Fiber Baristas - Flora & Fauna Fiber Club

First the teaser....

September was my turn as the dyer of the month for the Fiber Baristas Flora & Fauna Fiber Club and as everyone now has their parcels I can show you the fibre in all its technicolour glory.

The crowning glory of our small garden is a beautiful Copper Beech tree. The colours in this tree are a constant source of pleasure and inspiration. One minute there are just bare branches then seemingly before our eyes, the young green leaves unfurl, signalling the arrival of spring. As the spring progresses into summer, the leaves turn a fabulous shade of purply copper, then in autumn, copper gives way to rich reds, golds and oranges.

So you can imagine that just this one tree gave me lots of ideas for colourways! As we are on the cusp of summer and autumn, I decided to share this mid-season change with two braids – one capturing late summer, the second early autumn. Blended together, as they are just now on our tree, these two braids were designed to make a beautiful combination for a special fibre project.

The fibre I chose was my beautiful British 100% kid mohair combed top. It is a fantastic luxury fibre with a natural sheen that brings a project to life. I thought it really captured the sunlight reflecting off the glossy leaves. I hope you agree : )

And the full colour version.....

And for the lucky prize winners who guessed that I was the dyer of the month, there was a little extra gift of hand-dyed Teeswater fleece in co-ordinating shades.....

New Boots!!! (Feel free to skip if you are not into shoes!)

I've been waiting just ages to post this (I know, it's a bit sad, but there you are).

(cue drum roll please...) My new boots have arrived : )))

Ordinarily this wouldn't merit a blog post, but these are custom handmade ones that I ordered when we were on holiday in Cornwall and they are just so special I thought you'd like to see them.

Just to fill in the back story a bit, this year we stayed in a most wonderful cottage in the middle of nowhere, the nearest civilization being St Agnes. Now it wasn't our best holiday ever since three of us (I was the lucky one to escape unscathed), were horribly ill and this effectively took out two days of our hol : (

Nonetheless, the boys were all very resilient and we still managed to do a bunch of stuff, with sandcastle building, bodyboarding and visits to various interesting places. One such place was St Agnes beach, well, more cove really as it is small (if perfectly formed!). As luck would have it, there are some lovely craft workshops there and one of the craftsmen is a shoemaker, Phil Runwater.

It was fairly quiet and we got chatting and well, I tried on a few boots (it would have been rude not to, right?). Anyway, because we'd had a bit of a miserable couple of days, and I haven't had any new boots since leaving my "proper" job, Pete insisted I treat myself to a pair. Naturally I protested but I eventually succumbed (ok, so I didn't take much persuading). So lots of umming and ahhing later, matching up colours, checking styles, I was all measured up and the deal was struck. Of course it was a bit weird to spend so long in a shop, hand over money and go away empty-handed, but it was absolutely worth it when this super-duper parcel arrived : ))




And they are just perfect!!!! I loooove them to bits! They are quite possibly the best present I've had since I got a Bay City Rollers tape for my ?th birthday (you'll have to work out what year for yourself, I've already said too much).

And here they are, wonderful no? Thank you Phil, you are fab : )))


And the pic at the top is, of course, me wearing them (sorry, rubbish photo as it is very difficult to photograph your own legs, but you get the idea)

(ooh, and do check out Phil's website - there aren't nearly enough pics to do his work justice, but if you are a shoe-o-phile, email or drop in and pay him a visit - you will be in shoe heaven!).

Gift vouchers on the way

Those of you who subscribe to the newsletter will know that September was our special Gift Voucher month. All orders in September counted towards a gift voucher to be spent on any goodies in the store.

This is just a quick message to say that vouchers have now been despatched so watch your inboxes! If you think you should have had a voucher and it hasn't arrived, please let me know asap as I don't want you to miss out!

Vouchers can be spent whenever you like so enjoy : )

(And if you aren't on the subscriber list but would like to be, you can sign up here)

I'm in Knit Today! Wheeeee!!!!

Well, that kind of says it all, really. Yes, this month I am the featured designer in Knit Today's "In the Spotlight" feature - how totally cool is that? There's a bit more about it here on the website but I was so excited I thought I'd share it here, too : ))

A big thank you to Isobel who is modelling my new, eponymously titled "Isobel swirl-topped hat", and also to Katrina who is modelling the crocheted sunhat. (And thankfully there is only one pic of me to contend with!).

Ooh, and must mention that the socks are the Chevron de Paix socks that I designed for the p/hop project for Medecins sans Frontieres. The sock pattern is available for download from the Medecins sans Frontieres website with all donations going to support their excellent work.

(All the other patterns in the article are available for £2.50 each (free postage) but they're not on the website yet so if you'd like one, drop me an email and I'll send one out).

Lost sock!

Well, not exactly, just a lost sock club pic which I found late last night....


..... August's sock club yarn, "Damsons & Damsels" in superwash Merino/tencel yarn for your delight and delectation : )

September clubs - Wild Pansies

I think we might be on for a bit of a blogathon this week as there is lots to tell!

So without further ado, here are the goodies which went out for September's fibre and sock clubs.

Fibre Adventure club - a tantalising mixture of Dorset Horn roving, Teeswater fleece and yummy silk hankies (pictured above)

Socks in fabulous 100% Superwash Merino....


And roving medley in sproingy, bouncy British rare breed, Dorset Horn


The observant among you who follow my Twitter account, dtcrafts, will notice that this month's colourway is currently gracing my account as my background wallpaper. Couldn't you just dive into these lovely locks? These are luscious British Teeswater locks, part of this month's Fibre Adventure club....

Fibre clubs August pics - Damsons & Damsels

Catch up time again, folks! Here is August's roving medley fibre club, Damsons & Damsels. Intense shades of cerise, plum, black and deep charcoal it was a pig to photograph but worth it! The fibre is my merino/tencel stripe blend - the tencel adds lovely highlights against the rich tones of the merino.



This months' adventure selection was a beautiful collection of the merino/tencel, soy top and fleece from three little Shetland shearlings, a white, a grey and a black, which I dyed in varying shades of plum/maroon. Lots of lovely texture and tone to make something really special! The Shetland has such soft locks with the most delicate crimp, it's just irresistible : )