A Day of Epic Embarrassment

So this week I took a huge number of parcels to the post office. As many as I could carry in the 3 large reusable bags I keep for just this purpose. I lugged them happily up the hill, with the usual relief (phew, glad that's done), satisfaction (a job well done) and excitement (I can't wait for them to get their yarn!!) Emma and I had spent the best part of the day before carefully packing up Artichaut kits and update orders. I love packing kits with Emma, because often she'll be seeing the yarn for the first time and will say gratifying things like 'Ooh, it'll be gorgeous in that colour'. And I get excited all over again. Usually our packing involves her doing all the oragnising, making lists of who gets what and which orders need to be combined and who needs a postage refund, and me, still reskeining yarn that's only just dry, forgetting to make the tea and nattering incessantly (because only my hands are busy) while she tries to concentrate. If you buy yarn from the shop, it's thanks to Emma that anything gets done with a modicum of order and efficiency, so send her a happy thought while you open your parcel.

Anyway, I get to the post office - and there's no queue!! Whoop! - at least until lovely Wendy has processed  my 2 dozen or so parcels and announced the large sum of money to pay while I'm fumbling in my purse for my bank card which I HAVE LEFT AT HOME because I removed ALL MY CARDS to purchase a new electric hob (for dyeing sweater quantities, yay). Wendy kindly told me to go home and get my card and come back when the post office reopened at 2pm to pay for the already processed packages. Mortified. So I  went to work to drop off my stuff, then walked back home to pick up my cards only to find the weekly food shop that I was expecting to be delivered that evening had been only ten minutes earlier, because I had got the time wrong. So I had to call the supermarket (who were less accommodating than the post office) to apologise and arrange a redelivery for that evening so that my family could eat that day (while I would still be at work).

It was one of those days that was clearly going downhill, and was saved by the fact that no-one treated my like the moron I felt like. And if I hadn't had to go home to pick up my cards I wouldn't have been able to reorganise the food shop delivery and I would have had a very hungry family that evening...

Here's my own Artichaut in Alpaca Silk Sport in Iris:

Wuthering Heights

I'm finally reading Wuthering Heights. So what? Well, I guess I thought I should, I mean, it's attested to be one of the most original pieces of literature ever written. And it was written in Haworth ~ which (insert drum-roll here) is the name of my personal favourite of my colourways. I'd rather read Jane Eyre, but I don't have it to hand...


This post is a little late. That's because I really wanted to record a little story to tell you about my recent trip to Haworth when I announced the winner of the colourway competition, but I just haven't had time, and I didn't want to leave you hanging any longer ;-)


So from all the people who guessed Haworth in their comment on the last blog post I picked two random winners, and they are:


pebbledash and Octonat

Please contact me at lionessarts@gmail.com with your favourite colourway and yarn base and your address and I'll post your lovely prize next week!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment and for all the birthday wishes...

Hopefully sometime soon I'll post that story on the blog...


Here's a picture of Haworth on MCN DK:

Colourway Competition!

The 29th April 2012 will be the Lioness Arts Etsy Shop's first birthday and I'm planning some party games

To win a skein in your favourite colourway leave a comment blelow with the answer to the following question:

What is my favourite of all my colourways so far?


Here is the sold section of the Etsy shop if you need inspiration ;-)
All correct answers will be put tinto the random number generator and 2 winners will be announced on April 29th :)

We Love to Reskein: Part 2

Here are some of the sweet little mini skeins I made up with my dinky sample sized niddy noddy:

I just love them!

We Love to Reskein

I just bought a new toy, um, I mean tool ;-)

The Ashford Skeiner:

This really is a great piece of kit! As I reskein all the yarn that goes in the shop, it is important to have tools that make work a pleasure. 

I also bought a Sampler Size Niddy Noddy as I'll be putting together lots of sweet mini skeins for the Rainbow Gathering Stripes kits this week:

(By the way there'll be more kits in the shops once I've posted out the current kits)

These were shipped promptly from Forest Fibres via Amazon.co.uk, and although currently unavailable from Amazon it seems they can also be purchased through Forest Fibres directly or Handspinner.co.uk

A Look Back at the Yarn and Pattern Club

It has been a steep learning curve for me, this yarn and pattern club and it's been alot of fun! With January's subscriptions appearing in the shop in a few hours, and the last of the Autumn club parcels going in the post on Monday, I thought I'd do a little summary of the Autumn Club ~

It kicked off with a fabulous mystery pattern from Lisa Mutch of Northbound Knitting. I love Lisa's work, and I knew I could trust her to keep her design under wraps, although we were both dying to reveal it! The Canadian Postal strike meant she didn't receive her yarn in time to knit the sample in the mystery skein ~ Silky Sock in colourway 'Emma', so her sample of Deviate was knitted in a skein of Lioness Arts BFL Sock which she luckily had already stashed, phew! Below is my test knit, in Lioness Arts Symphony Sock in the Club colourway ~

At the end of August I gleefully mailed out 2 skeins of BFL Sock in colourways Heartache and Honey Moon, accompanied by the gorgeous Henslowe pattern by Beth Kling. Below is Beth's sample, in Heartache, and mine, in Honey Moon:

Its no secret that I'm a huge Veera Valimaki fan, and I loved knitting her Club pattern ~ Northanger Abbey. Her sample is in the repeatable colourway Picking Violets, but the Club colours are Keepsake and Forget Me Not, a variegated pink and a semi-solid blue on my 100% merino high twist base, King of the Jungle. By the way, Veera has a fab new website..

And the last Club yarn is King of the Jungle's soft and snuggly sister, Lioness Sock. A high twist heavy fingering like her 100% Merino counterpart, Lioness sock is 80% Merino 10% Nylon 10% Cashmere, and are accomanied by Micheline, a beautiful Stole / Scarf from Ariane Caron-Lacoste aka Falling Stitches

Thanks so much to Lisa, Beth, Veera and Ariane for joining me on this adventure, to everyone who tested the patterns and of course to everyone who signed up, there wouldn't be a club without you!

Little Rose

Here's a picture of my little rose Leonie, wearing her new tunic. The main colour I used is Old Rose on Viola merino fingering. I bought it several months ago from the Viola Etsy shop, and it's been waiting patiently for the perfect project. The yarn was lovely to work with. For the contrasting colour I used my very own lady dedlock on King of the Jungle 100% Merino, some of the yarn leftover from my Northanger Abbey hat test knit.

The pattern is now available on Ravelry, and in the Lioness Arts Etsy shop too