Monthly Archives: February 2015

New colours on BFL HT sock yarn

This last week has been all about the sock yarn.  My Yan Sock base is a lovely 100% British Bluefaced Leicester High Twist sock yarn.  The high twist gives it that extra bit of sturdiness to help prolong the life of your precious hand knit socks.  The fibre of the Bluefaced Leicester sheep has one of the longer staple lengths of the sheep breeds, which means it’s less prone to felting than other fibres.  All great attributes for socks!

There are three new colours to launch this week, available now in the Etsy shop, drum roll please….

First up is Purple Fuzzy Mouse:

Lac and Saxon Blue semiA dusky pinky purple with brighter pink and purple highlights produced from a combination of Lac and Saxon Blue.  Named for a random conversation on Twitter!

Next up is a deep rich purple (can you see a theme developing here?!):

Purple logwood with iron semiThis purple is created using Logwood Purple, with the variations and highlights produced by the use of different modifiers such as iron and sodium carbonate.

And finally:

Logwood, cochineal, saxon blueA vibrant mixture of pink, purple and blue.  All created with Cochineal, Logwood Purple and Saxon Blue. From the way the dyes have mixed and moved around in the pot, there are lots of subtle variations to the colours.  This would make a great pair of bright and cheerful socks!.

As well as the new colours, I’ve restocked popular colours including Summer Berries, Deeper Under the Sea and Plumlicious.

If you’re looking for sock pattern ideas you might like Ithunn designed by Amanda of Owl Print Panda using my Yan Sock base.  Amanda says that Ithunn is the Norse goddess of spring and keeper of apples and eternal youth.  With spring just around the corner these socks would look great in my Spring has Sprung colourway:

Spring has Sprung 20140125a closeup

And, if that wasn’t enough socky goodness, Yan Sock in Spring has Sprung appears in an Indie Dyer feature in the March issue of Let’s Knit magazine!

Lets Knit March 2015 300

 

New hand knit socks

Hand knit hand dyed socks

Plumlicious socks

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of a freshly washed brand new pair of hand knitted socks!   I began knitting these socks whilst minding my stall at Yarndale in September 2014.  Christmas knitting took precedence and I only managed to finish them a couple of weeks ago.

Socks from sideThe pattern is Basic Ribbed Socks by Kate Atherley aka Wise Hilda Knits. This was the first ever sock pattern I knitted. It gives a good fit as the rib is a little bit stretchy and there’s just enough interest to stop you getting bored, but it’s easy enough that the fingers can take over and you can watch TV or have conversations with customers!

The yarn is my own Yan Sock base of 100% British BFL 4ply with a High Twist which makes it nice and robust for socks.  The colourway is Plumlicious, I love purples and dye a lot of purples, so it was important to have purple socks for me!

Socks and waterThe socks took me for a walk at the weekend into The Dales for some winter sun and to get some photos in daylight!  They kept my feet toasty warm inside my boots. We met some sheep on the way, tucking into their winter hay rations.

Sheep feedingWe also met a different kind of sheep, definitely a Swaledale, but this one wasn’t much interested in hay!

Sheep benchIt did make a good spot for a cup of tea and some pork pie though!  The view was typically Dale-sy, hills, a few trees and plenty of dry stone walls, with a bit of snow and winter haze for atmosphere.

Dales view