Hello!

Pure Knitting

I am not a speedy knitter. I am in awe of knitters who can produce a pair of socks a week, or even one sock. Making stitches, one after another is an almost meditative process, and perhaps this is why we all knit plain "vanilla" socks despite the fact that there are many interesting and challenging patterns available.  Knitting with variegated yarn which produces a pattern magically all by itself is fun, and it generates its own momentum somehow.

Just one more round and that green will be on the needle again and I'll make a cup of tea.

So is the purest form of sock knitting that which is not only knitted in simple stocking stitch, but is also made using single colour yarn?

Generations of women (and men) have knitted socks like these. Socks for the troops (in Jaeger yarn!). Socks for wearing with a suit. Socks for wearing to school. Knitting with solid or semisolid yarn has no obvious "cup of tea" break at the end of a pattern repeat or emergence of green on the needle.

How many of you have semi solid plain stocking stitch socks on the needle? Do you feel the need to break the monotony with a cable or eye of partridge heel?

I'm knitting Wendy Johnson's Diamond Gansey socks in the new yarn which will be here in September. There are more examples here if you use ravelry. Rachel has knitted them in Toddy, and they really zing in a bright colour. She's also knitted the Delpinium Lace socks from the same book.

After years of resisting (and frogging) toe-up socks - I confess to being one of those who said she didn't like them because she couldn't actually do them - I am now a bit of a convert. Wendy's book is simple but thorough and I think I would wear almost all the socks in it which is pretty remarkable when you think that knitting books are rather like cookery books, and it is said that only 10% of the recipes in even the most well used of cookery books will ever see an oven, let alone a plate.

If you feel like joining in the toe up revolution, Wendy's book is here. And she's written another one which will be published in March 2010.

The camera is buried in a box, so I'll do photos tomorrow. There isn't much to see though, just the first pattern repeat. I am not a speedy knitter. I wish I was, but I'm not.

n

Gosh!

Well, the yarn has been flying off the shelves like nobody's business.

I'm half way through packing orders. When I run out of yarn I'll send a "free shipping with your next order" voucher to anyone who misses out.

I'll do this for any orders which go through before midnight tonight. The yarn is all bargainous at the moment so there's still an opportunity to nab something fabulous. Christmas gift knitting, anyone?

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

Backage and Baggage

The back is a little better today - Thank you for all the lovely emails.

We need to discuss Baggage, or rather Bags.

When I started The Yarn Yard three years ago I hunted high and low for recycled bags to post the yarn in. I eventually found some after much searching but they were at that time prohibitably expensive at about 25p each, so I started using the blue bags you are used to receiving.

My bag stocks are getting low and instead of just re-ordering blue ones as I usually do, I did a google search to see what else was available. Well, it seems the bag market has changed somewhat and it is now possible to get postal bags which begin to degrade under UV light and which continue to degrade even in the dark after the process has begun. The bags have a double seal strip, so if you open them according to the instructions which are printed on the outside the bag can be easily re-used. They don't cost 25p each either!  I have also, thanks to google, found a supplier of degradable Documents Enclosed wallets to stick on the bags and these have a green bar at the top instead of the usual red.

Two things occur to me. The first is that the Docs wallet will need to be sliced open carefully to preserve the bag underneath so it can be used a second time. I don't think that's too problematic, you'll just need to contain your excitement long enough to get a pair of scissors if it's a Club parcel!  The second is that the bags should not be put in plastics recycling because they will contaminate any polythene collections by councils or supermarkets, the bags need to be disposed of in normal rubbish where they will degrade to carbon dioxide and water.

Now, I am not a chemist and I am sure there are alternative views on the best way to deal with plastics in the environment, but as a non-expert this seems like a good idea, so I'm going to try it. I'll be using up the existing bags and wallets first, but there aren't many of them left so start looking out for dark green bags soon. As someone pointed out, the bright colours are hard to sneak into the house, so I hope these meet with everyone's approval.

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

25% off !!!

I have been neglecting the blog somewhat since Woolfest. Things have been really busy, but not very photo-friendly.

Changes are afoot chez YY.
The first big change is that our elder son is moving out of his flat in Edinburgh and moving home for eight weeks between work and University. At the moment I, or rather the Yarn Yard empire occupies what used to be his bedroom, and since he needs somewhere to sleep I need to have a major clear-out before this weekend. I really need all the dyed skeins and braids to find new homes so I'm having a sale.
I almost never do this, so if you are looking for a bargain now is your chance.
There is 25% off everything in the shop except the Lace Club.

25%

... which is quite a saving.
To get the discount, enter the word 

bedroom

in the box as you move towards the checkout.
There's some toddy and bonny and hug (the last of the hug for several months, so if you are thinking Cranford mitts, I would be quick). There's the new yarn with cashmere, macushla (just four skeins left). And there is lace yarn as well, so do have a browse around and just think that you'll be giving a young man somewhere to lay his head (somewhere which doesn't involve pillowcases stuffed with yarn).
If you'd like to join the Lace Club, please do this as a separate purchase.

What else is happening? Well the Yard is bursting at the seams, and really, I need a bigger space to work in (you wouldn't believe how small the dyeing-room is).
I need to look at making changes. This might be a workshop away from home, or it might be some major house-converting, or it might be a workshop in the garden - although now that I have suggested this Other People think they might like that for themselves!

There is news on the yarn front too.
For a long time I have been searching for a yarn which could be exclusive to me, and I have now found one.
It's very exciting and I'm the only dyer in the UK who will have it.
The yarn itself is a tiny bit heavier than bonny and toddy and will come in 65g skeins, each having 200m of yarn. This is perfect for those of you who knit toe up whether one or two at a time because you'll be able to use every scrap of yarn with no worries about running out.
Smaller skeins will also be perfect for colourwork and for small person socks.
It's 100% merino and takes dye like a dream so the colours are really saturated. I'm knitting with it at the moment myself... verrrrry nice stuff.
It's being spun for me as a special custom order and the first delivery will be in about six weeks time, around the beginning of September. I can't wait!

On a less happy note, I am today eating my first new-style-in-a-nasty-plastic-tube Sherbet Fountain. It's horrible. Even the sherbet is different, less powdery, and with a nasty chemically lemony taste, or perhaps I should say taint.
Yuk.

n

What's in a name?

I once read somewhere that some actuaries in the USA looked at data to do with how long you live in relation to your name. They discovered that if you have unfortunate initials such as Arnold Samuel Smith or Boris Ulysses Marwick your lifespan was likely to be shorter than someone with more careful parents who had been named Steven Underwood Norton or Lionel Oliver Vernon Endicott.

This may be an urban myth, but names are definitely tricky things. Yarn naming is almost as difficult, and swapping to numbered colourways has saved me hours each month. I'm in good company here as Koigu do something similar. Often customers say that the colours conjure up quite different images.
Golden yellows for example can be mustard, custard, creme caramel, pancakes, someone even suggested a JCB digger!
Base yarns however do need names, I think, especially when you have more than three or four.

When I was getting ready for Woolfest, I was racking my brains to come up with a name for the new merino/nylon/cashmere yarn. There were many suggestions.
Selkie - used already by another company for a cashmere yarn.
Cairdeas - gaelic for love (I think) which is nice but is again a bit similar to something else.
And then one of my customers, Jenny, suggested this ...

Macushla.

852

863

870

Very soft and squishy with a little bit of nylon for strength.
You can see it knitted up on Joy's blog.

Macushla is an Irish word which it means darling.
Perfect.

n

PS. I have exciting news, there is going to be a new yarn at the Yard.
It will be exclusive to The Yarn Yard.
Quite different from anything else in the UK.
I'm going to call it Cairn.

There will be more news about it soon, it's very exciting!

Adam Cooks

My younger son Adam is 18 and has been doing a cooking course at college for the last six months. He starts the level 2 course in September and is looking for work at the moment, but in the meantime he has started a cooking blog. It's only a few days old, but there's nothing like a few readers to add to the momentum.

It's called Adam Cooks.
He's having fun with it, learning to edit photos, upload them and add links. All the usual bloggy stuff which we take for granted, but if you've never done it before it's a bit of a challenge.

He has added a subscribe by email option, so if you would like to get updates, it's just a click away...  and of course comments are great too.

n x

Woolfest photos

It's too hot to do much at all at the moment, so here are a few photos of Woolfest.

The sign.

Complete with collapsing boxes. I think they were wilting in the heat.

I have some fibre left for the shop as well.

A little colour.

BFL in the Woolfest colourway. I took lots of these and there are four left so they will go in the shop today for anyone who wanted to get there but couldn't.

And I have just one of these left.
Toddy, also in the Woolfest colourway.
Should I keep it for myself?

I'm updating the shop in stages, normally I would do this all at once and then "open the doors" but there is quite a lot to go on the site and I don't want to run the risk of duplicate orders etc so please just visit over the course of the day and click on New Stuff at the top of the blog which lets you see the most recent additions.
I'm not posting anything until at least tomorrow and this will allow combined orders. I don't normally do this but I'm adding in stages and that's hardly your fault. As long as the orders will fit in one bag (about 6 skeins) I'll send a voucher for additional postage which can be used the next time you visit.

Now, someone just gave me a recipe for iced coffee and it sounds just the thing...

n x