Tomorrows update 6/11/09

Thought you might like a sneaky peak of tomorrows update.

Alan Sugar

I am a lot angrier than I was a few years ago, I don't know whether its my age or because I have had to become a business woman and think about vat and tax and rates and councils and all the other boring stuff.

I have just read this on Sky News and am foaming at the mouth, telling the wool exactly what I think.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Lord-Alan-Sugar-Tells-Small-Business-Owners-They-Need-To-Stop-Moaning-About-Banks-In-Rant/Article/200911115433824?f=rss

I have always respected Alan Sugar, self made business man and all that, but now if only I could get him in the dyeroom for 5 mins I would tell him exactly what I think.

Too angry to tell you,
but GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Calm now

Am feeling calm now, after last night's OMG!!!!!!! revelation.

Homer came home from work 5 mins before I went out to knitting club, told me a OMG!!!!!!!! piece of information, that left me shaky and confused.
And no its not the big R but something totally unexpected which I can't talk about yet.
By the time I got home he had had time to think and no longer wanted us to sit underneath the dining room table sharing a bottle of gin, however I was still in shock.
And when I asked for more details he said he had told me all - why are men so useless sometimes?
Anyway we talked and he couldn't fill in the details because he doesn't know them yet, but at least I have a vague grasp on the situation and feel I have gained some calmness in my life.

Now I have brought it to work with me and hopefully today is the start of me being able to concentrate and focus.
Have so much design work to do, so much wholesale to dye, so much yarn to photograph for fridays update and the Unicorn, I really needed to get my head in gear and get on and now I can.

This morning

A bit tired this morning, didn't want to get up, didn't want to come to work, feel slightly scared I will start feeling blocked again.

But we had such a fantastic weekend, spent time with good friends, who we laughed with and forgot all our troubles. Both of us felt the pressure lift a little, which was excatly what we needed otherwise one of us was going to explode or implode

Had a fantastic afternoon with Susan and Gavin, who put me back on my feet and started me in the right direction again and made me feel maybe life wasn't quite as bad as I thought.

A chaotic but happy night with Maisy Mae, Mark and Geinome, watching Maisy terrify Liverpool, it was her last tour and I found it quite sad as she was so good at it, but she's not happy with work conditions.

2 relaxing and lazy days with Mr Wool mainly talking wool and watching F1.

Saturday night we were joined by Babylonglegs and Deb the Dyer, was fab to spend quality time with them, normally its 5 or 10 mins at a show.

The home yesterday cross country, managed to avoid all the motorways, but was freezing, hence the special coat.

Masses to do and the first problem was at 9.30, still trying to sort it out, dyeing to do, packing to do, labeling to do - really, really need an assistant, but my assistant is at his proper job.

Back again

From our weekend away.
Feeling re-charged, but defrosting from Zoom drive home, need a better coat for winter zooming, one that isn't a dodgy old anorak, need one that goes with the car.
Have been crocheting again and have inspiration.
Am really hoping it will last longer than tonight.
Lots more to tell tomorrow.

Wool photos - what do you think??

In the past several people have commented that the colours on the website are very acurate, but there is something missing and the colours seem different when they see them in real life or at a show.

Its the glow factor.
I have been so busy trying to get the colours right, I forgot about the glow.
My genius friend asked why didn't I photograph them outside - DUH - why didn't I think of that???
Afterall they are natural colours and should really be seen in natural light, no scanners, lights or flashes involved.
So here are some I worked on earlier - :-)
These will be in tomorrow's update - which incidently will be late tonight's update as tomorrow I will be zooming up the country to see Susan.

What do you think?

Bloody cold again!

What was I saying the other day?
"I never get ill" - stupid me, why did I open my big mouth.
Have a cold now, yesterday I thought it was major hayfever, today I know its a cold - GRRRRRRRRRR

Still I have major dyeing to do, up to my neck in wholesale.
And I don't want to talk too soon as I am sure I will curse myself, but I think my wholesale dyeing system is working for the first time in ages.
I am slowly realising I need to concentrate on 1 order at a time, rather than do 2 or 3 at the same time.

I always end up getting it wrong and muddling up colours and yarns.
Is so frustrating, last week I had to re-order 2 kgs, 1 of which was no problem, but the second kg had my supplier grubbing around his stock and home trying to find a full kg for me to dye.

THANK YOU LOVELY SUPPLIER - what would I do without you?

His other hat is a really close friend hat and we are off to spend the weekend with him on friday. I'm really, really looking forward to it, spending time with him & F1 and forgetting about all our troubles for a few days.

Just hope I don't give him my cold, where am I going to get my wool from if he's laying in bed full of snot - :-)

P.S - Sarah - if you are reading, am really looking forward to seeing you too, oh and not forgetting Susan the day before.

Energy

Almost full of it, or rather I have a lot more than I have over the past few days.

Yesterday wasn't a good day, childen trauma and the big R looks ever closer, its possible Homer will be full time NDS this time next week. Gives me a slight rising feeling of hysteria, but as long as we have each other blah blah blah

More wholesale, today it makes me feel excited, last week it sent me into a huge panic. Odd how the thought of new orders has a different effect depending what I am going through at the time.

Life hasn't changed, got slightly worse in fact, but I'm copeing or supressing a lot better.

Off to the dye room tra la la la la la la

And more babies

Seems blog writing is contagious, almost the whole family has one now.
Along with Maisy Daisy Mae
Fep now has one -feps travel log
and so does Geinome -The General Moanings of Fred

YUK - Proud Mummy

My Maisy Mae has started blogging again.
Being a writer she should be a lot better at it than me - :-)

Please go and read http://theorderofpies.blogspot.com/
And leave her feedback, she needs encouragement.

Oh and if you scroll down to her "important faces post", the top photos are Homer and me to the left and our 3 babies to the right.

Tired

Tired today, yesterday was a write off, obviously I forgot to take one of my pills on saturday.
I take so many bloody pills just to keep functioning.
I don't often get ill, except for this summer when I had a million colds one after another, blamed it on Geinome as he was home for the summer, but think Rav day and 10
hours in the rain might have helped.
I am so faulty, seconded only by Homer, prescription time involves carrier bags.
But we both lead normal lives and forget about our faulty bits, they are just not important enough to worry about and they don't affect our daily lives.
That is unless you forget to take 1 of the pills - :-)

Will be less tired tomorrow.

Mojo

All my mojo has gone, designing, dyeing and everything else.
I am sure it is due to our ongoing trauma's and am sure it will come back, but don't have time to wait for it. We are going to see Susan next weekend, am really hoping the visit will help and I will come away with rejuvenated mojo.

All I really want to do is lay on my sofa and run around the ruins of post apocalyptic Washington DC with a flamer thrower and mini gun shooting super mutants and enclave soldiers.
Not that I am obsessed or anything - :-)

I share this with my baby boy - Geinome, who is a games nerd.
Its our fault, we turned him into a games nerd.
Back in 1992 we bought a Mega Drive, our friends had one and Homer used to spend late nights playing Sonic with Tim. We couldn't afford it and made up some lie for my parents as to how we paid for it, probably by credit card, but couldn't admit that or we would have been shouted at.
Geinome was 2 and this was the turning point of his life, once he was old enough to start playing he stopped doing everything else and this is all he has done since.
Not that he did much before hand, except destroy things, he was never interested in sports much to the disappointment of Homer.
School was a struggle, so was his foundation course of IT practitioner, but hes where he should be now.
He's 19 and at Bolton University studying computer games design and lives games day and night. The rest of the world still passes him by, but we share a very special bond, often based on which game we are both playing.
And one day he will make a living designing games and be very very rich and able to do nothing else.
I am hoping he will design me a game, he knows what I like to play, but there are quite a few years to wait, just hope it isn't as long as it has taken Final Fantasy 13 to be developed.

In the meantime I will struggle with my mojo and force myself not to turn the PS3 on

Oh and..

To all my other wool world friends
Wool supplier, dye supplier, fellow designers
You will get your very own post another day - :-)

Bankruptcy

No - I'm not going bankrupt but it caught your attention - :-)
I want your attention because I have important things to say or at least they are important to me.
And this post is relelvant.

When the recession hit this time last year I thought I would being going to go bankrupt and that NDS would no longer exist. I couldn't imagine that I would be able to fight the recession and win, especailly as so many huge companies were falling.
I also believed all my competitors would disappear with me, how could any of us hope to survive.

But yet here we still are a year later, I know we are all struggling and all still fighting and that makes me very proud to be a Indie Dyer.
My competitors are my social life and my friends, I don't know all of them, but I know all quite a lot.

Yesterday I stupidly got into a fight on Ravelry, someone offered advice about natural dyeing that was totally wrong, I couldn't help myself.
The number of disagrees kept goin up and up and then Debbie stepped in, she said wonderful things and a little bit later Helen joined in and said the same.
Thanks girls :-) you made me realise what an amazing support group we all are for each other.

I know we don't admit our struggles to each other as we have to keep up brave faces, but underneath we are fighting for our businesses lifes every day.
I do share everything with my bestest friend Jen without her I don't know what I would do - Thanks Jen

But I also want to say thanks to Sarah and Joy for some fantastic drunken evenings when we laughed and moaned and then drank again.

And to Jon for being such a sweetie and sharing the rain or rather sharing poor wet Roy.

Ant to Eirwen for just being Eirwen

And also thanks for taking the time to stop and chat to Dee, Nat, Gemma Debbie
I know you are all out there fighting too.

To everyone I have mentioned and everyone I have not mentioned, we will survive this recession and post strike and will still be dyeing pretty wool at the end of it.

Right enough soppy stuff, I am off to dye wool that will knock your socks off and I will achieve wool world domination and you will crown me queen at the end of it - ROTFL

And being open

Just when there is real signs that our economy is recovering, along comes the Royal Mail post workers strike.

I would like to say....

Dear Postal Strike Strikers

I understand you have very good reasons for striking, but have just limped my way through the recession and now your strike will cripple me and all my competitors. Please find another way to resolve this or our customers will be yarnless and very very unhappy.

Many Thanks
Queenie

I feel this needs saying and know most (probably all) of my competitors feel the same.

P.S - If you are on Ravelry, you may notice I have already said this in one of my groups

Karma - maybe??

Even though I was only planning 1 blog post a day, I had to share this.
Maybe karma is real.

About an hour ago the post lady arrived, odd as I thought they were all on strike, however she brought me 2 parcels.
My new wellies, so I will stop sliding around in the dye room and there is now less chance I will fall over and break my neck.
And a Clara Parkes book from a US publisher.
I didn't order a book, so had no idea why I had been sent it.
BUT on page 114 there is a Cat Bordhi pattern using my Dazzle sock yarn!!!
Clara Parkes, Cat Bordhi & Dazzle sock all in the same place - WOW

Here is the link to it on US Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Knitters-Book-Wool-Ultimate-Understanding/dp/030735217X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256214429&sr=8-1

UK Amazon says it hasn't been published yet, but I know different
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knitters-Book-Wool-Clara-Parkes/dp/030735217X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256218702&sr=8-1

Cat food pie

I woke up this morning after dreaming all Homer fed me was cat food pie.

Now cat food pie isn't what you are thinking, its the cheapest of cheap meat pies that you can buy.
Back in the days when my babies were small we ate a lot of cat food pie as we couldn't really afford to eat and it was very very cheap.
The babies called it cat food pie, but amazingly ate it, which is more than I did.
I also fed them ultra cheap nasty burgers as a Saturday treat, just before the BSE crisis and so far fingers crossed they have all survived.
I fed them food I wouldn't eat now, not because I wanted to but because I had to, apart from the cat food pie and BSE burgers we lived on lentil roast and bean casserole (that was particularly nasty), I could make a tin of tuna last 2 days and managed to cook mince dishes with about 10 gms of mince, lots of veggies and an oxo cube.
Because of this I hate cooking.

And sorry babies for making you eat this stuff, but know you understand especially Dais and Mark, don't think you have gone through the cat food pie route yet, but that's only because Mark is a vegetarian.

Homer does all the cooking now, because he loves it, he came home on Tuesday after our hell day, I felt too shaky too eat and suggested baked potato's, but he insisted on cooking, he said cooking was a comfort to him.
When he cooks he has to have the proper ingredients, rather than make do and will happily spend a whole day cooking.
This year for my birthday he made Thai that was better than a real Thai.
And for his birthday he and Jen spent the wholeday cooking Indian, all I managed to do was buy a cake and decorate it with sugar pigs.
My idea of cooking - :-)

Friends & Family

Yesterday was the worst day in the history of the universe.
I would be a gibbering wreck if it hadn't been for my friends and family.

Firstly to my 2 friends

One of you talked me through the day and made me laugh and sent me links to help solve some of the problems. You also sent me a present that I will return to you in a different form. I couldn't have done it without you, am much calmer today - mainly because I'm exhausted - too much gin, too much LOTR and too little sleep.
Thank you for always being there, thank you for caring and you know I will and have been there for you too forever and ever and ever XXXXXXXXXXXXX

And to my other friend

Thank you for being calm and collected, you might not realise but over the last couple of days just talking to you about other stuff has helped.
And you had a lucky escape last night after the gin consumption Homer had a very cunning plan. It involves you and he having big things to do, kind of world dominationy type things, you nearly had a phone call from burbling Homer, would have been very confusing and not making much sense. I didn't make much sense to me, but I was under the influence of gin too - :-) XXXXXXXXXXXXX

And on to my family who went through hell with us yesterday too.
I know 3 of you were really suffering with your own woes, but hopefully 1 of you will start to cure his own problems and the other 2 will get the help they need.

I LOVE YOU ALL - even the 2 I didn't give birth too, I know one of you would shuffle your feet and look the other way if I told you, so have said it here so you don't have to be embarrased.

My family are close and I mean really close.
I think the kids all had a happy loving childhood, I remember 1 blissful summer somewhere around mid early teens we shared a summer going to the beach everyday and just being together, the sun always shone and there were hearts and flowers.
The next year they were older and the magic was gone.
But as they have got older and left home it is back again, in a different way.
When they all come home (plus the 2 extras who have been sucked into the Perkins tribe) and they all like to be home, together we live in a kind of bubble. We don't really do anything except be together, laugh, love and play games. Its very intense and exhausting and takes me and Homer days to recover when they all go again.

We e-mail each other in a group e-mail that goes backwards and forwards all day, yesterday there must have been about 20 or 30.

2 quotes were quoted, think they are both relevant, don't forget them.
The first 1 is partly to blame for the exhaustion, as we had to sit up till 1 am to watch the film so we could watch the quote at the very end - stupid saddo us.


Quoted by Homer

"It's like in the great stories Mr Frodo, the ones that really mattered, full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? how could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?
But in the end it is only a passing thing.. the shadow, even darkness, must pass... the new day will come, and when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer..... those are the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why....
But I think Mr Frodo I do understand, I know now, folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back but only they didn't, they kept going because they were holding on to something - what are we holding on to Sam? - that there is some good in this world Mr Frodo and its worth fighting for"

Quoted by Feppy

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

Misery & Bridget

Today has started as the worse day ever, but it could get worse.

I can't let myself give in to misery, otherwise I would curl up in a ball and sleep like the dormouse in Alice in Wonderland.
I can't cope with sympathy because that would make me feel sorry for myself and I have important Dye Studio business to do.

So today I will try and think of things that make me happy.
My car makes me happy.

And I found this on Wikipedia, so maybe its not true.

"The design credo Mazda has used across the three generations of the MX5's development was the phrase Jinba ittai (人馬一体)

Jinba ittai (人馬一体?, rider (jin) and horse (ba) as one (ittai)).
This comes the Japanese concept where the rider and horse must be as one in order for the rider to effectively deploy his weapons in battle.
This is the inspiration for the Mazda MX5

I don't care if its not true as I love the concept, being an avid history and mythology buff little things like this make my world a better place.
And its how I think of my car, it fits around me like a glove and together we can tackle the world or at least escape from it.

I also found this
Photos of this
and website of this
http://bridgetthemidget.co.uk/

This is exactly what I want to do with the Zoom one day, I can just see me and Homer zooming through Afghanistan (a place I would love to go to, but maybe not in this life).

Incidently the photo of the Zoom was taken in Switzerland 2 years ago when we had our last holiday, where we took it over the Alps like Michael Caine in the "Italian Job". So maybe we have already done the Swiss leg of the world tour.

Photos of happy things (almost)

These things or rather 2 of them make me happy, I have talked about them on Twitter, but never shared the photos and as I need to not dwell on my problems and be positive here they are

Number 1 (happy) - My Van

We used to have a family car, but as our family left home we didn't really need it. But Homer wanted to keep it, guess it made him feel like a proper boy instead of NDS minion.

Then one day in August the Volvo got very very ill and needed £1500 of emergency surgery.

Sooo I managed to persuade Homer it was pointless buying another car when NDS spent so much money on hiring vans every year.

We got it the morning of set up for I Knit and immediately drove to London, or rather I did, I hate driving in London, it makes me hysterical being hemed in all the time.

I like a nice open road where I can put my foot down and pretend I'm an F1 driver.

But when it came to the point of driver swap I couldn't find anywhere to pull in, so drove all the way to Westminster.

And loved it - I was "Very Powerful Van Woman", Homer was a gibbering wreck, getting hysterical about buses around Parliment Square.

I still have no concept of how big it is behind me, but love it and now only need to do a 2 point shuffle to get it in the drive.

I am "Seriously Powerful Van Woman" - have wool will travel

Number 2 (happy) - Feppy's 23rd Birthday Cake.

My biggest baby was 23 last week.

How did that happen? how did I get this old?

I really don't know, but I don't feel it, no idea how old I feel, in fact I don't think I feel an age, its only numbers and I don't understand them so will ignore all of it.

Feppy is now the age I was when I had her, shes not ready to have a baby, still hasn't worked out what she's doing in life except manically painting and torturing to her mad Russian boyfriend - who incidently deserves to be tortured, even though he can be a sweet heart and would hate me for saying so.

As she doesn't really want a baby, but is still mine, I made her a special cake, which needs no commentary.

Number 3 (not sure) - Elizabeth

Homer made me a wonderful knitted cabled cowl, and as cowls are something I have wanted to design thought I would make one too.

His is sophisticated and elegant, mine is a ruff, I look like a very lumpy flower fairy in wellies.

Don't know what to write

I have decided I need to make more effort to write my blog, I read several others and love to know what people are up to.
Twitter is the problem, its so easy to write 1 sentance rather than paragraphs and can be done in between other things, rather than sitting down and having to write sense.

But I know how nosy I am and feel really guilty about not sharing, trouble is its saturday morning, I'm at work dyeing madder and don't have any idea what to write.

I could recap with everything I have been doing since July, but do you really want that??

Maybe instead of planning my posts I should just write the jumbled rubbish in my head, in fact treat it as another place I can talk to myself just like twitter.
If you answer thats fine, if not I will still carry on chuntering to myself - don't you think chunter is just the best word in the world??

Its beginning to get cold here, still have the office door open all day, but am beginning to need to wear a cardi or maybe shut the door. When the kids came home last weekend they were complaining how cold it was up north, guess I have never lived up north so have no idea what cold really means - am a soft southerner.

And a tired one and need to stir madder and make tea and finish over the top half finished cowl that I am wearing. Not even sure I like it myself, but it is warm, quick to make and only takes 1 skein.

Very late update

I have been a very very bad blogger, as I have been so busy.

So what have I been doing???

A crochet CAL on Ravelry - you can find all the details in the Queenie and Bessie group - POSY

And my lovely Angel new 2 ply, which has become my newest favourite yarn in the wholewide world.

Millions and millions of mini skeins - so many they now have their own section.

Tons and tons of wholesale.



The Woolfest and Ravelry day in Coventry in the rain in June.

Update 22/5/09

I was having a rubbish week, fighting with my office PC and internet connection. It spent the whole of monday turning itself off every 2 minutes and then taking 5 to reboot, as you can imagine the air was very blue.
But yesterday my new pretties arrived and I have forgiven the PC even though its not well. And at least the dyeing went well and produced some lovely colours.

So here is the update that nearly didn't happen, and as you can see I now have some little charms so you can make your own stitch markers - :-)

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

Eventually an update

Well at last I have re-surfaced both from Wonderwool and wholesale.
Fantastic to meet so many of you we had an amazing show - :-)

So here's the shop update...
You might notice something a little different.

We are now stocking beads and buttons.

Our £1 sale basket at the show was so sucessful that I have decided to have a £1 basket as a permenant feature and have also added it to the website.
Each pack is £1, the postage is £1.45 but you don't pay anything extra for more packs. So you could buy 10 and still only pay £1.45 postage.
And you can find it all here

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

Update 17th of April 2009

Lots of Mini Skeins this week, am not sure where they are all going, I think you must be eating them - :-)
Be quick I estimate they will all be gone by monday morning, possibly, that is unless you have lost your appetite.
http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

May Unicorn

The May Unicorn is in the shop now.

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/the-unicorn-quest-09-212-c.asp

It will be there until thursday and then again on the 28th of April.
We will be taking a small selection to Wonderwool, so if you are going you can come and have a stroke - :-)

Update & riddle 3rd of April 2009

This weeks riddle is

I don’t know where I am.
I don’t know where I am going.
I don’t know when I will get there.
But you may see me at dusk or dawn, basking in the glory of the landscape.

And the update, which you can find here
http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

Is Circe crochet shawl/scarf PDF pattern.
Circe uses 180 gms of Venus alpaca lace.

And a small update, more mini skeins.

And some lovely subtle lace yarns, that is all except the wild rose - :-)

Friday's riddle & update - 27th of March

The ridddle is...

I am under your feet, over the ground and stretch to the cities at the end of the world. Small boys dream of me, grown men obsess about me. But you probably don’t even notice and miss the adventures, dreams and places I could show you.

And the update is here - http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

and includes more mini skein collections.

Second batch of April's Unicorn

Is on sale now.

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/the-unicorn-quest-09-212-c.asp

It will be on sale until tomorrow afternoon.

Weekly riddle & sale & update - 20/3/09

This weeks riddle is..

Your rath installs the greatest fear, yet your love is the richest in the world. Without you there would be no existence, yet your role is not always creating but social.

And this weeks update is very small.

You can find it in our "New this week" section

We have put together some mini sock yarn skein collections, which are perfect for our Queenies scarves and stripey socks.

However we also have a mega sale, to try and clear some space for new stock.
40% off Sparkle sock yarn, BFL chunky slub and Bamboo circular needles.
Just put them in your shopping cart and the discount will magically appear at checkout.
And of course if you answer the riddle too, that will make a gigantic 50% dicount.

The first Unicorn

The first batch of Unicorn has been released for pre-order, some colours have sold out already, however a second batch will be released at 4.30 today.

I have already posted this message on Ravelry, but in case you are not a member here it is again - :-)

The first batch of the Unicorn yarn will go on sale for pre-order this friday - 13th of march.

We will put it on in 2 batches, to make sure the whole world gets a chance to buy and isn’t asleep.
The first batch will be in our websites at 9.30 am UK time.
And the second batch will be put on at 4.30 pm UK time.
I hope that covers all everyone.

We will post the Unicorn on the first of April, so you should all get it at roughly the same time. We will only update our sites when we sell out.

So watch THIS space

Lazy

This is what happens when you are too lazy to put another couple of ties on a skein of yarn.
Thank god its DK and only 200 metres!!

Friday's riddle & update - 6th of March

Only a little update this week, too much wholesale and yet again Bluebell and Heather, you just love blue and purple - :-)

Also we have Lula scarf kits back in stock.

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

And the riddle is...

Who am I?
I am a famous film star.

My best friend has a big round belly.

I am often imitated, even at the Bafta’s

But the wonderful thing about me is I’m the only one.

ITS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Unicorn has arrived - doing a very happy dance - :-)

And Viola

My latest design is Viola, a crochet lace shawl.
You can find the PDF pattern here
And the Angel lace here
the shawl is made with 3 colours, but if you make it with a single colour, you will need just 1 skein of lace yarn.

Friday's riddle & update - 27th of Feb

A Gigantic update this week!


And the riddle is

You help to sweeten the bitterest of tears,
But your name makes the lips of the poor curl into hate,
whilst the rich were born with it.
You gleam like the stars when worked on,
But disappear into depths of unwanted junk when dull.

20th of February - Riddle and update

Lots of lovely sock yarns, including DARLING which is the new name for the old Alpaca/Merino.
And MIRAGE, both of which have been re-introduced, because you demanded - :-)

And this weeks riddle is..

I am the butt of jokes and I have terrible wind

I am literal,

I never see the silver linings around clouds.

I can’t wear glasses but I needed lenses

I love spinning!! Especially on my side

And don't forget the 10% shop discount if you get the right answer.

13th of Feb - Riddle & update

Here’s a super easy one for you….

Crabby and cuddly
Beloved of us all,
They have presidential connections.
One a movie star danced with a king,
One travelled to the land of the alpacas,
And another adored the food of bees

And the update is.......

As you can see expeimenting with some new colours

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

And the return of Venus, back by popular demand. I am so glad you demanded as I have been using Venus and discovered true love - :-)

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/venus---alpaca-lace-weight-218-c.asp

Friday's riddle & update

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

And here is the riddle

Its beginnings lost in the mists of antiquity

Its use’s lost to our children

Lost in our toy boxes

But still appreciated by those whose world is dim

February's Unicorn side quest

20 questions for you to answer.
Just send me an e-mail with the answers and your name will be put into a hat and at the end of the month we have a draw, one lucky winner will recieve 2 skiens af yarn from Fyberspates and 2 from me.
Make sure to mention in your mail that you are answering the questions on the blog.

The questions all have a theme.


1 Played for the movie angels.
2 Senior vice president for a lot of books
3 Residence of the dawn
4 Heart of glass
5 He was running in the location of his very own fence
6 One man in the lovers city
7 Italian who lasted about 40 days
8 Why the flower blushed with shame
9 Steam crushed flowers
10 Number in a roman measure of oil
11 20% from here in the USA
12 Year the big apple adopted it
13 Henry and Richard fought over flowers
14 Ella, Julie and Dolly revived it
15 Lula waited for her man
16 John's brother
17 Isabella regrets her marriage
18 Removed the rigid organ
19 He saved her when she was cold
20 Mummy's pink floribunda

This weeks update ..

In the "new this week" section

Unicorn riddle 4 - 30th of Jan 2009

I've had a brainwave, I know some of you are not on Ravelry and are missing the Unicorn riddles and quizzes, so I should post them here too.

This weeks riddle is

Each line contains a clue to the answer which as per usual is one word.
So here it is………

Through the heat of Obama’s roots he wanders.
Sunspots aglow.
He reaches for the highest canapes that others cannot find.
He’s greater than them all, but the big apple’s finest makes him very small.

If you think you have got it and want to check the answer, go to The Shop, add something to the basket, click checkout where you will get a discount voucher box, put in the answer and if it gives you the discount you have got the answer right.
You don't have to buy, its just the easiest way Jeni and I could find for you to check your answers without a million e-mails.
And I should have said, if the answer is right the shop will give you a 10% discount, which will run till next friday when the next riddle is set.

Viola Lace Shawl

But what size does it need to be??

Ted - bad poodle

Likes to sit on his chair, if you ever notice me talking about dog swimming Ted is the dog in question. He hardly has any hip bones left and needs hydrotherpy every other week to keep his muscles strong enough to keep him on his feet.

He might look cute and cuddly, but is a smelly thief, who like nothing better than to eat rabbits the cat brings home - but we love him and I couldn't resist sharing this photo.

Friday Updates

I have managed to sort myself out and re-start the friday updates.

So todays is......

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/new-this-week-214-c.asp

They are timed to coincide with the friday riddles on the Ravelry Unicorn group, if you get the answer to the riddle you get a 10% shop discount.

If you want to join the group here it is

http://www.ravelry.com/groups/the-unicorn-club

Twitter

You may have noticed I have a twitter account.
If you look at the top right hand corner of the blog you will see my twitterings.
At the moment I am struggling to find the time to write paragraphs, but it takes 2 seconds to write a sentence.
So if you want to follow my twitterings, you know where to find them - :-)

The Unicorn Quest

The Unicorn Club is a exciting new club run by Fyberspates and The Natural Dye Studio. Its a yarn club with a difference - you don't have to buy any wool - :-)

This is not a normal yarn club, this is a club to have fun and help us through 2009.

Even though there is a gorgous luxury yarn involved - you only need to buy it when you want to.

We are having a custom sock/4 ply yarn made especially for us, with our own blend of fibres etc, which is a secret.

This very special yarn is simply called Unicorn and will not be available anywhere else, its totally unique and very luxurious.

The Unicorn quest runs for 9 months from April to December, each month’s yarn will come with a clue to the yarn’s identity. All you have to do is answer all the clues and send us the answer by the 31st of December 2009.

The lucky quest winner will recieve one whole kilo of Unicorn dyed to order.

However we will also be setting lots of side quests, just to get and keep you in the spirit of questing.

Prizes will include website discounts and skeins of yarn. You can find all the side quests on the club pages http://www.ravelry.com/groups/the-unicorn-club/pages

ALL ARE WELCOME - Even if you are on a yarn diet - :-)

You can find lots more info on the group’s info page - :-) http://www.ravelry.com/groups/the-unicorn-club/pages/The-Unicorn-Competition-2009

Home for a detox

Back home now, had an amazing new year with amazing freinds - Thank you amazing freinds - :-)

And have devised an amazing new club/competition with Jeni.

Its called The Unicorn Club 09 and is a joint Dye Studio/Fyberspates club.

We will tell you more in the very near future, but for now I'm going to have to un pack, have bath and start adjusting to the fact I have work tomorrow and have a million parcels to send.

And need to do some serious detoxing.............................

Lula

The newest is Lula.

On the site as a pattern and kit.

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/queenies-crochet-scarves-209-c.asp

Iv'e also added some mini skein collections, so if you become addicted you can keep crocheting.

All the patterns are now PDf's, some of the older ones are going to be re-vamped, but for now they are still the originals.

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/patterns-202-c.asp

And...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

I would say I'm not going to eat or drink too much, but I would be lying, just have to do extra dyeding after christmas to work it all off again, but theres plenty to do in the new year so thats ok.

I am hopeing to get some serious crochet done, as you may have noticed I have turned into a one woman design factory - :-)
I'm going to make the most of it before I run out of steam, so for the time being there will be lots of new designs appearing.
I am working on a sweater at the moment, is driving me mad, but I will conquer it and if its good enough there will be a sweater pattern in the new year too - :-)

Christmas Treat

As a thank you to all our lovely customers we have a special Christmas treat.
Everything in the shop has a 10% discount for the month of December.
http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk

Excuse the brief posts - my fingers are numb with cold!

Flora

Introducing Queenies Flora Crochet Mobius Scarf

Kits now in the shop.

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/queenies-mobius-scarves-209-c.asp

And Queenies Cassia Crochet Mobius Scarf
These kits will be in the Laughing Hens shop in a few days

Home

For anyone who has tried to phone me here in the afternoon.

Sorry, but I have to go home early.

The photo is of my office door, on the outside a cold wet murky farmyard and the east wind. The photo doesn't show the gaps very well, but believe me there is lots of day light and wind and rain.

My fingers don't normally start to freeze until miday (unless I am dyeing) and by about one o'clock my hands are going numb too. I don't mind the cold, but sitting here in my coat with the heater on seems stupid, when I have a nice warm house 2 mins away.

Luckily I am managing to get all the dyeing done in the mornings, and of course I have the laptop at home, so inbetween answering e-mails and stuff I am doing LOTS of designing.

I have just finished the Starry Bessie (photos and pattern to follow when we get some sun) and have just started developing a new product - many thanks to the Bessies Blanket Ravelry girls - :-) What would I do without your help?

Love Amanda

Ravelry Happy Dance

After several weeks of preparation and a steep PDF learing curve I finally have my Ravelry pattern store up and running.
At the present I have the 5 Bessie patterns, but will be adding a couple of sock patterns and the new Bessie when its finished (next week I hope)
All the patterns have been re-vamped with more details about measurements, yarn needed etc and photos

And here it is….. http://www.ravelry.com/stores/amanda-perkins-designs
What do you think?? :-)

Inside Loop - Winter 08

My lovely freinds at The Inside Loop have made The Natural Dye Studio the featured business this edition. Several photo's including me under a lot of wool.

For those of you who don't know, The Inside Loop is a really fab on-line British magazine, run by Diane and Kate.
There are some gorgeous patterns in this issue, I just love the vulture bag and the seahorse mitts.
And there is Amiga using our very own Chi, which has a 10% discount code, which all being well (fingers crossed) will give you a 10% discount.

And talking of PDF

I have just written 3 of the Bessie patterns in PDF, can't put them in the dye studio shop as I can't make them free postage, so have opened a etsy shop for them, along with other Bessie stuff.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6388152

Am goin to add the sock patterns and some other stuff.
What do I do when I have run out of patterns to convert???????

And...

The other thing that is taking over my life at the moment is PDF files.
I am busy turning all the patterns into PDF and am sooooooooo proud of self - :-)
The first one looks so fantastic, I can't wait to finish all the others.

You may have guessed I am very impatient, as I get bored very easily and easily obsessible

Dropped off..

Have I dropped off the world??

No - I am still here, well on my sofa most afternoons (when I am not dyeing)

I am totally obsessed with this...................

(The world's most rubbish photo and you only get to see a little bit of it)

It is Starry Starry Night Bessie and the first Bessie I haven't got bored while making it. The block/motif is a really simple one, but the arrangement of blocks complex.

My arms hurt as I am crocheting so much, but I can't wait to see it finished, watch this space I am getting near - :-)

Thanks for damp support

Dear everyone who mailed me

Thank you for your words of support in my cold damp crisis.

And please do not be alarmed the dyeroom is staying exactly where it is!!
There is no way I could dye wholesale, let alone anything else at my house.

And todays cold update is.......
Its pouring with rain, puddle on the office floor and the dyeroom is freeeeeeeezing (I would use very strong language here, but don't want to offend anyone - :-)

love amanda

The Mirasol Toilet Dollys

If you are not on my mailing list you may have missed this

All the Mirasol Charity Toilet Dollys are now listed on ebay UK.
Please do lots of bidding, I would love to sell all of them so we can raise money for the Mirasol Project.

We went to dinner with one of the project founders while we in London for The Knitting & Stitching show.
He was a lovely man, very passionate about the project,
says it is so sucessful they now have a waiting list for children who want to attend the school.

The best way to find the Dollys is from the page on the website, each dolly has its ebay auction address on its page.
http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/toilet-dolly-competition-194-c.asp

And as a big favour can you tell all your freinds - :-)

Grumbles...

Its so cold and damp and murky here at the moment that I am seriously considering shutting down the showroom and taking the office home for the winter.
It was ok last winter as I had Heidi to keep me company and I could ignore all the problems, but Val's only here a couple of hours each day.
Its lovely in the summer, but its yuk at this time of year.
My office door is rotten, has bits crumbling off it the whole time, when the wind is in the right direction and it rains I end up with a big puddle on the office floor, need my wellies on just to get to my desk.

And I am soooooooooooo pissed off with my broadband connection, which clicks off every 10 mins, means the computer crashes and then I have to start all over again - thank god Blogger saves your posts as you write them, otherwise you would never be reading this.
I think its the damp, the printer is the same takes it about an hour to warm up, if I try and print anything too soon the carriage gets stuck..

Keep thinking about the nice warm empty room I have at home, I am sure the printer would be happier, the home connection is more reliable and there isn't a howling gale coming under the door......................................

Its good!!

I have copied this entry from some of my Ravelry posts.
A lot of you have asked publicly and privately about the new Starry, Starry Night Bessie, well until it looks the way its going to when its finished I am keeping it top secret.

However here’s a teaser. The photo is of a early test sample, its not the right pattern, in the right order and some of the colours are different, but the final Bessie has a lot of the same elements - :-)

I have recently come to realise, I am not making crochet/knitted throws, afghans or blankets, I am making quilts.
Back in the distant past I used to make a lot of bed quilts - most of the sold or given as gifts.

I was part of the Ipswich Quilters Guild and one of the members I used to know came over for a chat at Ally Pally and the first thing she said was I like your quilts! I also had a fellow stall holder who was a patchwork shop owner telling me the Bessies were like quilts.

Sitting for the last few nights obsessively crocheting I realised they are right in a way, I am designing as I crochet and thinking about them in the same way as I did about the quilts.

Had a eureka moment about 11.30 last night, looking at the Starry Starry Bessie on the floor trying to work out which bit to do next, the finished throw revealed itself to me - its good, very good - :-)

Now all I have to do is finish it, when can I go home??? It is work - honest!!

Sooooooooo quite

Sooooooooo quiet - where is everyone.

What have I been doing???

Wholesale, wholesale and wholesale!!

Spent the whole weekend winding sample skeins for new customers, 1.5kgs into 10 gm skeins, watched all 5 Harry Potter films - :-)

My arm hurts now, but have to do more today.

Working on 2 new Bessies
Stared a sparkle one, only have a photo to show of the test blocks

Think it will make a perfect baby shawl or blanket, so soft and delicate.

And the other one Starry Starry Night Bessie is amazing!! No photo, but I know you are going to love it, am totally addicted can't wait to finish it!!

Just have to finish the samples first! And what to watch this afternoon while winding, might be lord of the rings, might be pirates of the caribbean or star wars, don't know as long as its something I don't need to concentrate too hard on - :-)