Tag: ravelry

yarn

Wooly Wednesday, even more yarn dyeing

Ellie

So last week I gave the first half of the story! This week here is even more of the colourways I have been dyeing up ready for the yarn show!

There maybe more but I am at the point I can’t tell which I’ve uploaded and which I haven’t! 🤯

Sooooo these are getting released at Sweater Weather

Have you got your tickets!!!???!! I am super excited about meeting all sorts of knitting people!! Plus there are a few patterns going to be released for the show!!

If you want the heads up about any yarns left after the show going live for sale then head on over and sign up for the newsletter!! You can get priority notice on new releases yarny and patterns!! And occasionally the odd discount code!!

Craftiness, knitting, Knitting and Crochet, Tyddyn Bryn on Etsy, yarn

Wooly Wednesday – hats

Ellie

Since moving to the smallholding I wear a lot of hats, literally and metaphorically!! I have a few favourites…

My lattice hat, knitted up in a gorgeous sock weight alpaca yarn I bought on the Great London Yarn Crawl, my River Knits yarn hat, which is a gorgeous sock weight yarn and I knitted a super slouchy beanie hat in it!

More recently I have been knitting up hats for a few people around here and using double knit yarn!

This one is knitted in our hilltop blend and it is rarely off the farmers head at the moment!

I have also been finding the boy’s hat strewn about the place…. this one was found out by the stream in the last cold snap frozen solid!!

It has now been thawed and washed!!

I have a number of hat designs out and up for sale in the Etsy shop, on Ravelry and on Lovecrafts including this Queen Bee hat

And…. I am working on a heap more designs!! All inspired by the natural world around here in Wales!

Here are some sneaky peeks!!

What are your favourite or go to hat patterns??

I still have a Baable on my to knit list!! Knit my mum one but never got round to mine!! 🤦‍♀️

Craftiness, knitting, Knitting and Crochet, Tyddyn Bryn on Etsy, yarn

Wooly Wednesday

Ellie

This Wednesday I am going to look at a pattern or two from another source!

I am currently knitting up the fabulous Arboreal sweater by Jenn Steingass (this link is in Ravelry, I am afraid there are no other links I could find where she sells the patterns outside Ravelry)

I am knitting it up using our Rustic with alpaca base which is currently up in the Etsy shop. I am using the natural beautiful grey base colour, a small amount of cream from the Rustic range and the Gentian for the blue.

It is knit up from the top down and all the colourwork is in a yoke around the neck. Beautiful leafy patterns!

The yarn is knitting up beautifully, Roger at the mill puts a lovely twist into the wool and it really is turning into one of favourites to knit with. I am also loving the combination of the natural grey of the wool with the hand dyed Gentian colour way.

True to my form though, as this knitting is for me it gets left to the bottom of the list, so was put aside for all the Christmas knitting and put aside for the custom orders….. but I plan to get back to it at least one night a week now and keep some progress going!

Jennifer Steingass has many many beautiful yoked sweater patterns so I hope this is my first of many! In fact logging into Rav has set me off again and I now rather like the Forestland sweater….. Sooo many patterns sooooo little time…..

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#query=jenn%20steingass&sort=best&view=captioned_thumbs
Craftiness, knitting, Knitting and Crochet, Life with a toddler, Patterns, Tyddyn Bryn on Etsy, yarn

Wooly Wednesday

Ellie

I have knitted up some fabulous sweaters for the boys using our beautiful rustic with alpaca yarns!!

You can see which one is more impressed at the photo shoot for his new jumper!!

The yarn is a gorgeous blend of next to skin soft yarn!! And the colourways lend themselves beautifully to colour work patterns and these yoked sweaters, the Diplodocus sweater by Kate Oates is perfect for my two dinosaur enthusiasts!!

We have all sorts of colours sure to please your dino lovers too!!

He really does love it! Just didn’t want to take photos 😂🥴 Here are the colours we have available in the Etsy shop!

Craftiness, knitting, Knitting and Crochet, yarn

New yarn!!!!!

Ellie

So tomorrow the Rustic range of yarns launch!!

All hand dyed by me here at the smallholding and all the wool for the yarn is either locally sourced or homegrown!! From our own Sheep!!!!! So that’s gorgeous fleece from Wanda, Baabara, Wolfy and the three witches!!!!

This time the wool has been blended with a little alpaca and the natural grey that the yarn became is beautiful!!

My wonderful mother helped me out and test knit a huge batch of an early dyeing of the yarn making this gorgeous Ribbon Wrap (pattern link here)

The wrap was knitted up in the Silverleaf of the grey, Gentian or blue, Thistle or purple and the Plantain or Green colourways and is huge and so warm and snuggly!!

Other colourways on offer are the red or Bettany, yellow or Gorse, Pink is Campion and the orange is Valerian!!

The natural grey is also available to buy from Friday!!

This will all go live in the Etsy shop on Friday morning!!

Etsy shop

There will be a discount code for the launch weekend simply put in the code YARNLAUNCH to receive 10% off all yarns in the shop over the weekend!!

In addition to the Rustic with alpaca, there is a small amount of Rustic, which is just the blend of the wool in a few of the colourways!! Great if you need a smaller amount for colourworking!!

There is also a new sock yarn colourway coming this weekend!! This colourway is called Lockdown Sunset, there are only 10 skeins available and I will be using 50% of the profits from this yarn to buy some extra cans to donate to our local food bank which is struggling with donations given the challenging times we are facing!

Can you spot Lockdown Sunset in the yarn mountain???

Craftiness, Day tripping, knitting, Patterns, yarn

Crafty Catching Up!!

Ellie

Well a fortnight has vanished since my last post!!! Well more than a fortnight!!! That’s what new babies manage to do…. and toddlers… they eat time!!!

So…. now I’m a captive on the sofa with a post immunisation snuggler….

Where was I….

Wonderwool Purchases!!! Those of you that follow me over on Instagram will have seen these beauties posted there!! But look!!!

A good mix of mainly sock yarn and some spinning fluff for my breeds log cabin blanket!! Hurrah now I just need the time to knit them!!

In other news I was lucky enough to test knit the fabulous Peeky Cat socks, a colourwork double knit socks pattern by An Caitín Beag!! Wow these knit up quick!!! I used some deep stash Sweet Georgia merino DK yarn that I bought an age ago with plans for a top for me…. two children later….. and seriously limited knit time…. and it’s now becoming snuggly gorgeous cat socks!!!!

This pattern is amazing!! And she has set it up on Ravelry ready for release on the 25th!!

Other than that I’m plugging in with James’ socks….

And I’ve finally finished the reknit of my hazels shawl in RiverKnits in Indian Giant Squirrel!!

Now I need to block it and finish writing the pattern and get it off to the wonderful tech editor!! Any interested parties for the test knit?!

So that’s the crafty catch up… for the mo!!!

I’ll post again with some farm happenings!!

Craftiness, knitting

More socks on the go!!

Ellie

I have cast on another pair of vanilla socks!! Yes I seem to have a problem needing to have some vanilla socks on the needles at all times!!

But it does seem to be all my poor sleep deprived brain can handle!!

Look at this yarn!!

It is Weavers Loft sock wool and I bought it last year at Wonderwool!!

Squee!!!! That is this weekend for this year now!! Anyone going?! I shall be there Saturday with the boys and Mum!!

Soooo more vanilla socks!! And lots of more complicated projects languishing for a day when I feel I have had some sleep!! That may be a while… though this little man is sleeping better than his big brother did at his age!!

Craftiness, Firewood, knitting, Knitting and Crochet, Life with a toddler, Livestock, Podcast, Sewing, Spinning, Weaving, Woodwork, Working the land, yarn

Episode 13 show notes

Ellie

Episode 13

Sunday 18th March

So I’ve made it this far!!! Still got bump in tow!!

Lots of little bits to tell you all about this week, some sections are a bit light on content this week, because we’ve had disturbed nap times due to toddler illness ( joyfully he threw up in the car the other week so that was a heap of pulling apart the car and car seat to wash!!)

Plus more getting ready for the new baby, growing season by sorting out the seeds etc..

Well it’s another snowy day here in Wales and it’s freezing!!!

I’m wearing James’ fleece as it covers the bump!! And I’m wearing a cowl my Mum knitted for me!! It’s a Song of the Sea cowl by Louise Zass-Bangham and the Pattern is on Rav.

Knitting

I’ve managed to finally block my samples I had knit up and have subsequently tweaked patterns etc!! Now just need to get some more projects off the needles so I can cast on the full projects for those!!

I have two FO’s

Two little baby hats!!! The pattern is my Jelliebean Baby Hat pattern and it’s on Rav, I’ve knitted one in Rainbow heirloom solo light and one in some left over hedgehog fibres, plus a small amount of my own hand dyed yarn to stripe in so I was definitely not playing yarn chicken!! These are in my bag that the lovely Zoe of Pins and Needles made me.

I am halfway down the foot of the second sock for my Dad’s birthday

These are a Plain top down vanilla sock knit out of Weavers Loft sock yarn which is 75% super wash wool and 25% nylon, so good and hard wearing for much use for my Dad! These are in my fantastic Thimble and Thread Makes Harry Potter bag.

I have managed a heap more rows on my Hazels shawl and the leaves are really starting to come through now!! Ive knit this in River Knits 4ply fingering in the colourway Indian Giant Squirrel and it’s a pattern I am working on for release after the baby is born

I have decided to start using my progress keeper on my weasley sweater, because I can’t for the life of me remember whether I have even knitted on it since I last podcast!! The progress keeper I am using is a lovely tardis one from Jennie of Owl about Yarn.

Sewing…

Yep none…. No FOs….

But I have managed to cut out some fabric for a commission project and have some more to cut out this week so I can get sewing on that!!

However I have managed some mending/darning etc!!

I’ve mended The rainbow jumper which is the DayDreamer pattern by Jennifer Steingass, James’ socks and two pairs of Williams socks!!! Some knitting required…..

Weaving…

Zero…. Too much getting the desk cleared and the loom hoiked about at this stage of bumpness…

Crochet….

Also zero!! But to be fair I have been awaiting the plying of the Icelandic to carry on with that….

So that leads me into Spinning….

I have Navajo or chain plied the Icelandic!! Just need to skein it, wash it thwack it and it’s good to go into a crochet project…

And I have thread plied the Sara’s Texture crafts exmoor BFL!!! I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out and can see more thread plying in my future especially with the beautiful variegated skeins of yarn. Mainly because I believe my yardage for this skein of yarn is going to be HUGE!!! in comparison to the Icelandic which will be minimal as it is three ply and super chunky!!

Acquisitions!

So I have received the fabric I ordered for the commission project

Cotton

Terry

Rip stop

And I have ordered more rip stop and received it to make the boys waterproof dungas using the Made By Jacks Mum Free Range Fun Over Trousers.

And also this last fortnight I had a really happy post day!!!

The Lovely Anita from the Gaga Knits podcast has sent me some beautiful gifts!!!

A beautiful little cardie for the newbie when he decides to put in an appearance.

A book for Will which he has had read several times already!!

And a beautiful roving of Fondant Fibre in merino and mulberry silk!!! Part of their Illume collection called awakened spirit.

Thank you soooo much Anita you are so very kind!!

Shop update

I’ve been inspired this week to get my backside back to the dye pots!!! So hopefully (baby arrival allowing) later this week I shall have a little shop update with these two colour ways!!! Daffs and Crocus, they are currently drying out, having been my first attempt at yarn dyeing on the wood fired stove!! Man I needed to haul lots of wood!!! Or it seemed that way because I can only bring in small amounts at a time, not the big basket!! However I digress there are two bases, a sport weight merino base, which are the slightly softer colours, and the Stardust sock weight base which are the more vibrant colours!! So keep an eye on Tyddyn Bryn on Etsy later this week for them to pop into store!! One time limited dye lots, using up the last of the undyed I had in stash…. The next time I dye I shall have to do another big restash of the undyed before I dye!! And who knows when I might get time to do that!!! It has been two years since I last dyed yarn I believe!!!

Woodwork….

I’ve been out varnishing the sign for the front of the house again, and giving the bird boxes a quick coat too to protect them…

Farm update…

So James hired a mini digger a fortnight before I was due to pop….

He has now dug raised beds in the slurry it, which he needs to blockwork out…. watercourses…. Potato beds….. Flattened an area for me to make into a digging zone for the kids….

I’ve sourced some tractor tyres for digging pits for the boys…..

We’ve scoped out a pond site, but it wasn’t safe to take the digger to it….

In looking at that though I have found loads of my basketry willows have grown and need cutting back allowing me to get more plants going…

And Friday next if no one comes forward we become accidental sheep owners…. Still no idea if it’s multiple deal…. As in whether she is I lamb or not…. But we have bought some feed to supplement her diet in case and come next week we shall book a vet out to see her and register her as ours.

The chicks are growing well and feathering up… They are much bigger much faster than the last two, and are certainly eating more, drinking more and stinking more!!!

We’ve baked more cakes…. Muffins of the White chocolate and Rasberry variety and the banana and chocolate chip variety!!

I shall add a little photo montage at the end of all the farm happenings…

Sooo….

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks podcast!! I’m not sure when I’ll get to podcast next…. Baby is due Friday next!!! So in the meantime Happy crafting everybody!! And you can find me as Tyddyn Bryn on Instagram, Twitter and Ravelry, there is a Tyddyn Bryn Facebook page…. The Tyddyn Bryn Etsy shop, which I am going to attempt to keep open…. But we shall see what occurs in the next couple of weeks…

If you enjoyed the episode please give us a thumbs up at the bottom and I hope to see you all soon!!!