Skeins! Blossom! Sky!

The sun is shining, the flowers are out, and the skeins are drying...or the skeins are out, the sun is drying (apparently it is, sort of) and the flowers are shining...?

And there are new yarns in the shop! Here's a preview...

They're posing on the bed of forget-me-nots (my fave bit of the garden and the bit that never gets strimmed, much to Mr Yaffle's chagrin). Skeins are a notoriously vain species, preferring to be shot against perfect backgrounds. Causes me immense trouble! Demanding as film stars, skeins! Anyway, see them posing for real in the shop.

Also out posing today is the cherry blossom. Warning: for those of a cliche-averting disposition, ubiquitous blossom-against-sky shot follows. If you don't want to know the results, look away now:

 

I like this picture - it reminds me of a really kitsch photo in a 1960s book about flowers. Or a seaside postcard! I put the flash on and upped the contrast - don't try this at home, folks, or you too will have a picture this bright...!

Sewing, skeining and STUFF!

Here's what my floor looks like after this weekend's frenetic sewing activity.

I've been making a patchwork dress! Inspired by these amazing dresses, I thought I'd make my own. I used the bodice from a Simplicity pattern, and made up the rest. Mind you, after a few days of sewing patches together and struggling with seemingly endless gathering, I did think more than once, "hmm, I could buy one of hers and save myself the agony", but once I'd worked out the import duty on something from Australia I made a cup of refreshing tea and carried on stitching and gathering.

And here it is. I just have the hem to do and a belt to add. Crazy dress! Mind you if you know me you'll know this is completely in character. In fact, it's made from offcuts from other dresses I've made (padded out with a couple of FQs I bought with my vouchers) so you'll have seen all of it before! I'd take a pic of it outside in the garden with me prancing about modelling it, but I can't take a self portrait properly, and my assistant is temporarily indisposed.

He likes sitting under my desk while I work. (I am reminded of the fantastic under-deskness of my last job - we all had a treasure trove of stuff under there, but never a dog! I still carry on the tradition of Crap Under Desk, you'll be pleased to know!) Except it's not great when I'm sewing as I need the foot-room for the machine control (in the right of the picture). He doesn't like that and sulks on the landing instead. Anyway. I'll get round to making Mr Yaffle take a picture of me wearing the dress of craziness one day :-)

Shop news!
I've got a dyeing day tomorrow and over the weekend so there will be some new colours going up on the site by early next week. Also, I've been re-skeining some existing colours to give you a better idea of how the colours work with each other.

This one is Paintbox

And this one is Stargazer.  I've re-skeined just one of each colourway so you can see how it looks. The pics will be up on the website today and tomorrow.

And finally. I hope you're not eating your dinner. Here's today's mystery object...

Yup, folks, it's raw wool...! There was loads of it strewn across the fields yesterday when I took the dog out, so naturally I picked it up and put it in my bag. No-one was around to look apart from the odd sheep so I saved myself some face ;-) Trouble is, I have no idea what to do with it really. Or why I picked it up. Mr Trebus strikes again...I think, given the abundance of mud and vegetable matter in there, I can't see myself washing, carding and spinning such a small bit. Hmm. If only it was more attractive, or sweeter smelling (and if only you too could enjoy the aroma!) I'd be half-tempted to spin it...but for now it's on the bird table!!

Not what it seams

The neverending purple cardigan is nearly finished! Look!

(needle plonked into knitting. it's not really doing a stitch, cuz that would be doin it rong)

I'm sewing it up. And I'm really not enjoying doing that. Do you find that you knit beautifully and neatly, only to really botch things up when you sew the seams? Hmm. I do. I don't really like all-in-one garments either because I end up over-estimating how wide my underarms need to be (I think that's the seamstress in me. Allow for seams! FAIL. It hav no seams.) and the last one I knitted deserves to be in an 80's treasury of batwing cardigans. Gah.

Franken-cardigan! Ugh! I can sew, I can knit. But combine the two together and it's a disaster! I'll carry on and just keep my arms by my sides so no-one can glimpse the seams when I wear it. I could start a whole new fashion. Maybe I should take up Irish dancing. And wear the cardigan to that.