Hello!

I forgot...

In all the flurry of activity over the last few days I forgot to remind you that tomorrow (Monday 30th June) is the last day for sign-ups for the Sock Club, Sock Club Plus and the Fibre Club 100 and 200.
If you would like to be included in the July mailings and you haven't already subscribed, please sign up before midnight on the 30th.

This is the fibre which was sent for June. Click on the picture for big-ness. The next Club parcels will be sent in the third week of July.

 

100% Wensleydale, fantastic lustre and just look at that crimp. I'm spinning it at the moment.

There were a few prototypes of this colourway which may sneak into the Update tomorrow.

The Subscription page is here.

Thank you.  More tea now, I think.

n

Home again, Home again, Spinnity Knit

Home!
Tea.
Sleep.
Tea.

Woolfest was just amazing.
It was great to meet you all.
I will be more coherent in the morning.

n

P.S.  I bought a Bosworth.

B R E A T H E S L O W L Y and C A L M L Y

Almost ready.
Final labels being tied on.
Mitt kits being bagged. (Charcoal and Lime Green, anyone?)
Fibre braided.
Instructions left for those staying behind.
Dogs instructed to guard the house.

Jane has finished the pattern for the Pick 'n' Mix socks. It will be available as a download from this site after The Event. Taking paper patterns in soggy weather is really asking for them to be dropped in a puddle. Do come and admire all the socks on their blockers. I was hoping to persuade Jane to hang around and discuss designing but it seems she has an appointment to replace find a friend for her Ashford. Nothing to do with me and my suzie pro, nope, nothing to do with us at all...

See you soon!

n

Henry Ford

Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company who make the car-ownership an accessible reality for the masses at the beginning of the last century, said in his autobiography "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black".

I have to tell you, if you are hoping I might have a few skeins of all-over serviceable black yarn with me at Woolfest, you will be disappointed. I have just counted the skeins of semi-solid Bonny sock yarn, and there are more than sixty of them, and they are all different. And that's before you start looking at the laceweight.

There is a rainbow, I tell you... everything from day-glo pink, to baby-poop and from midnight blue to blackbird beak yellow. If you want to knit Jane's Pick 'n' Mix socks and you have sock yarn leftovers in your stash, there's sure to be a solid colour which would match or zing, and make your socks unique.

Now where did I put those sunglasses?

n

Seventy five percent.

Yesterday was reportedly the last dry day before the weekend so I made the most of it, and I think I'm about seventy five percent there.

We have Battage. All of these are hand dyed fibres.

Shetland, Cheviot, Silk and Glitz.

BFL, Shetland, Silk and Glitz.

These are brighter in real life but I am rushing so you'll have to come and see them in the fleece! there aren't many of them as they are quite time-consuming to make.

Seventy five percent is also, coincidentally, the proportion of merino in my new sock yarn.

Seventy five percent superwash merino, twenty five percent nylon sock yarn. Soooooo soft.

Again, much brighter in real life. These will knit as single stripes, round and round and round. The one on the far left is my personal favourite because it looks like a sweater worn by Dennis the Menace. The red is seriously bright.

Byeeee, twenty five percent still to do!

n

The last sunny day.

I was woken this morning by the weather person on Radio Scotland. Not literally you understand, she was in a BBC studio about 40 miles away, and I was in bed. This person announced, with far too much delight for my liking, that today is going to be the last sunny day for Some Time, because there will be A Lot Of Very Unsettled Weather for the rest of the week.

I was going to show you some of the goodies I'll be bringing to Woolfest, but taking photos and posting them is quite time consuming as the bloggers among you will know, so I'm afraid you'll have to wait until it's too wet to dry anything.

There is just time to ask you if you remember Woollie's Pick n Mix - that array of colourful sweeties placed temptingly by the door, enticing you in? They were perfect for trying a little bit of this and a little bit of that, or even one of everything if that was what you wanted.

Why am I asking you this? Well if you hop over to Jane's blog you can get a sneak preview of the new Woolfest Pick 'n' Mix Sock pattern. It looks as though everyone likes the Haystacks.
Even more excitingly, if you visit me in Cumbria, you'll be able to see the socks in person... and perhaps meet Jane too! (Hah! She wasn't expecting that.)   She won't be on my stand particularly, there was talk of test-driving some spinning wheels amongst other things, but she'll be there both days. I think that in British knitting circles, she could well be one of the most famous designers there. Maybe we need a Mugshot. I will hunt through my SkipNorth photos....

n

PS It looks as though I'm going to have another quite different, non-sock pattern as well... more on that tomorrow.

Ducking and Diving

As you might expect, the Yard is crazy-busy right now.
Sock Club is about to be sent, Fibre Club will be close on its heels and the yarn mountain continues to grow.

There will be new yarns and fibres at Woolfest.

This is 100% BFL superwash sockweight yarn, gorgeously soft and takes dye like a dream.

See what I mean?  There are 400 metres on every skein so that's plenty for a pair of socks.
These are actually far brighter in real life.

The lower one reminds me of a certain cockerel on a famous breakfast cereal box. Again, brighter in real life.

No time to chat today, I have to duck in and out of the raindrops (dratted stuff) and then dive into the heaps and do some serious labelling.

n

Stuff

I can't think of a more inspiring title!

1. Last week was spent doing this.

I hasten to add, this is just one corner of a very full room of yarn.

2. A very kind and lovely person sent me this.

So now I know, I am not a knitter, I am an architect.
I really, really like this book. I can see why some people don't... all the talk of Corgi dogs, Bubble Trails and Dromedary Camels is a little unusual, but it makes perfect sense, and I am now considering my options for the Tour de France KAL with fresh eyes.

3. I had the weekend off. It was my younger son's 17th birthday, and despite the fact that there are only ten days until I have to pack the boxes for Woolfest, I didn't do any work at all.
Instead, I knitted a sock.

I couldn't find my crochet hook (under a Rainbow Heap, no doubt), so I knitted top down, with a 25g ball of candy coloured solid as the accent colour.

I did a short row heel (I still can't quite believe I can do this), and an ordinary Kitchenered toe.

The other yarn?
The main colour?

Well I have been dyeing Adventure Yarns for a while now, and I've sampled them and fallen in love with their almost anarchic disregard for any sense of order, but never knitted a full sock in an Adventure colourway.
So it was about time.

 

Pretty, innit?
It took less than 25g and I have about 12 m left, so I could have made the leg longer than my standard 50-rows-plus-a-rib.

It's the smaller skein on the bottom right hand side. I need 25g for the other sock but the remaining 50g and the accent yarn will be coming to Woolfest, along with all the others.

Not long now... YIKES!

n

Luscious !

There are gorgeous new fibres on the way - Fibre Club this month will be very special.
The "bump" will be here on Monday and dyed on Tuesday... and definitely worth waiting for.

Sock Club is dripping - well perhaps not literally, but you get the idea.

Cranford Mitt Kits are piling up ready for Woolfest, along with lots of other goodies.

See you soon!

n

I am dyeing like a mad woman, and dodging the raindrops as well, so this is a photo-post.

Some of you have emailed to ask if I am really knitting with pencils.

Yes.

I am.

Honestly.

And for true.

200g of Pencil Roving.

40 x 200g skeins of it is coming to Woolfest.

40 different colourways.

n