Anarchy in the UK - God Save the Queen!

Everything's got out of hand here at Skein Queen hq lately. There's been a revolution, partly linked with Britain's Got Talent fever, and we're all knitting Union Jack handwarmers as designed by the talented alabamawhirly.



Alabamawhirly writes "These gloves were originally hand knitted by me from my own pattern whilst listening all the while to my old Fidelity record player. These Union Jack gloves are a homage to The Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten and God Save the Queen (the record)."

You can buy the pattern for these Anarchy handwarmers here. Believe me when I tell you how much thought and how many hours have gone into creating this detailed pattern and chart.

They can be knitted in commercial red, white and blue yarn, but if you decide you'd prefer the hand-dyed option, you can now buy three mini skeins in my shop to create them yourself. They come in shades of Rebel Red, Naked Anarchy and Bolshy Blue. Believe me when I tell you how many hours they took to wind into mini skeins!

Alternatively, you can buy the actual, handknitted mitts here. They'd make a great and unique gift.


And here's my effort at testing the pattern for Whirly (unblocked - how rebellious!)

Now, shall we return to some semblance of civility wearing our rose-tinted spectacles? Thanks so, so much to everyone who joined the Summer Squee! Clubs. For those of you who joined The Queen's Reading Room, I'm announcing the novel of the month a few weeks in advance in case you decide you'd like to read along. The first novel will be The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin. This novel is widely available through the reputable Internet book sites and stores.

This was the Summer Pudding colourway from the April installment of the Plushness Pudding Club - semi-solid and multi-coloured versions.

And this was the Esme Squalor colourway from the April installment of the Unfortunate Club.

I'm going to crack this spinning lark if it kills me!

That sounds like I'm not enjoying it - I am, especially when it clicks into place and goes smoothly - those rare instances are becoming more frequent, which must surely be a good sign?

Another effort - take some merino acquired from Wingham Wool:


And turn it into this:

Still not perfect - practice, practice, practice!

Squee! Club yarn all dyed up and likely to be posted early next week. If you're in the club look out for your parcel towards the end of next week...

2008 review

"And so this is Christmas. And what have you done? Another year over. A new one just begun."

How was your 2008? Are you glad it's over and roll on 2009? Or was it a good one for you?

For me, it was a great year for Skein Queen. Getting to "meet" new customers from all over the world; shop updates selling out almost instanteously; a brand new workshop; the big move from beloved Etsy to my new independent yarn emporium; my first small show; starting Skein Queenery group on Ravelry where I thought I'd be rattling about with the tumbleweed; launching of the Squee! Sock Clubs; gently venturing into the world of wholesaling my yarn and the acquisition of some new pre-dyed stock.

And I've had an article published in Yarn Forward; copy edited a couple of issues of the magazine; been to Olympia, Wonderwool Wales and Ally Pally; attended a Hyperbolic Crochet Reef workshop; participated in Sock Wars III; been to my first knitting hen party; participated in knitting hats for Innocent Smoothies and now this is starting to sound like one of those round robin letters you get in Christmas cards, so I'll change the subject!

I think I've been more than lucky. It was an awful year for some of my friends and family. I cannot tell you the amount of bad news I've heard this year from poor health to teenage pregnancies; from job losses to broken bones. How do you say how much sympathy you have for all those loved ones without sounding trite? Hopefully they know it. So any good news, such as a long-awaited pregnancy and a long-awaited engagement, have been like rays of sunshine and meant even more.

What does 2009 hold in store? On a personal level, it's likely to be a year of more change. Who knows what will happen between now and July, but the current plan is to take redundancy then after 17 years of working in the same publishing office. I'll miss the lovely people I work with and I have the option to stay on if I want to, but I think it could be an excellent opportunity to be able to devote more much needed time to Skein Queen. I have so many plans... so little time...

Knitting progress:

Skein Prince wanted some Plushness socks too. I'd done this little self-striping dyeing experiment a while back which was, at one point, a huge tangled mess, but it's looking a lot better now.
And I finished off Skein Princess's Pocket Socks with a little bunny. These socks are well-worn. She loves them - and so cosy.

And finally, progress (or lack thereof) on the bolero in Lotus Yarns Bamboo Soft. One front and the start of a sleeve! My Chinese supplier wants to put this on his website when it's finished and my friend Sonia has agreed to model it. Little does he know that I am Captain Slow of the knitting world!

Sock Club news - all the single and double helpings of the Plushness Pudding Club have been dyed up as have The Unfortunate Club skeins. All drying and waiting to be posted out over the next couple of days.

Maybe in 2009, I'll become one of those good bloggers who blog every day - not wait for a week then write a whole screed!

Sock Club reminder

Don't forget - if you were in one of the Summer sock clubs, you need to let me know by tomorrow noon BST if you want to sign up for the Autumn club (further details here) after which, if you weren't a member last time but would like to join, drop me an email and places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. I won't be collecting Paypal payments til nearer the end of August. Hope everyone who wants to can join in the fun!

Important business first. Have been dyeing today and here's a little tempter:

There's some Plushness (of course), some Blush, some Mellow, a bit of Lavish, quite a bit of Encore, a small bit of Entice, a little bit of Endure and some yummy Bamboozle (merino/bamboo). I'm aiming for a shop update early next week, then go on holiday the following week.

A couple of weekends ago, our friends were up from the New Forest and we went for a dander in the woods. Their little girl was wearing these "knitted" wellies.

How cool are these? Don't know if you can see it, but the stripes are a knitted print. I want some!

Friday night was cinema night with the girlies. We went to see Mamma Mia. Almost as good as the musical which we saw in London last year. How mortifying though - I came out with mascara all over my cheek where I'd been sobbing at the song Slipping Through My Fingers. Gets me every time - even writing this, I can feel the tears welling up, mad woman that I am! But it's not in a sad way - more in an appreciate-every-moment way.

Right, I've pulled myself together now! The weekend was spent welcoming Skein Prince back from Scout camp and all his lovely washing (I held my breath as I unpacked his backpack). We'd been to IKEA and he came back to his "Big Boy's" room so's he has somewhere to study when he goes to secondary school.
Spent ages in the wardrobe department agonising over what to get, but by the time we got down to the warehouse, we realised we couldn't carry more than a loft bed and a desk on the roof bars of the car without it collapsing, so he'll have to make do with the lovely orange falling-apart pine one for the time being. It was raining on the motorway on the way back and bits of cardboard were flying off from time-to-time as it got soggy. By the time we got home, half the cardboard was gone and we'd nearly lost the instructions and the screws and bolts! I was in my element flatpacking away - I do like a bit of flatpack construction (I am verging on the eccentric as you may have guessed!)

Monday was his birthday.
And he got a surprise trip to Chessington World of Adventures. He had a fantastic time and went on all the scary rides. I, however, like rollercoasters, anything fast, but nothing high. This is what happened when I decided to be brave and went on a big ferris wheel:

Pure and utter terror - and completely irrational. He had to sing me the "Think of Fluffy Bunnies" song to calm me down. Look at the delight he's taking in my fear!

Nice gentle log flume - much more my style! Or Professor Bubbleworks - now that's a good ride! Though was disappointed it has changed from being a fizzy pop factory (not PC enough) to Imperial Leather soap factory (get the advertising in.)

I took the plunge this week and joined the modern world of youth by signing up for Facebook and Plurk. Look me up if you're on there. Debbie Orr on Facebook. Skeinqueen on Plurk. My yarn is going to be one of the options you can choose from in the Send Yarn application on Facebook - if that means anything to anyone! It's the completely useful application where you can choose from photos of several gorgeous yarns to send to a friend and say "I heard you frogged that ugly fair isle sweater... Here's some new yarn to get started on something cool for me!" Who said Facebook wasn't useful!

Brand new Squee! Sock Clubs for autumn

The next batch of sock clubs will be starting from September for a three-month period once again. I’ve emailed the original members to see if anyone would like to rejoin and they have until midday BST 7th August to confirm if they would after which date, I’ll open up any places left to anyone interested on a first-come-first-served basis via email (debbieorr.home@googlemail.com). I’m sorry, I can’t accept any requests before 7th August as I don’t know how many places there will be.

I’m hoping to open up a few more places than before by not doing any custom orders during the autumn months.

We still have the Plushness club which will be based on a theme of Stately Homes - think mazes, peacocks, high tea, lakes and swans. You can choose if you prefer the yarn simply twisted up so you can see the colours separately or reskeined to mix all the colours up prettily.

And I’m introducing a new yarn to replace Endure called Encore. It’s machine washable 75% superwash BFL 25% nylon - comes in 100g skeins of 465 yards and is softer than Endure. Absolutely perfect for socks. (Endure will still be available in the shop until stocks run out).

The Encore club will be based on the theme of the Lemony Snicket books - A Series of Unfortunate Events. So colourways could be influenced by anything from Lake Lacrimose to the Reptile Room. As with Plushness, you can choose if you’d like the yarn reskeined or not.

Both clubs work out at $68 or £34. Shipping will be $18 (international) or £7 (UK). Payment is at the start and you receive one skein of yarn by the last day of each month (Sept, Oct and Nov.)

Hope it’s as much fun as the summer club :)

I'll blog a reminder nearer the time.

It's been a wee while since there was last any yarn to show in this corner of blogdom, so thought I'd show you a selection of just blues from the last custom order batch:

Soft Cornflower in Opulent

River Thames in Opulent

Powder Room Blue in Plushness

Proud in Wisp

And the sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed a couple of new yarn bases which have been added to the SQ repetoire. More details to follow, but apart from Encore, there's also a pure BFL named Blissful and a new merino/bamboo called Bamboozle.

I'm aiming for a shop update towards the end of next week.

We're off to Dorset tomorrow to visit friends and Skein Prince is off to Scout camp so yet another busy weekend. I NEED some knitting time!!

Happy holidays to anyone off on vacation this week x

SQudio progress (thanks Maverick!)

To save this blog from becoming the clanging blog of doom, tonight we have some photos of progress on the royal workshop/garage/shed/SQudio - call it what you want.

We have been painting like mad for the last three or four evenings to get it ready for flooring, storage, worktops, Belfast double sink, hob etc next week.

It's not a huge space but it'll do me nicely. Cannot wait to get in there and dyeing. Nick, the builder who happens also to be a friend, has been coming up with suggestions for improving the dyeing process which I'm thinking about. And I ordered one of these to hang at one end of the room.

Here's a selection of custom orders which went out today or are going out tomorrow. How hard was it getting decent photos yesterday - the weather was dull, dull, dull - hence the use of the windowsill in one photo:

Reykjavik in Plushness

By the Seaside in Plushness

By the Seaside in Wisp

Sunnyside Up in Plushness

Rockpool in Plushness

Emmeline in Plushness

Emmeline in Shore

Poppy Fields in Kimono

After the custom orders for 25th July, I'm going to have a break from them during August to concentrate on shop updates, cos let's face it, the shop has bare, cobwebbed shelves at the moment and is in desperate need of a restock.

I'm hoping to get Sock Club yarn dyed up tomorrow but partly dependent on whether Sports Day is cancelled again and when weekend visiting friends arrive, so it could be early next week. I'm also thinking of launching the next quarter of Sock Clubs from September instead of August.