Sunday 11 June 2017

Ring-a-Rosie Yarns in Whitley Bay


My holiday feels like something that happened in the dim and distant past already... It's only 2 weeks ago today that I came home though, so how can it feel so long?!

I have now had chance to have a look through my (many many many) photos and have picked out nearly 50 to show you. Yes, nearly 50...
I thought I'd start with Ring-a-Rosie Yarns that I mentioned last week. Although it wouldn't be fair to say it was the highlight of my week, it was an unexpected pleasure - so much so I thought you might like to feel the love too!! So this first post today is about Barbara's shop.

I showed you this pic last week - you can you see Barbara on the left. She really was a lovely lady to chat with and I enjoyed my visit with her as much as I enjoyed her shop. She's on Instagram and I'm glad to say she posts pics of her gorgeous hand dyed wool regularly!

Tina's Allsorts, Ring-a-aRosie Yarns

Tina's Allsorts, Ring-a-aRosie Yarns

Look at this table full of hand dyed yarns!! It was while I was looking at these and saying it was a shame there was nothing in burgundy, that she casually mentioned she hadn't had time to dye any recently and a couple of American ladies had bought loads the week before. I couldn't quite believe that not only did she have the most amazing yarn shop but that she also dyed some of the yarn herself too. Wow.
It's dyed in small batches obviously, so I don't know you could ever get enough for an adult sized garment bigger than a scarf/shawl, or maybe a tank top (sleeveless jumper).And socks of course. She even had different weights of yarn, with double knit as well as 4 ply. I've never seen hand dyed thicker than 4 ply before.

Tina's Allsorts, Ring-a-aRosie Yarns

And look at all the lovely little baby things she's made as samples. It's always a good idea to make samples so your customers can see exactly what the wool will be like once made up. Baby things make up quickly, take up little space and look really cute too!

Tina's Allsorts, Ring-a-aRosie Yarns

Ooh, deary me - there appears to be a space on the table now!!

Tina's Allsorts, Ring-a-aRosie Yarns

Naturally, I couldn't stop myself from buying some yarn - this was my big holiday purchase! And she even wrapped it up in tissue paper. It wasn't until later when we got home that I saw she'd put in a little extra something - how very thoughtful!!

Tina's Allsorts, Ring-a-aRosie Yarns

So this is what I chose. The yarn on the left was the first colourway that drew me and I just had to have it - especially when I saw she had called the colourway "Wild Flowers" -  even though once made up it may have too much yellow/gold and be too neutral a colour to suit me. But I don't care! It was beautiful and I WANTED IT!!!
I'm also quite partial to petrol blue - and that colour does suit me! This one is a single ply 4 ply - if that makes sense! I thought maybe a tank top or a waistcoat, or maybe a scarf/shawl? And the little extra that Barbara popped in the bag?? It's a mini skein of 4 ply in burgundy


Tina's Allsorts, Ring-a-aRosie Yarns

I've spent many hours on Ravelry looking for just the right pattern for my Wild Flower yarn. It's a superwash DK merino with 30% nylon to make it more hard-wearing and it feels so soft  and  squishy!!

I've settled on THIS pattern of a short curved shawl and I just have to hope I have enough... The pattern is in Turkish and someone has done a translation via google, although I still had trouble understanding it as she didn't translate how to work the leaf edge as there is a chart. I typed it up long hand so it made sense to me and now just need to "clear the decks" of WIPS that can't wait so I can make a start!!
This is what I hope mine will look like when made up, and here's the link to the photo-owner's project page - http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mamaleon10/yaprakl-baktus

 

Is that enough "woolly stuff" for one post??!! No?? A bit more??
OK, a quick mention of my 2nd stripey blanket then!!



Tina's Allsorts, Tooty Stripey BlanketAs I said before I went away, I put together a project to make on the train journey and it worked really well. Everyone else was sat staring at their phones while I was busy with my crochet. And the blanket worked up very quickly by being able to just follow the pattern, rather than decide on colour of yarn, which stitch to use that would work with the row below, write it down, take a photo.
No. Just read the pattern and crochet. Bliss! I didn't even have to worry about colour as I was using a rainbow of colours, always in the same order.

I did find a couple of mistakes in the pattern along the way, so need to do a bit of re-writing but I made notes of them as I went a long.
I also swapped 3 rows of simple clusters for a little "kiss stitch" someone shared on Instagram recently and it worked very well.
This is how far I got at the end of my first train ride - 


Tina's Allsorts, Tooty Stripey Blanket

And this was on the way home -

Tina's Allsorts, Tooty Stripey Blanket

As I said last week, I didn't actually manage to get any done while I was there, so had to finish it once home. It didn't take long at all, although by using leftovers again I did find I was running out of some of the colours towards the end. I had planned on working 5 or 6 rows of trebles for the border, the same as for my first blanket but there just wasn't enough. I could have just bought a few more balls as I think the colours are still available but I almost felt as if I should try and make do with what I had rather than add to my stash again.

So I used lavender to work the first border row in half trebles, followed by 2 rows of trebles in the same colour. I then tried working a short length of  each colour in trebles, changing colour every 10 or 12 stitches but I wasn't overly keen on it when I'd finished. I kept going back and looking at it. I out it on instagram and asked opinions. I took it to work and asked them.
Everyone was very polite and said it was ok. Or fine
But to me "ok" and "fine" are not the same as "wow" and "perfect". They sit alongside "it'll do" and "could be worse"!! So I ripped out the colour rows and just did some simple shells along the edge in a blue/mauve as I discovered I'd nearly run out of lavender... I don't have a pic of that yet, so I'll do a proper ta-dah another day but here's a repeat of the one while it was being steam blocked  -

Tina's Allsorts, Tooty Stripey Blanket

My sister saw it this week and really loved the colours but she prefers the pattern of my square Lost in Tooty Time Blanket. Could I make her one like that please??... It might have to wait a while if I do!!

See you again later - if I have time today that is.....   T  x

PS  Regular visitors may have noticed my blog looks a little pale today.  I grew tired of the watercolour background, so thought I'd have white for a while. 😉



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