Open Studio - the review June 30 2017, 1 Comment

The yarn was ready...

The bunting was up...

The cake was ready...

And then the knitters arrived. There was choosing... and chatting... and knitting.

It was an amazing day, having the place come alive with so many yarn appreciators. We really did enjoy it. 

So much so, I got enabled into choosing colours to make the ever-popular Find Your Fade shawl by Andrea Mowry. Having seen knitiam's sample, I'm told you can do it in six skeins rather than the seven called for. I've cast on and loving it!

HUGE THANKS to everyone who came along and looking forward to next year already.

We're having a one-off Singles Special in the shop tonight at 10PM BST to coordinate with a little thing happening in podcastland - there's not masses but you can see a preview here. 

And don't worry if you miss out as there'll be more of the Berkshire Collection colourways, Heavenly Midnight and Oyster Bay.

This is Heavenly Midnight - a repeatable colourway and one I'm particularly happy with - sometimes the dye-gods come together and a particular alchemy you've been working towards for months finally happens!

Open Studio - the review in pictures July 11 2015, 2 Comments

Had such a fun day - thank you SO much to everyone who came along from as far afield as Portsmouth and Somerset.

Together with The Mulberry Bush, we raised £294.48 for Breast Cancer Care.

Thanks to Eliza and Calvin for all their help, to Cate for tying in the event to their Strawberry Tea Party and to Tesco for donating several punnets of strawberries and tubs of cream.

Here's the day in a few pictures (apologies for the poor quality - realised afterwards that there was a dull filter accidentally set up on my camera phone!)

Maxine from Marmalade Yarns sporting her Southwold in the Snow shawl in a beautiful choice of colours she picked out at a previous Open Studio last June.

As there was two to three weeks' worth of dyed yarn on the shelves, there is plenty left for the update on Wednesday.

Skein Queen Open Studio June 01 2015, 1 Comment

Looking forward to flinging open the doors of the studio to welcome one and all with tea, cake, knit and chat.

Please be aware that there are stairs up to the attic studio.

Your invitation to come and visit the new Skein Queen Attic Studio October 24 2014, 3 Comments

If it's been a little quiet here on the blog, it's because Skein Queen has expanded into a new studio. The studio is invaluable space for winding up the yarn, labelling, posting out, with a little bit of retail. It's pretty much taken the whole year to find a suitable place, go through all the legal bumpff, get the signage sorted, fast Internet installed, painting the walls and moving in. And now we're ready to welcome you.

The studio is handily located in a barn building above Mulberry Crafts which specialises in papercraft, stationery and home decor. 

 Please bear in mind, if you do visit on the Grand Open Day, that there is wheelchair access to Mulberry Crafts, but Skein Queen is located up some outside stairs.

Although I haven't got a decent photo, the knitted bunting made by wonderful customers looks amazing strung from the wooden beams.

I've loved working in this little woolly haven over the last couple of months, looking out over the ever-changing countryside and even love my commute - all of about a mile and a half!

If you aren't able to come along on 1st November but would still like to visit, it's worth making an appointment so that I can arrange to be there and let you know when there'll be hand-dyed yarn in stock.

Thank you for all your support and good wishes over the years and for making this possible. I hope I can now continue to produce more hand-dyed loveliness for your knitting pleasure.

Skein Queen Open Studio - the review June 29 2014, 1 Comment

"Just a quick note to thank you all for such a wonderful day yesterday. Beautiful yarn, warm reception, freely flowing woolly chatter and super cakes and cuppas from real china cups made the day lovely, despite the awful rain in the morning."

From a marvellous customer

Despite the deluge of rain and thunder starting at 10.45am and ending at 4pm on the dot, many brave souls ventured out to come and find us all ready with a warm welcome of tea, cake and yarn.

Another row of hand-dyed was added to this prior to opening and I think, suffice to say, it went down very well.

It was lovely to welcome so many enthusiastic and friendly knitters into our home and a huge thanks goes to Suzanne for helping setting up and providing the vintage china and serving tea via Jelly arts charity, Wendy for bringing so many cakes, beautiful flower posies and serving tea all day, to Suzanne and Wendy for washing up, to Michelle and Sandra for being SQ chaffeurs and to Sandra for bringing cakes, to Calvin for being the cash desk, to Kira for bringing cake, to Calvin, John, Sam, Suzanne and Michelle for helping set up the marquee... and I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. You all helped make the day the success it was.

And an extra special mention goes to Heather who had travelled down from Glasgow - it was so lovely to get a chance to catch up properly and I hope your evening family gathering was a success.

And did you spot the knitted bunting decking out the marquee? I had the biggest surprise this week when a box of four strings of bunting arrived for my new SQ studio (more on that at a later date). Vero (thatCanadiangirl) had organised a band of merry knitters to knit up lots of bunting triangles which she'd designed (which you can find here) and stringed them all up, many labelled with which yarn had been used.

26 knitters contributed from 9 countries and I'm not ashamed to admit, I did shed a tear or two. The timing of its arrival was spot on for a number of reasons. So more big thanks go to: thatcanadiangirl, charliesumx, jhocy, littletreehouse, rallan, billybrown, ladymarian, lisknit, mikan, fxhunter, fifili67, smc1948, wildcedar, melarno, patriciakeith, erindcoffman, pomonaknits, mrszoedodd, dollydimple, meganyork, snowdroplady, applegateknits, wickedwoollywitch, bombella, alabamawhirly and kiknits.

What a wonderful week it has been. Click here to leave a comment or let me know what you thought of the day

Skein Queen Open Studio June 23 2014, 0 Comments

Here at SQ HQ, we're gearing up for the Open Studio this Saturday. We're based in Thatcham, Berkshire.

Visitors can see where all the dyeing action takes place, eat cake, drink tea from vintage teacups, squish yarn, knit and generally have a lovely afternoon in the garden.

There will be SQ hand-dyed yarn available for purchase as well as Lotus Yarns yak, 50 shades of Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, Dolly What Not lavender bags and purses for knitting notions, Addi needles, Fripperies and Bibelots stitch markers and NovaSteel shawl pins should you wish to do a bit of shopping during the day.