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...

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…

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.

A small world

A little while back I sold two pieces of roving to a convent in the US. I felt quite honoured but didn't think too much of it. 

This month I managed to snatch up a Phat Fiber Fluff box which arrived earlier this week with oh so many lovely goodies...

Among those little treat were a very nice sample called Tyrian Purple - click on the picture below to read about it. 

So soft and with a bit of sparkle I just couldn't keep my hands of it. Today I finally got some kind of sunlight to take a photo for the blog and facebook (and so I could handle it more freely)

I looked Inglenook Fibers on Etsy almost immediately and since then I just could keep from looking and looking at the full size batts... 

I thought I should wait until I had tried spinning the sample at least - it's not like I have a desperate shortage of fibres...But today I fell for it and ordered this one and another called Briar's Rose.

When I was about to pay the payment was made out to The Holy Nativity Convent!!! Turns out the Convent I sold rovings to I today bought hand blended batts from...

How about that for a small world - even if it is across the pond.

Another week

Time does surely fly when you're having fun... Can't believe it's already saturday again. 

Last Tuesday was spinning night, Wednesday knitting night - both were great fun and very energising. A bit of a breather on Thursday and then the week was suddenly over...

Last night was spent at the movies with a very inspiring movie - Les Miserables. Yes there's a lot of misery but through it all there's a hopefulness and a firm belief in the goodness of mankind which I find inspiring. 

Inspiring is also all the wool I have lying around and this weeks update in the shop is all about greens - mystical, dark, sumptuous and happy healing green...

Enjoy

Back to work

After two sunny weeks in Spain with good food, beautiful sights and even a bit of spinning I'm back at work again.

It's cold outside and today we even had a bit of a snowstorm in the afternoon. Nice to look at and nice to be out in as long as you are well dressed. I did not have enough wool on me, but I was not outside for long. 

But at home this lovely parcel has been waiting for me all the time I've been away and now I can't wait to start dying. There is so much wool to choose from, so many different kinds and shades it's hard to know where to begin. 

But first there's a lot of boring unpacking to do...

Merry Christmas

Preparation

It's been hard for me to sit still today. Yesterday it was decided that I will be a part of "Stickfest i vast" exhibiting and selling my wool on the market square during the weekend of 16th - 17th of March next year.

It's so exciting!!!

And so much to prepare and plan - Banner to make, wool to dye, yarn to spin - I just love it.

Started this morning by ordering a big bunch of wool from England so it will be here when we get back from Spain. I'd better enjoy my leisure for the next three weeks for after we get back It'll be all work and no play. Well acctually, dyeing wool is play and a lot of fun, but it takes time...

And also I will be there for the entire weekend. I've only participated in a workshop or two before and only made a daytrip of it. This year it will be in Gottskars hotell, beautifully situated by the sea about 40km south of Gothenburg. It'll be lovely whatever the weather.

I'm so looking forward to this.

Time to and put some wool in the dye pot - see you :-)

 

Changes

Ok - so I've decided that for this blog to live on I need to make some changes.

The first and greatest change will be the language. I will be refering to this blog as a place for news and updates regarding Willow Fairy Wool for those who are not on FB and therefore it needs to be in English.

I hope you can all live with that and I might as well apologise in advance for any grammatical mistakes and misspellings I will make in the future...

Bra att ha...

Synd egentligen att inte skriva här. Har funderat på att skrota hela bloggen, men jag har upptäckt att den kan vara bra att ha ibland. 

Det finns till exempel väldigt många inlägg här som det faktiskt händer att jag går tillbaka till och refererar till på andra håll. 

Alla människor har inte heller facebook och vill inte skaffa det heller. 

Så jag tror jag ska fundera fram ett sätt att hålla liv i min blogg. Ge den ett nytt liv i ny form kanske...

Det kommer garanterat att bli mycket ull...

En hel del handspunnet

Och ett och annat med den här tossingen kanske...

Tävling hos Garnasinne

Hej! Det var länge sedan och jag vet inte huruvida jag har några följare kvar, men detta måste spridas till alla som gillar garn och stickning så jag lägger ut det här med.

Kika in på Garnasinnes blogg - ju fler som är med och tävlar desto fler och finare vinster blir det. 

Tävlingen är öppen till 17:e december.

Jag hoppas ni har en trevlig advent med mycket snö och glitter :-)