May-June update

May has been a very slow month for sales, both St Alban's and Wheathampstead markets were quiet - for many stallholders, not just for me, and the Etsy shop has been quiet too. I had hoped the yarn would fly out the shop, but perhaps I'm being too optimistic!

I've been trying to use Ravelry more - I had been on it for ages, but not really used it as much as I should, so I've been busy uploading pictures and joining groups. It's quite compulsive!

I'm looking forward to June, with the Fair in the Square at Highgate (London N6) on the 18th being the highlight. It's a lovely area and I've never been to a sale there before, so I'm hoping to meet lots of new customers. Check out their website www.fairinthesquare.co.uk for all the info.

As well as thee, I'll be at St. Alban's (12th) and Wheathampstead (19th) as normal. Let's hope they're busier than May!

I've started making up a wrap in the bamboo yarn I dyed and am going for a dip-dyed effect and a chevron stitch pattern - it's going a bit slowly, but I hope to have it finished in time for Highgate.

Also, my silk supplier has had to switch to a different yarn and I've got a sample of that to dye and make up. It's spun in the same way as the original one, but is thinner - more DK than Aran - so I think I'll take the opportunity to try a different design. It's time for a change anyway.

Picture to follow!

Silk Yarn

I've just decided to offer some of my silk yarn for sale - I am often asked by visitors to my Farmers' Markets "where can we get this yarn?" and up until now the answer has been that you can't! But I thought "why not" and when I was dyeing another batch of yarn for my silk scarves, I did some extra and this is now for sale in my Etsy shop.

I've started out with just three colorways - Teal, Foliage and Berries - and will just see how they go. They're all popular colors, so if they don't sell as yarn I can always use them myself! Pictures below:

Berries

Foliage

Teal

Bamboo

Just finished dyeing some bamboo yarn - I wasn't sure what colour to try, but went with a lovely deep cerulean blue - always popular. I diluted the dye for each skein, so it started off with a strong solution and by the time I'd got round to the fifth and final skein it was quite weak, making the colour range from dark to pastel.

There should be enough yarn for two stripey wraps - all I've got to do now is get knitting!