Alexandra palace knitting and stitching 2007

Right people, My last dyeing days for the next few weeks will be this weekend, so I want to know what you would like to see on my stand at allypally (alexandra palace knitting and stitching show in october), you have the choice of the following, please emial me if you want anything special, but let me know what colours, and what kind of yarns you are planning on, here is a list to give you some ideas, oh and is anyone interested in fibres for allypally?

Sock:

Alpaca,

Bluefaced leicester with nylon (to dye for)

alpaca merino (again to dye for)

merino tencel (yummy)

cashmere (hopefully)

Lace

Lace mohair in small or big hanks,

lace silk and

lace bfl.

dk

scrumptious,

superfine merino (superwash)

Aran;

Solids, (lots of new colours coming) and space dyed.

Chunky:

Squishy and chunky wool.

Emial me fyberspatesATbtinternetDOTcom if you want any custom orders to pick up at the show, asap!!!!

Messy paradise, vicuna and shopping.

Thanks for the comments princi's!!!

AHH, its 12.38am and I'm still working, still, its helped with vino and nice food, lol.

OK so those of you who are spinners, may or may not subscribe to spin off magazine, it is my favourite magazine of all time, mainly because of its lack of prescriptivness, and fabulous articles, most of the designs are not to my taste, but they leave me feeling inspired and excited, anyway my point, sorry! So I read about all the fibres, and I remember one particular time when I read about Vicuna, I read it and I wanted some, and ever since I have been on the look out for some. Recently, I have learnt alot more about why it is so expensive (starts at about £100 for 100gms), mainly because it is an endangered species, meaning you need a government certificate to export it and import it, and it has a fibre micron of about 12.5, really good cashmere has a micron of about 14, so you can imagine how yummy it would be.

A certain person (thanks cherub, huge hugs) managed to get me a sample, a real sample, (and a legal one I might add) lol, probably because I have been pestering him for a very long time for it, its probably not enough to make anything with, well, perhaps it is, the fibres are so flippin short, I think I need a new spinning wheel to spin it on!!!! Anyway, its by the table by my bed, I just can't stop touching it, it'll be felted by the time I come to do anything with it! he he. Its been giving me lots of ideas for new products, more about which I will divulge in the week, once I have worked out prices, I also have lots of other cool stuff to tell you, but I need to spread it out, he he.

Anyway onto house life; I live with girls, I'm not that used to being around girls, I am usually surrounded by men, anyway, I'm loving it, guess what I did this afternoon? I went shopping, and did some serious shopping, it was wonderful, I needed it so much, I was feeling like I never stopped working, so I needed a little retail therapy. I don't think I have been shopping with girls for years, anyway I now have kirk Geiger boots, skinny jeans, and a cute knitted stretch dress, I just need to get my hair chopped off, and I'll be ready for ally pally.

OK nite nite people, signing off from my slightly messy, but happy warm house.

 

Hola princesa y principe!!!! (that took ages, phew!)

OK, so I  am having way to much fun, but more on that later.

I span up a load of blf/silk up quite roughly, with the idea of making my self striping cardigan, remember me telling you?

here is the progress so far:

  The singles are really lively, but it looks fabulous, and has such a gorgeous shine that contrasts with the rough spinning, and looks fabulous. I have some stripy blue as you can see above and then some green, I might add some turquoise I did inbetween, its growing so quick because we have so much chatting time, lol.

So about 5 years ago, I used to work in the museum shop in Cardiff, I loved it, mainly because I used to get to read books about artists. There was one which stuck in my mind, I wish I could remember their names now, but basically it was about a couple of artists ( I think it was two blokes, but I can't remember) that shared a big old house in the welsh country side, their house was messy and they always had friends to stay, with lots of parties and dinners, the friends would come and go, and I remember thinking I wish my life was like that, instead of the boring routine I was subjected to, if you know me, you will know, I don't do routine, lol. Anyway, Carmenthita today declared my house as a paradise, full of wool, knitting and craft books, and endless inspiration, Sophie also loves my huge book shelf of cooking books, and we are having the most wonderful dinners, every night we take it in turns to cook, we start cooking about 9pm, the wine comes out, the music on, and endless chatter about languages, cooking, knitting and the world, we never go to bed before 12.30, there is too much to say!!!!!  This for me is heaven, the house is so full of life, and its messy; as soon as one huge order goes out, another one is being prepared, so its just a little eclectic and happy, everyone is knitting, they are learning about everything wooly, I am living my dream, I am so looking forward to sole coming too.

The only thing I am missing is the fact that my house is in the middle of Cardiff and not in the country, but with my garden,....... well, you'd never know!!

just popped into say.......

have van, have v large bruise about 5 inches in diameter, had a lovely weekend at Voirreys, and spun a tonne and have started on hand dyed, hand spun tank (notice its gone from cardigan to tank, lol!)

back later with pics of everything!!!!

hehe.

xx

A date with a shop!

Yippee, been a little while since we had a nice shop update, there are alot of fibres today merino tencel blends, alpaca, merino/silk roving's and blue faced Leicester blends. I have dyed some of them with large spaces of colours so that you can spin up a nice self striping yarn, here is my favourite:

  I don't normally love pinks but this would make such a pretty yarn. To see them all its best to go directly to the fybers section.

I also dyed some scrumptious, and I am completely in love with these greens check out the dk section for all the colours:

There is sock yarn too, Phew!!

PS got price for van!!!! Fell down the loft ladder stairs and got a million bruises, but more importantly did it with my laptop in one hand, suffice to say its gonna have to go get fixed again :-( , on the bright side, I pick up my van tomorrow!!! Yippee!!!

PPS getting some more broaches with sheep, and a little snail!

Fibre, fibre, fibre, fibre fibre!!!!

I love custom orders, they are so good for breaking habits and stretching yourself. I had a large and complicated custom order at the weekend, which took me about 5 hours to do, because it was fiddly and basically used every colour and combination I could do, but it was so much fun, and seeing as I had to mix allot of colours I decided to repeat the order for me, and also some for the shop. I dyed so  much bfl and silk, merino tencel,  and alpaca, and sock yarn and scrumptious, so once its dried it'll be up in the shop.

Some of the roving's are dyed in large sections so that they are perfect for a self striping yarn in pane-tones, and they are yummy. One of my dreams is to dye a load of fibre, spin a self striping yarn and then knit it into a design, so I did some fibres for me too at the same time, I will get working on it straight away this week, because I have some spinning time at the weekend when I go to Voirreys, so thats really exciting. I'll document the whole process because I have a feeling it will be gorgeous!! I'm really excited!

I'll start with photo's of the roving's tonight if I get the chance, Carmenthita arrives at 4.30 today and she doesn't actually have a bed yet, so not quite sure how I will solve that problem.

Test drove the van this morning, and had an interesting conversation for a good part exchanged deal for my little Clio, which went like this:

Van salesmen in a room of other salesmen "We'll just go and value your car Jeni"

Me: "OK"

Van man comes back " its worth £3100"

Me: laugh out loud "you must be effing joking, I want more than that for it"

Van man and other sales men: mouth open and some what amused. "well thats what it is worth"

Me: laughing once again "no it isn't the market value is £3500 and thats the bottom price" ( I researched it first, before I went )

Van man " um, there is a dent in the side"

Me: Laughed again! "Dent devils: 28.99 plus VAT mate"

Van man: laughing and shocked for some bizarre reason, Silence for about 20 seconds "OK we'll see what we can do"

Me "good" with a big grin obviously. 

They said I was cheeky, but they loved it. I guarantee I will get my van for the price I wanted. LOL

Morning mum!

This is a special message for mum and 2 lovely girls, just to say that I hope you will like learning to knit and you have lots of fun doing it!   ;-)

jeni

Skaramanda Brooches

On my quest for British made Ethical products (blimey listen to me!), I happened upon a gorgeous producer of brooches called Skaramanda, and I asked if I could have some shawl brooches made by her which reflected the colours of my yarns, mainly because I often don't use buttons on my garments but rather a brooch or shawl pin to complement the colours instead, and often I get as many comments on the broaches as as the finished garments lol!

So I got some for the shop, because they are quirky and very beautiful, and compliment the colours of the space dyed range very well. They are made handmade in Scotland, and are a perfect compliment to a hand made garment or as a gorgeous gift, they have a nice big pin on the back for the pinning of knitted fabrics. The circular ones are about 3 inches in diameter, and are better for a heavier garment, and the hearts and cats are perfect for a lighter shawl! Oh and they come with a cute little gift bag, yummmmmmmy!

Here are my absolute favourites;

This is so sparkly!!!

  Stunning!!

So cheeky!!!!!! Reminds me of my little guapita!

Go and take a look at the rest, they are stunning!

Ps thanks hannah!

Exciting things again, apparently I live a far too exciting life!

My nice little Renault clio has to go back to the dealer, um, like tomorrow, good job I remembered, and not wanting too many out-goings when I give up work I decided that I would give it back and not get another one. Although I was considering a small van because I need one, but new vans are very expensive, and I told the nice renault man I didn't want anything else, then he mentioned the lovely second hand renault vans, which you can trade your car in for.......................my ears pricked up, but I quickly dismissed it because it would be expensive, 'um, not really', he said, so I went to see the vans, they were perfect for all the shows I have to go to, plus a million times more economical than my clio believe it or not, and the lovely white van on the forecourt was crying out to have a fyberspates sign on the side. then I realised I could get the VAT back on it, and that of course I could claim it against tax. My little heart was jumping with excitment. I haven't made my mind up totally yet, but lets say we are about 95% in favour, how exciting would that be? My own van with my logo on the side of it, I would be the proudest white van woman in the entire world!!!!

A million things to talk about today.

Firstly, I have an exhibition at The Voirrey Embroidery centre in Brimstage! They have exhibition space upstairs, we are doing an exhibition about wool called 'From from sheep to needle and beyond', basically to outline the process from greecy fleece to yarn and garments. A huge thanks to Voirrey and her husband for allowing us this special opportunity.

There are all sorts of things there, and its a gorgeous shop! There is also a lovely tea rooms/ restaurant there too, and some other little shops, its well worth a visit!!  So come on get your self down there!!! Its very quaint.

Here is a little pic, its a nice large space so I had to think of lots of funny things to fill it, I found all sorts of things I have made, all my Frankenstein jumpers and monster socks lol!!!

OHHHHHHHH

I forgot to tell you I have purchased something very very exciting!!!!!! Its being fixed and I need to have lessons before I can use it, but its extremely exciting, I'm not posting about it until I have it in my hands, but all you sock lovers out there, I'm telling you, its very exciting.

Finished the shrug, we are going to call it the snug, cause thats what mum always calls it. I just need to type it up, which will take about 5 minutes lol. I'll make some kits for it as well. heres a pic: sorry its always me modeling them, I need to get some of my mates over to do some photo's, lol. eek I need a haircut!!!

 

Right last thing, I just subscribed to the Ethical consumer after a break of about 3 years, I love it, I read it from cover to cover yesterday when I was on the train, its so informative, interestingly marks and sparks came out better in one of the articles than I would have expected, seems like they are making and ethical effort, which makes me pleased, but anyway, I would like to write a post tomorrow about it, especially the article about things like soaps and cleaning things, any one interested in reading about these things? Or would you rather not know? leave me a comment. Right I am going to go and design a cardigan in scrumptious next, its been bubbling for a while.

Fibrefest 2007

I appologise in advance if my grammar is bad in this post, you can tell majorly that I'm dyslexic when I write when I am tired, lol.

I'm back from Fibrefest 2007, it was brilliant, alot smaller that wonderwool and woofest, but there were some super stalls there, very high quality stuff!

I stayed in a b & b, sorry people, but how the hell would I be able to do my hair if I was camping, its just ain't never gonna happen, don't get me wrong, I love it and have done it plenty of times, and at the same time I'm a princi at heart and I need a hot shower and my straightners. what was my point? I have some pics of the farm I was staying on, it was lovely there were lots of gorgeous calfs, one of which was sucking its tail, I did manage to get a pic of it, I never knew cows could be so cute!!!

Anyway, some of my favourtist customers, (and yes actually favourtist is a really word, honest!) came to see me, and I feel like I have a really special relationship with a couple of my custmers especially tracy (aka woolywarbler) and Sue. I was so excited to see Tracy again, and had such a lovely chat to Sue especially something she told me was very reassuring, and such a warm hug from her it was lovely, makes me so glad I have cyber freinds that I get to meet in person, its so lovely. It was also lovely to see Ruth and Luciana.

right I'm off to bed now, seeing as I have a million things to do and sort out tomorrow.