Christmas Gift Yarn Club closing soon...

Spaces for Christmas Gift Yarn Club are selling out.  First installment ships this friday - very exciting!  I have a wonderful colour yarn and pattern for you - so grab a spot whilst they're still there :o)  

Some of those that were at the Knit August Nights event in Napier, New Zealand will have had a sneaky preview of my yarn and some of the patterns from the club.   

I have had a lovely weekend dyeing up a storm!  Off this morning to get goodies to go in the parcels for the Christmas Knitters!  The sun is shining so I think some more dyeing will be happening in the Charlisa studio today!

Crazy Lady Cardi...

So my Crazy Lady Cardi has sat finished for about 10 days - its taken that long for me to get around to getting a photo of it as I've been elbow deep in dyes and knitting patterns leading up to the start of Christmas Knitting Pattern and Yarn Club - first installment of which will be shipped at the end of this week... v. exciting!!  Anyway was very impressed to get a whole cardi out of 130g of laceweight handspun!

Fresh Yarn is up in the etsy store - some bright colours to warm up this chilly Winter's day!

Frangipani - pinks, yellows and rosy orange

Jabiru - emeralds and plums - would look so fab as a pair of socks or hand-woven!

Am madly knitting and charting designs for Christmas Gift Yarn Club.  

I've also taken some time out from charting and knitting my own designs to knit a pattern with some of my hand-spun yarn - Tapan Zee Cardigan by Amy King.  My yarn is spun to laceweight but I reckon you'd get away with sock-weight yarn if you wanted to knit it up with Charlisa Yarns :o)  Here's my cardi so far... The rest of the yarn is a green colour that you can't see very well on the photo but is a pale green same as the colour above the yellow on the knitting...  

Happy Knitting!!  Sarah

Christmas Gift Yarn Club

Christmas Gift Yarn Club has gone on sale!  For 3 months (Sep, Oct and Nov) subscribers will receive a skein of Charlisa Yarns exclusive hand-painted yarn and a knitting pattern.  The knitting patterns will remain exclusive to yarn club for 6 months before being released.  Places are limited so jump onto the Etsy store now to secure your place.  Its a great way to sort your Christmas gift knitting - or to treat yourself...

Due to illness there was no yarn update last week, however, I will be in my workshop today dyeing up some yummy new colourways to brighten up the cold Winters day so look out for the store update on Tuesday next week.

Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show

My daughter & I escaped to Bendigo last weekend - we had a fibre-filled day at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show (the 134th year of it!) is where everything sheep and wool is on show... 

We had a great time watching the Sheep Dog trials and the sheep judging.  There was a petting farm for the kids and a few rides, but mainly for me there were shed-fulls of yarn, fibre suppliers and equipment.  We're already plotting our next trip next year!

Miss 6 turned her hand to weaving at a couple of stands and showed quite a flair for it!

 

We watched a bit of sheep judging... very interesting as they explained why which particular sheep won

We wandered round the fibre/yarn stalls buying some beautiful fibre

More weaving!!  Miss 6 is smitten!

Bit of sheep shearing - wouldn't be an Aussie sheep show without it!

Ahhh!

Spinning my way through the Tour De Fleece...

Ravelry have an event - the Tour De Fleece which runs at the same time as the Tour De France, where spinners set themselves individual goals to achieve during the Tour - we spin every day of the Tour and take the official rest days.  I've given myself a challenge of spinning a sweater's worth of yarn - whether  or not I will get there I am unsure but I already have 4 skeins of yarn (400g) and we're just over a third of the way through... so maybe my target wasn't as crazy as I originally thought!

Charlisa Yarns is Launched!!

Charlisa Yarns was launched in the last week on www.etsy.com/shop/charlisayarns and we also started advertising on the Australian boards on Ravelry.  The new logo is so cute.... my very talented sister-in-law (who happens to be a graphic designer) designed it...

Yarn offerings will be updated every fortnight on a Tuesday, or weekly if the yarn proves popular.  Both yarns are 4-ply which is a great weight for socks, gloves, shawls, baby clothing etc.  100% Australian Organic Merino is a luxurious yarn, gives great variation in colours and Blue Faced Leicester, which is a fantastic hard-wearing, yet soft yarn - takes dye colours fabulously.  I hand-paint my yarns, resulting in a unique colourway, that is unrepeatable - dyed in batches of 3 to keep exclusivity of colour.

Also look out for new knitting patterns being released soon as well as a Christmas Gift Yarn club - sign-ups coming in August with a yarn colour and pattern to make a Christmas gift (for you to give or keep!) in each month of September, October and November.

As yarns are dyed in small batches if you see a colour you like, do grab it whilst you can as the colors are all limited editions.