Botticelli's Girl

Now that the November edition of the Phat Fiber box has gone on sale, I can share my newest available colourway - Botticelli's Girl.

This colourway was inspired by "Portrait of a Young Woman", circa 1480, by Sandro Botticelli. I chose this painting because I was very drawn to the combination of auburn, russet and brown with the contrast of the blue sky through the window.

The colourway is handpainted in the same colour progress as in the paining, working from top left to bottom right - blue, peach, auburn, red and brown. 

I was so taken with the colours on the test version that I barely gave myself time to take photographs before I spun up a couple of samples and knit some swatches.

From L to R: 2-ply, both samples, chain-ply

The colours in the 2-ply blended together pretty well, even with a bit of marling. To spin this sample, I split the top into about 4 pieces lengthwise, spun them end to end, and plied from both ends using an Andean plying bracelet. So no attempt was made to line up the colours at all. You can see that the warmer colours play very nicely together, with the blue giving a bit of contrast, even though it's been softened a bit by the plying with a warmer colour family.

The chain ply was so squishy and soft that I carried the skein around with my like a pet for a little while. The colours are much purer, and I think they would be great in a pair of socks for someone of the male persuasion, or as a great stocking cap kind of hat, with a tassel at the top. 

I didn't do a true 3-ply sample, but I imagine it would blend the colours even more then the 2-ply. I'll have to try it out and see if it makes a good sweater yarn.

The BFL is, as always, a true delight to spin, and makes a fantastically soft and bouncy yarn for just about any project. If you're interested in this colourway and it's sold out when you look under the BFL listing in the shop, please do contact me and let me know that you'd like some. I'm going to be dyeing this up repeatedly over the next month, so there should be minimal delay in getting your fibre out to you.

Happy spinning everyone!

R xx

Rocking Kitchen Retreat: a stash-enhancement photo essay

So this past weekend, I headed up to West Yorkshire to spend some quality time with fellow knitwear designers at the first ever Rocking Kitchen Retreat, run by Joeli of Joeli's Kitchen, and Ruth of rock+purl. It was a great opportunity to meet a bunch of other UK designers, and swap ideas and tips and stories in a vast house for two days.

Ruth has been teasing us all on Twitter with 140 character hints about what was going to be in the goody bags, and the most recent vast box of yarn that had arrived at her studio. On Friday, we finally got to see the goods, as it were.

All of this yarn was crammed into a not-very-large bag. Along with the shade cards,

(that's not all of them), and a couple of books, and some needles and notions and OMG it was totally wicked!!!!

That was only the beginning. On Saturday, our hostesses pulled out a vast box of other yarn for people to dive into, plus some totally glorious taster skeins that were available for swatching. So, I swatched:

Yarns from Cascade, Lorna's Laces, Blacker Yarns and The Island Wool Company.

This is the final haul I brought home, after all was said and done. I'd like to be able to give you an actual yardage count, but I haven't yet found time to sit down and figure it out - it's gonna be a big number though! It was a fantastic weekend with a great group of people, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for some fellow designers! You can sign up for the Rocking Kitchen newsletter here, and that will keep you in the loop on any future goings on.

Without any further ado, here is the great and grand list of sponsors for the weekend - many thanks to all of them for their generosity and excitement about working with independent designers!

Space Cadet Creations

Terri Shea (spinningwheel.net) 
West Yorkshire Spinners
Chiaogoo
Kettle Yarn Co
Cashmered UK
Millamia
Manos
Cascade Yarns
Dirty Water Dye Works
Malabrigo Yarn
Artesano Yarns
Wooly Knit
Hiya Hiya
Island Wool Company
Lorna's Laces
Little Giddings Farm
Blacker Yarns
Designer Yarns
TB Ramsden

Shop update tomorrow - 7 pm London time

Just a quick heads up that there will be a shop update tomorrow night at 7:00 pm London time, including BFL, Wensleydale, and Suffolk, including three new colorways: Snow Shadows, London Fog and Botticelli's Girl.

Fiber Friday: Messier 51

At the beginning of the year, I made myself a really quick and fun hat from some gorgeous handpainted singles.

I'm pleased to say that, not only have I finished working up a handspun version, but the pattern is just about ready for release this evening.

 This version was worked up in 100 yds of Corriedale singles in the "Parakeet" colorway (spinning and prepping of the singles was blogged about over here at the Porpoise Fur blog). With that minimal amount of yardage, I ended up with a hat that is slouchy on Dev, but a closer fitting toque on me. Perfect!

The pattern for this hat, Messier 51, is going to go live sometime this evening. Shortly thereafter, the next issue of the Porpoise Fur newsletter will go out, and will include a coupon code for getting that pattern for free. In addition to the actual knitting pattern, the file also includes instructions and tips on spinning singles. If you're interested in getting this little beauty for yourself (it's perfect for holiday knitting!), please go over to Porpoise Fur, and sign up on the right sidebar for the newsletter to get your free copy. Happy November everyone!

I think I've been in this position before

If the position we're discussing is the night before Halloween. 

Maybe next year I'll get my act together earlier? Don't hold your breath.