I'm back! And apparently I can ski a little bit. Hurrah!

More shortly. There's quite a bit to catch up on...

Posted by Robynn at 04:09 PM | Permalink | 13 cups of tea on the table

Wish me luck, chaps. I'm about to head off into the snowy wastes of, um, Switzerland (so that's snowy wastes with lots of chalets serving fondue and rumpunsch, then) and engage in death-defying antics like standing at the top of a very, very gentle slope and whimpering.

I've only been skiing once before, and that was just for two days. I thoroughly enjoyed it - obviously, or I wouldn't be going back; then again if I didn't enjoy it I think my Swiss-bred husband might desert me - but found the whole idea of strapping enormously unwieldy planks to your feet, standing in a thoroughly unnatural posture and trying to head downhill while at all costs avoiding actually pointing your feet downhill... well, unnatural. And terrifying. It's a good thing I wore sunglasses, because otherwise a lot of the photos would show me trying not to cry. Actually they still show me trying not to cry, they just don't show it very clearly. Yay sunglasses.

Anyway, so here we go again. I'm looking forward to it, honestly...

Eszter returns for a second tour of duty as the needle elf, so your shopping needs will be taken care of. I'll be back on Monday 28th. Wish me luck.

Posted by Robynn at 08:21 AM | Permalink | 5 cups of tea on the table

Once upon a time, when the world was young and I was a new knitter, beginning a project was simple. (Well, apart from all the planning and starting and frogging and all, on which I have already commented.) You picked up your needles, and you picked up a ball of wool, and you got going.

(It was always "wool", never yarn, even if the closest it had ever been to animal life was the sheepish expression on the shop assistant's face as she explained that this was in fact 100% pure plastic. And yes, I knit with acrylic. Partly because it was cheaper, but mostly because it was there. Actual wool was quite hard to find, especially in any colours other than oatmeal. And scratchy. For years I had a very well entrenched prejudice against wool. I didn't exactly like acrylic either, though, so I developed a quite irrational devotion to cotton - irrational only in that, long after I should have known better, I still thought cotton could do anything. I didn't want to know about heaviness, or lack of elasticity, or any of those pesky details. And in there lies a sad, sad tale... but never mind. Cotton was my one true love. Imagine my delight, and destruction, on discovering silk! And then suddenly - more recently than I'd like to admit - it dawned on me, accompanied by choirs of angels singing Hallelujah, that wool could be smooth and soft. I found merino. The world is a brighter, happier place for it.)

Where was I?

Yes. Balls. Wool Yarn came in balls. And then, when I went to the factory shops of Cape Town, it came in cones. Great big cones of machine knitting yarn - laceweight, essentially - which I wound off onto toilet roll holders so that I could knit two strands together. This was of course a great pain, but was the sacrifice I paid for getting really, really cheap yarn.

Which is why I got quite confused on coming to London, buying screeds of Summer Tweed (cotton and silk, people! Rapture!), and realising that these expensive little buggers had to be wound up before use.* The cheek! Wasn't I paying Rowan to do that for me? Who did these skeins think they were?

And then I discovered handpainted yarns, and as we all know, my doom was sealed. Almost everything I knit, now, requires winding before I can so much as cast on. So I got a ball winder, and a swift, and I set them up, and a few hours at a time, I set about winding most of my stash. So that I could be ready for anything at a moment's notice. It's the only sensible thing to do, right?

Wrong. Turns out yarn doesn't like to be wound up. It likes to be loosely squished in lovely cosy skeins. I have hurt my yarn. Woe!

So recent purchases have been left be-skeined until such time as I have a fairly immediate plan for them. Well, Sunday before last I was very conscious of a looming time when I'd be finished Armin's cosy socks and would want another pair to cast on. Plus, I'm going away on a short holiday at the end of this week (prepare for the return of Eszter the Needle Elf!), and want a lace shawl to take with me. (Maximum knitting time, minimum luggage room.) And I have these samples that must be test driven. And one pair of socks might go too quickly, better get ready for two. And I need more handwarmers. And I'm dying to knit up Freyalyn's gorgeous handspun into something warm and magical. It was time to do a little winding. Not too much, of course; just those things I could reasonably expect to be starting pretty soon.

Looking at that, and considering my recent rate of progress, I suspect I'm getting a little overambitious. Especially since all this winding was done before recent Posh Yarn and Get Knitted acquisitions, not to mention a certain lovely Christmas present. So I'm not even up to date. I guess I shoulda left some of this in the skein. Sigh...

_____
* Well. First I knit an entire man-size pullover, with stranded colourwork border, from skeins laid flat out on the floor. We will not speak of that.

Posted by Robynn at 10:54 AM | Permalink | 3 cups of tea on the table

Gabrielle - a very lovely, warm and funny person who I'm lucky enough to have living near me and knitting with my occasional coffee clutch - gave me a pair of skeins of fabulous Indigo Moon sock yarn for Christmas - enough for a pair of boot socks, which she knows I prefer.

It is perfect. It is soft, durable (at least it looks that way), fine enough to make a very elegant lacy knee sock, and just a wonderful, wonderful colour. (Apparently this is partly an accident, because the shopping was done by a far distant chap dispatched to a Vancouver shop with very particular instructions that he completely ignored. Doesn't matter. It's perfect.)

It's also perfect because this is one of only three knitting-related presents I've ever been given. My knitty friends generally seem to think I'm impossible to buy for on account of having all this fabulous stuff at my disposal, which is fair enough, and my non-knitty friends probably wouldn't dare presume to know what I might want, which is also fair enough. But twice before now, I have been given knitty gifts.

The last time was when I left a former employer; among my assorted leaving gifts were three balls of carefully chosen yarn. The colours were gorgeous (rich sea greens - a lot like the Indigo Moon, actually - and peacock blue and chocolate brown); the fibres were soft. They were also... well... on the novelty side. Distinctly on the novelty side. One was Firefly: exquisitely pretty, if you like shiny ladder yarns. One was something furry. The other was something furry and sparkly. Altogether the kinds of yarn that would appeal to non-knitters, for sheer surprise value, and that I unfortunately have absolutely no use for. (So possibly I should be glad that they don't buy me yarn more often.)

The first time was three years ago. I had gotten thoroughly frustrated with seeing gorgeous wooden needles in the pages of Vogue Knitting et al, and gave Armin fairly specific instructions. He dutifully delivered a pair of Lantern Moons and a pair of Turn of the Century cocobolo needles for Christmas. In due course I cast on with them. Oh yes, I said. Lovely. Very nice. What a treat.

All was fine until I cast on for another project, in a size for which I had only my old, perfectly serviceable plastic needles.

OH NO I said. I CANNOT TOLERATE this. WHY are there no UK stores selling Lantern Moon and the like to poor deprived European knitters!

And that's how it all started...

Posted by Robynn at 06:15 PM | Permalink | 3 cups of tea on the table

[cross-posted on Ravelry]

Right, the first batch of yarn orders has gone out. (And may I congratulate you all on your fine taste?) If any of you lovely readers is one of those lucky souls expecting a package of pretty, I would really like to hear from you when it arrives: is it what you expected? In particular, did the photos fairly represent the colour?

As we all know, it can be really hard to photograph yarn accurately, and even harder to take into account the variance in monitor settings etc. We worked hard on the pictures, and I don't think anyone should have any surprises, but I'd like to hear one way or another.

And for those of you who maybe looked but didn't touch (this time), I'd still like to hear your thoughts. Are you comfortable with how we've organised our yarn department, and how we've photographed things? Any complaints or suggestions?

Finally - because apparently once I start asking questions I Just Don't Stop - does anyone have any particular stock requests? I'm just now preparing my next Handmaiden/Fleece Artist order (which should take 6-8 weeks to arrive). There will be Seasilk. Now is the time to place a special order for the colour (and/or fibre) of your dreams.

Posted by Robynn at 11:13 AM | Permalink | 3 cups of tea on the table

Or, well, not, since I took yesterday off instead, to join assorted Ravellers on a jaunt to Get Knitted. It's a good thing I've just got in all those lovely piles of Handmaiden etc in my own stockroom, or I would surely have come away with far too much gorgeousness.

That? Why, that's nothing. No, really. It doesn't count. That's not stash, that's just necessaries. It's all from The List. (You know. That mental list of things you want to make pretty soon and need specific yarns for? That's not stash, right? That's just... ingredients.) It's a pullover, a washcloth and a headband. All totally legit.

Although it does add rather to my Ravelry stash guilt list. As do these.

Last week's Posh haul. Apparently I am helpless in the face of smoky/bronzey/purpley/reddy lusciousness. Helpless.

Anyway. Good day, yesterday. You would have enjoyed it. Especially the road trip with lovely volunteer driver Gabrielle, Mel and Emms. (Cheesy 80s pop may or may not have been involved... we'll never tell.) And lunch with new friends Shannon and Jacqui. (It was particularly good to meet Jacqui, one of my favourite customers. I feel so privileged to be in the knitting business; you'd think that an online shop doesn't give you much opportunity to get to know your customers, but with friendly people like Jacqui, that's not entirely true.)

Good times, ladies, thank you. Good times.

Now, back to work.

Posted by Robynn at 09:40 AM | Permalink | 1 cups of tea on the table

I've spent the past hour gently panicking, because our server was down. Right while I was trying to prep The Yarn Launch. Now, things appear to be back to normal, but... ooh er.

So this is mostly a warning, and a pre-emptive apology: if you're having any trouble with the site - or if you're not finding The Yarn (because the site is about to crash on me again) - please, understand, it's The Gods of the Internet playing silly buggers. And also, we're on it. And also, we're really, really sorry.

*small whimpering noises*

Edit (1.28am): it's done. The technojinx bowed to our superior willpower, and you may have some yarn.

I am retiring to bed in a bundle of nerves. And tiredness. And nerves.

Posted by Robynn at 08:42 PM | Permalink | 1 cups of tea on the table

Cara read my blog this week, and was suddenly motivated to send me pictures of her wedding gifts. Yay Cara! Thank you!

Behold the Princess Cara tiara:

In action:

(Cara is seen here paying close attention to... a salad.
It occurs to me that I might have a thing or two to learn about throwing a wild and crazy hen party.)

And behold! Gecko doing its work: enacting cosiness!

Cara also sent me another pic of herself wrapped up in Gecko (with strict instructions not to publish it), which appears to have been taken on her honeymoon. Now that's what we like to see: knitted gifts being loved. Double yay Cara! Yay Gecko! (Remember when I said I wasn't sure it was successful? Yeah, I'm over that.)

Posted by Robynn at 09:31 AM | Permalink | 1 cups of tea on the table

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to take Sundays off. Which, honestly, is more of a challenge than it sounds. Working from home tends to fuzz the boundaries a bit; I figured I could use some designated me time (knitting! woo!), and with that to look forward to, maybe it would be easier to knuckle down when appropriate too.

I'm pleased to report that on this, the first Sunday of the year, I have in fact done no work whatsoever. Go me! (Although to achieve this, I had to work till 2am last night, breaking another resolution. Whatev. I'll take it.)

Instead of working, I have of course been knitting (some of it while watching Bugsy Malone), but I also decided to play with the camera a little to see what would happen.

Apparently I can occasionally take a pretty picture. Who knew?
(That's Camelspin, by the way. Five days to go...)

Harvey wasn't all that impressed with my newfound skillz. But maybe he's just feeling a little overexposed.

(Modelling Armin's Wollmeise socks. Making progress on those too.)

Posted by Robynn at 03:13 PM | Permalink | 2 cups of tea on the table

Spit splicing totally works!

File under "Things the whole world knew but Robynn never really believed because the one time she tried it she did it wrong".

I got quite ridiculously excited, tugging at that little bit of alpaca that was previously two little bits of alpaca. Wow. No knots! My life is transformed!

Posted by Robynn at 11:53 AM | Permalink | 3 cups of tea on the table

Wanna see some yarn?

Maybe a bit more detail?

This yarn is having a very strange effect on me. Firstly, the nicest of it seems to get me far too excited to focus.

And secondly, it's making me want to spread it out and spend ages coaxing this little camera to take proper yarn pr0n pics that I can make into wallpaper and just ogle every day. Sadly, I don't have ages, and as we all know I don't have that kind of relationship with the camera, and most of all I don't have the light (honestly, if we have to put up with these dark clouds, we should at least get the snow we were promised! grumble grumble).

*sigh*

It's probably just as well. I'd never get anything done.

Posted by Robynn at 11:27 AM | Permalink | 7 cups of tea on the table

The postal gods have smiled. The Handmaiden yarns arrived today.

I'm starting to hyperventilate again just thinking about it.

Really, it's unbearably exciting. I've packed them all away... which was a very agitating experience. I kept thinking about the things I could make with them. I think the only thing that's going to keep me from hiding them somewhere and pretending I changed my mind about this whole "selling yarn" thing is knowing that I can get more. I just kept looking and stroking and making pathetic little noises... you know how, when a cat finds a particularly cosy and good-smelling pile of clothes, say, or cushions, it might do a little dance before settling down in it - turning around and kneading, kneading with the paws, making little cooing purrs? It was a bit like that.

Tomorrow: pictures.

Posted by Robynn at 09:57 PM | Permalink | 1 cups of tea on the table