April Sales Promotion at Stranded In Oz

APRIL Promotion: For all of April: show us your FO in Stranded In Oz hand-painted yarn or fibre and receive a 10% discount on any regularly-priced SIOz product. For online customers, email your piccies and a description of the item you made and receive an online coupon via email. For Port Market customers, just bring your lovely FO by.

Hello to the knitters, spinners, crocheters of Adelaide and beyond... Your needles. hooks, and wheels continue to inspire me. Thanks so much for sharing what you do both online and at the Port Markets.

Above you'll find a picture of the latest lot of Loaded Dog, a blend of colours inspired by a neighbour's brindle Staffy. 2 hanks of this luxury blend makes a nice pair of hand-cosies -- this yarn has incredible stitch definition and is 70% wool/30% cashmere. Divine.

On Sunday – a real treat! The Intrepid Knitter showed off her socks – in SIOZ Merino 4 Premium sock wool – excellent socks with a lovely eyelet diagonal stitch working up the side. Alas, my camera wasn't handy and I didn't get a piccie to share! I can't wait to see what she knits next. I call her the Intrepid Knitter as she likes to experiment with some of the more unusual yarns in the SIOz collection, including some Uruguayan singles!

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To superwash or not to superwash, that is the question? My instinct as a knitter is to want the least-treated wool possible for my winter knitting. Though non-treated wool doesn't take dye as strikingly or brightly as un-treated, I still prefer au naturale for feel and long wear.

There seems to still be a preference for the superwash wools, which still puzzles me, but I guess it makes sense. If I had more than 2 people in my household, the washing and care might sway me towards superwash.

Drying outside: Rusty roving. I've been obsessing about deep rust for the past few weeks. Not too brown, not too glowy orange. I want it to have a brightness but not on the boarder of harsh. It's been driving me crazy. The latest version is drying on the line – just in time for Autumn. A dyed lot of Romney carded roving. It teases me when I walk past – spin me!! Fie!

For now, it's back to the needles and computer files. From the dyetable this week – a long awaited lot of painted banana palm silk -- there are 2 ocean-y mixes and a rainbow, and another installment in the Robin Hood Colourway line.

Mel

Colour from Adelaide on a grey, rainy day

From Raph's garden on Sunday == it's Weds and the flower still looks good as it sits in a cup of water. Just some colour for us on a very rainy and grey Adelaide afternoon.

I'm holding off one more day for painting, as the weather hasn't cleared yet for drying. In the meantime, I'm amazingly close to finishing the edge of a large shawl that as preoccupied me for some time. And there are many socks to photography, yarn to tag, packages and all sorts of duties to attend to, including making muffins for R. They usually look like this:

Banana choccy today. For the Shrekie.
CU at the Port and online, M

Namaste, Inc. at Stranded In Oz

The New Bitty Bags and Zuma bag restocks are here -- just in time for the new week. More Buddies too. Check out the new SIOz pricing for March or while supplies last! If you've been wondering what all the fuss is about with the Namaste gear... have a look.

Happy Monday from SIOz

Near, far, and local

Handspun Nepalese Wool Lace from SIOz

Thank you to Near and Far, Cygnet, Tasmania, and their continued enthusiasm for Stranded In Oz Nepalese yarns and fibres. The new shipment of SIOz yarns are at their shop, and if you're an SIOz wool/hemp or So Sari fan, check out their new stocks of knitting yarns. They also have some limited editions of luxury yarns from SIOz, including a really lovely lot of alpaca/wool dk, which is perfect for gloves and scarves.

Brett and Karen take a lot of care and pride in their unique products and friendly service. If you are visiting Cygnet, be sure to stop by.

It's been a short week and after a marathon session on a shawl border, I'm taking a blog break. There are multiple socks, scarves, shawls in varying states of doneness.

Latest temptations are the balls of Terra and the Vespera project that I've had to put down every time a design project comes in. Alas poor jacket, you are neglected once more.

A special hello to Adrienne, who came by the Sunday Shop to inquire about knitting socks on circulars. After a brief description and directions to sites on the 'net, Adrienne is hooked. Another SIOz customer hooked on socks. I def should put a health warning banner next to the sock wools -- it's addictive, but in a good way, right?

CU at the Port on Sunday and online, M

Very Special CSS Kits!

Amanda from Cedarland Farm has kitted up her magnificent yarn with the Stranded In Oz Coloured Sheep Shawl pattern. Here's a picture of her special blend of luxury fibres and Icelandic sheepwool.


The CSS kit features a three-ply Cedarland Farms yarn; approximately 100gm/4 oz per skein with 450 yds. It is 50% alpaca, 45% Icelandic wool with 5% angora! Available in milk chocolate or a dark brown/grey. Thanks Amanda for choosing the CSS project to go with your beautiful Icelandic yarn!

Back to the needles! CU at the Port Markets this Adelaide Cup Day weekend

Adelaide Cup Day Long Weekend

Stranded In Oz Will be open on both Sunday and Monday this Adelaide Cup long weekend at the Port Adelaide Fishermen's Wharf Markets. Check the shopblog for details. Open 9am to 5pm both days.

Got to love this picture of Vellan's baby cardi in SIOz Free Trade sock yarn. I couldn't wait for the finished jacket photo, just had to post it now!

Excuse short post this week -- the dyelots and needles are demanding attention.

Warm and Cosy Handspun Hemp Blends Week

Richly Coloured Handspun Wool with Hemp and So Sari Lots are on the dye list this week. Wheeeeeee. For those SIOz lovers of the Nepal handspun line, you will be happy to know it's full steam ahead. While the weather is still warm, the official Australian calendar says this is the first week of Autumn Down Under. This means I'd better get with it and tackle the long dyelot list...


Green Serendipity Wool with Hemp

Brights of Wool with Hemp from Stranded In Oz

These yarns have an earthy feel to them, so I like to dye them in rich, dark colours. I supposed they'd be fun in brights (I've done a few), but the rich reds, blues, purples, and greens feel right to me. Just mixed a really nice Teal (on the blue end of the shade) that looks really nice outside, hanging in the breeze.

Above you'll find the merino/lyo that Colleen used in her lace shawl (prev entry). I was messing around with blues and greys and only did one lot of that colourway.

Goodbye to the last hank of Brick Lane (above) some CTH supersoft, low micron merino that was a ltd edition yarn run. They decided not to get that milled again, so it's gooooorrrn. *sniffle* But it went to a good home, so that's ok!

mohair and merino lace yarns from SIOz

The two lace yarns pictured above are driving me to distraction -- super super soft mohair and merino blend with no trace of mohair fuzz. It's so soft, I just want to squish it. Since I'm in the midst of dyelots and design deadlines, there's no chance I'll be knitting it, so it's all for sale at the moment.

Sometimes a high contrast variegated just doesn't make the most of a lace pattern -- other times, it might. Anyway, a nice semi-solid, in the right shade will bring a smile to my knitter's face. I used to use a commercial solid from either Skacel or some of the Italian lace merinos, but once I started working with hand-dyed yarn, they just didn't interest me. There's something about the subtle changes in the shade of a hand-dyed solid that make the project for me.

OK, so you probably noticed that even when I don't plan on it, I end up running lots of purple and green on the same day. R. came in to where I was working and said, "You killed the Hulk again." Errr. Sorry. It wasn't my intention.

Back to the needles and beyond, M