There is just such a lot of awesome booky news at the moment, of newly published and forthcoming books, that I feel I need to do a wee bloggy celebration. Read More
Latest Posts
episode 60 – a hobby that got a bit out of hand
Joy McMillan, The Knitting Goddess joins me for a chat today and we talk about her life before dyeing, the dye process and the incredible British wool bases that she loves to create with and exciting tidbits about new yarns!!
Listen to the Podcast
(last time someone said the shownotes post was “A good read” I hope they realised it was a podcast and they should listen too for full enjoyment!)
You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!
This month KnitBritish sponsored by Joy dyes luxury yarn in her studio in Harrogate and is committed to supporting British breeds and fibre in all her bases. In addition to incredible yarns, such as Britsock and the new Wensleydale and Shetland 4ply you will find screen-printed bags and books, hand-crafted stitch markers and exclusive yarn clubs in her online shop. Click on the logo!
| Show Notes
Rosedean Ryeland Launch
I was at Fluph a couple of weeks ago again. This time I was there for the launch of Rosedean Ryeland yarn, which comes from Ryeland flocks at Carnoustie, Angus, owned by Rosemary Champion. The wool is spun by the Natural Fibre Company and the resulting yarn is a lovely dark, peaty, smoky grey heavy DK 50g/110m. It is a really incredible creamy, plumpy yarn with a lot of character and knitted up it makes a dense, insulating fabric. I quite fancy making Stepping Stones Shawl, by Katya Frankel and I think the lovely texture on the border will look incredible in this yarn. You can buy Rosedean Ryeland direct from Rosemary for a very nice £5.50. Go! Be enabled and support this top notch local yarn. Read More
episode 59 – Back it up!
Today I discover how one ball of yarn can be so versatile in creating different fabrics! I also have an incredible chance for you to win a very special bespoke hand-dyed yarn.
You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!
This month the podcast is sponsored by
Joy dyes luxury yarn in her studio in Harrogate and is committed to supporting British breeds and fibre in all her bases. In addition to incredible yarns, such as BritSock and the new Wensleydale and Shetland 4ply you will find screen-printed bags and books, hand-crafted stitch markers and exclusive yarn clubs in her online shop. Click on the logo!
N.B. I am using a new computer and working out a few kinks with sound – I apologise if in some areas the sound peaks a little.
| Show Notes
I am back after a bit of a fraught week – listen in to understand exactly why you should back up your computers right away. Don’t end up with a sad tale, like me! Read More
episode 58 – Fluph : skeins ‘n’ cakes ‘n’ balls ‘n’ things
Last week I went to Dundee to visit yarn shop Fluph and the wondrous proprietress Leona Jayne Kelly (and her two dogs Oskar and Arthur). We talk about wool, dyeing, the day-to-day of running a yarn shop and the juggling involved. We have a right old laugh too and listen in for a lovely give-away too!
A wee note: My laptop had a bad accident this week and I wanted to bring you a meaningful knit story that is now, for want of a better word, lost! I promised this story at the end of the last episode, so I am sorry if you were looking forward to that one. I will make a special meaningful knit episode very soon. Due to the death of the laptop the episode is a wee bit rough around the edges!
You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!
Today’s episode is sponsored by Fluph!
Fluph is a Brick and Mortar yarn store at 164 Blackness Road in Dundee with and online store at www.fluph.co.uk.
Fluph sells a range of notions, patterns and wool from West Yorkshire Spinners to Jamieson and Smith to hand-dyed from Wool Kitchen to Leona’s own Rusty Ferret range. New online and in store this month are Croft29 Hebridean yarns direct from a small croft in Skye.
For many listeners of the podcast the first introduction to Leona was possibly at EYF interview last year asking Karie Westermann if she would come and live in her basement! It is kind of ridiculous that it has taken me so long to go to visit her shop in Dundee!
We cover a lot of topics, such as why owning a yarn shop was not her first career dream; we talk about LJ’s hand-dye Rusty Ferret and the inspiration and driving force behind that. We also chat about the knitting community and how Fluph is part of a much larger craft community in Dundee and Tayside.
LJ is funny, vivacious and incredibly honest about the pride and also the pitfalls of owning a yarn business. We also chat about experiences of mental health and the issues around being an introvert and how yarn and Fluph became part of an important journey.

copyright: Leona-Jayne Kelly
With stock from WYS, J&S, King Cole, Wendy Zauberball, Wool Kitchen and her own hand-dyed Rusty Ferret. There is a lot to love about the range of yarns and amid the commercial and hand-dyed yarn there is something quite special too – I bought some of the incredible Croft29 Hebridean wool, from Skye, which went in the online shop this week. It was thanks to one of her knit-night goers than LJ found out about this great yarn and the story behind it.
It is not the only small producer local yarn to be featured at Fluph, on Saturday 7th May (to be confirmed) Rosemary Champion, aka the Accidental Small-holder will be launching her Ryeland yarn, from her own flocks, at Fluph. Do watch out on the Fluph blog for news of that and check out Rosedene Ryelands too!
As well as putting the Ryeland yarn event in your diary you should watch out for a Trunk Show with Yarns from the Plain on 25th May, classes with Karie Westermann and keep your peepers peeled for a return visit trunk show from Ripples Crafts. There are also plans afoot for a day with Old Maiden Aunt!
I get the very strong sense that a class, workshop or event at Fluph is very much like being with your own kin, in a friendly welcoming area and where the kettle is always on. I am sure you will agree from listening that LJ is an affable host with a generous, genuine and gorgeous spirit. Her shop is an utter joy, as is spending time in her company.
I love that she is so embracing of the knitting and craft community and that she would quite literally do anything for you, if it was in her power, despite sometimes struggling with her own anxieties and introverted feelings. We recorded a little more about craft and mental health, but I think that is something we will pick up on and share in another episode. She talks with such fondness about her knit-night goers and for her the group is about chilling and having a great time, as well as knitting. I heard her offer the knit night times to a student customer who was saying she was amid revising and LJ said “there is a safe space here whenever you want it – just to get away for a while” – like i said, generous and genuine and thinking of others.
Leona sent me away with a skein of Rusty Ferret yarn to give away as a prize to one lucky winner! To be in with a chance of winning please leave a comment on this post and give us your opinion. As LJ says in the show, she’d like your feedback on what you like to see in dyers updates – do you like the same stock colours each time, do you like one of a kind colours, do you want to see a Rusty Ferret Yarn Club one day? If you’ve never seen Rusty Ferret yarns, take a look at some of the examples, but do let us know your opinion. I will draw a winner before the next episode on 6th May and you might win this lovely sparkly Wink yarn in the Iridium colourway!
| Don’t Forget
Next Saturday is Yarn Shop Day! Check out if there are events near you and if not, just go to your favourite yarn store or online shop and show your support there
| UPDATE 4/5/16
I just drew a winner by random.org number generator and the winner is commenter number 8 – Cia! Well done!
| Information
Music: Carefree by Kevin McLeod and Singin’ in The Rain (demo) by David Mumford – Both are on FreeMusicArchive and are both shared under Creative Commons Attribution license. Images are copyright to owners as stated, otherwise belong to me.
episode 57 – That Pensive Pocket of Time
Listen here
You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!
Thanks
So many thanks for your kind feedback after the last episode with Felix Ford, aka KNITSONIK. You’ve knocked our socks off with your love for that one and it’s got us thinking that we should try and do it again one day soon
That Pensive Pocket of Time
It is the combination of the last of the EYF hangover and the changing of the clocks and the visible lengthening of the day, but I’ve had some time to think about a lot of things – some slight changes to the podcast (more on that in a future episode) and other thoughts about my own knitting, wool events and the knitting world in general. Read More
Wool Tribe Give-Away
Just when I thought I was getting over the awesomeness that was Edinburgh Yarn Festival they go and release all the photos from the weekend on their website. Some of my favourites are included below, but you can check out all the images in their gallery.
Images belong to Edinburgh Yarn Festival, except where otherwise stated.
It has been so nice to re-live the weekend through these great images and remember all the laughs! Good times! Read More
My EYF be-wool-derment
I just wanted to drop in with a little post with my Edinburgh Yarn Festival haul. If you have listened to Felix and I recollect #EYF2016 then you will have heard me talk about some of these, but I didn’t have any pictures until now.
Last year I didn’t have a lot of idea about what I wanted to buy (apart from a loom) and so I just bought things with my itchy knitty grabby hands! This year I was very keen to get Ysolda’s Blend 1, Daughter of a Shepherd, Blacker Tamar and Kettle Yarn Co Baskerville.
I was just blown away by Rachel Atkinson’s Daughter of a Shepherd Hebridean yarn – shiny, lustrous, soft, characterful; full of heritage and a real trail blazing yarn for showing how incredible British wool is and how lovingly yarn can be created from it.
Also pictured here is the Baskerville and some Harvest Hues tops (Falkland merino and Zwartbles) and, far left, a very special and limited edition Wensleydale both from John Arbon.
Ysolda Blend 1, both natural and dyed -by Triskelion Yarns – the Tiddy brook Tamar and the Daughter of a Shepherd will become a hap shawl.
I could cast on a half hansel right away, but I am going to wait for Kate Davies forthcoming Haps book. Kate and I have been talking haps recently and – never not feelin’ the love of haps – I had planned to get these special yarns to show off my special EYF purchases in an incredible hap design. I shall need to hide them away until the book comes out!
I love the idea of how these fibres – polwarth, merino, zwarbles; Teeswater, Wensleydale, Cotswold, black Leicester longwool, Cornish mule – will look with that lovely Hebridean. As Felix said in our chat, it i will be like a map of British wool and different textures.
Very much like this incredible British wool and fibre blanket, made for me by the wonderful Cathy Scott, of Stitchmastery. I was moved to be given the vivid blanket. It says so much about the wool of the UK and of Cathy’s kindness and generosity. You can be sure I will be taking this blanket to future events.
I also bought some Jacob fibre from Aphaia (the sheep was called Whizz!), a beautiful brooch by TJ Frog and a niddy noddy from Once a Sheep (not pictured).
When not purchasing wool at the weekend, I was pretty much immersed in it at the Podcast Lounge, with the lovely Blacker Yarns there and in the session that Sonja and I did on the evolution of the swatch, It was great to have so many people come over and get to know some of the wools, swatches and fleeces we had. People were particularly impressed and surprised to see how the swatches which had been washed, blocked and worn numerous times were different pieces of fabric from the swatches which has not been washed or worn. I think people were most pleasantly surprised by the Gotland and the Jacobs, as well as Blacker West Country tweed and Tamar.
Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm and I know lots of them went seeking out the wool to buy and take home with them!
We recently had a KnitBritish give-away for a skein of Tamar in the KB Rav group (N.B. it is now CLOSED!) – I will be drawing a winner soon from the locked Ravelry thread, but I hand-picked a skein of 4ply Tamar in Red River for that lucky winner. Listen in to the next podcast (episode 57) out next month for the winner and thanks to Blacker for a lovely prize.
I was further be-woolldered when we had the #NaturesShades meet up on the Friday afternoon. It was incredible to see so many people in natural shades. I hope that we got some great images from our photo booth shots (so impatient for all those photobooth shots to be released!),
As you know, I am terrible with names, but special mention to Silver Spring Knits most incredible shawl, Crafty Barb’s Gothic lace cowl, Jane’s scarf – a colorwork homage to the sheep, three years in the making. Meg’s first colourwork mitts, Mariette’s first brioche hat, Maylinn’s Buchanan and Emily’s Aranami shawl. You can see all the projects cast on for this KAL here and now that the KAL is over, Isla and I will be choosing winners soon. As an aside, it has been an absolute pleasure co-hosting this KAL with Isla, I am sure we will do another one, one day, when we’re not all so KAL-ed out!
I am still kind tired after such an awesome weekend and from chatting, laughing and having an incredibly wonderful time with so many like-minded souls. I feel like I have only given you a tiny facet of the weekend in this post and the last podcast, but suffice to say – while I am still gathering my thoughts on it – it was just amazing and everyone there was amazing too – especially all of the people who donated to my Podcast Lounge Goodie bags and I really need to list them below because they truly donated some special prizes, which were very gratefully received, with itchy knitty grabby hands of Paula and Ruth – congrats you guys!
…and roll on EYF2017!
| Prize Donator Superstars!
(and me!)
episode 56 – EYF over Breakfast with Felix
Episode 56 – Listen below
You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!
Join myself and my house guest, Felix Ford, as we eat breakfast and chat about our Edinburgh Yarn Festival weekend.
This is a very laidback episode and one of the rare episodes where there are no shownotes. This episode is deliberately unpolished and largely unedited, so please forgive the coffee percolating, the toast being buttered, the little hush of the radio in the other room, and the general background noise – we just wanted to capture our memories for the podcast, so set up the mic and started chatting. We also go through my EYF special haul! (more on this soon!)
It was incredible to meet those of you who were at the EYF and to say hello and spend the incredible woolly weekend with you. I know we all jumped in the photobooth a few times, but do tag #podcastlounge in any of your own images of EYF on social media so I can see your own memories of the festival!
Many thanks also to all the podcasters who attended and the lovely Sonja and Netty, from Blacker Yarns and – of course – to Jo and Mica for an incredible festival – You guys are the most incredible people!
I should be back around the 8th April with the regular programme.
EYF Images
Important Info
Music: Carefree by Kevin McLeod and Singin’ in The Rain (demo) by David Mumford – Both are on FreeMusicArchive and are both shared under Creative Commons Attribution license. Images: All images used are copyright to me. Please do not use my images without asking permission,