dye another day

I've been on a rollercoaster ride over the past few weeks - dyeing like a wild thing - the kits went even better than expected and now I have no yarn left! I have learnt SO much;

• dyeing to order is the best policy - but in rainy, humid weather you need a drying system


• dealing with questions about errors in the pattern when it is late at night and you are tired is not a good idea...because you go and correct errors that didn't exist in the first place!


• 60% of people will buy the pattern you advertise most in the colour you have advertised it in (great tip for future planning)


• always order too much yarn (then increase your order by 20%)


• you will enjoy the process and feedback more than you ever imagined.

I can't get any more yarn until February next year - so am hunkering down to design the next series of patterns - these will be slightly more complex than the last series.

I've made up 10 kits using the various one off shades and samples - these will be available from my ETSY store in a few days time.

As for our home life - we have a lot going on;

• planning Holly's wedding is still underway, 1 year and 1 week to go!


• I've finally got a medical diagnosis to explain my "year of blinking furiously" and will have an op in early january which will hopefully go a long way to sorting me out.


• My step-daughter Maria and her partner will be making us Grandparents in May next year - I've started with a baby blanket and plan to be knitting constantly for the next 6 months, all Superwash of course - I'm under no illusions! I can't wait to have my own wee model and inspiration.


• and of course - Christmas - we have already started with the round of social engagements, which will culminate in Christmas dinner at our house again instead of Mum's - it's becoming a regular thing and I don't mind at all!

Christmas baking has commenced - those are Christmas muffins - raisins and currants soaked in brandy, cointreau and spices mixed into muffin batter, filled with custard flavoured cream cheese and iced with water icing, we also have speculaas, stained glass cookies and mince pies...now to get my act together and dress Frasier up in an elf costume for the Christmas cards....

Pants

Finally - a picture is up for the snuggly shorts
A long sleeved merino t-shirt and merino leggings would complete this ensemble - oh and a babe of course!

Countdown - yarn colours

here are the colours I'm offering for the first round of kits

The yarn is "Biba" a blend of wool, bamboo and silk, very soft and cushy!

my research suggested that people wanted a softer than usual pink, but a brighter than usual blue and some colours not usually available for babies.

Here are my basics:

cotton pink
sky blue
just olive

mercury grey

the winter dapple you have met before

the summer dapple - bright blues, yellow and greens

a small range to start, I'd rather react to client's requests to develop further colourways.

It's all coming together, patterns are written, bags printed, supplies ordered.

and these special colourways are for starter kits - tiny projects for tiny people

Naming rights

More kit knitting: a cardigan version of the cap sleeved singlet - this time in one my hand dyed colourways - I have finally decided on my sport-weight yarn - it is a blend of merino, bamboo and silk - not really machine wash, but I have washed it on a "handwash"setting and it is fine.

I have not sourced my worsted weight yet, I'll be trying some local contacts in the next few weeksto see if they produce what I am looking for, soft, superwash and sproingy (remind me to look up the technical term for "sproingy")

Neither the yarn nor the colourway nor the garment have a name as yet, I was almost there with the colourway - but then ...no.

The close-up shows the colours slightly better - but still not right, I'm in the middle of reworking my workspace - a permanent light box will be part of the set up as getting the photographs right is vital. The colours here are a speckled range of pale green, pale aqua, cream and a range of greys. This dyeing method does not produce pooling, so even short rows do not differ much from the rest of the fabric. The gorgeous buttons are part of my French haul.

The plan for the kits is this: source yarn, design sport weight and worsted weight patterns, decide on colourways (at present I have: 3 plant dyes, 4 speckled as above, 3 saturated solids and 3 soft solids - I think thats enough!) design packaging and marketing and then - launch!

So far almost everything has been done - except the worsted of course. There is the "garter plain and simple" range which you have seen some of, and the "moving on" range which is for knitters with a bit more experience.

There is no time frame here - I'm just working away at it and it will all come together organically, all in good time.

I can give you bit of a hint about some of the previous secret projects now - go visit my friend Maree's blog to get some hints!

The latest secret knitting has been finished and sent - very exciting also - but there will be a terribly long wait before I can say anymore.