Knit Play Colour!

We love to see unique new books from indie designers here at Fyberspates so we were really excited to be included on the blog tour for Louise Zass-Bangham of Inspiration Knits interesting new book; Knit Play Colour.


The idea behind Louise's new book is not just to give knitters a strict set of instructions to follow, but to encourage them to be a bit more adventurous and make the projects their own.  With a collection of ten patterns for cowls, shawls and even a cosy blanket, this book could help to give you a little nudge out of your comfort zone and try something a little different. 

This colourful cowl uses four shades of Cumulus (Moonlight, Bottle Green, Magenta and Turquoise) and traditional undulating Old Shale lace. 


There are lots of ideas included for how to make the patterns work with different types and weights of yarn as well as adding beads, working extra pattern repeats and advice on choosing colour combinations that will really make your projects shine.  The book is really clearly laid out and many of the versions of each pattern are photographed together showing just how much of a difference your yarn choices can make.  It's a really nice idea which reminded me of my habit of browsing Ravelry projects when I'm choosing a pattern to help me decide on yarns.  You could have so much fun making different versions of the designs to suit different people, perfect for knitting gifts for the festive season and beyond! 


Most of the projects can be knitted with just a couple of skeins so they'd be perfect to make as a guilt free new project or for using that odd variegated skein in your stash you've been waiting for just the right pattern to use with. 


I had a really hard time picking out my favourite design and yarn combination from all the different variations in the book, but in the end I chose this lovely version of the Affinity shawl, knitted using Cumulus and Scrumptious 4ply both in Water.  While the other versions of this pattern use bright semi-solid and variegated yarns for a bold fun look, the self-coloured stripes of this version teamed with a few beads give the shawl really sophisticated vibe, making it the perfect finishing touch to an outfit. 

I've been thinking about some of the other possibilities for colour combinations like this one.  If you want to go for a bold bright look, how about using the Magenta shade in both yarns, or Jen's Green in Scrumptious 4ply and Bottle Green in Cumulus?  If you prefer deeper shades, how about Scrumptious in Cherry and Cumulus in Ruby Red or Teal Scrumptious with Cumulus in Moonlight?  Or you could even combine a paler shade of Scrumptious like our new Glisten shade with Cumulus in Silver or a couple of paler shades like Oyster and Camel for a pretty, delicate effect.

Louise has kindly offered us a digital copy of Knit Play Colour to give away! 


To have a chance to win, leave a comment telling us your favourite design from the book and which Fyberspates yarns you would knit it in before midnight UK time  on Friday 16th October 2015.  You can see all the designs in the book on Ravelry here.  Good luck!  :)


Louise is also hosting a knitalong for the book in her Raverly group, check it out here! 


The next stop on the blog tour is Sweet Georgia Yarns on Monday. 

TNNA 2012 - Seriously picture heavy!

This year I had the opportunity to attend TNNA in the USA. TNNA is The National Needlearts Association. It's one of the biggest yarn and needlecraft trade shows in the USA, and is where companies show off their wares to shops and yarn stores. Why was I there? Well, because Lantern Moon (LM) are my distributor in the USA, I went to help them sell Scrumptious, and to take lots of orders for the Autumn-Winter season.

Phew, ok thats the "science bit" over with! Now for the fun description!

So obviously I was there to work... and I did! I helped LM set up their stand and sell, and we had LOTS of business dinners.... those guys are so well connected! I got to go to dinner with Craftsy, attend the Vogue Knitting party, we had dinner with Interweave (which was a complete pleasure), lunch with Annie and her beautiful daughter, Annie always makes me chuckle so much! Really it was awesome, I had to keep pinching myself.

This time I made myself go and talk to people. It can be quite scary to go and chat to people - I always assume no one knows who I am - but apparently people know Fyberspates and Scrumptious! That made me so chuffed! Round the corner from our booth was Bonne Marie Burns. I have followed her designs for years and years, so I felt a bit star struck to meet her, and she was LOVELY. You can see her website here: Chic Knits.

OK, lets have some pictures, huh?

So the LM stand looked wonderful, Sharon and the girls made wonderful bird cages as displays, with felted nests inside, they were awesome:

The LM stand was split over 2 sides of the walkway this was the yarn/scrumptious....

They have had some really sweet patterns commissioned for Scrumptious like this pretty cape with pearls in:

I was so excited to see the British designers really had a good presence this year, someone commented that the British were taking over! :D

Here is Woolly Wormhead on her stand.. her hats looked brilliant.

Then there was Ann Kingstone, she had a couple of designs in Scrumptious .. and a sweater with a very interesting construction:

Ruth (Rock + Purl) also came on the trip with Woolly and Anne , sadly I don't have any photo's of her, but we got a little more time together, and she is ALOT of fun, certainly full of life that girl! Also super excited because she is designing for the next collection :)

Here are Woolly and Anne  on Grace's stand. Grace's designs I especially liked. Her use of colour and texture with hand-dyed yarns was excellent. I urge you to check them out here:

Then there was Steph... you might know her Hexipuffs, bu all her designs are so CUTE!

I mean damn.... this is really not so much my thing but now I have seen it, I want to make it so much!

It's the first time I have met Stephanie, and she is as cute as in her videos and such a sweetie :)

And then of course there was this sweetiepie.....

At one point during set-up I felt rather anxious for her, as she was nailing and banging bits of wood together to make her window frames... Yes, you read that right, she made her own window frames for the shop, it looked BRILLIANT, I love the effort she puts into her stands.

And there were baby garments... I don't have photos of those, but boy are they cute!

Here is Ishbel knitted in Scrumptious Lace treacle toffee... :)

Someone brought the most amazing shawl to the stand to show me, and I think we will showcase this in a separate post, as it's stunning, but the only photo I have is Joel being silly in it lol!

I did have a little chance to do a little shopping, on the day after the show, before the flight home. I went for brunch with the girls and ate the most amazing black bean cakes with poached eggs and Jalepeno hollandaise... honest I have to write it here so I don't forget it ever!

Sharon (Lantern Moon) on the left next to Ysolda, and Sarah opposite, and Ravelry's Mary Heather.

Then we went shopping and then we ate ice cream... but it wasn't any ordinary ice cream. This ice cream rocks above all ice cream. It's called Jeni's Ice Cream - you get to try as many flavours as you want... I got the cook book! This is me trying very hard not to laugh, I hate photos...

And finally Sharon and I... I felt sad I had to leave. I never feel like Sharon and I get enough time together. In fact I feel like all the Lantern Moonies are family... Steve, Cathy, Annette and Joel. They are all lovely.

The Scrumptious Baby Collection has arrived!

We are absolutely thrilled to be able to share the project that we've been beavering away on for the last 6 months...

The Scrumptious Baby Collection arrived back from the printers last week, and we are really proud of it! The book features eight designs for newborns through to 2 year olds, with cardigans, dungarees, hats, legwarmers and an heirloom lace shawl.

We worked with some of our favourite designers again: Kyoko Nakayoshi (it's her Temari kimono top above), Belinda Boaden, Mélanie Edgar and Judy Furlong. They all did us proud with the beautiful garments and accessories that they created.

These Ensar dungarees (designed by Mélanie),were a complete hit on the photoshoot. Each of the kids that modelled them seemed to love them (or perhaps more importantly, their parents did!). The long run of buttons means that you can change a nappy without having to take the whole thing off.

I love the Corlyna set that Belinda designed. Who knew that baby legwarmers would be such a hit? They are absolutely brilliant. Much better than booties as they actually stay on active little people legs without falling off!

Judy Furlong created this stunning lace shawl for the collection. It's a perfect Christening shawl and would be treasured by the whole family. It would also make a beautiful shawl for everyday wear, done in a different colour.

As with the last collection, this was a real team effort and we couldn't have done it without everyone's hard work. Particular thanks must go again to Amanda France for her lovely photography and brilliant baby-wrangling skills!

You can see all of the designs on the book's Ravelry page, along with more information about sizing and lots more pictures. You'll find those pages here: The Scrumptious Baby Collection on Ravelry.

The garments and accessories all use Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply/sport (which is machine washable), apart from the lace shawl which uses 1 hank of Scrumptious Lace. If tyou'd like to purchase a copy of the book, then do ask at your local yarn shop. Here is a list of current Fyberspates retailers. If you are in the US, then Lantern Moon distributes the yarn and books, so do contact them to find your local reatailer. You can also purchase the book directly from us at Fyberspates.

And the winner is...

There were 67 comments on the blog post...

And the winner is the 41st comment, which is you, emma! I shall email you to get your address, so that we can get this book and yarn in the post to you. Congratulations!

If you missed out on this opportunity, then don't forget that the book is available to purchase from www.fyberspates.co.uk and we ship worldwide.

Happy knitting!

Jeni x

The Scrumptious Collection Giveaway!

We were sorting through stuff on our return from Ally Pally, and thought it would be nice to do a little blog giveaway.

A copy of the book, and a hank of Skinny Nef Lace in Rich Moss are up for grabs. This is enough yarn to knit either Sonning or Tirrold (all sizes short version), or even Hethe (but only in the smallest size).

It's been a few months since The Scrumptious Collection was published, so to remind you of all the lovely projects it contains, we thought we would send you to have another look at the designs. Check out the Ravelry page with all of the designs on it, and then let us know which is your favourite and why? We will draw a winner at random from all of the comments on this post next Thursday (27th October 2011). One entry per person please!

If you already own a copy of the book, we would love to get some reviews up on its Amazon page. If you feel so inclined you can leave a review here: The Scrumptious Collection on Amazon 

Many thanks, and good luck!

Fyberspates does Fibre Flurry

If you missed us at Alexandra Palace, you will hopefully be pleased to hear that we are coming to Fibre Flurry on Saturday 29th October! The show is taking place in Birmingham at St Nicholas Place on Kings Norton Green.

There are still a few places left on workshops, so if you fancy brushing up your crochet, or learning Norwegian purling, then head over to the Fibre Flurry workshop list and get registered!

The Fyberspates stand will have lots of samples from the Scrumptious Collection volume 1, as well as heaps and heaps of Scrumptious and some hand-dyed treats as well.

If you want to come and shop, meet the team or just enjoy spending time with lots of other knitters, then book your ticket today: Fibre Flurry booking.

Hope to see you there!

 

The Scrumptious Collection volume 1: Errata

Despite our best efforts, we have become aware of some small errors in The Scrumptious Collection volume 1. This post will be updated with any further pattern corrections that we are aware of.

Hethe

Page 32, middle column, Row 67: The stitch count for size 12-14 should say 266 sts and not 256 sts.

Page 32, right-hand column, Rows 83 to 88: The stitch count for size 12-14 should say 260 sts and not 250 sts.

Back neck and left shoulder: With RS facing cast off centre 26 (30, 30, 32, 34, 34) sts for back neck. Then rejoin yarn to left shoulder sts and continue as given.

Challow

Sleeves: Work inc as set by last round inc 2 sts on 7 (13, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21) foll 6th rounds.

Burdrop

After joining the 4th ruffle you work a purl row, then work 10 more rows in stocking stitch.

Hinksey

Left mitten: Round 1 should read: [P2, K2] 11 times in order for the rib to match up with the chart.

Uffington

Left Front: After placement of single leaf panel. Keeping patts corr as set, inc 1 st at start of next and 3 foll alt rows. 38 (42, 46, 50, 54) sts.

Murcott (Pattern Clarification)

Neck shaping on Left and Right Fronts: "cast off 5 sts, then 4 sts, then 3 sts at start of foll 3 WS rows" The 3-stitch cast off is only worked once. Three WS rows refers to the rows on which 5, then 4, then 3 sts are cast off.

 

If you are having difficulty with any of the patterns in this collection, or think that you may have found an error, please contact us so that we can assist and publish an errata if needed.

Please contact us by email on fyberspates@btinternet.com or by post at the following address:
Fyberspates
Unit 6 Oxleaze farm workshops
Broughton Poggs
Filkins
Lechlade
Glos, GL7 3RB

Murcott

Murcott is the first garment design from Jen Arnall-Culliford. You can find the Ravelry page for this design here: Murcott

There are more pictures and design details on Jen's blog, just follow the link below.

via jenacknitwear.typepad.com

Le Lot et La Laine

We are off to France in July!

Jeni and I are going to a show in the Lot region of France on 9th-10th July, and we can't wait! It is the first time this show has taken place, and it's being organised by a group of French knitters (tricoteuses) who were jealous at seeing all the amazing American sheep and wool shows, and wanted to have a similar festival in France. You will find all the information you need on their Ravelry group, or blog, and there is information in both French and English, so do pop by to find out more.

Fyberspates is one of a great line-up of vendors and there will be workshops (ateliers) and demonstrations as well, with Ysolda Teague signing copies of her books as well.

The show would make a great short break, or maybe you live in France already? Do let us know if you're coming, and stop by and say hello (or should that be bonjour?)!

Jen

Click, Click, Giggle, Giggle

And that is pretty much how last weekend went!

Jen here (not Jeni!). I have just borrowed the blog again to tell you a bit about the fun we had at the weekend on the photo shoot for the Scrumptious Pattern Collection. We just can't wait to unveil the collection to you all. In the meantime, here are a few top tips for surviving a photo shoot.

1. Don't travel without plenty to eat and drink.

I'm not sure that I'm brave enough to admit to you how many iced and spiced buns I ate over the weekend, but it's likely I will turn in to one quite soon.

2. Make sure that your models can rock the Slanket look. Camilla and Lily were brilliant.

    

3. Pencils don't make the best knitting needles, so don't forget to pack the knitting essentials.

If all of you are knitters, surely someone will bring needles for yarnbombing?

4. Have a wonderful photographer with a great eye for the perfect shot. Thanks Amanda!

5. Be sure to choose lovely, smiley and gigglesome people to work with.

Nic you are a legend. And thank you so much once again, Jeni, for letting me be a part of this exciting venture.

     

Watch this space for more sneak previews over the coming weeks. The Scrumptious Pattern Collection will be available from mid-May 2011.