Guilty pleasure

Another new base yarn, and one that I decided to work with for completely selfish reasons: Squishy Merino!
The same high twist, slightly-heavier-than-4ply as the Squishy Sock, but in 100% indulgent Merino Wool - one of my all time favourite yarns! I have shown this to people who have absent-mindedly spent the rest of the conversation stroking it and squeezing it. It also takes colours beautifully.

First couple of colours out of the pan - I have been working on developing more subtle shades, but there will be bright ones to follow!

Mean and moody...

And another few new colours on the lovely new bases, including the Luxury Lace - beautiful British Bluefaced Leicester wool with 20% Silk for a glorious lace weight yarn.

News from the shop

Last year - the first time we produced our Gower wool - we sold out of it by February and had to sit around and wait for the sheep to be ready to shear again and with the terrible year that it was, didn't have any more supply until October. Learning from that mistake, I asked for an extra sack of fleece to keep for spinning later in the year and treasured it in our garage until the current stock started running low.
 Now, a 20 kilo sack of raw sheeps fleece is not a small thing. It stands about waist high and pongs of lanolin. The sacks from the Natural Fibre Company who spin our wool are also bright white. Nonetheless, the courier company charged with transporting this gigantic, white sack have somehow utterly and completely managed to lose it. They've looked for weeks up and down depots in the country but have now decided that the sack is, in fact, gone.
We've been reinbursed for the value of the fleeces of course, but sadly, it still means no more Gower Wool until after summer shearing. There are still a good few hanks in both dyed and undyed colours available but that really is it for now!

So I have been thrown into dyeing my other bases for now, and with spring hopefully looming, I have prepared a few fresh and springy colours in the lovely Lithuanian linen.
It is a heavy lace to light fingering weight and this year we are doing it in the smaller 50gr hanks to allow you to mix and match the colours.
As linen is very absorbent, it takes the dye very quickly and thoroughly, making for an almost solid colour with only minor shifts expected of a hand dyed product.

For those not used to knitting with linen, it may appear stiff and stringy att first, but it softens in your hands as you work with it and will continue to soften for the many years that you wear it. Fantastically hard wearing, once blocked it also holds lace patterns beautifully without curling back up on itself and drapes very well.

I will be adding many more colours as soon as I dye them, as well as long long scarves made from the commercially dyed version of this same yarn. Let's just hope it will be warm enough for these lighter knits soon!

A little love in the air

There must have been a little love in the air when I was trying out a new base yarn over the weekend, as what came out of the pot were these three dramatic Valentines inspired colours.

The yarn is 100% Superwash Merino Wool in a single ply fingering weight, perfect for striking lacy projects. It is dyed in a particular way to leave the core of the yarn white, creating a mottled effect.

100gr skeins with 366meters / 400yards to a skein.

A quick word from the shop...

We are down to the last 20 hanks of the beautiful undyed ice grey Gower Wool from this batch! There are plenty of ready dyed colours in the shop, but I won't be able to dye any more until we get the next batch back from the mill in a couple of months time. Get them while you can!

In the meantime, I will be concentrating on the gradient yarns for spring. Still British wool, of course, but on commercially spun bases. 

New colours

A couple of earthy tones in the shop today

 Cinnamon - deep reddish browns with marroon and purple undertones              

                                   Wheat - golden ochres                                                                                     

                                                           Teal Dream - lovely bluey greens  

                                      

First Gower colours

Blueberry soup - inspired by a Swedish dish served on particularily cold winter days.

Laverbread - A Welsh seaweed speciality, fantastically healthy, and so delicious for Sunday breakfast!












  Denim - a good basic colour...just like jeans, really.

Gower Wool and Gower Fibre

Introducing this years batch of wonderful Gower Wool and the new addition Gower spinning fibre.
This wool comes from sheep belonging to our family on the beautiful Gower peninsula in Wales, with a little help from Mr Owens prize-winning Bluefaced Leicesters in Conwy. It is then processed by a small independent mill in Cornwall, making it a truly Celtic product!

The blend of Bluefaced Leicester and Black Welsh Mountain fibres produces this lovely ice grey natural colour....and a soft, fluffy sport to DK weight yarn, perfect for extra warm socks, winter accessories and lightweight but toasty sweaters. It will also felt beautifully.
The spinning fibre is the same blend and...well...just lush, as we say here.

Both are available in our Etsy shop right now.

                                                         

A little whisper of spring

100% Fine Lithuanian Linen in a heavy lace weight, the colour of my favourite deep purple lilacs with little flecks of sky blue.