Sunny Shop Updates

I'm sitting here in the sunshine typing this blog post.  It is truly wonderful having this heat wave here in the UK, for once I feel as if I've had a summer! 

Life has been a bit hectic recently and very up and down over the last few weeks, I've had a funeral, a 21st (not mine!) and I've been busy with both shops.  I'm trying to find time for knitting, crocheting, my art work and I also want to lose myself in a really good book.  There really are just not enough hours in the day - I need to win the lotto and give up work!

Below are the latest new colourways to Twisted Limone and I've added a few more earring designs to Silver Moonflowers today.

Gothic Rainbow





Mountain Moon



A few new designs at Silver Moonflowers.

Have a lovely sunny day.

Karen :)

A Flowery Update

Nothing wildly exciting has been happening in my crafty little world recently, which is why my blog hasn't been updated as much recently.  I haven't picked up the needles or crochet hook for months, so sadly my current projects remain dormant.  My main focus continues to be Twisted Limone and the weekly Saturday updates.  Dyeing, winding and packaging takes up much of my time during the week.  There continues to be a little splurge of new colourways.  I tend to be crazy with ideas during the summer months!

SAFARI

SHERBET DIP
Not to be confused with Sweet as Candy - there is a subtle difference,
a peach stripe replaces the white one.

A TOUCH OF LIME

MARDI GRAS

KEY LIME PIE

The inspiration behind my colours comes largely from nature, food or anything in the environment which inspires me - this could be anything from a piece of fabric or a picture in a magazine.  Mostly, though, my ideas come from flowers and when anything catches my eye I snap away for future reference!

One day I will treat myself to a macro lens, but for now I'm reasonably happy with the effect I'm getting from a bog standard lens :)

I'm continuing to work on the re-launch of Silver Moonflowers, my Etsy earring shop.  I'm hoping to have lots of lovely new earring designs in the next month or two.  Next to knitting and crocheting, making jewellery is something I adore and is another outlet for expressing my love of colour!  More about this in a future blog, along with a sneaky peak at some designs.

Karen

Pastels and Petals

At last!  Some lovely sunny weather here in the UK.  My pastel skinny jeans are all lined up and ready to wear and talking of pastels, two new pastel colourways have been introduced to the shop.  A far cry from my usual vibrant colourways, but summer inspired these are really pretty colours and I just couldn't resist dyeing them up :)

Sweet as Candy
5 really pretty pastel shades in yellow, aqua, mint, white and pale pink.



Petals
7 pastel stripes of peach, mandarin, pale pink, pale blue, lime, white and mint.

Stuck for a present?  Wouldn't either Sweet as Candy or Petals be wonderful gifted with my pastel stitch markers? :)

The Petals colourway and the stitch markers are still available in the shop as I'm typing this - they are sooooo pretty :)

Karen

New Colourways

I've been brimming with new ideas for stripy combinations recently, a few have been introduced to the shop over the last few weeks.  This weekend Sweet as Candy and Flower Strewn made an appearance, these have now sold but don't worry more to come soon.  Pictured down below, Floating By is another new one, which will be in the shop on Saturday. 

FLOWER STREWN
7 stripes in deep magenta, pale magenta, yellow, aqua, deep violet, green and red

SWEET AS CANDY
5 stripes in pretty pastel shades of yellow, aqua, mint, white and pale pink. 

FLOATING BY
5 stripes in bright grass green, aqua, acid lime and turquoise
(available on Saturday, 1 June)

 I frequently get asked if I'm still taking custom requests, and yes I am.  I no longer put custom slots up in the shop, but tend to do requests as and when I'm asked and then invoice via PayPal.  Just convo me via Etsy and I'll answer as soon as I can.

Karen

Crochet Jar Cosy

A quick in between project for using up scrap yarn.  This little jam jar cosy knits up really quickly and looks very effective!  I've used some of my own self-striping sock yarn, it knits up a little bit more 'funky' than it would knit up as a pair of socks, as the stripes are a bit out of sync and not perfectly ordered, but hey ho I think it looks fab!

 

Yarn: Twisted Limone Self-Striping Tangy sock yarn

Colourway:  Rainbow

Crochet Hook: 2.5 mm

Stitch: Half Treble (UK)

I crocheted a chain the circumference of the jam jar, ever so slightly stretched. Then crocheted back and forth to the desired length. Sewed the piece together and voila!

 

And this is what the yarn looks like knitted up as socks ;)

 

Have a colourful day!

 

Karen





Iona

It's taken me two years to complete these socks - far too many distractions with other projects!  It's been well worth the wait, I'm so pleased with the result. 

Wollmeise yarn is such a joy to knit with and produces such wonderful stitch definition.  This cable pattern is one I found in an old stitch book.  I love the stitch so much I decided to create a pattern with it.  The beauty of this cable pattern is that although it is an 16 row pattern repeat, only 3 of the rows are cabling, the rest are knit and purl - so easy to execute and memorise. 

The sock pattern itself is toe up with a simple wrap and turn heel.  Aimed at the intermediate knitter with experience of cabling.  I've called it 'Iona', which is a small island off the western coast of Scotland - a island renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty.

Yarn:  Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash
Colour:  Saffran
Needles:  2.5 mm
Size:  Medium-Large
Pattern:  My own - it will be released as soon as I've written it up.

Enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday weekend UK peops :)

Karen

Liquorice Allsorts?

This week's update is here. The little brief I set myself this week was to design some lovely, sexy gothic striped yarn. Well, as I was dyeing it up, all that kept popping into my head was Liquorice Allsorts. It was the colours.....not sexy at all.....I tried my hardest to dispel the image of liquorice sweets, but it just kept popping back into my head.............haunting me.

So.....my Liquorice yarn was born.......

Green Liquorice
Tangy Sock Yarn in a lovely dark charcoal grey and variegated yellow and green.

The stripes are quite narrow, about 2 rows of knitting and will knit up as shown on the sample piece in the Liquorice Orange colourway, which is 64 sts, at 16 sts = 2" (2.5 cm)

Orange Liquorice
Yarn content and description is exactly as for Green Liquorice above. The test knit for both colourways is shown below.

Pink Liquorice
Tangy Sock yarn in vibrant pink and dark charcoal grey. I was unsure whether to put this yarn into the variegated category, or self striping? It does, however, knit into stripes, albeit tiny one row stripes. Here it is, with the test knit piece.

Apple Bobbing
Tangy Sock Yarn in a lovely bright apply green and pacific blue. Not quite liquorice, but this yarn knits up in little micro stripes as in Pink Liquorice above. Test piece pictured below.

I've just realised I don't have a sole photograph of Apple Bobbing, but it's the one on the far right pictured above.

Finally, my usual 0.5" (1.25 cm) bold stripes.

Periwinkle

(Tangy Sock Yarn in a lovely shade of rich purple and limey green)

All of the above yarn will be added to the shop by Friday :) I needed an experimental break last weekend, but this weekend I will be dyeing up more of my bold, bright stripes, so keep checking back here or at Twisted Limone Designs

As always, thank you for looking :)

~Karen~