Whoops I've done it again.....

I'm so sorry folks, but I just can't seem to get my act together!  My intention was to blog BEFORE I updated my shop, but it seems demand calls for me updating the shop first! ;)  I'm finding it soooo difficult to do both after a weekend of intensive dyeing, so many apologies, but pictured below 'WAS' this week's update!  There may still be some yarn left.......however, if not, please convo me on Etsy and if there is a colourway you would really like, I will do my best to dye it up for you and reserve it in the shop for you in the next week or so.

It's looking like updates will be on a Tuesday or Wednesday - I can't set an exact day as it's usually as soon as the yarn is dry and balled up!

I also have some more Sale yarn (narrow stripes) and variegated yarn coming into the shop over the weekend, so please keep checking my shop ;)

A big hug to everyone buying my yarn :)

~Karen~

Cor Blimey!

WOW!  I updated the shop yesterday and before I even got the chance to blog about it most of it had been snapped up! ;)  Cor blimey, I'm completely bowled over :)  Thank you all you lovely people :)  So, I guess I'll just have to blog about what is left....pictured below.  This includes yarn from the last few updates.       

 

Jubilant

   

Neon

Summer Daze

Chocolate Mint

Periwinkle (sale)

Crystal Waters

As a little bit of light relief from all that time-consuming winding of striped yarn, I have been working on some bright and eye-popping variegated yarn, which I will be adding to the shop over the weekend.  So far, these are in my vivid colourways of Viola, Aztec and Carnival.  This range of yarn is called 'Variegated Brights'.  THERE WILL BE MORE - watch out for them! :)

Sneak preview...

Have a lovely weekend :)

~Karen~

Just updated new yarn...

I've been extremely organised this weekend and all my yarn has been dried photographed and added to the shop early!  Well almost.....I have a few more balls to wind up and add to the shop by Friday.  Anyway here's what I've just added.  All in my Tangy yarn base, which is 75% Blue Faced Leicester and 25% Nylon, and all in 0.5" (1.25 cm stripes).

I do apologise for being so brief in this post, there is a lovely Indian takeout smell wafting in from the kitchen, so got to go!  Watch out for those few extra balls of yarn I will be adding in the next few days, which I haven't managed to add tonight.

~Karen~

Naughty Little Knots!

This is a little interim blog post to mention I have just added a new SALE section to my shop. You know those really irritating little knots you sometimes find in hand-dyed yarn? Grrrr! This unfortunately does occasionally happen from time to time. Sometimes they can go undetected, but if eagle-eyed old me spots one I just can't ignore the pesty little blighters. It's for that reason I'm offering these naughty balls at a discounted rate. Currently there is a Carnival colourway in the Sale section and a new colourway called Pixie. THERE IS ONLY ONE KNOT! Remember, the same extremely hard work goes into producing these balls of stripey loveliness, so please take pity! ;)


Carnival


Pixie

I have been SO busy this weekend dyeing. Thankfully the weather has been kind and all skeins are now almost dry and on target for my update next week. And no knots - hurray! I have a few Halloween stripes coming in next week, unfortunately they are a bit limited as I ran out of black dye; I did order some earlier this week, but unfortunately it didn't come in time :(

~Karen~

This week's update and stuff...

I only seem to blog at the moment when I'm updating the shop! However, that will hopefully change soon once I start getting a bit more knitting done. I hate to say it, but colder weather will soon be upon us and I'm itching to see how my stripes knit up as a hat or shawl. I'm still plugging away at my Bear Hug socks and Carnival stripes (pictured in the side panel), which I should finish over the weekend.

Right , back to the update. This week all my hand dyes are in my medium 0.5" (1.25 cm) stripes and in Tangy Sock Yarn (75% BFL/25% Nylon). My Liquorice stripes were a big success last week (thank you!), so I hope to dye some more of those very soon. This week's update is biggish (well, biggish for me so don't get too excited!). I was feverishly dyeing away at the weekend to make it a bit more substantial than last week. I've gradually been adding a ball or two to the shop since Monday and hope to complete it by Friday. Unfortunately, my Cheshire Cat colourway has already gone - you will have to be a it quicker next time! ;)

I have to say I have such a nightmare with this update every week, trying to download all the yarn photographs. Every time I download a photo it pings to the top of the blog and I then have to drag it down, bit by bit, to where I want it to be. It then sends everything else I've typed haywire, so I then have to go through the blog deleting the extra spaces and lining everything up again. Arrrrggghhhh! It seems you can't copy and paste the photo exactly where you want it and believe me it takes forever to keep jiggling them around! Anyone else with a blog have this problem? If there's an easy way of doing it PLEASE let me know! Needless to say, I've cheated this week and put everything in one photo! ;) SO HERE IT IS, THE UPDATE!


From the back row, left to right - Purple Rain, Conch, Fruit Salad
2nd row, left to right - Chocolate Mint and Aegean Sea
Front Row, left to right - Crocus and Busy Lizzie

and from another angle.......

There are three more self-striping yarns to add to the shop, but these are in a special section of their own. Once I've balled them up this evening I will blog about them in the next day or two.

A HUGE BIG THANK YOU to everyone who is buying my yarn and keeping me merrily dyeing away every weekend :) It keeps me very happy and out of mischief ;)

~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~

Early Stripes

Ah, now this is what happens when you have nearly a week off work, the shop update happens earlier.... I don't know what on earth I will do with myself!

The following self-striping yarn will be added to the shop by Friday. They will all produce approx 0.5" (1.25 cm) stripes, knitted over 64 sts.

Aztec in Tangy Sock
(a repeat colourway in bright pink, red and dark green)

Crocus in Tangy Sock
(a lovely new colourway in rich purple, sun gold and dark lime)

Conch in Tangy Sock
(another new colourway in charcoal grey and a lovely variegated light coral pink)

Cheshire Cat in Tangy Sock
(another repeat colourway in bright purple and pink - Alice in Wonderland inspired)
An example of this yarn knitted up can be seen below.

Carnival Stripes in Tangy Sock
(eye-popping colours of turquoise, lime and pink!)
An example of this yarn knitted up can be seen below.

All my yarn can be found at Twisted Limone Designs. Thank you for looking :)

~Karen~

This week's stripes.....

This week's stripy update will be added to the shop tomorrow. This little selection of yarn has all been dyed so that the stripes will knit up at around 0.5" when knitted at a tension of 16 sts = 2", over 64 sts.

Shadowland in Zingy Sock

(unusual colour combination of plum and teal - the teal has lovely subtle hues of greeny blues running through it. This colourway is not too bright and would make fab 'man socks').

Pink-a-Dink in Tangy Sock
(a repeat colourway; lovely vibrant shades of pink and green)

Grasshopper in Superino
(another repeat colourway; lovely strong greens)

Fruit Salad in Tangy Sock
(A gorgeous, mouth-watering citrus lime and bright pink colourway)

Finally............

I love this one............

Crystal Waters in Superino
(To me this yarn conjures up an image of diving into a cool, crystal clear pool on a hot, hot summer's day! Two shades of aqua blue. The lighter of the two blues is slightly variegated in shades of light blue)

Have a great weekend everyone! I will be dyeing as usual, but lovin' it! ;)

~Karen~

The one that got away....

....Carnival Stripes.....has now found its way onto my sock needles. I dyed this one up last weekend and loved it so much I couldn't bear to part with it, so unfortunately here's one that won't make it to the shop this weekend! ;)

I even labelled it......but......no.....

....you're not having it! This one's for me ;)

I've had some lovely comments about this colourway, so I will be dyeing more, I promise!

I'm about three-quarters of the way through the first sock. Just a good plain Stocking Stitch sock to show the stripes at their best. I'm loving the way they are knitting up so far. Now all I need to do is to decide whether to keep them or put them in my shop ;)



Unfortunately due to all the rain here in wet Manchester, last weekend's dyeing exploits are still hanging up and drying, but I promise this week's update will be coming soon. I have some more subtle shades this week, as well as brights (of course!) and a repeat colourway.

~ Karen ~

Shop Update

Just a teeny weeny update of self-striping yarn for this week, which I will be adding to the shop on Friday.

Four new colourways for this week......

Pink-a-Dink in Tangy Sock
(a lovely rich Emerald green and bright pink)

Blue Grass in Zingy Sock
(Lime and bright blue)

Summer Daze in Tangy Sock
(definitely my favourite, lovely bright shades of lime, orange and pink - knit it if you dare! I've already had an extra order for this yarn, so it may be popular!)

Windermere in Tangy Sock
(inspired by my trip to the Lake District at the weekend and all the lovely blues and greens on Lake Windermere)

....and this weekend I will be doing repeat colourways for Aztec and Grasshopper, a custom order and maybe a few new colourways ;)

All these yarns will produce approximately 1" stripes, if knitted at a tension of 16 sts to 2" over 64 sts. This is a slightly wider stripe than I've previously dyed, but I thought they'd be fabulous for shawls and scarves, as well as socks. I hope to do a test knit on a shawl soon just to see how they knit up. However, if you fancy giving it a go before I do, feel free :)

~ Karen ~

Dyeing Today...

I've spent a very fruitful day today dyeing up some more self-striping sock yarn. Four new stripey colourways will be hopefully be photographed, blogged about and in the shop by next weekend.

All of my yarn is now listed on Ravelry and connected to my profile and shop. For those who can't access Ravelry, I have three different sock yarns available:

Tangy Sock Yarn
75% Wool/25% Nylon
4 ply/Fingering
400 m (437 yds)

Zingy Sock Yarn
75% Merino/25% Nylon
4 ply/Fingering
400 m (437 yds)

Superino
100% Merino
4 ply/Fingering
400 m (437 yds)

All are available in self-striping, variegated and semi-solid colourways.

Well, I'm off to the Lake District this weekend for a well earned rest. I've had a mega busy week and just want to chill out, relax, eat lots of nice food and of course catch up on my knitting. Back Monday!

~ Karen ~