Sneaky peek

I've put together a sneaky peek at what's to come in the shop update later in the week. I've been experimenting with tried and tested colourways on different yarn types and also taking a colourway and changing just one colour to see the overall effect. I've also been experimenting with different ways of photographing the yarn (until all 24 AA batteries we have in the house all need to be recharged simultaneously!)

This is Lovebird in Plushness:

And August in Plushness:
And October in Divine:
Which also looks like this:And this when reskeined:
Then we have Apple Cider (with Ice) - so-called because I used Ice Blue instead of Teal this time - it's in Divine yarn:
This is Banoffee Pie in Opulent:Which also looks like this:And finally, this is Faded Rose in Wisp:
I was going to do one of those surveys on the right-hand bar to ask you which type of photo you prefer, but you'll be fed up with that question from other dyers so I'm just gonna use 'em all - you get five photos on Etsy - with maybe the close-up as the main photo to keep the shop looking uniform. However, if you do have any strong opinions one way or the other, I'd still love to hear. I think of them as pile (of poo - sorry, just comes into my head); unskeined (solid colours) or reskeined (colours mixed up and how you would receive the yarn).

Outcast knitters

Good news - I have some yarnie goodness to show you. It's been in the shop for a couple of days (I need to sort out the time-lag between shop updates and blog updates), but here you go:
Lovebird in Lavish - 4 ply cashmere/silk (Sold)
Check out the difference with this Mellow - 6 ply cashmere/silk - which I did for a custom order at the same time:
The Mellow seems to soak up the colour much more than the Lavish. But guess it's down to personal taste if you prefer the vibrant colour or the gentler shading.

Here is Fragrant Stocks (Sold) - rapidly becoming a favourite with me and customers alike:
And a new colourway inspired by the book cover for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. This is Desert Dune - was thinking would make beautiful scarf if combined with other Lavish colours:Here we have Dewberry - it came up a little pinker than the last time I did this colourway.
And finally, some Plushness in Foxglove - I created this colourway for a Dear Customer and made two skeins at the time, loaded this one into the shop this week and suddenly realised last night that the item was "inactive" - I had forgotten to click "Final" when I was playing about with it on etsy. Anyhow, here is the second one (Sold):
I have been a busy little bee yesterday and today and have a further 25 or so skeins to prepare for next week in almost every yarn type. I have to keep some back in preparation for the "Christmas at Hillcrest" craft fair - which is at the end of November at Rachel's (soon-to-be-Etsian) sister-in-law's gallery/workshop in the West Country - but it's soooo difficult deciding which to keep back and which to list. (Did you notice I've forgotten if it's Dorset or Devon again, Rachel? Goldfish memory, I am. It's Devon, isn't it?)

It seems like so little to offer but thus are the limitations of being an evening/weekend indie yarn dyer. For the time being, SQ shall have to remain small and exclusive! What I can say is that I'm delighted with how it's going, by the customer support and wonderful feedback, by the new people I've met and by the fact I had set an original goal of 50 sales by Christmas from when I started in June and achieved it by September. So thank you to everyone. (Oooo, I hope I haven't jinxed it now by saying all that.)

Bearing in mind, I usually start around 9pm and finish around midnight or 1am, here's a rundown of what I did this week:
Monday night - skeining
Tuesday night - labelling yarn to bring along to knitting group - how did that take so long?
Wednesday night - first time at Outcast knitting group - got to do some ACTUAL knitting.
Thursday night - preparing base yarn for next day; more skeining
Friday night - preparing more yarn for dyeing; more skeining

Plus Ravelrying, blogging, Etsying, photographing... Didn't make it to one gym session, Body Attack class or circuits either - usually manage to fit in at least two if not all three.

So instead of flabbing about the house, on Wednesday night, I took myself along to the Jelly Leg'd Chicken gallery/workshop in Reading to meet the lovely Suzanne, a Dear Customer who owns the gallery, and the rest of the knitting group. They made me feel very welcome and were a really friendly bunch of people. It was so nice to meet fellow Etsians and yarn-obsessives. I particularly enjoyed chatting to Sarah who was an archaeological illustrator and knitting her first pair of socks - in cable. How brave is she!

I must admit it felt really strange to be knitting in a group at first - I don't know why - maybe because I don't like anyone to see the speed I knit at, or when I fudge bits, but after a while it was fine; everyone else was concentrating on what they were doing and I became less self-conscious. They wanted to see the yarn I'd brought along - here's a photo and another one here which Suzanne put on Flickr of it and they even bought a couple of skeins.

And finally, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show this yet, but I'm guessing no international Yarn Yard customers read my humble blog, and assuming that UK customers have already got theirs, here's Natalie's offering for my first month's merino club:
It's called Doodle, is 50% merino, 50% tencel and so tempting that I'm considering making a scarf out of it before I begin my Chevron scarf since the STR second batch hasn't yet arrived. I saved a sample from a stitch library at the back of a knitting magazine that may just do the job. Right must be off before network crashes again... I need to pick your brains in the next post.

From the Snooty camel

Ok, what have I got for you this week? Hmmm... eventful week. Having problems with blogger so have to keep it short, sweet and photo-heavy.

I've been a busy girl stocking up the shop before I go on holiday next week .
This week's yummy yarns are, in no particular order:

Caramel Blue
Lime Violets (sold)
Someone who shall remain nameless had her nifty fingers on tonight!

Kingfisher
Iguana
Sugared Almonds
Lemonlips
(There's a story behind this name)
Dewberry

And last but not least
Waterlilies
From time to time in this dyeing game you get a little happy accident, and Waterlilies is one of them. Was aiming for turquoise, magenta and chocolate brown. Hmmm. Not quite. But I like it.

Here we have a custom order for a fab customer in Delaware - 5 skeins of Golden Plum.








And another order before it got wrapped in tissue:

Phew! This lot has taken it's toll on my good looks:
Whoa! You're not kidding.
(This snooty camel is really my Ravelry avatar)

For the first time in weeks, I got something started on my needles.


This is the Watermelon yarn from Freshisle Fibers which knits beautifully. I've done a bit more since this photo and started turning the heel and got myself into a bit of difficulty by starting with a purl row instead of a knit by the time I'd divided the stitches (how?) but will bore on and see what happens. It looks good so far and I love it when I get to knit the black seedy bits.

And finally, thanks to the lovely Piglottie for a glowing message on her blog and for the mention on the Ravelry forums. My head is so big it's lolling off my shoulders:)

Obsession

Ok, this obsession with yarn and knitting is getting out of hand. Spent way too much time over at Ravelry - that place is amazing but sucks up time - was up til 2am on Saturday night just checking it out, adding photos of my projects etc - though half of my finished stuff has been gifts for babies etc so not many pics.

And then, as if I was a lady of leisure who just likes to hang out and chat and has stacks of time, I decided on a whim to sign up to this new social networking site for etsians - We Love Etsy.
Another great place - have already met some lovely people there.

Other than that, wound up my wonderful Watermelon yard from Freshisle Fibers:Doesn't it look good enough to eat? OK, maybe not - told you I was obsessed!

Completed a custom order of Fruit Salad for my lovely Texan customer and loaded in my Etsy shop:
Dyed up loads new colourways in cashmere/silk and Superwash Merino - just have to skein them all up this week and gradually add them to etsy. There's one I'm particularly proud of called Kingfisher... more on that in the next post.

Then, any spare minutes left, I've been reading these:

Some lovely newness

Here's this week's offerings to gradually appear on etsy before the end of the week:


This one's called August because today was the first real sign of summer we've had and these hot summery colours remind me of a bright summer's day. This is in the soft cashmere/silk 4 ply.

Next is Plum Tree, also in 4 ply cashmere/silk:Inspired by the plum trees out in bloom at the Discovery Centre.

And finally, this is Seaspray which soft subtle colours suit the softness of the cashmerino.
I may ever get around to listing some of Granda's "Irish flags" wool. It came out quite nicely... watch this space!

From pastels to rich hues

I have some new additions to list in my etsy shop over the next couple of days and here's a sneak preview:

First up, we have a beautifully, soft cashmere/silk which I have named Pitter Patter for obvious reasons:
Next up is another pastel colourway, this time in the long-promised cashmerino which is so soft and gorgeous and lovely to work with. This one is called Fondant



Third up is another cashmerino number, this time showing its flamboyant side in rich, vibrant, passionate colours. Let me introduce Flamenco:
And finally for tonight, we have the ever-popular Superwash merino yarn in marine shades of aqua, turquoise, deep blue and citrus green. This is Rock Pool:
And that, ladies and gentleman, is all for tonight. Thank you, and goodnight.

Recent dyeing activity

This is what I've been up to this week.

I got myself onto Flickr at last. Here's my Flickr page. Sure there must be some way of creating a mini link but will get to that some time. So far have joined 4 groups - Yarn Porn, For the Love of Fiber, Hand Dyed and Pimp their Etsy. If anyone knows any other good ones...



Fragrant stocks

Gorgeous cashmere/silk in pastel shade of pink, lilac, lemon, pale green and white.

Already sold in Etsy, but it's my favourite yet and will definitely be repeated this colourway - or as close to it as I can get. I was inspired by a beautiful barrel of stocks just bloomed in our garden, but realised afterwards that if anyone bought it and knitted it into socks, well, the name could be very appropriate, put it that way!

Also this: Sugared almonds

This is in my newly acquired lambswool, cashmere and angora and I cannot emphasise enough how gorgeous this yarn is to work with.

And finally, a beautifully soft 2 ply laceweight yarn in a colourway called Lagoon. This one also sold quick sticks which is fantastic.

Breathing space

Just about recovered from wild weekend - should not be happening at my age.

My lovely Moo cards arrived today - 100 of them. Now I can feel like a proper crafty businessy-type person. Photos to follow in next post.

One of the one-skein socks is coming on - nearly finished. Though it will be a bit miraculous if I can squeeze another one out of the one skein - we shall see.

Got some dyeing time after work today. The lambswool/angora/cashmere is absolutely gorgeous to work with. Can't wait to show off the results. Must dry first.

Overdyed some 2 ply laceweight merino which I'd dyed green last week but I wasn't happy with the result, so added some deep turquoise and blue. The result is much better - nice vivid colours.

Best of all, my customer in Prague loved her Bohemian Blue yarn. She's going to send me a photo of the shawl she's crocheting with it when she's finished. Can't wait to see it.

Ordered some lovely yarn from Yarn Yard - could no longer resist - Natalie does some gorgeous stuff and her blog's addictive. Check out the link on the bottom right-hand side.

Jotted down a pattern tonight for a cotton knitted heart decoration adorned with mini hearts. Got one half knitted up, just have to complete the other side.

Finally, here's a classic from the Skein Prince:

Picked him and his friend up from wall-climbing. His friend said "I see you had the roof of the car down on the way here" I said I hadn't. My son said "Oh, just a bad hair day then?" They are NINE-years-old and have the cheek of nineteen-year-olds!

First custom order

Very exciting week in the world of the Skein Queen for two reasons. Firstly, first wholesale order from China arrived:

Lovely cashmere/silk, some cashmerino and a lovely soft worsted blend of lambs wool, dehaired angora and cashmere. Gorgeous! Look and drool!

Just as well I placed that order, as they day before it arrived, I had my first request for a custom order from a wonderful and talented fellow Etsian in Prague. She wanted a grey blue colour and possibly an indigo to follow. So I got busy:

After a few panics about rubbish lighting making the grey blue look grey and gloomy, this is what's winging its way to Prague - hope she likes it:

Bohemian Blue

Ordered some moo cards this evening - can't wait to see them. Will post here when they arrive. Plan to include them in my parcels to customers and give them out to anyone who'll listen to me yabber on about wool!

Looking forward to a weekend with friends - Friday night out for a birthday meal with the girls and then down to the New Forest to spend the weekend with our old friends (they're not old, we've just had them a long time.)