New Collection: As Autumn Falls

Autumn is my favourite season, and October one of my favourite months.  I adore the changing colour of the trees, the rapid change from peaceful green to burning reds, oranges & yellows.  As I've mentioned before, we chose our flat because of how close to the Kelvin & botanic garden it is, a lovely river which flows almost unnoticed in the west end of Glasgow through leafy green avenues, passing by a wonderful arboretum. 

I'm not sure if people really realise the arboretum is there, it's always lovely and quiet, even on the warmest of sunny days, tucked away across the road at the back of the botanic gardens.

It's from this changing of seasons, from the turning of the leaves and the crispy drop in temperature, that the Autumn collection is derived (here on rav). 

Front centre of "Baile" cardigan, as below

Comprised of a golden brown/orange cardigan - Baile, two gorgeous hats inspired by hay bales and golden twigs - Bulgurwheat & Slipthatch, and last but certainly not least, the Emmer shawl - a slightly more sombre pink/brown shawl, inspired by empty stalks and leafless branches. 

The entire collection is knitted in beautiful malabrigo yarns; a super soft merino for the shawl, superwash merino for cardigan (sensible), and silky soft merino/silk for the lighterweight hat with a single spun worsted beauty for the heavier weight hat.

Emmer- I wanted emmer to be loghtweight but warm, so used twisted stitches and occasional yarn overs to add detail to this delicate but robust shawl.  Using 150g of 4ply, it's just the right size for wrapping around your shoulder when those cold October winds begin to blow!

 

Baile - I wanted this cardigan to look complex whilst being very simple to knit, and think we've managed!  The front panels are a short repeat, easily knitted with only basic knowledge of ssk, k2tog and yo. 

Charts are written out as well, so if confused you can always use both!  

Slipthatch - this hat blocked beautifully.  The woven stitch creates a dense fabric in this worsted yarn - this hat is toasty!!  It's inspited by hay bales and thatched rooves and warm autumnal fun.

 

Bulgurwheat - after that toaster of a hat I needed something more delicate - how about one which reminds me of bare stems and golden stems of flowers long gone? 

 

On Ravelry the patterns are individually priced.  £9 for the 4-piece collection - I think ravelry adds tax to this depending on where you are! 

If there's enough interest, maybe we could run a wee knit-along in the Ravelry group? 

Which new item is your favourite??  What's your favourite time of year, and if it's Autumn, is it for different reasons to me?

Cuppa & Cake with... Deborah (FondantFibre)

This lovely lady and her gorgeous shop have kept me occupied all week since her brilliant fluff arrived through my door!  

Deborah (of FondantFibre) is a true queen of her craft, with each and every item in her store prepared from start to finish for the sole purpose of a love of fleece (and for you, of course!).

At the moment, any purchase made from Deborah's shop will enter you into a monthly prize draw to win a surprise package of fluffy gorgeousness! More details can be found on her blog here.  

1.  Hello! What have you been up to this morning?

Hello to you Amanda!  I always get up early and start the day with a coffee and a little spin on my Wee Peggy.  

I then packed up my orders and did the post office run, did a little networking (Ravely of course) then updated my shop with the weekends work. 

2. When did you begin to dye your own fleece and what inspired you to do so?

I learnt to spin a few years ago and although there are some incredible indie dyers out there I found that I really enjoyed the whole process of preparing fleece straight from the sheep back.  My creative side blossomed and I felt so compelled to put all the ideas in my head onto fibre.  

As you can imagine I found myself knee deep in prepped fibre and hand painted tops, far too much for me to spin in this lifetime so I decided to share it by opening my Etsy store. 

3. Do you have a favourite fibre to work with? And those colours! You must have combinations you're tempted to use over and over again?

I don’t really have a favourite but do have my little comfort zones…..my special blend “Norboo” (Norwegian and bamboo) is such a joy to dye and spin so this is my “go to” fibre.  I only use the best fleece I can get my hands on (fibre snob? Moi?) and can spend hours combing or carding without getting bored!  

As for colours, yes I am always drawn to purple but just love rainbow combinations!

Delicious 'Norboo' in Berry colourway

4. Have you always used the same dyeing method or have you been able to refine it over time?

When I first started dyeing for myself I used food colouring and used the microwave to set it!  In a very short time I found lots of fun ways to experiment and get the perfect combination of top quality fibre with a variety of colour ways and techniques.  I still love to play and my Etsy shop will see some new and exciting fibre preps very soon.

5. With all this lovely dyeing, do you find the time to spin and knit up your own projects? What's your most recent cast on?

For me dyeing and preparing fleece is my first love.  Of course I have to do my own quality control and love to sample spin my wares before they are put in my shop.  

I don’t have much time for knitting large projects so I use all my samples in my ongoing 10 stitch knitted blanket

6. Finally, what's your favourite cuppa & cake?

I have just treated myself to a cappuccino maker which I am determined to make the perfect froth with!  Cake….well it has to be a huge slice of carrot cake because it has one of my 5 a day hahahaha 

Thanks for inviting me to your cuppa & cake soiree, it was so much fun!

Deborah can also be found:

Shop: http://www.fondantfibre.com/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/fondantfibre

Blog: http://fondantfibre.wordpress.com/

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/people/fondantfibre

Earlier this week, I bought some lovely superwash cheviot fleece from Deborah, which I maaaaay have spent all night turning into 400m of veeery pretty fingering weight singles.  Dreamy to spin, I love purple too!

EDIT:  This lovely purple has been turned into a shawl now!  Go peek :)

Do you dye or spin?  What was your most recent project?  Show me your lovely pictures so I can do some yarn drooling :):)  If you pop links in my comment box I'd love to nosey!

Do you want to join us for a Cuppa & Cake?  Email me :)

New swap! And my last swap gift :)

How about a knitting swap?  I've recently taking part in the Spring swap over in the TinyOwlKnits group on Ravelry, and found it to be such good fun!



And you can see the lovely, amazing, beautiful gifts my spoiler sent me in my last blog post about it here!

You are given the username and address of your spoilee, and do a little bit of Ravelry/blog stalking before  putting together a pretty little love-filled package for them!

I can't wait until the next big swap starts, so thought it would be amazing to start a little one for in-between times! If you'd be interested in taking part in a swap please do comment here and/or head on over to the discussion on Ravelry in my group!

It’ll just be a little swap, with a budget of £/$5-10. If you haven’t swapped before, you simply make up a little package of love for the one you’re spoiling (it doesn’t have to be expensive, or shop bought or even new, just something you think they’ll love, whether that be handmade, repurposed or bought just for them).

Sme ideas would be stitch markers, balls of yarn, knit them an item from their queue, knit a little random item, or present them with a pattern, or any manner of other little goodies you think they might like!! (Like chocolate, mmmm)

This is just to gauge interest, so please do post in my Ravelry group if you’d like to take part! Pass the message onto your friends if you think they’d like to join too!

So I Spun Up All the Yarn, & Learned to Ply.

As you probably spotted in my Spring Equinox Swap post, my lovely spoiler (Aobhro)
 gifted me a whole pack of assorted fleecy bits to spin on my new wheel!

Well a couple of weeks have passed and I may have spun them all up...

There's some pastel cheviot, green & black humbug jacobs and natural humbug shetland - all so pretty!!

None are plied, they all ended up around fingering/4ply weight and I was happy with that, because I've decided to make a from scratchy handspun and handknit beekeepers quilt :D

Aaaaand before, they looked like this!  -

Next, I decided to tackle the next hurdle - plying.  Going for a simple 2 ply, I spun up this lovely 70% black shetland 30% bleached tussah silk.  The plying was so easy!  Can't believe I've been putting it off!  - don't put it off spinners!  Ended up around DK/worsted, so I may make a hat :D

Navajo plying will be the next test on this beauty of a braid:

What did you spin this week??  Send me where you get pretty fibre from :p

Amanda x

Easter Stitch Marker Sale!

Yey for bunnies and chocolate eggs :D.  For one day only, there's 20% off all stitch markers in my etsy store!

Just use the code OWLPRINTPANDAEASTER at the checkout for your discount :)

Dandelion Hat!

Yey!  It's finally published!  After convincing my lovely man to take some wee photos of this amazing hat, and all the lovely test knitters finishing their brilliant versions, it is time :D

D'ye like it?? 

Pattern Information & Construction Notes:
This is a slouchy style hat, knit in the round using mosaic colourwork detail. Knit from ribbed brim, on smaller needles for snug fit, through patterned body on the larger needles up to the crown in two colours. You could also use the jogless stripe technique to ensure seamless transition between colours.

Instructions are provided for four sizes.

Finished Measurements:
Adult (Toddler, Child, Large Adult) finished size to fit 20”(16”,18”,22”) circumference heads. The standard length of this slouchy hat is approximately 10” (8”,10”,10”), though directions are included should you wish to vary this.

Yarn: 
Two complimentary shades of 4ply/sport yarn are required, approximately 200 yards of main colour and 100 yards of alternate colour will be required for the adult size. Allow 250/120 for larger size.

Hat shown is knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply/sport, main colour (MC) oatmeal, alternate colour (AC) gold. This is a gorgeous silky smooth, shiny yarn. Though the hat would work equally well on another 4ply or sportweight yarn.

Needles: 
3.5mm (US 4) Double Pointed needles (or your preferred circular knitting method). You may wish to use 3.25mm or 3mm needles for the ridged brim to ensure snug fit.

Gauge: 
This is a lovey silky slouchy hat, so don’t worry too much about gauge. If you really really want exact gauge, the shown hat has 30 stitches and 40 rows in 4” in the wave stitch used for the body.

You can grab the pattern here on Ravelry, or here on Etsy :)

Edinburgh Yarn Festival

Whew!!  What a crazy day!  From arriving at 8am, I don't think I had a chance to look at my watch until around 4pm.  The queue down the street was so long, all those poor people waiting out in the rain!

The hall was lovely, but so busy with people!  I think people were getting lost just wandering around in the crowd :D

I had such a brilliant day, met two lovely podcaster ladies who I've spoken to online - it's so nice to put a face to a name!!   (and a voice in these cases!) with Aimee from KnitSpinCake and Louise from CaithnessCraft.  Hillarious situations arising where I can hear people I know, but have no idea who I'm looking for!    I was rather excited through the whole day, and after narrowly dodging knocking my charm-hanging tree over to hug Louise, loudly invented the 'Dangerhug'.  Cause odd things pop into your head when you get over-excited... clearly...

Many, many, many great conversations with lovely ladies from ravelry, a man buying charms for miniature sculptures he makes (how cool!), questions for interviews and visits from friends with much-needed food packages - there was a 30 minute wait for cups of tea in the cafe :o

I know a few people couldn't find me at the festival yesterday!!  So I have spent the day re-organizing and photographing over 60 different sets of stitch markers to pop them up on etsy!

Feel free to pick and mix, just contact me on etsy with your 5 charms and the numbers I've given them on etsy, and I shall make up a little baggie for you!!  It's 80p postage to the UK.

Some of my favourites:

Were you at the festival?

What did you buy?!

Knit Stitch Markers!

So I've spent the past couple of weeks knitting frantically for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.  There are 3 days left and I'm getting awfully excited :D

Just thought I'd share with you a few sneaky previews of some of the stitch markers I'll have with me on the day!  There are over 50 different kinds of marker, so you're still gonna have to come visit me to see them all :p  Here are some on my display tree!

It'll be 'pick-n-mix' markers, with 5 markers for £4.50 in a pretty little gift bag :)

UPDATE:  the stitch markers are now available in my etsy store!  Do feel free to contact me with your pick 'n' mix!  

Some of the birdie (and owlie!) stitch markers

spinning wheels or knitting needles?  Hmmm...

Crazy about cats?  Or maybe just that lil umbrella in the corner.

colourful baggies!

When I say 'display tree'  I really do mean tree.  I spent weeks hunting in craft shops for some sort of stand which would show off the little markers nicely, and in the end used a large branch from the local park with fairy lights on... eco-friendly y'see.  Good for the environment...

All of the little markers will also be available as earrings!  £2-3 per set.

Aaaaand there are baskets and baskets of purses!!!  And a few colours / animals you've not spotted before hehe.  These'll be going for £15 on the day, each is different.  Or you could knit your own with the pattern on Ravelry!  

Foxes and bears and badgers, oh my!  Purse Basket!

Just had coffee with Sarah (of Porcini & Button) who will also be selling crafty loveliness at the festival on saturday!   We had good chats about tablecloths... lights... baskets... y'know, now that I list it, it doesn't sound at all exciting, but it was! And we could have an awesome tablecloth!! So there...

Will you be at the Yarn Festival this saturday?  What are you gonna be buying?!  Drop by and say hi to us!

Saturday, 16th March:  10.00 – 17.00

OUT OF THE BLUE (DRILLHALL)

36 Dalmeny StreetEdinburgh

EH6 8RG

Amanda :) xx

p.s.  if you want to reserve any markers/earrings/purses either to pick up at the festival or because you want them but you're not coming!   Or if you have a custom request for purses, just drop me an email here!