Yarnscape is moving!

There will be no new posts on this blog.  I'm merging this blog with my personal blog and moving everything over to my new site, http://www.yarnscape.co.uk.

All my posts have already moved, so update your bookmarks and come and join me as I decorate my new home!

Fiber Friday!

Announcing a brand-new Yarnscape tradition, and the launch of another product line: hand-carded batts, perfect for spinners and felters!

This is just a mini shop update, with four batts in each of two 'flavours'.  First up is Rose Rage (a gradient batt, moving  from pale to dark pink).  This one's pure merino, no sparkle:

Then we have Titania, a blend of purples with holographic silver Angelina (moderate sparkle):

I'm selling these as one-ounce batts.  This is a bit of an experiment, because Etsy charges per item listed.  I could quarter my listing costs by advertising a single four-ounce lot, but this is more flexible, and should appeal much more to felters and other low-volume batt buyers.  I hope!

Besides, you can get a four-foot long, eight inch wide lace scarf out of less than an ounce of fibre.  I've done it.

One-skein project: Pretty Thing in Smitten

This one got hold of me and wouldn't let go.  I had most of a ball of Smitten (colour: soft slate) left over after determining the ball-band gauge, and I've been admiring the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing pattern for a while,  (Ravelry link here), and, well.  Just well.  I knit on this just about every chance I got for three days, and I love the result!

Pretty Thing was originally written for a very different type of yarn - fingering weight, and so fluffy as to be almost insubstantial.  Smitten is a DK weight silk - heavy and fluid.  And as you might expect, the results of my yarn substitution make for quite a different finished object.

Most significantly, a drapey lace fabric is never going to stand under the chin like the original cashmere blend does.  This is more of a collar than a cowl, and I'm wearing it folded over as a result.  If I were to do this again, I might take note of where the fold falls, and swap the right and wrong sides in that general region - just so that the right side of both sets of scallops shows, when worn. 

I also cut one repeat of the pattern out (around-the-way), because Smitten knits to far fewer stitches per inch than two-ply cashmere, and I knit it flat.  Because I couldn't find the right size DPNs, and magic loop makes me crazy.  I can find the seam, if I look, but it's really not obvious.

A note on blocking:  Wet-blocking silk is an interesting exercise.  Silk tends to get 'crispy' as it dries, and you need to beat it up a bit to get the blocked object to soften.  I find it fascinating that the softening doesn't undo all the careful blocking, but honest!  It doesn't!

It all takes so much longer than I thought...

OK, only one shop update over the weekend - once the photography, labelling, inventory and the rest are taken care of, dyeing the yarn seems to be the smallest part of this business - but I did get the silk listed!

'Candy', available here

During the swatching process, this yarn renamed itself from 'Shine' (I know, original, right?) to 'Smitten'.  Because I was so totally and utterly smitten with my swatch:

Swatch on 4mm needles, 'Soft Slate'

I didn't exactly choose the best background for that swatch; the colourway, Soft Slate, is a soft grey with lavender, blue and soft brown highlights; click for bigger to see the shine, the soft colours, but I can still promise you I didn't do it justice.

I love the texture of this yarn.  It's a 2-ply structure, which is quite unusual for thicker silk yarns; they're often singles.  The problem with singles is that they tend to bias in the knitting, and they are much, much more prone to pilling and other abrasion-related damage than plied yarns.  This yarn, though, is plied, and it's quite dense.  You can see that there is an almost pebbled look to the yarn; the same sort of effect you get in high-end sock yarns, and that adds its own detail to the surface texture of the fabric:

'New Growth' (my favourite greens!) - available here

I'm guessing that no-one will be too shocked to hear that I couldn't resist keeping some of this for myself.  I have a whole skein of the Soft Slate, and yesterday, I cast on for the Yarn Harlot's pattern, 'Pretty Thing' cowl (Ravelry link).  It's looking luscious.

This weekend: shop updates!

OK, folks!  I've been absent a lot over the last month, and there have been no shop updates for a while.  Now, though, the busy time is over (who am I kidding; I have loads to do.  It just isn't the sort of stuff that gets written on the calendar!) - so I can get some new yarns up in the shop!

First up will be the DK weight pure silk I blogged about here.  These skeins are the first ones I dyed for this yarn base, and I deliberately selected 'slight seconds' (that is, knots!), so look out for real bargains!

After that.. Well.  Perhaps some DK wool, now the cooler weather patterns are being launched?  Or some Aran weight Blue Faced Leicester?  I also have some batts, suitable for spinning or felting, that I need to photograph and list; the choices are many!

In the meantime, you can see all my currently listed yarns in my Etsy shop.  See you again soon!

Woot! Another shop update!

'Flow' is now available.  And just in case you were wondering what the second colourway looks like, this is Meadow:

Enjoy!

'Drift' hits the Etsy shop!

Running a bit behind schedule, but seven colours of Drift have just been listed in my Etsy shop...  Enjoy!

Drift and Flow

I've spent a chunk of the evening editing photographs for the next shop update - which should be sometime between now and Sunday evening.  I'm getting better at editing photographs for composition and colour, though I've got a way to go before I'm a real master!


This week's offerings will be 'Drift' and 'Flow'.

Flow is a truly luscious 50% silk/50% merino lace weight yarn.  It knits into stunning, drapey lace patterns and beautiful, smooth stockinette with the greatest of ease, and has a soft, but not overwhelming, lustre.  It is one of my favourite yarn lines!

 Rosewood

With 450m per 50g skein, and 24-32 stitches (32-42 rows) per 10cm on 1.75-3.5 mm needles, this is a seriously versatile luxury.

 Meadow

I'd love to knit a Whisper cardigan (Ravelry link) in this stuff, if I ever manage to keep any for myself.  Yum!!

Drift is an awesome kid mohair/nylon laceweight with a close resemblance to a certain famous yarn from a top UK supplier (except without the silk!).

 Sage Advice

It comes in 50g/425m skeins

 Delphinium

And knits up on 3 to 5 mm needles at a gauge of 18-25 stitches and 23-33 rows per 10 cm.

 Merlot

...just as you'd expect, this is perfect for lacey little shawls and stoles, or can be held double to create a thicker fabric.  Enjoy!

Spinning demo TOMORROW and Sunday, Hemingford Abbots

This weekend is the Hemingford Abbots Flower Festival, including an Open Gardens event.  I got the 'call' for volunteers for this event (their regular spinner is ill and cannot make it) the Monday after my last demo - and I've been looking forwards to it ever since.

I love doing demos.  There is so much to talk about in spinning - craft, design, engineering, physics, history, archaeology.  Pretty much anyone who shows up with even a spark of interest can be sent away with a whole lot more, and I think that that is one of the most gratifying things in the whole world.

I spent part of this evening making a bunch more demo spindles.  These are really simple, unfinished bottom whorl drop spindles, which take minimal tools to create, but which work.  They're heavy enough for beginners, without being too heavy.  I've taken to carrying these around with me whenever I'm drop spindling, because there is always someone - even an established wheel spinner - who will be interested.

I've also invented a 'spot the handspun' quiz, involving a bunch of my stashed yarn, along with some hand knitted and hand woven projects.  I hope some people play along; I think there will be a few surprises, if they do!

Pssst...

Yarnscape is live on Etsy!!

I always seem to save my big announcements for the solstice, eh?


I've decided to do a phased release of my yarns, so today I've listed Footsie (my sock yarn) and Bunnylace (angora/wool laceweight yarn) colourways.  I'll announce future releases here on the blog, but you can check out all the remaining details at my shop!

A mess of silk

I always think collective nouns are fun, and apparently, a lot of silk all together is a mess.

Well, at least it is if your skein ties are too weak and come apart in the dye bath:

I've been having an awesome time dyeing this up, but now I need to untangle and rewind it all by hand before I can sell it...

Ho hum....

Burwash Manor Open Farm: an impromptu demo

Hellooo!!!  I'm breaking my blog silence(!) to tell you about a weekend which went completely not according to plan, but in a very good way.

I started off well, with a gathering of knitters and spinners on Friday evening.  One of the members mentioned she was in search of an all-wood drop spindle to use on the plane back to the states, so I said she could have one of mine:

I arranged to meet her at the knitting in public day on Saturday, to hand it over  This was my first unplanned event; I'd thought I'd be going to a different location, if any.  So I packaged the wee spindle up with a sparkly batt for good luck, and off I went.  I was there for less than two hours, but had an awesome time.  (I also learnt that I should carry my business cards with me whenever I go anywhere with either knitting OR spindles in public!)

I had so much fun I decided that I really did want to go to one of the Open Farm Sunday events in our area, to demonstrate spinning.

So on Sunday morning, I made seven more spindles, packed up samples of handspun yarn and things made from it, some food and water, my  wheel and a spindle, and trucked off to Burwash Manor (eventually.  I had a bit of a disagreement with the GPS on the way...).

And I'm so glad I went!  No-one else from the group made it to that event, so I had the stand all to myself.  Which, in a way, was nice; I felt fine handing out my business cards (which I remembered this time!), and there were no odd little decisions to make as to who is the 'group leader' and who should be talking to whom or anything like that.  I'm very glad I took all those samples, though; if I'd assumed someone else was going to be organising it, and just turned up with myself and a wheel, it would have been pretty lame.  If I'd known, I'd have taken even more!

Overall, I had an absolute blast.  I spent most of the time spindling, and gave away four spindles.  One went to a little girl who was an absolute natural; one went to a lady who has always wanted to learn.  I helped children too young to try spindling to make hand-twisted woolly bracelets, and let several children treadle the wheel (and was glad I had a double treadle wheel; it's definitely easier to get the hang of).  There was a group including several special needs children there; one boy in particular loved treadling.  He came back several times during the day, and sat and treadled industriously, with an aura of calm radiating from him.  It seemed to be enough, just to press the treadles and watch the wheel go round.

I also tried spinning wool whilst a child treadled.  I only did it once, at the end of the day, and it helped that the wee lad was very consistent in his treadling (and didn't just want to make the wheel go as fast as possible!).  I was able to spin a short length of yarn which could be plied back on itself and taken as a souvenir.  I'd definitely do that again, with children who can treadle well enough.

I also played the "what colour next?" game with a group of children who were watching me spin on the wheel.  I've found in the past that it's not always obvious that the fluff in my hands is being converted into a yarn which is being wound onto the bobbin; you can't really see the yarn moving.  So I had small scraps of coloured fluff and asked them to pick the next colour.  They could see each colour get spun up and move onto the bobbin, and I eventually pulled off the multicoloured single and plyed it back on itself.  Two people asked if they could have a scrap to add to a 'memory stick' - not the computer kind!  These were something new to me, and I thought they were a brilliant idea.  I think there must have been a craft tent where people were making these during the day.  A memory stick in this case was a sturdy stick, about a foot long.  It had a string wrapped snugly round it in a spiral, about one turn per inch, I'd guess, and tied at each end.  Bits of 'stuff' (feathers, straw, wool from the sheep that were being sheared, and my yarn too!) could be stuck behind the straw to make a sort of sculptural collage of the day's mementos.  The fact that my demo yarn was actually asked for really meant a lot to me.

I met kindred spirits, and the merely curious.  I explained wheel mechanics, and talked about the sheer number of hours needed to provide yarn for a household before the industrial revolution.  I compared the per-minute efficiency of spinning on a wheel with the per-week efficiency of spinning on a spindle, which can go everywhere with you.

Unfortunately, I also managed to trip on a totally flat piece of ground at the end of the day, and do a real number on one of my knees.  I left my business card for the lady organiser, who kept coming round with cups of tea (thankyouthankyouthankyou!) and cake (omnomnomnom!), so with any luck I may hear from them again in the future.

So, what did I learn?

• That I can pull off a one-woman spinning demo at virtually zero notice.
• That I could easily have more materials: samples, leaflets, all kinds of things, ready for the future.
• That the gift of a simple spindle can reduce children and adults to incoherent joy.
• That I (still) love doing demos, and I should be aware of opportunities to do more.
• That, really, I ought to remember to use my camera.  D'oh!

*Taptaptap* errr... Is this thing still on??

Well, so much for a post a day in February.  Never mind, eh?
I had *the* most awesome time at Textiles In Focus, and I will definitely be going back next year.  Highlights included:

• About half of the my local spinning group showing up, at various times, saying, "I didn't know you did this!  Wow!!"
• Selling out of drop spindles on the first day, and having to make more that evening.
• Teaching a friend (Lorna!) from the knitting group to use her own, rather lovely, drop spindle.
• Selling out of all my drop spindles for the second time whilst Lorna was grinning and squealing with delight behind the stall.
• Being asked to teach drop spindling at TIF next year!
• Having several people come past and tell me they'd found/been following this blog! Well hey, if you're still here, stop by and comment!
• The hilariously knowledgeable lady who came past on Saturday, and solemnly informed her friend that, "Of course, you can't use these yarns for knitting with".  WTF?!
• Persuading Pauline, the organiser, that the unused space next to my pitch would be perfect for a sociable spinning area next year.

Speaking of comments - I owe an apology to everyone who has commented so far.  I had the configuration of this blog set up wrongly, and they've been disappearing into the ether.  Technically, I suppose, I really owe everyone who commented a *reply*, but that seems sort of silly after a two-week absence. Mea culpa - and I'll try to do better in future.

Meanwhile, I suddenly realised yesterday that I haven't dyed anything for almost a month now.  Given that my next fair is only just a month away, I'd better get moving!!  (April 18th, here we come!)

Hmm.  Given that we woke up to a hard frost again this morning, do you think we'll want spring/summer yarns by mid April, or will we still be in the depths of winter?

Textiles in Focus: teh awesumz

Today has been such a long day.  Twelve hours ago, I was panicking madly, because my (usually very staid and dependable) wallet had gone missing.  That's bank cards, credit card, driver's licence, RAC card, about 50 quid and sundry loyalty cards and other personal items. Vanished.

Twelve hours ago, I was an hour behind schedule.  Half an hour after that, I had found my wallet, told J he could return to work (because he was en route home to look for it himself, bless him), and had actually made it to Textiles in Focus, where I had planned to arrive a full 90 minutes earlier.  I was still pricing goods after the doors opened, but to make up for it, I'd made my first sale before the doors actually opened, so it all balances out. 

I have one photo:

Though I know others took some more!  I look kinda dazed, don't I?  And not just because of the vent grill sticking out of my head. This was taken around mid-afternoon (thank you, Scarlet!) and by that time, I was feeling the hit of the adrenaline, the conversation, the mad fibre-frenzies that happen between and before class sessions...  It was awesome!!  I never feel so alive as when I get to spend a day around other fibre-folk, chatting and listening, inspiring and being inspired.  Sharing knowledge.

Oh!  And I almost sold out of drop spindles, so I've spent the evening making a few more.  Batts and roving are also disappearing fast (I guess that we have both spinners and felters attending, so the market for them is doubled!).  I will try and make up some more batts for tomorrow and Sunday, but when the roving's gone it's gone...  At least for this show!

But now, I'm gonna finish my glass of wine and head to bed.  Because tomorrow, I get to do it all over again.  (Except, I hope, the bit with the wallet).  Sleep well!

Set-up day

No desk for me today - it's set-up day for Textiles In Focus!!  None of my photos capture the joy I feel in this stall, not the ones of the sign (painted this morning, no less):

Nor those featuring the yummy display stands I just *had* to have:

Nor those featuring the 'blue' section:

But this is all because I am still a totally lame photographer.  I am so, so happy with the way this stall looks; I just wish I could capture it in all its glory for those of you who can't make it to the venue!

I'm still slightly worried I won't have enough stock for three days, though.

So near!

Tomorrow is setup day for Textiles In Focus, and I am so near to ready.  Not so near that I can take the night off, of course; all my roving braids still need to be labelled:

Gorgeous, aren't they??  Unfortunately, I still haven't decided on the best way to label these puppies, so it might not be a quick job.

I decided only to create small braids for this fair; 50 g each.  I wanted lots and lots of variety on the stall, and I believe that felters will outnumber spinners by a significant proportion, so: small pieces, many colours. I hope the decision doesn't come back to bite me!

All About the Labels

I finally finished dyeing and re-winding all my yarns and fibres for Textiles In Focus over the weekend, so now it's all about the labelling:

 

I'm really, really pleased with how my labels have turned out.  Somehow, packaging up and labelling everything makes it feel as if it's all coming together, and transforms all these 'bits and pieces' that I've been staring at over the last two months into 'real products'.  It's completely magic!

I'm not normally a 'sparkly' person, but I'm *so* in love with my sparkly batts:

Producing these is just so much fun!  Oh - and can you stand the cute??

These are little 3 g bundles of silk hankies.  Three grams of silk can go a seriously long way, in case you were wondering...

Dye-a-day becomes blog-a-day; also, Textiles in Focus is only a week away!

This is 'Toast', a DK weight pure wool, in colour 'Deep Forest'.  I think this is one of my favourite colourways yet; I love the tonal variations, and the interplay of greens and blues.

In retrospect, it was probably rather dumb of me to commit to taking lots of pretty photos of yarn right now.  This time next week is the first day of Textiles In Focus, and -squeee!!- I have a stall there!

Now, I've done craft fairs in the past, but never anything on this scale, and never for three solid days.  And I only found out I had a place there at the end of December, so things have been pretty crazy recently.  There just hasn't been time for photography on top of everything else!  I've gotten lucky with the occasional snapshot (as above), but the Improving Photography Project really needs to happen later.

I'm going to keep trying to blog every day for the rest of the month - and include photographs, even - but for the next week or so, the focus will definitely be on Textiles In Focus, and my preparations for that...

Dye-a-day #7: Cozy, again (this time, the Moo version)

Oh, boy, am I a big cheat!

This whole dye-a-day thing was supposed to get me taking more, and better, photographs, but it hasn't.

Instead, I keep on recycling the ones I've already taken, and those are mostly snapshots.

Perhaps it was a bad idea to attempt this before Textiles In Focus, because I am mostly dyeing yarn in every minute of my spare time until then.

But these crops are for use on my Moo cards, which I ordered yesterday.  I'm ridiculously excited about them!

Dye-a-day #6: Cozy, in bulk!

A cheat post today.  I spent most of the weekend winding yarn into skeins for scouring and dyeing, and re-winding dyed yarns into retail-size skeins.  This is a box full of the 'Cozy' yarn I showed you yesterday; each skein is about 50g.

The bottom right of the box contains the "J's choice" yarn that was actually featured in yesterday's post; doesn't it look different rewound?

My favourite, though, is the purple-bown-grey mix to its left.  Do click on the picture to biggen; the small version really doesn't do it justice!  It's another cold, grey day here, and I really, really wish I could curl up in the yarn pile and nap.  But not yet!

Dye-a-day #5: Cozy yarn for a chilly day

Wintery weather in Cambridgeshire - we had heavy, blowing snow this morning, and though it hasn't settled, the air is bitterly cold and damp and the sky is still grey.  It's just the sort of day to wrap up in warm, soft woollens - whether you're outdoors or on the couch - so let me present 'Cozy'!

This is a chunky singles yarn with low twist, dyed in mixed blues, purples and greens.  I've been working on some simple patterns in this yarn to showcase the lovely, saturated colours and squishy, warm texture.  Watch out for neck warmers, fingerless gloves and perhaps a hat or two in the near future!

My partner, J, chose the colours for this one, so until it finds itself another name, this colourway is "J's choice".  Oh - but the pink/yellow area at the top of the picture is one of those surprises that sometimes happens with dye - and all of a sudden, my manly man wasn't quite so sure he wanted his name associated with these colours, after all!

Dye-a-day #4: Thick and thin yarn, and springy colours

Today, let's look forwards to spring whilst still staying warm!  The super-springy 'New leaves' colourway is one of my favourites, and here I've used it on a luscious, thick-and-thin singles pure wool yarn that knits up quickly and creates really interesting texture with even the plainest stitches.

On a 'photography' note, this is the first of the dye-a-day photographs I've taken myself.  It didn't use any fancy lighting, just a white back drop and my on-camera flash.  It's OK, but not up to the standards I want!  I can see the texture of the background, there isn't enough light, and what light there is, is bouncing back at the camera too much.  I didn't really expect this to work as well as it did, because every time I try something as simple as this, I have massive problems with colour balance.  Perhaps it's something to do with the greens and browns, which my camera captures really well!  Anyway, it's a 'baseline' for my ongoing search for a simple and successful (and preferably cheap and compact!) yarn-photographing-setup.

Dye-a-day #3: This time, let's have some yarn!

Bunnylace in 'bramble vine'!  Bunnylace is a 2-ply heavy-lace-weight yarn, 80% wool and 20% angora.  It has a gorgeous, soft halo and feels unbelievably soft.  As a base yarn, it isn't bright white, but has a slightly brown-grey hue; because of this and the angora content (I think), it takes dye more softly than other yarns, resulting in some really magical, ethereal effects.

This is one of my absolute favourite yarns to dye, and I have been longing to share it with you, but it is also unfortunately very difficult to photograph.  So here's a swatch!

This is a solid colourway, 'Granny Smith', knit up in the Maple Leaf pattern from the shawl of the same name in 'Victorian Lace Today'.  I love the definition of the stitches combined with the subtle halo - but oh, I wish I could blog in pet-o-vision!

Dye-a-day #2: Wensleydale roving in 'Florentine'

How much fun?!?  Like the sheep themselves, Wensleydale roving is a bit unusual.  Wensleydale wool is *the* finest lustre longwool.  It's not all ooshy-gooshy soft like merino or BFL - but it's a lot of fun to spin, and it makes fantastic, strong, striking yarns.  I've spun a Wensleydale blend to laceweight for my Mystery Shawl 3 project, and it was easily the most consistent quantity of laceweight I've ever spun.

Wensleydale sheep themselves have an enormous quantity of cascading ringlets - see?

...and the ringlets come through in the roving as that marvellous 'wave' you can see in the roving¹.

This is another wool that I can buy locally, and it makes me very, very happy indeed.  Wensleydale sheep are considered 'very rare', and if I can help support the breed, that's got to be a good thing!

---

¹ I can remember going to the Yorkshire Show as a child, and seeing a Wensleydale sheep in full fleece who was having a bit of a grumpy moment as its owner attempted to lead it to the ring.  It was bucking and rearing, and all that fleece was flying around it like a tangly, woolly halo.  My little brother thought it was the best thing he'd ever seen.

Official launch and dye-a-day!

Wheee!!  Launch time!  Welcome, welcome, welcome, everyone.  I am *so* excited to be launching this blog officially!

To celebrate, I'm going to follow the lead of Janet and her Scarfaday blog.  Yes, I'm going to make dye-a-day posts for the rest of February!  By the time the month is up, I hope I'll be well into the habit of posting here, and of taking photographs of my fibre and yarns - the hardest part of the whole process!  The rules that I'll try to stick to are as follows:

1. This challenge initially runs through the rest of February;
2. I'll commit to posting on weekdays, though if I get really inspired I might post at the weekend, too;
3. I'll try to post a mixture of colourways and yarn/fibre types;
4. Preparing for Textiles in Focus temporarily trumps the blog.  If need be, I'll miss a day.
5. Family trumps everything else, even yarn! I might wind up missing a few days if something big comes up.

Let's start with this gorgeous Bluefaced Leicester roving, in 'Peachy':

...and own up to the fact that this is a massive 'cheat'.  Yes, I dyed it, but I certainly didn't take the photo.  This is the standard to which I will, over time, aspire.

Bluefaced Leicester (aka 'BFL' or 'biffle') is a type of wool that is becoming increasingly popular.  It is *fantastic* to spin, being almost as soft as merino, but with a longer staple, so it's easier for beginners.  It felts well, if your tastes run that way, and produces lovely knitted and woven items that will be as non-scratchy as wool can be, and soft and warm to boot.

As a side note, I also love working with it because it is relatively easy for me to buy BFL that has been produced in the UK.  This is really, really important to me, because I aim to produce fibres that have as gentle an environmental impact as I possibly can.

The Yarnscape Blog!

Hi! And welcome to Yarnscape!

This is me, just starting out with making my hand-dyed yarns and fibres available to the public. And hand-carded batts, too. I love playing with colour almost as much as I love playing with fibre, and though I can spin faster than I can knit, I can dye even faster than I can spin! So I'm looking forwards to sharing my overabundant creativity with the rest of the world, and hopefully spreading a little joy as I go.

To start with, I will be trading on Etsy and Folksy, though I hope to have my own shop set up here in the near future. There's nothing to buy yet, because I find taking good photographs to be the hardest part of the whole business (the one of the 'chocolate cherries' roving up there is courtesy of my lovely and long-suffering other half), but I hope that there will be listings up soon!

I will be introducing my yarns over the next few weeks, and listing as I go. Please come back often to find out more about my products, or even better, follow me here or on twitter, or subscribe to my rss feed!

Oh, and comments are always, always welcome. Please, come and talk to me!