do something like this, from start to finish, without having to invent some elaborate wimping out excuse and then hide for a while so peeps could forget I said I'd do something when I couldn't ;)

HaHa....that's me...I am an artist you know, dahhhling ;)

Abrazo

Another fantastic shawl, in "Silver Surfer" BooLace :D

Made by my friend, Sally... *GRiNs*

It is an <>Abrazo<> from the Twist Collective Spring/Summer edition

it used 36g of yarn and weighs 55g including the beads, so she can realistically get three of them out of one skein!!

How is that for good value???

My new Addition

An opportunity to own one of these wheels does not come around every day.

If you hadn't already realised what it is from the picture above, my new addition is a Cherry Matchless, manufactured by the Schacht Spindle Company to celebrate their 40th Anniversary of trading.

Only 150 of these wheels were made.

Thanks to a genius piece of direct marketing by it's previous owner ie a Facbook tagging (yes folks, I am that easy, teehee) it now belongs to little old me :) I was not even thinking of buying another wheel, but this is the only one that would have turned my head, in fact my head was turned so fast I nearly ended up with whiplash ;)

I picked it up at Wonderwool this weekend, delivered to me by the lovely Kat (thankyou to infinity, Kat!!!)

As you can see from these two photos, it is very similar in construction and set up as my Robin Deluxe only the Robin has mahoOOosive bobbins, is a leetle (only a little mind you) bit prettier and the Matchless has 3 modes of tension, whereas Robin has only two. Robin is also smaller.

I messed about with the double drive option for a while, but I just couldn't get on with the yank I got when the driveband knot went over the whorls, so I have it now set up on Scotch tension, which I much prefer. I was probably doing something glaringly wrong with the Double Drive, but, I felt I really needed to bond with this wheel as soon as possible...so I reverted to the tension mode I know.
The detail in the wood is just stunning, and it will only get better with age, as Cherry gets redder as it gets older, as you can see on the Robin.

So there we are...say hello to my new baby.... ****grins***