Designing block & maths

I can make and design 2D pretty things, but have a mental block when it comes to 3D.
I need to get over my block!

I have always knitted myself shapeless cake jumpers & cardis, but have never made a garment that anyone else would want to wear.
But now I have turned into a crocheter I have managed to make 3 reasonably sucessful cardis.
But am very anxious about turning them into patterns, you might not like them, they might not make sense
My main problem is the sizing and maths involved.
Oh and the pattern writing - :-)
And so all last week I have been doing crochet maths, it really is basic primary school maths, its driving me mad, I can't even explain to Homer what I am trying to do so its impossible to ask him to help.
I get really frustrated when he doesn't understand my logic, its perfectly logical, maybe a bit warped.
Finally last night I finally managed to solve a couple of my maths problems.
And even better than that worked out a couple of stitch designs that work really well.
Am really smug this morning as I might be overcoming my block at last.
Feeling that maybe I could start to tackle secondry school maths.
Now all I need is the yarn and bionic tester!

Update 28/1/10 and Ariel Mitts pattern

Update 28/1/10 Wooden Beads

Update 28/1/10 Dazzle Sock

Update 28/1/10 Mini Skeins

Update 28/1/10 Dazzle HT Sock

And the last of todays update 21/1/10

Which you can find here at 5.30pm UK time.
http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/new-this-week-214-c.asp

Is Elizabeth - Caress Aran, dyed especially to go with our new Elizabeth pattern.

Mardi Gras - Dazzle HT Sock

Iris - Dazzle DK

And last of all Iris - Dazzle sock

And more...

And another new crochet book



And a few more goodies to come tomorrow.....

And..

And a quick sneaky peak of Elizabeth, the pattern and yarn will be in tomorrows update.

Update 21/1/10 part 4

Ming - Dazzle Sock

Helena - Dazzle sock

Silver moon - Cloud - merino/silk lace

Kyoto Kiss -Angora/wool

This is the very last of the kiss

Update 21/1/10 part 3

Update 21/1/10 part 2

Sale yarns

Update 21/1/10 part 1

Arisaig - Angel 2 ply

Violetta Angel 2 ply

The last Unicorn

Jade Dragon - Kiss angora/mohair

And the winner is

And the winner of our first weekly draw is Diane B from Bedfordshire

Congratulations Diane - :-)

Pretty...

Look what I've got - aren't they pretty??

And in the shop now

http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/wooden-buttons-230-c.asp

A couple of stragglers

That Val wound bionically last night!

Today's update 14/01/10

Only a tiny update this week, I still struggling to keep up, it takes a long time to replace all my lost (or rather sold) stock.

Three colours of Dazzle Sock and one Dazzle HT sock.

http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/new-this-week-214-c.asp

If I get the time I will add some lovely new buttons to tomorrows update.

Boring boots blog

Whilst in Chester Homer decided he needed a new pair of walking boots, I was preparing myself to be bored until I saw these in the shop window, I love fake fur - :-)
They were an impulse buy, it normally takes me weeks to decide what I want, thats why I only ever shop on-line.
When I got them home I thought that maybe I'd been a bit to impulsy and that I would never wear them as they were just not me - I'm not sure why as they have fake fur, think maybe its because they look a bit trainery.

However fast forward 12 days and now I think they are the best thing on the planet, extra warm, super comfy, waterproof and non slip.
In the past week I have only taken them off to go to sleep, guess one day when the snow has gone I might remove them.......

They are Hi Tec and should be called the worlds most perfect snow boots, but I don't think they are.
This post is for Debbie and Joy who were talking about their soggy Uggs on Twitter.

On a roll

OMG - I am so smug!
Spent the last 2 days doing club admin for the year, normally its all done at the last minute.
I have yarns and colours planned for each month, address labels sorted and a superduper spread sheet.
Maybe the clubs will go out on time.
Now all I need to do is finish the designs for the motif club and I can stop having club chaos every month.

Tra la la la la

SuperDuper Snow Dog

Yesterday my boys spent hours building a snow dog, I will let the photos tell the story.

Incidently the snow dog was inspired by Loki (Tiny Puppy) rather than Ted Bad Poodle, poor Ted bad hips and now he's failed to be immortalised in snow too

Water nightmare

However even though the landscape is magically transformed by the snow, the snow has also magically transformed my dyeroom into a nightmare.

All the pipes are frozen as the dyeroom is part of the old pig shed complex, luckily the showroom and office are in the old and insulated stable block.

So I have running water in the kitchen area, but none in the dyeroom.

To dye and wash wool I have come up with a solution.

I am running water from the kitchen area, through the office via a hose which isn't quite long enough.

The hose is filling these buckets.

Then I am using the water from the buckets to fill the dyebaths, however as I don't have hot water in the dyeroom due to the pipes I am having to heat the water in a clean dyebath and fill the big plastic tubs to wash the yarn in.

This is taking ages as I need to rinse the yarn several times to get all the excess dye out, which means takes several dyebaths of warm water.

I dyed 5 kgs yesterday and its probably going to take me all day to wash 5 kgs and I have an awful lot of dyeing to do!!!