Knitting for a WW1 movie May 09 2014, 2 Comments

A tweet. It all started with a tweet about six months ago.

Pauline Loven, producer and costumier at WAG Screen, tweeted that she was looking for some volunteers to knit garments for a forthcoming film production of Tell Them of Us - a film about a Lincolnshire family during World War I.

A few months later, and I find myself knitting this RIBBED cardigan for a 17-18 year-old boy.

You know when you cast on a new garment and you can't wait to get past the rib? Yeah well, there is no getting past it on this bad boy!! Actually, it hasn't been so bad - my hands have settled into the rhythm of rib.

WAG Screen are a community-based film group and as such, the wool for all the garments has mostly been donated.

I dyed up some Oosie - Scottish Down Cross spun by John Arbon in Devon - in dark blue and grey tones, colours approved by Pauline to be fitting for the era.

It has been interesting, if a little challenging, to work from a pattern of the time.

I'm not sure I got the pockets quite right - they're knitted as part of the whole garment. You start at the top of the pocket, knit a large flap, then fold it back on itself. I ended up picking up stitches to allow me to carry on knitting the garment - not sure that was what was intended. And they seemed particularly narrow at just 24 stitches, but I think look okay and will be extra cosy with a double layer of knitted fabric behind.

The shawl collar has been the biggest challenge and Liz Lovick has been a great help offering advice whenever needed.

I was giggling and thinking THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT as I followed the instructions carrying on knitting the collar from the back of the garment - it extended to a whopping 15" beyond the top of the neck. I just couldn't work out how it would make a collar at all!

Liz explained that it might work by the time you sew the borders in place and then Pauline posted a photo of the construction of a collar that another knitter had made, and it all clicked into place. The "long bit" is folded over twice, then the shaping at the top of the border and corresponding buttonband on the other side meets at the top, thus forming the shawl collar.

It's taken me longer than I wanted to knit this - I still have the buttonband and the sleeves to complete - I've been sidetracked by exciting things happening at SQ HQ and by a very poorly husband - but it's been a great learning lesson. The cardigan may or may not make an appearance in the film, and if it does, it might only be for three seconds, but it doesn't really matter. It's been a fascinating project to be part of.

If nothing else, it gives you an appreciation of the detail and depth that modern day pattern designers go into and of the importance of stating gauge! Although part of me quite likes the freedom to make it up as you go along...

I leave you with an early preview of some of the 200g skeins of Voluptuous which will be available in Wednesday's shop update - would make a beautiful ribbed cardigan!!!!

The art of naming a new yarn base April 04 2014, 0 Comments

I'm often asked "So, how do you get the names for your yarn bases?"

It's not as easy as you might think.

When I first started Skein Queen, I wanted to use names that encapsulated the luxurious nature of the yarn. So some of the originals were Opulent, Lavish, Delectable, Mellow, Wisp, Sumptuous, Blush, Elegance, Decadent, Plushness, Glister, Splendid, Desire and Divine. For various reasons, some have been discontinued but many have become SQ staples and I hope are thought of with some level of fondness by their owners.

As other yarns have been added to the range, I've had to get a bit more creative with names:

A camel/silk was called Oasis as it conjured up images in my mind of the old Silk Road trading route.

Yarns which contained silver and gold stellina were called Five-For-Silver and Six-For-Gold after the nursery rhyme about magpies.

100% silk was called Kimono.

A merino/seacell was called Shore.

A merino/bamboo was called Bali.

A squishy merino was called Squash and its nylon partner, called Crush.

Their high twist versions were called Entwist and Entwine.

An aran weight organic merino was called Grandiose, to convey its weightiness.

And Voluptuous was introduced to the range - the first of the weighty 200g skeins - I wanted it to sound heavy and enticing at the same time.

Tweedore was a challenge - 85% BFL with 15% Donegal nep. If I remember correctly, I looked up the names of mills in Ireland. No joy there. Nothing rang true. Then I searched on towns in Donegal and came up with Gweedore. I quite liked that. I liked the tenuous connection with my Orr surname. Then substituted the Gwee- for Tweed- and there we have a new yarn base name.

Other additions have been Luminosity (to convey the shine on a silk), Blimey (100% British yarn), Selkino (merino/silk singles), Lustrous, Noble, Luscious, Exquisite, Encore, Elixir, Enchant, Entice (a lot of "e's"), Cushy, Indulgence, Blissful, Bamboozle, Alpassion and Duchess.

And the most recent has been Oosie - which is a very special yarn which needed a special name. This one actually took me six months to think of. I knew John Arbon was spinning me a Scottish/English yarn and it was a considerable challenge to think what on earth I was going to call it. Some failed considerations were Unity, Hadrian, September and MacBeth. In the end, I opted for Oosie which comes from the Scottish word for wool "oo".

Once you've established the charactistics of the yarn you want to encapsulate (woolly or silky or soft or tweedy), the first port of call is always the thesaurus.

The perfect name might present itself, but there are a LOT of wool companies and yarn dyers out there, so the next stop is check on Ravelry in the Yarn section to see if the name has already been taken. And guess what? Nowadays, it most probably has.

Then you have to establish if the name has been used for a one-off handspun yarn that is unlikely to ever make an appearance again, or is a well-established known yarn base. If it's the latter, as a courtesy to other traders, I don't use it. That's my own personal choice.

As you can see, even from the names used within just the SQ range, we're reaching saturation point for finding new yarn names.

But there are other options: one dyer uses female names, another uses local place names, yet another uses animal names.

I plan to continue to get creative - so watch out for what will be coming next!

In the meantime, have a very happy, indulgent Easter and I'll be back in the workshop adding colour to white yarn in a week's time.

Royal Mail price changes April 02 2014, 0 Comments

31st March - the joy of the annual changing of Royal Mail prices.

But there's a bit of good news this time - some prices have gone down.

So although I've had to put my price for a small UK parcel up to 750g up a bit, the good news is that I've been able to REDUCE the price of a medium parcel up to 2kg.

UK Large Letters REMAIN THE SAME.

European prices for sizes up to 250g (most parcels) STAY THE SAME. Larger parcels have gone up a little.

Rest of World prices for sizes up to 250g (most parcels) STAY THE SAME. There's a small increase for parcels in the 250-750g range, but I've been able to REDUCE the largest size by whole £1.

I've adjusted the dollar rates to be in line with today's rates, which unfortunately wipes out any decreases for customers buying in $US, so the price for you, will in effect, mostly stay the same.

Having created spreadsheets for these changes and manually amended all the prices in the shop from Gibraltar to Greenland, I hope the prices remain the same until at least this time next year!

I feel a bit like the Chancellor giving the Budget speech - but here is a summary of current prices which you can always find in the Delivery section of the shop.

UK - Royal Mail 1st class

• 0-49g          -   £1.10
• 50-750g       -   £3.20
• 751g-2kg     -   £5.30

Europe - Airmail

• 0-99g          -   £2.95
• 100-250g     -   £3.45
• 251-500g     -   £4.95
• 501-750g     -   £6.25
• 751-1kg       -   £7.95
• 1.01kg-2kg   -   £13.50

Rest of the World - Airmail

• 0-99g           -    £3.50 (approx $5.80)
  
• 100-250g      -    £4.50 (approx $7.50)
  
• 251-500g      -    £7.95 (approx $13.25)
  
• 501-750g      -    £10.50 (approx $17.50)
  
• 750-1kg        -    £13.50 (approx $22.50)
  
• 1.01kg-2kg    -    £24.00 (approx $40)

Now there just needs to be hand-dyed in the shop to buy! Keep an eye out tomorrow - I have a few skeins which I plan to add to the shop throughout the day - not a huge amount. And then I'm taking a week's Easter break until April 14th.

Summery socks March 26 2014, 6 Comments

Sometimes, a yarn comes out of the dye pots that I just can't part with.

I try not to make a habit of this, but I couldn't resist this skein of Entwist.

It's becoming a pair of Hermoine's Everyday Socks - with just a little texture to break up the variegation.

I'm loving the transitions between the candy pinks, apricot, citrine, teal, pale lemon, deep rose and spring green - just a few stitches of each colour.

It's very naughty and very indulgent, but it feels so refreshing to have a portable project after THE BLANKET.

I can always make more...

Although achieving these colours again could be a challenge.

A finished blanket!! March 22 2014, 0 Comments

Until today, I've never finished a knitted or crocheted blanket - well, not a full-size adult one.

And look - I'm wiping tears of pride away as I show you. Squares that haven't become cushions, or chair covers, or anything else. It's a real-life blanket.

The story of this blanket starts a while back. I'd wanted to crochet a granny square-type blanket with a white border for a long time, having seen Flowers in the Snow and lots of examples in Mollie Makes Home magazine (does that magazine still exist?)

Back in January, myself and alabamawhirly went to visit thatcanadian in Cambridgeshire. We'd been messaging back and forth that she'd bought a load of Noro Kureyon from Tangled Yarn to make a blanket inspired by Beata's one here. When we arrived, she'd made a few squares and said how quickly they were working up and that they kept your interest because of the colour changes of the Noro.

That was it. I was "hooked" (forgive me the pun, I'm ill!)

I thought if I was going to finish a blanket, it was going to be this one. So I bought my Noro in batches of five balls (y'know, just in case). Each ball worked up about four squares. And I sailed through them, watching the colours change as I went. I wasn't precious about how the colours were working out or the odd colour jolt - the white evens them all out in the end.

I used a Clover Soft Touch crochet hook size 4 from Natural Dye Studio which was a bit easier on the hands than previous ones I'd used.

For the border, I found a big cone of Aran BFL (as you do) in the workshop and it worked perfectly. But it did take a long time to put one row of trebles round each square. Then I finished off with a single border of double crochets.

It needs blocked but my daughter has requisitioned it as the new sofa blanket.

And I hope it lasts for many years to come.

I wonder what knitting will feel like now...

Exciting new British yarn March 19 2014, 2 Comments

Unravel preview February 20 2014, 1 Comment

Unravel is fast approaching so I thought I'd give you a very brief preview of some of the yarn I'll be bringing.

Luminosity

100% silk

Selkino - merino/silk singles

Blush - merino/cashmere

 Entwist - high twist merino

more Entwist

Opulent - cashmere

Noble - alpaca/silk

Flockly - BFL/cashmere/silk

A very small taster of what to expect if you're visiting Unravel this weekend.

I'll also be bringing a selection of Voluptuous and Skinny Voluptuous, so if you've been planning to knit a Southwold in the Snow shawl, you can select your own colours.

Also available will be Delectable, Oasis Cobweb, Crush, Blimey and Enchanting Lace. Along with BomBella fox kits, NovaSteel shawl pins, fripperies and bibelots stitch markers and Addi needles.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to reserve any of the yarn, but very much look forward to meeting you if you can make it.

From sheep to woven fabric project comes full circle February 10 2014, 2 Comments

You may remember a rather lovely project I was working on with a London textile designer to produce a book cover using irregular hand-dyeing techniques to mimic the effect of the piecemeal application of stock marker sprays by farmers on sheep.

The idea was originally conceived by design guru, Peter Saville, in his role as consultant to Danish textile firm, Kvadrat. He saw the bright, almost DayGlo colours of sheep markings as a kind of rural graffiti.

Well, look what arrived over the weekend. Isn't it stunning?

There's even a page on the dyeing and weaving process.

To see how my role in the project came about and the process involved, see this blogpost from July.

To read more about the book, see more photos from it and listen to Peter Saville talk about Kvadrat and how the cover came about, check out this review.

Welcome one and all February 03 2014, 5 Comments

Come in, come in - have a good browse round.

The doors of the new shop are open to give you time to get your bearings, maybe set up your new account and to see where everything is kept. Once you're in and settled and it's starting to look familiar, I'll then add a little new hand-dyed yarn.

If you're a regular SQ shopper, you may notice some differences to the old shop.

• it brings together the old website, shop and blog to one place. Don't forget to reset your Favorites or Bookmarks to the new website domain name - www.skeinqueenyarns.co.uk.
• the photos are bigger and clearer, so you can better see what you're buying. They can be easily pinned to Pinterest, so please do.
• if you click on Hand-dyed Yarn, you'll find a list of the yarn bases and prices but also Origin of Yarns information.
• if you're interested in where to squidge the yarn in person, there's a Forthcoming Shows page under the Information tab.
• can I politely suggest that initial caps are preferable to lower case when completing addresses in the new account.
• if you hold a gift voucher for the old shop, please do get in touch and I will issue you with a new code for the new shop.
• you'll notice that the new shop is set up to accept pounds sterling as Skein Queen is based in the UK. PayPal will do all the hard work if you're paying in another currency - check out Terms and Conditions for more info. on how it works.
  
  

There is a small amount of new hand-dyed yarn being added to the shop this Sunday at noon - and as it is less than two weeks until Unravel and I haven't started dyeing for it yet - the next shop update will be after that.

Huge thanks goes to Mr Orr for his stupendous effort and extra hours worked in getting the website up and running and thank you for bearing with us while we decorated and stocked up the new shop.

Please feel free to shower us with comments so that I don't get all lonely on this new, airy, spacious blog.

So all that remains is for me to cut the ribbon and I'm cracking an imaginary bottle of champagne on the nearest doorframe.