I'm so excited

And if you check out this link you'll know why. Yes, One Planet Yarn & Fiber are now stocking my sock and shawl patterns. You can buy them as pdf downloads from there. They also have a fantastic range of yarns, especially from smaller companies from around the world. I love browsing at all the gorgeous yarns and colours on their site. Check it out.





SURPRISE YARN OF THE MONTH





It's time to order your Surprise Yarn of the Month for August if you haven't already. Check out my Etsy shop or scroll down the side bar of my blog to see the details and to order. On Etsy I've set up a separate section for the Surprise Yarn. The options are either Merino Sockyarn (4ply/fingering weight) or Merino Cobweb Lace. It works like a club but you order on a month by month basis and only need to commit to one month at a time. For the August yarn you have to order before 31st July. During the first week of August I will dye the yarn and post it to yo uas soon as it's dry, by 10th August at the very latest. The colourway is a surprise and you won't know until you open your parcel.





This is July's Merino sock yarn colourway.

Unfortunately I think I forgot to take a pic of the lace yarn before it went out. But it was a gorgeous colour, purpley I think.

So go on order yours now.

Yarn Candy

First, before I forget, The Yarngrove are now stocking some more of my patterns. Check out their new website, they've got some gorgeous stuff there and Debby and Jane are such lovely ladies and the service they offer is brilliant.

Spent quite a long time today reskeining and taking photos and there is a load of new yarns listed in my Etsy shop and here is a little taster:

Just one skein of 'Strawberries n Cream' merino sock yarn

Some 'Plums n Grapes' merino sock yarn

or how about some candy worsted merino

or perhaps a 'clear blue' worsted

And if you fancy lace, I've got some 'salmon' and 'aqua'

More yarns to come tomorrow as I've still got a pile of merino sock yarn downstairs which need reskeining.

Been to a play this evening. We saw the musical 'Godspell' performed by a local Christian Youth Theater group at Sterts Theatre in Cornwall. Sterts is an outdoor theatre venue but they've got a roof on now, they didn't used to when they first opened but you need a roof in Cornwall. The young people were brilliant and the musical was absolutely fantastic.

And that's all for tonight folks. Just a quick post while the girls got ready for bed. Off for a bit of late night knitting now.

It all went well

The operation yesterday went really well. I was dreading the general anastethic as they make me feel quite ill and after my last op I was so ill that Isaid I was never having a general anastethic again unless it was essential. Of course that was quite a major and long operaiton on my spine. Yesterdays op was really quick. And I left hospital 2 hours after the op. Which took me completely by surprise. The Anesethist frightened me a bit by saying I was borderline suitability for a general anastethic as such a small hospital and I got the impression that she wasn't that keen on doing it so it was such a relief when Iwoke up in recovery andfelt fine. No sickness, felt a little woozy straigh away and a bit wobbly for a while. And a couple of hours after I got home I had to go to bed as Iwas so tired and had an early night last night too. Felt okay this morning but suddenly got hit by a wave of tiredness this afternoon.


Had planned a quite day today (the girls' last day of school) but instead I decided to do some yarn dyeing. Dyed a bit of everything: a few skeins of worsted, lace and sock yarn. And it was SUNNY which means most of the yarns are nearly dry. Too tired to take photos etc tonight though so watch out for an Etsy update tomorrow. Also got some yarns I dyed last week which will be reskeined and listed tomorrow too. The colours I dyed today were bright and cheerful. Finally managed to get some brighter lace yarns. I've found that the lace yarn form Uruguay seems to want to become pastel shades but got a lovely orange and some turquoise today and they're gorgeous .May do some mor edyeing tomorrow or Thursday.

And the summer holidays are here. I like the holidays and I hate them. It is nice having the girls at home as long as the weather is nice so they can get out every day and they behave themselves. If it's raining and they argue all hte time then it's a nightmare. I've got 4 weeks on my own with them until Simon's holiday starts then we have a week of Bible Week (our church's annual bible camp where Simon and the girls are camping, I'm not but more about that later). Then the week after that the girls are going camping with their grandparents for a week so Simon and I get a week to ourselves. We can't go away unfortunately as we're dogsitting that week.

Off for some blogsurfing now. Nite.

Been busy

This last week has been incredibly busy. I've hardly stopped and on hte two days I did nothing, I was unable to do anything if I wanted to because of extreme pain. That happens to my neck/ back if I do too much. I've had hospital and dentis hapointments and Vanessa had orthodontist apointment to have impressions, xrays etc done for her braces, which will be fitted in about 3 weeks. We've been waiting for this for a long time and I think Vanessa is relieved to be finally getting braces. She has severely protruding teeth nad has frequently been teased about it and we'll all be relieved when the treatment is done.

I'm having a minor op tomorrow. Going in to have a hysteroscopy (taking a sample of the womb) and a coil fitted to treat my irregular and heavy periods which I've suffered from for 18 months now. Sometimes bleeding for months at a time. I'm not worried about the op but I'm not looking forward to the general anastethic as it makes me feel quite ill. Luckily this is a short op so I hope I'll be okay. Going in to hospital at 10 am and hope to be home by teatime.

Had hoped to show some mroe yarn pics today and update Etsy but althoug hsome yarns are ready and have been photographed, I've got too much to do to sort out Etsy and edit the pics tonight. I'll try to do it on Tuesday or WEdnesday. Got some sock yarns that need reskeining before they're listed too. So look out for Tuesday onwards as there should be quite a few new yarns in the shop.

I'm planning to have a big dyeing day on Tuesday/WEdnesday or Thursday too. Got quite a lot of lace and 4ply to do.

Girls break up from school on Tuesday. I've got mixed feelings about school hols. The weather has been awful lately so if it carries on, entertaining the kids will be more difficult if it's raining. They've also been fighting a lot lately. They both need a holiday though as they're both exhausted. And I'm looking forward to some lie-ins. Won't have to be ready to leave the house at 8.30am every day.

Knittingwise, I'm having a break from MS3 for a few days. I'm working on a new shawl design which I just love. Lots of beautiful lace and beads. It's going to be stunning. Two new sock designs, one is the Sockamania August pattern and some secret projects for a well know online store.

Luscious merino as promised

As I promised last night when I was too exhausted to type anymore, here is some pics of my new merino yarns. I've got a 3ply worsted/aran weight and single ply laceweight from Uruguay. The yarns are even softer than my Merino cobweb lace and sock yarn, which is saying something.

They're both fab to knit with and produce nice and even stitches with good definition. And the worsted is fantastic for felting and look out later this summer (what summer???) for some new felted bag patterns.

I re-started my Mystery Stole 3 in the new singly ply lace and I'm finding it much easier than the cobweb lace, especially making corrections. This yarn is just a little bit thicker and being single ply you don't have to wrory about the yarn splitting which quite often happens with 2ply lace yarns.

Here is my progress last night, after Clue 1 (100rows). I've only got about 5 rows left on clue 2 now so will try to get another progress photo tomorrow. The shawl is not pinned out or anything which shows how good this yarn is even when it's unblocked.

And here are some of my lace yarns, some are on ETsy already and some will be listed tonight (if I have time) or tomorrow. And more to come later in the week.

And here are some of the worsted yarns which are already all on Etsy.

And here are some pics I played around with in the garden yesterday to try to get a good photo of my yarns to use for banners, logos etc.

New Yarns

Just listed some new yarns on Etsy. Some gorgeous merino yarns. Too tired to write about it now or post pics. Will do that tomorrow.

Yarn pics

I've got some yarn pics to show today and they're all yarn for me. It's not going on Etsy.

I was trying to decide on which yarns to use for the Sockamania August socks. It won't be a fair isle pattern but I am using two different colours but the pattern can also be done in one colour. I was thinking of these two colours. One is a mix of different shades of blue and a bit of pink and lilac. the other skein was originally blue and pink but very unevenly dyed and didnt' pass my quality control so Iover dyed it with blue again and I love the new colour.

The tope one I've been looking at for several days as it was dyed last week but only reskeined beginning of the week. I just wanted to keep that one for msyelf as it's just so beautiful.

I also considered these two colours, the blue is the one from the pic above and the pink was orignally pink, a nasty olive green and a very pale washed out green and looked awful. So Ioverdyed it with plummy colour and it looks much better. The bits that were green originally have some brownish bits now. And I quite like it.

And finally we got this gorgeous green which I just can't part with. I've dyed a few greens that I really like and this one would have ended up on Etsy but its a small skein as it was the end of the cone. So there's no point in listing it. So it's staying with me.

And here it is alongside the pink one and i think they look good together.

For the rest of the week and next week there will be lots of dyeing going on. I've got my South American yarns arriving tomorrow. They tried to deliver both yesterday and today and I missed them both times so I've now arranged for them to leave it in a secure location if I'm out.

The yarn in that parcel is a single ply merino lace which is just so incredible soft and gorgeous to knit with. I got a trial skein a few weeks ago and I'm halfway through a stole with it. Someone said that single ply yarns aren't very good but I think this yarn is gorgeous. Apparently a problem with single ply yarns is that it twists when you knit it. But this knits perfectly in stocking stitch and a lace pattern.

I've also got a worsted weight merino coming. This one is 3 ply. It's soft, squishy and gorgeous. I'm planning some gorgeous bright colours for this yarn. I want to design some new felted bags with it and I'd also like to knit the Clapotis with it. I've been thinking about doing Clapotis for ages so I think the time has come soon.

And my regular 4ply merino and cobweb lace is coming any day now too, so there will be more of that in the shop soon too. It was posted on Tuesday so it may get here tomorrow too.

Look out for One Planet Yarn and Fiber and Yarngrove as they'll both be stocking some Anni Design patterns. I'm so excited about this. And I'd like to get moredesigns off the ground but I'm stuck for knitting time. There is only so much I can do. I've got several plans for shawls, I'd like to do some childrens (age 9-12 so it'll fit my girls) and some baby designs. I'm planning to design a baby blanket and shawl for my sisters new baby, but it's not due until January so plenty of time for that. I'd like to know if it's a girl or boy first so I cnadesign something gender specific.

look like i've got enough to do over the summer.

Have you noticed I've not mentioned MS3 for a while. Well my orignal project is still in the bad books. Having seen lots of pics of others now I've decided I'm using too big needles. So I will either use the single ply merino lace on the same needles as now and re-start (the single ply yarn is a little thicker than the cobweb) or I'll frog the cobweband use smaller needles. I'll prbably go for the same needles and single ply lace. I'll see what colours i get when I do the dyeing tomorrow and Friday. I was thinking earlier i'd like a green similar to the one above.

Off to dream of rolling around in beautiful, lush, super soft merino now. Back tomorrow with picsof the gorgoeus, squishy merino. In the meantime take a look here as there is still plenty to choose from. And check back over the weekend/early next week to see the new yarns.

LAZY DAY

I had a long, long list of stuff to do today and I managed to get all the knitting related stuff done but not the housework. Anyone else got that problem? Which means I should now stop blogging, and go downstairs and get on with the ironing as I have nothing to wear tomorrow, neither does the rest of the family. My bed is full of clothes to be folded. There is clothes in the tumble dryer to be brought in and put away, stuff on the line which has got wet again (so may as well leave it there) and I still haven't cleared up the kitchen after tea.

But I have knitted almost an entire foot of a sock (and I have big feet), reskeined 3 skeins of yarn, taken a pile of yarn parcels to the post office (and walked the dog at the same time), assembled the knitting patterns to send off to One Planet... as they'll be selling my patterns soon. And writing up the sock pattern I'm working on. And had a friend over for a chat this afternoon (good excuse to knit and ignore the ironing). I cleaned my teeth about midday and cleared up after breakfast about 1pm. I was up and dressed by 7.30am though. Not washed hair and no make up. Doesn't sound good does it.

So do you think my husband would be impressed if he read my list of what I did today? I don't so let's hope he doesn't read my blog. He's out tonight btw, so I'd like to curl up in my chair with my sock and something good on TV (welll a girl can dream can't she?!). But instead it's kitchen duty and ironing for me. Punishment for my lazy day.

As I said One Planet Yarn and Fiber will soon be stocking my patterns. I'm so excited about this. A few of my patterns have been stocked by Yarn Grove but One Planet will stock a much larger number and they're all my recent sock and shawl patterns.

If any readers run a yarn shop and want to stock my patterns, just get in touch.

Well, I'd better get off and tackle that huge pile of dishes (by tackling I mean load them in the dish washer) and then iron a pair of trousers and t-shirt for me to wear tomorrow. Then it's knitting time.

One quick note about Sockamania, if you'd like to join, be quick. I've only got 10 spaces left and then I'll pauce it again as we'll be 100 members (lots have signed up in the last few weeks). And I want to make sure I can manage the blog with such a large number before I let more in.

The Sockamania patterns for May and June will soon be for sale on my blog/Etsy and at One Planet.

Sunshine

Yes, it's sunny today. Not seen the sun around here for quite a while. I was thinking it was gone for good. It's also very windy today so I quickly got some yarns out on the line to dry, some werre nearly dry but it was nice to finish them off in the fresh air, I nearly said warm but it's not been warm here today.

Only one skein dyed today, that was one skein damaged for the 'July Surprise Yarn of the Month'. Somehow it got extremely tangled during rinsing so it was quicker to dye another skein rather than untangle it. So all the Sock Yarn mystery yarns are on hteir way apart from one. And the lace mystery yarns will be posted tomorrow or Monday.

And I've been reskeining today. It's so time consuming but it's got to be done. First I did this green one and loved it. Was thinking of keeping it for myself but then I did the blue one and loved that one too. Then after lunch I did the purple and vintage pink and wanted to keep both of those too. So I quickly got them listed on etsy so I can't keep them for myself. But be quick and get them if you want them, only one of each, and there's no knowing when temptation will become too much for me and they'll go into my sock stash basket.

My MS3 stole is on hold for the time being. Nearly finished clue 1 and clue 2 cam out today. I'm not happy though. I'm thinking of using this new South American merino lace which I'll be getting soon. It may already be on it's way across the Atlantic. and it's so gorgeous. Already working on a new design in it. It's slightly thicker than the cobweb lace so will be easier to knit with. I'm struggling with the chart too. I need the WS rows in between to make it easier for me to read it.

Some relaxing sock knitting tonight I think.

Knitting club day

Firstly, before i forget. Look what i found on Minniemoll's blog today. It's a Forest Canopy Shawl knitted out of 1 skein of my 4ply handpainted yarn. It looks gorgeous. So if you fancy a FC shawl then head over to Etsy for some yarn.

I had planned to dye the surprise yarn for July today and a custom dye order but I skived off and drove up to Bovey Tracey for the knitting club at Spin A Yarn instead. It was lovely seeing JOyce again and there were a couple of other ladies there who I've met before and several ladies popping in and out. Managed not to buy anything for a change. Did some sock knitting while I was there, toe up in my own yarn. Will show pics another day. Was hoping it may persuade the others ttending to book up for my Toe up Sock workshop at Spin A Yarn next week. Contact the shop if you fancy booking a space.

So tomorrow it'll be dyeing day. Got a massage in the morning which will be nice and relaxing as my neck/back has been bad lately and then some dyeing and Sports day at school in the afternoon unless it rains off. Fingers crossed for rain. I'm not too keen to sit aroun in a field all afternoon to watch kids running around. The few minues it's my own kids are okay but the rest I could do without.

And I've finally started the Mystery Shawl. I'm using 3mm Addi lace. I was going to wait til my ball winder arrived but it hasn't yet so I decided to wind off a bit my hand and wind the rest if my ball winder ever gets here. Ordered it last Wednesday so not happy with the service from the shop I bought it from. Not ordered from them before and not sure I will either. No communication from them at all apart form confirmation e-mail. Not good.

Back to catch up on posts on Crafty Yarns now. Nite all.