Fibre 4 Fibres Giveaway preview 85 update

'What's going on?' I hear you ask! 'An update to this week's preview?' Yes! I'm super excited to announce that there will be another prize in tomorrow's raffle. Hayley from Ducky Darlings got in touch with me today, offering one of her yarn Advent calendars as a raffle prize. As it's December 1st this Wednesday, I decided to have a separate prize this Sunday, so will be picking two winners; one for the bundle of yarn that I shared yesterday and one for the Advent calendar. Hayley will be posting it directly to the winner, so it may even arrive in time for December 1st! If it doesn't, then I'm pretty sure that the winner won't mind playing catch up! I know myself just how beautiful Hayley's yarn is, having collaborated with her for my 'It's Seagull o'clock' socks. The theme of Hayley's Advent is 'Winter Comforts' and the Advent consists of 24 x 20g miniskeins of 4ply superwash merino and nylon yarn. Each miniskein is wrapped and boxed and I believe there may be one or two other little treats along the way too! How lucky is the winner going to be? Thank you so, so much Hayley for your incredibly kind and generous donation. I am so overwhelmed by the generosity of the yarn community. I have taken some photos from Hayley's Instagram page to show you just how beautiful her yarn dyeing is.

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 28th November, closing at 23:45. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your email address with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Last week, the total passed £23,000! You are amazing! Thank you and stay safe! xxx

 

Fibre 4 Fibres Giveaway preview 85

As I build up to my final few raffles, the prizes are getting more and more festive! This week's prize includes a copy of The Knitter magazine which has my Alder sock pattern in it, along with a Winter Boughs sock set which was dyed especially for my sock design, and also donated by Sophie who is Pixie Yarn, and enough silver beads to knit the sock. There is a skein of Hazel Knits Entice yarn which is merino, cashmere and silk - so luxurious, as well as two skeins of Posh Yarn Emily which is a mixture of lambswool, cashmere and angora which have been given by an anonymous donor. Lucy from Lucy Locket Land has donated a Fair Isle Christmas Baubles kit and the lovely team over at Craftpod have donated an Autumn 2021 Craftpod box. There is a zipped project bag and badge donated by Suffolk Socks, a bee print fabric dpn case donated by ScruffyDogEco, a pin badge and a cat needle gauge. To complete the prize, there is a beautiful notebook donated by Penelope Cream and a blank greetings card. I will also be giving 5 people a copy of my Alder sock pattern which I plan to release on December 1st. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated a prize.

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 28th November, closing at 23:45. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your email address with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Last week, the total passed £23,000! You are amazing! Thank you and stay safe! xxx

Fibre 4 Fibres Giveaway preview 84

Ho Ho Ho! This week's prize is just a little bit festive! Looking in my planner, I can see that it's Christmas Eve in 5 weeks time. How has that happened? So this prize is perfect timing for starting to get you in the Christmas spirit. The prize includes a copy of Amigurumi Christmas by Sarah-Jane Hicks, which has been donated by Search Press. Sarah-Jane, who blogs as Flo and Dot, lives in Norwich, so once the winner has been chosen, she is very kindly going to sign the book especially for that person. Sarah-Jane has also generously donated three of the little Amigurumis that she made for the book and they are seriously cute! To go with the book there are 21 balls of Sirdar Happy cotton yarn to get you started on some Christmas crochet, as well as a 3.5mm crochet hook and a selection of safety eyes. There is a zipped notions case and a pencil donated by Lana Bou, and a couple of stickers, a pin badge and some stitch markers. An Instagram friend Anna has donated two very sweet Amigurumi turtles that she has made too. Last but not least, Joe from Old Forge Creations has donated a beautiful bowl glazed in his Campfire Peacock Eye pattern; its one of a kind and makes the perfect place to keep all those little balls of yarn. (You could of course use it as a fruit bowl too!) Thank you so much to everyone who has donated a prize.

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 21st November, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your email address with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. We should pass £23,000 this week! You are amazing! Thank you and stay safe! xxx

 

Fibre 4 Fibres Giveaway preview 83

Here I am again, with some truly colourful prizes to brighten your day! The previous sock kit prizes proved so popular that I decided to have another four prizes of sock knitting kits this week. Each kit includes a fully lined drawstring project bag. The bags outers are made from a cute cat print that was much admired when I shared some photos of the bag making on Instagram earlier this week.  I had a lot of fun sewing them. Inside the bag, there are 3 balls of commercial sock yarn and 3 skeins of indie-dyed yarn. Thank you to my friend Rosie who has donated the balls of On Line yarn, Suffolk Socks for donating the King Cole Zig Zag yarn and Austermann Steps yarn, an anonymous donor for the skein of Old Maiden Aunt yarn, an Instagram friend Ruth for the skein of Kelpie Knits yarn and Pixie Yarn for the skein of deep purple yarn. The rest of the yarn has come from my stash. Also included are a pair of Knit Pro 2.5mm circular needles, a postcard, a notebook with a knitting design on the cover donated by Penelope Cream, a bookmark and a sweet Flo black kitty progress keeper that have been made for me by Sarah who makes all kinds of gorgeous stitch markers in her shop Fripperies & Bibelots. I am also donating 4 free pattern codes so that each of the winners can choose one of my sock designs to download. Thank you to everyone who donated a prize.

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 14th November, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your email address with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. I'm crossing my fingers that we might get close to £23,000 this week. Thank you and stay safe! xxx

Repose socks

I'm thrilled to be able to share my latest sock design with you today. 'Repose' is a top down lacy sock pattern knit using some absolutely gorgeous yarn from Lay Family Yarn. Kelly very kindly gave me yarn support for my design which uses her Yak sock yarn. It comes in beautiful rich shades and I used Saffron Spice as the main colour and 1969 as the contrast. Kelly doesn't normally sell mini skeins of the yak sock yarn, but I believe that she will have some available if you'd like to use it. You can find the pattern in the latest issue of The Knitter magazine (170) which is on sale today. I just love how the socks have been styled in the magazine photos, don't you?

Photo copyright The Knitter

Photo copyright The Knitter

I did take a few photos of the socks before sending them off to the magazine for the photoshoot. The colours are so rich and warming, perfect cosy Autumn day socks.

I knitted a pair for myself in a solid colour, using the 1969 colourway of the yak yarn. They are very cosy.

I also made a pair using another sock set from Lay Family Yarn. This colourway is called 'Gorjus Darling!' and was the Strictly special edition yarn a couple of years ago. You can see that the pattern looks just as nice knit in paler yarns. Choose something that isn't too 'busy' or you won't see the lace so well. 

I hope you like them. Do let me know if you knit a pair, I'd love to see them! xxx

 

Happy Smiley Things

I may not be able to knit very much at the moment due to my sore fingers, but there are plenty of things that have brought a happy smile to my face over the last few weeks.

*** The excitement of a new Attic24 crochetalong in January ***

Such happy colours in Lucy's new blanket design, perfect for bringing cheer to the dark winter days.

*** New sock yarn ***

For everyday socks, I love commercial yarns such as Opal. Ellie from Crafthouse Magic has just started stocking some Opal yarn, so I got a couple of balls - one 4ply and the other chunky.

*** More sock yarn! ***

You know that I'm addicted to stripy sock yarn and rainbows so this skein from The Yarn Badger had my name on it from the very moment I saw a photo on Instagram! 'Stormy Rainbow'

*** Sewing ***

I have been doing a little bit of sewing using some precious scraps of Liberty lawn fabric to make a bag. It's not quite finished yet, but I will share a photo with you when it is.

*** Helping a friend to knit ***

My friend Liz taught herself to knit during the first lockdown and is challenging herself by knitting her first garment in the round and learning the Magic Loop technique. By the end of the afternoon, she'd got it! She is knitting my top down sweater pattern which is free to download from Stylecraft here.

*** New fabric for project bags ***

I absolutely love this Granny square fabric and plan to sew some project bags with it.

*** Flo ***

She really is the bestest girl, keeping me company and always ready for a cuddle.

*** A new calendar ***

I have been on the lookout for a 'crafty' calendar to hang up in my kitchen, to remind me of birthdays. Although I have things in my phone too, it's good to have a visual reminder. This one is from Sharon Blackman and has a beautiful stitched picture each month.

*** Candlelight ***

I like having a scented candle lit in the evenings. The gently flickering flame and the soft light that it provides brings a feeling of wellbeing. I'm just finishing up my summer fragrances from Wells Huts Soap and Candles Company, and then I'll make a start on the festive ones.

I hope you've had some happy, smiley things in your life too! xxx