Chrismas Fair on 3rd of December, Rutherglen.

Example of my 4ply superwash sock yarn: Elizabetha.

I've been having fun sewing some christmas tree decorations for the Christmas Fair I will be at tomorrow selling my own aromatherapy candles and some of my hand spun and hand painted yarn. Trying to decide if I should add some sequins to the little christmas tree ones as the fabric has a pattern on it......

Aromatherapy chunk globe candles.

Details: Sat. 3rd of December at the Universal Connections craft fair in Rutherglen, Glasgow. 10.30am-2.30pm.

Hand moulded Snowball candle.

The craft fair is being held to raise money for the youth centre and also provide a fun day out for the residents of the area. A few of the others attending are: Usbourne Books, Hallmark Cards, Cupcakes, Cosmetics (inc Mac, L’oreal, Estee Lauder), Jewellery, Candy Floss etc.Can't wait to eat one of those cupcakes as they are yummy ;)

For more information: http://rutherglen.lanlinks.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Dyeing yarn musings.....

This past year has flown in and it's been just over a year since I started my handpainted yarn business. I have just went with the flow and been guided by what my customers want and like.

I orginally thought that most of my sales would be online but this has not been the case. My customers tend to see the yarn before I get a chance to put it up for sale online and buy it there and then.

In the past year I've gained more experience and have learned a lot from selling at craft fairs. Even though I've done some selling/marketing courses years ago nothing beats actually getting out there and doing it. One part of the marketing course I did was to define what is my "unique selling point" ie. what makes my products different from others available out there. This envolves looking at your product and how your business works. What is different about you, your product, what service do you provide etc.

I believe that each of us is a 'sum' of all our experiences and what we learn along the way and experience is all meant to be. Each stepping stone has lead us to where we are in this time and place. My dream as a little girl was to have my own little farm with sheep and some land to grow my own veg. To be able to support myself and my family by making things to sell and growing my own food. It's been a long journey and at times I thought that that deam was impossible to reach but I'm getting much closer now.I love to learn how to make things and it was only a matter of time before my obsession for all things yarnie lead me to get a spinning wheel. The next stage of this natural process for me was to aquire a weaving loom and then someone said something to me that changed my direction in life. I was at a LYS, Stitching Time in Hamilton and David said to me that I should try dyeing yarn. At the time I thought oh yes something I would love to do but I didn't do it right away.

David had planted a seed in my mind and I kept seeing lovely hand painted yarn that I just couldn't afford to buy myself so I decided I would do some for myself and the rest is history.....so I would like to thank David from the bottom of my heart......you showed me that life is too short and that everyone should follow their heart and their dreams. Thank you Nan for believing in me enough to stock my sock yarn.

For those that don't know me personally and wonder what my businesses unique selling point is.........I am a spiritual person who beleives in the power of prayer and angels. I believe that each word/thought has an energy just like crystals do. I'm into colour therapy and alternative healing so when I create my yarns I bare this in mind. I beleive that my thoughts and intentions as I paint and handle my yarns is instilled in the fibres and I know this energy can be felt by some who are sensitive to energy's and also some who are not so sensative. So when I create yarn it's the same energy that is instilled as when I make my prayer shawls for others.

Most of my hand painted yarn is dyed using professional dyes. However some of my yarns are dyed using an antique dye that are no longer available. I managed to get some from a local corner shop that had had the dyes for over 30 years. When I've used them all up I will not be able to replicate the exact shades so those ones are truly limited additions. I also dye re-cycled yarns too when I come across knitwear in charity shops that are made with a lovely fibre like angora or cashmere. My latest yarns have long colour changes as I've encorporated another one of my passions which is machine knitting.

I've also been dyeing recently some locally spun yarn in 4ply and DK so I'm guessing that all those above points make GlowsCrafts just a little bit different..........

First weavings

Left blanket: Marie's tartan (my 3rd shawl). Right shawl: (my 2nd shawl) Silk Stone (see below for more info about them)

First weavings

The instruction book for using the Ashford Riggid Heddle loom was easy enough to follow but I still managed to warp the loom in the wrong direction for my first 2 shawls! This meant that I had to wind the warp onto the front beam from the back beam before I could start weaving. I found that doing this made the warp tighter so in the end it was probably worth it.

The second shawl I made has turned out beautiful but I don't know who it is for as yet. I know it isn't mine but unfortunately I am sooo tempted to cut the fabric up to make a flowing top with fringing at the bottom for summer. Sometimes I make things knowing who they are for and at other times I get drawn to make something then find out who it is for just before or after it is completed... still waiting for the owner of this shawl to be known... oh maybe I will just keep it ;) BTW the shawl decide it would like to be called Silk Stone, just perfect for the silky touch and colours.

Details of above photo: Warp yarn was Debbie Bliss 100% silk and Rowan Tapestry. The weft is such a soft yarn with 50% wool by Rowan, name escapes me right now and I can't get to the rest of the yarn to see what it is (more about my craft room later on). I did a rope fringe and it took ages to do but I'm very happy with the end result.

SET & INFO:7.5 dent heddle: 4 tapestry,10 gold DB silk, 4 tapestry, 10 silver silk from centre then mirror this. As I was running out of the silver silk I substitued the stripe one in from the edge with this set: 4 silver kid mohair, 2 silver silk, 4 silver kid mohair. AMOUNT USED: (tot of 3 (2 gold/1 silver) skeins of silk, 1 ball tapestry and 2 balls of the Rowan soft yarn) Finished measurments after washing: 57" by 22"

TARTAN PRAYER SHAWL

For my 3rd shawl I decided I was going to try to weave some tartan. Some brushed chunky Spectrum yarn caught my eye so that is what I used. With hindsite maybe the yarn was a little bit too thick for the 'set' that I used. The RH loom came with a 7.5 dent heddle so I threaded it up easy enough but there wasn't a very large shed for me to put the shuttle through, infact I kept having to pull at the warp probably because the yarn was too thick and fluffy.

SET & INFO: Wrap patt: 4 green, 4 pink, 4 green, 10 blue (rpt). Weft patt: 2 green, 2 pink, 2 green, 5 blue (rpt) (unwashed length 53 1/2 ") Weave closed right up when taken of loom, creates fabric with body but not stiff)

Just after I started weaving the tartan I knew who this one was for. A neighbour from where I used to live had been in remission but now her cancer is back and is terminal. At the moment Marie is getting intense chemo so I felt she could use a prayer shawl so as soon as I knew it was for Marie I thought of her feeling well again so that energy would be instilled in the shawl and I prayed to Raphael, angel of healing to help her.

A strange thing has been happening recently, I am a little bit empathic but I am finding now that when I am making a prayer shawl for someone who is ill I can feel what their symptoms are. I kept finding that I had to conciously take an in-breath and this only happened after I started weaving for Marie and yes sure enough when I went to visit her she was taking inwards deep breaths due to her medication. Once the shawl was delivered on Mothers day I no longer felt like this. To get confirmation of the symptoms was a big wow moment for me as I was beginning to think I was having appnea while I was awake!

I used the following website to design this tartan, I hope you have as much fun as I did experimenting with different tartans.

http://www.houseoftartan.co.uk/interactive/weaver/index.html

My craft history

I learned to crochet when I was eight years old and the rest is history..... I designed my own clothes for my doll's and even sold some at a local market my dad had a stall at when I was about 11 or 12.

My next craft to learn was hand knitting, took me a little while to get the hang of it but I got there..... before I left school I had started knitting for Phildar, the french yarn company http://phildar.com/

My mum worked in their local yarn shop so I ended up knitting/crochet jumpers for the window display and customers orders. When I was 16 I had a couple of orders for 4ply stuff and after I had knitted them I said never again and got my mums knitting machine out from underneath her bed. So I started using knitting machines when I was 16 and now have quite a few machines but they all do different things honest!

When I lived in Cumbria I knitted kids stuff for a machine knitting shop and did that for over a year and thought hey I could do this for myself so when I moved back to Scotland I started my own machine knitwear business working from home.

Eventualy I got into dressmaking and decided I wanted to learn how to design clothes to incorporate this into my business so I went to college and did N.C. Clothing Tech. I had to stop trading as it was a full time course and I couldn't do both.

Romance and a baby came next after that course so I never started my business up again. Once my son was a few years old I decided I would like to learn more about designing knitwear as the course I had done hadn't included knitwear design blocks etc. So I went back to college and did a 3 year part time course, Centra Machine Knitting. Never got my certificate for that course as family problems meant that I didn't attend all of the course.

I've since done some peice work from home for a local knitwear factory for a little while but I found it soul destroying knitting the same plain pannels again and again. The yarn was nice though as it was cashmere so I got paid peanuts while they sold for lots of money!

I'm always looking for something new to learn so over the years my hobbies have included:- making candles, beaded stuff, cross stitch cards/pictures, silk/glass/ceramic/one-stroke painting, stenciling, stamping, patchwork quilting, tatting, macrame.........

Over a year ago now I joined a local Stitch n' Bitch group and I now have my own spinning wheel so I'm learning as I go to spin my own yarn, that's something I have always wanted to do. I knitted a hat for myself using my first hand spun. The pattern I used is 'Isla hat' by Jayne Ellison (from 'The Marasol Collection Book One) I'll post a photo when I have taken one and have got the hang of posting pictures exactly where I want them.

I turned 40 not long ago and I got the best present ever from my boyfriend who is very good at listening when I tell him what I would like ;) I am now the proud owner of an Ashford Rigid Heddle Weaving Loom! My first shawl didn't take long to weave and am so pleased at how it turned out. The warp yarn was dyed by a friend from the knitting group http://tigerlilith.blogspot.com/ and the weft yarn is Wendy, Precious Moments (probably discontinued). I've yet to wash it to full it up so hoping it won't shrink too much. Here's a picture........


I'm going to keep this shawl for myself as it is the first thing I have ever woven but usualy the shawls I make are 'prayer shawls' for others. If you haven't heard of prayer shawls then there is more information on the following website: www.shawlministry.com

I'll add more pictures of the things I have knitted/spun at a later date.