Hello!

The weekend.

Saturday saw me frantically labelling and packing and organising, ready to go the Battleby Gathering near Perth. Everyone attending was a spinner, weaver, dyer or felter. I doubt if there was anyone who was “just” a knitter.
You should have seen the knitting, touched the handwoven jackets, heard the enthusiasm.

 

This lady had hansdpun pure silk fibre and then knitted this fabulous sweater.

My fibre was braided. I lost count of the number of people who said to me that it was so pretty to see it like that and how unusual it was. I pulled the braids out to explain about sequential dyeing and how it meant you could plan a handspun, and make it do what you wanted to a large extent. They were fascinated, and understood immediately.

I explained about different dyeing styles in sock yarn and how it might “flash” over the ankle with a heel-flap heel, and they all nodded and simply said “of course” with complete understanding, immediately followed by “well, I could just knit a different heel”.

I had a wonderful day with an amazingly talented and creative group of people.
It was an absolute pleasure.
For the first time I am considering doing wholesale, because hey, there’s a whole world of people out there who would never join ravelry or use the web and they are enthusiasts, just like us.

So, hot off the press, I can announce that although I won't be at Ally Pally in person, there will be a selection of both yarns and fibres from The Yarn Yard there. More on this later.

I was accompanied by Margarete at Battleby (she was the glamorous one) and she did a wonderful job of making everyone who stopped feel welcome. Thank you Margarete!

She also brought me this.

My birthday Golding spindle, 2 inch whorl in Lignum Vitae with a walnut shaft.

Isn't it gorgeous? I have plans for the inaugural project.

I'll be updating the shop with new fibre later. The photos are done, I just need to finish some dyeing first, and then I'll do the shop.

Here's a taster.

 

Merino silk 70:30 and BFL. Something for everyone. There is caber yarn as well but the batteries in the camera have given up the ghost!

The update is done now! Click here to visit the shop.

n

Shop Closing!

The shop will be going off-line this evening (Saturday) at about six and will be shut until Monday morning.
I am going to be at Battleby for the Annual Gathering and the easiest thing is simply to put it all in the car rather that trying to second-guess what might be best to take.
If there is anything you've had your eye on and are tempted by, do grab it now as it may not be there on Monday when I re-open the shop!

I've dyed lots of BFL Superwash and Humbug BFL to take with me, as well as the last of the Merino Tencel fibre and plenty of Merino Silk fibre too. Whatever I bring home with me will be in the next update.

Wish me luck.

n

Spread the word!

If you have a blog, please would you consider mentioning the Twilight Barking post below or just posting links to the websites I linked to.
We knitters are a powerful bunch, let's get everyone talking about being a donor.
And take your knitting with you when you go!

n

A Twilight Barking

All my life, or at least all my adult life, I have been a blood donor.

I started when I was eighteen, and continued until my late twenties, every six months until I was pregnant with Simon. I did it through my nursing training and continued when I was working in GI medicine (in the years when we gave many transfusions for bleeding duodenal ulcers, before we knew that most were caused by a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori and could be treated with a 4-8 week course of antibiotics). I then worked in Neuro-trauma and Neonates and saw for myself how this small gift could save a life, speed a recovery, make a difference. 

I did one donation between babies and then had to wait again before I could go back to it. (You have to have a year off.)
Then I did plasmapheresis for a few years which meant going every month or so, instead of every six.

It wasn't until I discovered that I couldn't donate for medical reasons about six years ago that I stopped at around the 40 donation mark.

I was gutted.
Donating blood was part of who I am. Like cleaning my teeth in a particular way, or liking Marmite instead of chocolate.

Like me, Gavin (Mr YY) has always given blood. The boys knew we did it, they came with us, and sat next to us and watched the process. They ate the biscuits and drank the juice as well.

They always said that when they were old enough, they would do it too.
You can now give blood when you are seventeen, not eighteen as it used to be. Last year Simon had his lip pierced which means he can't do it for a year, so he'll have to wait.
But yesterday Adam came with us into Edinburgh to give his first donation.
He was nervous, but quite happy with his decision, and it's now a couple of months after his seventeenth birthday.

 

And this was the result.

We asked about donation generally and the centre manager told us that the donor "pool" was declining. Older donors are, well, older - and retiring from the system. Many younger people go on Gap-year travel and are excluded for a year or more when they return. Often people who have had a donation themselves want to "give something back" but they are now in the group who are unable to donate for medical reasons.
People are busy, we lead full lives, and it slips down the priority list.

Is anyone up for a challenge?
How about donating for the first time.
If you have donated in the past, make a phone call and book a fresh appointment.
If you can't donate any more, like me, support anyone you know who can.
Take your children with you, so it becomes normal for them, part of family life.
Take your non-donating partner with you, just for the company.
Take a friend.
Take several friends and go for lunch afterwards. What a great reason to meet up with people you don't get the chance to see very often every four months.  Celebrate your friendship.

People call me an "enabler" - I would be so chuffed if I could "enable" a few more donors.

The Scottish Blood Transfusion Service website is here.

The rest of the UK is here.

Adam was doing it for the first time, and Gavin... well added together, they make A Twilight Barking.

It was Adam's first, and Gavin's hundredth donation.

A hundred and one donations.

Cool, or what?

n

PS     Gavin said "A Twilight Barking" was obscure... but you knew what I meant, didn't you?
PPS   If you donate, or donate-by-proxy, or "enable" someone else, let me know... I might even put a total in the sidebar!

Chocolate, or Humbugs?

Long-time blog readers will know that whenever there is a sweet versus savoury contest before me, savoury always wins. The only exceptions to this are very black chocolate, 70% cocoa or more, and things which are non-chocolate, like Sherbet Fountains, Flying Saucers, Acid Drops and those most glorious and tooth rotting of Scottish "boilings" known wonderfully as "Soor Plooms".
Give me Marmite over jam.
Cheese over dessert (with the possible exception of Creme Brulee).
And a carefully crumbled Oxo Cube in a mug in preference to Hot Chocolate.

It's as though I do not have the gene which has "sugar" written in pink letters right through its sticky pseudo-mint flavoured centre.
"Just because the lady loves..." passes me by, because this lady simply doesn't love. And a 200g bar of Cadbury's Milk can lie in the fridge for a month, untouched. Someone else in the house may scoff it, but not me.

I can occasionally get interested in a Flake, but that's more because of the challenge of how to eat it than because of the actual chocolate content. And as for Creme Eggs.... yuck, yuck, yuck.

However, I have discovered one kind of chocolate which I adore.

This is milk chocolate BFL roving.
I bought it as a potential Club fibre, but it has proved to be too dark to dye effectively, and it's so lovely and soft and well, apply your own chocolate-based adjective and you have the perfect description.
More-ish? Yes.
Smooth? Yes.
Better than.... ? Quite possibly.

I had 5 kg of it and I have disposed of a kilo already. I'm offering it at the bargain price of just £3 for 100g because I need the space it is occupying (and I find it distracting to want to go and roll in it).
It would make scrummy handspun Cranfords, and you could have a huge 300g braid of it for less than £10 or a jumper's worth for £25 (winter project, anyone?)
It's not superwash, but it has excellent laceweight potential. Did I mention that it is soft?

And, if you are placing an order for something else, you could add it to your Cart, and if you watch the price-banding for the postage, you could get it post free too.
Go on, a little chocolate is good for you!

I'm dyeing today, so I just have a couple of fibres to add to the shop.

Humbug BFL. See the stripes?

Don't you just love "boilings"?

There will be more of this soon, and it's just as soft as the milk chocolate.

Jane and I, during one of out late-night-early-morning-tea-drinking-sessions, were talking about "things to do with handspun"... keep a close eye on her blog, all will soon be revealed.
I have my own handspun ready.

Unless, of course, I dive into the chocolate pile in the meantime.

n

PS.
Today is  A. Big. Day. 
We have been waiting for it for a few years.
All will be revealed tomorrow.

Equinox

Yesterday was one of those days where I had to make some decisions.

The Yarn Yard is two years old and continues to grow and develop. In all this time the prices for the yarn have stayed the same. A skein of hand dyed bonny was £10 two years ago and it is still £10. However in that time, wholesale prices have risen, and other costs like power (I can't dye in the dark) and blue bags have risen. And just as the Royal Mail postage costs have risen for all of us, the non-RM costs for shipping yarn and fibre from the wholesalers to me have risen as well.
Until now I have managed to absorb these costs by being more efficient, posting twice a week instead of every day and so on.

But at the end of the day this is not a hobby - it's a business.

So there are two options.

I could put prices up for everyone. It could be argued that this is the fairest thing to do. However many people like to place an order "just to see" and I don't want to discourage anyone from the opportunity to treat themselves to a single skein of yarn from time to time. We all need a pick-me-up sometimes - to paraprase the advert - "because we are worth it". And what better way than a skein of yarn or a braid of fibre which gives us many hours of enjoyment, for what is really, in £ per hour of stroking, admiring, planning, spinning or knitting, (or both) and maybe giving as well... well, pennies.... maybe even fragments of pennies for the lace knitters!

Or

I could review the Club prices.
I believe that the Clubs offer excellent value for money. They are the only UK Clubs which are offered by monthly subscription which gives you, the customer, complete control over your subscriptions. Sometimes people decide to join the Clubs for a month to try them out.
I don't use the up-front three or six monthly membership fee to fund the next development and this keeps me on my toes which is only right and proper. It's actually very unusual for anyone to leave the Clubs once they join, so I hope that means I'm getting it right!
The Clubs also offer a different "package" from others in the UK.
The Solid Yarn Club is the only one available (and is being dyed this afternoon).
The main Sock Club offers a 25g mini-skien of solid yarn - should I stop including this? I don't think so.
The Sock Club Plus is the only one offering full skeins of paired variegated and solid yarns and allows you to use every scrap of yarn in multiple projects - so it's excellent value.

I really don't want to put the prices up, either of the yarns in the shop, or of the Clubs.

I started offering 10% off six months ago in the Spring of this year as a "Thank you" to all the Club members, many of whom have been with me since I started the company. When I first did it, I said that it might not be permanent, and would be reviewed from time to time.
Yesterday was the Autumn Equinox, one of two days in the year when the length of both day and night are equal.
Balanced.
After much thought I've decided to review the Club discount.
For the moment, until the end of September, it will continue, but I do need to think about what to do after that.

The other thing is that I am going to use the new mailing list from the website to let you all know about the shop updates and so on, and I'm phasing out the mailing list I have on the computer. Many of you will be getting multiple emails as you are on the new website list, the old mailing list, and the Club lists and I don't think it's right for me to bombard you with email in this way.

I'll keep the Club lists (perhaps as an Extra Special Person list to give members advance notice of updates etc), but from now on I won't send messages from the old list.
If you would like to be on the main mailing list, please create an account on the website and just opt in to the newsletter. No purchase necessary, it just means you are "in the loop".

I think that's it.

There has been knitting.
And Spinning.
And Mr YY has a new machine.
And the household has a new ironing board cover.

Photos soon.

n

Thank you!

I think I am back in the land of the living now. Thankfully I don't get migraine often, but when I do it wipes me out. I rarely get a headache beyond a normal sort of headache (if there is such a thing) but I do get all the flashing lights and blurred vision and then a feeling of overwhelming exhaustion for 24 hours. When I worked in the NHS my lovely and very sympathetic colleagues would try to send me home, but of course I drove to work and couldn't see to drive back, and by the time the flashing lights were gone there seemed no point because I was OK again, if rather tired.

Thank you for all the kind messages, migraine is amazingly common, isn't it?

So, what's new? Well, a degree of catching up because of yesterday of course. I'll be posting things later today, and hopefully they will get to you by tomorrow. I'll also be dyeing for an Update on Tuesday.

Next weekend (on Sunday 28th September) is The Battleby Gathering, the annual meeting of all the Guilds of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers in Scotland which is held at Scottish Natural Heritage - Battleby Centre, near Perth. It's not an AGM, there are speakers and demonstrations and a handful of "shops" will be there. It's "vendors by invitation only" so I am extremely honoured to be asked to go.
I think all the tickets will be sold now, and numbers are limited by Fire Regulations etc. but you may of course already have your ticket in which case please do come and say hello!

I can also announce that I am going to be teaching a Sock Knitting class on the 1st November. The event is being organised by Doreen at Scottish Fibres (who is lovely), and she will be there with lots of tempting fibrey things as well. Scottish Fibres is not a bricks and mortar shop, but those of you who have been to Woolfest will know that Doreen has an amazing selection of fibre and other goodies, so if you'd like to have a day of fibre-shopping then this is a great chance to browse, and perhaps stock up on Christmassy things too.

The Sock Knitting class will be an all-day event running from 10.00 to 16.00. and is designed for non-sock knitters. The numbers of places will be low because I want to offer the best learning opportunity I can. I know many of you are already sock knitters, but if you have friends or family who you would like to indoctrinate share your passion with, then this is a great chance to do it. There are other courses running on the same day, in Weaving and Felting, so you could come as a team! Doreen also has courses in Spinning, Weaving and Felting on the 4th October as well, which is only two weeks away, so grab the places while they are there, I think they are going quickly.

I know November sounds like it's a-g-e-s away, but it's only six weeks.
The course is not for people who can't knit at all, you (or your friend) need to be able to cast on, knit and purl, and increase and decrease, but with six weeks to go, even a complete non-knitter could learn those things and practice a bit before they come. It's very exciting, and I am deeply engrossed in lesson planning already!

n

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n

Spindles are in stock!

Just dashing by to let you know that spindles are back in stock.
I can't give Club discount on spinning hardware, but if you would like a braid of fibre or some yarn at the same time I'll refund you afterwards. The boxes I use have room for fibre "padding" and I include starter-fibre in every spindle-box for free, just whatever I have to hand in a variety of colours and types. It beats using bubble-wrap!

n

Jaded green?

There are times in any relationship when things get a little jaded.
Times when you think you know the other person really well and there is nothing new to discover.

So, just in case we have reached that stage, I thought I might offer you something different. You see, I have a secret passion.

I like a good jigsaw.

Here's a nice easy one to get you started. It's colourway 300, an adventure yarn. There are four of them in the shop and if they don't sell soon I may knit one myself!

Shall we make it a weekly event?

n