And the winner is....

Summerhouse Love
by Derya

Derya says "I'd call this 'Summerhouse Love', partly because it's on my mind a lot lately, but also because it reminds me of the washed-out colours of an Aegean summerhouse, with delicate white, blue and yellow floral prints in all the rooms. And the summerhouse romance novels I love reading in summer, like Colette's Le Ble en Herbe."

It sort of reminds me of the ambience of this picture on my calender for June of pressed blue cottons and white crisp linens with a pile of books for summer reading. You can just imagine the view from the window of turquoise sea lapping the sandy beach.

I know they always say this, but it WAS so hard to choose. Thank you for putting so much thought into your entries and I think I may be calling on a few of you when it comes to yarn naming time! I'm going to have a look at the Cloud Appreciation Society site and some of the names brought back memories of holidays past too. I loved the fairy and nymph references. And the foody ones. I think we might have to do this again some time - it was fun!

Yarn giveaway and Ravelry Day in Coventry

In celebration of the fact that Skein Queen is celebrating two years in business on Thursday, I've decided to do a little name-the-yarn competition. All you have to do to win this free skein of Plushness (lambswool/angora/cashmere) is to come up with colourway name and leave a comment here on the blog with the name you've come up with. You've got until Thursday 11th June at midday BST - I'll choose my favourite name and announce the winner on my blog on Thursday afternoon (changed from Friday).

So, to be in with a chance of having this skein arrive on your doorstep, let your imagination go wild - I usually go for two-word combinations for yarn colourway names, but not always. Could be plant, bird or butterfly-related - or inspired by a landscape scene - or by contemporary culture (books, tv programmes, films) - or by a feeling or emotion. And I do especially like eccentric or kooky names. Can't wait to hear what you come up with.

And Thursday will also see the launch of Skein Queen fibre for spinning (the fibre I've chosen so far isn't suitable for felting). It's taken me the first half of the year to learn to spin and I hope you like the selection of tops I've dyed up. These snails are Superwash BFL but there will also be Superwash merino on sale in the shop on Thursday. As the year goes on, I'll be introducing a greater range of fibres and possibly batts reflecting the fibres I've especially enjoyed spinning such as kid mohair and angora.

Superwash BFL

Scarlet O'Hara

Deauville

Tequila Mockingbird

Demon Drop

Salty Dog

Dewberry Martini

Well, what a fantastic day Rav Day in Coventry was yesterday. Even the hideous rain couldn't deter the ardent shoppers but I did feel sorry for the stall holders who were frozen to the bone, but at least they seemed to be doing a roaring trade.

We met so many people - Anni from Yarnaddictanni, Andy from Bluefaced, Jeni from Fyberspates, Sarah from Mamalonglegs, Gemma from Kraftykoala, Marianne from Picperfic, Inga aka Rockpool Candy and her hubby, Jen and Juliet from The Knitter, Kerrie and Lou from Yarn Forward/Inside Crochet (in the loos), Juliet from Artist Palette Yarns, John Arbon, the Knitting Goddess and Lisa from First4yarns. It was lovely to see Becky (purlfect) again - I'd done a dyeing course with her a couple of years ago and also met libraknitter who had knitted THE most beautiful Ishbel out of a lemon Fyberspates yarn and a gorgeous Swallowtail from SQ Wisp. (I hope I haven't missed anyone out.)

Rockpool Candy with her beautiful batts and extreme crochet. Check out her fabulous corset and the bustle is made from men's ties.

Here's the wonderful Shazspun, who was brilliant company putting up with me all day, learning how to drop spindle with Ghostknitter who reckons she's the only spinner in Singapore. We had a laugh when the spindle lived up to its name and spent quite a lot of time on the floor but Sharon bought it anyway to spin up samples.

And the beautiful alpaca which belonged to Toft Alpaca - they were a bit soggy!

It was great to meet Jen from The Knitter in person as we've corresponded by email previously. And her husband who was doing a bit of laptop work linked into the photo shoot. I got snapped wearing my Aqueous Martini Ishbel with my very dank hair schloped around my face. Inga was trying to put me off during my "modelling" session by shouting "Oi, fibre fiddler - smile" and such-like encouragement!!

All-in-all, a fantastic day.. but I am glad I didn't have a stall outside in the rain - it was great being a customer! I especially love my yarn from Knitting Goddess, my mohair locks from a man from the New Forest, my silk/merino tops from Babylonglegs and my beautiful batts from Fyberspates and Rockpool Candy. (Sorry guys, too many links to put in and I'm being shouted at to get off the computer - I'll come back and put them in.)

And the winner is...

Here's my glamorous assistant, Sandra, picking out the winning name (honestly, there were 22 folded pieces of paper in that "stylish" hat:

which was:


Yvette, who I think is andsotoknit on Ravelry, so well done to you. Maybe if you PM on Ravelry with your address and I'll get the Blue Champagne skein posted off to France for you. And thank you to the lovely Sandra for doing the honours.

I just have to emphasise the Dr Who thing in the last post - I can't do it - figment of Lazyhill's imagination - maybe she can do it!

Forgot to say, Happy Birthday to my old dad for today.

First anniversary

I celebrated the first anniversary of Skein Queen by completely forgetting about it until midnight! I'd just had a lovely email from a potential customer who said she'd found me courtesy of Yarn Harlot - I was completely flabbergasted by that! The Yarn Harlot mentioned my yarn! I wonder where? A memorable moment to mark year one.

So, onto the yarn competition. A photo of the prize - one skein of Plushness in Blue Champagne.


Thank you to everyone who entered. The correct answer was I can do full press-ups (well, only five or maybe eight at the max, but I can still do them.) But I would've accepted sprinting too.

This is from the overweight wheezy child who always came pretty much last at school (except in the sack race :) - I am so impressed with myself that I can give strapping rugby players in their twenties a run for their money at Circuits every week! (You were wondering what I was going to give strapping young rugby players there, weren't you!) However, my age is starting to show. I've wrecked my Achilles tendons yet again, didn't sleep all night and could bearly put weight on them this morning.

I haven't selected the winner yet - as noone (except Lazyhill, explanation below) came up with the right answer, all the names are in a hat and I'm going to take it along to school to get a glamorous assistant to pick a name at random and will post later as to who the lucky winner is.

The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed that a certain Lazyhill came up with the answer:
"Press-ups and possibly sprinting", but as she is my friend and cheated, then she is disqualified. But she knows she has some lilac roving on the way and at least I got her to comment, at last! Even if she did add "playing the Dr Who theme on your bottom trumpet," as if she hadn't done enough damage!

If only I could belly dance, play the piano or do the splits. I did once do flamenco dancing classes for a couple of years and I certainly need to learn to say no more often. I can read upside down but that's not a recently acquired skill and my absolute favourite suggestion is synesthesia.

Well, good luck to everyone and I'll let you know the winner later on.

Just thinking about the night I started SQ. I'd spent a couple of months trawling the Internet looking for the perfect yarn base. Hadn't completely intended on dyeing to sell but was intrigued by Etsy, it was pretty easy to set up a shop and I don't think any other Etsy sellers were carrying cashmere/silk at the time. I listed a few skeins of cashmere/silk thinking they'd sit there for months, but was so elated when I woke up in the morning and someone from the States (I'll never forget her) had bought the first skein.

When we were away on holiday in August, my family gave me the www.skeinqueen.co.uk domain for my birthday and my next target was 50 sales by Christmas - I think it reached around 200 by then.

In April I dropped some hours at work to devote more time to SQ and I still don't have nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish all I'd like to - I think I've turned down eight or nine wholesale orders now.

In May, the Squee! Sock Clubs were launched and sold out in just over 24 hours. Thank you to everyone who joined.

Ultimately, it's been a fantastic year - the best bit has been meeting you lot and being able to work creatively. How lucky am I!

First anniversary coming up - win yarn

I've got yarn to show you and quite a bit of it. Wanna see?

This little lot plus a little bit more got labelled, wrapped and addressed tonight to be posted out tomorrow.

Sock Club yarns got posted out this week - international members on Tuesday and Wednesday and UK members on Saturday. Let me know what you think (did you squee?! Only jesting!) - but be a bit careful of spoilers for the first week or so in case others haven't received theirs yet.

And some of this week's custom orders in no particular order:

Poppy Fields in Aran silk headed to Greece

Ruby Ruby in Blush
Rose Red in Plushness
Flamenco in Plushness
More Plushness

Emmeline in Sumptuous


Poseidon in Bali

And with that feast of yarn, I couldn't resist a nibble for myself - shh, don't tell Skein King:

It's called Be Mine

Well, it's coming up for the first year anniversary of SQ and I thought I'd run a little competition to mark the event. It's in the style of one of those vague radio competitions they run on our local station along the lines of "It's round... what is it?" and the winner gets a free skein of yarn.

Soooo, my question is:

I am approaching a big, important birthday this year beginning with a four and ending in a zero, and I recently discovered a new ability I never dreamed I had. What is it?

It's nothing rude (ha! for once) and it's nothing to do with knitting - post your answer in the comments and the closest to the real answer wins the yarn. One guess per person. If two people come up with similar answers that are relevant, I'll put them in a hat and choose. In case I am unable to contact you through your post, keep an eye out on the blog for the announcement of the winner in or around 11th June.

Here's a first anniversary photo of the flowers which inspired the Fragrant Stocks colourway:

Onto knitting and Sock Wars is not going well for this warrior. I'm struggling with time and the pattern and my target must be rubbing her hands together in glee, though I haven't made contact with either my target or assassin yet. I'm most surprised I'm not dead yet.

I've got further than this but I'm not saying how much further:

Spot the deliberate mistake in the pattern in the next photo - it's all now frogged and fixed (not frustrating at all when one only has one evening's knitting to get it done in!)

As for family life, the dreaded SATs are over so Skein Prince got to select a restaurant of his choice and we all went out on Friday night to celebrate. They get to bring a pet into school next week and I'm thinking it's probably not a good idea to bring the kitten in - I don't know - what if she escapes and runs under a cupboard and I can't get her out!

Then when he was at the cinema on Saturday, I took Skein Princess to see Beauty and the Beast ON ICE! Wow! What a spectacle. I've never seen anything like it - it was a Russian company performing it and the skill involved was incredible. It was mostly like a ballet with very fast skating and some circus skills thrown in - for instance, one of the Castle Creatures was BOUNCING ON ICE with those bouncy stilt-things.

Today we spent on the common with some friends with the kids playing in the trees and on their bikes as the adults yik-yaked away - one of them is the man who will be good enough to turn our garage into a workshop which we've been talking about for some time and which we talked about some more.

And an update on my sister-in-law's progress. She had her operation last Friday and woke up minus a kidney and a tumour the size of a melon. She's slowly building her strength back up and most likely won't need chemo. That makes it sound simple but it's been a hell of a few weeks - the not knowing as each test result could go one way or the other. Life's a lottery in so many ways, but I'm glad she's on the road to recovery.