Surprises

When I got home from work today there was a parcel waiting for me, from Scotland. It was a swap package from my partner in the World Yarn Swap group on Ravelry. Wow, what a lovely selection of goodies inside.

Starting with the yarn, beautiful Rowan 4 ply, 3 different shades that I am going to put with some Rowan pure wool 4 ply in Eau De Nil that I already have and plan to make a Paper Dolls sweater for myself with it. A beautiful hand made beaded hanging heart which is now hanging from the mirror on my dressing table, gorgeous soap and bath salts from the Isle of Skye, cute angel buttons, and my favorite UK treats - Galaxy hot chocolate and chocolate bar and Jaffa cakes! There was also a neat litle gadet called a Combicut which is a seam ripper and tweezers in one, it will be very useful when I am sewing:

Then there was The Knitter, issue 10. What a lovely magazine, I'm drawn to the sweater on the front cover, I received another issue of this in a previous swap and there are some lovely patterns inside and the quality is great - nice thick pages and really good photography. I'm going to get myself a subscription to this if at all possible. I love the postcards of Scottish sheep and Scottie dogs with Bagpipes:

So tonight will be spent with my feet up in front of the fire, sipping Galaxy Hot Chocolate and nibbling Jaffa Cakes whilst reading my new magazine. Thank you Jane for a wonderful package :-)

On a different note my spinning bug is back again, I dyed up merino roving yesterday for my Etsy shop and ended up dyeing a batch for myself. I have spun a little of it already staying up late last night spinning. Having not done any for a while I had forgotten how soothing and rythmic it is. The roving is beautiful New Zealand Merino, very soft and lofty, really easy to pre draft. I chose to experiment with a different dye technique and was really pleased with the way it came out. I may have hand spun yarn to show off in a day or two so watch this space.

Roving I dyed for the shop:

Yarn is good for you!

I was seeing stripes in my sleep last night......
I've been wanting to make self striping yarn for a long time but have never found the time, however, I decided I was going to do it this weekend.

My Friday evening was spent walking up and down the lounge between 2 dining chairs placed 30 feet apart making a very large skein of yarn, the skeins are 400 mtr long, I repeated this process 5 times as I wanted 5 skeins to dye. So add that up - I walked 2 km in all without leaving the house, I knew yarn was good for me lol!

I dyed up the yarns and then realised after they were dry I was going to have to walk the 2 km again to re-skein them. No problem because that would be the following day.

I was so pleased with the way they came out:

I made striped sections that are approx 11.5' long. The sample sock shown above is a 64 stitch sock knitted on 2.5 mm needles at a gauge of 8 stitches per inch. I got stripes that are 5 rows deep. I love the colours and the very subtle variegation in the shades. I think I am going to knit me some socks from one of these skeins. It would also be nice knit into a shawl, I often see those shawls that have very long colour changes and they look beautiful. My next project may be to make some yarns with even longer colour changes specifically for these types of shawls.

Sock Yarn for Colour Work

Today was all about last minute preparations, getting my yarns labelled and packaged ready to mail to Belinda for the book launch. I found I had a little 'me time' early this morning so I played around with a new bambaroo yarn base, this colour is Poppy:

I dyed up some mini skeins for the SKA July challenge over on Ravelry which I will be taking part in, the MOCK is a colourwork sock by Chrissy Gardiner and it looks gorgeous from what I have seen so far. Here are the shades I dyed, all semi solids. These yarns were inspired by thoughts of Spring which feels a long way off. My main colour will be the clotted cream skein in the centre, the others are the  contrasts and I think they sit together really nicely:

So thats all for now folks, I am going to go and wind my yarns then cast on for my sock. I haven't knitted colourwork for eons, I remember when I was in my late teens knitting a sweater that was black, white and grey colourwork, very 1980's,  I am so excited about these socks!

A Canterbury Winter Sunday and Memories of Shetland.

What a day! beautiful skies, and the most amazing frost this morning.

By the time I had charged the camera battery the frost had mostly disappeared.

A lazy-ish sort of day, I just re-skeined some yarns that I dyed earlier in the week.

My seasonal clock is still playing tricks on me, I have lived here for 3 years now and at this time of year I start to feel like Christmas is coming.... due to the shops being full of satsumas, parsnips, cranberries and brussels sprouts, having lived all of my life in the Northern Hemisphere these things are signs of Christmas to me. I wonder how many years it will take for me to stop feeling this?

I have been tidying up my photograph files on the computer, they soon get very full. I came across these pictures of the Shetland Isles and lingered over them, they bring back so many good memories. I have been lucky to have lived there twice, I sorely miss it and dream of returning there one day. It will always have a very special place in my heart:

Viking Boat near the harbour, in the background is the Island of Bressay.

The Drinking Horse at Eshaness.

Our local beach, note the lack of people.

Beautiful day...

I got up to a beautifully sunny but frosty day......just love those kind of mornings, no work today either so that was an added bonus. I dyed up 10 skeins of yarn for the book launch and re-skeined some I had dyed earlier in the week. Here's a little peek of the ones that are ready:

I can't wait to dye these shades up on my new Bambaroo sock yarn base! From left to right & top to bottom:
Pesto, Not So Shrinking Violet, Flamingo, Oceania, Chalk Box, Yellow Brick Road and Posy.

Vogue Knitting....much too many temptations.

Today my latest issue of Vogue Knitting arrived, the early fall issue. I should not have opened the package because I spied this:

My Ishbel was immediately cast aside into a hiding place. I've had this yarn for a few years, it's Alpaca with a Twist Fino in Royal Velvet - I've been looking for a nice pattern for a long time and now I've finally found it!

The issue has quite a few projects that I would really like to make. There are some gorgeous cardigans.








I had exciting news from Belinda (Blendy) that her sock book launch will be at the Dux De Lux in Christchurch on the 21st August, 12.30-2.30. I'm really looking forward to this, I'm currently dyeing new sock yarn skeins for the event and I have some new yarn bases too.

I will be at the Christchurch event but not at the other events in the North Island although I am going to be sending some yarns up to Belinda to take along to the launches.

The book is available for pre-order and the details are on Belinda's website: www.blendy.co.nz.

My yarn that's featured in the book is the colourway that I dyed for the 2nd New Zealand sampler box - Metallic Plum.

Here are the socks that were knit with my yarn, I think they look really great:

What a busy month....

I cannot believe it's been so long since I posted here.... weeks have passed...I have had a rather busy but productive month.

Firstly projects, I've knitted many things recently and I'm trying to knit quick baby items in between my own projects. I have a friend in England who's baby is due in 6 weeks and another friend who has 4 1/2 months to go. I've also been dyeing whenever I can squeeze it in and working full time hours at the day job.

Here are a few recent finished projects:

Ishbel knitted for Clasheen in the recent Color Swap 7. She loved it. I dyed the yarn in her favorite colours.

A pair of Monkey socks for my Sister in Law's birthday next month

BSJ for my friend Amy's baby (a girl). I finished this a while ago but it's been sat waiting for its I-Cord edging adding. It's now finished and ready to mail to England.

Monkey Socks for myself, knitted in Hydrangea, this was the first ever sock yarn I dyed, it's much nicer in real life than it appears in the picture.

A Backyard Leaves scarf for myself, my first Dream In Color Classy- love the yarn.

A Gretel Hat for myself, again knitted in Dream In Color Classy. Love it.










I have started a new Ishbel in Sublime Sock Yarn (merino/silk) which I dyed in Oriental Red. I am thinking that I may end up sending it to my Mother In Law because I know she would really love it.

I dyed up some bulky weight skeins as an experiment in my shop, to see if they sell. I have had many conversations about this with my friends that also dye/sell and we all seem to think that DK, worsted, bulky etc doesn't/won't sell. I had a few skeins of DK weight and worsted in my shop, lovely colours but I only ever sold one of them. I didn't mind because I have knitted them up myself now. So I have 3 skeins to list, we shall see what happens.

On the baking front I made these:

Choux buns filled with chantilly cream and fudgy chocolate topping. Very naughty but nice, I made 16 of them. I ate one then made my Husband take the rest to work!