Webshop

ARGGGGGG! The shop has been off line and I didn't even know it! Anyway its back online again now. Hope you all had a lovely holiday and you are looking forward to new years, I have a tonne of new years determinations, which I'll write out here later so I can look back at the beginning of 2009 and see if I have achieved them, lol.

Merry Christmas!

Right, all orders have been sent including the sock clubs in case you were wondering, please bear in mind the post is mighty slow in some areas!

I'm off to mom and pops for the weekend, and then to my little bro's. No one has any presents yet, I have to knit them all, or felt them at least.  I hope you all have a merry Christmas/winter solstice celebration, and I'll be back on line next week for some festive fun.

Oh the shop was updated yesterday, but there's not that much left, I did a load of fibers, but you need to buy them quick before they accidentally end up on my spinning wheel cause they are so scrumptious.....

Our little trip into paradise.

So yesterday I took a little break from work; mainly because I don't have much time off, and I needed to get away from work to give my head a break. So we went to Burford, now Carmella as you might have guessed is Spanish, and so the cotswolds are the kind of things she has only seen in films, so I thought this time of year was perfect to take her. Off we set in the van, Put the christmas carols on, and drove to Burford, and exquisite place which was a favourite visit as a child. As we passed through the villages, they got prettier and prettier, until at last we entered Burford, and oddly at the same time we had the snowman playing on the CD as we drove in (which I think added to the effect) , it was stunning, the town is so beautiful, and Carmella was nearly speechless, 'its like being in film Jeni' she said, it was amazing with all the pretty white lights and the gorgeous shops. So seeing as it was freezing, we went for an afternoon tea in Huffkins, where we had lovely sandwiches and warm scones, cream, jam and hot tea, it was absolutely magical.

Here are some pics of the day:

This is Carmella!!

Carmella grinning over her afternoon tea:

Me in Hufkins, because Carmella insisted:

Christmas court:

Carmella outside the sweetshop

So there we go, it was superduper.

There will be a nice big update tomorrow, but orders placed after saturday, I will post out next week though, the day after boxing day.

So hope you are all not getting to stressed out about christmas ;-) I'm suprisingly calm, but then again, thats probably because I am in denial.

The Costwolds

Carmella and I are off today for a little twee shopping trip to the cotswolds, a nice lunch and a browse round some cute little shops in attempt to find some presents that are not off the shelf. I'll try and take some pics, seeing as I don't think you've met Carmella formally yet have you?! :-)

Blimey its christmas, how did that happen? And the story of my mother and her gucci glasses

Lets start with something a little funny.   My mother.   I get at least 2 comments a day now on how similar I am to my mum, she is to say the least an eccentric, an extremely stylish eccentric, but hell she is eccentric, and thats why I love her, I wouldn't ever wish for another mum, she is why I love cooking, why I have done something crafty everyday of my life, and why I am a little bit crazy.

So on with the story. She needed new glasses, so she buys Gucci, not too sure if that was on purpose or not, but she got them and was rather conflicted about them, on one hand she was excited that she had Gucci glasses and on the other, was slightly concerned that they were a bit poncy.

Anyway the weekend before last I met her to go shopping, she told me to meet her in Evans in bristol, so I walked in and straight away I could see my mother. She was trying jewelery in front of the mirror, chatting to any person that walked past asking them what they thought, there she was, big black full skirt, huge belt, leggings, ballet pumps and a little kind of black sixties swing cardigan, and some pretty jewelery, and a huge smile on her face, she looked gorgeous! (I'm trying to give you a sense of her huge personality here), I twigged that she had new thick glasses with crystals on the sides, which I thought were fabulous, but was bombarded with hugs and kisses so I didn't say anything, then later after she told me what I was going to buy her for Christmas and we were in the queue paying for it, me a little bewildered, I looked at her glasses as she was chatting away and prancing around, 'mum, are those new glasses?" I said, I love the crystals on the side, they look so cool, "oh no darling" she said with a huge grin "these are my Gucci ones, but I thought they were poncy so I bought some stick on crystals from the village church bazaar and stuck them over the top, ever so cheap they were, I just have to keep popping them back into place because they keep slipping off!!!"

"Mum you are kidding me" and she just laughed and laughed and laughed, and thats my mum. She is as defiant as me and I am starting to see why people tell me more and more why I am like my mum.

I just noticed its christmas next week, and I kind of don't have any presents yet, but never mind, I wonder if my brother would like yarn for chrismas.........

 

Shop Update

Right, I've started the shop update, I will do more tomorrow and Sunday, I am loving the colours this time, they feel very 'Grown up' not too sure why, they just do, added to that I have another new sock yarn! Yes I know, I never have enough, this one is lovely, its sort of normal, i.e. 4 ply, thin, made of merino super wash, but its a high twist, and it dyes with a wonderful texture in the colour, you'll have to see it to understand what I mean, but more importantly it takes the colour up in the most wonderful way, added to a new technique of dyeing I have perfected, I am never happy doing things the same way over and over again. Its called super wash merino in the shop.

There are lots of bamboo/merino and merino tencel, and cashmere lace, oh and some christmasy super wash dk.

Here is my fav ones:

And these super-de-duper Christmas brights:

There is also some fibres and there will be some really fun blends tomorrow with all sorts of bits and pieces in them.

Finally, I have set up a fyberspates blog for the lace club and the 12 month sock club, so that people can post their projects as we go along, each person will be given a guest Authorship so they can post photo's and comments etc. How exciting huh?

Liquorice allsorts

Well, all sorts really, hehehehe.

OK, I thought I would post about Guernsey today seeing as I had lots of photo's mainly of jumpers and the sea, but still.

Guernsey is a really gorgeous island, despite the fact that the weather was pretty horrendous the sea look so beautiful all the time:

I think it must be heaven in the summer, there are lots of fish restaurants there, which is just too exciting for me, seeing as I would live on fish and nothing else if I had my way, I had the best crab sandwiches in a little cafe over looking the harbor, just perfect.

There were a couple of reasons for the trip, one of which was some research into machine knitwear and also into Guernsey jumpers, and generally just be around people who have had very successful large businesses, its amazing what you learn from just listening to people, and their philosophies on business, especially in textiles. Mr B (travel partner and woolly best friend) says I always suck knowledge out of people, like I have an invisible sucker which I plant in their heads, which makes always me laugh, seeing as I'm only happy when I am learning or improving. I was so grateful to be given the opportunity to be able to listen and learn.

Anyway, in the guernsey factory, they had some original hand knit guernseys, some were from before the war, its amazing, they looked like new, they are very hard wearing, the special features are the necks, the way the underarms are knitted, the fact that they are knitted in an extremely tight fabric, and a bit like the arans, the patterns differ from region to region, mainly so that if fishermen wore them and drowned, they would be able to identify the bodies from the patterns on the jumpers, which was amazing, also on a slightly more positive note, the patterns on the jumpers were a sort of competition between women, see who could do the most intricate designs, and 'be better than the woman next door' lol. I liked that.

OK, here is a close up of the neck, I'm not sure if its good enough to distinguish from normal necks, but its longer at the edge, can you see it?

 

OK, so next here are some of the originals:

I love this one, but it was more decorated that most of the other ones I saw:

Have a look at the detail in the arm pits, and also the rib at the edge of the arm holes.

This is more typical of what I saw.

So there you go, and now I want to make a guernsey, I have some books to read, and I am going to try and get some yarn spun in a 5 ply, and if I can come up with some original patterns would any one be interested?

Any way I will be retailing machine knit Guernsey jumpers on the website, very soon, I just need to work out the prices, these will be shipped direct from Guernsey, how exciting huh?

Morning!!!!!

I'm alive, lol.

I had a bit of a day off yesterday because I was knackered from traveling, it was seriously needed, the trip to guernsey was superb, but it was exhausting, the weather was very bad, which made flying a little hairy, but I'm still here so I guess they are used to it over there.

I went to research knitwear production, and see some guernsey jumpers made, what was amazing is that as a hand knitter we take for granted the flexibility we have with knitting, where as machines are so much more complicated to get the same effects and shapes, we had a go at making my wave scarf to see, and it took hours to perfect it, and the fabric was very different to a hand knitted fabric once perfected, but it was fabulous. The computers that program the machines are very very complicated, but it appealed to my programming skills no end, although it would take years to become a technician I would imagine.

I did see some original hand knitted guernseys made, and I have photo's, but not here in the house, so I will do a nice big post probably tonight or tomorrow, so you can see all the details of the original guernsey jumpers, and I will explain a bit about what I learned about what goes into making a guernsey jumper.

I have  had quite alot to update the site with, but people keep buying things before they get on to the website lol!! So next update will be Friday, and I have some fantastic colors to tempt you with.

Right off to go dye some wool.

Guernsey

So I'm not at home.

I'm in Guernsey................. doing a little bit of yarn/knitting research.

I have pictures and a whole lot of stories to tell, but you're gonna have to wait for Sunday.

Man I love my job!

:-)

Christmas theme to the update

Right, I just finished the update, and it took bout 3 hours, lots and lots of yarn, yippee!!

If you click on the little arrow on the top right hand corner of the big picture on the right that always appears on every page it gives you the list of the new arrivals! Alternatively click here

I have been slightly food obsessed, and inspired by Christmas, so I have done lots of ginger, chocolate and plums. Most of the colours are very rich, deep and warm, I am really going to find it difficult to let these yarns go!

Here are a few to quite literally taste.

Ginger plum pud

Ginger chestnut pud

Choc plum pud

Yesterday after water pouring through my kitchen ceiling from the shower, I decided I needed some food therapy, so I went into town and went only to the cooking shop, lol.

I purchased a thing to make crumpets, pancakes and welsh cakes, so this morning I made some silver dollar pancakes, they were super duper:

Right, I have 6 kilos of fibres to dye now, you never know, there might be some extras in the shop for next weeks update along with the carded fibres with sparkles, lol.