Socktopus Trunk Show - a heavenly haven

Twas a whirlwind of a weekend. On Saturday morning, I had my second spinning lesson and learnt lots of interesting techniques including spinning a thick and thin slubby yarn, spinning from silk caps, adding silk noils and throwsters to fibre, spinning a boucle yarn and (this made me laugh) - how to spin a fun fur - fascinating technique but not sure I'll be trying that one too often.

On Saturday night, we went round to my friend Sandra's house to celebrate her birthday and I have never laughed so much in years - my ribs were hurting. All related to Skein King's antics which I probably shouldn't go into here as it may well embarrass the poor chap.

Soon enough, it was Sunday. I picked up alabamawhirly and we headed down the M4 in Biblical rain (pinched that phrase from bundle) and turned up on the doorstep of Socktopus in Chelsea laden with yarn where we were greeted by Alice, who was so welcoming and almost turned her shop upside-down to create as much space for us as possible.

See the back three shelves on the left - SQ yarn - and on the table..

and on the windowsill...

The limited supply of fibre, named after alcoholic beverages and cocktails, was popular and all went (no names here!)

Plushness and Squash

Elegance and Opulent

Charliesumx fondling some yarn with alabamawhirly encouraging her all the way!

Some lovely Socktopods - and check out Alice's Central Park hoodie - knitted in shades of orange Dream in Color Smooshy (I think). My photos aren't great - check out Alice's blog for some better ones. A huge thank you to everyone who came - it was so nice to knit and chat and even see some of the yarn all caked up and started on there and then - and to Alice for being such a great hostess.

It was almost torture (in a pleasant way) sitting amongst all the yarn all day. I knew I was going to make a small purchase, but it took me all day to decide. I settled on some Malabrigo sock in a rich, dark chestnut brown - so unlike me and I'm usually colour all the way - but I'd seen the lady in the photo knitting some beautiful Shurt'agal socks in a green/black version and that inspired me to opt for that.

This was me preparing the inventory for Socktopus. And thanks so much to alabamawhirly and kiknits for coming over on Friday to help with the skeining and labelling. I hope it was fun and I wasn't too much of a task-master!

I brought back about half. I'm visiting the outcast knitting group in Reading this Wednesday and bringing some along since it's been about two years since I brought them anything yarnie to look at, and then there will still be enough for a shop update on Thursday of this week.

Getting ready for Socktopus

One week to go until the Trunk Show at Socktopus in London - so I've been dyeing up lots and lots of yarn for it. If you're in the London on Sunday 17th May, this is a small sample of what you may find:

Squash, Elegance, Opulent, Blissful, Little Desire and Finesse with the rest of the week taken up with dyeing up some Plushness, Decadent and Kimono. I've also got to finish knitting the second sock for the pattern I'm putting together for Plushness socks - I'm particularly proud of these ones - soon to be revealed. Speaking of patterns, you can now find the Ten O'Clock Scarf and the Zig and Zag Pram Blanket as pdfs on the right-hand side bar. Yay, people, we're in the 21st century! More patterns to follow.

Alabamawhirly and Kiknits are coming over on Friday to help me label it all up and if we've time, we may even make a start on washing a fleece that Whirly acquired from a recent trip to the Lake District.

As you may already know, I'm a dedicated yarn base tart and just couldn’t resist adding a new one to the SQ repertoire. It’s called Exquisite and I think the name captures the silky softness of this 80% merino 10% nylon 10% cashmere yarn. I thought long and hard about introducing this yarn as the composition is q. similar to Elegance (without the bamboo), but when the box landed on my doorstep a week or two ago, I knew I couldn’t not introduce it to the SQ range. So look out for it in a forthcoming update.

SQ-dyed BFL in Irish Queen

Yesterday I went to the first in a course of spinning lessons. When I finally found the venue (long story), we learnt how to wash a fleece (handy), how to use the drum carder, how to use hard carders properly, how to Andean ply and how to spin. I brought along the BFL above which I'd dyed the day before as I was so pleased with the intensity of colour. I've started to spin it without carding it and it's an absolutely dream to spin. I may even dye some more up and bring them along to Socktopus.

Albert, husband of Linda who runs the course, is a wealth of information on everything textiles. He told us the story of the Newbury coat. In 1811, Sir John Throckmorton bet that he could sit down to dinner one evening wearing a coat made from the wool of sheep shorn at 5am the same morning. The workers sheared the sheep, washed, roved, spun, dyed, wove and cut the cloth and by 8pm, the coat was ready to wear, just 11 hours after the sheep arrived in the mill-yard. Albert took part in a recreation of this feat in 1991 and they beat the record by one hour. He told us of the challenge to get so many spinners spinning to exactly 4 twists per inch! I believe Johnny Morris of Animal Magic fame wore the coat at the end of the day. I love listening to this kind of story.

One other bit of yarn news - the lovely people over at Inside Crochet sent me a preview of an article on Skein Queen as the featured indy yarn dyer. As it's my first interview, I did blush profusely when I read it - don't know why as it was a very flattering write-up, it's my former shyness coming through. Anyway, it's out on 25th May if you want to see what's so embarrassing.

And a bit of household news - we're expecting - Honey pictured rather fuzzily in the front - is expecting kittens. Paddy - pictured rather guiltily in the back - is not the father (unless the vet was somewhat incompetent many years ago.)


Finally, it's been a gloriously sunny weekend - not quite so nice last Bank Holiday Monday, but here are some photos of our walk in the New Forest.




I don't know about you, but I couldn't help but think of adders lurking under all that leaf mulch. I don't think anyone else was thinking about them, but I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to snakes having had a bit of a close encounter with one when I was younger and walked with a very heavy tread!

A bit of spinning, Socktopus trunk show and a Rainy Day Coraline

I'm quite proud of this. It's the first bit of spinning I've done with my wheel fixed and working properly and I finally feel comfortable with spinning and really enjoying it, so much so, I've signed up for a course with the local guild to learn more.


The fibre was from limegreenjelly - 100% merino - and it's called Just a Dream. I love the depth of colour.

I'm really looking forward to Sunday 17th May when I'll be at Socktopus in London. Alice invited me to come and do a trunk show, whereby I bring along a load of yarn for people to come and squidge, and she provides cakes etc. If you're in the London area on that day, I'd love to see you. I'm there from 12-5pm. In the meantime, I'm trying to put together a collection of free patterns to bring along.

Summer's coming - there are clear signs now. Okay, so it's raining outside as I write, but the grass keeps growing at the rate of knots, the poppies are about to flower, a multitude of butterflies are visiting our garden and yes, I've even seen some wasps (yuck!). In the true spirit of British optimism regarding the weather, I have the perfect summer yarn for you:

Lotus Yarns Bamboo Soft

If you're thinking of knitting a summer garment in silk or bamboo, it's worth bearing in mind Lotus Yarns Bamboo Soft as a possible option.

Take a look at the fabulous round yoked Coraline cardigan knitted by alabamawhirly using Bamboo Soft in Pewter. The pattern is by Ysolda Teague.

She calls it her Rainy Day Coraline (not too optimistic for the summer then?) and adapted the sleeves to a flattering three-quarter length.

Stunning job. Makes me want to pick out a colour for mine. Very inspiring.

Finally, thank you to everyone who participated in yesterday's shop update - parcels going out today so should be with you very soon.

SQ x

Why no yarn in the shop? Well, this little feast of Plushness will be on its way to Socktopus and will be for sale at Ally Pally.

The first installment of Squee! Sock Club went out and seems that all the club members have received their little purple parcel, so here's the Plushness club yarn based on Stately Homes called Secret Garden.


And here's some of the Encore club yarn based on the Lemony Snicket novels called Baudelaire Mansion:



I've been in the SQirkshop dyeing today and the weather is beautiful - the yarn is drying in the garden, so we can have a shop update next week.

Yesterday, my good friend Rachel came over from Old Windsor bearing gifts and check these out:
She made this pencil pot and I love the personalisation (is that a word?) Perfect for my Paperchase pens which I use for writing SQ labels.

She made this SQ x charm for my Thomas Sabo bracelet. Perfectly compliments my birthstone, lemon, Cinderella slipper and dragonfly and a bit more personal than the Fab at 40 ones available in the shops. Love, love, love it.

And she commissioned someone from Etsy to make this paperweight. Beautiful.

Hands up who thinks Rachel should open an Etsy shop?

Knit Fest

Life is running away with me again - no time to say hello, goodbye. What news, what news?

Loads going on in the yarny world this week. All I can say for now is that there will be a bunch of Plushness on sale at Ally Pally at the Knitting and Stitching Show which runs from 9th to 12th October courtesy of the lovely Alice at Socktopus. It's the first time SQ yarn will be making an appearance at a proper, big show and the prospect is very exciting, especially being stocked by Socktopus. It's not readily that I wholesale my yarn, but on this occasion, I just couldn't resist and look forward to seeing it in person (if I can peek above the the stand on my tiptoes, eh twinepixie!)

The autumn Sock Club yarns are all dyed up, dried up and I'll be skeining and packaging them up tomorrow to be sent out early next week. Very exciting and I'm hoping those expecting a package will be delighted with September's offering.

Over the weekend, I finished my Licorice Allsort (thanks for the name, picperfic) Spring Forward socks in Encore BFL/nylon:
Love these socks - the pattern was excellent and I never got bored with it though I KNOW I should've chosen a less vibrant colourway to show off the delicate lace detail, but I'm a sucker for colour - I am weak!

And made a little more progress on my Catherine Wheel crocheted scarf in Wisp:


The reason I got a fair amount of knitting and crochet done over the weekend was that me and Elsa (the party-girl's older sister) turned the camp for a friend's seven-year-old daughter's birthday into a knit fest:She wanted to learn to knit something other than a rectangle, so I taught her the only pattern I had in my head - a Chevron scarf! And it was coming out beautifully by the end of the camp. While I was knitting my socks, I had one too many comments about "Couldn't you buy those in Marks and Spencers" from fellow campers (ok, the men) for my liking, but I will educate them in the ways of knitting...

More camp photos (not literally camp, but you know what I mean):