Owl Babies

In our post about Woolfest, we talked about how popular our fab Tawny Owl kits were and so here are some more details for those of you who also just have to have one of these adorable little owls.

The Tawny Owl Kit is a collaboration between Ella Austin and Fyberspates yarn and each kit contains the owl pattern by Ella Austin; an instruction booklet with clear directions, charts, photographs and illustrations; Faerywings yarn by Fyberspates hand dyed in a custom colour and Scrumptious 4ply in Oyster and Slate; 100% lambswool stuffing, and two olive wood buttons.

Tawny Owl is a quick and satisfying knit. This enchanting toy will appeal to all ages as a cuddly companion or a delightful ornament. The finished dimensions  of our little friend is 14cm (5.5”) so a cute and huggable critter to keep you company and enjoy knitting up.

To make yourself a knitted lovely, you will need to know how to knit in the round, be able to read charts and use a few simple increases and decreases. There is also some stranded knitting to work the lovely patterned belly and finally some i-cord for the finishing touch.


The three skeins included in the kit are Faerywings (67% silk, 23% mohair, 10% nylon), hand dyed in the custom colour' Owls', as well as  Scrumptious 4ply (45% silk, 55% superwash merino) in Oyster and Slate. All packaging and the printed booklet use 100% recycled materials and are 100% recyclable.

We love this little knitted creature and think it would make a great gift or totally selfish knitting project. Whoever you decide to be the lucky recipient, you can purchase your kit here.

 

Oh What Fun We Had!

JenAC and Nic took on the booth at Woolfest this time round while Jeni was being an international lady of awesome at TNNA. Here's how they got on....


One of the best things about fibre festivals is the opportunity to meet so many people and this event was no exception. We met lots of wonderful customers old and new - it's brilliant to meet previous customers and hear about what they made (or didn't get round to!) from last year's haul. As always, a massive thank you for everyone who came and said hi, squooshed yarn and bought. We love seeing you all!


Popular at the event this time round were:

• The new 150g hanks went down a storm in the Sparkle Sock - perfect for a good sized shawl or shoulder covering cowl. Hurry, there's still a few left in the shop! Click here to grab your skein. 


• Ysolda's Saturday Treat book was exactly the (Friday and) Saturday Treat that many of our customers were looking for, with the Pear Drop and Barley Sugar designs being the most popular. If you've not got your copy yet, you can get your weekend off to a flying start by purchasing one on the website here.


• Yarn for the Midnight Ocean and Song of The Sea patterns by Louise Zass-Bangham that both feature Fyberspates yarn. Stay tuned for a feature about this fab designer and these designs here on the blog soon. 


• The adorable Tawny Owl kits from Ella Austin who we'll be featuring soon too. If you can't wait, there's still kits to be had on the shop. 

We saw many friends, and were particularly excited to see Sarah Hatton sporting a new cardigan that she has designed using Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran - watch this space for more details about the pattern when it is launched. You can read all about the cardigan in the blog post that she wrote about it here.  

We were also saved from our shivers by some of the shop samples and our friend Susan Crawford lending out fabulous sweaters from her stall to help keep us going. JenAC went for the layered look, sporting Jeni's 'Challow' jumper from The Scrumptious Collection Volume 1 AND Susan Crawford's rather fabulous 'Swagger Coat' knit in Scrumptious Aran. The Scrumptious Aran samples are becoming a fibre festival staple this year, so warm with all this dreadful weather we've been having.

Did we mention that it was wet...... and it was amazingly cold?

But the customers were wonderful, and we can't wait for next year!

The results are in!

We are so proud to announce the final results of the ‘Sheep to Sweater’ challenge and the fantastic effort by all who participated. This event represented a challenge to break the Guinness World Record for shearing a sheep, spinning and plying the yarn, and knitting a sweater to the International Wool Challenge pattern standards. 

The team with the finished sweater

The record attempt took place on May 12^th 2012 at Tuin Pension Groenewoud. The international team, sponsored by Fyberspates, was judged to be the fastest of 2012 and the team was declared winner of the 18th International Back to Back Wool Challenge. They also become holders of the Netherlands Record and the Mainland Europe Record. The challenge was completed in 6 hours 3 minutes and 28 seconds. The Guinness record was not broken and the current record is 4 hours, 51 minutes and 14 seconds.

Well done to the team for this amazing effort! You can watch the events unfold in a fab video from the event by clicking the link here.

 

 

Scoria

One of our favourite designers (oh there are so many) has recently featured Scrumptious 4ply in a stunning design for The Knitter Magazine. The pattern is featured in Issue 46 for those of you who would love to knit it up and of course, there are lots of colours to create it in on the Fyberspates website.

Scoria is a garment that is worked bottom up and in pieces. Kyoko says she normally favours circular knitting but the horizontal lace and herringbone pattern needed this flat construction. It's a delicate piece that is stylish and will suit many different body types.

The lace is worked first and then blocked before stitches are then picked up and worked upwards. The garment features a biased neckband which is worked in the round before being blocked and attached at the end. This gives a sophisticated and structured feel to the whole garment.

Kyoko told us that the inspiration comes from moving volcanic lava and contrast hard rocks around it. The aim was to create something feminine and mysterious and the texture of Scrumptious yarn and the shimmer that it brings to the garment enabled Kyoko to really push her volcanic vision to the full.

Well done Kyoko, another fab design!

Bacon Sarnies and Yarn

Our friends at Purlescence were kind enough to host Fyberspates for an Open Day at their shop in Wantage on 9th June 2012. The event ran all day and included lots of opportunities for yarn and book buying and a chance to try on some of the samples from the Fyberspates Pattern Collection.

It was a great day and we had so much fun. There was plenty of tea and homemade cakes and even more excitingly, the day kicked off with a round of bacon sarnies- divine! A huge thank you to everyone who attended the event and made it so fun. The biggest thanks has to go to Sarah for hosting us and making us all feel so welcome (and keeping us well fed and caffeinated).

We had so much fun, we'll be doing it all again soon but this time with Pimms and an opportunity to knit outside. If you would like to come along and join in, either keep an eye on the Ravelry Group Thread here or the Purlescence website for an announcement shortly.

Off to TNNA!

As you read this I am currently representing Fyberspates and Scrumptious Yarns at TNNA, in Ohio. This is another commercial event, aimed at businesses and designers in the NeedleArts Community. I am very lucky to be hosted on the Lantern Moon stand, our distributor of Scrumptious Yarns in the US.

I will also be representing the UK along with Anne Kingston and a bevvy of other British designers and I'm so excited! I've brought along 3 single patterns that we are launching at TNNA and will soon be available. I'll be writing about the patterns more when they launch but I couldn't resist giving you a sneak peek at them now because they are fab!

'Cocktail Cherry' is a beaded short cardigan that is perfect for eveningwear and designed by Jen AC. The pattern calls for Scrumptious Aran silk and merino yarn and is offered in a range of sizes.

'Gray' is a wonderful cardigan to snuggle into on long walks and designed by Susan Crawford. Then pattern calls for Scrumptious Chunky silk and merino luxury yarn and we think this will be a huge hit.


'Winding Path' is an elegant, generously-sized shawl is knitted in Scrumptious 4ply silk and merino luxury yarn. It is designed by Anniken Annis and is a great project all year round.

All the patterns will be released as single patterns and will soon be available for download. We're so proud of the talented designers we have supporting the Fyberspates pattern range and some of you will be noticing some very familiar models and photography too. Expect more details soon!

Silk Rose

Drawing inspiration from the recent jubilee, Susan Crawford has published a new title 'Coronation Knits'. Focussing on fashion influences during the time of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, Coronation Knits looks back at this special event as we celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. Once again Susan has used Scrumptious yarns and the pattern is fabulous.


Silk Rose is a feminine scarf that can be worn as a headscarf or as a neat neck scarf. The scarf is constructed by first knitting the centre panel flat using a combination of intarsia and fair isle techniques. The striped inner border is then picked up and knitted in the round around all four ‘sides’ of the centre panel. The feather and fan edging is also knitted in the round and can easily be extended to make a larger size if desired.


The pattern calls for Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace, our 45% Silk and 55% Merino base. The colourways shown here are Natural (for the main colour), and constrasting colourways Cherry, Rose Pink , Oyster and Wine Gum. To buy your skeins to make this classic pattern, please visit the Fyberspates online store here or check with your local yarn shop.