Yet another Competition

Before I tell you about the new competition don't forget to check out my previous post which also has a competition that ends midnight on Halloween.

Firstly I wanted to brag about my wonderful brother in Seattle. He felt that he had been a bit behind in birthday presents lately and asked what I would like. Non knitters are always perplexed when you say yarn but he rose to the challenge.

There are so many nice yarns that are either unobtainable here or much more expensive than in the States. One of these is Lambs Pride Worsted. I paid £5.99 a ball for some at Ally Pally last year, but found a US site selling a few colours at $3 a ball (yes really a mere £1.50). Do check out The Sheep Shed Studio. Well my brother, Gareth, gave me a spending limit to choose stuff then ordered it all and paid the (somewhat high) international shipping charges and I got this wonderful package.



I don't know what was more fun, picking all the stuff I wanted (and I went way over budget) or opening the parcel. It was like getting a present twice. I don't know why people have a downer on giving tokens it is so much fun shopping. Well what about the contents I hear you asking...



Lambs Pride Worsted, 9 skeins purple, 7 skeins red and 7 skeins garnet, plenty for 3 jumpers or cardies.



Wildefoote sock yarn 3 skeins Blue Blood Red and 10 skeins Tom Cat Grey. (I had hoped this would be the right colour for a Hogwarts jumper but it is marled. Why is school grey such a hard colour to get these days?). I am just swatching the grey at the moment.



Cotton Fleece to try - a skein each of yellow and kelp green.



2lb of superwash roving in saffron yellow. Scrummy.

Also not photoed 2 skeins of 6ply Waverley yarn in Rusty Red which have already become 2 pairs of socks! Definitely recommended for thick socks.

So how lucky am I?

Well it is time to share the love around. Also I feel like Halloween is the spiritual birthday of this blog (Tricot Treat - Trick or Treat, get it?) so here is a little competition.

I am a new sock knitter but even so I have a little stash of sock yarn ready to knit. Apart from the stuff my brother recently sent it all fits in here.



The pins on top are 9 inches long to give you an idea of size. I am not saying how full or empty this basket is but there is some Cherry Tree Hill, some Opal, one skein of Celestial Merino...

So if, before midnight on Halloween, you leave a comment with the closest guess as to the weight of sock yarn in the basket, you get to win something from the basket. Guesses can be in ounces or grams and should not include the weight of the basket. Good Luck.

Sock obsessed and a Competition

Personally I blame Lorena. While she was my SP9 she made me my first pair of handknit socks. She also gifted sock yarn - Socks that Rock no less (and Cherry Tree Hill) and I knit my first pair of socks. Since then I made a pair in a weekend for Sock Wars and then forgot about it. Recently though being tempted by some Colinette Jitterbug I made myself another pair of socks and haven't looked back. I finished the Opal Socks I started for Keith (click for other views).


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I then decided to try 2 toe up socks using the magic loop. I used Silvers excellent tutorial.



I even finished them!



There was enough yarn left so that I could make another pair and I have finished one of them. Now he doesn't want to wear any other socks!

While perusing my novices sock yarn stash I was admiring this colourway when I realised it was just the thing for the Woodland Shawl that Emm blogged about a couple of weeks ago. It is a nice repetitive pattern and I've hardly had to tink at all. The pattern follows well from the line before.



A close up of the stitch pattern.



I said in the last but one post that I was up to my eyes in novelty yarn. Here is Marge trying to look pretty amongst it all. I have had an occasional stand at fairs but it seems like all everyone wants to buy is novelty yarn for scarves. I am pretty fed up with it now though and I think the craze is about to decline (we are about 2 years behind here). Well the most popular type at the moment is a large skein made up of a few metres of lots of different yarns tied together. So I have pooled all the novelty yarns and am skeining up lots of this type of yarn - much better value than the shop ones. I am hoping to be able to recoup my capital on these this Christmas and reinvest in more white yarn to dye for next year.

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Like Woolly Wormhead I have been buying bamboo needles on Ebay. I got 12 sets of 5 Dpns of various sizes in 9inches and the same 12 sets in 5 inches. Considering I only paid 99p plus £9.50 p and p for the lot I think the quality is pretty good. The tips are nice and there are no snags on them. I think with usage they will get even smoother. The thing is I quite like 5 inch dpns for fingers on gloves etc but by no stretch of the imagination could I envisage using them in any size larger than 5.5mm.



So does anyone want the surplus needles? There are 5 inch dpns in 6mm, 6.5mm, and 8mm and a set of 9 inch dpns in 8mm. Just leave a comment with any use you can think of for very short fat needles (try to keep it clean) by Halloween and I will draw a name from the commenters to see who I will send them to. I will include some handspun and any other goodies I have lying around too.



I will also be updating my Etsy shop soon with Opal yarn and Tofutsies. When I have done that I will run another contest (sock yarn as prizes obviously). So keep an eye out.

Please take a minute

What do you think of an art gallery that has an exhibit of a starving dog? The dog is not allowed to be given food or water as its suffering is the 'art'. What do you think of people who would stand around drinking cocktails and looking at this dog dying?

I could hardly credit this when I read it, and feel like I want to do more than sign a petition. I want to shout and scream in the face of this so-called artist. So please take a minute to read the following blogs and sign the petition. And spread it around from blog to blog.

There are details and photographs on this blog. Beware though I burst into tears when I read it.
The petition is in Spanish but this blog has a translation.
You can sign the petition here.

Manyana

Well they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions and honestly it has been on my mind to blog and to catch up with all those great folks who have given me helpful advice. But something always seems to come up. Currently I am drowning in a sea of novelty yarn (I know that sounds like a nightmare to most but there is a reason )- explanations next time.I have also been conducting roof repairs with a domestic sewing machine (sounds surreal eh?)- this has dragged on so long it is doing my head in - photos next time.

In knitting news I finished the Branching Out scarf in the Malabrigo laceweight that was gifted to me by Emm. It is the most incredibly soft scarf I don't even know I am wearing it. My only reservation is that it has a tendency to fold lengthwise down the middle despite blocking and even ironing. Have others found this? A friend suggested that doing a couple more stitches of stocking stitch in the middle might solve it. What do you think? If I could sort this problem out I would definitely knit this again.



Having finished the Jitterbug socks I embarked on a pair in 6 ply opal for Keith. These are actually finished now, pics next time.



Being on a roll with sock knitting I have my eyes set on Pomotamus when I feel up to it but I think I need to practice a bit more first. I had a delivery of Tofutsies last week so swatched with this in mind. So far I love the yarn, it is so silky.



One of my targets this week is to list a load of Opal and Tofutsies in my Etsy shop so watch this space as I will be running a competition to celebrate actually managing to do that... (ok I'm pathetic at admin for myself )

This mess is the beginnings of a huggable hedgehog, I remain a little sceptical.



Other targets for this week? I have 2 pairs of long fingerless mitts half done that I want to complete. Firstly a pair in SWTC Soysilk. My own design using the Isabeau lace pattern used in the tote and shrug on Chez Plum.



Secondly a pair using some frogged Colinette tagliatelli in colourway Jamboree. Again my own pattern but I am using needles much smaller than those recommended to give a dense velvetty texture.



I am hoping to get at least one UFO disposed of, either by completing or frogging each week and will post my progress to keep me on track. Anyone want to join me?

I hope to post again soon to show you my haul of new DPN's and a little competition to liven things up. Stay tuned.

And we have a Winner!

Well actually two. We will come to that in a minute. Gratuitous kitten photo first. I am feeding a friends cats down the road while she is visiting her son in Denmark. She asked me to also keep a lookout for a wild kitten she had seen around her barns. Is she going to get a surprise when she gets back!



They are so adorable but so many stray kittens appear here because they don't have a culture of neutering. This will make 7 abandoned kittens that she has found in her barn in the last 2 years. It becomes impossible to find homes for them. Who knows what their destiny will be.

Gratuitous flower picture now. The sunflowers are only just blooming now - those that escaped the slugs.



Well on to the competition. Thank you all for the really useful feedback I will go through all the points in my next post and start implementing them straight away. When I have done that, say by Halloween, I will run another competition so come back and visit again.

I tried to pursuade Fish to get off his paws and pick a couple of numbers but he was quite comfortable and didn't see why he should. So I asked Keith and a visiting friend to make the draw.

The winners are Yvette who will be receiving the roving and Alice who will be getting the lace yarn. Email me please at maylinDOTtanATtiscaliDOTfr so that I can get on to that. I will visit everyones blog who commented during the week too.

Thanks for all the Feedback

It has been so useful, keep it coming. I definitely have to look at my close up photography. The detailed washing instructions and American needle sizes are really good ideas. I will look at how I can make the postage clearer. Etsy doesn't allow much leeway for grouping countries if you are posting from outside the US. I could really do with a group that says European Union, since that is how postage is categorised here - Domestic, EU, Everywhere Else.

So many good ideas for colours too. I have been wanting to do semi solids or graduated colours and have ideas rattling around my brain. Its nice to know others feel the same. Earth colours too - that is more of a challenge for me since I don't naturally gravitate towards them.

One thing though. does anyone have advice on how to twist skeins so that they look nice and tidy for photographing. I do them over and over and still have to keep turning over to get a neat side. Is there an optimum skein length or number of twists?

So don't stop - lets have more ideas.

FO's and a Competition!

I was amazed at how quickly I finished these socks and how comfy they are - I feel so proud of myself. I have already rummaged through my sock yarn stash to start another pair. I think I might try working through Lucy Neatby's book 'Cool Socks, Warm Feet' I reckon I should have a good grounding in socks by the time I finish all six.

Yarn Colinette Jitterbug in Jewel, 2.5mm dpns, pattern (which had a bad mistake in it) on the ball band.



I also finished the 'So Called Scarf' I think this may be destined for a Pal, maybe I should try and make some gloves or hat to go with it.



A few days ago I restocked my Etsy shop for the first time in months. I have lots of yarn to dye up so thought I had better get on with it. I still have other stuff to put on - stitchmarkers and such. To celebrate I am running a competition, with 2 prizes at present, more if lots of people take part.

Firstly 1200m (100g) of Laceweight Bluefaced Leicester. This is gorgeously soft a single ply 90% bfl and 10% nylon to give extra strength. It is kettle dyed and then handpainted in shades of red and purple with little bits of orange.






Secondly just over 100g of 100% Bluefaced Leicester tops to spin. This is in two complementary pieces. One is purples and mauves the other similar shades with the addition of shades of orangey peach. This is so soft and lofty you just want to cuddle up to it.







So what do you need to do?

Mosey on over to my shop Tri'Coterie and check it out then leave me a comment before 6pm GMT on Sunday 7th October. In your comment please leave feedback - the more constructive the better. How can I improve my shop? What yarn weights, colours would you like to see? What sort of photos are best? Am I describing the stuff sufficiently or would you like more information and if so what sort? There must be 101 things that would improve things and don't worry about repeating what someone else is saying - if it is said enough times it might get through my thick skull! After time is up I will put all the names in a hat and see if I can pursuade one of the cats to draw (well ok - maybe something with hands).