Hello!

Almost there...

1225 - Last Month's Club yarn, just one skein of it in toddy.

1223 a variegated autumnal colourway in Clan.

I'm just starting the uploading, and hoping to have it all done by eight. Wish me luck.

n

Look at this!

If you look to your right you'll see a new photo album featuring this week's Shop Update. The link is for anyone reading this as an email because they don't get the sidebars.

All the photos can be embiggened with a click and I'll add to the album each day rather than in one huge session.

This is my favourite so far. I think it looks like a rooster!

 

1144 - toddy.

At the moment I have the album set up on a black background, compared to the Oatie Biscuits recipe which is on white. What do you think?

n

Free Yarn!

Special offer.

Buy two skeins of yarn or fibre or any combination and I'll send you a free skein of Croft semi solid until I run out of them!

There are lots of single colours which would take forever to put on the site and I need that bedroom cleared by the weekend...

New fibre, 70% alpaca and 30% BFL.... very, very soft. And more yarn at never to be repeated prices. The "bedroom" code is no longer valid, but many of the yarns have been reduced in price to make way for a young man who is bigger than I am... and for new yarns too.

n

OUCH!

As many of you know if you follow me on twitter or visit the shed on ravelry I have been troubled by a bit of "backage" recently. It started about ten days ago, lasted for 24 hours and then came back again on Sunday. Not fun at all. I've been munching the ibuprofen and keeping it at bay but it has slowed me down somewhat.

I wasn't able to do much yesterday but staying mobile (gently) seems to be helping. However, not working (much) yesterday has created a backlog and I have a simply HUGE pile of orders to process today.

Many of you have taken advantage of the 25% off offer. Some of you have chosen the dyed-to-order 1-6B and 1-6T Summer Collection colourways. Such is the love for Toddy that I have run out! A new delivery will be here tomorrow but it won't be dyed until Thursday at the earliest (depending on the backage), and possibly Friday. I will do it as soon as I can.

The 25% off will stay there for the rest of today and then things will be back to normal, I have more yarn (BFL-beautiful) ready for the shop update on Thursday and some brand new fibre too.

BFN n

Hide and Peek

Last weekend I had a table at the Woolfish Festival, I met lots of lovely people and was very fortunate to have the help all day of Lucy, who just plonked her knitting down next to the table and pitched in. She brought me tea and more tea (and you know how I like a cup of tea).

In return, I taught her to spindle. It seemed like a fair swap!

The table next to mine was full of the most delicious stuff.

How could I resist?

Ginger fluff.
Pure Alpaca.
Sooooooo soft.

And not content with fluff...

Cairndinnis Alpaca 4 ply.
More specifically, Daniella's 4ply.
336m of it.
No idea what I will use it for, but I love it to bits.

And this is a selection of fibre which will be in the shop over the weekend sometime.

705 (merino silk)

706 (BFL)

707 (BFL)

708 (BFL)

709 (BFL)

710 (BFL)

The difference between 709 and 710 is this.

710 (and 706 and 708) on the left is a random dye which will spin a blended yarn.
709 (and 705 and 707) on the right is dyed in a sequence so it's more "organised".

Have a lovely weekend.
I'm going back to stroking the ginger fluff now.

n

Very Clever Knitters

Just a quick post to show you a couple of things recently finished by Yarn Yard knitters.

Sue chose some yarn at Woolfest and I dyed a solid or two to go with what she had selected.
The main body of the jumper is in mauve and variegated, the sleeves are in mauve, variegated and lime green, and the collar is in mauve and lime green. 
This is knitted in bonny, my simple sock yarn.

Isn't it fabulous?

She told me
"It was cobbled together from a pattern I saw in a Noro book, an old Vogue pattern and an M&S jumper.
I used 2 hanks of mauve, 2 of multi and 1 green. 

The back and front have a welt in garter stitch and I did several trials to get a stripey pattern that I liked using only mauve and multi.  The sleeves also had a welt of garter stitch and were done in reverse stocking stitch, one row of each of three colours.  The cowl neck was in stocking stitch, 2 rows each of mauve and green and had to be made in a funnel shape to get the right look ( I did it straight first and had to unpick the lot!)  If I was doing it again I would do the neck on four needles to avoid having a seam."

I love it.

And Harriet, who won the MSF ticket to see the Yarn Harlot in August, has been knitting these.

They are not knitted in Yarn Yard yarn, she says that they could be, but that they would come out man-size knitted in bonny and these are done in 3 ply instead.
I just had to show you them though.

They are called the Sanquhar Gloves.

There seems to be some feeling that "little-and-often" shop updates would be preferable to once a week events. Check out the comments in the post below. So many people have said that they are out in the evenings or that they are tired or even (shock) that they are knitting and not computer-ing.
If I put yarn in the shop I will post on the blog and on ravelry.
Unless significant numbers of you have major difficulties with this, it will be what I plan to do for the next wee while and we'll see how it goes.
It won't be every day, but I think it will be several times a week at varying hours of the day and evening.

n

Knit your own wellies?

I promised photos yesterday and just ran out of time. So here, for your delectation are the first of the Sweater Packs of fibre.

They are in the shop.

These are offered in packs of 5 braids which is 500g. And this time they are all BFL superwash.
It's surprisingly tricky to dye identical fibres. I make my stock solutions as a very concentrated liquid and then I dilute. Using water at different temperatures to do the diluting affects the colour, so all of these were diluted with cold water to make them the same. My fingers were blue, and it wasn't the gloves leaking either.

Normally semi-solid fibre is £9 per 100g, but some of that cost is not the fibre, dye, electricity and so on, some of it is the admin side of running the Yard. Since these will go out in larger packs I am passing the time (and cost) saving on to you. So these are £35 for 500g of hand-dyed fibre which is just £7 a braid.
If you would like to make a child-sweater with handspun then according to my Knitter's Handy Book of Sweaters, a drop shoulder sweater for a 36 inch chest will take about 1400m at 7 st per inch. This is about 300m per 100g.
A sweater for a 40 inch chest takes about 2000m.

A child-sweater, or something sleeveless should be very possible from 500g.
An adult sweater is more tricky, because the difference between fitted and unfitted and knitting for someone of 5 foot 3 or for someone who is a foot taller but the same chest size will mess up the maths, big time. So I am offering all these colours in 500g lots but in most cases there are actually 2 x 500g available.
I absolutely cannot replicate colours, so please choose the appropriate amount. Semi-solid fibre is versatile stuff so it can be used for socks or shawls or given as a gift, it certainly won't go to waste.

If you choose 2 x 500g then as a special Christmas treat I will give you ten braids for the price of nine, and I'll send you an e-voucher for £7.00 which you can use against your next purchase. This makes each braid only £6.30!
I won't be able to keep this offer in place for ever, so if you are tempted, grab them quickly... or tell Father Christmas.
I don't think there will be any more sweater packs until January after these are gone.

In other news...

Gavin has a hole in his wellies, I think they have just split from lots of use.
He went this morning to the Post Office to buy another pair. Don't laugh, it wasn't the village Post Office, it was the one in the next village which is bigger and sells seeds, copies of Smallholder News and Pig-keeper Monthly and The Farmer alongside Hello and The Beano.
It also sells screws, saucepans, cheese-graters, acrylic yarn, sandpaper and macaroon bars ... you get the idea.

There were no wellies.
So he went to the Garden Centre which is next to the Feed Store (sounds like the Prairies) which is where we get dog food, dog chews, wild bird seed and menopausal-chicken feed. The Garden Centre didn't have wellies either.
They told him that wellies were very hard to get at the moment.
There is a national wellie shortage.

He is wearing a poly bag over one sock.
He needs new wellies.

I am on a wellie hunt.
I'll let you know how I get on.

n