And the winner of The sneakiest place to hide my stash" is...

This blog post is written by Phil - my husband and the judge of "The sneakiest place to hide my stash" competition...

Well ladies you have surpassed yourselves here!!
52 comments and some that really made me laugh....

The single criteria for me, as a husband and putting myself in the shoes of the men in your lives, was where would I never look?
I have to say that I come from a generation where a lot of men are more domesticated than their fathers, who thought nothing of sitting reading the paper in their comfy arm chair whilst their hard working wife ran around doing everything....goes back to the days when men were the sole bread-winners and women tended to keep house.  Today of course this has changed dramatically with great leaps in equality in the workplace and I know several men who's wives went back to work after childbirth and left the husband to run the house.
So for this reason my choice is based on sheer cheek and family collaboration - being a dad I know how difficult it is to get your kids to keep a secret, so hats off to our winner who colluded with her eldest son to find ideal spots in his room to hide yarn...and whilst the modern dad is many things he's not up for cleaning his kids bedrooms!! (that remains the responsibility of the child, and involves much bribery!)

So the winner is:

vicarno's mama
Please drop me an email at dyestudio@hotmail.com and let me know what you'd like as your prize from the website.

Just remains to thank everyone for taking part - and I leave you with this little gem - I was told by a customer  once at a show that she had actually purchased a separate flat to store her yarn in, so I guess that's about as extreme as it gets!

Lorna update

I finished her last night :-)
My arm isn't too bad this morning, so all is good.

She hasn't worked quite as well as I'd hoped, but I'm still pretty pleased with her.
Here she is blocking and drying in the dye room.
She is huge!!!
The blocking board measures 47 x 30 inches, which will make Lorna about 70 x 30ish inches when she's dry.
Not really shawl shaped, more like a wrap, but lovely and snuggly, I think the real Lorna would of been happy.

Hurt arm

It was freezing over the week, so I snuggled into the sofa and crocheted all weekend.
I hate to think how many hours I spent, but it must of been at least 10 - 12 hours a day.
This has resulted in 2 things happening.
A - I have nearly finished Lorna
and
B - I have bad RSI.
So when I get home from work today I will be dosing myself with extra stong ibuprofen and crocheting all night until I finish her.
Then its sewing in the ends and blocking.
I can't wait to block as the pattern will (hopefully) open up and I will see if my idea's have worked.

I don't have any new photo's, but here are some gratuitous Great British Wool photo's.
My Lorna is made with the Wensleydale/Zwartbles - which is out of stock, as I needed it all to make Lorna.
There will probably be 1 skein left to go back on line.
I'm using my 4th skein, I have my fingers crossed there will be enough to finish her.

But you will be able to make Lorna in any of our Great British Wool's as they are all spun to the same specification..
I was very tempted to use Wensleydale/Bluefaced marl for Lorna, the only reason the Zwartbles won is because I already had a skein at home when I started crocheting.

And I think October's GBWC will make a stunning Lorna.
October will be in this week's update, we have dyed some and left some as its natural colour as it was so lovely.
There will be photo's of October in the very near future, maybe today, maybe tomorrow.......

Lorna & NDS update

I love reading, I read every night when I go to bed as it helps me wind down and go to sleep, its my only real hobby outside what I do for a living.
I'm a big fan of historical literature, especially Victorian novels.
So when we came to live on Exmoor I knew we were moving into Lorna Doone country.

Lorna Doone is a victorian novel, set about 6 or 7 miles away from where we live.
The story is a breathtaking romance, and well worth the effort of reading.
But if you don't fancy the read, there have also been several films and tv series made.

So I decided I really needed to make a shawl for Lorna, its wild and windswept on the moor and she would need something to keep her warm.

Her shawl would have to be made in Exmoor Horn, or one of the Exmoor mules (cross breed sheep).
I'm going to make a test shawl in one of our Great British yarns and then get some Exmoor/?? to use for the real thing. I'm using Zwartbles/Wensleydale.
Last night I started crocheting Lorna's shawl and this morning I don't want to do anything else except crochet..
Not very good photo's, but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

But today is update day, so I can't!
Most of the yarn is Dazzle (Sock, HT and DK)
And it will be HERE at 7 pm tonight
Don't forget our YARN of the WEEK will also be revealed.

Originally there was a lot of Precious lace, but unfortunately for you we had a big wholesale order in over night and its now destined for a shop.

I'm also going to publish Ermintrude, she will be available as a kit or pattern.