Last chance

Forgot to add, it's the last chance to order today for the 'Surprise Yarn of the Month' There is a lace and sock yarn option. check out hte side bar or my Etsy store for details. Basically it works like this. You sign up and pay today, then next week I dye the orders (exclusively for this month's surprise yarns, lace and sock yarns will be different) and I send the yarn out as soon as it's dry and ready and you get a gorgeous suprise in the post.

Decision made

I've decided on hte yarn for my mystery stole. It's going to be the purple/blue skein on the left in the pic in the post below. and I've called the colour 'oil slick' as someone on Crafty Yarns forum thoght it looked like oil on water when I posted a pic of the yarn ready for rinsing the other day. It'll be interesting to see how it knits up that'sfor sure. I'm not winding it into a ball until my new ball winder comes though. I tried winding some sock yarn to reskein today on the old ballwinder and it made aright mess of it again. It's definitely completely broken. It looks okay though so I'm not sure why it's not winding the yarn into neat 'cakes' anymore.

And a lack of ballwinder made this morning's reskeining much harder and took a lot longer. In the end I only got 3 skeins done in between taxiing Ness to ballet and back and doing various other family stuff. The rest of the yarn I dyed yesterday and Thursday will be done whenever my new ballwinder turns up.

Here are this morning's Etsy update - 3 skeins of sock yarn and two of lace (only one skein of lace in this photo).

It's raining again today. It's thick fog and raining non stop. Feels more like November than nearly July. It's our local carnival this evening and Emily was supposed to go in it wiht the Brownies. They were walking around the carnival rather than being on a float. After a lot of tinking and dithering I reluctantly decided to withdraw Em from the carnival. My friend is doing the same with her daughter and we're taking the girls to see 'Charlotte's Web' at a local church hall instead. I felt guilty about withdrawing her but Ness did the carnival a few years ago in awful weather adn she was so wet, cold and miserable at the end that I just felt it wasn't worth putting Em through the same thing. Brown Owl wasn't impressed though. In fact, I'd say she was rather upset with me. Only thing is that she doesn't actually walk with the Brownies (2 younger helpers do) as she has knee problems and is too old, so it's easy for her to moan about it. Only 7 girls had signed up to do the carnival from their Brownie pack anyway. Okay I'm still feeling guilty about pulling her out but at least I don't have to stand around in the wet now. And the girls would rather see Charlotte's Web.

Right, I'd better get my act together now and get on with typing up Sockamania's July pattern.

Adios amigos!

Sunny Day!!!!!

A sunny day shouldn't sound all that abnormal at the end of June but we'd had very little of that here lately. It wasn't particularly warm so no sitting outside sunbathing but it was sunny enough and windy to dry some yarns outside and they're nearly dry too. Only dyed 3 skeins today as that was all I could be bothered to wind off the cone. Two laceweight skeins which I'm considering for the Mystery Stole. I've got 3 skeins to choose from now and I can't decide:

Which one is your favorite?

This was the one I was gong to use for the Mystery Stole. Dyed this a few days ago but I love the otehr two. Help. I can't decide.

Also did a skein of sock yarn which is for me as it's a small skein, end of the cone. It's dyed in gorgeous shades of grape. I experimented with what would happen if you add black to the dye today and it really mutes the colour. Gorgeous.

This is the yarn I dyed today, ready for rinsing. The sock yarn is on the right.

More yarn on Etsy today and some sold almost instantly. More to come tomorrow. It's nearly dry but has to be reskeined and I just don't feel like doing that tonight. I'm going to relax and knit tonight.

I've got the pattern printed out for the Mystery Stole but can't start it until the yarn is dry. So I'm going to start the work on Sockamania July 2nd sock. First one is done although I've still got to type the pattern up. I'm panicking as it's the 1st July on Sunday and I'm worried about getting it all ready for then. Was going to trial a new system of distributing the pattern and send out lots of new invites. Right I'd better stop typing and get over to Sockamania and make a start on those invites. If you want to join us for July e-mail me by tomorrow evenign, otherwise you've got to wait till August.

Oh, also want to tell you I'm working on a new shawl design in a gorgeous laceweight yarn which I'm hoping to add to my Etsy shop soon. It's soooooooooo soft and gorgeous to knit with. I'm loving it, which is a hint for the theme of the shawl too. Have a lovely weekend everyone and hope you all get lots of time to knit. and to any English readers - hope you stay dry andflood free this weekend.

Hi

Was thinking of lots to say (or write) earlier but now my mind has gone blank. Normally does when it's time for blog writing. I've done lots of dyeing today. Was determined to crack on with the laceweiht this morning and spent ages skeining it (it comes on cones). Skeining it is such a time consuming and BORING job. There is a whopping 1500 m to 100gr so takes a lot of time but I got 4 skeins done in the end. Maybe some more tomorrow. They all got dyed in solid colours this morning. I'm keeping one for the Mystery Stole.

Then this afternoon I skeined some 4ply which was so quick and easy after the lace. I wasn't sure whetherh or not to dye it tonight or wait till tomorrow but in the end I just had to do it. So it's downstairs in the rinsebowl now. Didn't take long to do as it was only 4 skeins. Some gorgeous colours though.

The yarns are selling very quickly on Etsy. Some yarns have sold within minutes of being listed. So if you see something you like be quick. I just added this beauty I've named 'Fruit Salad' as the colours remind me of some English sweets called Fruit Salad, can you still get those?

There will be more Strawberries n Cream in a few days too as they went extremely quickly. Got some Peaches n Cream now though. And I'm planning some Lemon Merinque Pie. Now what other desserts can we think of? I'm keen to try to get a 'Cornish Clotted Cream' colour.

Here's a little bit of lace:

Knitting wise I'm making painfully slow progress. Still not completed a pair of socks this month. Only got the foot left on my Yarn Yard Rainforest sock and I've got to finish the July pair for Sockamania. The first one is done and I need to type up the pattern and then test knit it on the 2nd sock and it needs doing by Saturday, although it may be Monday (rther than Sunday) when the pattern gets sent out as we're having a friend around on Sunday.

If you're thinking about going for the 'Surprise yarn of the month' - be quick it's nearly the end of the month .Yarns will be dyed early next week and sent out as soon as they're dry.

More yarn and more rain

It's still raining here. Just never seems to stop. Yesterday was a pretty miserable day and very, very wet. The weather seems to be affecting my mood. Feeling very down and fed up. Also got that Monday morning 'I'm exhausted and glad everyone's out of the house and I can relax and knit feeling' except I've not been relaxing or done any knitting today.

I have been trying to cheer myself up by dyeing some more yarn though. On Saturday I stuck mainly to pastels but today it got brighter. I decided some bright colours would cheer me up. We've got 'peaches n cream', pinks, purples, blues, greens and some other colours mixed in. All the skeins were dyed in different colours. I wanted to do some more lace today but the skeining just takes so long so there was only one 50gr skein dyed today. Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll just do lace though. I promise.

The 'Surprise Yarn of the Month' is selling well so if you want in on the action be quick. You've got till Saturday to order and then on Monday I'll be dyeing the yarn and as soon as it's dry and ready it'll be posted to you. See the side bar or Etsy to order.

I've listed some more yarns on Etsy today too. There's is this gorgeous batch of 'Strawberries n Cream', 'Marshmallows' and a bit of 'Cloudy Sky' - not as cloudy as the skies outside here today - just a soft blue sky with some white clouds bubbling up.

Be quick if you fancy some of it as some sold within minues.

Terrential rain and a protest

What a day! This morning it was glorious sunshine and now it's bright and sunny again. But in between these two spells of sunshine we've had terrential rain. And in the middle of the worst of it we attended a community protest in town. The protest was against a 'massage parlour' which is due to open up in our small, Cornish, market town. Now some of you may think 'what's wrong with massage?' and if massages were all they offered I'd say nothing but they're also planning 'adult parties' and 'extra services'. Now I'm not going to spell out what these extra services may be - just use your imaginations. And if I also add that this establishment is highly likely to be staffed by women brought in from poorer countries and forced to basically work as slaves you will probably get the idea of what sort of establishment we're talking about here.

As I said we're a small, Cornish market town and our local town and district councils turned down the planning application for this establishment but a government appointed official (not our elected representatives) overruled the council's decison. Now there is a campaign to stop it. It's in the middle of a residential area, only yards from family homes. As I said we're a small town but over 200 people turned up this morning to protest against the opening of this 'massage' parlour. It wsa really terrential rain so having so many people turn up in a small town was amazing. Several of the local churches were well represented but it was nice to see non-Christians turning up as well. We had our photos taken for the local papers, radio and a TV station. Emily held a plackard reading 'Protect our children' adn as she is quite a cute little girl had her photo taken on her own by most of the photographers there. Okay, so Simon and I pushed her forward to the front of the crowd. I must admit trying to explain to the girls why we were attending this protest without telling them things they don't need to know about yet was hard. We were there for well over half an hour and all thouroughly soaked at the end but it was great to see so many people turn up and the unity and the mood was brilliant.

Before we went off for the protest I managed to dye some yarn quickly. I did 2 skeins of lace and 4 skeins of 4ply. That was all I had time to skein yesterday. I wsa doing pastels and 'strawberries n cream' this morning and here they are drying in the bath, although I may pop them outside in a minute to take advantage of the sunshine. I'm hoping these yarn will be on Etsy by the end of tomorrow.

The 'Spring Flower's yarn (from yesterday's post) has been reskeined now and will be on Etsy soon. One skein has a couple of knots in it so will be listed at a lower price. I just love this colourway and I'm tempted to keep the skein with knots in for myself.

I'm also starting up a new initiative - Surprise Yarn of the month. What is this? Well basically you order a skein of yarn before the end of the month and a specially hand painted yarn will be sent to you on the 10th of the following month. So if you order by the end of June, your surprise skein will be sent out by 10th July at the latest. The yarn will be especially dyed for this offer adn will not be on general sale or repeated again in the future. So you will be getting a unique, surprise yarn. All the skeins hand painted for this offer (and I will only dye them when I've received all the orders) will be hand painted using the same dye solutions but as each skein is individual they may vary slightly. The Paypal button for July's surprise yarn will be up on Etsy and the blog later today. I'm capping the orders for this offer at 20 so it's quite exclusive and remember you only buy one skein at a time so it's not like a club where you sign up for several months at a time. The price will be $22 if you buy on Etsy and £11 if you purchase through my blog. Postage will be free. Remember only 20 skeins available so be quick.

Merino yarn is here

My order of Merino yarn arrived today. There isn't a huge amount as I'm still just ordering small amounts at a time. I was out all morning at a Ladies Bible Study group and came home at lunch time and found abig box in the playhouse with all the yarn. I started skeining some of the laceweight straight away but had a friend coming after lunch and I had to eat too so only got one skein of lace and one skein of 4ply finished.

I've got the rest of this huge cone of lace to skein. There are 11 x 100gr skeins to come off that. At 1500 m per 100gr, that's a lot of yarn. It's going to take me ages.

Gave up on the lace and started working on the 4ply instead. Managed to get 4 skeins off this 500gr cone done while cooking tea. Hoping to get some more done tonight adn then hopefully some dyeing tomorrow.

Doesn't the yarn look great undyed though.

Here's the lace:

and 4ply:

And here is some yarn I dyed a couple of days ago. Because of the awfully wet weather it's been drying inside which takes too long. Today I hung it up on the patiodoor so that the short spells of sunshine we had today might help it along a bit.

It's quite messy adn needs reskeining but here it is in it's messy gloriusness. I love the colours. The first two were originally dyed pink and plum but had too much white in them so I overdyed them in pink again and it's made the plum a much richer shade with pink 'bits'.

And here are two skeins which started out as pale blue but I felt the colour was a bit flat so added some green (a couple of different shades), some purple and turqoise and I quite like the result. It'll be nice to see how it looks once rewound.

Not got much knitting done today. So do I spend the evening knitting or skeining ready for dyeing tomorrow? Not sure yet. I'd like to start dyeing tonight actually but not sure I want to deal with all that mess tonight adn my back/neck isn't good and it'll make it a lot worse and I'm quite tired. I'm afraid that if I dye tonight I'll be in too much pain to sleep. So tomorrow it is.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and happy knitting!

Addictions

I've got another addiction to add to my list of knitting related addictions - hand dyeing. I just love it. It's hard on my neck/back and I can't spend too long painting yarn but it's so much fun. I haven't done a big dyeing session for 2 weeks now as I've got no more undyed yarn to dye. I've got an order on the way and it was posted yesterday so fingers crossed it'll be here tomorrow. I'd really like ot get another lot on Etsy by the weekend but if it's not here tomorrow am I won't make it as I'm out all Friday morning.

Anyway, today I jsut felt the need to dye yarn. I was desperate this morning. I kept looking out the window everytime a car went past in case it was ParcelForce. Then after lunch I remembered 2 skeins I dyed a very pale solid blue which I'd started knitting with. I wasn't too tken with the colour so Ithought I can add some more colours to those. Then I had two others that I wasn't totally happy with so thought i'd overdye those. In they went to soak. Two skeins got overdyed in a solid colour in the pot and the two pale blue ones got hand painted in green, blue and purple and I left a section pale blue. Not sure yet about the colours. But it looks so different once it's been reskeined. So that's my fix for today.

What other knitting related addicitons to I have? Ofcourse there is knitting (fairly obvious really), then there is knitting website: blogs, forums etc etc. I love clicking on my list of favourite blogs and this morning I came across a couple of new ones that I added. I prefer blogs with lots of knitting talk and preferably lots of pics of gorgeous yarns. Checking out online shops are funtoo. I prefer those who don't do Paypal. If I have to go andget my credit card out I can normally resist as I'm too lazy to go downstairs. But if it's Paypal then it's too quick to just click your way to a new purchase. I was very tempted by this site this morning. The colours are just stunning. And I'd love to tr ythe silk lace and seasilk. Also found this Stashology site which lead to this gorgeous shawl. isn't it stunning? And it only takes a skein of Seasilk which I've got one of in my stash so I'm tempted to cast on for this.

Been working my way through the list of wips today. I've turned theheel on Simon's Fabel socks - did short row heels which I very rarely do. Only cuff left now. Off to work on my new stole in my own hand painted merino lace now or shall I do some rows on my Celtic Knot Silk Lace scarf? Decisons, decisions.

Luscious merino

I'm mad about merino wool at the moment. A few more skeins went up in the Etsy shop yesterday and some have already sold. I've had a new wholesale order been posted from my suppliers today and as well as the gorgeously soft 4ply merino there is 1200gr of laceweight merino in there. I haven't tried the laceweight yet but if it's half as good as the 4ply it'll be gorgeous. I'm so excited about dyeing all this yarn and especially aobut dyeing laceweight. It's being supplied in cones though so I've got a lot of skeining to do before I can start dyeing.

Here are some swatches of some merino samples from a different supplier. These merino yarns are from South American and the laceweight, 4ply and one of the worsteds are single ply yarns. They're absolutely gorgeous andeven softer than my other merino. I'd like to get some of this for my Etsy shop too but I've got to wait a couple of weeks before I can order. In the meantime have a look at the swatches:

The 4ply:

Aran - one is single ply and one is 3ply. Both are gorgeous.

And here is the laceweight which I dyed and knitted into this little swatch. I'm now working on a new shawl design in this yarn.

Here's the dyed yarn. I just love this colour.

I've made a list today of all my WIPS. There are several socks which don't have a mate, a shawl, a couple of scarves. I've decided to finish off some of these wips before I start any new ones.

I'm also working on my sock samples and lesson plan etc for my sock workshop next week (Tuesday 26th) at Spin A Yarn in Devon. If you'd like to book a space contact Joyce (see the website for details). I'm really excited about teaching this workshop adn I'm doing a toe up workshop in July.

My Mum went home today. We had a lovely time while she was here and did lots of sightseeing and touristy stuff. I'm feeling quite shattered today though as I did a lot more in the last week than I normally do. Lots of walking anddriving which unfortunately makes my neck/back pain really bad. So this morning I treated myself to a back massage which made a huge difference. I'm still feeling tired as I didn't sleep last night, so I've not done much at all today except relax and knit. Tomorrow it's bck to catchign up on the housework.

My blogging has been a bit infrequent lately so I'm going to make an effort to get back into daily blogging again.

What a busy week

This week has been so busy that's why there's been no blogging. My Mum has been visiting (and is still here) and we've been out and about most days. This afternoon we relaxed on the beach wearing our coats and sitting under the umbrella for a while when it rained. We both knitted while Em caught fish and shrimps in the rock pool and Simon was kayaking. Wasn't exactly beach weather but at least it stopped raining after a few mins. Quite a few other people there too. I'm sure that England is the only country where people sit on the beach when it's cloudy and cold.

Earlier in the week we've been to Trelissick Garden (a National Trust Garden near Truro in Cornwall, a nice pub lunch in Truro), shopping in Plymouth, trip to Bovey Tracey and Spin a Yarn, shopping in Exeter, Devonport dockyard open day and Tavistock. Tomorrow we're off to Polperro and Looe, two local fishing villages.

My favourite day this week was visiting Spin A Yarn in Bovey Tracey, Devon. I've not been for ages and it was lovely to see Joyce again. She opened this gorgeous shop a year ago and I went up shortly after it opened. It's a fantastic shop with a huge range of different yarns. Joyce stock all the standard stuff like Rowan, Noro and Debbie Bliss etc but also stocks hand dyed yarn from local producers, Rareyarns and Touchyarns from New Zealand - both gorgeous yarns, and lots of other gorgeous stuff. I think we spent about an hour in there. I got some laceweight Touch Yarn in a gorgeous colour, some fleece to do some feltmaking with the kids and some Noro Iro (think that's what it was called) in a gorgeous purple colour.

We did the feltmaking a couple of days ago. I've never handfelted anything before and it was much more difficult than I thought and left me in a lot of pain. We thought our felted pieces turned out okay but when they've dried it's obvious that they've not felted properly. Spin A Yarn has a very good feltmaking teacher who does regular workshops there so I think I'll be booking a space on the next one. I'd like to learn how to do it successfully as I thkn I'd enjoy it. Although it's not good for my neck and back. Knitting and then felting in washing macine is so much easier.

I got some gorgeous South American merino samples the other day. There were small sample skeins of Aran/worsted single ply and 3ply, single ply sock weight (4ply weight/fingering weight) and a 100 gr skein of single ply laceweight. I read some comments on a knitting forum saying that single ply didn't knit up as well as normal yarn but my swatches knitted up beautifully. The yarn is so soft. My Easycare merino is gorgeously soft but this South American merino is even better. I dyed the lace and I've done a swatch today for a new shawl design and I maycast on for it tonight - although I've got other stuff to finish first.

The Etsy yarns ahve been selling well. Only a few colours left now. I've just placed another wholesale order and have got some more Easycare 4ply merino coming and some laceweight which has 1500m per 100gr skein which is pretty brilliant. Only problem is it's on a cone so skeining it will take me ages. Still I'm hoping ot have some dyed and in the Etsy shop by the end of the week, if the yarn arrives within a few days.

Off for some more knitting now. Will get some pics of current wips etc tomorrow. Don't like pictureless blogs.

Can't think of a title

I'm not feeling very creative today. I'm tired and just can't think of a title but thought I ought to update the blog. Although I'm sure most ofm y readers don't mind looking at the gorgeous pic in the post below. I've had a few Etsy orders for yarn and patterns which is fab. I'm keen to get another lot of wholesale merino in but think I will leave it until after my mum has left next week. Too busy to do any dyeing while she's here and I've got some South American yarn coming that I'd like to try out before I order any more. The South American yarn is lace and 4ply. Got some cashmere/merino lace yarn on the way too. I need some lace weight to design a shawl for my sister. Want to dye the yarn myself as she wants a pale, baby pink. Thought about picking one of the designs from VTL but have decided to design it myself. It'll be a rectangular shawl with a knitted on border. Not designed a knitted on border before so that'll be a challenge.

My mum came on Saturday evening and Sunday the weather was brilliant which I thought was nice. Makes tings so much easier when yo uhave visitors. We went to Devonport Naval Base for their open day on sunday afternoon and it was quite interesting. We've been there once before during Naval Days about 10 years ago. Didn't get the chance to go aboard any ships or subs this time but had a bustour of the base (which is huge) and there were a couple of museums and other stuff to look at.

Today we've been to Exeter adn I popped into the yarn shop there (Inspirations) and didn't buy any yarn. That's a first I think. We're visiting Spin A Yarn in Bovey Tracey later this week and that'll be mor eof a challenge not to buy any.

Working on a new scarf design right now in Handmaiden Silk Lace and it's starting to look quite nice. I'd like to have gotten it ready to submit to Knitty by Friday (think that's their next submission deadline) but don't think that's going to happen. Unless I stay up all night knitting.

Off to TAvistock tomorrow and there's a yarn shop there too.

Surprise Collection

I did some byeing again yesterday. Experimenting with 'random dyeing'. The result is a Surprise Collection with shades ranging from white to bright.

They're all in my Etsy shop.

YarnAddict's Yarns has been launched on Etsy

Can't sleep, slept too much in the car today. So I've been busy and have just created an Etsy shop and have listed some of my new yarns on there as well as a couple of patterns, Patterns are still available to buy through my blog though.

Check out YarnAddict's Yarns

Finally home & YARN FOR SALE

What a day!!!! We had to get up at 3.30am today to leave for the airport at 4.30am. Our flight was at 6.50am. but silly me, woke up at midnight, couldn't sleep. Got up, went backto bed, still couldn#t sleep, got up again, went back to bed again adn finally about 1.30ish I gave up and got up. Watched a bit of telly, did a bit of knitting. And ended up falling asleep on the sofa and woke up when my phone went off at 3.30. The flight went fine. On time and we left Stansted at 9am, expecting it to take us about 5 hours to drive to Cornwall. After all we'd missed the rush hour trafic around London and we'd be travelling in the middle of the day. and with a planned stop at Get Knitted in Bristol I expected to be home by midafternoon at the latest.

First hitch came on M25. We were warnedabout queuing between J18 and 14, but the queue started several junctions before that. I was driving and Simon decided we should come off the M25 and take an alternative route on to the M4. We did eventually end up in Slough but it took a long time as the alternative route was very busy and slow too.

Got on hte M4, then I realised petrol was running very low. Had a quarter of a tank showing when we left Stansted. After just a few mins on M4, the petrol warning light came on and we decided to stop at the next services which we knew were around REading area. But then we hit queue no 2, around Reading and we stood still for about 40mins. At least we could switch the engine off and save our petrol. I got my knitting out to keep calm and started praying. Also texted my friend and got her to pray that we'd get moving soon and find a petrol station before we ran out of fuel. We were getting quite close to that disaster. Eventually our prayers were answered and we moved off. We didn't bother waiting till the service but turned off at one of the Reading turnings (turned out we were only just over a mile from the Services). Found a petrol station quickly and off we went again. Prayers answered. Now the rest of the drive went smoothly, but by now it was already gone midday and we had tostop for lunch.

We decided not to bother with GK. then just before Bristol Simon woke me up and said did I want to go to Gk. Luckily we found the shop without any problems and managed to park right outside. Wow, what a fab shop. Simon looked around, horrified at the cost of yarn. then he and the girls sat down while I quickly got the things I wanted and had a look at everything else. Pics of the purchase tomorrow. Paid, used the loo and got on our way again. only took 15 mins, rather than my allocated 30mins. Went through Bristol on the A4 and didn't get onto the M5 unti Weston Super Mare. Rest of the journey went smoothly and we finally arrived home exhausted at 5pm. Then I had to rush to catch post office (had a parcel to collect) and chemist (ran out of painkillers today and had some waiting to collect at chemist) before they closed. Got some milk and break too.

So now I'm completely shattered.

First yarn for sale update tomorrow sometime, Sockamania June pattern will go out tomorrow and I'm desperate to dye some more merino tomorrow. I'd love to start tonight but I'd fall asleep with my face in the dye pot.

And as for Yarn names - keep suggestions coming. My ideas today are Unique Yarns, Fiesta Yarns, Party Yarns or stick with Yarn Addict Yarns. What do you think my new yarn venture should be called? Post your suggestion and be included in a draw to win a skein of hand dyed merino.

Here's a quick preview of what'll be for sale tomorrow:

First the Easycare Merino 4ply - 100gr/400 m. Can be washed at 30 degrees but I'd recommend hand wash. gorgeous to knit with. I've tried to get the colours as accurate as I can but they may vary according to your monitor settings.

'Neon Green Merino' - Very bright!!! - 2 skeins - £10 each

'Pink merino' - 1 skein - £10

'Plum merino' - nearly solid but with some lighter bits - 2 skeins - £10 each

'Purple merino' - nearly solid but with some pale bits - 1 skein - £10

'Rich plum merino' - different shades of plum and purple - 1 skein - £10

And some 'Silk bourette' - 100gr/400 m a skein - £7 each. Not sure about this yarn. Not tried knitting with it yet. It's not as silky as normal silk 4ply yarn but feels more cottony to me, not very soft though. But the colours are gorgeous.

1 skein lilac/blue

2 skeins pale blue

2 skeins pink

The silk bourettes are all £7 each.

Free postage to Europe & UK. Worldwide postage charged at cost.

I'll add Paypal buttons tomorrow or Friday with some more yarns hopefully.

In Norway

Thought I perhaps ought to post a quick message on my blog so you all know I'm still alive. We've been in Norway for a week now and it's been busy. My Grandfather's funeral was on Thursday and was very emotional. Lots more people turned up than we expected.

We've seen my Gran nearly every day and she's not doing too well. She's got dementia and is very confused and we're not really sure if she really understands that her husband is gone. She asked about him again today when we saw her. She is really quite unwell, has diarrhoea and is now on an intravenous drip. She's looking very weak and is very confused. we took her to sit outside the nursing home for a bit today as it was warm and sunny and she enjoyed that and brightened up a bit.

We've also tried to do some family and holiday stuff. Went to the Folk Museum in Oslo today which is a big outdoor museum with lots of old Norwegian farms and buildings. It's very good and the girls enjoyed it. But it was very hot. Shouldn't complain as it's rained all week. Off to the beach tomorrow for a relaxing day.

Have managed to fit in a couple of yarn shops too. Got some GarnStudio Fabel sock yarn in a shop in Oslo and some wool for Ness to knit a felted bag and two tiny balls for me to knit a tiny felted bag, in a local yarn shop.

And on hte way home on Wednesday I've persuaded Simon to stop at GK in Bristol for 30mins (and not a second more). I've been desperate to go since they opened and I'm so excited. We should be there around midday. Girls groaned when Simon said yes. But I promised I will only take half an hour. I'd like to get some Addi lace needles, the latest Interweave Knits mag and I've been desperate to try out Handmaiden Sea Silk for ages so may get some of that.

I should have an exciting parcel from South America waiting for me when I get home with some gorgeous looking merino lace yarn. I'm going to try it out and if I like it it'll be added to my new hand dyed yarn range. I've got some 4ply and worsted included in the parel to try out too.

It'll be full speed ahead with hte dyeing when I get home. I've got a lot of yarn to dye and sell. Socheck out the blog on Thursday and Friday for the first sales batch. I'm trying to decide whether or not to try Ebay or Etsy or just to sell the yarns through my blog. I'm not going to be putting them on my Anni DEsign website as it's a pain to update it. I may start up a separate yarn blogthough.

I'm not sure about hte name for my new yarn venture either. First I thought about Yarn Addict's Yarns then Delicious Yarns. Now I've got doubts about both so let's have a competition. Suggest a name for my new hand dyed yarn venture and if I choose to use your suggestion you'll win a skein of my new yarn. Post your suggestions in the comments box. I'll make a decision on Friday.

If you've bought my 'Carmen' shawl please see the errata in the sidebar as I've spooted an error in the pattern. I was horrified as I'd proofread it so many times. And I hate making mistakes. The correctionis in the side bar at the top.