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.