Unique hand-spun

I'm absolutely delighted that my good friend Sue King, has provided Yarnsmith.co.uk with some stunning hand-spun yarn. Sue, who refuses to knit (!), is a great spinner, calligrapher, exponent of parchment craft and an expert maker of Japanese temari balls (the story goes that these exquisitely decorated spheres were originally created as toys which wouldn't go through the thin interior walls of Japanese houses!). Sue has been a member of the Mid-Essex Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers since the 1980s and can often be found demonstrating her spinning skills at the Melford Green Alpaca Open Days.

Mid-Essex Guild inspiration.

The Mid-Essex Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers always provides inspiration but this month, yet again, it's provided me with a new spinning wheel. There was a tremendous turnout for the February meeting - the draw being P&M Woolcraft. It still gives me a rush to see so many people sharing their expertise and enthusiasm for yarn-crafts. Long may it last.

We have taken delivery of alot of new stock recently; today's parcel contained the fabulous Fyberspates Scrumptious DK - the softest silk, richly and deeply dyed. Just a must!

First proper attempts at dyeing!

I (we, joint effort with 11year old) are delighted with our first attempts at "grown-up" dyeing! Relatively easy with the Corkwood starter kit and a few hints from You-tube. We started with undyed skeins of 100% merino sock yarn and actually mixed the ammonium sulphate into the dye-baths (not sure if you're supposed to do it this way - but didn't have any violent chemical reaction!) and then used squeezy water bottles to "paint" on the colour. The dyes are really strong once "cooked" (8 mins in the micro-wave) and I felt a bit like an alchemist - really unsure of what was going to happen - but that's part of the fun. I'm definitely going to keep a "dye-diary", and I'm definitely going to be doing some more. I feel a whole new yarn-range coming on!

A technical thing!

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Social Networking 101

Thanks to MENTA the benefits of Social Networking has been unravelled and yarnsmith.co.uk now has a page on facebook and we are also attempting to "tweet". Sean Proctor ran a great beginners course on facebook, twitter, forums and blogs and how they can assist businesses. Now I may be a bit of a novice to all of this but it's actually quite exciting! The potential is amazing - facebook, which was only launched in 2004, is the third most visited site on the net! It celebrated 250 million people with accounts in July 09 - that's phenomenal. My only concern is time management - getting the balance right between updating blogs, tweets and facebook and making sure it doesn't take time from the vital things of life - like kids, husband, dog and ...............knitting.

And here, just because I hate to post a blog without a picture, this year's Melford Green Alpaca, (hand-dyed) being blocked into Polly Outhwaite's Kiri Shawl - really easy, and available from Ravelry

Girasole finished!

You have no idea just how delighted I am to have finished this - and am having to be really disciplined not to just go ahead and start another! The pattern is by Jared Flood and available through Ravelry and there is a really helpful and friendly KAL (knit-a-long) group for help with the charts etc. If you don't attempt anything else this year - do this! Unfortunately, as this was a WIP (work in progress) at the start of the year, can't count as one of the 10 shawls in 2010 challenge!
I knitted this using Patons 4ply 100% cotton which makes it robust enough to use as a "TV blanket" but would really like to make a lace weight one - just because........... so many projects, so little time!