Shop update preview

My plan is to put previews of shop updates up on the website 24 hours before a shop update to make it easier for browsing and less like a scramble as yarn appears on Etsy without you knowing what's coming next. However, due to technical difficulties (Skein King went to bed), for this week, the humble blog will have to do.

Entice (laceweight merino)

Medusa

Aran silk

Medusa

Paris Green

Grape

Wisp (2 ply cashmere/silk)


Candy Shop

Heatherberry

Endure (merino/nylon sock yarn):

By the Seaside

Medusa

Rockpool

Mondrian

Reykjavik

Woodland

Plushness (lambswool/angora/cashmere):

Bluebird

Reykjavik

Blue Champagne

Faded Flowers

Smoked Salmon

Galah

Foxglove

Mock Turtle

Sunset Tango

Croc Socks

Happy Browsing x

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!

A bit of Friday fluff - How Rare is Your Personality

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Branching Out scarf indecision

I started on two Branching Out scarves this week. I decided to make one for my mum's 70th on 3rd July (not long to go - was this a mad plan?). I've started one in Blue Lavish:And one in some Sumptious I kept back:
I love the colour and stitch definition of the first one, but also the sheer luxurious softness of the cashmere of the second one, although obviously, it's not blocked yet. The top one is more her colours as she loves blues but I only have one skein of it. Now I'm thinking maybe I should dye up some Sumptious in blues and turquoises - is that complete madness to start a third?

This week has been one of ordering from suppliers: yarn, dyes, tissue paper, moo cards and stickers, postage bags, postage labels, SQ thank you cards and stickers (got to make them up) and some supplies for the Plushness Sock Club gifts.

Custom orders to be ready for 8th June are all mostly done and the Sock Club yarns are all prepared and ready for dyeing tomorrow. I have the colourways in my head - let's hope I can get them from my head onto the yarn as I imagine them!

As for the free yarn competition from two posts back, I'm going to have to put all the answers in a hat if no one gets nearer to the answer, so must be worth a guess - go on, it's worth a try. You've got to be in it to win it (and similar cliches!)

And finally, for no other reason than to celebrate summer finally arriving today (we had more floods in our town earlier this week), some blossom: