Hello!

The Hardware Shop.

In years gone by, when your grandad needed a sprunkle or a grapstick, he would have gone to his local hardware shop, wonderful places full of everything from washboards to ladders and tiny brass screws to tin baths. Nowadays we have B&Q.

I have always thought I was in the software business. Sure I have the odd set of dpns tucked away behind the counter, but for the most part I am not selling the hardware components of knitting or spinning.

Today, a large red Parcel Force van drew up outside the house and delivered something new for The Yarn Yard.

So many knitters have caught the spinning bug that I have decided to offer a little equipment to get you started. I'm not going to be selling wheels. There are other people doing that. But it seemed to me that offering beginner spinning kits might be a nice thing to do.

So, if you are considering spinning... how about one of these?

This is what they will arrive in.
A sturdy box, not a jiffy bag which could get buried in a parcel heap under Great Aunt Mary's new food mixer or Tommy-next-door's jumbo sized train set.

It's like Christmas, isn't it?

This (not including the coloured braid) is a full kit. 

An Ashford top whorl spindle, not the huge one which is rather heavy, and not the student one which I feel you would outgrow in a day or two (and which is also heavy). This is the 37g, 1.3 ounce one, 65mm wide with a groove underneath which distributes the weight around the edge of the whorl and makes it spin for longer per "twirl". This is the spindle I started with three years ago, and I still have it.

An Ashford Mini Niddy Noddy. An ingenious design which packs "flat" when not in use, but fits together in an instant. It's robust (no snapping timber) and has a rather elegant simplicity, I think. It's made from ply for strength, and is laquered for smoothness so there is no sanding or varnishing needed. The ply makes pretty stripes up the sides too.

A Wraps-per-Inch gauge. It's funny but the WPI gauge has never made the transition to WPcentimetre, but there you go!

The kit comes with undyed BFL superwash fibre to get you started - and if I have leftovers of other dyed fibres I'll pop them in too. There's plenty of room in the box for a braid of fibre as well if you would like to add one, don't buy it in the shop, just let me know and I'll take it off the shelf for you and add it to the invoice.

These can also be bought individually.

The niddy noddy is about the length of a pencil when it's assembled.
You can see those pretty stripes up the sides in this photo.

Perfect for spindle sized skeins (this is the fibre I spun the other day on a spindle).
Also great for little sample skeins, perhaps a couple of grammes of new Club fibre you want to experiment with to see how it behaves before you decide on a full project. The skeins are just 24 inches long, so they twist up into something less than the length of your pencil, and stay neat and secure where a larger skein can be floppy and catch on things. It could also be used to rewind leftover sock yarn on to keep it from being over stretched in a ball.

Now, as you know the postage on the website is flat-rate, because it was set up with blue squishie bags in mind. Boxes cost ten times as much! So, instead of putting them on the website, for now at least, if you would like a kit which includes a spindle, (or a spindle alone, including the BFL) the P&P will be £3.00 instead of the usual £2.00. I can send Niddy Noddies alone in blue bags with lots of bubble wrap so the P&P on those will be the usual £2.00.

Prices?

Spindles are £9.30, with free BFL fibre to get you started.
Mini Niddy Noddies are £10.80
WPI gauges are £2.75

If you buy all three then that comes to £22.85 (plus P&P) and remember you don't need to buy fibre (unless you want to, of course) because there's enough included to get you started.

And if you already have a spinning addiction passion and you are about to go on holiday and breaking out in a cold sweat at the thought of being away from your wheel, this is the answer.

I have already "sold" four spindles and two niddies, so I have some left but not lots... if you would like to join the spinning community, send me an email using the Contact Me button in the sidebar and I'll be happy to help!

n

08-08-08

Socks, Socks and not socks... and the iPod tale.

The TdeF socks are finished.
Not without drama, as befits a race of champions.
The green cuff was topped by the Adventuous yarn, and then there was the moment of decision, do I stick with the yarn I know there is enough of, or do I swap, and take a chance?

I took a chance. It looked good.
I started the sewn bind off... and with ten stitches to go it was apparent that no matter what I did, six centimetres of yarn was not going do fifteen stitches.

I unpicked the bind off. I tinked the last round, I re-sewed the bind off.

And with the green end woven in and clipped off, I peered inside the sock to find that somehow there was a loop of Adventurous yarn stretching from where one dpn stopped and the next one started.
It was like an alpine climbers safety rope, stretched between belay points.
Astonishing. I have absolutely no idea how it got there.

What to do? Unpick the whole lot?
I just sat, looking at the loop for a minute or two.
There wasn't enough of it to weave in.
It was less than the length a needle.
It was connected to live stitches at each end.
And then I picked up the scissors, and cut it in half.
I threaded the unthreaded needle through some stitches as though to weave the ends in, and then, when there was no needle left apart from the eye, I threaded the 2cm of yarn into the needle eye and pulled, gently.
It worked!
I repeated with the other end, and that worked too.

Phew!
Of course one is flared like 1960's loons (before my time) and the other isn't, but who will know when I wear them?

Those of you in a Yarn Yard Club, or on the mailing list will have been sent a new pattern this afternoon.
This is the long-awaited (my fault) Summer Pick 'n' Mix Socks designed by Jane.

When we were at Woolfest, Jane presented me with these.

My favourites.

Even the cuffs are perfect.

I sent about 700 of these patterns this afternoon, and another forty or so have gone to ravellers since.
If I missed you out, please let me know, and sign up for the mailing list at the same time.

In a change of pace I'm going to show you something which was a pair of socks but which is now something different. My mum is learning Arabic, so when I saw this pattern for the Blessing Socks by Mim Knits I knew she would be interested.

She didn't fancy the pattern as socks, so she adapted it and it became this.

It's knitted in Hug yarn, undyed, with some bitter chocolate contrast. It will be a cosy doubled tubular scarf for the winter.

And the iPod?

Picture the scene. The phone rings.
A (son) - MUM, MY iPOD IS ON THE BUS!
Me - On the bus?
A - YES. It was playing when I got off the bus and then it wasn't and I thought the headphones had come out but it's not in my pocket so it must have been left behind as I stepped off.
Me - OK I'll phone the depot.
A - MUM! Shall I go to the orthodontist now?
Me - Yes.

Just in case you are wondering, we do not use the orthodontist as a stress therapist in times of crisis.

Two minutes later, while I was looking for the number, the phone rang.

Me - Hello?
Man - I'm sorry to trouble you but do you know someone called A with an iPod?
Me - Are you the bus driver?
Man - Yes.
Me - It belongs to my son.
Man aka Bus Driver - I have it here. I'll take it to the depot for you.
Me - Fantastic. Are you coming back through the village on your route?
Bus Driver - Yes.
Me - Could I meet you at the bus stop and pick it up there?
Bus Driver - OK.

And how were we able to do this?

Well, if you buy your iPod from apple and not from amazon or somewhere else, apple offer free engraving.
When we bought it, we debated whether to get something quirky or interesting on the back, but, ever the practical mum, I decided we should put his name and our home phone number on it instead.

Result!
And although I know he won't read this, I'd like to say something to the First Bus driver of the 10.30 bus from Kirknewton to Edinburgh this morning.

You are wonderful. Thank you.

n

PS There will be a Shop update in the next couple of days, so do come back for a peek at the shelves.

No more twist!

You remember, don't you, the story of the Tailor of Gloucester and the mice who took over his work when he was ill? They were unable to finish a jacket because there was "No more twist".

Well, I'm in a bit of a quandary over my sock for a similar reason.

You can see the different toes, but the heels match.
The rib for the cuff is half done... however I have only about 40cm of yarn left.
After a bit of a hunt I found another couple of metres, but that's all. So, do I add an adventurous stripe and then finish with the solid, or do I just swap to the solid and stop fretting? I'm inclined towards the stripe idea, but I'll wait and see what your views are.

Today is all about admin. Boring but necessary.
I wanted to dye, and even have a work-list, but I also have a bulging Inbox and a huge number of people to add to the mailing list. Once that's done I'll be able to send out the pattern for the Pick'n'Mix socks designed by Jane.
I'm seriously thinking I'll just send the pattern out to everyone, it would be so much easier than waiting for you to ask for it individually.

YYHQ is now positively sparkling. I'm just waiting to get a few extra box-lids and then I'll take some photos.

Bits and pieces are now gathered together.
It's like one of those memory games where you get 15 seconds to look and then the items are covered up and you have to remember what was there.

The sheep from the Send-a-Cow charity leaflet.
Sock bookmark knitted for me by an Edinburgh friend.
A hair bungee from when my elder son had long hair.
A pinecone from Kyoto (I collect pinecones).
My Knitters Proficiency Badge given to me by a great friend.
Tiny spindle from someone special.
Darning needle because I can never find it when I need it.
Race number from the Moonwalk 2005.
Advert for the Hip Knits exhibition which is on in Dumfries at the moment. Haven't been, but I do want to see it.
Frilly cuff knitted by Jane as a sample which I "stole" from her because it seemed like jewellery.

Do you have a board like this?
Not one which says "Dentist 10.30" and "remember to buy dog food", but a personal memory collection in 3D. Things which would never fit in a photograph album.

Right, what shall I do about the sock? I need to know soon because the next WIP on th Must-Finish list is beckoning.

n

In the middle of the night.

Recently I have found myself waking up at four and five in the morning for no apparent reason, and am completely unable to get back to sleep. I've tried counting imaginary knitting stitches in slow motion.

T h r o u g h.
W r a p.
S l i p   u n d e r.
T h r o u g h.
W r a p.
S l i p   u n d e r.
T h r o u g h.
W r a p.
S l i p   u n d e r.

It doesn't work.

I bought an iPod so that when all else failed I could improve my mind in the middle of the night, but I forgot to charge it and when I turned it on at twenty to five this morning it was grey-screened and silent.

So I knitted.
I decided that my socks are never exactly the same anyway, that I rarely wear them with sandals unless I'm at home, and anyone looking that closely is a member of the Knitting Police and should be ignored.

And I'm pleased to report that my TdeF KAL project de tricot numero un is progressing - astonishingly "knitting" is le tricot, masculine.
I've turned the heel and am now racing up/down to the cuff. You can see it here with it's pink partner.
One of the deciding factors was that I'm not sure I have enough green to do a whole cuff in it, and the rest of the pink is long gone, so if these are going to be les chausettes biscornues then I may as well go le cochon tout entier !

Posted with apologies to the French people and thanks for the use of The Online English:French Dictionary.

n

Actual Knitting Content.

There has been a dearth of actual knitting content on the blog in recent weeks, and since I am knitting the the Tour de France KAL, it's about time I added some knitter-ish stuff really.

The first project to tackle on the knitting front (I'm finishing up WIP's remember) is the second of the Adventurous Yarn socks. The first was knitted before Woolfest and I love the pink toes, heels and rib, but decided that I'd throw caution to the wind and knit the second with some leftover green as the contrast. Who says socks have to match anyway?

Last night I cast on with a pretty yellow crochet chain stitch and began the toe-up odyssey. Only a few rows were completed before I went to bed, but when everyone else was still asleep this morning I made a cup of tea and got the needles out again. The green toe was completed before anyone woke up. Unlike some people I know, I didn't knit in bed with a headtorch on, I managed with the ambient light.
This is the standard toe up pattern from the Express Lane socks, which I think is a PGR version, with no nasty wrapping going on, no holey corners and perfectly matched increases and decreases. There is just one problem. I have knitted this toe/heel five times now and I never end up with the right number of stitches.

This morning was no exception.

I crochet the chain, (about 36 stitches) and cast on 32 stitches, I do all the increasing until there are nine stitches between the paired increases (I like the number 9, you may remember, all that numerical symmetry and cleverness) and then I do the decreases. I count the stitches on the needle.
Thirty three. I think there should be thirty four but one stitch isn't a big deal.
I unzip the crochet chain... or in my case dismantle it a loop at time because I've always knitted through the wrong loop making unzipping impossible. I collect the stitches onto two dpns. I count them.
Twenty nine.
Twenty nine.
I haven't done anything to these blasted stitches apart from keep them safely on a pretty yellow crochet chain for goodness sake. How can I possibly have mislaid not one, but three of them?
I count again. There are now thirty two stitches on the single needle. Another one has run off in search of a more proficient knitter. There are still supposed to be yarnovers at one end of this needle to be dealt with on the next round. I check. Yes there are still yarnovers, but there are also only thirty two stitches and not thirty four, and (after double double triple checking with clenched teeth) I haven't dropped any or scrunched them together which could have led to miscounting.
We are now down to 61 stitches in total instead of the required 64.

At this point I decide that what's really needed is another cup of tea. I could understand this happening to me if I was knitting without tea in my system, but you'll recall that I made one to take back to bed with me before embarking on the morning knitting extravaganza.
This has happened to me every single time I've done this toe. I love the toe, it's pretty, it works, it's hole-free, it's logical. But the counting drives me round the bend.

What would you do?
That's right, I fudged. I didn't decrease where I was supposed to (that would have taken me down to a skinny 58 stitches). I made one at each end and one in the middle of the sole.
I admit it, I am a Sock-Cheat.

And the final insult?
Can you guess?

When I carry the sock through to have its photo taken next to today's paper, and put it next to the other  (very beautiful) one knitted a few weeks ago, I see immediately that I didn't knit the first sock toe-up at all.
I did it top down.
The evidence is in the photo, look.

Am I going to rip it all out and start again?
What do you think?

n

Holiday Thursday.

I've decided I rather like being on holiday.
It's the first time since I launched The Yarn Yard almost 2 years ago that I have felt able to take a week off and stay at home without feeling I must work a little bit. Last year we went away on holiday and that was  different - it's not as though I could have posted parcels from the other side of the world.
This time I have really taken a week off. I've answered a few email queries, but I am starting to be more confident that the business won't be crippled by a weeks absence or without me dashing to the Post Office every day.
A few people have asked about orders and they are all happy to wait for them to be posted on Monday or Tuesday next week - Knitters and spinners really are a delightful bunch of people. (The first time I typed that sentence I wrote sinners - ooops.)

There has been decorating.
There has been HQ organising.
There has been knitting (camera batteries charging at the moment).
There has been spinning.
There has been grass cutting (thanks Gavin).
There has been sleep.

And I dug my rigid heddle loom out of the cupboard yesterday, so in the next few weeks there may be weaving. Not that I'm any good at it mind you, but it will be fun to play with warp and weft again.  :o)

You've all been very quiet... what are you up to?

n

Holiday blog - Tuesday

Day 2 of my week off - not counting the weekend of course.

Yesterday afternoon was spent at IKEA. Being a methodical type with obsessive tendencies when it comes to the planning of things, I had a diagram. Gavin was nearly driven dotty when I planned the kitchen (also IKEA) because of course they have graph paper don't they? Ready made graph paper, and sheets of small perforated squares to represent cookers and fridges and cupboards of every possible height, width and depth.
I was in my element. Hours were spent (weeks, actually) playing with using these tools to come up with the perfect kitchen layout, at the minimum possible cost, because every spare penny had been spent on the Aga.

And because the living space chez YY is open plan, it was a but a short step to measuring and cutting out customised rectangles to represent the kitchen table, chairs (with space for pulling out and sitting down of course), sofa, wood burning stove etc etc, which required extending the helpfully provided squared IKEA paper with cunning use of scissors and sellotape so that the entire ground floor of the house could be admired planned out. (I know the ceiling needs painting!)

Yes, you can do it online.... but that's no fun at all.

So you can imagine, I was in heaven yesterday with the YY HQ plans to enjoy. The cupboards were measured, and account taken of skirting boards and handles. The cubic capacity of the space under the winding table calculated and every possible combination of box-stacking was explored.
And then of course I had to do it all again (hee hee) because I had failed to take account of the fact that lifting and handing 15 kg of fibre in a box 80cm x 60cm x 60cm at above-the-head height is ill advised unless you want severe Backage. Especially when there are four of them.

I don't live with a former Moving and Handling Co-ordinator for nothing.

You can see, can't you that I'm a frustrated would-be architect?

So today I'm going to turn the post-Woolfest chaos upstairs into something of which Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, would approve.

And tonight, I'll try to spin the second bobbin of this.

Bye. I have boxes to play with. ☺

Je suis en vacances!

The Tour de France is upon us. And I'm on holiday this week - YIPPEEEEEEE!

Perhaps rashly I signed up for the Tour De France KAL and the Tour de Fleece. Last week was so busy I didn't have time to think about what to have for dinner let alone what to knit or spin, so now I'm on holiday for a week I'm playing catch up.
I’ve been thinking that these two events could dovetail quite neatly.

I’m not really a serial-starter of projects but I was counting up yesterday and I have a few things OTN, all of which are more than half done and for which I have the yarn.

• The bloke sweater which I started knitting for Gavin. I have never knitted a sweater of any description, so I used the sleeves as a swatch and knit them both first in the flat. So far so good. Then I knitted the body in the round and of course it’s a different gauge isn’t it? Doh! The sweater is now destined for my 17 year old (slimmer) son, and I have both the sleeves done and I’m up to the armpits… perhaps 80% knitted.
• A Montego Bay scarf, half knitted in Caber.
• A pair of socks, one done and the other past the heel. Only a few hours knitting to go.
• Another pair of socks, the blue-ish Adventure yarn ones with the pink toes and heels. One is knitted and I have the second one to do. I'm going to do the heels and toes on the second one in green so it doesn't feel like a second sock.
• A Forest Canopy which has been OTN for a year (blush) and is half done. I've never mastered lace or charts, so this could be a challenge.

So I’m thinking that if I finish all these I’ll have five completed projects and I could reward myself in the last week by knitting a Morning Surf scarf with the handspun I’m spinning for the TdeFleece. And then while I'm knitting the handspun, I can start spinning the Art-yarn I planned to do with the neutral TdeF fibre.

What do you think - is this a plan?

.... and if I finish all of that then I'll spin the Polwarth fleece I washed last week which is waiting to be carded on the drum-carder.

n

PS   Also on the list of activities this week is some major grass cutting, a little decorating, and an overhaul of YY HQ.
If I get the HQ all organised I'll let you see where I work at the end of the week. Now there's an incentive for me to get it done. 

PPS   I spun the Wensleydale. It's interesting, not as bouncy as BFL and I'm thinking I'll save it for a weaving project in August - The O-Loom-Pic Weave-along on ravelry.






I'm off to IKEA now to get a few bits and pieces for the HQ revamp.
Bye.

I need a Shed!

No matter how idyllic blog-life appears, I simply refuse to believe that any two people manage to live together with never a cross word. Add children to the mix (babies, toddlers, teenagers and everything in between and beyond) and it's a minor miracle any relationship survives.
At such times, chez YY, the shout goes up "I need a Shed!". Sometimes it's me who says it, sometimes it's him and I daresay the boys (one at home and one moved out) have thought it too.

For a while a few years ago Downsizing was a bit of a buzz word. Sometimes it is taken to mean getting rid of "stuff" in an attempt to deal with the Reduce component of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
The trouble is that unless we are equally determined at the same moment, one or other of us will want to keep a book or a mug, or a set of sheets "just in case".
Other people think of it as changing the way we live in order to live on a lower income. Or perhaps moving house in order to reduce the mortgage or even pay it off completely.

We like timber houses. Timber inside and out.
We don't live in one however. Every so often we say "Shall we move?" but it never comes to anything. Years of being near schools, not wanting to move at critical points in the education of the boys, or to disrupt them socially mean that we have stayed put. We have also acquired out fair share of stuff. Books. Clothes. Dogs. Chickens. Wellies.
But we still think about it sometimes.

We have looked hard at the possibilites.
Just how much stuff do we really need? How many pots and pans and plates and towels and old bank statements are really necessary?

Yesterday I found a solution.
We could have a shed.
Even a shed each.

This is for all of you who have people in your lives whom you love dearly, but from whom you would like to escape occasionally.
A Tumbleweed House.
The designer has lived in his home for eight years. Eighty nine square feet of it. That's what I call downsizing.
Do watch the video a little further down the page.
Now tell me ... wouldn't you like a "Shed" like that?
I know I would. Just occasionally.

n

Doing my best.

OK, this shelf loading takes ages. I will try to get all the fibre out, but I'm giving up on the rest of the Bonny sock yarn - another ninety or so skeins.

I'm on holiday next week, so on the first Monday I am back at work (in ten days time, the 14th July) I will do another update for you.

Sally came for lunch, and brought chocolate brownies.

And then I showed her how to set up the Kiwi, and I let her play.

She borrowed my trusty Ashford spindle a few weeks ago, but has never as much as treadled a wheel.
I think we can say that she's pretty good at it, can't we?
This is Shetland which is great fibre to start on, slightly clingy so it doesn't whoosh into the orifice, and very easy to draft.
You don't want to know this really, but she went away with half a bobbin (not kidding) of perfectly even singles.
And she knits lace, have a look at her blog. When I grow up....

Back to the shop. I think we are looking at about nine-thirty. Hope that's not too late for you.

n