My stash June/July

A bit of a cross over for this post. One item is from July and it arrived this week. First of all I signed up for an exclusive with Owl About Yarn. She did a special set based on Wonder Woman. With it I got two hanks of Wonder Woman inspired sock yarn (sparkly sock yarn), a gorgeous Wonder Woman project bag which has a little hook with matching stitch markers, some post its (love me some post its, badges and a cute sticker. Although I haven't been to see the film yet I love Wonder Woman. I used to watch it when I was little. I had a pair of sunglasses that I wore while watching it and I was convinced that this turned me into my idol. Therefore I could not pass this by.

This months Little Box of Crochet is very cute and very summer inspired. It contains everything you need to crochet a little phone cover and keyring. It has a little rose motif which I love and will be a challenge for me to do as I have never done anything like that before. My mum would have loved it so I need to make an attempt. It also came with a cute rose stitch marker and a strawberry shopper bag.

I received two of my West Knits KAL parcels since my last post. June's was a yarn by Qing Fibre. It's beautifully soft and is a little thicker than some sock yarns. I can't wait to knit with it. It came with a cute little needle guide.

July's parcel arrived today. I have yet to download the ravelry pattern but I love the yarn. These colours make a nice contrast. The yarn is by Undercover Otter and again is super soft. It came with these badges and patch. I have just one more parcel to receive and I look forward to discovering another new yarn. I will get round to knitting with it.

I also received by parcels from the lovely Lisa of For the Love of Yarn. She is busy preparing for shows and still found the time to send out her club parcels. I am loving this months speckle yarn. Beautiful colours. It came with a sparkly wax melt which gives me all the excuse I need to bring out my candle burner.

I won't be showing off the blanket club yarns. I want to catch up and give it a post of it's own. However, here are this months mini skein club yarns. I love these colours. I think they would make a lovely pair of summer socks.

My stash in May

I haven't disappeared again. Work, a chest infection and then my mum's anniversary have all kept me away. I've had some time off work and I have spent the vast majority of it with my sister which has been nice. I even brushed the dust off the old hook and got some crafting done. Although it's extra shifts tonight and tomorrow I consider myself officially back and I thought I need to get posting too.

I had planned to share my fibreshare goodies (both received and sent) but since my postman has been at my door almost every day the last week I felt that it was only fair that I guiltily share the goodies I have treated myself too.

I wanted to start with this beautiful box from Little Box of Crochet. I know one or two of my crafting friends follow Amanda and her team on instagram . So you will have been following Amanda and her beautiful daughter Jenny's story. Sadly Jenny passed away almost two weeks ago and all our thoughts have been with Amanda. This box is in memory of Jenny and it contains a kit for a gorgeous mandala. I never thought that I would want to make one of these but Jenny's mandala is a lovely design and I already know where it's going once I finish it. It comes with a lovely little mandala stitch marker and a stamp. I know you can't see them but it seemed apt that my case of tulips be used to hold up the booklet as I wanted you to see the title. Apt because we all sent Jenny crochet flowers at her request.

Stephen West of WestKnits has quickly become one of my favourite designers. I love his use of texture and colour. He seems uninhibited when using both in his designs which is very refreshing. It encourages you to be the same (although I still think I am a little conservative with my colour choices). I am currently working on a shawl as part of a knitalong and I have bravely used colours that I wouldn't normally use apart from in socks for my sister (who is just as uninhibited when it comes to colour). I since signed up to do another knit along. You receive four patterns and four parcels of yarns to knit these patterns. I don't think I am aloud to say to much about the pattern as yet but I can show you my parcel. I love the yarn. It's exactly my colours. The yarn is by Garn stories and is lovely. I can't wait to knit with it. I also love the little notebook and project bag which came with it. The next parcel is on it's way and I haven't started this yet. I promised myself I would finish some projects before I start anything new but my project list is getting bigger and bigger.

If that wasn't enough I signed up for another knit along. This time a mystery shawl. In other words we won't know the finished piece until we complete it. The pattern is by Joji Knits and you can find her patterns on ravelry. Felt Fusions is a indie hand dyer that I follow on instagram and etsy. She was doing a yarn set especially for the shawl. You could pick your own colours. I asked for teal and for felt fusion to pick the rest based on that. I couldn't have been happier with the colours she picked out for me. They are beautiful and the yarn is so soft. This is going to be one beautiful shawl.

This wouldn't be a stash post without including the lovely Lisa of For the Love of Yarn. I joined one of Lisa's new clubs called speckle yarn club. It's all there in the description but you get a surprise colourway of speckled yarn. I signed up for 100g of sock yarn and I have loved it so far. The first months colourway I plan on contributing to my westknits shawl so that it is all knitted up with yarn from the same dyer. This second one is my favourite. My colours again. I love the beautiful blues. These will become a pair of socks for myself (sorry it won't become the shawl you kindly included Lisa). I do like the shawl and I love the little flower button. If you fancy signing up you still can as it's still available on her etsy page.

The latest themed club Lisa did was magical mysteries. I received beautiful yarn which I know my sister will want as socks. It's called Mermaids wish. I love the little stitch marker, button and magnet. I love my hook with the unicorn poop on top. And as for the rainbow drops, my sister and I loved these when we were little. Takes me back. The next box is Game of Thrones which you can sign up for here. While I read most of the books I have yet to work my way through the TV series (I got to episode 2 back when it first came out) so I am pleased to say there is finally one that I won't be signing up for. Sorry Lisa!

Lastly I thought I would show you this months mini skeins also from Lisa. The purple might go towards my sisters blanket. The yellow might go towards my WestKnits shawl. More beautiful colours Lisa.

Lisa will notice that I haven't shown the box from the blanket club. That's because I have caught up with all the previous months and want to post it separately. It's working out beautifully and this months colours will be a lovely edition.

You will notice that I haven't posted much about the giveaway which I was supposed to announce today. It got very little response. So I can give it to one of the three people who commented (comment again if you are interested) or I can send it to my old knitting group to be used for one of their charity projects or put out on swap night.

How to Use a Mini Skein Part 2.

 After my post on mini skeins on Monday there Lisa and I got chatting and we very excitedly talked about some of our  favourites. Which gave me an idea to do a second post on mini skeins. As I am sure I mentioned then Lisa is starting a mini skein club which you can sign up to over on her etsy page at For the Love of Yarn. It's the perfect way to start your collection if you are wanting to have a shot at using them. You can start with as few as 3 skeins a month. If you do sign up or have already sign up I would love to see what you do with them so that I can look on enviously.

The reason Lisa and I got so excited in our chat is that we were talking about our love for all things Stephen West.  I've talked about Stephen West and his designs in March's What's New Post as I raved about brioce. What Lisa and I felt was that a set of mini skeins would be perfect for his designs. West isn't just famous for his designs but for his use of colour. He isn't afraid to experiment and to put different contrasting colours together. The mini skein is a perfect way to experiment with colour. You aren't comitting a full skein of yarn to a project, yarn that you might not want to use in case it doesn't work well. Also you get to put together lots of different colours depending on the size of the project.

So this first one by West is a big one. It's a chevron brioche blanket and I love it! So many contrasting yarns on there. This would be perfect if you joined the club as you could add a little to it each month.

If you don't want to commit to a project as large as a blanket you could always try one of his smaller designs. I quite like this cowl. It has a base colour with lots of vibrant colours interlinking. I love a cowl and this one looks big enough to wrap round you. My favourite kind. It's called the syncopation adoration cowl.

Another cowl but this time a free design by Loops Yarn. This one is a lot less complicated and yet just as effective. This would be a fabulous project for those mini skein packs that contain a series of matching colours. I've actually added this cowl to my ravelry library. It's called the Ritalin Cowl.

 This image is actually of a scarg I knitted a couple of years ago. I used some sock yarn here but Lisa is working on this particular pattern using mini skeins. It's called the Hittchiker by Martina Behm and is a favourite of my old knitting group. I wasn't the only one to knit a few of them. With mini skeins you have more control over when you change colour but you would have more choices of colour. It would allow you to be more creative and playful with it which is exactly what Lisa is doing.

This scrap bag is another free download from ravelry (Hitchhiker isn't free). this caught my eye on Pinterest a while back because of its rainbow colours. Again a perfect project for some mini skein's. of course you would need a contrasting yarn but think of how this project would change depending on the colours you used. The pattern is by Frankie Brown who has a few other lovely projects on there.

I hope this gives you even more ideas on what to do with a set of mini skeins. As I said last time the possibility is almost limitles and you are only limited by your own imagination. You don't have to stop at stripy projects. If any of you have more ideas or want to show off your mini skein projects I would love to hear about them.

What's New In March

I am a little late with this one. I should have posted about this last month. Truth is I didn't realise how big a deal this was until recently. It's a huge event in the yarn world and this is only it's third year. Three days of classes from famous designers and teachers as well as a market with all your favourite yarns and designers. I am extremely envious of anyone who is going. It's actually very similar to the one I went to in Stirling at the start of my blog. It was called Knit Camp and I did a class in fair isle with Liz Lovick and another class with Jared Flood (one of my favourite designers).  There were a lot of problems in the organisation (where teachers had problems getting into the country) and they didn't do another one. The Edinburgh Yarn Festival has had no such problems and so many more classes that I would have had trouble restricting myself. Next year people! Next year! I have signed myself up to their mailing list so that I won't miss it again. This year, I will be working. If any of you who are going want to share your experiences here please do and I will try not to turn green with envy.

Brioche is a thing and I don't mean the bread. I mean the knitting stitch and I love it. I have loaded several patterns from ravelry and I have a plan to knit some of them. Brioche was initially made popular by designer Nancy Marchant. You can see her beautiful designs on website Brioche Stitch. It involves knitting with two contrasting yarns and you create this beautiful raised pattern. This has since grown and Stephen West of WestKnits has run with it. American born designer has lots of beautiful patterns based on this stitch. I have a few and ordered his most recent collection Bundled in Brioche. It's been fun getting updates when a new pattern has been loaded on to it. The above image is actually from another collection that I also have in my library. This is by Knit Graffiti a designer I came across thanks to Instagram. The good thing about these designs is that they look fantastic with a variegated yarn and a contrasting solid colour.

 Wool and the Gang is a company I came across via Instagram (Instagram has a lot to answer to). It was started by textile designers who were fed up with factory reproductions in fashion. They wanted to help encourage individuality in fashion and this is how it came about. You should go to their About page and read more on it. It makes for an interesting read. It appealed to me because of the images of chunky knits and their pop up stores in London over the Christmas period. I haven't purchased any of their yarn but heard only good things about it. Would be interested though to hear if any of you have knitted with their yarn.

Lastly I leave you with one for those who love crochet and colour. This person isn't selling anything. She doesn't appear to have a blog or facebook page or even and etsy page. Instead she shares beautiful images of her work. I have long been an admirer of her beautiful work and her colour choices. It isn't often that I don't ooh and ahh over her images. She's another person that I found thanks to Instagram.

Apart from that last one you can find all of the above list in one of my pages. Either Craft Blogs, Craft tutorials (brioche) or Craft Shopping. In fact I have created a section for events on the blogs page just for the yarn festival and yarndale.