Tax return done, and loads of dyeing too, and update today instead of tomorrw.

ok, so Tax return took approximately 1hr 40 minutes, yay, record time!!! There was only one arguement, and that was because one of my vat returns wasn't printed out. They are great things to do because they allow you to see where you are, and well, it made some interesting reading, lol, but its all good, lets just put it this way, I spend way to much on advertising, Ahem.

I dyed my heart out yesterday, ready for today's update (its today, because I am going to Cardiff this afternoon to stay with friends, and go to our stitch and bitch Christmas party and other treats).  And so I shall start updating in a few minutes, there is already some on there, that I managed to get on yesterday, some nice sock yarns, lace, and sparkle, and loads of cashmere lace weight, which I am very pleased with, its so soft and light, I am even thinking of knitting some, not like me at all, lol.

Right, gotta go and take photos.

A snippet of sparkle sock for this week I am love with them all, lol, By the way, I have had to put the price up to 16 poounds a hank because the exchange rate on the last shipment is killing me, its gone up 30% and really I should put it up higher but I am not going to.

Have a lovely weekend

xxxxx

loosing my mind?

Hey, I sometimes use that as a title when I am stressed, and well, I'm not too stressed at the moment, but apparently I am loosing my mind.

Before Christmas I sent my brother 2 books, 'feel the fear and do it anyway', and 'The alchemist', (my favourite book of all time, its the best feel good book in the world) I ordered them from amazon and had them delivered here, and then sent them to him in his new address.

We talked all over Christmas about them, and he quoted exerpts from them etc, and I was so glad I got them for him. This morning, I received a package recorded delivery, the two books I sent him were there, unopened, they never made it. I was completely confused, and was a bit miffed because I thought he was telling me porkies, so I gave him a ring and asked him how he was getting on with the two books, and he said, he had finished them, and that if I wanted to borrow them, I was welcome, at which point I was like, 'YOU BLOODY LIAR' you never even got the books, and he laughed and said, yes I did Jen, I got them when you said you sent them. And I told him the story of the return books, and he said, "Jen, you sent them" and must have sent them twice.

Thing is, I only ordered the books once, and they came to this address because at the time, I never had his address to hand, strangely the books went from amazon to him.

I checked my amazon account and its only got one transaction,

Rich even sent me a photo of them.

I feel like I am a crazy woman or something, I can only assume there must have been a glitch in the matrix that day........

I was absolutely desperate for him to have the books, but you know, its not like I can order books from amazon Psychically or anything.

xxxx

Morning :-)

Ok,
I am knackered and feeling well rough today lol, Edinburgh is a long way to go and come back in a day, however, had a super duper meeting at k1yarns, I love the shop so much :-)

So, main thing I wanted to say is seeing as there is tonnes of new stock for shop, I am going to start updating tomorrow till Thursday afternoon, as I am going to Cardiff on Friday for a few days.

I have lots of really nice things, its a bumper update this week, lots of lace; scrumptious, faery, nef, cashmere, lots of sock in slightly different style to my normal, but that's cause I have been playing, lol, LOTS of sparkle, I know thats top of lots of your lists, lol, got more fibres too, all good stuff :-).

I popped some spindles on at the weekend, and started on the white yarn section (it undyed) there is now also a white fibre section under the fibre section too, if you think there is something missing that you want, just emial me, its gonna take a while for me to update the shop with all the yarns I have.

Very excited because I have new yarns coming next week, I think there is a new scrumptious 4ply, and something else, but I can't quite remember what it is, lol, I think its a heavy laceweight, lol. Anyway we'll see.

Off to scotland today ;-)

Off to Scotland today to see K1yarns

see you tomorrow
xxx

I went running!!!!

I am high as a kite today, I went running this morning, fed up with squeezing into my jeans, and seeing as I don't go anywhere at the mo, I am seriously short on excercise, so I ran, I guess about a mile and a half and it took 17 minutes, I did have to flop on the sofa when I got back for about 20 mins just to be able to breathe again, but I feel absolutely high with endorphines, I am going to try and go every day, but will start with alternate days to make sure I don't do any damage to anything, lol.

I haven't felt this clear headed for so so long, its the best natural high in the world, I just need to find a yoga class near by now, or maybe a dvd, anyone recommend one? I would be at beginners stage.......

xxxxx

This weeks update

Right, well, there will be some yarny treats this week, lace and sock etc, but the main point of this weeks update is for me to catch up and add all the blimin things I have in stock that are not on there, like WHITE YARN, and spindles and things, lol. I have so much stuff in stock that its needs to go on, so this week is catch up week, so if you dable in dyeing this weeks update is for you :-)

Happy shopping
xxx

Monkey and Kitty procrastination

Obviously seeing as I should be doing work I thought I would pop another blog on because I am in total denial, and I don't know where to start.

So most of you now I have 2 kitties, monkey (sophie) who I think is about 7, and Kitty who is about 16, they are both blind in one eye, and they pretend to hate each other but its quite strange how they always hang around together, lol. They are both very very funny. Monkey only eats and sleeps, she is very very lazy, but kitty often spends all day with me when I am working, and she will talk to me all day and run around, and be where ever I am she is really a very special cat. So as I sat here making a crisis list, lol, I grabbed my camera and took pics of them sat on my desk and near me.

Thats kitty on the radiator and monkey sat on the clubs book, lol

She doesn't look 16 does she? She is the most regal cat I ever knew, lol

This is monkey, she waddles when she walks because she is so lazy, lol, she is absolutely adorable though, you can literally take her anywhere, I can take her home for the weekend to my mums and she doesn't mind, she loves fuss and cuddles and parties because she gets alot of both, she even loves children, lol, very easy going little monkey, she is called monkey, because she is a little monkey, she learns so quickly what to to be naughty, the other day, its was lunch time and she was hungry, so to ensure she got fed, she was winding herself around mr wools very expensive glass sculptures on the window sill, making sure I knew she was doing it. lol

x

I thought I was doing really well

Ok, trip to Dublin was brill, I went to see This is Knit, in one of their shops, and I met Jackie, and it was really really nice. The shop is lovely!! Mr Wool and I then spent yesterday in Showcase ( a place for crafty things from British and Irish companies) We were sourcing treats for the  shops. I did find some really nice things, I ordered some more pins/brooches, they are so pretty, and I made sure that they go with your favourite coloured yarns, lol.

I also found something absolutely fab, but I have to order them first before I put them on, they are alot of fun and I think you will love em, especially if you love sheep, mahahahha.

So I am back, its Friday tomorrow, I have lots of dyeing to finish of for 'not Friday' things as well as things for the update, and Also I am traveling to Scotland on Monday to See K1, and I have wholesale which needs to be finished by this weekend, so guess it will be another hard working weekend. So I need a miracle today, I have to do a phenomenal quantity of Dyeing and packing. So, had better go and carry on working, although, I have to say I am very grateful for having lots of work, talking to people yesterday there was some serious lack of business at showcase, bad sign of the times, its normally packed with buyers, so I shall be busy with a grateful heart.

Ohhh by the way, Dublin was SERIOUSLY expensive, not only because the the exchange rate is nearly a pound for a Euro, but everything is expensive there too!! We had a pint and a half of Guinness and it cost 8.7 euros ( it was goooood guiness, but still!!), we weren't even in the city center, and then we went for a pizza again not in the center, we had a starter,  pizza each and a bottle of wine, and it came to about 100 euro's, even without the exchange rate that is expensive, so guess I we won't be going to pitti Filati this summer, lol.

xxxxx

Show case - yipeeee!

OK, so I was debating whether to go to Showcase Ireland tomorrow, because I've got *quite* a bit of work to do, I have returned to 6.5 day working weeks again, which I was trying not too do, but its virtually impossible to get everything done and, good thing is, I love working so it suits me abolutely fine, and I live with someone who works 7 day working week, lol!!! However today I thought, yeah, why the hell not; I spend ALOT of time at home, and my traveling gives me a tonne of ideas for my business, so its good to get out sometimes, anyway flights and hotel are booked, so I have no excuse, and I am SURE we will have lots of fun.

So, now I am excited, a trip, yippee. And I really want to visit a couple of shops anyway.

So knitting news, cast on a sock in dream merino, choc plum, its so pretty, I love those chocolaty colours, and, weirdly I am already on the heel, I had forgotten exactly quick socks were!! And I am determined to put more knitting pics on here because I probably give the impression of not actually knitting, lol, but I do squeeze it in late in the evening or if I am a pasanger in the car:


Also I sat down on saturday afternoon and thrashed out a new pattern for a cute little cardigan for scrumptious chunky and also it will be adapted for the Rooster range as well, I am working on a new collection of patterns for both ranges. The cardi, has some quite complex lace in it and some simple cables, but its really gorgeous and the best thing about chunky scrumptious, is that it knits up so quick, cables or no cables, lol!!

I will post a pic when I have a little more progress, I will try and take it with me to Ireland, although its a no distractions peice really.

OK, so all orders placed before 3.30 will be shipped, after than they won't be posted until thursday.

xxxx

Contrary to normal practice.....

lol, so update is well underway, I know, amazing for me, but I weighed, dried and labelled till 11pm last night to get everything ready for today's update, and I am well chuffed with myself.

Got the rest of the fibres to go and alot of white yarn this afternoon.

My fav's this week have to be.... juicy in sparkle.

And also the forest moss scrumptious, nef and merino sock, its just lush, I will snaffle the whole lot if its not gone by sunday, lol

Tomorrows shop update

Ok, well tomorrow's shop update is going to be super duper, I have LOTS of fibres, I literally mean kilos and kilos, and there are new blends too, Alpaca silk, Baby Alpaca , merino Bamboo, its so soft, if you like nef then you will LOVE this.

Also there is more sparkle sock, dream sock, self striping sock, lol, scrumptious dk, spindles etc etc, quite a big one, I may even start updating tonight because its going to take ages, lol.

And....if you want the chance to get a limited shop discount, come and solve some clues on the Unicorn group.......

PS  this weeks colour themes (as you know I get colour obsessed, are reds, blacks, pinks and purples, lol

Pps - All clubs yarns are on their way......

xxxxx

New Scrumptious patterns

So I said I might preview the new patterns for Scrumptious and after some thought, they are all now available from the shop and I shall preview them here for you yay!

Lots of you have felt scrumptious and it lives up to its name, its deliciously soft, luxurious and wears well. And although we have some patterns for small items, every good yarn range needs some garments, and so this is our first collection of Garments for scrumptious, and I a so excited to show them to you. They are available now from the shop and from my retailers.

The first 4 fabulous designs are by Katherine from K1 YARNS, and she is also the model, and I fab one at that :-) and the green one is a joint effort between me and Elly, but mostly Elly, lol.

So lets start with Saturday....that's a nice place to start don't you think?

This is a gorgeous little sweater pattern perfect for dk Scrumptious, this one is knitted in Fiesta dk, I am so making this in hand dyed!!!:

 

Next up we have Sunday, its like a jumper dress, its knitted in dk Blue lagoon, my fav of the space dyed colours....

 

Thirdly, we have This gorgeous little cardi, which is called the honeymoon cardigan, and its knitted in Solid deep purple

Damn, I can even imagine this with some little mother of pearl buttons from the shop, I think this could be the next project, lol.....

Next we have the cabled Kimono Jacket, which I love, because its so so soft and made in the Royal Blue scrumptious...

Finally its the Fisherman's rib jumper, which is based on one of my fav jumpers in the world, this one is knitted from Chunky solid scrumptious in Olive, it gives a superb fabric which feels so luxurious, I would love to make one in Cherry....lol

So there you have it, the new scrumptious winter pattern collection, and I can't wait to start knitting some of them for ME,

what do you think?........

Wow what a weekend......

Well, that was the madest busiest weekend I have had in ages and ages, I did a stock take on Saturday, which was superb, because I found lots of yarn I never knew I had, and realised that I have so much white yarn  which I don't use any more, which has to go into the shop, I wanted to sell white yarn anyway, so I will start that page later today and just keep adding, (cones and skeins). Then sunday was dyeing yarn, because the all the sock sold out!! Talk about crazy madness, I think the unicorn club discount helped, trust me its worth joining the group, even if you don't want to join the club, its lots of fun, and there are lots of ways to win prizes, (but you have to be on ravelry, thats the only way we can manage such a large group),

Anyway so I popped some more sparkly and dream on, I think the sparkly is all gone now, but man, it was so much fun!!! Last night I couldn't even see straight, lol.

I have some absolutely gorgeous lace patterns to pop in the shop today, and remember the scrumptious book? Well, we decided to go with individual patterns instead, but we wanted to try and get them printed proffesionally, just wondering whether to preview them on the blog.....what do you reckon? Anyone interested.....

xxxxxx

Shop update

So, getting completely consumed with the quests for the Unicorn club, (come and join the group on ravelry if you want to have some fun) and so need to start updating shop, it will be slow as always but there are plenty of sparkly treats there. Look in the sock section, dk, and scrumptious and fibres for new arrivals.
xxx

Never been so happy its thursday....

Last night we went for dinner with Debs and her partner (you might know her as the Mulberry dyer) and not only did we have a yummy dinner, but it was so so interesting to chat to people who's world of dyeing is really really quite different to mine. They do lots of reenactment type work, and really know their history and period styles, and what were dyes were used in certain times etc. I was completely fascinated and learned loads and loads and loads, and I even came away with a lucette to make cord, man, I love this little thing. And of course I had to order some treats for the shop, including some hand turned spindles, some special spindles from quite a long time ago, might have been Anglo Saxon (can't quite remember), and some lucette handles.

It was the first thing in ages which made me excited, I am a bit of a learning junkie, and I did ask if I could go and live with them and be an apprentice for a few months, hehehehehe. I was completely fascinated, and the books ahhhhhhhh, there were lots of them, heaven.

So you know the word 'Spinster' well the meaning of that word comes from the fact that all cloth was made from yarn which was spun on a spindle, and of course it meant people had to spin all the time, so they would carry it around with them, children would spin from about the ages of 4-5 and inbetween cooking you would spin, riding your horse you would spin, etc etc (actually which is exactly what I saw in Peru) and if you were an unmarried woman with no man, you would  be spinning because you had nothing else to occupy you, hence the word 'SPINSTER'!!!! Cool huh?

I also learned, that the origins of the top and bottom whorl spindles were originally to make and s twist yarn and a z twist yarn (not sure which on which) but because a cloth was originally made out of singles yarns, you used one for the warp and one for the weft, and because they were twisted opposite directions the fabric kind of was held together strongly by the opposite twists, eek, I'm not very good at explaining, but those who spin will understand what I mean. I want to learn more now, lol!!!

So anyway, yesterday I dyed some lovely yarns, sparkly, self striping, and other sock yarn, and although they are gorgeous, I wanted to add lots fo things to the shop, but I was disappointing because I thought it was update day today, and I didn't have tome to do more. Turns out its only Thursday today!! Who'd have thought it huh? You start learning about lovely things, and then someone goes and adds an extra day in there for you!!! So today is the day I don't normally get, the extra day to dye fun stuff, like fibers, get my carder going, because the belt is fixed, and do some treats........

Yipppppppeeeeee!!!!

xxxxx

Ordering in the Shop and the unicorn club

OK cherubs, it might be worth me just highlighting how to order in the shop, lots of people are clicking email orders which they didn't intend to, so I though I would just explain the payment things for everyone to make it clearer.

There are 3 ways to pay in the shop,

1. You can either paypal your order in which case you need to to select the paypal button at the bottom of the payment page, or,

2. You can pay with you card securely, in which case you select the secure trading payment button to the left of the paypal button, or

3. If you would like to pay by cheque, or for some other reason you would like to email your order through if you have a question or something before you pay, then and only then select the email order button.

I am working on getting some text put in that page to help people direct them to the right choice, but as always it will take a little time, also the credit card link is being fixed at the moment, have no idea why it isn't working, but its not taking cards, so in the mean time its via paypal, or I can ring you and take credit card detials over the phone. ARGH!!!!!

So, the Unicorn club is coming along nicely, and I thought I would just explain a little more about it, seeing as Amanda and I are working on it, we have designed the labels, and having those printed, and we are having a custom yarn made especially for us, with our own blend of fibres etc, which is a secret, but boy its gorgeous. The club will be quite involved, and although you have to sign up for it, you don't have to pay upfront for it, because you can choose to buy each month from either me or Amanda.

Each months club yarn will have a clue or set of clues with it, these will be quite hard clues, however, there will be forums for people to help eachother get the answers to the questions, and also be a place where we can perhaps give some clues if people are stumped, lol, it will be alot of fun, and even may take a little research.

At the end of the 9 months, when you have all 9 answers, in order to enter a draw for the prize, you have to have completed all the clues.

If you do this you will be entered into a draw, where you can win a kilo of the special yarn, and also there will be other treats too, so not jsut one prize. It will be super duper fun!!

This yarn will  not be available anywhere else, and is totally unique and very luxurious.

Wow, I am so excited, lol!!!!

xxxx

New year treats

I am at the point where my head is whorling, I really had quite a good break for the past few weeks, and its taking a little bit of an adjustment to get used to being back in the full swing of work ;-) but its nice though, and I am desperate to do some dyeing, lol.

Added to that, I have made a few new years resolutions, most I am not going to share, but one I will, I am giving up Alcohol for a whole month, and actually this is my third day. My reasoning behind it is that I get to 5.30, and can't wait for a gin and tonic, that's not really good is it?

Not only that but I have exzma around my eyes, and I look rough as a badgers arse, so no more Alcohol for me, give my blessed liver a break, next week I will introduce some exercise, and also cut out the crap food, but that's not so hard for me, just need to get used to fizzy water instead, lol.

So, the fore-mentioned new years treats?

If you haven't seen this yet, have a look, its a preview of the new knitting magazine the Knitter  it looks really nice, I am even going to go and grab a copy from the coop tomorrow morning because its on sale then!!!

And Amanda and I have been plotting a new club, its called the Unicorn club, and its very cryptic and challenging to be part of, but that's all we are going to tell you for now, I will post more information on here as soon as we get it sorted.

xx

Christmas and new years pics.....

Right OK,

So you could say it was a bit of a fibery Christmas and New year.

Exhibit A; was the piece duh resistance (yes I meant to spell it that way)

The spinning wheel which I have been lusting after for ever and ever, mainly because its perfect for tall people like me, and so there is no stooping going on, and its gorgeous and smooth to spin on. Its a kromski Sonata.


 And on it I made this....which is a 3 ply from my superfine merino in Orchid:

Not too sure what to do with it yet, I guess there is about 100gms, and its chunky, so it would make a nice quick knit, maybe a hat for me to go with this gorgeous scarf which was a present from Amanda!! How gorgeous is this? Its a mobius crochet scarf, its so so pretty...

ok, so what else did I spin?? hehe, I made some gorgeous 2ply nef, which I have started knitting into mittens, but I left it at my mums, lol so no photo's.

There were these though which are my favourite of all time, I think they are best called Glittens. I spun them from carded batts think there was wool, bamboo and glitter in them.

Its hard to photograph glittery things, but there is alot of glitter in there. And what is even better is my carder is being fixed, so there will be lots of glittery batts in the shop fingers crossed by the end of the week.

So amongst all the crazy fibreness, there was new years. And we had a huge party becoming of the chapel of course. And it was full of 90% fibrefanatics.
We were blessed with the company of Babylonglegs  Yogicknitter, Karen (my lovely freind and helper from Cardiff who came on the spur of the moment and bought us a wonderful evil german punch rum, sugar cone, fire thing, (I am sure she will leave the proper name in the comments)) and Amanda and of course husbands and children, and some lovely non woolyheads, who may have been a little bewildered, lol.

We had a fabulous dinner in the gallery, although I can't really remember that much of it, I apparently needed help serving it up, (thank goodness I had been cooking all-day and it was all finished) and then we had fireworks, (I remember those), lol, then apparently there was karaoke (and apparently my brother was the karaoke king....), but I was asleep by then.

Then on new years day after a huge fry up, we did some spinning because people bought their wheels!!....

This pic is taken from the top of the stairs looking over the gallery.

And lastly on new years day, there was a frosted coated countryside, that was so magical I felt like I was in Narnia, its was stunning, this is the view from the back garden...

sale - getting there

OK, I was having major problems updating the website yesterday, and so the uploading of the sale stuff continues, today, and then, and how excited I am, there will be lots of dyeing this week, and lots of new gorgeousness uploaded on the website. These will be added all week, seeing as it is an impossible task to do it all in one day!!

And later on today I will do Christmas post, I have so many things to show you, including my spinning which I am very proud ok, lol, and all my new years resolutions, hehe!!

ok, back to the grind stone......

New Years Sale

ok, sorry firstly for not getting one here yesterday to say sale was slightly delayed till today, I was knackered, and for some reason, typepad is not liking my having two blogs, and its making it a nightmare to log on. So I am just about to start that sale, things will go on about 3.30, and I'll just carry on until all the odds and sods have gone, there is some batches of things enough to make jumpers etc, but there will be lots of bargains, so enjoy yourselves.

I have lots of holiday photo's to show you, new years spin-ins, and spinning stuff, all fabulous stuff, so I will save that for tomorrow.

By the way, the link for the sale is in the yarn page

There is a fancy way of doing the sale, but not quite figured it out yet....

Happy shopping

xxxxx