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It’s a Banshee Baby

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Well hello my wonderful ones. How are we all on this rather drizzly day? I hope you are all well and coping with the world as we know it. To all you ones with little sprogs – how’s half term gone? Definitely nice not to be rushing them with homeschooling and all the usual routine, for a bit. I don’t know about anyone else’s little ones, but mine we’re definitely ready for a break. Think they get to a point where they just want to play & let their imaginations run. Just be kids. I think this might be the reason why our landing now looks like some kind of playmobil world! Haha! We have a veterinary hospital, a school, a holiday home, an aquarium & some kind of coast guard sea situation going on. So I reckon we have most areas covered! Funny.

Heyho, guessing its just life as we know at the moment. I do wonder if there is going to be a big announcement next week. It’ll be interesting to see if schools are back in. We shall see. Heyho, if in doubt, just keep on crocheting, well that’s how I am getting through lockdown. That and knitting.

Spring is starting to really show. Always makes me feel hopefully when I see these little guys popping out.

So I just wanted to pop on and talk to you about the wonderful world of Banshee Yarns. These are the most super soft and seriously scrumptious yarns. They are so soft. Each one is beautifully dyed by the wonderful Michelle over at The Loveliest Yarn Company. Here’s the link to her wonderful website.

https://theloveliestyarncompany.co.uk/

I first heard of the lovely Michelle in the summer, when I came across her knit school and one of the KALs she was doing. I think it was a shawl KAL, where you learnt all about how to knit shawls and the different techniques that create them. As I have been definitely being upping the amount of knitting I have been doing, I was rather intrigued.

So when the lovely Abby, Lisa and Michelle did their BadAss Friday celebration of yarny loveliness, I couldn’t resist trying some of Michelle’s Banshee yarn.

It’s called Banshee Yarns. (Don’t you just love the Banshee Yarn logo!!) I love her motto too – Colours To Haunt You. How fab is that. I reckon colour does haunt you. They definitely do for me. They seem to call to you. And as Michelle says – haunts you until you cave and buy it. As you all know, I am a serious lover of all things rainbowy, so I feel that colours can really sing together. They definitely excite me and I just can’t resist a gorgeous yarn with a stunning colour way.

So with the Banshee yarns range, Michelle dyes them up in all different bases of yarn, with different weights. This means you can find one of her beautiful yarns for any kind of project. I couldn’t resist the Alpaca DK yarn, which is a blend of baby alpaca, silk and cashmere.

I mean literally, how scrumptious and delicious is that. It’s so luxurious and soft and works up a treat. Many of the other weights in the range, have slightly different blends depending on which one you choose. Trust me, which ever one you pick, you will not be disappointed.

I thought I would choose the double knit weight, to create some little wrist warmers. I don’t know about anyone else, but I seem to be struggling with being cold, so much more at the moment. You all know, my feet can be incased in 5 pairs of slipper socks and leg warmers and they are still a little chilly. So I realised that as soon as my wrists are warm, my hands seem to stay a little warmer too.

Anyways, I have created a pattern for both simple wrist warmers (ones that just go on your wrist) and wrist warmers that go over your thumb too. I will hopefully be publishing the pattern up soon, but here’s a sneaky peak of them made up in Michelle’s DK Banshee Yarn.

The pattern will come with two sizes, kids and adults. Really hope you like them. Can’t wait to share them with you.

So all in all, I cannot recommend Michelle’s Banshee Yarn enough. It’s so utterly scrumptious and luxurious. Can’t wait to buy some more. Ekk. I may have this little baby in my stash and thinking it would make some wonderful leg warmers.

But I am so tempted with one of the purple colour ways to go with it. So might have to wait a little. We shall see. It’s whether I have a weak moment. Ekk.

Well, I think that is all for now. Just want to wish you all a lovely rest of the weekend. And here’s hoping for a little bit of normality sometime soon.

Happy hooking peeps.

🌈Xx

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When Advent Calendars look like this…

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… you can totally keep your Chocolate ones!!!!

Well hello my lovely ones, how are we all? I hope you are all surviving this lockdown. This year seems to have already got off to a bumpy start and nearly a month in and things don’t look much better do they. January, has always been a funny month, hasn’t it. The Christmas decorations have to come down and you have the awkward argument with yourself that this year, you would sort them out and organise them properly. But in the end, you just shove them in as best you can. What is that about!! Every year I have this argument with myself. And every year, I put it off!! Oh well, maybe next year.

So I thought I would just pop on and share with you all, my lovely advent calendar that I had from the Abby at Orchidean Luxury Yarns in December. I know that she is starting to think about this year’s calendar, so I couldn’t resist giving you a little taster as to what you might find in one. Abby owns her own hand dyeing yarn company called Orchidean Luxury Yarns and has the most beautiful array of sumptuous hand dyed yarn. If you haven’t already visited her wonderful website, then here’s the link. It is worth a peek. Trust me!

https://luxuryyarns.co.uk/

So my gorgeous calendar arrived towards the end of November, so it is all ready for you to open at the beginning of December. The day it arrived, I can safely say there was two seriously excited people in our house.

My daughter has always been a bit of a magpie with shiny wonderours things. So the fact that this was holding not only yummy yarn, but gorgeous little stitch markers that could be used as jewellery too!! Well, she was in her element.

Each day, we opened a door to find a little skein of beautifully hand dyed yarn and a gorgeous stitch marker. On some of the days, there would be a little treat of an essential oil too. The smell of these are just to die for.

When these extra special little essential oils are found in your advent window, Abby will email you with a helpful description of what they are and how best to use them. So lovely.

Each day also contained a little stitch marker. Which were so individual and beautiful. I have mine in a pot in our bedroom at the moment. I don’t seem to have the heart to use them yet, as they are gorgeous to look at. They are all the more beautiful with the fact that they are sitting in little dish that my daughter. So extra special in my eyes.

Now if it wasn’t enough that you have 24 little doors of incredible treats, Abby also gave us a full skein of gorgeous yarn and some amazing Cheer essential oil in a full size bottle. It has a roll-on top, so you can use it whenecer you like. This was to open on Christmas Day. Oh my, what a treat it was. So special. It was hard not open it up before hand!

Abby even included a fabulous row counter! Which will definitely come in handy when making up some yarny delights. Here’s the gorgeous little bottle of Dōterra Essential Oil!! I have used it so much over the past few weeks! Definitely what we all need right now!

So if you are one of the lucky ones and you are lucky enough to have one of Abby’s advent calendars, then the only thing that you need to choose, is the weight of your yarn. I plumped for 4Ply this time, but maybe next time a double knit one would be rather nice too. I wonder if you would have enough for a little blanket.

Well, I hope this has helped you. For me, it has been such a treat to have a yarny advent calendar. I can’t remember the last time I had a calendar of my very own. I think I remember one, many moons ago. But it was definitely a chocolate one and not one filled with deliciously scrumptious yarn. Yarn ones are definitely the best!! And the only ones for me, now a days!

Can’t wait to see what everyone makes with their advent calendars this year.

For me it had to be a rainbow shawl. I wasn’t planning on designing one, but when the rainbow colours just kept popping out at me, I just couldn’t resist. In a very Blue Peter kind of a way – here’s one I made earlier. Hee hee.

Hope you like it.

Will be sharing the pattern on here very soon. If you were lucky enough to have a calendar this year, it is a great way to display and absorb yourself in all of Abby’s hand dyed yarn.

I started my shawl around New Year and it has definitely kept me company over this 2021 lockdown. I was carrying it around all with the place, when I was making it. My husband said it was my comfort blanket! Whoops no And it’s now keeping seriously snuggly too!!

Well I hope you all have lovely weekends. I’m hoping to steal a little time for some crocheting or knitting at some point. I hope you do too.

Happy hooking everyone.

Xx

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