Anyone home?

Oh dear, badly neglected blog syndrome. Where did the last month go?!

It seems that summer holidays, friends and family visiting, changing jobs and preparing for the forthcoming cooler seasons may have got in the way of blogging. Funny that.

Anyway here's the latest Perran Yarn news - sparkly sock yarns for twinkly toes!

Pumpkin Pie

Night Sky

Oasis

Figgy Pudding!

So who's started planning their Christmas projects?

Sneaky preview..

.. of the latest colourway of my laceweight merino silk sparkle yarn - Stormy Skies. 

Dramatic!

Available soon..

Love dyeing yarn!

 

No words required :)

Skeined!

First up - Happy Father's Day! Hope all Dad's everywhere had a fab day, whatever you did :)

Last night and this evening I spent reskeining a couple of 500gram megaskeins of DK merino superwash wool.

I bought them from Fyberspates a while back, and have finally got round to wanting to dye them and get them into my Etsy shop!

I wanted to divide each megaskein into 50gram skeins ready for dyeing. I knew how many metres of the wool there was per kilo, so I calculated the length for 50grams from that.

I know that my niddy noddy winds a skein of 1.9metres each time round, so I could calculate from that how many times I had to wind around to make each skein.

I added a couple more winds each time for good measure - nobody likes underweight skeins!

It didn't take as long as I thought, and my arms lasted out. Now I have a gorgeous pile of 50gram skeins ready for the dye pot!

Peek-a-boo Project

White cashmerino fingerless mitts.... lush!

Mitts and Cuffs

I'm not sure why but I seem to be in handwarming mode despite the warm and sunny weather!

Actually I knitted these items a short while back, but then hung around waiting to finish off the sewing, beading, finding ribbons, etc.

First up are the gooseberry fingerless mitts.

I absolutely adore the colour of these, and the flower is so soft you can barely feel it.

The mitt is knitted in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (currently one of my favourite yarns) and the flower in Debbie Bliss Angel with various glass beads sewn in the centre.

Delicious!

The silk bell lace cuffs are another luxury, this time for a special occasion.

Have you been invited to a summer ball, wedding, etc? Then these are for you!

Handknitted using shimmering Jaeger Pure Silk yarn with ribbon bows and a crocheted edging incorporating silver lined glass seed beads.

Beautiful.

Coral reef

On Saturday I had just 1 hour to fit in some yarn dyeing. I've been wanting to do this for weeks, so it was a case of now or never!

I managed to get it done in time - just - and the gorgeous Coral Reef laceweight merino dried overnight thanks to the fine weather.

On Sunday morning I reskeined the yarn, after setting up a very Heath Robinson-looking affair which used almost all of my winding equipment!

I had a lovely photo session with 3 beautiful skeins, and they are now available to buy in my Etsy shop. 

These will look stunning when knitted up!

Remodelling peaches

I'm really pleased with how well my hand-dyed Perran Yarns have sold in my Etsy shop.

The only one that hasn't done so well is the laceweight merino in this delicate "Peaches and Dreams" colourway.

Its blue, green and purple sisters sold out, but only 1 ball of this one has found a loving home.

The yarn is gorgeous - smooth and soft - but obviously this shade is not what lace knitters want. Time for a remodelling event.

First of all I need to re-skein the balls so I can overdye them. 

I've done one ball this afternoon and had to stop - this is a lengthy manual task winding back onto the niddy-noddy, so it won't be rushed.

More tomorrow.

Dennis and Gnasher!

I recently knitted a lovely pair of fingerless mitts as a custom order for a repeat customer of my Etsy shop.

We worked out the design between us - distinctive, funky and unique!

I used Rico Essentials Soft Merino Aran yarn for the mitts - a lovely soft easycare yarn with great colours and good yardage.

I had some of each colour left over - of course I had to use it up by coming up with another item.

The colours reminded me of Dennis & Gnasher from my childhood days, so I ended up making a pair of stripy fingerless mitts - in a child size of course!

They're available in my shop now.

ukhandmade Wedding Gift Guide

The ukhandmade Wedding Gift Guide is out now! 
 
I'm so excited as my luxurious beaded angora/merino handwarmers were selected to be included.

Crammed full of beautiful items available for you to purchase, all handmade by talented uk designers and artists.

Even if you're not planning or going to a wedding, take a look - it's fabulous!

What a Yarn

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day Seven

OK, coveted yarns... When sorting out what to include in this post I realised that for me a yarn has to be soft. I mean really soft! So here are 3 yarns from my stash - amongst many others that could have been included too!

1) Hand Maiden Lace Silk in colourway Nova Scotia

100% silk

I bought this several years ago at the same exhibition as I got the Hipknits cashmere (previous post). I couldn't resist the intensity of colour, the gorgeous sheen, and the luxurious softness of the silk. I don't do much lace knitting but this yarn is so worth it!

2) Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in colourway Vera (shade 70)

80% superwash wool, 20% nylon

I had been on the lookout for this colourway of this yarn for so long. It's not the easiest yarn to get in the UK, particularly if you want a specific shade. I finally found somebody destashing 2 skeins on Ravelry last year, and jumped on it! Fabulous colour combo - and so soft!

3) Mirasol Sulka in Cream (shade 200)

60% merino wool, 20% alpaca, 20% silk

I got this in a sale from an online UK store to try out for winter neckwarmer or such. The finished item was originally to be sold in my Etsy shop but it's soooooo soft and squishy and yummy I may not be able to let it go...

Winter weddings

Tada! Here's my latest addition to my Etsy shop - and it made me very happy to make them!

Not that I'm going to a winter wedding or even know any winter brides to give them to. I just really enjoyed making them.

The Sublime Angora Merino yarn is just that - sublime to touch. I adore this stitch pattern and they are a quick knit.

I spent quite a while handsewing on the 130 glass seed beads but, strangely enough for me, I enjoyed doing that too!

I even liked staging the photographs as I had remembered that I still have my own wedding outfit pieces. I found them out, fondly looked through them, and decided to use my veil as the background. Quite romantic I think!

Alison from AMIDesigns must have been thinking along the same lines as she has just listed this beautiful bracelet too.

Gorgeous!

Oh yes.. knitting!

Yes, that is what I used to blog about isn't it - knitting and crochet projects?!

Well I think it's about time I showed some more progress..

A few days ago I sold the gorgeous cranberry  hand/wristwarmers which were one of my absolute favourite knits.

The yarn is Sublime Angora Merino DK - so very luxurious, like melted butter on the skin!

I love the Sublime yarns and therefore I happen to have more of this yarn - in a very pale cream shade (linen) and a rich deep purple (berry).

Of course I had to make more fabulous wristies with it.

They are a quick knit, with enough interest in the lace hand-covering part to keep them interesting. I'm modifying the edging slightly on this pair - the last one was good but a little longer than I wanted.

A current crochet project (note "a" not "the" - I like to have choices!) is a set of coasters for a family member for Christmas.

They are in her favourite colours of Rowan Linen Drape - lilac and purple.

The yarn is giving a lovely crisp stitch texture but should have the absorbancy I like of these coasters.

I seem to be almost following a colour scheme through my projects for now!

Dyelicious!

3 weeks on and we're still stumbling along with the laptop - the main computer is progressing slowly but still recuperating.

I have managed to spend most evenings this week winding the laceweight merino that I dyed a while back into more manageable skeins and centre-pull balls.


I do love the colours!



I created labels in Word which I'm pleased with too.



The yarns are now available in my Etsy shop - feel free to go take a look!



Now I can't wait to get the kitchen back in a decent state for long enough to dye some more...

Christmas knitting!

Yes, it's true - I've nearly finished a Christmas knitting project. I didn't mean to do it. I wasn't actually thinking about Christmas; I just needed an easy project on a circular needle to do whilst travelling on a coach, and this leapt to mind.

I had planned to do this project at some point, just not yet. So much so that I'd added it to my Ravelry queue and even bought the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran while it was on sale at Stash Yarns.

And now I'm so glad I did. What a great project! It's the Debbie Bliss Baby Shrug in size 9-12 months. This was featured as a free pattern for a while on the Prima website (and probably in the printed magazine too). It doesn't seem to be in the listed patterns now but I found it via Google here.

It's quick, easy, gorgeously smooshy in the cashmerino yarn, and so very cute. Plus there's very little seaming to do - bonus!

That's all I need to do now to finish off this little beauty, then Christmas Present Number 1 is good to go.

Oh, it's for my lovely little niece by the way, who is coming to Cornwall to visit us with her brother, mom and dad (i.e. my brother) this weekend coming. I can't wait!

Twisted!

Yes, the moment has come. The Twister is finished.

What a great day to show it off - glorious sunshine but definately cold enough for a merino wool sweater.

I am in love with this yarn. It's so buttery soft that it feels more like angora than merino. I just wish I could get hold of more, but that's not going to happen. It's a one-off.

I'm so pleased with this sweater.
I love the way the design (alternating twist cables with ribs in between) came out.
I love that the pattern matches up around the side seams.
I love the way the colours of the hand-dyed yarn blend together.
I love the fit. OK, it could be a smidge longer, but it will be when I lose weight. ;-)

This was a long project - it ended up as 3 months from initial idea to trying on the FO - but it was so worthwile. The seaming, usually my most hated task, went like a dream thanks to that butter-soft yarn.

And the amount of yarn left over? 22grams! Enough for a small project I think - maybe a headband or similar.


I mentioned some lessons I'd learned along the way - here goes:

1) When planning a stretchy (ribby) design, make sure you add extra to the length; remember that the sideways stretch pulls the garment up shorter when worn.

2) Sketch out the design (as in schematics with stitch pattern in place) in the planning stage - you might find that you want the stitch pattern to match up at the sides/sleeve seams, or you want a cable to split around neckline, etc.

3) Sounds so obvious, but cables and ribs take quite a lot longer to knit in finer yarns, so try to remember this when embarking on a cable sweater knit in DK weight yarn!

4) Bear in mind that highly-patterned designs may look different over a larger area than they do in your swatch - so knit a bigger swatch to make sure you're getting the effect you want.

Ahhh, I'm happy. It was a great challenge and I loved every stitch. I'm off to bask in FO glory.. and wash my hair.

Twister teaser

The talented TutleyMutley dropped by and asked where we had moved from - it was from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, on 19th Feb 2007. Nearly time to celebrate the first anniversary of starting our new life!

In the meantime, here's a welcome bright patch in our rather grim wintry back garden at the moment - our lovely camellia, coming into full bloom.

The garden resembles more of a building site - and will do for a good while this year - as we're not landscaping it until our extension is completed. And that's not even started yet. ;-)

I had to show you the beautiful sunrises we get here - this one from this morning.

The lefthand picture is from upstairs (we're in a dormer bungalow) - great view across the rooftops of the surrounding bungalows and out over the countryside.

The righthand picture is from our bedroom, which is downstairs, so we get to see the palm trees in the front garden. I never thought I'd live somewhere with palm trees in the garden! :-)

Oh yes, and the knitting i.e the Twister sweater. The knitting is all done! I've seamed the shoulders and sewn in the sleeves; just the side and sleeve seams to do. Hopefully in a couple of evenings I'll have a FO to show you. I even have enough yarn left to sew the seams, and a little more - maybe for a hairband or similar.

I'm starting to compile a list of lessons learned, which I'll share with the FO. Watch this space!

7 tinks on a Friday night

I don't know why, but I've always liked the number 7. I don't have the number anywhere in my date of birth and I've never lived at house number 7. Maybe it's just a comfortable familiar number, there being 7 days in the week. Maybe it's to do with the number supposedly being the amount of things we can remember readily. I don't know.

So what's this got to do with knitting? Well as I was working on the front neck and armhole decreases on the Twister tonight (whilst watching Jonathan Ross on TV - great show!) I realised that each side seemed to be pretty close to the number of stitches I needed for the shoulders. Which was a bit odd as I still had another 20-odd decrease rows left to do.

That's when I checked my decrease notes. (I had noted down each row number with a mark for the neck/armhole decrease where required right up to the shoulder shaping - its' the only way I can keep track when the decreases are at different rates). Of course I should have checked them when I first wrote them down, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, right?

It came as no surprise to find that I'd carried on the armhole decreases way further than I should have done in my notes, and I needed to undo 7 (there's that number again!) rows of work on both sides of the front. Thankfully they were only rows of 30-odd stitches each side.

Of course it was irksome to undo what I had spent time creating, and to be regressing rather than going forwards. But as I worked the slow, deliberate tinking movements, I realised that it was actually quite satisfying. I wasn't going to fudge around the problem and always know it was there, even if others didn't notice. I was carefully peeling it back to the point where I could make the error disappear. Magically erased. Vanished.

Now the offending 7 rows of decreases have gone. The shaping is as it should be. The problem never existed. :-)

Oh and Della - my confidence is slowly growing that I will have enough yarn left for the remaining sleeve. But I've still got my fingers crossed.

Go baby!

The Twister is rockin' on - front nearly done - woohoo!