Thursday 29 October 2015

BritYarn 11 What a Grey Day





These are the show notes for BritYarn's latest podcast.

News
The Absolutely British Britsock competition taking place in the BritYarn Ravelry Group closes midnight GMT on 31st October 2015.  Britsock by the Knitting Goddess is our October Yarn of the Month.

We now have two additional shades in Chilla Valley Chunky.

We have some new books in the shop The Crochet Project's Shawl Project Book 2 and Rachel Coopey Toasty V1 and V2.

We also have a few balls left of the limited edition Christmas yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners.  Hoping we are able to get some more next week!

We are slightly amending our deliver details next.  In reality you will see no difference just wanted to let you all know. 

FO's

Lexie by Woolly Wormed in West Yorkshire Spinners Jacob Aran

My Great British Socks Away KAL Phalanges socks by Clare Devine. The yarn was West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply in the Blueberry BonBon colourway and the design is one of the patterns in Sock Anatomy.

Isabella Hand Warmers by Emma Wright.  The yarn was West Yorkshire Spinners Illustrious and the pattern is in the Illustrious Pattern Book. 

What's in the Jam Pan

Talavera by Amanda B Collins using Eden Cottage Yarn BFL sock Pom Pom Summer pattern 

Mahy by Karie Westermann Lincoln Longwool Laceweight hap construction 

I chatted about the The Knit British Breed Swatchalong and about being interviewed by Clare Devine in issue 90 of The Knitter.


Monday 12 October 2015

A chat with Joy from The Knitting Goddess.......

Hello 

Many thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for BritYarn.  If you are sitting comfortably with a beverage to hand lets begin!

Could you introduce yourself to BritYarn’s readers?  

Waves hello! I’m Joy and along with my long suffering other half Bobbie I own and run The Knitting Goddess. The main part of my job is dyeing yarn, updating the shop and chatting online. Bobbie is responsible for producing all of the mini skeins, packing and posting and making sure that everything goes out in good time. We’ve recently started selling screen printed bags and pouches, so we’re both involved in that. I also do some teaching, and now that we’ve moved into the new workshop there’s lots more space for people to come and play.

I’d already had a couple of career changes before I started doing this – I worked in banking and then as a holistic therapist

I love the fact I can do lots of different things as part of running the business – I’m always interested in learning and trying new things.


How and when did The Knitting Goddess come about?

The business started completely by accident about 10 years ago. We’d been in Seattle on holiday and I bought cashmere to make a jumper. When I got it home I realized that although the batch numbers were the same the skeins looked quite different. So there was a change of plan to something multicoloured and I bought a couple of pots of dye. We then found somewhere that would sell us mill ends of cashmere and started selling on Ebay.

The first big change to the business came about when we moved to the Isle of Wight. The house we bought needed a huge amount of work and it wasn’t going to be possible to continue working as a therapist while chaos raged around us. So we got a bit more serious about the business and looked at ways to grow it.

The second big change for the business has been moving to Harrogate and finding dedicated workshop space. It’s bliss to have somewhere that I can make a mess and shut the door on it – and it’s also meant that we’re reclaimed some of our weekends and evenings. Having more space has also allowed us to offer more wholesale, so there are more places that people can buy our yarns.

The other big change that came about because of our move was switching to British fibre. We now live within an hours of several mills – and it seemed absolutely crazy not to support that. So all of our fibres in the shop are British (or British Territory) grown with the exception of the cashmere – and if we could find a British producer for that I’d look at swapping that over too.

What are your favourite woolly / fibre crafts?

I’ve played with lots of different woolly crafts but I’ll always be a knitter more than anything else. I learnt to crochet last summer, and while I love the speed I have to constantly look at my work, so it’s not always something I’ll pick up to take with me. Vanilla socks make the perfect travelling companion.

Everybody works in different ways… are you a traditional pen and paper person or do you prefer making full use of modern technology?

A bit of both – I love Pinterest and Instagram and I’d be lost without Ravelry. I still work with a paper diary though, and there’s a daily to do list that things get crossed off. Although there are great drawing apps I’d sooner pick up a pencil and doodle or sketch.


If you were only allowed to knit with (or dye) one British grown base what would it be and why? (a blend or 100% pure)  

Britsock – it’s that rare thing of a yarn which works for pretty much everything, it dyes like a dream and it doesn’t tie itself in knots in the dye pot. 

I adore Britsock, Could you share how this yarn was born?

We knew that we wanted a British yarn which would wear well for socks and be as close to an all purpose yarn as possible. We also wanted to avoid the processing which is needed to make a yarn superwash. I know it’s sometimes necessary, but we did everything we could to make this yarn be amazing and hard wearing without it. Adding nylon and British alpaca into the mix and having the yarn spun to a fairly high twist have both helped create a yarn with wears amazingly well and which is a pleasure to have next to your skin.

John and Juliet Arbon did an amazing job with the yarn. We were so nervous when the first box arrived – when you order a custom spun yarn you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get, but this was better than I’d dared hope.


Where do your get your inspiration from for the amazing semi solids, variegated and self striping yarns you dye. Do you have a favourite shade?

There’s a noticeboard which sits just t the side of my computer at home, and it houses a collection of postcards that I’ve bought because I love the colours or ideas that they represent. I also have a colour board on Pinterest where I collect anything and everything that appeals to me.

One of the delights of having this as a job is that if something doesn’t turn out as planned then it can often become something different but special. Or something that will make socks to be hidden under boots……

One of my favorite ever shades was called Undead – and that came about someone was typing about undyed yarn and autocorrect thought it knew better. So I had some fun imagining what colour Undead yarn would be (deep violet and plum, overdyed with charcoal). I must dye some more of that soon.

Left to my own devices there would be a lot of blue yarn in the shop – everything from pale sky blue through turquoise to dark navy. I do enjoy getting to play with lots of colours, but if I had one last pot of dye it would be blue.

Are there any future plans / projects you can share with BritYarn?

We’ve got lots of things planned! 

We’ve been chatting with Amanda (Ex Natural Dye Studio) and we’re looking at ways of providing yarn support and some new colour options. While I’m sad that Amanda has stopped dyeing, I’m thrilled that there will lots more amazing crochet designs to enjoy.

The 2015 clubs are coming to an end as the last parcels will be posted at the end of October. We have two amazing designers for 2016 – and there will also be a self striping yarn club.

We’ll be running another mini skein competition with Rachel from mylifeinknitwear.com before the end of the year. That was great fun, and so inspiring that I ended up dyeing 10 sets of mini skeins instead of one. 

How can people best keep up to date with the latest The Knitting Goddess news?

We send out a newsletter every Thursday which offers subscriber only discounts and other treats. You can sign up for that here http://theknittinggoddess.co.uk/newsletter.html

I’m @KnittingGoddess on twitter and @TheKnittingGoddess on Instagram


Finally there’s a Ravely group – Knitting Goddesses (and Gods) – so please say hello.

Don't forget our Britsock competition runs until the end of October in BritYarn's Ravelry Group.

Monday 5 October 2015

Great British Socks Away KAL Prizes

With our yarn and needles at the ready we all cast on our socks for the Great British Socks Away KAL last Thursday.  If you want to join us it is not too late, just pop over to BritYarn's Ravelry group. I thought now would be a good time to share the GBSocksAwayKal FO prizes.

Lots of amazing and very generous people have donated prizes and I just want to say a massive THANK YOU to you all. 

So here are the prizes in no particular order.
    A selection of Wander Aran by Phileas Yarns.
    Photo used with kind permission from
    Phileas Yarns.






Phileas Yarns is run by Sylvie, a new indie dyer.  Sylvie has very kindly donated two skeins of her hand dyed Wanderer Aran which is 100% British Bluefaced Leicester.  The winer of this prize will be able to select their prize from Sylvie's Etsy shop.





Snow Queen


Patina Yarns is another new indie dyer.  Catriona, who dyes the yarn, has lots of exciting ideas for the future.  She has generously donated two 50g skeins in the Snow Queen colourway. The base is 75% British Wool 25% nylon making them ideal making socks like these fab ones below. 

Photos used with kind permission from Patina Yarns
Clare Devine, the lady behind many of our socks in this KAL has donated a selection of pattern prizes:
  • 1 ebook
  • 9 prizes of a single digital pattern 
  • 1 Colour Caper ebook
The multi talented Joeli from Joeli's Kitchen has donated two paper patterns. 
A few other BritYarn prizes.....

EDIT: We have another prize which has been very kindly donated by Orkney Wool.  Orkney Wool source Texel Fleece from Veltigar Farm on Orkney with is then spun by The Natural Fibre Company in Cornwall.  The yarn is available in DK, Aran and 4 ply and the shades are inspired by by local area where the sheep live.  Orkney Wool have donated two balls of their 4 ply yarn and the winner can choose which shades.


Photo used with kind permission from Orkney Wool


So that makes a whopping eighteen nineteen prizes!  Prizes will be selected via the power of randomness after the KAL ends.  Don't forget to be eligible for a prize your socks must meet the KAL rules.

And as if that is not enough Joeli has also very kindly donated an additional prize for anyone who enters children sized socks in the FO thread.  This will be drawn separately and the prize for the winner is a paper copy of her book Tiny Treads.

A big thank you once again to everyone who has very kindly donated a prize.  Lets get those socks knitted!




Sunday 4 October 2015

BritYarn #10 All the new things and a Yarndale roundup

BritYarn #10 All the new things and a Yarndale roundup

Scollay Along meet up - Fantastic!!
Drift A collection of designs curated by Eden Cottage Yarns
NSS by Ginger Twist and Clare Devine
Chatted to lots of people including Sonja Blacker Yarns, Louise Zass-Bangham (Inspiration Knits), Joeli from Joeli’s Kitchen.


Thursday 1 October 2015

Britsock by The Knitting Goddess Yarn of the Month October 2015

One of my favourite hand dyed sock yarns is Britsock by The Knitting Goddess.  


Britsock Multi Colours
Britsock is not your run of the mill (no pun intended!) British sock yarn..... it is custom spun in Devon for The Knitting Goddess and is a wonderful blend of 40% Bluefaced Leicester, 20% Wensleydale, 20% Alpaca and 20% British Nylon.    

Joy, the the super talented lady behind The Knitting Goddess, really has an eye for putting different colours together.  You can tell I am a bit in love can't you.......  Britsock comes in semi solid, multi colours (variegated) and self striping options.  

Britsock is a smooth yarn to work with, making your knitting or crochet just speed by.  I loved knitting my Planum socks, a pattern in Sock Anatomy by Clare Devine, and seeing how the different shades appear. 

The yarn produces a really soft but strong fabric, with a slight halo.  However, while the name suggests its a sock yarn it also makes stunning shawls or light garments.  Once my crochet skills have improved I would love to have a go at one of the designs in the Shawl Project with one of the semi solid shades. 
Planum Sock
To celebrate all things British and Socktober The Knitting Goddess and BritYarn are delighted to announce the 'The Absolutely British Britsock' competition.  To enter all you have to do is think of a colourway name and suggest 3 - 4 colours which relate to that name.  The names need to be something typically British.  It might be a traditionally British food, a catchphrase, place or event. All entries need to be made over in the competition Ravelry thread in the BritYarn Ravelry group.  The competition will close at Midnight GMT on 31st October 2015.
Joy and myself will have the hard job of picking a winner.  Joy will then turn the winning entry into a one off colourway.  The winner will receive a skein of Britsock dyed up in their winning name and colours and the remaining skeins will be popped into the BritYarn shop.   
  


Indian Summer Self Stripe

UPDATE: 12th October 2015.  The Britsock base is changing and Joy has wrote about it here. I can honestly say that I cannot feel or see any difference between the old and the new base.