Shop update

Right the shop will be updated later today, have a tonne of cashmere lace, sock and dk for you, but have to go into psychology this morning to sort some stuff out first, grrrrrrrrrrr.

**ADDED LATER** shop is updated with dry things (including new chunky scrumptious), lol, but there will lots more added over the weekend.

However I suppose this is a perfect time to highlight the new clubs in the shop, due to a great success with the fybers and that I often have a tonne of luxury fybers which never stay in the shop long enough for people to buy them, lol, I have a 5 month luxury fibre club which there are memberships for the UK (£50) US & EUROPE (55) and The rest of the world (£60)details as follows;

This is a luxury fibre club, each month you will receive 100gms of a different hand dyed fyber, and info about that fyber! You will receive 100gms of the following fybers: Cashmere, kid mohair, baby Alpaca, Silk and Blue faced Leicester/ silk blend. This is perfect for spinners, felters and people who just love fybers really! If you would like to purchase this as a Christmas gift, I can send you a voucher to pop in a card. Postage is included in the club price. Each package will be posted in the first week of the month starting in January.

Secondly we have a spinners Fiber club UK (£25) US and EUROPE (£30) and The rest of the world (£35)details as follows:

You will receive 100gems of hand dyed fybers each month. The fybers are Blue faced Leicester, Merino and Super sorted Shetland. This club is perfect for beginner spinners because the fybers are nice and easy to spin. The price includes postage. If you would like to give this as gift please let me know and I will send you a voucher.

I also have a 12 month sock club, seeing as the other two are a great success and lots of people renew their subscriptions UK (£99) US and EUROPE (£109) and The rest of the world (£120) Details as follows;

This sock club runs for 12 months! You are saving £36 of the full retail price! Each month you will get 100gms of the new fyberspates 'dream' sock yarn, with hand dyed to colours which are inspired by the month of the year! This club starts in January and will make a wonderful Christmas present for a sock knitter. Each hank of yarn will be sent out on the first week of the month. 12 months postage is included in the price!!!!

And finally a lace club!!! Yay Finally UK (£30) US and EUROPE (£35) and The rest of the world (£40)!

This is a 3 month lace club, for those who love lace, you will get one hank of yarn each month, which will be wound into balls if you want it! Yippee! You will receive 100gms of yarn each month, there will be one hank of silk lace (950m) a hank of lace Blue faced Leicester (1200m) and one hank of alpaca lace yarn (600m). Postage is included in the price of the yarn :-) If you would like to purchase this as a Christmas present I can send you a voucher to pop in a Christmas card. This club starts in January.

OK so I think thats enough for one morning, be sure to check the shop later, there is some great yarn today.

Do I do this, or do I do that?

So I packed every package I possibly could physically pack before 4.45 and took them to the post office and posted them all. I am always stunned how much I spend at the post office, the guys behind the counter call me 'little bo peep' which I don't mind, I really sure they could think of worse, lol.

So I am in a dilemma, the house is quiet, so I have about another three hours of work I could get done (I really have to get a better work life balance), but whats calling me is some delicious little spinning batts for the shop, I need to go and raid the shed and see if I can fix my electric drum carder, I also need to put another section on my website for my new products, hmm, so I do boring stuff or do I do some scrummy little spinning things and make a horrendous mess because there will be fibres everywhere, and little bits of sparkles.

Yep, Its sparkles every time! I'll see you tomorrow with spinning photo's and the cabled mitts which I forgot to photograph today.

xx

En Francais.

That title probably doesn't mean what I think it does, anyway basically  I have been getting my most popular patterns translated into other languages, and we are starting with french, so the mini shawl, the wave scarf and stole and the basic sock pattern is now available in French from the webshop. Yipee, I am really chuffed about this, I would love to have multiple versions of my website that were in other languages, but until I improve my language skills, the world will have to read it in English.

I have packed up all the order which need to be shipped, now I just need to get dyeing tommorow ready for the friday update, I'm feeling in the mood for some warm sock yarns this week, to knit toasty socks for the cold weather.

OOOOOOH! I designed some cutsy cables fingerless mitts in scrumptious while I was away, i'll post a photo tomorrow when its nice and light.

off to knit a new design now.

:-)

As Alice would say, I had lovely lovely lovely lovely time

Well, thats the last show of the year over, and I have to say it was really fabulous. I enjoyed it so much, and made lots of new contacts and friends, and have some new ideas for going in some slightly different directions, but thats going to take a little bit of time and work before I reveal any of those plans, mwahahahahahahahahaha, lol.

Right! So I did buy something really really cool, I love felting, and I love slippers, so when I saw a kit for some felted slippers, I had to have it! It was a kit from knitting4fun, and I had a few lovely chats to these guys but it was especially lovely to chat to people about their products freely. So I feel extra happy about recommending their products, their kits are really great. I will photo my kit tomorrow, and am sure I will start knitting it tomorrow as well!!!

Next up, there was an exhibition of textile insects by fibrefusion, its sculptured textiles, I can't seem to get the link to work, so if any one knows it, can you send it to me?

They were much more amazing in person, but here are a few of them, they were absolutely superb:

The details on some of them were so clever and they were huge and even eerie!

Right too tired to write any more.

xx

Super de duper.

I had a fabulous day today, it was really quiet until about 11.30, I think thats when all the coach parties came, but after that it was busy and I saw lots of lovely customers who I realise are becoming my regulars, and it is so lovely to see the same faces again and again, I guess it means they like knitting my yarn! LOL. One customer told me a very beautiful story of what she had done with some yarn she spun up from the bfl silk blend, it was extremely touching and bought a tear to my eye.

Its so weird how different things sell on different days, I sold so much Squishy and scrumptious today, it was great!

I also taught the guy on the stand opposite to me to knit socks, and guess what? Its the first thing he has ever knit. Yesterday I was finishing off a Christmas stocking I was making for some kits (they'll be on line on Tuesday) and he wanted to make one for his children. So he learnt to cast one, then knit about 10 rows, then cast on for a sock, and has been knitting in the round ever since. I have to get him past the heel tomorrow, but I am so amazed, because so often really good knitters are too scared to attempt socks, and this guy, who has never knitted, has just cast on and started with no fear. I am so impressed. I asked him if I could take photo's and he said yes, but only of his knitting, lol!

So all in all a lovely day, despite still having a few weird tummy probs, think it might just be doing 4 shows in a row that might just be making my body a little bit tired perhaps, but I am happy in my head so thats all that matters, and so inspired to just knit knit knit!

Right off for a glass of wine and an early night, and tomorrow, I have some super photo's to share with you of some of the creative work I have seen on display at the show, its exquisite!

Nite folks, happy knitting.

xx

Yippee, having fun!!!!

Mary, one of my customers who regualarly comes to see me at shows, and sometimes shows me some of her fabulous creations, touched the silk hanging from my stand and remarked on its dampness and my love of living near the edge, Ahem! I may have the odd skein which is 'Airing' lol, well it was raining in Cardiff before I left.

Today was great, the stand looks alot tidier and more organised than it has ever been, and the new deep coloured sock yarns are going down a real storm!! I'm very pleased. I was feeling  bit delicate today, not too sure why, but the facilities here are better than allypally, and I'm right next to the toilets so I was extremely grateful. Lol!!

So off to get an early night ready for tomorrow Don't forget to come and say hello :-)

xx

Van is packed and ready to go to Harrogate

As usual I am still trying to get the yarn dry despite the rain, but van is nearly packed, so I'm nearly ready to go. The house is empty today, Carmella is working her first day, sole and marchin are at university, I have got tonnes done, and I have to admit I was listening to classic FM because I couldn't cope with radio 1 this morning, I was a little bit hyper and pop was making me loopy!

• OK, come and say hello, my stand number is: B645.

Happy knitting.

xx

Harrogate

Right, just getting ready for harrogate, have a few new fun things, but i'll keep it a secret until I get there, lol.

I ate so much food yesterday, we went out for a pub sunday lunch, which was superb, and then we went out for a 3 course dinner in the evening, I am still stuffed today, but it was fantastic!!!

Its pouring with rain here, completely pouring, not that I really mind the rain, its just a bit crap for dyeing wool, and I have a bit more to dye for the show, still, I think i'll dye in the nice warm kichen today, I only have a few things to do, including adding a few other colours to the pallette!!!

I did some knitting on socks over the weekend, including the new dream sock yarn here is progress so far, its  bit more purple than in the pic:

I'm feeling a little bit serious today, so sorry if the post is a bit bland, I think it as Carmen puts it; my 'Ormones', lol

Quick post today

Have updated shop with a small selection of treats, AHEM, you may see a slight theme, and if you don't like mauve and green I would refrain from looking at the shop, lol, I had a completely obsessive day of dyeing on thursday and its all on a sort of Irish theme!!

  Dream sock

Superwash merino sock:

Scrumptious, Silk lace and superwash merino DK

Dream sock and quote (s) of the day.

So yesterday was a perfect day, I think I discovered the secret of happiness, I dyed sock yarn all day till about 7pm, then Sole and marcin came home, and we had wine and Polish tapas; delicious sausage with horseradish with apple in it, amazing!! Oh and grilled Polish cheese, and um AHEM wine, and jazz music in the background, and last night we laughed until we cried, it was fantastic.

Anyway, back to the sock yarn I can't stop knitting, I had to dry it quick and start knitting it because I am so in love, so in love that I was dreaming about the yarn in the night, so I am calling the new yarn Fyberspates 'dream sock' yarn! Its high twist bluefaced Leicester, but its also very soft when knitted, the best of both worlds.....want to see some?.............................................

So as you can see, I'm a little obsessed, it'll be up in the shop tomorrow along with some other autumy colours, its gorgeous gorgeous yarn. *SIGH*

Right, so I decided to start a 'Carmencita's quote of the day', mainly because I spend most of my day laughing, not at, but with Carmen, she has the most incredible sense of humour, and she makes me laugh so much, I just have to share the conversations with you, (she agreed by the way, lol)

So  I have two for you today the story of the sock leprechauns and the story of the ice.

So I'm sat on the sofa knitting my sock this morning with the new yarn sat in front of me, just trying to breathe because I love it so much, and we were talking about socks, and she picks up the yarn and says, 'when I think about people knitting socks I imagine little people in tree's knitting the socks' which I raised an eyebrow at, thinking of all the sock knitters in the world knitting  socks in tree's, and it transpired she meant leprechauns knitting socks in trees. I'm still not too sure about that one, but anyway the new colourway was going to be called Iris, and when I told her that she said "yes!! Irish!!!" not quite what I meant, so now we are going for a compramise "leprechaun".

Second and the best quote of the day so far, she goes out to the garden to have a cigarette, seeing as smoking is totally banned in my house, and she comes back into the house with a lump of ice in her hand and says the following:

"Jesus Jeni, have you seen the water"

I raise an eyebrow, I mean, the girl lives on a liquid diet of Gin & tonic, I'm sure she has seen ice before!

"yes, its ice" I say,

Carmen "Oh my god jeni, we are gonna die"

I guess they don't get much ice in Grenada.

Happy knitting xx xx

Today is a serious dyeing day.

Sometimes when I am tired or stressed, I find it really hard to really get stuck into dyeing, but to be honest, it really is my favorite thing to do, and what I love even more is when I get completely obsessed with either a yarn or a new colourway. And today I have the luxury of having both!!! I have a new colour called Iris, its based on  set of Chinese paintings which I am totally in love with (yes I know I am supposed to be doing autumn ones) I had an email about the show I went to where I saw the paintings yesterday, and it got me dreaming of them, so bright and intense with different greens and deep purples, and I was bursting to paint yarn in it today. Then I wound some hanks off of a cone I have of a new yarn (a high twist superwash sock yarn), I just had to see how it dyed, and then I started dyeing, and more and more and more, I had so much fun, that I was starving and had to have chip butties for mid afternoon snacks to celebrate. I've basically done the colourway in all my yarns, so there may be a slight theme on Fridays update, lol. I'll try and post a pic later because I have some already drying because I want to knit it so much.

I also want to post a pic of Carmen untangling a ball of silk, yesterday she was meant to be winding it into a ball, and it kind of went very very wrong, and I told her I could dye more, but she decided it was a personal challenge, she's still going and she won't stop!!

Its been a bit weird in the house, because I've been megga busy giving up work, Carmen has been stressing about getting a job, and sole has been finishing her PhD so its not been our usual party house, minimal alcohol, which my liver is actually thanking me for, I was a little worried that perhaps we would not all have as much fun as we usually do. But I am starting to settle in to my new life with no problems at all, Sole handed her PhD in, and got the all OK yesterday, and today Carmen got a phone call to say she now has a job in Benetton, and she is running around the House screaming with happiness, and planning a dinner, and tomorrow we will have a party to celebrate, so things are starting to shift up a gear, and the house is becoming crazy and fun again, even yesterday we had a huge pack of food arrive from Poland, with the most delicious sausage, which you have with a type of horseradish with apple, its amazing, just amazing. I will take some pics of them all so you can see their lovely gorgeous faces.

Right off to go and get more yarn dyed before the light goes.

Happy knitting people.

xxxx

So I kind of lied.

Remember I said that was it for the shows until February? I was telling the truth at that particular moment, but now, not quite sure how it happened, but I agreed to do Harrogate, gulp! Its probably the most time I have ever had to prepare for a show, at least though I am getting used to what sells, so I have alot of work to do. But I am determined to have a really good shop update this week if it kills me!!! I have been redoing some of my photo's because they don't demonstrate my yarns properly, especially the space dyed ones, although this winter light is not making it easy to get bright photo's.

OK, whats new? I have a new range of Blue faced Leicester solids to add to the fyberspates collection, the colours are quite deep and rich, mainly because I hate pastels in the winter because we need warming up with strong colours, there are nine cherry red, olive, chocolate, caramel, black, cream, spring green, deep purple, and teal showed here:

The kimono aran pattern is designed by Katherine from K1 yarns for the aran, and there will also be some designs in magazines featuring this yarn, its soft, warm and delicious to knit with, and seems to go a really long way, and its gorgeous British blue faced Leicester, and £6 per 100gms, can't be bad can it!!!! It is also perfect for felting!

I also got some of the scrumptious in black, I can't get solids very well, so I had some dyed for me in Black, and its just pure heaven!

Its all knit knit knit in this house, Sole is knitting a full winter set completely from space dyed yarn: feather and fan scarf in the squishy in fiesta, it takes about 2 hanks, and she has just cast on with the fiesta dk to make fingerless glove to match and will then probably make a hat in chunky or aran again in fiesta! Its going to look cool! I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Happy knitting. Off to get hair cut spiky finally!!!!!

Stitch n'bitch London.

OK, this event was equal to the fun of the one in Rotterdam, it was absolutely fantastic! There was a superb vibe there, a real buzz, I can't wait for next year! I met all the usuals, and hopefully soon there will be random pictures of me with badgers and monkeys on the net. By the way, if you happened to be there and take any photo's of the fashion show, please please send me some, there were two models I have to have photo's off, lol.

I was chuffed because Debbie Stoller bought some scrumptious, can't say I wasn't just a little bit proud lol.

So thats it now until Paris in Feb, I've now got time to work on lots of kits, clubs and regular updates in the shop, and wholesale. If you have a shop near you that you would like to see stocking fyberspates yarns please let me know. Every recommendation that results in an order comes with free yarn as a thank you!

I am so excited about getting stuck in now, just need to sort out the house, THERE IS WOOL EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!

Nearly finished my first glove in my DK cashmere, I'll write the pattern up to go with the yarn. I dyed the yarn to go with my new green coat, as soon as its finished I'll do a proper photo, I haven't decided what to embellish them with yet, it'll either be buttons or flowers.

Stitch n'Bitch London event.

OK Guys,

Off to the stitch and bitch london event, I'll be exhibiting tomorrow, so please come and say hello!

I do have my camera ok this time, so I'll take a pic of my ginger hair, LOL, and I didn't have time to get my hair cut today, so its spiky but not as cool as it could be. Apparently I look like an Irish imp now, what ever one of those is!

Have a lovely weekend,

xxxx

Hair again

So I got bored with my new hair, 1. because it's not cool enough, and 2. because the colour has faded, and it looks bland. So I decided to colour it again, with henna this time, because it takes rather well on my hair. I went to Lush and got the cacau maron, because it had red in it, and I wanted something a bit spicy.

I got home, asked carmen if she wanted to dye my hair, gave her the dye, and she burst into laughter.

Me: "what's so funny?"

Carmen: "its cacau maron"

Me: "and......."

Carmen: "Jeni, do you know what it means in Spanish?"

Me: "No!"

Carmen "It means S**t brown"

I, like the previous time should have taken a hint from this, if Carmen finds it hilarious then its probably going to be a disaster.

So we slapped it on, wrapped it in clean film, and forgot about it. I then went to have a shower, and washed my hair. Henna is not a good thing to wash out in the shower if your shower gets blocked and you end up standing in your shower water, let me just say one thing "cacau maron shower water" lol.

So anyway I washed it out, dried it and then looked in the mirror, I'm generally pasty to say the least, but I was staring, not at my mother this time, but an Andy Warhol Picture, white face and orange hair. Yep, seriously orange, the colour is stunning, rich orange bright hair, but my goodness I look odd with such a pasty face. And Carmen's comment, was "well you don't look ugly"!

Anyway I am going to have it cut tomorrow, in a seriously short cut, because I am bored with my classic hair style, that can wait till I'm 40, I need a spikey princi cut asap, not sure whether to tone down the orange though or keep it...........?

Plus I have no stock for Saturday stitch and bitch day, so I am mildly panicking, not to worry though, I am sure I'll rise to the occasion.

Out on the road.

I am off to visit shop a shop in Hereford today with an order, one of my favourite things to do, I would go mad if I stayed at home all the time, I love the dyeing but I have to mix it with some traveling, and communicating with my customers. Not only that I would get into lazy habits being at home all the time. but before that I have yarn to dye, and get drying, and a pattern book to prepare for my customer. Oh and add a couple of things to the website, I am so low on stock its shocking!

Right so here are some pics of the gorgeous spindles I am now stocking from Sublime spindles, I am chuffed to bits with these, I have been looking for spindles to sell for an age, and here are a couple. They are prices at £19.99 inc VAT

This is a beautiful bottom whorl silk weight spindle made of Ash, and comes complete with bowl. Its so cute, I am desperate to have a go with these.

The next is more suited for wool and is made of walnut, GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS.

Right, had better get working. Thanks for the links by the way to the Nauni stuff and especially Emma who pointed me to a blog of Ruth whose work with these yarns is exquisite.

Stitch n'Bitch Rotterdam was cool!

Well, I had such a fantastic time, and now have two new wholesale accounts, the feedback on my yarns was really good, so I was happy. Everyone organising the show, and participating was so wonderful, they were such a lovely bunch of people. And the knitters are serious knitters! Some of the colour work I saw was unbelievable, there was one in particular which blew me away, I even bought some yarn from them so I could have a go, nothing has ever inspired me to do fair-aisle before, but I was itching to start, I just need to find a chart. The wool is rough as hell though, so I will make a cushion I think its a good place to start. The company name is KAUNI the website doesn't demonstrate the yarns very well, and I need to try and find some pictures of the jumpers people have made with the self striping yarns to show you. If any one has links or pics from Holland, please let me know, I'd love to link to them.

Here are the cones:

The main reason I was so excited was because Elly and I worked on some patterns using solid back grounds with self striping yarn, which were fab, and we are still working on more, and it was kind of a similar idea, apart from the back ground and the pattern is both self striping in these.

Anyway, Mr Bluefaced Leicester came with me, because he was meant to have a stand as well, and wanted to see some customers there too, so it was nice to have a wooly partner in crime to help me. We certainly had a few adventures, one in particular made me laugh, we were wandering looking for somewhere to have dinner on Saturday night, and there were a load of armed police running up and down the road, not exactly sure what they were looking for, but we dived into a Thai restaurant, the whole restaurant turned around, and looked horrified, and someone even asked us if they were looking for us!! We just laughed, then they started taking the P**s out of us for being typically English and  being under dressed for the cold weather, thats the first time I have been subjected to a British stereotype, I was completely embarrassed! (my job in psychology was investigating stereotypes and attitudes and racism, so I'm slightly fascinated with peoples perceptions of other nationality's).

I couldn't seem to figure out what the sort of national dish was, although I realized that ham and smoked cheese figures heavily in the cuisine, thanks so much for the food suggestions, unfortunately I didn't get much chance to investigate the traditional aspect further, although we went to the bazarr, which was a fabulous place, thanks for that recommendation.

All in all it was a great trip, but I am glad to be back ready to focus on being full time and having some balance back in my life. I haven;t had a guilt free weekend off for over a year, so after next weekend which is the stitch and bitch event in London, I am having a proper weekend off of work, I am going to eat, knit, go shopping and just chill the hell out.

I am also now going on a health kick because my body is starting to struggle, my skin is crap, so I am going to eat lots of soups, vitamins, water, herb teas, early nights, and start going running, and start yoga, its something I have been meaning to do it for years, so now is the time to start looking after myself. Yippee!!!!!

Oh and I have some new yummy scrummy yarns, I will update the shop slowly this week but first thing I will do, is put the new gorgeous wooden spindles on the website this afternoon.

Right, Happy knitting guys.

xxx

Stitch n'bitch Rotterdam!

So guess where I am  going tomorrow?

Yep, you guessed it, Rotterdam, for their stitch n'bitch day. I get the ferry tomorrow morning with my little van, I am so flippin excited!!!!

I didn't quite finish work yesterday, even though I stayed until 9.00 in the end!! Anyway, I have alot of dyeing to do, and now that takes precedence, and I'll have to pop in later on today to finish off, once my dyeing is done.

Oh I can't wait to go tomorrow, I promise I will take tonnes of photo's!! Does anyone have any suggestions for places to eat in Rotterdam, and what is traditional dutch food, so I can try some!!!!!!

Ps, have some gorgeous hand made wooden spindles, they are scrummmmmmmy. I'll take them to rotterdam, and then they'll be in the shop on monday, I want to keep them alllllllllllllllllllllll.