Alexandra palace knitting and stitching 2007

Right people, My last dyeing days for the next few weeks will be this weekend, so I want to know what you would like to see on my stand at allypally (alexandra palace knitting and stitching show in october), you have the choice of the following, please emial me if you want anything special, but let me know what colours, and what kind of yarns you are planning on, here is a list to give you some ideas, oh and is anyone interested in fibres for allypally?

Sock:

Alpaca,

Bluefaced leicester with nylon (to dye for)

alpaca merino (again to dye for)

merino tencel (yummy)

cashmere (hopefully)

Lace

Lace mohair in small or big hanks,

lace silk and

lace bfl.

dk

scrumptious,

superfine merino (superwash)

Aran;

Solids, (lots of new colours coming) and space dyed.

Chunky:

Squishy and chunky wool.

Emial me fyberspatesATbtinternetDOTcom if you want any custom orders to pick up at the show, asap!!!!

Messy paradise, vicuna and shopping.

Thanks for the comments princi's!!!

AHH, its 12.38am and I'm still working, still, its helped with vino and nice food, lol.

OK so those of you who are spinners, may or may not subscribe to spin off magazine, it is my favourite magazine of all time, mainly because of its lack of prescriptivness, and fabulous articles, most of the designs are not to my taste, but they leave me feeling inspired and excited, anyway my point, sorry! So I read about all the fibres, and I remember one particular time when I read about Vicuna, I read it and I wanted some, and ever since I have been on the look out for some. Recently, I have learnt alot more about why it is so expensive (starts at about £100 for 100gms), mainly because it is an endangered species, meaning you need a government certificate to export it and import it, and it has a fibre micron of about 12.5, really good cashmere has a micron of about 14, so you can imagine how yummy it would be.

A certain person (thanks cherub, huge hugs) managed to get me a sample, a real sample, (and a legal one I might add) lol, probably because I have been pestering him for a very long time for it, its probably not enough to make anything with, well, perhaps it is, the fibres are so flippin short, I think I need a new spinning wheel to spin it on!!!! Anyway, its by the table by my bed, I just can't stop touching it, it'll be felted by the time I come to do anything with it! he he. Its been giving me lots of ideas for new products, more about which I will divulge in the week, once I have worked out prices, I also have lots of other cool stuff to tell you, but I need to spread it out, he he.

Anyway onto house life; I live with girls, I'm not that used to being around girls, I am usually surrounded by men, anyway, I'm loving it, guess what I did this afternoon? I went shopping, and did some serious shopping, it was wonderful, I needed it so much, I was feeling like I never stopped working, so I needed a little retail therapy. I don't think I have been shopping with girls for years, anyway I now have kirk Geiger boots, skinny jeans, and a cute knitted stretch dress, I just need to get my hair chopped off, and I'll be ready for ally pally.

OK nite nite people, signing off from my slightly messy, but happy warm house.

 

Hola princesa y principe!!!! (that took ages, phew!)

OK, so I  am having way to much fun, but more on that later.

I span up a load of blf/silk up quite roughly, with the idea of making my self striping cardigan, remember me telling you?

here is the progress so far:

  The singles are really lively, but it looks fabulous, and has such a gorgeous shine that contrasts with the rough spinning, and looks fabulous. I have some stripy blue as you can see above and then some green, I might add some turquoise I did inbetween, its growing so quick because we have so much chatting time, lol.

So about 5 years ago, I used to work in the museum shop in Cardiff, I loved it, mainly because I used to get to read books about artists. There was one which stuck in my mind, I wish I could remember their names now, but basically it was about a couple of artists ( I think it was two blokes, but I can't remember) that shared a big old house in the welsh country side, their house was messy and they always had friends to stay, with lots of parties and dinners, the friends would come and go, and I remember thinking I wish my life was like that, instead of the boring routine I was subjected to, if you know me, you will know, I don't do routine, lol. Anyway, Carmenthita today declared my house as a paradise, full of wool, knitting and craft books, and endless inspiration, Sophie also loves my huge book shelf of cooking books, and we are having the most wonderful dinners, every night we take it in turns to cook, we start cooking about 9pm, the wine comes out, the music on, and endless chatter about languages, cooking, knitting and the world, we never go to bed before 12.30, there is too much to say!!!!!  This for me is heaven, the house is so full of life, and its messy; as soon as one huge order goes out, another one is being prepared, so its just a little eclectic and happy, everyone is knitting, they are learning about everything wooly, I am living my dream, I am so looking forward to sole coming too.

The only thing I am missing is the fact that my house is in the middle of Cardiff and not in the country, but with my garden,....... well, you'd never know!!

just popped into say.......

have van, have v large bruise about 5 inches in diameter, had a lovely weekend at Voirreys, and spun a tonne and have started on hand dyed, hand spun tank (notice its gone from cardigan to tank, lol!)

back later with pics of everything!!!!

hehe.

xx

A date with a shop!

Yippee, been a little while since we had a nice shop update, there are alot of fibres today merino tencel blends, alpaca, merino/silk roving's and blue faced Leicester blends. I have dyed some of them with large spaces of colours so that you can spin up a nice self striping yarn, here is my favourite:

  I don't normally love pinks but this would make such a pretty yarn. To see them all its best to go directly to the fybers section.

I also dyed some scrumptious, and I am completely in love with these greens check out the dk section for all the colours:

There is sock yarn too, Phew!!

PS got price for van!!!! Fell down the loft ladder stairs and got a million bruises, but more importantly did it with my laptop in one hand, suffice to say its gonna have to go get fixed again :-( , on the bright side, I pick up my van tomorrow!!! Yippee!!!

PPS getting some more broaches with sheep, and a little snail!

Fibre, fibre, fibre, fibre fibre!!!!

I love custom orders, they are so good for breaking habits and stretching yourself. I had a large and complicated custom order at the weekend, which took me about 5 hours to do, because it was fiddly and basically used every colour and combination I could do, but it was so much fun, and seeing as I had to mix allot of colours I decided to repeat the order for me, and also some for the shop. I dyed so  much bfl and silk, merino tencel,  and alpaca, and sock yarn and scrumptious, so once its dried it'll be up in the shop.

Some of the roving's are dyed in large sections so that they are perfect for a self striping yarn in pane-tones, and they are yummy. One of my dreams is to dye a load of fibre, spin a self striping yarn and then knit it into a design, so I did some fibres for me too at the same time, I will get working on it straight away this week, because I have some spinning time at the weekend when I go to Voirreys, so thats really exciting. I'll document the whole process because I have a feeling it will be gorgeous!! I'm really excited!

I'll start with photo's of the roving's tonight if I get the chance, Carmenthita arrives at 4.30 today and she doesn't actually have a bed yet, so not quite sure how I will solve that problem.

Test drove the van this morning, and had an interesting conversation for a good part exchanged deal for my little Clio, which went like this:

Van salesmen in a room of other salesmen "We'll just go and value your car Jeni"

Me: "OK"

Van man comes back " its worth £3100"

Me: laugh out loud "you must be effing joking, I want more than that for it"

Van man and other sales men: mouth open and some what amused. "well thats what it is worth"

Me: laughing once again "no it isn't the market value is £3500 and thats the bottom price" ( I researched it first, before I went )

Van man " um, there is a dent in the side"

Me: Laughed again! "Dent devils: 28.99 plus VAT mate"

Van man: laughing and shocked for some bizarre reason, Silence for about 20 seconds "OK we'll see what we can do"

Me "good" with a big grin obviously. 

They said I was cheeky, but they loved it. I guarantee I will get my van for the price I wanted. LOL

Morning mum!

This is a special message for mum and 2 lovely girls, just to say that I hope you will like learning to knit and you have lots of fun doing it!   ;-)

jeni