Category: Fluffenstuff ‘blog posts

Moving house always takes a great deal longer than anticipated eh?

Hopefully, this weekend will be the start of a New PurpleKitchen era, as we clear the Garden in preparation of getting me a Dyeing Workshop Shed sorted out!

I know, I said make one of the Bedrooms a craft room, but quite frankly, that wasn’t going to work. 🙂

I’m dying to get dyeing again! It’s been far too long, I have all this Yummy fibre, sitting in crates begging me to get all dressed up! That, and with Summer coming, the ability to dye and dry in the same day means I should be able to get the shop shelves chockablock with luxurious and wonderful colours!

Still, for the now, there are a great deal of tasty treats in the Merino and Wensleydale sections, and also don’t forget the Indian Sari Silks, direct from the Spinners at Mint Fabrics in India, and our fabulous Jewelery Stitchmarkers on offer.

I promise, when I get the Workshop sorted, you will all be the first to know, and I’m going to have a clearance sale!

I’m very optimistic today.

Life has thrown me a double 6, and for various reasons (not all good… *sigh*), in the New Year I’m getting a bigger house!

The good thing about this in terms of Fluffenstuff is that the master bedroom of the property is South facing, and has floor to ceiling glass, lots of space for working and fantastic light for good colour matching.

So, as the property has 3 bedrooms, I’ve decided that this room will be turned into “The Craft Room!”

Space for PurpleKitchen’s Dyeing, Stitchmarker making, and all the other nefarious Crafts that I do, as well as storage for all the Yarn, my personal Stashes of Yarn, Cloth, Beads and Sewing tools and the bubblewrap!

Onwards and Upwards eh?

We are very excited here at Fluffenstuff!

After some intense negotiation, we are very proud to present to you both 100g and 200g skeins of very lustrous and smooth Recycled Sari Silk yarn.

Being handspun from long silk fibres rather than Throwser’s Waste fibre as some Sari Silks on the market are, we believe this to be some of the softest and strongest Sari Silk coming into the UK market

Also, as the price fully includes P&P, we also believe it is the best value!

We are also supporting Fair Trade, as (until I’m rich enough to buy it by the 10Kg brick!) it comes to you direct from the mill in India.

Now, if we play our cards right, look for us to be taking that 10Kg to Stitch&Craft 2007!

Coming soon, this lush Aran weight silk, direct from India.

Any ideas on what colourways people want their silks dressed up in will be gratefully received.

We do love the way that Silk takes the “jewel like” colours though, so the colourways that Purplekitchen has in mind are going to be vibrant for sure!

More Purplekitchen yarns coming soon, the Yarns are just finishing drying before they get photographed and uploaded. 500g of the now disconntinued Rowan “Chunky print” Point&Squirt overrdyed into “Golden Sunset”, 300g of Blue-faced Leicester, well-dyed into “Tequila Sunrise” and some utterrly dreamy chunky Alpaca, that just begged to be tie-dyed to make a yarn I’m calling “Clouds and Sky”…

Also, a Purplekitchen exculsive: Why buy Noro Kureyon for fulling when you can buy Purplekitchen felting yarn at half of the cost! This is a harsh yarn, as it started life as undyed Rug-wool. So you wouldn’t want to wear it, but, with it designed to be so hardwearing, it’s perfect for kniting and crocheting, and then fulling into bags, purses, cloths and coasters. We’ve just dyed up and knitted the tester swatch, to be machine fulled in the next couple of days… Look for the ‘blog entry and the first stocks soon!

Also, what does this want to be?

Undyed Chunky weight Cashmere, 50g, ~60m/skein. Direct from China.

We’ve got 400g of this yarn, and its not saying what colour it wants to be yet!

It’s possibly going to be dressing in pastals, but do give it some advice… Answers on a comment log!

Just a quick ‘blog post on this shiny new site, to let you all know that Fluffenstuff is nearly ready to open for business.

I’m just slapping the virtual paint on the walls, stocking the shelves and sorting the goods, but if you happen to have chanced over this already, do feel free to browse and buy!

Fluffenstuff is all about bringing frivolity, fluff and fun into the knitting process

I love big yarn, am passionate about bright strong colours and just adore little trinkets to make life a little more smiley.

It all started when I wanted some “Knitting Jewelery”.

However, because I tends to use needles above 9mm, none of the plastic ring manufacturers or crafters that make and sell jewelery type markers seem to make ones with rings big enough for my needles!

So, being a crafty individual, I did some research about how to make them, bought lots of stuff and made a load of pretty things!!!

Being made from precious metals and glass they have a wonderful heft and substance, are very soothing to both look at and use, and glide over the needles in use.

As all beads are unique, every marker is also unique, although sometimes I make similar sets if there are the beads to do it in the random beads she buys as the mood takes her.

I then got a fascination with dyeing. Again, there is a deficit of chunky and above “art” yarns.� So, I started dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid, which is “ok” but I quickly progressed to experimenting with professional grade acid-dyes.

Being able to create seemingly random and vibrant colourways with sumptuous yarns and glossy beads has certainly become a creative passion.

However, as there is only so many stitchmarkers and yarns that you can make and keep, and seeing as a great deal of my friends also loved my work, the idea for a proper shop was born.

Dyeing and beading happened because I lacked the time to knit, and needed to still be creating and have colourful yarns!

As you can see, I’m aiming to sell accessories from UK and Fair-Trade producers.

Stitchmarkers, Hand-Dyed and Hand-Spun yarns, Funky knitting patterns. Hopefully in future, Knitting needles and other gadgets.

So, Welcome!