I called in to This is Knit yesterday. It’s ways lovely to drop in and chat with the ladies there! I brought a large amount of yarn with me, and had a look around the shop. Make sure the yarn is happy.
I think they’re treating it well and it looks very happy, don’t you? They’ve now got a a rainbow of Swing sock in stock, as well as Silken Lace and Alpaca Sport.
I also sent a large box of Swing Sock off to the USA recently, it should be available in Portland any day now…
Hello from Scotland!
The yarn festival has been and gone, and it was pretty awesome. I wish I had more time to wander around it and had planned things I wanted to buy. But I still had fun. Credit goes to the organisers, they did a great job. Friday we got in and set up all the yarn:
And then Saturday we arrived early and did the final bits of setup before the show started.
We were really busy all Saturday, and I met and talked to so many people, which was just fabulous. People who I’d talked to on twitter as well as lots of new people. Saturday night was the Ca-baa-ret, which was an experience all of it’s own (in a very unusual but entertaining way)
I won a Wollmeise door prize:)
Sunday afternoon was fairly quiet and I took some time to walk around and see some of the other stalls. I didn’t bring the camera though, bad blogger! But I did a bit of shopping, and a white hotel duvet cover makes a good backdrop for photos.
First, I found John Arbon and massive barrels of fibre, and got sucked in by some. I braided it because it’s so soft and fluffy it needed some controlling. I’m pretty sure this is Merino Silk blend. I loved the fibre so much I may have to get some to dye for the shop.
Then I met Joeli’s Kitchen (bought her Bramble Fern pattern) Tilly Flop (the card), Spin Pretty (a large project bag) and Knitrundig (how cute are the elephants? I think a kid might steal this one) Oh and some patterns from p/hop (Larissa is lovely) but they’re in the car somewhere.
And then suddenly it was over! We all packed up and headed home. I’ll be on the boat back to Dublin soon, but not quiet soon enough. Now that I have some quiet time, I really miss my little people 🙂
Shop Update: I’ve put some yarn back up on the etsy site, mainly single skeins of sock yarn that are leftover from the show. I’ll put up the rest of it up within the next week.
I’m not the only one who’s been very busy lately! The lovely Deimne from Playing with Fibre has been working hard designed a beautiful cowl collection with Dublin Dye yarns.
Yarn: Dublin Dye Merino DK in Old Gold
The Concentric Collection features 3 cowls, knit in two different yarns, which were inspired by the gold gorgets (the most famous, Gleninsheen, can be seen here) in the National Museum of Ireland. The amazing gorgets are from 700-800 BC and made of thin sheets of moulded gold. They have strong horizontal lines of ribs, ropes and dots, which are echoed in these cowls.
Yarn: Dublin Dye Merino DK in Purple
The first two patterns, Gleninsheen (the yellow one above) and Tory Hill (purple) are knit with Dublin Dye Merino DK. The third, Borrisnoe (in blue), uses Alpaca Lace held double. I haven’t picked a favourite yet… although maybe Gleninsheen.
Yarn: Dublin Dye Alpaca Lace in Clear, held double
The whole collection will be available for viewing (and petting, and trying on) at the Dublin Dye stand E6 at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival this weekend. They are also free downloads on Ravelry until Monday. I recommend you go add them to your library now!
You might have noticed that there was a bit of a shop update over the weekend. Particularly some new laceweight colours, and DK Merino as well (ok, that’s been up for a week or so but I didn’t mention it here, so it doesn’t count)
The laceweights include some Sparkle Lace I found hiding in a corner. The new Merino DK is the same fibre as our Merino Sock, lovely and soft to knit with. I’ve already gifted a little baby sweater in this yarn (without taking photos, bad blogger) and hope to knit something more with it, as soon as I get through the current queue of projects!
Don’t forgot the sale continutes til then end of the month, just use the coupon code WINTERWARMUP!
Carol Feller released a pattern today, Penrose Tile!
Photo Joseph Feller
This beautiful shawl is knit with two skeins of Dublin Dye Swing Sock. Carol used Mustard and Ripple for hers, I’m thinking of Black Cherry and Charcoal for my own, but I’m changing my mind every day. Carol is offering a discount on the pattern for the first week and when you buy the pattern you get a discount code for Dublin Dye as well!
To go with the pattern, I’ve done a massive update of Swing Sock in the Etsy Shop. I have been avoiding the computer a bit but the dye studio has been busy and I’ve finally put all that yarn on to the website 🙂 What colour will yours be?
I’ve been a little negligent of the blog lately. My excuse is I was working on my first ever magazine pattern proposal. It’d be amazing if it got accepted, but I’m definitely not counting on it!
In the mean time, the new Silken Lace went up on the etsy shop with no fanfare. It’s feeling a little unloved, honestly.
But I do love this yarn, even if it’s been a little overlooked. I made the beautiful Portico out of the sample skein. A lovely pattern and lovely yarn to go with it. This is a 45% silk, 55% merino blend, strong and shiny and soft. A pleasure to work with. It’s currently being offered at an introductory price of just €20 a skein! If this goes into a brick and mortar shop the price will have to go up, but for now it’s online only, and that means an online price. Don’t miss out!
I have never been in love with our ‘Twinkle toes’ sock yarn. It’s a good yarn, it takes dye well, but I love my socks to be super soft, and it’s just not quite there.
So I decided to find a new wool/nylon sock yarn, one that I love just as much as the Merino yarn, but with some nylon. And this is it:
I used this yarn for some socks last year (which I’ve now realised I didn’t blog, must fix that) and they quickly became one of my favourite pairs. The yarn is lovely and soft, as soft as the pure merino. But the nylon adds some strength perfect for socks or other hard wearing projects. And the colours… And I think it takes colour pretty well, don’t you?
Do you want to try the new yarn? It’s already up on the Etsy site! Or, leave a comment here and tell me which colour is your favourite (or a colour you’d like to see)… and I’ll draw some names in a week’s time (May 9th) and send a skein each to two lucky winners!
Personally, I’ve already got a skein of ‘bog’ (the brown on the right) put aside for some socks for my aunt… But I’m in love with almost all of them.
Remember last year I asked for some people to spin some roving? Well the results are in. The samples I sent off found loving homes and turned into little skeins of yarn like this.
Nerissa said “the whole time I was spinning it I kept wishing that there I had more to spin!” I’m definitely taking that as a good thing.
I dyed some more last weekend, and since then I have found myself wandering around the house pulling little bits of fibre between my fingers, twisting them into tiny threads of yarn. My daughter (three and a half) has adopted some as a pet. I think that’s another good sign. I can feel my ‘I don’t spin’ resolve slowly seeping away. But I just gave in to the quilting, maybe that will distract me for a while?
Anyway, I present the first (hopefully of many) new thing from Dublin Dye this year.
The roving, along with a few skeins of sock yarn, have been added to the Etsy shop. We’re still having our MERRYCHRISTMAS sale on for 3 more days too! Finally, if you tune in tomorrow when we’ll have a guest post from Diane at the Dublin Knit Collective about her sample spinning. See you then 🙂
I’m like Santa with his sack (I may even have a little ‘elf’ of a three year old with me) heading in to This is Knit this morning. Some Christmasy reds make their way to the shop, along with some other bits to round out their collection. Personally I love the dark red, and have already dyed some more which is up on the Etsy shop, along with a few more new skeins. There are a few more skeins to go on Etsy when I get some daylight for photos. That’s probably it then for the year, things are getting too busy for dye time unfortunately.
Don’t forget there’s free shipping online this month!
Just a few pretties to add to the shop today. I’ll be back in the dye room on the weekend and a bigger update will be had after that!
Don’t forget to use the discount code WELCOMEBACK for a little treat.
