I’ve been having great fun dyeing up more yarns and I’ve now got some different bases ready to pop into my shop on Thursday for the first update in quite a while. This is a brief taster with some pics of what will be in my Etsy shop update at 7pm UK time on Thurs 3rd November

Click on any of the photos to take you to the Etsy shop so you can favourite me to get notifications of all shop updates xxx

British wool: Romney lambswool and Shetland

First off I have some new and familiar colourways in my standard base – ethically produced British wool that’s a blend of 95% Romney lambswool and 5% fawn Shetland. Both are sourced from single farms in the UK and the wool is fully traceable. This is a 2 ply yarn but is a bouncy 4ply/fingering weight as its woollen spun, not worsted spun.

I’ve redyed a couple of my favourites for this first Etsy shop update in November:

This is Shades of Lavender inspired by a visit I made last year to a lavender farm in Yorkshire where they have varieties of lavender with pink as well as purple flowers… two skeins available 400 yards in each (below left) and then Crimson is electric – love these shades of reds, golds and pinks together,,, just one 400 yard skein available in this update (below right).

I’m still feeling really inspired by Autumn and the way that the leaves are changing colour so I have four colourways full of rich browns, golds, reds and toffee colours. From the left is Autumn leaves, then Cinder toffee followed by Shepherd’s delight and Chestnut Grove. The first three are highly variegated but using colours that blend together really well. Chestnut Grove is a semi-solid in a rich chestnut brown.

I think I’ve said in one of my podcasts that the non-superwash woollen spun wools wick the dye very quickly when it is introduced onto the fibres. So its tricky to make well defined speckled yarns. The techniques that work well on superwash merino yarns don’t produce the same effects. I’ve been experimenting with loads of different methods and I’m really pleased with this one: its Charcoal passion…

New in this Etsy shop update are also some semi-solids and tonal colourways to coordinate with the more heavily variegated yarns, or just with each other. Below from left to right are: Not so lazy Lapis (rich tones of deep blue and blue/purple, Dove (a misty grey), Aquamarine ( a semi-solid turquoise, Amazonite (a highly tonal turquoise), Blueberry compote (rich and vibrant purples) and Key lime pie (neon bright fresh lime).

My new angora base

The first batch of the new angora base, which is 85% Romney lambswool, 5% British Bluefaced Leicester and 10% British rabbit angora (all ethically produced and fully traceable to source, has been a pleasure to dye.

It is softer than the lambswool/Shetland base but is still springy and bouncy and has such a lovely loft to it.

Pumpkin spiced latte

The first colourway is a new one that I’ve dyed up specially for this time of year to celebrate the drink of the same name: Pumpkin Spiced Latte. It has rich caramel, brown and orange tones and is softly tonal with gradual movement from one colour to the next.

The more delicate nature of this yarn base inspired me to dye up some pale, vintage colours to tone well with some of the more vibrant colourways. I love these two: Misty veils on the left and Antique petal on the right:

The two sister colourways to these too are deeper and more tonal but will still coordinate perfectly… On the left is Mountain haze, the one on the right is Tayberry.

I’ve also a deeper pink colourway, called Violicious (on the left below) which is the sister to Antique petal and Tayberry….

Moving away from the lovely pinks and purples I love so much, here are two quite different colourways. On the left is streetwise, a cool and moody tonal grey with flashes of ultraviolet; on the right is Horcum’s treasure, a rich tonal green colourway inspired by Horcum’s Hole on the windswept Yorkshire moors. Flashes of purple heather just peep through with a few speckles in each skein.

Trying out some new bases – worsted spun yarns

As I mentioned I’ve obtained some new bases. These are not all British wool and not as traceable as the yarn that I get from my local mill, but all are ethically produced and are spun either in the Peru or in Italy.

Merino/nylon 75/25 non superwash sock yarn

This was spun in Peru and is a lovely quality merino. I think I got a bit obsessed with the peachy cream pumpkin shade when I was dyeing but it goes really well with the bright pops of colour Fairground (below left) and Spriteful (below right).

And a more muted colourway – Peach rebel

100% British Bluefaced Leicester

This is 100% British BFL spun in Italy and not superwash treated. Its worsted spun and lovely and soft and silky.

This vibrant colourway is Glow stop glow and is dyed to be a pooling colourway. It has a 1 yard stretch of orange and then the same of purple, with no variegation. Within each colour is quite tonal and the skein on the right took the dye slightly less intensely, even though both were dyed in the same batch. If you were going to buy both of these to use in one project you would need to alternate the skeins to get an even look.

And this one is Shades of lavender dyed on the BFL base – it looks very similar in colour but the skein is sleek and silky rather than bouncy and lofty.

100% New Zealand Polwarth (superwash)

This is the only superwash yarn that I obtained, so naturally I had to get speckling… Here is fairy dust… only one skein of this one.

And Pretty urban… three skeins of this one available (only two pictured).

And the fifth Polwarth skein is Just magical

I hope you enjoy seeing the yarn’s I’ve been dyeing up and this sneaky preview helps you make your choice before things start to sell out on update day.

Thanks so much again for your support of my blog and the Crafternoon Treats crochet podcast xxx Kathryn

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