Tag: Etsy

April (Fool?)-ing

Is there a bright side to Lockdown (‘confinement’ in France!) ? Could be just having more time for all of this:

Spinn-ing: some art yarns from my batts – natural dyed stuff from France (goodness knows when we’ll get back there) – mostly lichens and mosses – and madder, of course.

Gloat-ing  (again!) over my indigo stash. I can’t set the indigo bath up very often, so my projects have to be chosen with care. Further sneak peek:

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Knitt-ing: This w(ork) i(n) p(rogress) is for me. Mostly alpaca! It will be some form of log cabin blanket – just to prove I can do neutrals…

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Classic BSJ (Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket) for new grandson:

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Winter stock (and lots of it) for my Etsy shop:

 

And – of course – Egg, tomato, lettuce, and Swiss cheese sandwich (!) for 4 year old granddaughter:

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Crochet-ing: Apparently you need sun shades for this one – a baby blanket:

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And another wip all for me, and in my colours – a Spice of Life blanket from Sandra Paul of  CherryHeart .   Really enjoying this one – AND – a first –  threading in the ends as I go (well, more or less).

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Bak-ing: Is there anyone in Blogland who hasn’t made Lucy’s oat pancakes yet? Well worth a go – thank you, Attic24! I also managed a batch of her oat cookies, which seemed to vanish overnight. Just added loads of seeds, so they look a bit different – but basically Lucy‘s recipe again!

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Finish-ing Rachel Cusk’s trilogy. I’m very impressed with her writing and the issues stay with me, though I have trouble recalling the detail…maybe go back and start again, it’s worth it. AND I’ve got time….!

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Cowl crazy – I’ve been busy.

After a marathon spate of blanket making recently I now need to turn to some smaller items for my SpinningStreak ETSY shop. The blankets are mostly for friends and family. They are great fun to make but not exactly cost effective to sell. I worked out that one of the larger ones took over 100 hours, so over £800 at minimum wage, not counting rather expensive materials…..! That is never going to work.

So cowls it is. And I do love the constant variety – knitted, crocheted, thick yarn, thin yarn, narrow, long, infinity twisted, ribbed, textured, lacy, modular, hand dyed…..I have hardly looked up from my needles and hooks this month!

Winter is coming – it might be leg warmers next week!

Spinner temporarily intimidated by Scary Stash

Some random pictures taken in half a minute this morning.

Usually The Stash is inspiring and I love to sit amongst it and plot what comes next. But every now and then it distresses me. This is only a very small corner of one room – mostly left over from spinning/dyeing/knitting/crocheting projects since Christmas. There is Much Much more.

It won’t be wasted. Some goes to charity shops, some to schools – and some lands up in destash bags like these in my Etsy shop:

If you’re tempted, just message me via Etsy and I’ll reduce the price by 33%. Out of my life…..!

Back with a bump

Weather-wise, that is. From regular mid 30s to not even 15 degrees. So hard to accept that summer is over! The days we spent in Vieux Lyon were probably peak heat – over 38C. The rather sinister looking bars above were actually our window in an amazing 15th century hotel building – very lucky to stumble across this one.

You may have guessed that the big draw for me was the Textile Museum. For about 500 years Lyon was a world centre for silk production. I have been wanting to visit this museum for almost that long…. and it did not disappoint!

Back now to work, family and a much neglected Etsy shop. Internet for a couple of hours a week is not great for running an online business!

Choices, choices…..

Over this weekend I have had to offer two sorts of sock yarn. (I think people must be starting to knit socks for Christmas, though it could be for summer shawls instead!) My first instinct is always to grab the dye pots and have some fun experimenting – but I peeped into my stocks and decided to get realistic. I fished out the first 20 skeins (probably about a third of the sock yarn ready to go) and spread it around.

The first choice was not too tricky – ‘luxury, soft and feminine’. So I went for some silk and alpaca in more pastel colours, and will probably end up with this top one, which is more subtle than it looks, especially when knitted up.  It was a very successful batch, though I say it myself.

But choice number two is harder. It is for ‘something different’. Hmm. I assume that EVERYONE who orders Indie hand dyed yarn is looking for ‘something different’ –  otherwise there are dozens of perfectly good commercial yarns out there….

Does it mean in-your-face, saturated colours, like these?

Or just unusual combinations – maybe these?

I’m really not sure. Any ideas?