Are you a Fibreholic?

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a little group of indie dyers based in the UK who got talking one day about how it would be lovely to try everyone elses yarns and fibres. So someone said, well how about a box of samples? ...... and it snowballed from there. So anyhow, to cut a long story short, it's here and it's happening. Fibreholics UK is about to launch, the samples are finished and being boxed and we're counting down to the launch day.

So just what is it? Well, it's a way of getting your hands on some fabulous yarn and fibre samples from some of the best micro dyers around and without spending a fortune. The boxes are in two sizes - costing £10 and £20 and will feature a selection of either 5 or 10 different artists work depending on the size you buy. The first boxes are planned to go on on sale at Woolfest. Yes, really that soon.

You can follow the progress of the boxes and see a selection of the samples by following the blog or looking on the Fibreholics Ravelry group. So to get you started here's a quick peek at my samples.
Mini skeins of sock yarn, Popsickle (the bright pink) on Merino/Nylon superwash and Aniseed (the blue) and Hobgoblin (the greens) both on BFL/Nylon sock yarn. I've keep a couple of samples back of both of the BFL and am currently working them into my neverending sock blanket. Pictures of that to follow soon.
Now the fibre, there's Hubba Bubba on BFL - dusky pink and reds, real bubblegum colours and then Spring Greens on Falkland roving. I love them both and hope you do too. So anyhow, I'm a fibreholic, are you?

Pimp that competition

I mentioned previously that I'd offered to provide the prize for the Phoenix Knitting Forums first competition so here's a peak at what's on offer to the winner. "Phoenix" and "Spring Greens".For a chance to win one of them, you need to be a member of the group and answer Mongrel's five questions posted on the AY Ravelry group by midnight on Sunday.

I love heading off to my knitting group, I just wish I could go every week instead of once a fortnight. Still my babysitters are pretty accommodating and you can't have everything. It's something I look forward to as you never quite know who you're going to see and what they're going to bring. I'm sure we all go more for the chit chat than the actual knitting, I know I do! It's always nice when you can make someone's day too and from the look on Caroline's face last night, I delivered on a promise and I might just have made hers. Talk about making me warm feel all warm and fuzzy. So what did make her smile? Well considering I just caused her to splurge on a brand new spinning wheel, perhaps I shouldn't feel so smug. Anyway, having lured her over to the dark side with a trial session on my old traddy, I took home her undyed roving stash and turned it into these.It's all mystery fibre as she got it in a swap from somewhere and three balls of it turned out to be pencil roving. So, here's my very first custom dye order in some of Caroline's favourite colours. She couldn't stop stroking it all night - I wonder how long it'll take her before she has it on her wheel?

New Shop

Yes, I have decided that now we're back into the swing of things, the time is right for me to reopen the shop again. I've decided to leave Etsy behind and am going to stick the the local market for a while so I bring you The Bear Necessities on Folksy. Based in the UK with UK prices (no currency conversion to get my head round and constantly change). Yay all round. I know we should be supporting the free market economy and all that (sorry I've been watching BBC news again) but hey, buy British I say. It's something that I try to do whenever I can and with so many great indie dyers over here, why not?!

So anyhow, today I dove into the fibre mountain and set the dye pots bubbling with some new offerings to be ready for the weekend but in the meantime, I'm filling the shop with all my current stock. Here's a sneaky peak of the sock yarn and 4ply available. I've already added some aran weight that's just ideal for felting or knitting anything else you fancy. I'll be making handbags for the shop again and am hoping to be able to offer some handbag kits in the very near future. It's all very exciting :)

A taste of summer

I'm heading north for a few days tomorrow to see the family so I think I'd better have a quick catch up before heading off. The baby cardi is now almost finished, it needs blocking properly and I still have to pick up the stitches for the cuff on the sleeves. It's very pretty but I think it is probably a bit girlie. I'm still toying with the idea of knitting up a shawl as well but I think that maybe I need to knit another (more boyish) cardigan just in case. I know that I can always give the spare to Nadia for her orphan charity.

I finally got out my dye pots again. The hanks have been wound for more than a week, I was just waiting on some child free time to get busy. These colours have been inspired by the AY Summer Secret Santa and are called Raspberry Ripple and SkyBluePink, they're both 4ply, 100% wool. I haven't decided whether these will be gifted in my SS parcel yet or not. They're handwash so they can't be used for my Sockapalooza Pal either but I haven't ruled out dyeing them a special colour yet either. I don't think I have a suitable yarn in my stash to dye (even with recent purchases) so I'd need to do a spot of shopping. Any excuse hey.

I'm about to go and get my knitting bag packed. I've got to make sure I've plenty of things to keep me busy as I have a six hour car journey tomorrow. (yuck!) Luckily I won't be having to drive it all myself but I may end up spending the time keeping DS amused. He's just come down with chicken pox. Talk about perfect timing - 3 days before the holiday! Still, the cottage is booked and we're expected so there's no going back. It should be a good week so long as the weather improves. Unfortunately, Northumbria in the rain can be pretty bleak.

Hmm, what to take with me? I've already got the Monkeys OTN and the baby cardi to finish. I think I'll stick the spare ball of baby wool in and I've a ball of Opal Toucan to knit up which I think might end up as another pair of licketysplit socks. I want to test out Kay's Parasol socks or Bronte's Cairi's Sweetheart socks as well at some point as atm they're my patterns of choice for Sockapalooza. Although, I think that maybe I need a plainer yarn for those than the Toucan so as not to swamp the lace patterns. Hmm, best get to packing then.

Inspired to dye again

I came home last friday with the urge to start dyeing again and promptly went on a search for yarn. My friends have decided to start what they're calling a "working mum's initiative" and had their first sale on Friday. All sorts of handicrafts and things, - although no knitted items I noticed! I hadn't been able to be involved in this last one due to other commitments (and my dodgy elbow) but next time around, I'm in. Yay, an outlet for something I enjoy and the potential to make a little money from it too. Superb.

So anyhow, the postie arrived this morning with a couple of squishy parcels. Some lovely undyed 4ply ready for me to play...
and a little something I couldn't resist buying. Forest Herb (left) and Dark Candy, both luxury sock yarn from NDS.

I've been ogling the Natural Dye Studio yarn for weeks, ever since I knitted up the first lot of bought. Widdershins from Knitty in NDS Harebell luxury sock yarn. Not the best picture perhaps (I haven't worked out the fine art of taking pictures of your own feet yet) but they did knit up very nicely.

I'm itching to get started but I think I need to get the sewing machine cleaned up and the lining stitched up for my Noni bag. I don't know why I keep putting it off.

Fresh from the microwave

Last weeks efforts all wound up and ready for a project. This is almost the last of Granny's yellow 4ply. I really like the way the food colour dyes the wool, it's giving me some lovely vibrant colours. The bottom was dyed using red and cochineal and where the two colours meet over the yellow yarn, it has left it a lovely peach colour. It's very hard to get a good picture of the colour even in natural daylight - it is much pinker than this shows. As much as I love the pink/red, I'm really looking forward to knitting up the green. I used both green and blue to dye it so there are some fabulous graduations in the colours, it should make either a lovely Pacific Northwest Shawl or maybe a home designed one.

To dye for

Some while back I inherited not only my gran's old knitting machine but also a couple of huge boxes full of cones of yarn to go with it. Most of it's acrylic and her choice of colours was a bit dubious sometimes but buried among them all I found a couple of cones of 100% 4pl wool. One still in it's natural colour and one in a somewhat revolting yellow. Not that I have anything against yellow per say but there is only so much yellow a person can wear. It's not really my colour to say the least. Anyhow, to get back to the point of this post, I'd been enthusing over some Opal sock yarn that I'd been knitting up and the self striping etc when I started to take an interest in the possibility of dyeing some.

So I started looking into how it was done, cooking it on the stove, various references to crock pots (I'm guessing that's some american invention as I'd not come across it before), cooking it up for various lengths of time (hours in some cases). I mean, who has the time to actually do all that? I know I don't work atm but I do have a very inquisitive midget under foot. It's not really all that realistic is it?

I'd read a lot about using about Kool-Aid but what I had in my cupboard was food colouring and lots of it. (The benefit of being talked into icing the family's wedding cakes over the years). So, free wool, free "dye" and I even found a bottle of white vinegar in the back of the cupboard. Bonus! It would have been rude not to give it a go. Finally back on the Angel Yarns forums I came across a link to a really helpful blog Beatlewear and the rest as they say, is history.

So, I turned my cones of yarn into ready to dye skeins. Not having either a swift or a niddy noddy I had to resort to wrapping my kitchen chairs in yarn. Yes I did feel a bit mad at the time, my DS thought I was too - he even offered to help at one point which did make me panic a bit. Needless to say I packed up quickly and left the next stage for when he would definately be unavailable for assistance. I love nursery mornings! My new skeins went into a bucket of vinegar & water and were forgotten for the night.

Having packed DS off to nursery for the morning, I fished out my food colourings and began to play. I think I must have used almost every glass pot I have in the cupboard. Anyhow here it is ready to go into the microwave and my resulting laundry ;)








Finally, the finished product. Skeined and ready to go.

To say that I'm a little pleased with my first attempt would be somewhat of an understatement. I need to do more!