Merry Christmas to you all

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. 

Take care and see you all next year. 

Lots of hugs and kisses from a very green and rainy Sweden...

Halloween

Tomorrow it's Halloween - Samhain. In the old days a time for change, marking the end of the old year and the birth of a new one. Today a time for trick and treats. 

In Sweden we don't really have a tradition of celebrating Halloween but I like the idea of closing the year and embracing the darker quieter season ahead, a season with time to spinn, knit and create. 

So to mark the changes of seasons I will be hosting a trick or treat Halloween pot luck sale :-) out with the old, making space for the new. 

At noon Swedish time (CET) I will be posting a trick or treat listing in the shop  - Enjoy

News and updates

It's been a while - again :-) 

I have been doing some dying...

My last  yarn and fiber show for this year...

Some knitting....(and surgery -Hallux valgus)

And some planing :-)

I have some wool in my big boxes under the bed that's been around for maybe one show too many by now and since they are getting slightly fuzzy around the edges I would like to put these on sale. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them but they feel like moving out in to the world now.

So I'm planing a pot luck sale at great bargain prices, 50% off, but with one little twist - you don't get to choose the fibres - they will be a great surprise. You can wish for a colour and if possible I will do my very best to accommodate this wish, but fist come - first served applies...

I need another day or two to get all set, but by Thursday afternoon (Swedish time)  it will be on. I'll let you know here and on Facebook what exact time...

And the Winner is...

No 14

Lindr

 

Who chose Sea Wich in Fairy Blend # 3

If you send me your name and address on thewillowfairy@gmail.com I will send you your surprise gift - which is...

Your chosen favourite - Sea Witch.

Gongratulations :-)

100 Likes

I feel like I'm running a bit late here on line, can't quite keep up. A lot of things happening around here right now - new house, foot surgery (Hallux vagus), new car and an awful lot to do at work, things just have a way of coinciding. Well, to be honest none of the things mentioned has really taken place yet, but they’re rapidly approaching and there is so much to be done...

Meanwhile I just last night got my one hundredth like and as I promised there will be a surprise, but not without a small effort from you - here are the rules...

1. You must of course like Willow Fairy Wool on Facebook. 

2. You must visit Willow Fairy Wool on Etsy and pick one favourite.

3. You must write a few words about this favourite here on the blog.

Next weekend I will pick a random winner from the comments left here on the blog - and the prize? It's a surprise, but I promise you it's good :-)

Good Luck

Farmers Market in Väröbacka

I will be here, selling fibers, stitch markers and honey :-)

Bondens Dag i Väröbacka är i år den 10/8 kl 10-14

En familjedag för hela familjen mellan 0-100 år. Här finns höns, ankor, kaniner att titta på och köpa. Ansiktsmålning, fiskedamm, kelkaninsbedömning, alpackor och getter att klappa. Agility, freesyle och hästuppvisningar, ponnyridning, café och grilltält. Stor marknad med grönsaker, barnkläder, kött, bröd, saft, sylt, godis, återvunnet hantverk, barnloppis, lammskinn och mkt mkt mer!

Kom och njut när när visningsträdgården Nasaret visar sig från sin vackraste sida. All info hittar ni på länken nedan: https://www.facebook.com/events/435689543189851/?fref=ts

P-avgift 50 kr som ni kan handla för inne på Åkrabergs Trädgård under dagen!
Hoppas vi ses!
Mvh Christina m. familj
Brantas Gård

TdF sale

Now when TdF is in full swing more wool than usual might be used up and it would be a shame if autumn found your dwelling lacking in insulation, so during TdF I'm offering 20% on any purchase if you use the coupon code TOURTHEFLEECE when checking out

www.willowfairywool.etsy.com

A new project

I have in mind to make this ... 

Delphinium by Jane Thornley. I want it striped, but without all the ends, so I pulled out all my spinning fibres - or a lot of it any ways - and put these together

But the middle one in the top pic went back in the cupboard, it was too pretty on its own to be split up they way I had planned. 

I divided all the fibres in to halves first since I'm going to do a two ply. Each half was then split into three and I even wrote down in which order to spin them so they will sort of match up when plyed. 

I'm nearly half done and its so much fun. Can't understand why I haven't done this before...

There's a first for everything...

I've just added my first ever knitting pattern on Ravelry. Maybe a few more will make their way there too in time, but for now - let me present to you ... 

Neat - The Shoulder Warmer


.

Sweet distraction

I've been a bit distracted this week. I have a new helper - Arachne aka Gosan. But don't worry some new fibres are on their way soon...

Update

Sorry if you've missed me, I bought an Ipad and I just can't get it to blog properly, or maybe I just havn't figured ot the app yet... anyway

I gathered a big pile of wool and yarns from the last two weeks and they all went up in the shop last thursday. The ones in the photo below among other things...

A great new thing in the shop is "Cuddly Sock" a soft squishy sock yarn made of Merino wool, Cashmere and a small amount of nylon for strength. It's also registered on Ravelry so you can stash it easily.

Knit retreat in Humlekil

This week end was long, eventful and so very inspiring. I finished work early on
Thursday and met up with Asa, who had all of the back of her car stuffed with
lovely yarn from her shop (I did some little shopping there later on…). Together we
managed to find our way home to Annuska – who lives in the middle of nowhere
– thank you Google maps. There awaited good food, lovely cakes, new friends and
interesting workshops for four days…Not to mention really nice goodie bags and a little surprise on the pillow...

Thursday evening was spent getting to know each other. There were just 10 of us,
if counting Slavi's husband who didn’t knit but was good company anyway. And
of course there was Alfie – 5 months old dachshund – who just charmed everyone.
It was even hard to scold him for stealing our wool, yarn, slippers or anything else
woollen he could lay his paws on…

Friday we were up bright and early for breakfast and then straight on to the first
workshop – Bulgarian knitting. A different knitting technique which involved
putting the yarn around your neck and where the purls were a piece of cake and
the knits… hmm… well… a bit of a challenge actually… The Bulgarian knitting is
thought to have originated from Turkey and was spread by the Ottoman Empire as far away as to Portugal where it evolved a bit further and is now known as Portuguese knitting (the knits are easier in Portugal…)

After lunch it was time to roll up our sleeves and try our hands at dyeing with Jaeba
Cold Water Dye. Being used to acid dyes with water, heat and all it felt very strange
to just pour dye onto dry yarn… I felt I had very little control over the process, but
that is the way with all new things. But it was fun – so much fun that we hardly had
time for dinner and two of us sneaked up again after dinner to do some more… Then
we had to wait for the dye to set, always the hardest part…

 

In the evening there were spontaneous spinning class as well...

And some got massage...

Saturday we woke up to snow... I did my best to ignore it rinsing the dyed yarn and hanging it out todry instead, giving it a pat and a squeeze every time we walked by for the rest of the day…

We had only one workshop planned for Saturday but it was so much fun it lasted most of the day anyway. Twined knitting are not for those of little patience or maybe it’s just the thing to teach someone patience. Yes it’s slow, sometimes a bit tricky, but it turns out so beautiful that it’s hard to put the needles down I find… The fabric gets lovely and thick and is perfect for anything which encounters a lot of wear and tear – socks, mittens, Iphone covers and it would be perfect for bags if you have the stamina to get through such an undertaking…

Hard as it was to tear ourselves away from the needles, we did take a small break
to go into Arvika for some yarn shopping. They had nice yarn shops although the
nicest one (I think) was closing down (giving us a whole of 30% discount) I was quite
modest though in my shopping and didn’t over do it… I know you don’t believe it,
but honestly I only got two jarbo, two Opal sock, one striped Kidsilk haze stipe, two Rowan Lima and one skein of heavy tussah silk. I also got a lovely shawl pin made locally. 

Then I at least went back to the Twined knitting having set myself a goal of doing
both textured pattern, coloured pattern and a braid before I quit for the night – and I
did and I’m so happy with the result.

Saturday evening we had a yarn lottery where I managed to snatch a bunch of
Malabrigo silky merino in bright red and cerise – WOW what a stunning yarn. I
already have a project in mind…

Sunday was mostly spent in slight confusion of how to fit all the things in to my suit
case – the yarn and knitting projects seemed to have multiplied over night…For a
while I turned a blind eye to that problem and went to work on my newly dyed yarn.
So much more fun! They looked nice enough when rinsed and dried, but since I know
they don’t knit up in the same orderly way, I wanted to re-skein them. I love the
difference that makes to the yarn, just look at it…

The workshop of the day was magic loop, but since I’ve tried and struggled with this
technique a good few times now I skipped that class. It’s not that I can’t do it and I do
see the use of it and will use it if necessary but I just don’t like it. I went to see how
much more yarn I could fit into the suitcase instead…

Looks like I managed quite well, don’t you think? This is what came with me home that I didn't bring with me...

I must say I got really inspired in a lot of ways over the weekend so now I need some
time of from work to knit and spin – not long, a few months would suffice…

New wool in the shop

I'm really happy to have some new wool in the shop again. I got really inspired over the weekend.

There are more wool still to go up in the shop but here are some that I entered tonight...

Happy Easter

I'm spending this long week end dyeing wool and updating the shop :-)

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend full of good food, easter eggs and friends.

Recovered...

I've recovered from SiV now - body and mind...

It was great - a big bunch of nice knitting people, good food, great shopping - simply a fibre nerd's paradise...

My shop

The big dining room full och buzzing busy knitters

Interesting new knitting techniques

Knit battle

workshop in illusion knitting

It really took a while to get back to normal. There were so many new people and impressions and experience - apart from not sleeping too well in a strange bed and being on your feet all day. But I'm already looking forward to next year.