12 month sock club and I am in love!

Right, firstly I have had a few enquiries about if people can join the 12 month sock club late. And of course the answer is yes ;-) You can run it from feb to feb, or have jan and febs at the same time next month if you like. Its no problem at all.

I'm in love with my fibres this week. Ha! That got you didn't it! They are making me crazy to spin, just crazy. There is lots of bfl/silk, merino tencel, and kid mohair, I resisting the urge to spin some up. I've been dyeing to pop music today and have just had such a perfect day, everything I wanted has just happened, I wish everyday was like this, I think the chanting is starting to shift my life in a fabulous direction ;-)

xx

Fibre

Yesterday was flying to 'Edinburgh and back in a day' day, and today is filing the tax return thats nearly finished and dyeing fibres day, I love fibres because I can do what the hell I like with them, unlike yarn which normally has to be a little more calculated. Right, so you can guess what the update is going to be this week can't you ;-)

xx

Tax return

Guess what I am doing? My tax return, and actually, I don't mind strangely, I like to see how much my business has turned over, its kind of exciting, lol. I just wish that it was slightly more organised, unfortunately when I worked at the same time as having fyberspates I just stuffed everything in a box so its a little bit labour intensive, thank goodness I am VAT registered now, because I have to do everything perfectly every three months now so it'll be a doddle next time I do it.

Shut up Mr Robinson! I can hear you falling about laughing as you read that.

So the weekend was lovely, really lovely, I went out for dinner with Amanda we went to oxford, it was really fun, I drank lots and ate snails, (  Sorry hannah :-(  ) don't think my tummy liked the snails very much, still, guess what? I have a gorgeous little book called Lacey little knits that Sheila from wool2dye4 sent me, and I absolutely love it. Actually the thing I have cast on for was kind of fate, I stuffed 2 hanks of my lace mohair in my bag, in 2 similar colours, a lovely plum, and a plum thats a bit more charcoaly, the one I featured in one of the updates the week  before last) and I happened to have a 4.5mm circular needle with me. As I was browsing through it in my hotel room I spotted a lovely little lacy cardigan, (the one on the front of the book), it only takes 2 x 50gm hanks of yarn so I cast on and am loving it, I haven't knitted anything from a pattern for ages. There are actually two or three things in that book I would make, and thats very unusual for me. I'll photograph my progress tomorrow. I am loving knitting at the moment, and strangely there are no socks in sight!!!!! I have to say though that Amanda's 'tit socks' are really really great.

 

In A RUSH......

So seeing as I am in a rush I'll update you breifly.....

• I spent the afternoon knitting with Eirwen and Wye sue yesterday, which was superduper and lovely to chat to serious yarno's.



• Going to spend some time with this yarno at the weekend......



• Had some incredible developments in the area of a tough relationship, you might be able to guess, but suffice to say we have had major breakthroughs, both trying very hard, both chanting tonnes and tonnes, resulting in us, I think becoming very very great freinds.



• Finished 'the garment' and I am in love with it and I don't want to send it away.



• Finished all my annoying little things I have been trying to do for ages and ages, just a little question of my tax return AHEM,



• No yarn update because the shop is already well stocked and I had wholesale to to care of this week, but if you want lace try here, if you want sock try here.



• Right off to pack my little bags and get the flock out of here ;-)

damn, I can't think of title

Damn, I need to get more creative with titles.

Where as if I wrote this in the morning then it would have more words in it, when I write in the night, it seems like lots of words have been used up, and I almost write in clipped sentences, but at least there will be less drivel, lol.

I decided to do a good half an hours chanting every morning to see how it would effect my work production, it seems to make me a tonne more efficient for some reason, not only that but I spring out of bed in the morning, I have no idea why it works, but since I did a tonne at the weekend, and half an hour every morning, and some in the night if I get my act together, I am feeling super charged, I've just done a few jobs which I had to do which I put off because they are so labour intensive, but are very necessary, anyway, they are done now, and its a huge relief. I'll keep you updated anyway because its an interesting experiment.

Wow, Its monday!!

I had such a wonderful weekend, basically, lots of visitors came to see Carmen, and we knitted, chatted, laughed, cried and generally had a wonderful time, and I am so gutted she had to go home. She is probably the most cherished freind I have, we are very similar and we understand each other extremely well, we also chanted alot, (she is a buddhist too) which just made it very very special. Secretly I always chant for her to come to Cardiff to live with her lovely husband Fran. 'cough cough' Fran? Are you reading, hint, hint? lol.

Well, anyway I didn't even turn my laptop on yesterday, which made it a very relaxing weekend, and always makes me appreciate coming back to work so much more.

So to start the week, the shop has been update here, whats rather exciting is I have had some solid scrumptious made for me. I only have it in the chunky weight at the moment, but the dk will follow, its just absolutely gorgeous, such intensity of colours, because it is top dyed instead of the yarn being dyed. I have it in cherry, purple, and olive.

I think my favourite of the update this week is some alpaca lace in 'flowers'.....

Right, off to finish of the 'secret' garment for the magazine, its looking seriously good. ;-)

Having fun

So, the shop update will be tomorrow sometime, but in the meantime, we are celebrating carmen being here in the House of Wool. ;-)

xxx

Knitting,

I had a super duper visit to K1 yesterday, it took 3.5 hours to get there, from Manchester but it was worth it, the shop is gorgeous, so is Katherine, and I love the way the yarn is dispayed in little buckets.

Anyway I will definately be visiting again because we have lots of things to do together ;-).

Guess what? With all the travelling I did, I got do do so much knitting that the 'garment' is nearly finished, and I am so excited about doing the sleeves, they are not nornal sleeves, so they won't take too long. Oh I love scrumptious so much, its such a pleasure to knit, and the patterning of the spring greens, is just super duper.

So I may take a little swatch photo for you to see, but its still a secret.

Oh and guess who arrives from Madrid this evening? Some of you may remember Carmen, no not carmella, the knitting Carmen who just randomly designs and knits the most incredible things. Yippeeeeeee!!!!!

xxxxx

I'm knitting, yipeeeee!

I'm away from home today because I am visiting a Wooly cherub, who is half way from me to Scotland, and I am off to scotand tomorrow to go and see K1 yarns and chat wool.

Which means that I am having a day away from the house, no packing orders, and no dyeing, which can only mean one thing, knitting, knitting and more knitting, and I am loving it, I have to knit something for a magazine and it needs to be finished soon, and I am loving it soooooo much, I haven't been excited about knitting anything for ages, anyways I'll give you a couple of clues, 1. its a garment, 2. Its lacey and 3. Its knitted in scrumptious of course!!! As a result of spending the day knitting, I have the TV on, not something I do at home, and its kind of strange, although its ok to have on in the back ground, its like watching baby tv, does any one know what I mean? its like its all dumbed down to be super simple, it odd, and slightly life sucking, so I although I am enjoying veging out and knitting I would die of boredom if I did it everyday radio 4 as a knitting accompliment wins hands down every time, perhaps I am watching the wrong things, lol?

Sock clubs, lace clubs, fibre clubs and shop update.

I am really enjoying preparing the club yarns and fibres today, alot of thought went into these; there is some deliciously soft alpaca for the lace club, some gorgeous high twist yarns for the 12 month sock club, where the colours reflect the broody skies we have been having, and also, I am totally in love with the shop update, totallly totally in love with it. Its well annoying though, this bland light in cardiff is making things come out much blander than the colours are warmer than they seem in the pic's. There is more to go on, but I will wait for tomorrow.

Right so most of the yarns are inspired by the january weather, dark inky skies, and the dark greens, that seems to be left in the foliage.

Here are my favourites; This sock is warmer than the photo, its just delcious,

Then there was the mohair which I was trying to perfect a certain colour, and I ended up doing a scrummy palate of smokey mauves, a few of these combined would make the most wonderful stripey garment or scarf.

 

Smiles

Morning, thanks for the lovely coments from yesterday I really appreciated them, and while I don't generally moan on my blog, I just felt like I needed to vent it somewhere yesterday, and it felt tonnes better when I did. As the day wore on I felt better and better. I did tonnes of work, and Carmella decided to give me her christmas presents, I hadn't actually realised she hadn't given them to me yet, and then we sat, knitted and watch 'Hugh's Chicken run' I hope so many people watch it and it changes their minds about the choice of mean they eat.

Then we watched the sound of music and giggled and laughed and drank tea and ate chocolate, and it got me to thinking that really I was being a little bit selfish, Tracy was right, I do have the world at my feet, quite literaly, and I have so much wonderful fun, and although I don't have a 'traditional' family here in Cardiff, I certainly have a huge and wonderful extended family, with a mixture of wonderful people, and they love me looking after them, and so today after I went to my meeting with Business Wales to discuss the development of the export side of my business, which really made me feel excited, I went shopping down in Splott, and bought some yummy treats to spoil all my wonderful freinds who I love and adore who look afterme, and just felt that I mustn't feel sad and angry any more, I need to let go of the past, because its wasted energy, and use that energy instead to cherish the people who I love a million times more. So there we go, thanks for the comments, they all got me thinking and thanks Maylin for the daimoku ;-) All of that stuff will happen in good time when its right.

Reality, birthdays and yoga

My weekend like I said yesterday, was good apart from a horrible little blip at the end, I have been separated for over 18 months, but I still get really upset about it sometimes, especially when ex husband and I meet up with other friends, and both find it difficult, and then end up upsetting each other. Not major rows or anything, just kind of you know, both being upset. Unfortunately these little 'meet ups' just make me miserable and exhausted for days afterward. Yesterday I plodded through my work, did quite alot, but I felt so blimin flat, you know what I mean? Then I spent the evening knitting and watching TV, I didn't feel like having tea, and I felt to be honest? Completely crap, crap that I don't have a husband any more, no children, no one to look after.

Its a bit strange really, because normally I relish my freedom, my happy free life with no one to look after, but recently it feels like my body is playing tricks on me, I keep getting a stupid feeling that I want a baby, I mean, this is me we are talking about now, I am not a baby person, I normally make them cry, probably all I need is a trip to tesco on a Saturday, and that will sort my head out, and make me never want children ever again, lol.

So anyway I'm babbling today, this morning I woke up at about 8, knackered, and miserable, and I thought, gees, I'm not gonna get out of bed today, I just know it, and then remembered that a friend had invited me to yoga, (I have never been before), I thought I'll cancel it and go back to sleep, and then the reflective part of me which I believe is called my meta cognition (i.e. the part of me that reflects on the way I think, lol) was just a little bit concerned, that this wasn't like me one little bit. And you know in a moment, you think this has to change now, or it could be very bad? I jumped out of bed, stuck my trainers on, and some jogging pants, found the address and drove like hell to the yoga class, which was in a little wooden hut in the middle of Llanishen, it was the funniest thing ever, it wasn't what I expected, but it was good, fun, laughter, crying (not me), lots of exercise, tea and cake afterward, and it plucked me up just enough to feel like I was doing myself some good.

So I came home and cooked a massive stir fry, and now I feel warm, toasty and calm, not got my sparkle back yet, but I think that'll come when I go and do some chanting, but I feel like I'm going through some huge personal changes, and perhaps I'm just not used to having so much time to think, working in your own is a nightmare for thinking, and perhaps the fact that i turn 30 in 2 months, is making me reflect on my life just a little bit, anyone know what the hell I am talking about?

Beautiful day

The sun is shining in Splott today, and its mild so it makes it a perfect dyeing day after the cold weather we've been having. I'm trying to match some yarn I did a while ago, and its for a pattern in a big mag, so I have to get it right but its a nightmare getting it exactly right, anyway today is my final attempt, before the garment has to get knitted, not only that I have a pattern on the go for another mag, about a million wholesale packs I have to finish to send out, because I've redesigned them, due to lots of changes, and about a million wholesale orders to dye, lol, so its going to be a nice busy day/week.

The weekend was all in all very relaxing, lots of cooking, eating and relaxing, I am learning about weekends again, its not something I have experienced for a long time, so I feel so guilty about not working, but I am easing into it. Most of the sale stuff has gone, which is super and I am starting to prepare for Fridays update, with lots of nice yummy yarns and fibres. I have some really fabulous new yarns and fibre blends on the way, so I'm excited about those once they arrive, along with some solid scrumptious for those who prefer solid yarns rather than multi coloured, I think they might be in my hands by the weekend :-)

Right off to dye some wool, and get some radio one education. :-)

Happy knitting.

xx

Saturdays

Today I had a real proper Saturday, you know, one with no work? Yep, it was wonderful, I got my hair cut extremely short again because it grows like grass, bought Carmella her Christmas present (its Spanish Christmas tomorrow), (she already had her English presents) Marie came over, we went to look for houses in Splott, drank lots of tea, chatted, then we made a huge baked cheesecake, and cooked ham in coca cola a la Nigella, and watched the snowman, because Carmella has always wanted to watch it, all in all it was a pretty blissful day, I am dyeing to try the damned cheesecake, but I have to wait till tomorrow, when it is chilled and will be served with a strong coffee for mid morning scrumminess.

I am going to have a little nap before I go out to my new favourite vege restaurant The Canteen on Clifton Street in Splott with a few friends. I wish every Saturday was this good.

Sale

I wasn't going to do a sale because I didn't think I had much to sell, but it seems that in my tidying and creating my new office/shop space I seem to have found lots of yarn which is discontinued, mainly hand dyed arans and chunky's and super thick alapca.........and basically they all have to go, it fairly old stock which I had no idea existed, so instead of a update of new things this week, we are clearing out the gorgeous discontinueds. I will start updating from today and then it should be all on there by tomorrow. I will make a special sale section, so you will see it on the front page/main menu, and you can link to it here

Good luck!

PS if you are on raverly come and join the fyberspates group, and I am on there as sapjh2.

xx

Happy new year!

Happy New 2008 everybody :-)

I love the new year, it always makes me feel excited.

I had a lovely christmas, I went to my little brothers with mom and pops and spent it with his wife debbs and her family, my bro and debbs are so funny, they have a mini zoo in their house, they are on the surface 'ultra shiek', with their gorgeous house etc, and then as you look round a corner, you see the odd tailess chinchilla, and a random rabbit, and a few ginnea pigs, lol, they are mostly rescue animals, and its just so funny. Anyway it was a super break, mainly because I was away from home for about 10 days, which was blissful, when you work at home, its nice to just get away. I also spent some wonderful time with a special freind, which was just super, all in all a really really great break, oh and did soooooo much shopping.

And now for my new year. Last year was certainly an improvement on the trauma of the year before, and a great many achievements were made with the business and my life, but I would like to make this year the year of 'Bright, Gorgeous and Happy Relationships', in every aspect of my life, I want to see old freinds more, new freinds more, visit mom and pops more often, and the rest of my family, everyone was slightly neglected last year and so I want to change that in 2008.

I also want to become alot more organised, I am nearly there with it, and infact my VAT return only took 2 hours this time because I had all the files all ready and tidy.

I want to design alot more, there are so many ideas in my head, I would ideally like to design 2 things a month if poss, lots more garments.

I want to get really fit and be very healthy, I have joined Splott gym, and will start doing yoga too, and more than anything eat more fruit and vegetables, eat oily fish twice a week and raw to medium steak twice a month, (I struggle to eat red meat, but I need it sometimes.)

Oh and I have a new business venture, which is a slow process, its doesn't involve me in the production thank goodness, just the setting up, I can't manage fyberspates and something else as well, but its very exciting and will probably end up being larger in the long run, but enough of that for now.

So here's to dyeing the most gorgeous yarns and fibres in the world, being as Ethical as possible, and to enjoying every moment we have on this wonderful and gorgeous planet.

xxx