Some much to tell so little space.

I don't even know where to start. but I think I'll just sum up today to get me warmed up, then I'll tell you about the trip during the week, let it out slowly and all that.

I decided against telling you all the things I wanted to that i mentioned in the previous post, might put me in an awkard position, anyway, enough.

Such beautiful weather here in cardiff, so much so that I'm still in the garden dyeing wool at 6.30, I was actually dyeing wool in my bikini this afternoon, as you can imagine, its not just my hands that are green today, lol.

The garden is absolute heaven, tomatoes and lots of veges and things, I was getting the house all tidy and spotless for the arrival of my mum this evening, seeing as for her birthday I was taking her to manchester tomorrow, to see the scissor sisters in concert. With a little bit of shopping and dinner thrown in and a stay in a lovely hotel. I have been saving for ages for this trip, I was so excited, and this morning my dad phoned to say that she bent down to wipe something off the floor, and her back went. So she is tucked up in bed, bless her socks. Anyway I did contemplate going anyway, but I have alot of work to do to catch up from last weeks trip. Oh in addition I accidently flushed my glasses down the toilet by accident, which made me laugh my head off because it was such a stupid thing to do, at least it wasn't my Karen Millen ones, still, the house is just a little bit tidier, and I had such a wonderful day on my own today.

Addicted tomatoes and mozzarella, and olive oil, hopefully going to make a nice fresh pizza later, seeing as I am having withdrawal, I'll take photos if I do.

I'll leave you with a little pic of the leaning tower, lol.

 

Italia

I"m sorry to all the Englese"s out there, but the weather is truly gorgeous here. Clear blue skies and hot sunshine, and superb food.

I think Cardiff has escaped flooding, but unfortunately my mum and dad live very near Oxford, although they are fine at the moment. My dad however had to spend the night in the sainsbury"s carpark on friday night because the roads home were blocked, bless his socks, but at least he got lots of free sandwiches and coffee, hehe.

So what news do I have to report from sunny Italy? Actually quite alot, I am learning so much about production and manufacturing, you would not believe. However, its not all good stuff, I will blog about it in depth when I get home, mainly because I need to get what I write checked first so I do nòt get sued by anyone. Lol. Well its not quite that bad, but lets put it this way if I ever get tired of my yarn career, I will probably end up working for the UN eventually on textile production and human rights, hmm, can feel blood boiling as I type. I know all my suppliers get tired of my endless quizzing, but its something I am obsessive about.

Good thing is that yarn production here (in Italy) is fine, and I am very happy to source my products from here, which is sort of what I came to find out amongst other things. But as for textiles, thats way more complicated, anyway I"ll tell you all about it when I am home.

Infact I am looking forward to telling you all about Prato, a textile production town which has a very very interesting history.

As for knitting? I have already nearly completed two designs, which I am so happy with, they are very pretty, and strangely I am having no problems knitting in the sunshine, even though it is 35 - 40 degrees sometimes.

Right thats all for now, I do have lots of pics, which I"ll upload when I am home, take care in the bad weather, and happy knitting.

xx

I'm off, yipee.

Right folks, I'm off to Italy, I'll be back on the 28th of july, so obviously any orders place after this lunch time will not be processed until I get back. Hope the weather fab for you, I will blog if I get the opportunity, you have no idea how excited I am.

Incidently, all orders have been dispatched, so if the are not there, its probably a hold up at the post office.

xx

Rewritten

Hmm, I just wrote a moaning post, and then I reread it and got bored and rewrote it.

So I decided that.........

I was grateful for the torrential rain we have in Cardiff,  because at least we have plenty of water and my plants are lovely and green, and we never have to worry about water strikes, and hey, so what about the wet wool.

Then I was grateful for our fantastic postal service which is here so we can actually get parcels out, and only loose about 3% of them.

And then I was grateful for being so busy, I mean I could have no orders because my products were crap, but no, they are in demand, so my huge work load is my great good fortune, I really do mean this one, it makes me more confident that I can make this baby work.

But what I am really grateful for is that my boss just said I could have two weeks off work, which means when I come back from holiday I can have a week off of work to catch up and finish all the wholesale orders, and spend some time at home and get used to my sun tan. And my mum has just informed me she is taking me to see joseph in london, lol.

Oh Italy, dear Italy, I can not wait for thee.

Fyberspates - time of changes.

The weather is doing my head in. I love the rain, and would rather have the rain any day to hot sunshine, however, it ain't good for dyeing, especially with the massive quantity of wholesale orders I have to do, so today we are restricted to dyeing in doors, which is adequate, but it just means I can't slop my stuff around so much, I have discovered domestos spray does an amazing job of removing dye from laminate flooring, lol. I do have a lovely little workshop, but its AHEM full of wool, probably need to sort that out seeing as this rain looks although its here to stay.

As lots of you know, I work in psychology as well as work on the business, and its taken a while to get to the point of no return, but I'm nearly there now and in October I am giving up my job to work on the business full time, and let me tell you, this is no mean feat, I don't have any other financial support from anyone, apart from when my mum sends me sainsburys vouchers, lol. There are lots of changes to the business which takes it from being a kind of full time hobby to a fully functioning business which will continue to grow and develop. You will start to see the development of the shop and the design of fyberspates, so exciting, it really is but essential for the transition. So the shop has has some little changes made to make it a little more functional for now, and if I can slop dye for england, there might be a little update sometime next week before Italy.

Hope you are all cutched up knitting people.

happy Sunday, oh and here is a new pattern for the shop,

Its not quite written up yet, and I am going to make it into some very special kits for a certain person, who I know will totally love these.

xx

Wail and scream with excitment.

I'm a lucky girl, I really am. Was feeling a little tired yesterday because I do find it hard sometimes to go to work and do my business at the same time, and I was thinking about how I can't wait to give up psychology in October, don't get me wrong, I love it alot, but I love my business more, and I'm lucky because my bosses are so supportive about my woolly endeavors.

So, I was feeling tired and looked in the mirror, and I was horrified. I looked like I was 30 for once, I need some sunshine and a change of scenery.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to go on a business trip to Italy, Florence to be precise, and I just said no, not really sure why, and then last night I though, damn it! I so would have enjoyed it, especially as it is woolly related and I'll get to meet some interesting people, but also its in Florence, with wine, good food and some sunshine, which I neeeeeeeeeed, and apart from meetings and visiting mills I will only be able to knit, imagine that; actually having time to knit, lol. So I chatted to my mum and she told me off for saying no, I wasn't expecting this seeing as I would be missing out on one of the biggest family trips of the year. So I accepted the offer, and today, I am struggling to keep still because I am so excited, I love traveling more that anything else, and I love Italy with all my heart, so next Thursday I depart for a week in Tuscany. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Rugs and sun and veges.

I had a super duper weekend, I slept alot, I think I needed it, ate pizza, drunk beer, made half a rug and went to the beach and did some beach combing with sweetiepie, and what was even better was that we had rather alot of sunshine in Cardiff. I even got a new gas hob as a suprise, and was fitted in no time, along with some slanted shelves to go under my stairs to put my cookery books on and my shower got fixed, can't complain really can I?

So I promised you pics of the rug, and I though i would throw in a few pics of the garden seeing as it is blooming. hehe.

Right so here is the rug from the back;

And this is as far as I have got, I accidently used all the fibres out of my shop, lol.

If you like to make things that are quick, this is for you, I reckon once it is warped up you could make one in about 3 and a half hours, this one is a practice really, Ahem, even though there is bfl silk blend in there, hehe, but next one I am going to add lots more texture and may keep it to creams and browns etc.

Right you gardeners out there, I need some help, I'm a little confused about my apple tree, there are these;

and these on the same tree,

Thats not right is it? I'm well confused, is it global warming? Or can you have apples and blossom on the same tree?

Anyway, these are my blueberries, there are the huge, they are larger than a 1 pence peice, I think the rain did them the world of good.

Here are small figs starting to form;

Finally some strawberries, although they are not the most tasty I have ever managed to grow

 

Weekend fun

So Its Friday, and I'm so looking forward to it being the weekend because I'm actually going to have a rest, well, just not go anywhere, drink wine, do a little dyeing, and the best bit???? Can't remember if I told you or not, but I purchased a peg loom at woolfest, and a certain sweetie pie, yes, AHEM, that 'Sweetie pie', wants desperately to make a rug, and do some serious felting. So I am extremely excited, I haven't had a proper craft weekend for years, I promise I will take a tonne of photo's.

I'll leave the competition going for a bit longer, for the people who got it wrong, I'll give you a clue, Google fyberspates and fillings! lol.

Right cherubs, its competition time again.

So if you all remember I mentioned I would do a competition for the people who didn't go to woolfest.

So here it is, you get a chance to have 15 percent off purchases in the shop for the first ten to get the question right. And seeing as I love competitions so much I decided to do it every month at the begining of the month, there will be a different type of prize each time. the clues will be in the previous months blog posts, hehe.

Here is the question;

How many fillings do I have?

Email me with your answers to fyberspatesATbtinternetDOTcom.

Happy guessing. lol

I will be updating the shop, honest, I just need to get all order shipped and sorted.

Woolfest. Blimey Charlie.

What a weekend. I think that Woolfest tops all shows I have been too so far. It was amazing, truly amazing. In addition to selling a tonne of stuff, I got to meet some wonderful people, so many bloggers, which was great. Ambermoggie came and gave me a wonderful present, I was so touched by it, i'll try and post a pic ltr, but I've lost my camera thing.

It was lovely to meet this lady, this badger, hehe that was funny, wooly worm head, had a little chat to Carrie Anne, gave some yarn to these lovely people for a couple of patterns for their new book. Lovely to meet Cairi, Chrissy, laughing hens who are now stocking my yarns, and Amanda we 'ahem', had a few too many bevvies in the pub on thursday night hehe, we had a great time, and her stand looked superb.

I know there are a tonne of other people who I should acknowledge, but it was so busy I can't rememer everyone, but thanks so much for coming to say hello. I didn't actually have time to take any pictures, which is gutting, but there are plenty of people who have some great blog posts with photo's.

Now you might be thinking what were my purchases, well, I have to confess, the only one I made was a peg loom, I simply have to make some rugs after seeing people making them. So I plan to have a craft weekend making rugs and a huge felted wall hanging, I cannot wait.  I'll do a photo walk through.

Right, onwards and upwards. hehe