Patterns on Ravelry

Yesterday I put up some more of my designs for sale as patterns on Ravelry and was absolutely amazed to find that I'd sold one within 5 minutes of putting it up! How incredible is that? I'm still not convinced someone didn't press the wrong button : )

April fibre club pics

First up is the Roving Medley. Wildfire was April's theme, rich and vibrant on a base of British Bluefaced Leicester fibre.

Fibre Adventurers sampled a real Britfest with a most beautiful selection of pure Teeswater fleece and my lovely Kid Mohair combed top, all finished off with a side of Bluefaced Leicester roving.
For June I'm going global with some interesting and exotic fibres from around the world. See you there!

Nearly forgot...

Tomorrow there will be happy, colourful pictures, I promise (of yarny, fibre-y stuff, not guinea pigs or burglars)

Of guinea pigs and burglary

Today we were burgled. This was, of course, bad and we're pretty shaken up, but there is, believe it or not, a funny side. Ever heard of guard guinea pigs? No? Well, neither had I, but it seems our timid little pair frightened off our intruders! Don't ask me how, but they did, so it was treats all round today for Sapphire and Ruby, our brave little burglar-scarers.

Tie it to a balloon and let it go....

My dad's been seriously ill, is currently in hospital in Leeds which means anxious times, trans-pennine visits and frustration with not being able to see consultants and doctors. I had no plans to blog about this, but find I can't blog about cheerier subjects without feeling I'm being somehow shallow and uncaring. Equally, blogs aren't where I share my personal stuff. So this is my compromise and I'll be reverting to blogging as usual but bear with me if my heart is elsewhere for the time being.

Blankety-blanks

A few weeks ago I was dyeing up some sock blanks, just a bit of fun to test out sizes etc. But of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating, well knitting in this case, so I've been on tenterhooks to see how my little experiments turned out. Enter the lovely Julia who presented me with not one, but three knitted up blanks this week : ))) Big smiles all round : )))

The effects were really interesting. With uncharacteristic forward thinking I had taken pics of the dyed blanks before they were knitted so it was great to be able to compare how the painting effects translated into the knitting.

So inspired were we that phase two is now underway.....

Needing a yarn pick-me-up

... so tomorrow, all being well, I'm going to have some new yarns to look at. There are a couple of yarns which I'm pretty sure I'll be stocking, but who knows what surprises there might be, so I'm keeping an open mind. And I've had a horrid day today, so I need some yarn therapy.

New sock pattern

Or at least it will be, as soon as I wrestle the heel into submission. I'm not a fan of short row heels (they never seem long enough even tho' I only have size three hobbit feet!) but the toe-up heel flap method is also not proving ideal as I'm using a cotton yarn and it leaves the heel with a bit of a ridge right at the cup of the heel. The lack of stretch in the cotton also means that the cast-off at the cuff is either waaay too tight or much too loose. I've tried all manner of cast offs, none of which seem to fit the bill (yet).

On the plus side, I do love the pattern stitch. It's a cocktail of different stitches that I've combined together and I really like the way they work. Just need to crack the dratted heel and sort the cuff.....and keep reminding myself that it will be worth it as the yarn is soooo soft. Right, deep breath - just time to frog that heel before tea....

A gift most rare and beautiful

I've been desperate to put this on the blog for ages, but I promised to keep it a secret. I am now the proud owner of this wonderful Elbic Coat : )))

One of the unique pleasures of being in business is when a customer becomes a friend. Ursi is from Switzerland and designs the most fabulous jackets. As we chatted about dyes and dyeing it turned out that we shared lots of other interests, so we kept in touch. When Ursi said she would like to design a jacket just for me, I was so excited. I sent off my measurements, chose my favourite colours and couldn't believe it when this beautiful gift arrived in the post!

The sleeves and medieval-inspired hood are knitted in Ursi's lovely hand-dyed yarn and incorporated into a vintage jeans-jacket. It is just so cool. Ursi will be selling her jackets soon online, so keep your eyes peeled and I'll let you know as soon as her site goes live. I have already seen some colour samples and believe me, they are equally stunning!

Thank you and hugs, Ursi : )))

p/hop's progress

I'm excited to say that my p/hop socks have now been through rigorous testing by my lovely volunteers, Debbie, Nora and Fran. I have two lovely samples and a third on the way, so when they're all in, I'll be doing a quick photoshoot (well, Pete will, actually), and you can see the pattern made up in three very different, but equally pretty, colourways. Then I'll be posting the pattern for download and hopefully we can raise some valuable funds for Medecins sans Frontieres.

There's lots more p/hop activity going on, and you can find out more on the p/hop website. For Ravelry fans, don't forget to check out the p/hop group on Ravelry.