Thursday 26 August 2010

Sophie Guapita

I am really sad today, I had to take monkey to the vets to be put down because she had kidney failure. She couldn't even jump up any more, last night she came and wailed for me to pick her up and put her on the bed for cuddles, bless her. She has been my little monkey for the past 4 years, always making me laugh by licking my eyebrows and making me get out of bed when I wasn't feeling like it in Cardiff. I can't really imagine life without her, but I am going to have to.

Little monkey, you were the cutest little monkey there ever was, hope you are starting a new life somewhere amazing....hopefully coming back as a kitten with a mission to love and cheer someone else up who needs it as much as I did......


P1010666



Thursday 19 August 2010

Today I have mostly been....

Rearranging my workshop into a space which is more visit friendly. I moved all my shelving (when I say I, I actually meant they got moved by a forklift truck ;) haha)  so it separates the dyeing area (because it is dirty and industrial) and now it looks like alot more like a shop/studio!!! I have my large leaf table out so that I can actually do some knitting workshops now, and also cause I have lots of pretty china and no kitchen to put it in, I decided to get it out the boxes and make the space pretty....

I have a tonne of work to do on organising sorting out, cleaning, and some painting too, I need to paint some furniture lighter colours, but my mum is going to come and help...I want it all looking gorgeous ready for the open day on the 16th and 17th of October, you are welcome to come, there will be cake! Probably after that I will open the workshop for regular hours; 3 days a week, visits are always welcome now, but you need to check first that I am there ;) I want to make it a little more accessible.


Cowl 019 


Cowl 020


Cowl 021



Tuesday 17 August 2010

Do you know what? Its all about the lace.......

Lace has just taken hold of my imagination recently, not lace in the thin sense, cause really I am not a thin yarn kind of girl, more of a 4ply really, but lace in 4ply or even chunky just totally makes me shiver with excitement.

So I have 3 lace treats for you today, 2 pics/ new patterns and a gorgeous wedding veil of one of my very talented customers

OK, firstly the gorgeous cardigan pattern is finally up in the shop and up for sale, it will also be up on rav this afternoon too. This has probably been the MOST tried on garment at any show I have ever done, it totally captured peoples imagination and the pattern is very well written:

Aquamarine lace Cardi By Judy Furlong for Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace....if your local yarn store stocks the commercial range, its likely they will have this pattern very soon....if not ask them.....

 
Mini version

Secondly I finished my lacey cowl in Ethereal for the last installment of the project club:


Mini cowl


Cowl 008 

Its so soft and drapey, and actually I wear it every day at the moment, its perfect for early autumn days, ethereal is one of my all time favorite yarns at the moment, in fact I am knitting a pair of gloves ready for the  next round of the project club to go with the cowl, yum yum yum. This pattern will be available in the shop after Fibre Flurry, its going to be an exclusive pattern in the brochure until then....

At the moment I am knitting every day, at every spare moment I can, this is so so wonderful for me, I am churning my way through a design for the knitter a fair isle yolked sweater in scrumptious 4ply, the gloves and also the chunky water bottle cover for the Christmas present club (will blog about new clubs tomorrow, they are well fun!).

And Finally....some seriously beautiful lace, one of my lovely customers knitted her wedding veil out of silk lace which was undyed I think if I remember rightly.....look at these pictures, they are gorgeous and you can see the veil 4 pictures down in this post aren't the pictures gorgeous??? and she is such a beautiful bride!!!



Friday 6 August 2010

Shop update

Seems like I am on a blog roll this week ;) 


The shop has been updated with treats, I have also redone alot of the patterns, with more info and better photo's so make sure you take a look, here is the gorgeous new lace cardigan pattern by the talented Judy Furlong which is an exclusive design for Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace, you can only buy it here or all good stockists of Fyberspates Yarn.

Below is the pic,  sorry its a pic of me,its all I got for now ;) I have to make a few tweaks to the pattern and it will go on sale from Monday, I'll blog about it, but the pattern is exquisitely written and really this garment is so flattering, I had so many compliments on it when I have worn it and at shows.


Garment photos 044


Garment photos 047 

Happy knitting peeps :)

xx



Thursday 5 August 2010

Designing....

Thanks soooo much for the lovely comments on yesterdays post, sometimes its a bit horrifying to put things out there and be honest, I just felt like I wanted to share my happiness in making my way forward, so thank you!!!

At the moment I am knitting prolifically, this is a huge change, I know some people might be shocked by that considering I am surrounded by lovely yarn every day, but in the past two years I haven't knitted as much as I should, or as much as I wanted too, sometimes I just get overwhelmed with stuff and I can't see the wood for the trees, BUT since I gave up dyeing for wholesale for hand dyed I have so much knitting mojo its ridiculous, my pace of life has calmed down, its had to really because I have to design for the commercial scrumptious range, working already on the collections for autumn 2011, this feels so indulgent to be working that far ahead, but it feels like I am living my dream as well, being able to take in the wonderfulness that I surrounded by for once, instead of it rushing past, taking time to translate ideas into reality, and I even have time to get it wrong, change it and redo things, this is something I love because ideas don't always work quite right the first time around!!

Anyway, I have a project club, which is so much fun to design for mainly because its in yarns I normally don't even get to knit, hehe, but this month is the Ethereal yarn, and I am just enjoying this so much, I can't tell you what the design is because its a suprise, but I can show you my swatch....you remember my graceful Jumper? Well I am IN-LOVE with that lace pattern down the middle and I haven't finished with it yet, so I decided to add it into this months design for the project club:


Garment photos 2 041

I choose this colour because I keep seeing it everywhere, and I want to make something totally gorgeous with it.....I'll post next week the finished article, once all the clubs have got to their destinations!

xx



Wednesday 4 August 2010

Not giving up....

Normally I wouldn't write stuff like this, however, I feel like its probably a subject which affects alot of people and I guess sometimes when people have the courage to talk about their circumstances, its helpful because you know you are not the only one.......

I have for a long time been battling with alot of debt, probably I guess about 7 years, 4 years ago breaking up with Anth plunged me into unknown depths of it, and I spent about 3 years simply surviving not to go under, so many times I thought that it would be easier to give up everything, the business, my house, and simply go under, but I never did, I always made sure somehow that things got paid, I even remember a week when I didn't even have a tenner to buy monkey cat food, so we had cupboard feasts, she loved that, haha!!! Most of my stress during the business more than working very hard has been that, making sure that it survived, that I survived, in a way I just kept my head down and kept on going, I am not one to give up ever, I hate quitting!! I never ever want to go back to those nights of not being able to sleep because I couldn't see a way out, the sickness in your stomach is the most horrible thing ever.

I had help from my best-est friend in the world, who simply kept me smiling when I was crying cause I felt like I wasn't gonna get out of it, and always promised me it would be ok and not to give up, he also was amazingly strict with me, he took no crap, he would sit me down time after time we would go through personal finances and tell me how it was, that's really hard to admit you are in a mess and that you need to change things, and that you can't simply hope that everything will be ok if you ignore it.

Last year I had a tough decision to make, I wanted to expand my business premises and at the same time, I didn't have the money to do it, so I decided to come and live with my mum and dad and rent somewhere to work, they have been amazing in supporting me, they never once offered me money simply loved me and looked after me.  Initially I struggled so much with this choice, because I LOVE Cardiff and I love my house, and I am a proud person, but it was the best thing I ever did, I have lovely lodgers looking after my beloved house, and I have had an incredible time with my mum and dad, we have grown so close, and they are such wonderful people, I feel like I have made up for the 10 years I didn't see them that much.

Sometimes I get mad because I can't buy things, and every spare penny over pays loans and such things, and it has felt up until today as if I will never get there, but today is kind of special, I looked at all my loans, they are massively reduced and my determination is that by Christmas I will have my two large ones done and dusted......and that means I am nearly out of debt, not quite, but I will have overcome such a massive hurdle that I wanted to share the fact that I can actually see a huge light at the end of the tunnel, and that for anyone else that is out there who might have debts which sometimes make you feel as if there will be no end in sight, I just want to say, don't give up, you HAVE to be strict with yourself and remember that you don't actually need THINGS, sometimes its better to take that 20 quid and instead of buying a new lipstick, take it to the bank and over pay something, trust me it works, and by Christmas 2011 I am going to be completely debt free and I have vowed never ever to take out any loans or credit cards ever again, I shall always save up first.

Just sayin....;)

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