This years 12 Days of Christmas parcels started with a hand dyed braid on 25th December, but then the following days all contain brand new colours of Superfine Merino & Silk. 
This is the exact same fibre composition as all the rest of the stock currently in the shop, so can be used interchangeably in the same projects. This was specially commissioned for the 12 Days of Christmas parcels, which meant I had to order lots of each colour. As a result the spare fibre is going online at midnight (GMT) on the day featuring each individual colour. Anyone can buy this spare fibre... it's really rather pretty! You can find it in the Superfine Merino & Silk section of the shop, and the usual Buy 2, Get a 3rd Half price offer applies to this fibre as well. ​

I've given them seasonal names, picking out traditions from all around the world. ​
Here in the UK many of our Christmas traditions are imported from Germany, thanks to the husband of Queen Victoria; Prince Albert. The newspaper reporting of the Royal Family Christmas celebrations set the tone for family Christmas in many middle class homes. 

Christmas in many UK homes would be unthinkable without a Christmas tree. The tradition of bringing greenery in to the home at midwinter long predates the Christian festival. Tannenbaum, despite what the song suggests actually means fir tree. The song linked above is a traditional German song, the English translation adjusted to fit the rhythm of the song. 

Either way, we will have our Christmas tree decorated early in December, and it won't be coming down until the end of the 12 Days of Christmas. 

The dark green of this colour echoes the pine forest, with branches dusted with snow. 

Todays colour is a beautiful dark navy, with subtle streaks of green and grey.
This colour is called Nochevieja, which is the Spanish celebration on New Years Eve (yes I know it would make more sense for this to have been 31st December, but I picked the colour way names after I packed the first parcels! It's 2020.... I'm letting go of perfect!). This dark blue is the perfect colour to give us the feeling of the dark winters sky. 

Nochevieja means Old Night, and the Spanish celebrate the end of the old year with some very specific traditions, including the eating of 12 Grapes as the bells toll midnight. 

On the following day it's also traditional to eat a Lentil and Chorizo soup. Which sounds perfect as a fibre rich dish after the rich feasting of the festive season, we often have Dahl as an evening meal at some point during this period for this exact reason! 
If you fancy giving it a go, here's a recipe. 

This years 12 Days of Christmas parcels started with a hand dyed braid on 25th December, but then the following days all contain brand new colours of Superfine Merino & Silk. 
This is the exact same fibre composition as all the rest of the stock currently in the shop, so can be used interchangeably in the same projects. This was specially commissioned for the 12 Days of Christmas parcels, which meant I had to order lots of each colour. As a result the spare fibre is going online at midnight (GMT) on the day featuring each individual colour. Anyone can buy this spare fibre... it's really rather pretty!  You can find it in the Superfine Merino & Silk section of the shop, and the usual Buy 2, Get a 3rd Half price offer applies to this fibre as well. 

I've given them seasonal names, picking out traditions from all around the world. ​

This shade is called Santa Lucia. It's made up of lots and lots of different shades of green, with a warm undertone. 

Santa Lucia is a Scandinavian tradition, celebrated on Saint Lucy's Day, 13th December. The origin of the tradition comes from Lucia of Syracuse, who bought food to the Christian martyrs, hiding in the catacombs in Rome. She carried candles on a wreath around her head to free her hands to carry as much as possible. Before calendar reforms  the saints day was on the shortest day of the year, so the tradition of bringing light fitted in nicely with many existing traditions. 
It's now celebrated by processions of young children, wearing white robes, with the girls wearing a crown of candles, and boys wearing cone hats decorated with stars. Historically of course the candles would have been real, many are now replaced with electric candles. 
Sweet treats are often given out, specifically Lussekatter, saffron flavoured buns coiled in to an S shape. 

This years 12 Days of Christmas parcels started with a hand dyed braid on 25th December, but then the following days all contain brand new colours of Superfine Merino & Silk. 
This is the exact same fibre composition as all the rest of the stock currently in the shop, so can be used interchangeably in the same projects. This was specially commissioned for the 12 Days of Christmas parcels, which meant I had to order lots of each colour. As a result the spare fibre is going online at midnight (GMT) on the day featuring each individual colour. Anyone can buy this spare fibre... it's really rather pretty!  You can find it in the Superfine Merino & Silk section of the shop, and the usual Buy 2, Get a 3rd Half price offer applies to this fibre as well. 

I've given them seasonal names, picking out traditions from all around the world. ​

​Next up is Panettone,  a soft cream colour, with slight peach undertones. 

This colour is called Panettone, after the Italian baked delicacy. I have a confession.... I can't stand panettone. I find it dry and really boring. I'd much rather have a piece of Stollen with it's generous hunk of marzipan! 
I won't be baking one this Christmas, but if you feel the urge this is a recipe from an Italian Pastry chef. 

This years 12 Days of Christmas parcels started with a hand dyed braid on 25th December, but then the following days all contain brand new colours of Superfine Merino & Silk. 
This is the exact same fibre composition as all the rest of the stock currently in the shop, so can be used interchangeably in the same projects. This was specially commissioned for the 12 Days of Christmas parcels, which meant I had to order lots of each colour. As a result the spare fibre is going online at midnight (GMT) on the day featuring each individual colour. Anyone can buy this spare fibre... it's really rather pretty! You can find it in the Superfine Merino & Silk section of the shop, and the usual Buy 2, Get a 3rd Half price offer applies to this fibre as well. ​

I've given them seasonal names, picking out traditions from all around the world. 

This beautiful shade of red is called Julekurver. 
It's a vibrant shade, but darker than some of the other red shades I've stocked, and has some beautiful shimmers of gold running through it.

Julekurver are Norwegian paper heart decorations. They can be incredibly simple, but look really pretty and elegant. They'd be a great way to reuse some pretty wrapping paper from Christmas presents. 

Here's a link to some step by step instructions, scroll down for the English translation. 
This site gives you some links to make ones that are very simple like the ones above, or ones that are far more complicated, with more complex cut out patterns.  
This site shows you how to make them in step-by-step instructions, scroll down for the English version. When done correctly they can be opened out and used to hold treats as a little basket. 
​If you google you'll find lots of lovely instructions, for variations, I'm recommending starting off simple with just 2 cuts and 3 strips, they can be surprisingly fiddly!

In a year when many things have changed it seems apt that this blog is being written in the car, on my laptop, in a hospital car park. I always dispute the word remote, when applied to our location, but we have no major hospitals in our part of the country, and anything that requires more than basic care means getting in the car and doing a 90 minute drive. Mum's having a guided injection done on a joint in her hand, and the hospital is too far away to justify going home and driving back again. Because it's being done in theatre there's no set time slot.... so here I wait! 
Normally I'd go and do some shopping, have lunch out, or go to an art gallery or museum. But this being 2020, and I'd like to be here to see 2021 with all my family members... here I sit. Wearing as much wool as I can put on. 

Last month I ended the blog with a note about Brexit... one month on and I'm not much wiser. 
Gradient Club members in the EU have just had an email letting them know that I've delayed the date of their next payment, these are normally processed on the 1st of every month, and I decided to put their payment date back to make sure that the subscription software is set up to not charge them VAT as it is likely the UK will no longer be part of the customs union. 
Time Travellers Club members I'll be doing similar for you in the next few days. 
The Low Value Import Threshold will remain in place for the next 6 months. This means that fibre club parcels shouldn't be charged any extra fees as they are below the €22 limit. 

If you are an EU customer and contemplating a purchase I strongly recommend buying now, so it arrives with you before January 1st, as larger value parcels will be taxed on arrival, and most postal services will also charge a handling fee. Until January 1st legally I have to still charge you VAT, and this quirk of postal delivery times means you could end up being charged VAT twice. 

During Fiberworld this summer I put a warp chain on my rigid heddle loom to weave in some live demonstrations and discussions about choosing a weft to maximise the beauty of a hand painted warp. I finally finished weaving it this month because I had a plan for turning the cloth in to a Christmas present. 
One of the key things to make cloth successful for sewn projects is to full it, and that means using a lower sett, the warp threads need to be far enough apart to give you space for them to contract and lock together with the weft threads. The top photo is the cloth straight off the loom, and the one on the left shows how open it was. You can still see all the strands of yarn, and lots of daylight. After 15 minutes being swished and squeezed in a sink of hot soapy water it had firmed up, the holes virtually disappeared, and the strands of yarn stuck together. 
A couple of hours with the sewing machine later...

It's now a roll-top bag, with a hand dyed cotton lining. 

I also did a lovely online workshop with Betty from THE LANSDOWNE HOUSE. I've done lots of eco printing on fabric, and used indigo vats a few times, but never used both together, and never printed on paper. 

The stacks of soggy paper look so very unpromising, but the end results are really beautiful.

Over in the Hilltop Cloud Community Group we're spending the run-up to Christmas taking part in the ADVENTure Gnome Mystery Knitalong. I've been on a serious scrap busting mission this year and have transformed my scraps in many things, including finally finishing my mitre square blanket. These were the hottest project 12 years ago... and I made the error of making mine wider than a double bed for my first rows. Every now and again I've pulled it out and added more, but progress has been sporadic! 

However, it would seem that 2020 has been good for something, and knitting 30 stitch mitred squares using scraps of yarn has often been all that my flailing brain can handle. It is done, and is currently around my knees attempting to stop my feet becoming ice blocks. 

I've got a few posts lined up over the 12 Days of Christmas, I'll be sharing the new colours of Merino & Silk I created specially for the parcels this year, so this won't be my last post of 2020, but for now, stay safe everyone. Much better to have an all mighty knees-up in the summer with all your loved ones, without risk of killing or disabling them, than it is to cram in to the living room, quarrel over what to watch on the TV and accidentally pass round a virulent plague. 
I'd love to see you all in the future, either in person or online, and for that you need to still be here. 

I've written a version of this post for the past couple of years. Think of it as the link to send to family members and friends to point them in the right direction. 
Over on the Mighty Networks group we've got a thread going with great suggestions for smaller businesses and organisations who would really appreciate your money this year, with loads of beautiful gift ideas for lots of different people, even if they are not a spinner or a crafter. 


These are the dates that Royal Mail have put out for Christmas delivery. The international ones in particular seem overly optimistic to me, so I would allow at least an extra week on top of these dates...

Friday 4th December- Australia, New Zealand
Wednesday 9th December- Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Central and South America, Far and Middle East
Thursday 10th December- Canada, Cyprus, Malta
Friday 11th December- Greece, Eastern Europe (except Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia) and Turkey
Saturday 12th December- Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Poland, Sweden, USA
Wednesday 16th December- Austria, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland
Friday 18th December- Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg
Friday 18th December-  UK 2nd Class and 2nd Class Signed For
Monday 21st December- UK 1st Class and 1st Class Signed For and Royal Mail Tracked 48*
Tuesday 22nd December- UK Royal Mail Tracked 24*

Also, remember, if you're buying from a small business it's not unrealistic for them not to offer same day or next day despatch. All my items are in stock and ready to be shipped, but I still only post orders on Monday and Thursday morning. 

Some of this information is copied from last year, because I don't believe in re-inventing the wheel!

Firstly, if your spinner has a favourite dyer then don't be afraid to send that dyer an email with a budget and ask them to put together a parcel of fibre related treats for you. They'll be happy to help, and will be able to give the spinner something new to try, but also check their previous orders to see if they have any colour preferences.

I'm always happy to help people out in this way.... 
​
However, if you leave it too late (because the postal system has it's limits), then a subscription to a fibre club is an excellent present. You can set up a gift subscription to my Time Travellers Club really easily, just tick the "This is a Gift" box and the system will do the rest. You an choose to let the subscription run for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, and the payment gets taken every month rather than 1 large sum up front, so it's a nice way to spread the cost out. So long as you order before the 23rd then the first parcel will be sent during January. A 100g subscription in the UK for 3 months works out at just over £30.
You won't get a fancy gift card through the post, so you might have to get creative with the way you hand over the present, but I'm sure if you pop in to a local shop you'll be able to find a nice card to  write in. ​

Tools are always useful, and they're also a great low budget gift, things like my WPI tool are the sort of thing you can slip into a card, and post for very little money. 

Extra bobbins are rarely something that any spinner will turn down, particularly if they are some of the lovely  £D printed flat pack ones. In the past I've pointed people towards Akerworks, but I'm pleased to say there's now a UK based supplier, offering a similar product. I've not tried them personally, but I have spoken to others that have, and they've all said positive things. If you're buying these for someone else, make sure you're buying them for the right spinning wheel, and because they're made to order you will need to allow a good window of time. 

In further shameless self promotion (which to be frank, after the blog ate this post the first time round, I'm not exactly feeling shameful about). ​If they're a spinner they're probably also a knitter or a crocheter. In which case an organiser for their needles or hooks is a lovely present. Or you could go for a case to hold their hand carders together. 
There are lots of lovely bags and cases  in the Quince Pie etsy shop. 

Alternatively if they're a sewer then how about a handmade pin cushion, or a deluxe stitch ripper. 
The Wood Beach Etsy shop is also filled with orifice hooks, niddy noddy's and yarn bowls, all of which make excellent gifts, and new this year Dad's also learned how to carve spoons. 

There can be few greater pleasures in life than a nice pair of scissors. I bought myself a pair to use with my weaving in the spring, and every time I use them they delight me. Treat purchases like this are the sort that it's often hard to justify to yourself, and to anyone who is a non-crafter it can be hard to understand the joy we get from a piece of beautiful equipment that works so perfectly. Beyond Measure has a beautiful range of high end scissors.

​Now for the books.... books make excellent presents! Check the spinners book shelf first, as they may already own some of these. 
Where possible I've linked to the Bookshop.org, as they distribute some profits to local booksellers. If you have a local bookshop, please support them, they'll be able to order in many of these titles from Gardners who are the main UK book wholesalers.  If that option doesn't work for you then both Wordery and Blackwells are good non-amazon alternatives. 

The Spinners Book of Yarn Design If you only own one spinning book this should be it! 
The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook For the spinner who loves learning more about sheep and the quality of their wool
​Yarnitecture For the spinner who wants to get better at analysing the sort of yarn they are spinning, and be more in control of the results. 
A Guide to Spinning Hand Dyed Fibre My own small book, ideal for a spinner who likes working with hand dyed combed top. 

Non-spinning books, but interesting for anyone who has a love of textiles. 
Women's Work- The First 20,000 years.
The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History
The Human Thread
Threads Around the World

Dyeing Books
True Colours: World Masters of Natural Dyes and Pigments Not a technical how-to book, but a lovely look at people around the world using natural dyes. 
Art and Science of Natural Dyes: Principles, Experiments and Results This one is pricey, but is probably the best science-based natural dyeing book I have ever seen. If someone is in to natural dyes, then this is a book they need to own. 
Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece If they use synthetic dyes then this is probably the best book there is, though I really disagree with the way she applies to dye to fibre, great for yarn dyeing detail though. Unfortunately there's a big gap in the market for good books dealing with synthetic dyes, and fibre dyeing  is particularly poorly covered.

If they've never tried dyeing before then it's an interesting thing to have a go at doing. My first experience of dyeing was using a set of acid dyes and a sock blank kit I'd bought my Mum for Christmas. 
​Debbie at D&T Crafts has some great starter kits for acid dyes and also for natural dyeing. Helen Melvin also offers some lovely natural dyeing kits.

A subscription to Ply magazine would also be a lovely gift. If you're outside the US then it may be better to buy a subscription from one of their stockists. They also now offer a digital subscription, which removes all postage anxiety.

Finally, if they spin the chances are they wear a lot of wool, and that eventually leads to bobbly jumpers. This tool is what I use to revive my hand knits, I've linked to Lakeland, but is available on Amazon, Ebay, or various other places.



If you have anymore gift suggestions, please feel free to add them below, and please share this post, there's lots of great small businesses included in it, and this year it's more important than ever to support independent retailers. 

I love my skein winder. A niddy noddy is a lovely tool, but all too often I'd put off winding yarn from a bobbin because I just couldn't be bothered to do it. So a skein winder is a really useful tool if you can afford one, and if you procrastinate on winding skeins. 
Now I have been through several skein winders in my quest for the one true device. 
I owned an Ashford Skein Winder, the mark 1 version. And to be frank, Ashford should be ashamed of themselves, because at £80 it was a shockingly poor piece of kit. The method of securing the the upright to the base resulted in a device that wobbled as soon as you used it for a moderate length of time. The adjustment able arms often didn't hold their tension, and the non-adjustable pegs ended up falling out regularly for me. There was no tensioning device either, and the arms were fixed in position making it a pain to store when not in use. The new Mark 2 version is much better, but comes with a hefty rise in price, currently it's around £180.
I also owned a Majacraft skeiner, which wasn't really any better, with the added inconvenience of a triangular base that meant to matter where you put it there was also something sticking out to impale you, and again... the pegs in the arms weren't the best of fits. The free-standing option doesn't seem to be on the Majacraft website anymore, but I did find a few places with stock, and at £150 it's a lot of money for a tool that isn't great. 

​But this isn't a series about tools I think could be better... it's about bits of kit that I really love. 

It's from here.
​He's a German maker, I am lucky enough to own one his spinning wheels, which is what led me to the site. It's really well made and feels really solid. Now the site is only in German, but I only spent 1 year studying German at school, and the joy of Google Translate is that it's not that hard to work out what you need to do in order to place an order. 
Payment is unfortunately only by bank transfer, so bear that in mind when working out the price (some banks will charge extra for international bank transfers). At the moment here in the UK you can order and won't need to pay extra to receive your order, but that will change after January 1st. 

When you're not using it the arms fold up to reduce the space it takes up, this is also how you adjust the diameter of the skein. There's also a built in rotation counter (so you know how many turns you've done, and can then use this method to calculate your yardage), and on the base there's a lazy kate with a tensioning device. 

I also use it as a swift to then wind skeins in to balls of yarn. I just reduce the circumference of the skeiner by moving the arms closer together and have slackened the screw holding the flipper on the counter so I can rotate it out of the way so it doesn't click as I rotate the winder. 
The centre uses a proper sealed bearing so you never need to worry about nuts tightening or coming undone. The base is heavy, I use this on the floor whilst seated on the sofa, and have never felt the need to clamp it down. The pegs in the arms are completely solid, even after years of abuse there's no hint of a wobble, or danger of them going loose. 

It's been the tool I've used to skein miles and miles of yarn, and at no point have I ended up threatening to throw it across the room. It's a little bit more expensive than the new Ashford one, but it's a much better bit of kit, and something you'd prize from my cold dead hands!

We're a few days away from getting to the end of our 2 week Firebreak lockdown here in Wales. The weather, to be blunt, has been dreadful for most of the 2 weeks. Not really conducive to getting out of the house even if you were allowed to get out and about. Meg has had the right attitude for the current state of play here. 

My quilting bug shows no sign of disappearing anytime soon. I finished this one this month, using up lots of oddments, combined with a couple of metres of neutral fabric. This is not the best beauty shot, but outside is not the place to be photographing anything at the moment and the only room with enough floor space is too dark to take good photos. 

There's another top that's finished, and another one with the quilt blocks sewn, but still needing to be joined. Throughout October Moda Fabrics were hosted a Stitch Pink Block-a-Day sew-along. I didn't quite managed to sew a block each day, but on Sunday I did have all 30 blocks sewn, plus 2 alternatives for ones I didn't like in the original layout. The original design uses shades of pink and white... not the most practical colours for this household. So I swapped to using navy, and then scraps of pink and green. This is the half-way progress...

Things have not been quiet on a work-front. Two batches of 12 Days of Christmas parcels have now left the building. They account of most of the total that I'd planned to sell, however, I still have a few of the bags (I made less mistakes when printing than usual!), and plenty of the Merino & Silk, so there will be another small batch available soon with a different hand dyed fibre. If those all sell I can probably make a further batch, but they'll need to use the spindle bags from last year (I have lots of those spare). 

I've also been busy writing and filming. I've been doing some work on another article for Ply magazine, this time on dyeing. I'm not completely sure what edition it's ear marked for, because I've been asked if I can get everything done ahead of the schedule for the edition I'd originally proposed the article. The results, I think are really interesting, and left me wishing I had more than 1200 words!

So in that spirit, because I always have more to say than I can ever fit in to articles I've got to work making the first of my new online workshops. ​I went through my list of workshops, picked out the most popular, and decided to focus on the aspect of it that most people highlight as being the thing they want to improve. So, if you'd like to get more control over the thickness of your yarn, there's now a new online course.

I'm still quietly knitting and spinning away, but it's nearly all in the pretty boring category, plain socks, normal jumpers, though I have been carrying on enjoying getting to know plant fibres better.

This is a skein of 2-ply cotton. I started it at the end of the Tour de France, then finished it off during the Giro. I've already woven with some of it, because the next batch of tea towels from the warp I was sampling last month are now off the loom!

They still need cutting up and hemming, so I'll leave sharing photos of those for another time. 
The shop will carry on having new things added it regularly, I should have a big box of fibres arriving from Italy in the next couple of weeks. 
Brexit continues to loom over my head... adverts on the TV telling you to "Get Ready" "Make the Changes" just leave me wanting to throw things, because it's very hard to get ready for anything when you don't know what you're getting ready for.
If you're in the UK, nothing will change for you.
If you're outside the EU, nothing will change for you.
If you're in the EU its very likely you will no longer pay VAT to me when you make your purchase, and will instead pay it to your postal service to pass on to your own government. As we get closer to January 1st I'll make sure to get things set up so that you are not left paying VAT twice, particularly for club payments. Once I have a little bit more clarity about exactly what I'm going to do I'll write it all out, in part I am waiting to see what the companies I use to process financial payments will do. It's all a bit of a nightmare, but please bear with me. 

Moving in to October really feels like summer is over, it's noticeable how much earlier I'm having to put the chickens to bed, and I lit my fire for the first time last night. Drying fibre is starting to take longer, and it won't be long beforeI need to start using the dehumidifier in the drying shed, because otherwise I end up with more damp fibre than I have space to hang it!
The first batch of 12 Days of Christmas parcels that I talked about in the last post are nearly ready to go. The bags are printed, the small parcels are packed, and tomorrow I'll be dyeing the fibre for Christmas Day. Make sure you subscribe to the email newsletter to hear when thy go on sale next week. If you miss out on this first batch then I will be listing more at the end of October.

I took some time off last week to enjoy the last of the sunshine before winter arrives. Not doing anything really adventurous (the furthest away from home I've been since February is to the garden centre in Welshpool!) but spending some time with the loom, with the sewing machine, in the garden, and out in the countryside local to home. 

This is the rather wonky panorama looking down on the Mawddach estuary (between balance issues, and a bright sun on the screen I have no chance of turning whilst holding the phone in a level manner!). This is a walk we normally do at the height of spring when the woods are filled with Bluebells, at that point we were on a strict stay local lockdown, and this was further away than we could justify as local. The woods are very different as we go in to Autumn, but still stunning, filled with ancient oak trees, and when you come out on to the top of the hill you're greeted with this magnificent view.

 If you managed to watch my Mid-Wales Textile Trade talk at Fiberworld in August, then this is the fertile valley bottom that leads up to Cwmer Abbey. It's now one of the talks that's on my list of online talks, demonstrations and workshops. If you belong to a guild or spinning group then I am now available for online bookings. Send me an email if you want to find out more, even if you're outside the UK (because that's the joy of online!)
If you don't currently have a guild or group then I am looking at how to offer courses, workshops and talks that you can access any time. I had a conversation with my accountants earlier this week because I need to make sure I get everything set up correctly for taxation purposes. Plans are in the pipeline though!

Of course during September we did a second version of the Tour de Fleece, and this time I decided to focus on getting my plant fibre spinning skills up to scratch. There's nothing like spending a 3 week block of time tackling a newer skill to really get to grips with it. I mostly focused on spinning ramie, because I have weaving plans for these skeins, but at the end of the time I also got some cotton spun. I'm planning on getting the rest of it finished when watching the Giro starting this weekend. One of these skeins has already gone on the loom, because the great tea towel weaving mania seems to show no sign of ending. Aside from that I feel somewhat adrift with my urge to cast on for anything. I am amply provisioned with jumpers, socks, shawls and hats, as are most of my nearest and dearest. So for now I'm carrying on chipping away at the mitre square blanket I started in 2009. It's now king sized, and within 2 rows of squares of being finished. 
After that.... I am awaiting inspiration. I may just end up knitting more gnomes.