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!

2010 Hand-dyeing workshops now booking!

Just up on the website are the new classes for 2010. As well as the regulars, kool aid and procion dyeing, dyeing with natural dye extracts and indigo & woad dyeing, this year, by popular request, I've introduced a one-day course on dyeing self-patterning yarns using our blank canvas sock blanks.

I'm really excited about this new course, as the feedback from courses I've done this year at Summer School and at Baa Ram Ewe in Leeds, was really good and I think the lovely dyed blanks show how effective this fun technique can be. These are some of the blanks dyed by the students on my course at Summer School. If you'd like to see more, there are lots more pics here.

Hippy Chick Headband now available as download

I am gradually working my way through my design portfolio and making all my patterns available as downloads. My Hippy Chick Headband is the latest addition and is also available as a Dye-It-Yourself Kool Aid project kit.

So far, downloads have to be done through Ravelry but eventually they'll be available direct from the website. Patterns are £2.50 each. If you see a pattern you'd like, you can always email me and I can send you a printed copy in the post (same price, no P&P). Payment can be by all the normal methods, paypal, card etc.

Never mess with a knitter....

...if she is a witch that is.

I forgot this photo which I took on our holiday in Cornwall. It was in the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle. I was genuinely surprised to see it as I'd never heard of knitting being used for spell-casting before. (And no, I don't own any glass knitting needles in case you were wondering).

November clubs all done!

Just a quickie update to say that clubs are all dyed and ready to post. Just need to get the labelling done and brave the elements to the post office. Am very grateful that the rains here have been relatively moderate and my heart goes out to all those who have been flooded out.

Why we craft....

The Crafts Council are asking people to help them promote crafting. They can say it better than me, so here is the text from their website.

"If craft is important to you, we want you to let us know. The Crafts Council believes that Craft Matters and we want to show that it matters to thousands of people across the UK as much as it does to us. The government’s own data tells us that “17% of the population took part in a craft activity in 2008/09” – we want to show what that statistic looks like in real support so that everyone can see that craft is highly valued. So, sign up today and pass this email on to friends and colleagues. Together, we will show how much Craft Matters".

It would be great if you could all go along and let the world know how many of us crafters there really are out there - and please pass on the link to as many people as you can, too.....

(Oh, and if you are a teacher/know a teacher/have kids of school age or are interested in getting kids into crafts, there is a great new initiative to help get crafts into schools - well worth checking out : ))