Customs Update.

We had Buy British Month last month on CNA. I collaborated with Claire from Jellynose Chic and Fiona from Upsydaisy Nappies. Claire designed and handpainted this cheeky little dragon, whilst Fiona made one of her famed pocket nappies from Claires creation. They based their colours on 2 custom dyed skiens of yarn I had.

We offered the trio as a custom order, final choices of which type of nappy - night or pocket - what woolies - shorties or longies - to be decided by the lucky purchaser. We are pleased to be able to say that the set sold within one minute of it being listed. Yay!
The lucky purchaser decided upon longies and asked for a unique embellishment. After some thought, we decided upon a dragons tail. I think it really sets off the whole ensemble! What do you think?

We released a kit to accompany our successful Waffley Good Soaker Pattern. See my store for more details.

Also made an extra soaker in blue slate.

Next orders to be worked on are as follows -

- poppysmum, 1st cardigan cast on tonight

- Geomax, posted your set

-Weefywoo soaker is made, skirty is being attached.

- Sarahjamesandpaul, casting on tomorrow.

- Claireandlana - emailing for measurements this weekend

- Marywaredoc, posting on Monday

- Moggle, posting on Monday

- Unknownstar, posting on Monday

I'm awaiting payment for the following orders, the orders can be posted on Monday

- BobbinD

-Witchstorm

-KraftyKoala

-Toadoftoadhall

-WelshCaroline

Open Farm Day 2009

Until recently I thought a sheep was a sheep was a sheep! The local farm has 12 breeds of sheep, lots of them are shown in this piccy. My personal favourite is the Blue Faced Leicester, so soft and squishy. In my little world BFL are grown for fleece. It never entered my head that they would be used for meat also, How dense was I?








I learned all sorts of interesting facts from the farmer himself, as he gave a little talk whilst demonstrating how he shears the sheep. He made it look easy, but those sheep are a handful! It made me realise that when my sons struggle as I shave their heads, it could be worse, I could be trying to shear a full grown, annoyed, ram lol!




We went on a guided tractor ride around the farm, members of the young NFU gave snippits of info as we trundled through the beautiful Welsh countryside. In fact it was so distracting that Hubby - who had been put on taking photo's duty - completely forgot to take any! So I gave him a nudge right at the end of the day.


Not very flattering piccies, but here I am spinning the fleece from the farm, I also made a little pair of shorties from the BFL to show off whilst there. All aspects of the sheep were demonstrated there. No part of the sheep is wasted. I am not a vegetarian, but I do like to think that the animals loss of life is dignified by us using every part of it in a valuable way.

Did you take advantage of the lovely weather? Did you visit your local participating farm? If your answer is no, then you missed out on a lovely family day out, bringing you closer to nature and availing yourself of all the lovely local produce available!

BFL = Beautiful!

Squeaks of excitement last week, the lovely farmers wife emailed to say the sheep had been shorn. My fleeces were ready for me to collect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of you will understand how excited I was, some of you will think I'm a complete nutter! Yzzy will think I'm weird in a strangely exciting way !

I pick them up from the beautiful farmhouse - I want a farmhouse, with a small holding, one day, one day, then for eternity ;)

As I am driving home the smell of them starts to penetrate my bunged up nose. Phew! Sheep stink! It is at this point I am glad I have an old dairy attached to my house. No good for much else but marvellous for storing stinky sheep fleece!

I lay out the smallest of the fleeces to see what I am dealing with. I hesitate as to what to do with it. I decide to just jump in and get on with processing it.

After a good clean It is smelling a lot fresher, and beautifully white! I crack open the dyes. I have decided on green. I want to make a pair of longies in green, with countryside embellishments. I also post my adventures on Rav.








I'm not too sure on the depth of the green, it looks a bit like slime and mould :p I try to keep the finished item in mind

Once dry I run it through the carder It makes the green look a lot lighter - I like how it looks.

Then on to spinning. I spin 60g of green and 60g of white, then ply them together. It is really soft and lovely. I ply it to a dk - worsted weight. Then put it on the niddy noddy to set.

I have cast on the longies, but will save those pics for another day.

A lovely day out

Woollywumpkins is proud to be associated with this years open farm day. A lovely day out for all of the family! Not doing anything on Sunday 7th June, then come and visit us! Make sure you say hello. :)

Rainbow Daze...

I've been having a stash spring clean today, putting all of my fibres/wools/yarns into colour order. Thought I'd have a play with the rainbow needed for Hannahs order, it's only the first attempt but I think it's really lovely.

I wasn't in a bad mood before but I am really lifted everytime I look at it, so thought i'd share :)