Yarn review - Fat Bubba by Melanie Porter

Following on from my review of Melanie Porter's book 'Big Needle Knits' the other week I was having a lovely chat with the lady herself over on Twitter and she offered to send me a sample ball of her amazing Fat Bubba wool to have a play with.


Fat Bubba was born when Melanie tried unsuccessfully to source top quality super bulky British wool for her chunky knit projects so she decided to create her own!

Fat Bubba is hand spun and lightly felted and so unbelievably soft it just begs to be knitted up into beautifully squishy accessories or blankets. It is available in a small range of contemporary colours. Mini fat bubbas (250g /approx 36m) are perfect for a hat or cowl whilst the larger 500g balls would knit up a longer scarf or a cushion. A blanket may require 2 or 3 large balls -  which at £50 each makes for quite an expensive project but it would certainly introduce a touch of luxurious style to your home.

Fat Bubba weighs in at approximately 15m per 100g. It doesn't sound like a lot of yardage but when combined with extra large needles a little goes a long way!



My sample ball was approx 20m - and was the most glorious egg yolk yellow colour! Using 25mm needles I cast on 4 stitches and knit 30 rows which left me just enough yarn to lace the two ends of my knitting together to form a tube. One super snuggly cowl in 15 minutes! If quick knits are your thing you can't get much quicker than that!!

Fat Bubba yarn by Melanie Porter is available to order through her website or Etsy shop where you can also buy custom made super chunky needles to knit it up with.
 If you fancy having a go at making your own fat wool Melanie includes full instructions on how to do so in her latest book 'Big Needle Knits'


*disclaimer - Melanie sent me some Fat Bubba to try because she is just a lovely person, I decided to review it here because it is fab!

2016 Learn something new!

Happy New Year lovely readers! I hope you have all had a fabulous festive season full of love, joy, family, friends and chocolate!

Now we are all ready to spring into 2016 full of energy and intention. Ready to face the world, take on new challenges, embrace the things we love and change the things we don't! Hurrah!! (Yes? No? Ok finish the Christmas chocolates first...)

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions- if you really want to make changes why wait until the calender changes? That said the Christmas holidays offer a perfect opportunity to take stock, look back and decide what needs to be done next...

Last year actually turned out alright -  I absolutely rediscovered my knitting mojo and my design for Wool and the Gang -  The Koselig Blanket -  became a best seller. I also self published my first pattern on Ravelry (Lost in the Forest Mitts) inspired by the lovely Cornish Tin from Blacker Yarns.
My partner's business also had a better year than it's  had for a long time as people actually started buying motorbikes again! I finally managed to lose some weight;  we gained a new kitty family member; the house didn't fall down and our camper van made it through it's MOT so all in all not a bad year (about time too as the previous few years have been a bit pants lol!).

A little bit of my stash. Just a little bit. I don't have a problem. Honest.

Lots of tidying and sorting has been happening through 2015 too - not least of which involved my yarn stash.  To be fair it's got a bit out of hand. I'm not saying I have too much yarn (is there such a thing as too much yarn? I think not...) but I do have more than enough to keep me knitting for years to come so this year I have made a promise that I will not buy anymore yarn UNLESS it's for a specified project and will be used straight away. No more stash building for at least a year...
There are also many knitty techniques I want to learn in 2016 -  toe-up socks, brioche, double knitting, top down sweaters, continental style knitting whilst purling (why is that so tricky?) so plenty of excuses to cast on lots of lovely projects throughout 2016 and plenty of opportunities to use some of that stash.

But what I want to master this year, more than anything else, is spinning with my drop spindle.
I want to turn fluff into beautiful yarn and knit with it.
I have tried previously - and blogged about it here - but after an initial burst of enthusiasm finding the time and the opportunity to continue has eluded me.
Like many things it's practice that makes perfect so I am going to aim for just a few minutes a day (preferably when the cats are out side -  Have you ever tried using a drop spindle with a cat in the room?). It's possible I won't  manage everyday but I will do my best to devote just 15 minutes a day to practising. 15 minutes. That's all. I'm sure I can manage that!*

I have often thought that regular practice in small chunks is more effective and easier to maintain than the occasional big chunk of time - especially if you have a busy family life/job to juggle around. So what new skill would you like to learn? Why not try just 15 minutes a day (or as often as you can) and see what you can achieve in 2016?  Maybe you want to learn to draw or doodle; write a novel or poetry; play a musical instrument; learn to crochet, knit, needlefelt or some other craft?

If you'd like to join me on Instagram tag me (@theforestflower) and use the hashtag #15minutesaday so we can share our progress and offer support. I can't wait to see what new skills you master this year!

*if anyone can suggest any books/tutorial videos or blogs that might help me on my spinning journey PLEASE leave a comment below. Any help gratefully received!

Happy Birthday Blacker Yarns!

picture courtesy of Blacker Yarns

Blacker Yarns are celebrating their tenth anniversary at their Cornish woollen mill in Launceston this month by releasing a limited edition yarn they have named Cornish Tin, spun from ten different fibres to create one gorgeous, soft and bouncy yarn that is a pleasure to knit with.

A month of knitalongs...

Instagram has opened up a whole new knitty world to me - knitalongs!

I signed up to not one but two shawl knitalongs at the end of May - not that I don't have any other projects to be getting on with but you know how it goes...

First up was #greatdividekal2015 (I'm using the Instagram hashtags here so you can go check them out if you wish) which was hosted by the lovely Jessie @bigheart_smalltown.

This what a bit of an impromptu project - I was packing to take Roo to stay with my parents for a few days in the half term and looking for something small and simple to take with me when I spotted her post about a shawl knitalong using a pattern called The Great Divide Shawl by Michele Brown.  Rooting through my stash I found a couple of vintage cones of yarn I had been given a while ago that I thought would be just perfect.

All in a spin...

Last weekend we went on our annual outing to the Creative Crafts Show (herein referred to as CCS) at Malvern Three Counties Showground (you can read about previous years excursions here)

This year was a little different because (a) I had very little money to spend and (b) I had Roo with me.
I won't lie, I didn't enjoy the experience nearly as much having to keep a constant eye on a curious six year old rather than immersing myself in glorious crafty stuff - although the sheer joy on his face when he showed me the stamps and ink pads he had bought with his Christmas money kind of made up for that! - but I still managed to come away with a new nugget of knowledge, some beautiful yarn and lots of inspiration.

The Beekeepers Quilt 2015 Knitalong

Once upon a time (quite a while ago) I stumbled across the most wonderful knitted blanket pattern I had ever seen.

Tuesday Tutorials - playing with yarn

Good Morning everyone!

It's that Tuesday Tutorial time of week again - Yay!!

Once again, last week was a great success with loads more fab things to make and do added to our Tuesday Tutorials pinterest board.

Works-in-Progress Linky - I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours...

Welcome to the very first works in progress linky post - aka WIPsLinky!

I am really excited to get this idea up and running - I really hope that now you are here and reading you'll want to join in too.  If this is your first visit to my blog here is the post I wrote last week as an introduction to the WIPsLinky idea. Go have a read if you like. I'll still be here when you get back...

Hello again!

So I am going to show you a couple of projects I am working on right now - both of them seem a little incongruous given the warm weather we have been having of late but, as most crafters (particularly those who knit or crochet) know there is no point in waiting until it's cold to create things to keep you warm...

crochet in the park...

First up - I have had some Hayfield Bonus Galaxy yarn floating around for some years. I think I bought it with the intention of making something cute and snuggly for Roo when he was tiny but didn't get around to it. It's been discontinued so I am unlikely to be able to get any more and I only have 2 balls each of blue and green. So I am using a 5mm crochet hook and making a pile of basic closed granny squares - I have absolutely no idea how many my yarn will make or what I'll do with them when they are done ( Lap blanket? Cushions?) but it feels kind of good to finally be using something that has been stashed away for best part of 5 years!  When I have used up all the yarn I will make the decision.

I love that granny square projects are so portable, all you need is your hook and some yarn. Even if you are bit rusty, like me, you only need to make a couple with a pattern in front of you before you can whip them up without the pattern wherever you are!




Next up is one of those projects I have been waiting to start for a long time. The pattern came from my mum's collection of 'The Knitter' magazines. We love 'The Knitter' because it is aimed at more experienced knitters than most mainstream knitting mags and has some wonderfully challenging projects.

This one is a cabled blanket made up in panels of different sizes with lovely, intricate cable patterns on each panel. I adore cable knits - there is something inherently snuggly about a chunky cable knit don't you think? I love them so much I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to them!



Anyway, the biggest hold up has always been getting the yarn - this throw uses a lot of yarn - as is the way with all these patterns the specified yarn, although beautiful (50% wool/50% lama!) is WAAAAYYYY out of my budget! Luckily for me my mother-in-law had some rather nice wool mix arran yarn from Stylecraft in a beautiful charcoal grey colour - enough to knit this whole blanket in the same colour instead of a rainbow patchwork (although that would be nice too!).

I have started on the first panel - a long, thin strip of cabling that basically an 8 row repeat. It's not too complicated and doesn't require much concentration so it's good to do while watching tv. I have a feeling the large Celtic knot panels might require a bit more focus though!

We're off on holiday tomorrow so I will be taking this one with me, just in case the weather does it's worst. After all what is a holiday but an excuse to knit for hours on end without feeling remotely guilty?

So there you have my current Works-in-Progress - now show me yours!

Link up your #WIPsLinky blog post below. If you want you can add a link to this post at the end of your post (I am working on a 'grab my button' code. Honest!)

Please use the #WIPsLinky hash tag on Twitter/Google+/Facebook if you want to shout about this linky to your friends too! I will also be setting up a WIPsLinky pinboard on Pinterest.

I am looking forward to seeing what you are up to!

ps: the Linky will be posted on the last Tuesday of each month, the current one will stay open until the day before new one comes up so you have plenty of time to link up and join in!

Wonder Wool Wales 2013

This weekend we went off to Builth Wells for Wonder Wool Wales - a great show celebrating all that is woolly.  I wrote about it last year here so I won't waffle on this time but here are some pictures to inform and inspire!




As ever I came home all fired up and eager to try new things. There was a lot of recycling/upcycling going on which always inspires me. I have already been practising needlefelting but I really want to work creating my own fabric by wet felting (did you spot some of the amazing felt clothing in the slideshow?). I am even going to dig out the drop spindle I bought last year and have another go at spinning my own yarn! I'll let you now how that goes... ;-)

We are already planning our trip next year.

Maybe you could come too...?

Autumn Glory

I don't know what the weather was like your way over the weekend but on Saturday we were treated to the most glorious sunshiney day that was a welcome respite to the damp gloominess that has greeted us each morning for the past week or so.

We went over to Newent for the day and had a lovely time hanging out at the Shambles, taking a stroll round the lake, feeding the ducks and having a mooch round the charity shops.

The trees around the lake were looking pretty spectacular, the fiery colours enhanced by the clearest, brightest blue sky you could wish for...

 Fiery orange and crisp turquoise - the best colour combos can be found in nature!  (OK so this pic has been *slightly* enhanced. But only coz the camera on my phone simply couldn't cope with the dazzling colours!)

My favourite picture of the day. I love the way the light filters through the tree canopy and the path disappears over the ridge inviting you to follow...

We had a lovely time exploring the little tracks that wind around the lake - for a park that is sandwiched between two housing estates, the town centre and the main road to Gloucester it was remarkably peaceful and really felt like we were in the middle of the forest!

 

 Later on I stocked up on some lovely charcoal grey aran yarn to make a cosy cabled patchwork blanket I have been wanting to knit for several years. It will be a project for next year - or maybe something to start in the Christmas holidays once I have all the present making out of the way  (more on that in another blog ) 

And what was waiting on the door mat when we got home?

The perfect ending to a perfect Saturday!

Wonder Wool Wales

This weekend I was treated to a child free day out to the fabulous WonderWoolWales - a festival dedicated to all things woolly! Situated at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells and with an emphasis on natural fibres in all their glory this is a great day out for the crafty!

There was plenty to see. I loved watching the spinners and weavers practising their craft with skill that made it all look so easy...

Calling all yarn lovers!

Today I visited a beautiful wool shop in Abergavenny, The Wool Croft. Stuffed full of beautiful yarns including Rowan, Noro and Debbie Bliss plus Organic Welsh wool and some unusual skeins of beaded or hand painted yarns.
I was in a mood to treat myself and left with some new bamboo needles, some cute heart shaped wooden buttons and this...

Isn't it gorgeous?  It's a hand dyed, silk/merino wool mix yarn by Louisa Harding. It is smooth and soft with a fabulous sheen. Hand painted by artisans in Chile - every hank is unique.

This one is a blend of blues ranging from pale aqua to dark navy called 'Coastal' and I absolutely fell in love with it and just had to bring it home!

Only problem is I have no idea what I will make with it!

So I am looking for some suggestions.

Knit or crochet - I don't mind.

 The yarn weight is somewhere between DK and aran weight with a recommended needle size 4mm or hook size 5.5mm - 6.5mm. The hank is 110yds in length so there is only enough for a small project.

Please help! I would hate for this sublime yarn to end up in my stash box, taken out occasionally to be stroked and 'oooooed' over...