As promised, here are the pictures of the yarn I dyed on the Yarn Retreat:
Hand painted super wash sock yarn:
Kettle dyed pure wool DK:
Gradient dyed sock wool blank:
Now I just need to work out what to turn them into!
Category: Yarn
The Yarn Retreat
Last weekend I was lucky enough to be able to attend a yarn retreat in Lyme Regis where I learned three different techniques for hand dying yarn and made polymer clay buttons & crochet hook. Here are the pictures I took:
The cake on arrival!
Yarn in the hall…
Lyme Regis was very windy!
A pile of undyed yarn and samples:
Dye pots on the table:
The hand painting of a fellow attendee…
My hand painted skein is the one at the back!
Pop up shop! 
My purchases from said pop up shop!
My polymer clay crochet hook!
Buttons, made by me! 
It was a really fantastic day! I can’t recommend Devon Sun Yarns’ yarn retreats highly enough.
Tomorrow I’ll post photos of the yarn I dyed!
Cerise lace leaf shawl blocked…
And off to its new owner this weekend!
I knitted this in May during the Lace Leaf KAL.
Yarn: Easy Knits Deeply Wicked in Pinky stranded with The Knitting Goddess lace mohair in Raspberry.
Needles: 4mm
Pattern: Lace Leaf Shawl by Mary Henderson.
Apart from grouse about fireworks I’ve…
Painted my kitchen and made my Christmas cake (no photos yet), and done some of each of these projects:
I went on a little visit to my favourite yarn store Marmalade Yarns and took a few pix!
Resisted this Skein Queen with all my might:
Bought some sparkly buttons:
And a little bit of Rowan Handknit cotton to make a doily to match this mug:
Lucy visited…
I swear that dog is grinning!
Mollie was not impressed to have Lucy’s feet on her!
And Mollie has been happier tonight in her Thundershirt.
Though less impressed when I declined to share my chocolate!
A pretty good start to the weekend!
Damon went to visit his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren this last week for a couple of days. They’re a lovely family and I see them less than I’d like as D mostly goes midweek as he works nights at the weekend and of course I’m at work in the week. He brought back my birthday gifts from them – this fantastic cow money box – I’m going to save for yarn purchases so she’s been named the Yarn Moo 😄
Also this beautiful glass bauble:
Yesterday I bought some new winter boots! Yes they are teal coloured. And super comfy. 😊
Damon bought Mollie a new and rather large bed… For £9… I preferred the mink coloured faux fur one without cartoon dogs (that cost £60), but hey, they’re both happy.
Mum and I attended the installation of the new Bishop of Taunton at Wells Cathedral today. We were excited to see our new woman bishop!
I got home from Wells to discover some happy mail. Cuddlebums is an indie dyer from Yorkshire and I’d seen this colourway on her Instagram feed and felt compelled to buy a skein! I think this needs to be some armwarmers – it’s got silk in it! 
Happy yarn owner…
And, in a stroke of GENIUS, this morning I decided to fire up the slow cooker! Meaning that by 6pm I had a Spnish style potato, butternut squash and Quorn sausage stew ready to eat. Spicy and redolent of garlic, it was DELICIOUS. And there is loads left!
Plus Strictly and Dr Who! A pretty decent day! I have high hopes for tomorrow.
More bunting, more yarn…
My stepmother was very taken with the bunting I made for my sister’s party, and as they’ve just had a new pergola installed, which she said would suit bunting (yes a hefty hint was dropped!), so I obviously decided to make her some for Christmas. I don’t find them exciting makes so I figured if I did one or two a week I’d have loads by December! I’m using 7 different colours by Stylecraft and this pattern by Attic24. 
I also might have made a few purchases in Marmalade Yarns…
The grey is for some mittens for a colleague who gets cold hands and the other two for a couple of Woolly Wormhead hats. The purple for Tucked which will be for my sister and the neon green Noro for me in a pattern called Ravine.
Bristol Wool Fair
Last weekend my friend Sam and I headed off to Washingpool Farm in Easter Compton near Cribbs Causeway in Bristol for the Bristol Wool Fair. Three sheds of stalls – maybe 100 in total – plus alpacas, sheep, angora rabbits, a wide selection of workshops, sheepdog displays and most randomly a Viking battle reenactment. We went hardcore and stuck to the yarn with a crochet spirals workshop for good measure.
We did it the right way, walked round and looked at everything before making our purchases. I had a budget and stuck to it! My favourite stand was Triskelion Yarnd from Wales. The colours the owner got into his yarns was incredible.
I bought three skeins:
Gwyn 4 Ply
Branwen 4ply:
And Olwen lace:
Squishing yarn: 
I also liked Fivemoons Yarns from Devon:
Alpacas!
New Forest Mohair (from their own goats!)
The most glorious rainbow of colour:
I loved these gloves from Native Yarns, and bought a kit 😊
Lithuanian Linen from Midwinter Yarns:
The crochet spiral I made in our workshop…
My only impulse purchase (because it matched my top…)
A brilliant day out.
Holiday!Â
What a week! Some times sunny, some times raining! I valiantly tried to finish all the round 2’s on my sister’s blanket…
But I had to finally admit I couldn’t! I have known for a while I couldn’t do the blanket for her birthday but I hoped to be half done. A lesson to learn from the delayed blanket is I love crochet but too much all of the same at once I find hard. So trying to do 400 times the same round isn’t sustainable and I need to do it in achievable chunks…
So, I needed a birthday present and as luck would have it, yesterday we were in Taunton to go to ‘Taking Shape’, my favourite clothing chain and we walked past a shop selling Troll Beads. Gayle’s husband is buying her a Troll Bead bracelet for her birthday, so she picked some beads to go on it. 😄
I have been packing this week. Everyone apart from me thinks three shawl and three hat projects is too much. But I have all the yarn in my case alongside my clothes and I an under the allowable weight so it’s all good. 😄
This yarn I have decided will be a Colour Affection shawl:
And I got a bit previous and started knitting it…
That’s me getting in a sneaky bit of knitting at work as I arrived very early.
Right I’m off to take the bunnies to their holiday home and have a sort out for our house sitters!
Winding…
I decided that I needed to get my holiday knitting ready this morning. We’re not going until the 26th but it doesn’t hurt to be organised! I had some skeins that needed winding…
Skein Queen ‘Sugar Mice’ & Chilean yarn Araucania ‘Ranco’ to make Heidi Alander’s Eyeblink shawl:
3 skeins of Caacade220 to make two Fairisle Christmas hats…
And 7 skeins of Louisa Harding ‘Orille’ to make a Wrapped in Love shawl:
There are several other projects I’m taking (just in case) but those balls come pre wound!
Yarn Arrival Klaxon
Last weekend I sat down and made a list of my Christmas knitting. I usually do this at the end of June as I like to make a lot of things and they need to be done early!
My sister had requested a couple of Woolly Wormhead hats so I paid for and downloaded the patterns and discovered one requires worsted and the other DK. My stash is predominantly 4ply so I knew I was due to be yarn shopping. (It’s not breaking the yarn buying ban when it’s for presents….). I also have a Fairisle pattern for a hat I want to make and one for a cushion.
So this Rowan worsted is going to become a Woolly Wormhead Ziggy hat:
And this 70% acrylic 30% wool Scheepjes yarn is so soft – and going to be a Woolly Wormhead Alveare hat:
This Cascade yarn is going to be one (or maybe two) poinsettia Fairisle hats:
And this Rowan Felted Tweed will be a cushion cover as soon as the Fir green shows up!
And I’m not starting anything! They’re all going on holiday with me at the end of the month. 😊
Mollie & Claire 