Gettin arty-farty

Hair cut day today so a pilgrimage to Manchester was on the cards. As I'd foolishy opted for a lunchtime appointment there wasn't time for a trip to Chinatown for lunch and it wasn't late enough to meet Pete afterwards for tea (terrible planning on my part but better for the pre-holiday diet). Instead Will and I opted for a visit to the Art Gallery, which, I'm embarrassed to say I have never been to despite living and working in Manchester for longer than I care to share in public.

It was a cool trip. The gallery isn't large but they have a neat interactive area which makes the works more accessible, especially for kids. The current exhibition was quite strange, but really clever - life-size realistic sculptures made out of cut up pieces of photographs on paper and varnished. The one of a guy who'd been flattened by a large rock was particularly entertaining! The Tiffany pieces and Victoriana were personal faves (I could have done without the stuffed frogs recreating a Victorian house scene tho'). I also discovered Valette's paintings of Manchester. Dark and atmospheric but strangely compelling.

A trip to Forbidden Planet and a last minute dash to the post office and it was back home for a nice cuppa and to start planning my next Simply Knitting project (more of which later...).

Artesano felting projects

This week I finished the design commission for Artesano . There will be 9 felted knitting patterns in the collection and they should be going on sale soon. It has been a fantastic opportunity for me and I feel so lucky to have been asked to work with them. I've learned so much and am totally addicted to their two new yarns, Artesano DK and Artesano Aran. The Aran is 50% alpaca/50% wool and is divinely soft as well as felting like a dream. I don't have any pics yet, but will post some once the collection has been officially launched.

Dusting off the "blogwebs"

I can't believe it's two months since I last updated the blog! Total respect to those amazing people who blog weekly, never mind the incredibly organised daily bloggers! And the main contributor to my going "blog AWOL"? Work overload - in the last 2 months I've been juggling 12 design commissions, two articles, three workshops, two talks, a magazine offer that blew me away it was so popular, Woolfest, researching a distributorship offer and, most importantly, being busy with my lovely customers. July and August were going to be my "planning, designing for my own yarns and marketing" months. needless to say I haven't seen much of any of that yet. Not that I'm complaining - I love it, but it does take me away from writing about it!

I know this isn't how it's meant to work, but I'll get on with the current news and add some of the other things I planned to blog about as they come to me. Fingers crossed for an improved blog-post quota : )

Hand-turned spinning tools

Courtesy of my very talented father-in-law, I now have some lovely spinning wheel orifice hooks for sale. Each one is unique and they are all hand-turned in different woods. I also have some niddy-noddys and nostepinnes but haven't managed to photograph these yet, but they will be appearing soon.

Here they are in close-up. As you can tell, I took these, not Pete so they are a bit "basic" : )

Handspun Orenburg lace - wrap pattern done!

Those of you who know me will know that fine lace knitting is not really my "thing", but since we've started selling the (absolutely gorgeous) handspun silk and goat down Orenburg lace yarn I have been trying to resist an unexpected desire to design and knit a lace shawl.

Anyway, I've finally taken the plunge and the finished design will be featured in Simply Knitting in June (hence no piccie). I have exciting plans for a range of hand-dyeds to complement the design (here are a couple of the initial trial skeins, jet and misty mountain hop)

When I've decided on the best colourways (and I might have to do lots of testing : grins: they will be on offer for SK readers, so keep checking the newspage on the site.

For those of you who, like me, like to know a bit about their yarns, this unique yarn is handspun from the softest down of goats which are native only to this part of the world. Bred to survive the cold temperatures of the Orenburg region, in the shadow of the Ural mountains, the goats have a downy undercoat which is gently handcombed once per season. This down is then spun by hand around a silk thread, which gives the yarn strength and a beautiful sheen. The fine yarns are then used to make the world-renowned Orenburg lace shawls. As I knit my shawl I feel honoured to share just a tiny part in bringing this fabulous tradition to the UK. I'm also marvelling that anyone has the patience and skill to spin anything so fine - it puts my earlier spinning post to shame : Blushes :