We have a winner!!

Thankyou to everyone who entered the April competition - it was immensely helpful and you were all very complimentary, which I'm really proud of! My shop's my baby and I nurture every skein a bit (too) obsessively!! It's very rewarding to find that you guys love what I'm doing as much as I love doing it! (sorry I'm being cheesey but it's necessary sometimes)

So, without further ado, the winner is............... *big pause* CHERRYPIE aka Cheryl! Well done! I've sent you a convo on etsy ;)

Other news: photo-full update soon to come!

Yarn P**n ... and a couple of WIPS!

Well I've been uber-busy recently. Work at Hobbycraft is good. Well, it's a good job, they're quite chilled out and friendly, and the customers are mostly really friendly and nice. It is an inspiring place to work too. But in my usual fashion, I'm kind of bored with it. The loooong afternoons don't help. I'm doing 10-6 and it really drags from about 3-6pm. Nevertheless, I do like it far more than any other job I've had. The other thing that irks me is the drive and petrol. I'm spending quite a lot on petrol now, which disillusions me somewhat!

In desperation I've had my overdrafts transferred onto a 0% interest credit card. Recommended by the Money Saving Expert website, I'm glad I've done it as I will soon just have one debt instead of three smaller ones.

I had my review at the gym, I've lost 6lbs now, which is good for me. The trainer has given me a tough weight loss regime, it's a challenge but I like it. It's thus: 10 mins rowing, 20 mins cross trainer, 10 mins walking quickly on the treadmill on a 6% incline, then all the suitable weights. So to encourage myself I'm signing up for the Race for Life :)

Anyway, knitting. I'm still stashbusting, so I used a ball of my Rowan Romance to make this cowl. It's just 2x2 rib, and is really cosy and thick. I've worn it constantly this weekend!



Sorry for the poor photography there, I had my first midge bite of the year recently, as you can see :(

Here are my stripey socks which I finished quite a bit ago now. I'm on the next pair of stripey ones now ;)

I tried out my gladd needles too this week. They're lovely to knit with, so smoooooth! I can't wait til I have a full project that I can knit on them :)

Ok here's this week's yarnie photo album! I think most of it's here!

Sea Spray in Meraca (Merino/Alpaca, sooo soft and squishy) DK:

Leafy Hideout in Meraca DK:

Lemon Sorbet in BFL 4 ply (sock):

Wild Fire kettle dyed Meraca DK:

Cranberry in Meraca DK:

Wisteria in Meraca DK:


Disco Feet in BFL 4 ply (photographed slightly greener than it is):

Sweetheart kettle dyed BFL 4 ply:

Sea Spray in BFL 4 ply, a custom order for a shawl-making customer:

Apple Orchard in BFL 4 ply:

Eastern Spice in BFL 4 ply (it's superwash):

Leafy Hideout in Aran BFL:



Ocean View in aran BFL:

Autumn in aran BFL:

Lucy - kettle dyed DK BFL:

Ocean View (more greeny than real life, oops) - BFL sock/4 ply:


Self Striping Disco Feet and Eastern Spice, a custom order:

Nationality - aran BFL:

Fresh Berries in Meraca DK:

Blink in aran BFL:

Ocean View in Meraca DK (this is my favouriest skein ever, I'm soooo in love with it!):

So! That's all the yarn. Well, most of it. Obviously it's to be found in the Wild Fire Fibres shop ;) if you need any stash enhancement.

About WIPs.. well my horseshoe stole is still on the go. It's travelling at a rate of approximately two repeats per week. Which, I can assure you, is very, very slow! Specially on 2mm needles! I don't know if I'll have enough yarn to do a whole stole. I may have to odered another skein or keep it short, I'll see how it goes.

I also have my 007 socks on the go, it's my own dyed yarn, in black and bright turquoise. I'm nearly done on the first one :) yey! So after these I'm gonig to some proper patterned socks :)

I'm also trying to stash bust, but I have so little time jsut now. Plus I've got three balls of gorgeous purple aran wool, and it doesn't felt, which has stumped my plans for it for a felted bag!
I'm going to have to browse ravelry for inspiration I think ;)

Sockamania!

I'm going through a real sock obsession at the mo. I'm stashbusting and socks have really got me addicted. I think it's cause I can take them everywhere, they're ace to wear and are quick and easy to knit.

So in my obsession I started the 2008 Sockalong Sockathon on the AY forum. I've got loads of patterened socks to try out and it seems loads of folks have as well, so we're going to aim for 100 pairs of socks between us :D we'll see how long it takes.

We have a flickr group too where you can see the photos of the finished socks. So far we have 5/100 pairs :D

I've been at OH's house in Manchester a lot recently, we're watching Rome Series 1 with great obsession. We've both become really attached to the characters, in particular Vorenus and Pullo. I've got lots of sock knitting done while watching it :)

We're also obsessed with watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? which is hilarious. It's an improvisation thingy with four comedians if you've not seen it. I'd recommend you watch it if you have the catch up on demand service!

Anyway.. WIPs. The horseshoe lace stole (well scarf really) is still coming on slowly but surely. I didn't think it had grown, but comparing it to my previous post it has grown a bit. I'm very happy with it though!




I finished the tiger socks. They weren't 100% successful, because when I dyed the yarn I made it mottled rather than stripey, and regretted it. So when I finished them I added stripes, but of course they are a little clumsy!

I got a parcel from the Border Tart last week, comtaining hand made tags, cards and hand spun yarn which is dreamy :) I used a tag for OH's Tiger Socks, isn't it cute!


Here are the socks drying. I had to wrap them so I got two logs and the poker and hung them in front of the fire :) they soon dried!

As you can see the darker one isn't as good, but I like the lighter one. OH really likes them :)

Benson, OH's clown hound loves them too ;)

Isn't he handsome!

I did this painting for OH some years ago, and thought you might be interested to see it. It's done in acrylics. The photo isn't great as OH's room is really dark :( but the flash made the colours look washed out.

And I have some *shop news*! I'm running a wee competiton to win yarn! All you have to do to enter is send me a wee email. Details are all there in the shop - http://wildfirefibres.etsy.com it's basically in the name of research!

I've been up to my dyeing shenanigans as usual.

Had a wee foray into pastels. I found it really hard to leave the colours looking weak! It was a real challenge, and is a little brighter than I was aiming for.

It's called Dream Time :)

This is Beach Party:

Wild Forest:

Strawberry Dreams:

Riverside:

You may recognise this, it's Giddyhop! I decided that as noone had bought it I'd change it. So I added a lovely rich blue and I'm really pleased with how it looks.

Blueberry Muffin (un reskeined):

Sea Spray (again, un reskeined):

And you may recognise this - it's Wild Tiger. It was mottled like the skein I used, but I decided to make it stripey. So it's orange and black stripes, and the orange bits have mottling too :) much better!

I've got a load of different bases coming too soon. Including BFL in 4 ply, DK and Aran, laceweight (2 ply) alpaca/merino, and hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll get some merino/tencel sock yarn too :) I'm really excited to delve into different yarn weights.

I'm knitting a pair of stripey socks too, I'm on the second one so once I finish I can get started on some patterned socks. Maybe jaywalkers, or something I got from CookieA that my lovely uk swap partner paid for me to get a pattern from.

Talking of my swap partner, I've not hear from her for a while and if she reads this I hope she's ok, I'm still dying to know she is!

I've done some spinning this weekend too, it's just blue and yellow merino on my drop spindle. The drop spindle is wonderfully portable but it's a little tedious I have to admit!

I'm starting work at Hobbycraft on Tuesday. It's interesting and inspiring, but boring at the same time. I'm working 10am-6pm Tues-Fri, and going to the gym every night after that, so it's going to be long days for the next few months. I really need to start getting my huge overdraft (both of them!) paid off!

That's enough rambling from me, hope you enjoyed the photos folks, and remember to check out the competition in my shop ;) I'm enjoying being an evil enabler! :p