All about that Base... and the Competition Winner

I'm often asked what inspires the names of the yarn bases that I use, so I thought i'd give you guys a quick rundown of the named and current base line up for Third Vault Yarns.

I try to pick base names that embody the yarn's qualities whilst also staying true to TVY's Sci Fi and Fantasy leanings, mostly because I'm a big geek and it's fun.

The Lace Weights

Interstellar
Interstellar is a gorgeous, squishable soft base with fun sparkles, it's a non superwash extra fine merino and silk blend yarn that is perfect for shawls and light weight tops. Named because the subtle and sometime bold sparkles from the stellina reminiscent of stars, and the rest is but situated between.

Tesseract
This gorgeous silky yarn, has both glow and lustre created by the high percentage silk and the fantastic crispness and richness of Bluefaced Leicester wool this luxury yarn represents the glowing richness of the Tesseract from the Marvel Universe, the Infinity Stone containment vessel.

The Sock Weights and Long Haulers

Ship's Mechanic sock
Which is sadly now leaving the line up, due to being discontinued by the Supplier. I'm on the hunt for a good base replacement, so you'll probably see some different sock yarn blends in the store until i settle on a new one and name it. Though I will say in keeping with the style of Ship's Mechanic i'm looking for a good strong but soft sock. So you might see a gorgeous BFL/Nylon in the future.

This base is named in a nod to a one of my favourite Sci fi's and a certain Firefly class ship mechanic, Kaylee. Who embodies both hardiness and prettiness. This mechanic is just as at home in a dress and baubles as she is with a screwdriver and wrench in hand. Which is the perfect fit for this hard-wearing yarn that is perfect for socks with it's lovely juxtaposition of softness and strength.

Companion 4ply
It's a common theme in Sci Fi and fantasy for the protagonist to have one or two trusty companions, this fabulous superwash merino yarn is the perfect base to come with you on your knitting journeys providing strength and softness. So it's named in tribute to all the companions throughout the galaxy, travelling in time and space, through the black, respectable or otherwise, be fearless knitters, go on I dare you!


Hevelin 4ply
Hevelin is a fingering weight Merino Cashmere Nylon blend, full of softness and warmth. Sinaya Dk also an MCN blend came first, so when it came to naming the fingering weight version I wanted to stay in keeping with the theme.With that in mind Hevelin is another Norbear from the Liaden Universe and as the Ambassador, arguably the most important.

The Great All Rounders

Echo Dk
It's no secret that i'm a big fan of Joss whedon's sci fi works, so when I was thinking of a name for this soft, bouncy, washable, versatile base, I thought of Echo. A kickass active played by Eliza Dushku in dollhouse. The versatility of this year makes it ideal to become anything, just like and active. So choose what imprint(pattern) you want to mold it into and don't forget Echo will bring her own oomph to make your project extra special.

Jayne in One Skein
The name just says it all, this cake of squishy goodness, is for those most cunning amongst us, with a love of shiny, shiny things. Another base named and designed with a nod at my favourity Sci fi. This yarn and base is specifically dyed and measured out to use with the Jayne in One Skein pattern to knit your very own Ma Cobb hat. Though in the same vein, don't be a afraid to knit anything you wish!

Selkie Dk
This dual natured 50/50 Merino and Silk yarn bring both drape and softness to the table. It was named with a view to it's dual nature and inspired by the seal people of myth and folklore, the Selkie. They often make appearances in fantasy tv shows such as Lost girl and I felt that the hypnotic duality of these creatures perfectly embodied this cool and warm glowing yarn.

Sinaya Dk
Sinaya is named after a Norbear from the Liaden universe. Norbears are said to be fearless with a lively dispostion and natural empaths. They are sharing creatures that are warm and comforting, just like this yarn with the merino and cashmere lending incredibly warmth and cuddlyness and the nylon giving it that strength of character. You can't help but want to wrap yourself in this yarn, there is nothing like to gorgeous squishyness to make you feel extra comfortable, so the name was really a no brainer.

The Heavy Hitters

Space &Time
Space and Time are Sister bases, both the same weight and put up at 3plys. However they differ in wool type. With Space a 100% Merino Base and Time 100% Blue Face Leicester. Named thus as space and time are key features in Science Fiction stories and in Tv shows I know and love such as Dr Who. With these two bases all of Space and Time is open to you :P

AND FINALLY

I had such a hard time choosing, because there were so many fabulous suggestions. In the end though, partly because you caught me at a time where i'm re-reading and re-experiencing my love of Discworld. The newest most Fabulous, Squishy Soft Worsted Weight base is Gytha! (First suggested by Claire)

Gytha Worsted

Is named after a Nanny Ogg, from the Discworld Series. She is a loveable and much liked character, to all but her many daughters in law (Which is said by many to be her only failing). This warm welcoming fully figured mother and witch embodies this yarn, It's ridiculous softness and ability to take colour, along with it's good wearing qualities, make it the perfect yarn, for something next to the skin soft or to wrap you up in warmth as a jumper, it's almost magical ;D.

Thank you so much to everyone that made suggestions, they were all fantastic and Adipose and Aslan were such close contenders! Gytha Worsted will be making it's debut in the Shop next month and will be available for a damn good squishing on our stall at Fibre East on the 30th and 31st of July. 

Club Boxes, Teasers and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Nightshade....

The first half of this month seems to have flown by almost at a trot! I'm of the firm belief it might have been urged on by a little magic, Eskarina style.

Sign ups for the Discworld Club are drawing to a close this coming Monday, so if you have yet to get yours sign up now here: http://goo.gl/forms/zjaO8qXN6V

If you need a little convincing here's a little teaser for you.....

I'm rather in love with this new colourway, it's a full skein teaser for one of the club mini skeins. It's just such a deep vibrant red and gold with orange fiery speckles. I've been re-reading the Discworld books and was inspired by the Wizards of Unseen University (Mostly Rincewind) and The Colour of Magic. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to be calling this new colourway Octarine. What do you think? This colourway won't be available in the store until after the Club ends, so if you have a hankering, sign up and get yours! I'm now reading Mort, so if you want to join me in my read-along (it's 4 books in).

Keep an eye on the Instagram and Facebook pages for more teasers over the course of this month. There may yet be another yarn teaser, with the promised Boozin' blue men in kilts colourway! Otherwise you'll get some teasers of the club extras. 

I've been dyeing like a crazy person and having far too much fun with my new base, Yes I did say new base! I've been working with Andy over at Wooltops to create the most amazing quintessentially British worsted weight yarn. The Merino wool was sourced by Andy from the Falkland Islands and is gorgeously soft, and mulesing free. Then processed and spun by John Arbon here in the Uk. It's a fantastically bouncy superwash merino yarn 190m /100g. The perfect jumper weight yarn. I can't stop stroking it, and I can't wait to get started on the jumper pattern for the Glass collection using this yarn. At the moment the yarn base is available only as a custom order, in our regular or custom colourways, by contacting us through the shop at Thirdvaultyarns.com 

I've been having some fun dyeing up the base, take a look at some of the colours i've been playing with.

I'm very much in love with the squishy goodness. I also played with a double stranded sock blank in one of the colourways as you can see in the bottom left corner. Which will be listed in the shop after re-skeining and de-kinking. I'd love opinions on this. Do you like knitting straight from sock blanks? What would you say are the pros and cons?

Now the Sisterhood, not so much a sisterhood but more a travelling swap with the lovely Nightshade or Sadie for short. Sadie is a gorgeous but slightly rebellious bunny in want of travelling opportunities. So after batting her eyelashes and generally warming our hearts with her loveableness she will be travelling to some lovely ladies around the UK who've promised to take her out and show her a good time. If you want to check out the cuteness overload and keep abreast of her travels, come by the Third Vault On the Left Ravelry group or check out #Sadiestravellingswap on Instagram.

She'll be attending some Wool shows over the next few months, so if you see her, give her a shout out! 

Third Vault Yarns on Holiday: Part 1

If you've been following the Facebook page and Instagram, you'll be aware of the fact that we've had a little holiday. Starting on the 12th of March and finishing on the 12th of April. I was joined by a new little friend to take in the highlights, meet new people and travel to new countries. So first of all let me introduce you to #Shaunbonbunny!

This cute little Zombie bunny was made in Third Vault Yarns Echo DK ~ Zombiecide colourway by Kirsty from Stonechatcrafts on Etsy, she has some great things and is a new knitty friend of mine so go check her out!

Our first stop on our tour was Leeds on route to #EYF2016 (but we'll get to that later). I did both of my degrees at Leeds University and because of that the city will always hold a special place in my heart, it's a lot like home for me. It's also home to a few of my friends and the society where my knitting and dyeing addiction truly began. So I couldn't rock up in Leeds for a week without going to stitch 'n' bitch knit night, where I caught up with a couple of old friends and met some 'newtomebies'. Shaun also learned to knit....

Later on that week we taught a dyeing workshop for the society, though mind you it was mostly me teaching, Shaun just charmed everyone with his cuteness. It was a lot of fun to discuss the different techniques, and then watch everyone experiment with hand painting techniques and the different methods of dye application I brought along. I freely admit to being uber jealous of some of the wonderful creations which have been posted under the tag #snbdye16

After that and various stops across the week at my favourite Leeds restaurants (that's the problem with moving after you've lived somewhere for several years, you leave a lot of favourites behind!), If you are in the Leeds area you should absolutely visit, Thai Edge, Little Tokyo, Maxi's Chinese and so many others, It was off on the next leg of my Journey to Edinburgh! I spent most of my time on the train knitting, I was desperately trying to finish my Mont Blanc (oh beautiful thorn in my side!), being absolutely determined to wear it for some of #EYF 2016. At this point I was in the home stretch working on the neckline. I didn't manage to finish it on the train, picking up stitches always takes me forever! So I decided that I was not going to be attending the ceildh without my knitting!

Suffice to say whilst the other's were doing some very energetic dancing I was hunched over in a corner casting off my neckline! Don't worry though, it was done soon enough and I was out on that dance floor with the rest of them. I can't say I have a head for scottish dancing, I certainly didn't know what I was doing half the time, but it was definitely lots of fun. If you discount the amount of times I apologised for stepping on toes and dancing out of time.... There are some great pictures of the Ceildh on the Edinburgh Yarn Fest Website so I recommend heading over and checking it out!

Say What! a finished object?
Steamed within an inch of it's life so I
could wear it the next day :)

Bright and early I queued up for marketplace, snuggly wrapped up in my new jumper, say nothing of those ends! Until at 10 o'clock we were unleashed on the marketplace. First thing I did was to head over to say hello to both Porpoise Fur and Cowtown Knits, though leaving my purse at the porpoise fur stand didn't stop me from buying a pattern from Katie when I was over at her stand. Yes that is my tip for yarn and fibre festivals (not buying stuff without your purse), be disciplined, if you can leave your money in a safe place for that first lap, or firmly at the bottom of your bag.
Get an eyeful of everything before you leave with anything!
is my motto. Shaun was of course with me on this trip round the #EYF marketplace, he was the one hobnobbing with everyone while I ogled the yarns! If you check out the Instagram feed you'll be able to see everyone we met. Oh and I forgot to mention, Shaun, the little cutie, was a style award stealer, someone got an award when I didn't!

My Haul was very modest, Just 2 skeins of Wollmeise and a gift skein for someone else (I can't show the gift yet).

ok so maybe there was a bit more... but in fairness they were all mini skeins and maybe a skein of OMA yarn...

Did you go anywhere interesting over the Easter Holidays? 

This Quarter Y'all, it's just so Goram Shiny!

I keep saying there are exciting things going on this year and it's true I can barely contain myself! For now I'll just stick to exciting things happening this quarter.

Firstly Sign ups are live for this Quarter's Yarn Club. Woooooooo! Firefly! There are only a limited number in total, and some of them are already gone to subscribers! So if you want a club box or exclusive skein sign up here now!

From next week I'll be posting little teasers of the goodies in the box, which I'm really excited to share, however the full contents of the box will remain secret until all the boxes are received in March.

Stained Glass Shawlette will be published this month, so keep an eye out for it, you never know, there might be a limited time discount when it goes live! It uses Misha's Obsessions Merino Silk yarn as part of our #yarniedesignerswap, so check out her yarns and look out for the gorgeous socks she designed in Third Vault Yarns Companion 4ply.

Coming up this month for those in London and the surrounds, Unravel 2016 is happening at Farnham Maltings. From Friday the 19th to Sunday the 21st, there are workshops, talks, and a fabulous list of exhibitors! Also exhibiting is the brainchild of some wonderful ladies London knitters should know and love, or at least have heard of, Yarn in the City! They are launching the London Craft guide, a fantastic book of amazing patterns, for the craftsmen/women and the many bicraftstitchual or is that polycraftstitchual among us, I never know! It's currently available for pre-order over on the Yarn in the City blog. I can't wait to get mine! They will also have some of Third Vault Yarns on the stall including the custom colourway I dyed for YITC. They're posting teasers of it knitting up on Instagram so go take a look, it's got me far too tempted to grab it all back! It will be alongside some fantastic yarns from other Dyers we know and love.

March looms very quickly after that, to much baited breath and Club box reveals!

I'll be teaching a dyeing workshop at my alma mater, Oh Leeds how I miss you!

Though the event on everybody's lips, that has so many guarding their wallets and adding to those savings in preparation is Edinburgh Yarn Fest! We're only adding to those savings to have a massive splurge really! I'll be there shopping, possibly with some samples and coupon codes, but also just to hang with some of the wonderful people. Including Porpoise fur, I wouldn't be surprised if Rachel uses her knowledge of science and chemistry to add pheromones to her fibre because it's just to dye for! I don't even spin...... yet! Also gracing us with her presence will be Kate of Cowtown Knits, what better way to view her patterns than with all the yarn around us, so we can match it to what we want to knit, sounds like a plan y'all!

All that and I've not even really touched on half of it! FAR TOO EXCITED!

Deadpool next week people, deadpool next week.......

What are you looking forward to this Quarter?