Merry Christmas one and all!

Well, I think most things are done. Just the small matter of wrapping a "certain someone's" gifts and the lovely job of hoovering the stairs (the downside of working from home).

Please excuse the rather festive page decor. It is only temporary, but I thought I should do something a bit jolly to celebrate Christmas. The background is from a fab site, run by a lovely lady who blogs under the title of the Graphics Fairy. She has the most amazing selection of free, downloadable vintage graphics and her site is a veritable mine of useful images, clip art and wonderful fripperies to jazz up your blog or, for you paper-crafters, to turn into gorgeous scrapbooks and cards. Remember the paper dolls we had as kids that you used to dress up with paper outfits? Yes, you can find printable ones on there to show your kids what presents looked liked before the Wii, xbox, ps3, go-go hamster etc. etc. ; )) (Oh no, best go before I start on the "You think you were poor. We were so poor...." Monty Python sketch).

All that remains is to wish all my family, friends, customers, fellow bloggers and twitterers peace, good health and happiness for Christmas and 2010.

Thanks for sharing my news and views and see you all in the New Year!

How much do I hate cooking?

Enough to volunteer to swap cooking the tea with bathroom cleaning detail, that's how much (and that included the loo, scrubbing the floor and the wall tiles). Could have been worse, I could have been doing this on Christmas Eve - wow, it is sure one long party in our house ; ))

Well, I'm done and so's tea. The bathroom is sparkling like a new pin and all that housework has made me mighty hungry.....

Purple and pink (hair)

Finally got round to posting pics of the new, colourful "do". I have a lovely new hairdresser, Hannah, who is as colour-mad as I am, so it promises to be the start of a great hair/hairdresser relationship (fingers crossed!).

Hairdressers are like that, aren't they? They hold in their hands a vital component of how we feel about ourselves visually. I don't think that makes me vain (well, maybe a bit), but there's nothing like a bad hair day for making you feel out of sorts with the world. Likewise, a good cut and blow can really lift the old spirits when you're feeling a bit down. Anyway, as I have to brave the wild weather, I shall sign off and leave you with the "new me"....

Knitting frenzy!

I am hopeless when it comes to making knits for people for Christmas, but this year I was absolutely determined and thus far I have (drum roll, please) 3 gifts finished and onto gift 4!!!

I do have a fallback plan in the form of some backup bought gifts if I don't make it to my target, but so far (fingers crossed), it's going ok. Wish me luck : ))

Firecracker!! - November club piccies

Snuggle up warm with "Firecracker", November's Super Sock Medley club yarn......


Who can resist an ooh or an aaahh when they see a firework going off? Well, not me anyway ; )

So for November, I thought a bold and sassy fireworks theme was in order. Set against a deep midnight blue sky are flashes of gold, scarlet and fiery orange. And for club members, this month I thought everyone should have a pre-Christmas treat. For roving medley members I added a little free gift of a lovely sparkly mini-batt of shades of deep blue lambswool with wisps of grey-blue tencel and some rich, angelina to give that firework sparkle. And for Fibre Adventurers an extra special blend of pure British mohair in a fiery cascade of colour, blended with gold angelina.

And here are the piccies...

At the top, the Super Sock Medley Club yarn, in supersoft, superwash merino/nylon, layer-dyed to create rich depth and tone.

November's Roving Medley in pure, soft merino.


And Fibre Adventures for November brought to you by beautiful, fine merino roving, gorgeous Portland fleece, a sparkly midnight batt and a lovely mini-batt of softest, shiny mohair and angelina.

Club pics - Autumn Feast

While everything is soaking for the clubs, I thought I'd have a catch up with pics from October (shortly to be followed by November with any luck!).

October's theme was somewhat influenced by the gigantic pumpkin we bought and pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin... well, you get the idea. "Autumn feast" was the resulting colourway. At the top we have the Super Sock medley.

And the Roving medley - a lovely, springy Whitefaced Woodland roving...

And for Fibre Adventurers, Whitefaced Woodland roving, Romney shearling fleece and a lovely helping of merino/silk roving.

p/hop Birthday Blog-along

Today I'm on vacation from the Hue & Dye blog and I'm enjoying the scenery at the MSF p/hop blog, joining Pete and the team in celebrating the first anniversary of this fantastic project. Why not join me there? (Oh, apologies, I can't get the cake link to work, but if you click here it will take you to the right spot - sorry, technophobe at work here - epic fail in the linkie department!).

Christmas offers are here!

Pete's been slaving over a hot keyboard the last couple of days, putting up this year's Christmas offers.

Offers include....
Free yarn and pattern with dye kits
Discounts on all kool aid kits
Undyed yarn offers, and....
All sock yarns are on special too (still time to dye up and knit those Xmas pressie socks!).

Oh, and not forgetting workshop discounts for something to look forward to in the New Year : )

And last, but most certainly not least, I'm busy writing the Christmas newsletter and I have a lovely offer planned exclusively for subscribers so if you're not on the newsletter list, there's still time to sign up.

Beaded knitting workshop

This week I'm busy preparing patterns and yummy yarn and bead packs for Saturday's workshop at Skeins in Glossop.

So far I have a fun selection of mini-projects to do with some cute little Christmas ornaments, a beaded bracelet, and a phone cover. Hot off the needles is my brand new, exclusive pattern for a pair of beaded lacy gauntlets knitted in delicious hand-dyed alpaca/nylon 4ply sock yarn for students to make, too.

In the meantime I also have handouts to proof-read so I'd best crack on!