New, new, new!

At long last, the website redesign is (mostly) over! Not much has changed on the surface of it all, but you may notice there's a lot more fibre available all of a sudden...

The big changes happened in the way things are organised. All dyed fibers are now listed by fiber type; i.e. Cheviot, Texel, Dorset Horn, etc. Under each category, you'll find pictures for the colorways currently available, and links to pages with the colorway descriptions. This enables me to list all the available colorways rather then being limited by listing them individually. So, I hope you all enjoy the selection available, and that you find the new organisation easy to navigate!

I've added a bunch of Texel this week, and there are silk hankies to come next week. Or whenever they actually dry - as it's grey and humid in London this week, this might not be until next month! There's also a sale going on to celebrate the Tour de France/Fleece - 10% off all available fibres until the 21st of July.

I hope everyone is enjoying the (hopefully) better weather, and happy spinning!

R xx

Psst...new pattern coming out

But I can't reveal any details yet because it's part of a club! But if you like YA literature, and you like hats with lots of fun stuff going on, with bookish-inspiration, and you are a fan of super-soft merino and gorgeous dye jobs, you should really head over to Storied Yarns and sign up for Jess's A Yarn and a Tale yarn/fiber club for Quarter 3. You'll get to read and chat about a great book, get some of her gorgeous Bo Peep Worsted yarn or super-fine merino top in a book-inspired exclusive colorway, and get a pattern for a lovely slouchy hat from me.

The Storied Yarns Ravelry group is here, the thread for Quarter 3 is here, and the shop listing for the club is here, but only until about the 13th of June. Off you go!

PS - if you can't manage the club right now, the pattern will be available directly from me starting in October.

No more secrets

If you follow me or Allison on Twitter, you might have noticed a very special retweet that popped up on Saturday.

We can now finally reveal The Sooper Sekrit Project we've been alluding to off and on for the past few months. Presenting:

YARN IN THE CITY: THE GREAT LONDON YARN CRAWL

There is some debate about who should take the credit and/or blame for our embarking on organizing this event. Allison swears it was my idea, but that is certainly not how I remember it...to be fair, I don't exactly remember the conversation that took place too specifically (I think it was on the train on the way back from Wales last autumn - I can only claim exhaustion/wool-fume-and-cider-hangover). In any event, six plus months and a lot of research and work onward, and here we are.

On Saturday, the 21st of September, 2013, six intrepid teams will take to the streets (and buses and trains and Tube) of London on a quest to visit four yarn shops over the course of the day (thereby dramatically enhancing their stashes). We are in the process of finalizing the details of the shops and the routes, so stay tuned for more info. You can either check the website, our Facebook page, our Ravelry group or follow us on Twitter as @GLYC. If you are in London, or can get to London, and want to come hang out with a gang of like-minded yarn fanatics for the day, keep your web-ears tuned for further announcements and updates over the next few weeks. We hope to see you in September!

It's been awfully quiet around here...

...but a lot has been going on behind the scenes. First and foremost, I'm working on a website redesign that will get around the current 15 store item limit I've been running into. The major change is going to be that products will be listed by fiber type instead of by colorway. You'll be able to go to specific pages for BFL, Cheviot, Shetland, etc and see all the colors that are available on those fibers at that particular time. I'm hoping this will make things a bit easier for those of you looking for specific wools, and enable me to list more products at one time, thereby giving all of you more options of colors to purchase!

The second upcoming event is the Tour de Fleece (run from the Ravelry group here), which starts on 29th June. I will be having a sale, starting next Tuesday (4th of June) with all fibers 10% off from now until the end of the Tour de France, which is the 21st of July. So that gives you plenty of time to stock up!

The third upcoming event I've been working on is still under wraps for a little while longer, but I will say this: it involves yarn, teams, and a pub. Those of you in London (or who might be convinced to come to London for a day of yarny fun) should keep an eye out for an announcement soon!

Crochet-ing along

Life is pretty busy at the moment, and I'm trying to squeeze in a little bit of yarn play here and there among the other, far-less appealing commitments that need to be tended to. I've found that the crocheted squares I'm doing for a blanket for Dev are the perfect little amuse-bouche at the end of a long day.

I find myself whizzing through a bunch of centers, and then doing the alpaca edgings on three or four at a time - it feels very productive to all of a sudden have four new finished squares at the end of an evening!

Once those two are done, I'll have 26 finished squares. I figured out last week, however, that in order to make a more-or-less twin sized blanket, I need (gulp) 120 squares. Ouch! I'm either going to have to start buying All The Mini-Skeins, or accept that it is not likely that it will be done by Christmas.

I had some other crocheted items appear in my life this past week - my new Potholders!

The patterns (from top left and going clockwise) are: Fudge by Jan Eaton, DROPS Extra 0-843, and the Wool Eater Blanket by Sarah London. I love them, and plan to hang them in a place of honor in my office instead of using them - they're way too pretty! This swap was lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to taking part again next spring.