Skein Queen

As part of a knit along in the Skein Queenery group on Ravelry, I realise I’ve got a bit obsessive about this project – Coraline.

Firstly, I was obsessed by yellow – but not just an ordinary yellow – it had to have tones of golden yellow, yellow ochre and paler yellow too.

This yellow conjures up the image of Coraline in her raincoat and yellow wellies in the movie.

Then I started taking a photo of my progress every day and documenting it on Ravelry.

Just a few more rows added each evening.

Barely discernible progress…

…as I creep towards the required 95 (or thereabouts, may decide to lengthen) rows.

And I’m so loving knitting with Desire – I can see why it’s an addictive yarn!

And why Sunshine Coraline? Well, I started knitting it on 1st March and the sun was shining for the first time after what seems like a very long winter and every time I see this colour, it makes me smile (and it sort of rhymes).

Back to 8pm GMT this Thursday. Lots of Blush, some Oasis cobweb and a touch of Wisp.

Lots of green, lots of ginger.

And Delectable – delicious 50% merino 50% silk, heavy laceweight, 700m per skein.

Mossy Oak – Delectable – 2 skeins

Hawthorn – Delectable – 2 skeins (one above, one reskeined below)

Sweet Ginger – Delectable – 1 skein

Prince Charming – Delectable – 1 skein

Sea Nymph – Delectable – 1 skein

Leaves Whisper - Blush – 2 skeins

Glenisla – Blush – 1 skein

Sweet Ginger – Blush – 2 skeins

Conch Shell – Blush – 2 skeins

Bella – Blush – 1 skein

Strathearn – Blush – 1 skein

Elfland – Wisp – 2 skeins

Fern – Oasis (50% silk 50% camel) – cobweb 1600m per skein – 2 skeins

Sweet Ginger – Oasis (50% silk 50% camel) – cobweb 1600m per skein – 1 skein

No shop update next Thursday, as I’ll be dyeing club yarn.

Just because I’m good to you… tonight (Friday night at 8pm GMT).

Sashimi Pink – Luscious – 1 skein – 1168m

Plum Blossom – Luscious – 1 skein – 1120m

Foxglove - Luscious – 1 skein – 1168m

Baroque Gold – Luscious – 1 skein – 1160m

Seafoam – Luscious – 1 skein – 1184m

Delphinium – Little Desire – 1 skein

Blackcurrant Plum – Little Desire – 1 skein

Snow White’s Apple – Little Desire – 1 skein

French Rose – Little Desire – 1 skein

Pavlova - Lavish – 4 skeins

Shhhhh! I hear there’s a Skein Queen shop update tomorrow evening – it’s a bit later than the usual time this week to allow our friends from across the Atlantic a chance to shop – so drop by at 11pm GMT.

Clothilde in Plushness – 4 skeins

Figgy Pudding in Plushness – 2 skeins

Plum Velvet - Plushness – 1 skein

Seafoam – Plushness – 1 skein

Dark Seaspray – Plushness – 2 skeins

Mediterranean – Plushness – 2 skeins

Key Lime Pie – Plushness – 2 skeins

Sea Nymph – Exquisite – 2 skeins

Heathered Teal - Grandiose – 1 skein

Huckleberry – Grandiose – 1 skein

Plum Velvet – Finesse – 2 skeins

Cranberry – Opulent – 4 skeins

Storm – Opulent – 4 skeins

And I’ve a few more Cute Little Mini Squeens to add to the shop – these were so popular at the show at the weekend, that I was winding more on Saturday night, ready for Sunday.

Farnham Maltings – a beautiful building, beautifully decorated with knitting from Dr Seuss-style striped trees to cute little knitted moles peeping up from the grass.

A collection of Skein Queen yarn ready for the doors to open.

The famous skating skirt knitted by Alabamawhirly for Ravelympics which Susan Crawford designed specifically for her as a sort of mystery design – an installment would arrive by email every couple of days as the knitting progressed and the design took shape.

It was so much admired over the weekend, and I believe Susan has plans to release the pattern at some point soon. I know I’d like to make one and Skein Princess wants one too!

It was great to catch up with old friends and lovely to get together with the other dyers and woolly people, such as Amanda, Jeni and Andy, and of course, I get to see my customers and friends and talk about yarn ALL weekend long. And some are even kind enough to bring along projects they’ve knitted up.

These socks are knitted by Eve from Sweetheart Summer in Squash.

Thank you, Kira – and Suzanne and Mela – for your help and company over the weekend. We had a blast! I will especially cherish the comment “it’s so lovely to see young people knitting.” It all relative, but it’s been a very long time since I was classified as a young person.

A lovely meal with Susan, Gavin, Suzanne, Ingrid and Mela to end the day on Saturday.

Unravel is officially my favourite show of the year.

Flamboyant in Little Desire

Three days to go until the big show. Here’s a selection of what I’ve been dyeing up in readiness.

There are intense colours.

Beautifully muted colours.

Lots and lots and lots of lovely laceweight.

And if you like that little lot, wait til you see what’s still drying -  some incredibly intense colourways of which I’m particularly proud.

As well as the luscious yarn, I’ll be bringing a small amount of hand-dyed fibre, a selection of Lotus Yarns cashmere, Lazyhill Design stitch markers, Mad Mabel sock-blockers, Cute Little Mini Squeens and more.

And the lovely alabamawhirly will be demonstrating Magic Loop technique by the SQ stand – so if you’ve always wanted to learn – come and watch or even better, bring along a spare circular needle and I’ll bring some spare yarn.

I will have facilities for accepting cards, as long as you bear with me as the system is a little slower than cash or cheques.

Hoping to see you there.

SQ x

Unless you live in the middle of a remote, isolated deep dark forest, the popularity of the Twilight series can barely have escaped your notice. You see the black book covers with red apples, ribbon, tulip petal and chess pieces in prominent positions in every bookshop, airport and newsagents throughout the land. In the end, I gave in and read it and actually enjoyed it. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer was the inspiration for January’s Queen’s Reading Room club.

Bella in the Blush option

Black and red were too obvious, so for the semi-solid option, I plumped for a Vampish plum – with a wink to purple prose. The main colours that are repeated throughout novel are the black and golden amber eyes of Edward Cullen which reflect his mood – black reflects when he’s dark and dangerous; golden amber when he’s more calm and human-like. So for the variegated option, I used the Vampish plum and mixed it with a dark charcoal grey and golden yellow to give an overall magical Twilight-ish look. The colours will knit up randomly.

For the Film Club in January, the inspiration was Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger and for the Exquisite option, I took inspiration from Benjamin Bunny’s hat and opted for sky blue, pale teal, green and Peter Rabbit blue.

For the Desire option, it was the turn of Peter Rabbit himself. I wanted to achieve a watercolour look to the yarn and opted for Peter Rabbit blue, fawn, sage green with a touch of robin redbreast red. The colours will knit up randomly. For those who chose the two toning skeins option, they received one Peter Rabbit and one Benjamin Bunny.

So, did you have a favourite Beatrix Potter book as a child? Mine was The Tale of Ginger and Pickles.

I know some of you have already knitted this up and I hope you enjoyed working with it.

The novel for March is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and the film is Little Miss Sunshine and the February club parcels were posted out over the weekend – and I’m working hard on getting ready for the Unravel show this weekend. Lots of Glister, Opulent, Blissful, Grandiose, Cute Little Mini Squeens and much, much more besides.

Well, it’s just hours until the Winter Ravelympics kick off and can I just say, Team SQueen has been hard in training – winding yarn, swatching, finding needles and equipment and sitting on the sofa eating chocolate. Team captains, myself, alabamawhirly and EmmaCo have been issuing encouraging words of support to the team and projects have been chosen and tagged in Ravelry (mostly). So, who’s casting on at the Opening Ceremony at approx. 2am GMT? We need lots of cheering on or are you on a rival team – any fighting talk – leave a comment if you dare

I’ve dyed up some Glister (100% silk) in ethereal colours to knit the Miracle Icarus shawl, so-called because it’ll be a blinking miracle if I finish it. I was inspired by angharadknits’s Cloudy Skies Icarus which she created using Glister and is so beautiful and delicate.

So one last thing to say – Good Luck to EmmaCo, alabamawhirly, mikan, Jackieb12, dollydimple, littletreehouse, andsewtoknit, billybrown, twinepixie, kurlyknits, sarahbelle, yorkshirepurl, melarno, shazspun, patinha, vaujany3, angharadknits and rockpoolcandy – Team SQueen rocks!!!!

In celebration of the new hummingbird logo, I dyed up a special new Hummingbird colour in Blissful (BFL sock yarn). To grab some, you need to come to the shop tomorrow evening – Thursday 11th February at 8pm GMT.

Hummingbird – Blissful – 5 skeins

Sun in the Wood – Little Desire – 4 skeins

Cromarty – Little Desire – 4 skeins

Magenta Plum - Little Desire – 2 skeins

A whole heap of Desire

four skeins of Sun in the Wood

Duchess (superfine alpaca/merino) DK weight in five colours

Strathearn – Duchess – 2 skeins

Forest – Duchess  – 2 skeins

Willow – Duchess – 1 skein

Dewberry - Duchess – 2 skeins

Regency Blue – Duchess – 5 skeins

Faded Roses – Grandiose (organic merino) – Aran – 4 skeins

Lily Pad – Grandiose (organic merino) – Aran – 4 skeins

Costumier - Grandiose (organic merino) – Aran – 2 skeins

Please note that the shop will be closed from Saturday 13th February until Wednesday 17th February as I’m visiting family in Scotland and that the next shop update will be after the Unravel show which is on the 27th and 28th February in Farnham, Surrey.

Hope to see you there – don’t forget to introduce yourself and say hi – I love chatting to people at shows – that’s the best part.

I still have a few sets of Lazyhill Design stitchmarkers available and won’t be getting more for a couple of months, so make the most of them while you can.