Help me make a decision

I'm trying to choose one of my new cashmere lace yarns to use for a special project. It's a mag submission and that's all I'm going to say. Oh and it's lace, which isn't a real give away as I'm using a lace yarn.

The yarn, btw, is new to my range and is definitely here to say. It's a lace weight but not too thin at about 700m per 100gr. A lot of the skeins will be sold in 50gr so affordable and plenty for a scarf.

Anyway here is my choice:


Choice 1:



Choice 2:



Or perhaps this one:



or this one:



Here they are all together separated by a small skein of gorgeous blue.



What do youthink? I love the first three ones and I want to keep them all but one will be used for this secret project, one will be sent of as adonation to a magazine and one will be listed on Etsy. if only I could decide.

By the way, the cashmere lace is gorgeous to dye with. I've done a few solids and these 4 variegated ones and they're nice and easy to dye so I'm going to be doing some more of those soon. Got a big custom dye order to do first though. There will still be quite a lot of lace listed on Etsy this week thoug hwith lots more next week.

And guess what else is happening next week? YarnAddict Yarns is 6 months old. 6 December its 6 months since I registered on Etsy and started selling my yarns. a lot has happened in 6 months and I've learnt so much and had so much fun. To celebrate there will be a big competition on the blog next week with some gorgeous yarn prices so make sure you pop in every day. Not sure which day the competition will be launched yet.

Okay, next on my to-do list today is taking Em to netball. She's on the school team and they have a match this afternoon. They normally loose or draw but they still love it. All the teams in teh league are year 5 & 6 with most kids being year 6 but Em's school has a team of 2 year 6 pupils and the rest year 5 which means they have a lot less experience and for most of them its the first year of playing in the league so they're not doing badly really. Watching it gives me a chance to knit.

Happy knitting,

Big sigh of relief

That's how I feel right now. The club parcels have finally all gone out, apart from the UK ones which are all packed up and will go out on Monday. I just couldn't subject the nice lady in the post office to more parcels than necessary. I've was flat out yesterday skeining, wrapping, printing patterns and packing parcels. It's amazing how long it all takes.

the house is chaos right now. We're decorating our lounge/diner which means that everything apart from TV, sofa & chairs and Welsh Dresser in dining room has been moved. The dining room table is in the kitchen, and as it's a bit too big for the kitchen we can hardly move around it. Everything else is in the hall way or spare room. I had to tidy up my wip basket in teh lounge and try to get it down to a smaller basket for my knitting, and a faux leather hat box for my spinning stuff. I did it, just. But now there are piles of knitting stuff and yarn in the bedroom to sort out.

There's not been too muc knitting going on for the last couple of days. Yesterday I didn't knit atall until the evening. Gave up parcel wrapping at 9pm and sat down to watch telly and knit. I was almost having withdrawal symptoms yesterday.

I've got so much knitting to get on with. I've got an order for several (think it's 7) scarves from my neighbour. All knitted in funky fur. Lovely!................ not. At least they're quick. I do garter stitch on 7mm needles.

I'm also working on 2 mag submissions which are top secret for now. And I was planning to d some Christmas knitting and I've got a scarf for Vanessa on the go and a gilet for Em which I keep promising I'll finish. Also got my PIF knitting to do. Got to start thinking about the Sockamania January socks too. Oh and don't forget the dozen or so other wips I've got otn.

I have had some recent stash enhancement. This arrived form the Woolly Workshop yesterday courtesy of a gift voucher I was given during the last Secret Santa swap on Crafty Yarns. The yarns are Fiesta Ballet (alpaca/tencel) at the top which is so gorgeous. If you like merino/tencel, this is even more scrummy. Why have I not discovered this yarn before? Why didn't anyone tell me how gorgeous it is?
And I got some Artesano Alpaca Hummingbird 4ply. It's gorgeous too. So soft and beautiful colours. The 4ply is a new yarn so ofcourse i had to try it. And I love it. Want to start knitting something with both of thse right now. Although they're sock yarn I think they may become something else.


And look at this scrumptious yarn from Violet Green. It's easicare Merino 4ply (same as my merino) and the colour is just so rich. It's quite a lot darker and more purple than the pic. In fact the pic is rubbish. Just love the colours.


The Fiesta Feet pattern from Lucy Neatby and Noro Silk Garden light were picked up in our local craft shop, Painters, which is expanding their knitting section after Christmas. Yeah.

Some stunning fibre popped through the letterbox last week. Llama Fibre and merino tencel from Spincerely Yours on Etsy.

llama fibre:merio tencel fibre:

Finally, I'm looking for a electric skein winder and winding yarn off cones into skeins takes forever. So far the onlly ones I can find are in the US. If you can recommend one, preferably in the UK please let me know.

Lots

Another week has flown by. I must get back into posting more regurly. I keep thinking about it but just too tired by the time I've done everything else. I'm stuggling to keep up with my knitting forums too and I even cut down that to just two but one of those i've not been on for ages.

Yesterday and today have been club dyeing days. I've only got about 8 skeins to go now and I would have done them today but I was just fed up with skeining the yarn off the cones. I'm looking for an electric yarn skeiner. Anyone know of any good ones please let me know? I've done some research today and most of the ones I've found are in theUS and shipping and possibly custom charges will be horrific I expect.

On Saturday I got on the train at 8am and went to Swindon to meet up with a bout a dozen ladies from Crafty Yarns forum. Granny Smith had organised the meet up with help from some other Swindon ladies. We met in a village hall and GS provided us with a gorgeous lunch. We spent the afternoon knititng, spinning, chatting and laughing. There was a lot of laughin going on. I didn't knit much but I did do some spinning. For some strange and scary reason I was nominated as the spinning expert. Me? I've only spun for 2 months and I'm self taught so not sure much help I was but we had fun.

We had a little minimarket. I sold some stuff and there was BrightDyes and Yarn Yard stuff for sale too and some Yarnimals. I got another 5 stitchmarkers.

This is the rest of my purchases.

From left to right: Brightdyes alapaca/bfl, Yarnyard sock yarn, Yarn Yard BFL fibre and merino pencil roving which I immediately started spinning.

I also got this bag from Franney for some of my knitting accessories

and I won a book (Ethnic sock & Stockings) in a prize draw organised by ProbablyJane. Thank you for a gorgeous book Jane. I had my eyes on the new Cat Bordhi book but Franney beat me to it. And I'm very jealous but I love the Ethnic book. IT's gorgeous. been reading a lot already.

I attended a felting workshop last week at Spin a yarn in Bovey Tracey and made this piece of flat felt:

I loved it but it was hard work and I was in a lot of pain afterwards. I'm going back on Thursday for day 2 and i'm making a small bag. It's a full day this time (only half day last week) and I'm a bit worried whether or not I'll manage it. Don't think felting is somethign I will do regularly as it's a lot of hard work.

One of my favorite programmes, Spooks, is on in a minute so I'd better go. More pics of more goodies later.

But before I go, here's the yarn I spun from the red and purple singles in the previous post. Only about 20gr so need to spin some mor ebut got lots more left.

Some silk hankies from Fyberspates which I got for spinning. NOt spun from silk hankies before. Very interesting.

New design and spinning

I'm not even going to start thinking about why I haven't posted since Saturday. No idea what I've been doing. I just never seem to manage to find time to come online as much anymore.

So let's get straight down to business. I'd like to introduce a new design. The pattern will be on Etsy as soon as I get time to list it.

The Celtic Knot Scarf

This was designed a few months ago but it's been kept a secret up to now. But it's now ready to be revealed. If you saw me at Allly Pally I was probably wearing it.

It's knitted in Handmaiden Lace Silk which is a gorgeous yarn. I loved knitting with it. I'm planning a larger rectangular shawl as well but that's a way off yet as I've not even started. Knit this scarf up in a silk yarn like I did or what about cashmere for ultimate luxury? Although it'll feel gorgeous in merino too. Mine was done in laceweight althouhg Handmaiden Lace Silk is not a very fine lace yarn. It can also be done in 4ply but may then be a little bigger and you may want to use slightly bigger needles.

Spinning

Been spinning lots this week. These two singles are my own handyed merino. I tried plying these two colours but didn't like the result atall. And the pink is thinner than the green.

Also been working on these two. The purple is my onw hand dyed merino and the red is Touch Yarn handyed merino/silk roving and is gorgeous but a bit pricey. I've just started plying these two today.

I've also been spinning some silk roving. I decided not to dye it first. I was jsut too desperate to have a go spinning with it. But I'm going to dye some of it. I'm also spinning some undyed Shetland to go with it.

Dyeing

I dyed the rest of the BFL and Shetland merion i had. About 400gr of each. I was careful trying to keep them all separeta but at the end of the dyeing session I got them all muddled up and now don't have a clue what's what. There were a lot of experimenting going on and I'm happyish with hte result. Here's a bit of what I did.

Multitasking

Where does time fly? The only way I can get anythign done these days is to multi task, which is why I'm now listing yarns on Etsy, editing photos and blogging all in one go.

I've got lots to write about and lots of photos to show, but time is short. I've got to get tea going in a minute as we're off to a fireworks display in two hours. So it's going to be short and sweet tonight.

There's been a lot of dyeing this week, some are on Etsy already, some will go on later tonight or tomorrow and more on Monday. I've dyed some sock yarn, some lace and some Merino 4ply (from Uruquay). So far I've only had time to list the sock yarn so the rest will follow when time permits. Here are some highlights of things to come

Here's some of the merino I dyed yesterday. IT didn't actually come out that bright after rinsing but this is a pic taken after cooking.

I also wanted to show you pics of my gorgeous PIF presen from Joy. She knitted me a gorgeous Forest Canopy shawl. Joy is the Queen of Forest Canopies. I've lost count of how many she's knitted. And they all look gorgeous. I've been admiring all of them and when I signed up for PFI on Joy's blog I was secretly hoping for a FC and she must have read my mind. I finally managed to get some pics today but my phone is not cooperating and I can't get them off right now so it'll have to be tomorrow. But thank you very much Joy for a gorgeous present.

For my PIF recipients, dont worry, I'm working on it. I've been struggling to decide what to do, but I've now decided on 2 out of 3. I'm thinking about delaying them till next week as I've got some gorgeous cashmere coming soon which I may use.

Lots of spinning going on too. Pics tomorrow of some singles and hopefully some plied yarn. but in the meantime here are some fibre I dyed yesterday. Grab your shades. I'm spinning the green right now and it spins up beautifully. It's merino.

I've got pictures of my Secret Santa present to show too but I'll have to do that tomorrow. Got to feed the starving troops.

Finally something finished.

Yes, I've not had anything finished to show for what seems like ages. I only cast on for this Chevron Ripple Scarf last week and for the last week it's been my easy knitting. The kind of knitting I do when I'm in too much pain or can't concentrate enough to do anything more complicated. I like my easy knitting to consist of just knit rows, so stocking stitch if i'm working in the round or garter stitch if I'm working flat. So this scarf fitted the bill perfectly. And because my neck/back and shoulders have been bad for the last week, especially over the weekend there was a bit too much easy knitting going on when ihsould be doing something more complicated.

But I love the result. I've seen chevron scarves popping up all over the place in blog land lately and they all seem to be from the same book, which I can't remember the title of now. I don't have the book and didn't really want to buy it and let's face it, a chevron pattern is not the most dififcult to design so I made my own. And for those of you who think what I just said about a chevron pattern being easy to design is a load of rubbish and wouldn't know where to start, the pattern will be listed on Etsy soon. Just got to find time to type up the pattern.

I used Posh Yarn Sophia 4ply (100% cashmere) from my stash. The variegated is orange, pink and a little bit of purple and I did four rows of variegated and then two rows of solid purple. I used about 100gr in total. Any 4ply can be used. This scarf isn't massively long but long enoug hfor me. I wanted to have enough of the yarn left to do a matching chevron hat. Any 4ply can be used for the scarf and it's ideal if you've got several different colours of same yarn thickness that you can alternate. Great way to use up some left over sock yarn.

There's been dyeing going on here too. I did some last week which never made it on to Etsy. I finally got around to taking pics yesterday and I've edited them today. I was planning to put them on Etsy tonight but I'm too tired to concentrate on that now. The 'Noughts & Crosses' Pattern will be going on Etsy tomorrow as will the Elegance pattern. they're from Sockamania September and October.

Here's a preview of tomorrow's yarn update. It's all merino lace and merino 4ply.

And I've been dyeing today. Lots of sock yarn and some merino lace. This is what was on my line this afternoon. I just can't get used to how early it goes dark now. It was already getting dark when I got the yarns in and it wasn't even 5pm yet.

I've been spinning too. On my new drop spindle. I'm spinning some of my own handdyed merino on my new spindle. And my old spindle is being used for the red Touch merino/silk. I prefer my new spindle as it's much smoother and lighter to use so the merino is getting a lot more attention than the merino silk. at the moment. I want to finish spinning and plying both though by the 17th Nov. I'll tell you why later.

And to finish off I have to show you this pic I took last week. It's a pile of undyed merino 4ply form Uruguay. I think it's about 500gr. This merino is very different from my merino sock yarn. It's slightly thicker, single ply and so incredibly soft. It's got a handspun quality to it. Very typical of Uruguay apparently. But the most amazing thing is that when I get it out of the box it's so curly. I was hoping it'd show up in the photo but it shows up much better irl. Still, it's gorgeous. Not recommended for socks though unless you like to handwash. Thsi yarn definitely cna't be machine washed unless you want to felt it.

Another week

Can't believe i have't blogged for a week. This week has not been as busy as last week so no excuse for not blogging. The girls have been on their half term holidays this week so they've kept me busy. Not qutie as much time for knitting asnormal. And nothing very exciting to write about.

I've been working on a new design for a magazine. It's been lots of swatcing and frogging but I've finally come up with a design I'm happy with. Becasue of the design a swatch won't really show up the design so I've started the actual item, and have got to knit enough to show th eactual design well enough before I send off pics to the editor for approval. Then I can get going on it full speed.

I needed an easy knit this week to keep me going for those periods I couldn't work on th above design. yes, I've got a plain garter stitch scarf for Ness on the go, a stocking stitch gilet for Em and several other easy projects but I just couldn't resist casting on for a new design. I've seen lots of chevron scarves lately on various blogs. they're all from the same book which I haven't got so I decided to have a go at designing my own version of the chevron scarf. I'm knitting it up in some Posh Yarn cashmere 4ply and it's looking beautiful. It's quick to knit up and I'm nearly half way. I'm planning to do a hat and hadn warmers in the same design.

My Sublime Spindle arrived today. It's gorgeous. Very light and smooth. I'll take a pic of it tomorrow. Light too bad for pics now. I know absolutely nothing about the terminology surrounding spindles and my old spindle has got the round 'disc thing' at the top but this new one has it at the bottom which kind of confused me a bit. But I've conquered it. I got out some of my own hand dyed merino and started spinning. It's fantastic and light to spin with. It's smaller than my other spindle and much smoother to spin with.

Time to get Sockamania sorted out now. I'm aiming to get the NOvember patterns out tonight.