Tuesday 26 September 2017

Yarn Thing & Queenies Square

I've got two exciting things to blog about today.


The first is that I'm delighted and excited that I am going to be interviewed by Marly Bird on her podcast today.
I should of told you ages ago, but the baby got in the way. If you miss the live podcast you can still listen to the archived version.
All the details are HERE

Second is that I have published a new blanket pattern, its called Queenies Square.


When my daughter Daisy first told me, she was pregnant in December 2016 I decided that I needed to make my first grandchild a granny square blanket. I haven't made a granny square blanket for nearly 15 years, and even though granny squares hold a very special place in my heart I just couldn't get inspired.
I tried all sorts of variations, but eventually gave up and decided to use a slightly more complicated motif instead.

I wanted to make my grand-baby's blanket with The Natural Dye Studio yarn, but knew that not many people would have the yarn as NDS has been closed for over 2 years and it would be very difficult to match the colours, so I made two blankets.

The first is made with Fyberspates Scrumptious, John Arbon Textiles Knit by Numbers, Drops Alpaca and Cascade 220 fingering.
I chose colours that would be suitable as a unisex blanket, as I didn't know what sex the baby was going to be.
The design is bold and geometric as new born babies can’t focus and find it difficult to see single tones meaning contrasting colours are ideal to help develop their eyesight.


The second blanket is The Natural Dye Studio version.
You might not have heard about NDS, it was my hand dyed yarn company that ran from 2002 to 1025. We dyed luxury natural yarns with plant dyes, it started off very small I dyed a little bit of yarn in my kitchen at home, but the demand grew so quickly I had to move it out into its own premises in 2006. NDS kept growing and eventually my husband Phil and daughter Daisy came to work with me.
A few years after we moved to Exmoor Phil was offered a grown up job, so left us to carry on without him, Daisy and I struggled on until I started writing my book, then the workload became very stressful and unbearable, so I decided it was time to close the business.

When NDS closed I kept quite a lot of yarn, but blankets take a lot of yarn and nearly all the blankets in Rainbow Crocheted Blankets were made with my stash. 
Eventually I decided to only use it for very special blankets and keep it as a memory to love and look at.
My first grand-baby deserved a very special blanket.


Albert (Bertie)was born on September 1st 2017.
The blanket is named Queenies Square because Bertie already had a great Granny (and a great Grandma and Nanny), so I decided to be his Queenie which is my nickname, both on-line and in the real world.

You can find the pattern HERE on Etsy
And HERE on Ravelry, I've set up a special discount in my Ravelry shop that runs from now until October 1st 2017, just add Bertie to the code box at checkout and you will receive a 50% discount on the pattern.

Tuesday 19 September 2017

Drops Alpaca Colour Pack's & Bertie Update

As you might of guessed by now I have a lot of yarn, this is just the tip of the iceberg. 
I try and keep it in order of the colour wheel as the colour wheel is my main palette




So you can imagine I was delighted when I was invited to create a yarn pack for Dermores
I've chosen Drops Alpaca as its my favourite budget yarn. Its soft, crochets beautifully, comes in a range of beautiful colours and is amazingly good value. 




The colour wheel pack is perfect as blanket starter collection, I chosen colours that I love, use and go well together. You can find it in my shop on Deramores - Here


If you've already got some of the colours or just want to buy them one at a time, this is the list of colours in the pack.

Goldenrod - 2923
Dark lime - 2916
Olive Mix - 7233
Dark olive mix - 7238
Dark turquoise - 2918
Teal - 2919
Dark blue - 6790
Purple violet 4434
Dark Pink - 3770
Pink - 2921
Deep pink - 2922
Orange - 2915

I have to admit I've got rather a lot of it and use it all the time, I like to make up my own shade cards just to keep track of which colours I've used in case I need to buy some more for a blanket or rather what I've already got in my collection so I don't duplicate when I go on a yarn spending spree.



Albert update
Life is not really back to normal, I didn't realise how much a tiny grandbaby would disrupt our lives.....
At the moment we have a constant stream of family members coming to stay with us so they can meet the newest member.
Plus Dais had to have an emergency c-section so needs constant attention to stop her doing too much too soon, so I'm spending quite a lot of time with her cuddling Bertie :-)

Here he is with his Grandpa and Mummy enjoying the warm Exmoor sun on Sunday.



Monday 4 September 2017

Albert

My first grandchild Albert Theodore, 7lb, 7oz, was born 33 minutes past midnight on the 1st of September 2017.


Normal service will resume when life calms down a bit :-))

Love Amanda