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! 

And the winner is.......

You wonderfully awesome people have spoken.The theme for Quarter 2's yarn club is.......

As with most fandoms Terry Pratchett's Discworld is near and dear to me. I fondly remember reading the books and watching The Hog Father at Christmas. Discworld was a source of much laughter, probably more than a little confusion and silly memories! Also for those of you who like a good table top gaming session, Ankh-Morpork the game is really rather fun!

I am really looking forward to re-exploring and re-discovering the world of Discworld with you for this club and I can tell you right now I am strongly inclined to create a colourway called boozin' blue men in kilts.....

As before sign ups go live for subscribers to the yarn club mailing list on the 30th (tomorrow!) and will be available to everyone 1st week of May. Sign ups will only be open until Monday 16th of May this time around, and remember there are only a limited amount of places so don't miss out, if places fill up then sign ups will close early.

The club box will include a set of mini skeins, themed goodies and an exclusive club skein which can be in one of our 100% superwash merino bases, Companion 4ply, Echo Dk or Space Aran. Or you can change from one our standard bases to one of the luxury bases.

• Tesseract lace 600m (55% Sw Blue Faced Leicester 45% Silk) + £4 per skein
• Hevelin 4ply 400m (MCN - 80% Sw Merino 10% Cashmere 10% Nylon) + £4 per skein
• Sinaya Dk 212m (MCN) + £4 per skein
• Selkie Dk 212m (50% Sw Merino 50% Silk) + £2 per skein

There will also be a limited number of single 100g skein offerings for £16 + postage, if a luxury base is chosen add £2 or £4 per skein depending on the option as detailed above.

Extra 100g skeins can be added to the club box or with the single skein for an additional £15 (standard skein) each.


Whilst you wait though, check out my newest pattern release!

The Noughts and Crosses Cowl is now live and available to purchase, both as a pattern on Ravelry and as a Kit in the Store

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? 

Themed Quarterly Yarn Club ~ Firefly

Quarter 1 is drawing to a close, bringing with it the end of the first instalment of the Quarterly Yarn Club. For those of you that didn't get a chance to join in the fun, here is the final club box and the gorgeous yarns and goodies that everyone received.

I have a lot of fandoms that I'm particularly partial to. Firefly being one of my all time favourites. So I was thrilled when it won the vote. I really enjoyed creating it and I'd love to take you through my different inspirations for the colourways present in the Club. Starting with the Exclusive Club skein 'Serenity'.

Shown on our Tesseract base

Serenity was inspired by it's namesake, the Firefly class ship that is home to our favourite crew. I wanted to show the ship as a little battered but still well loved and beautiful in its own way. With maroon and orange flashes across the skein overlaid with a silvery grey/black reminiscent of the scene when the ship is flying though a sea of Reavers in Serenity. Lastly I definitely couldn't forget to add the section of engine burn orangey yellow, so that when in skein form it looks like Serenity is in full burn travelling through the black.

Crew Member Companion minis

Captain Tightpants/Mal

For Mal I really wanted to represent his bold nature as well as pay homage to his browncoat loyalties. To this end I played with rich reds and browns, whilst also including some yellow and beiges to balance out those colours. As I've said before I think his and Inara's colourway go beautifully together, both very bold and in brilliant contrast.

Reader/River

River was a hard one to represent, as in speaking to others, I've found she in particular is interpreted so differently. Even by me in this case, as her colourway very nearly ended up completely different. I had originally gone for a strong rich blue and Sage/olivey green to represent her dresses in two key scenes, both in the TV series and the film. However at the last moment I changed my mind and her colourway became silvery blue with more blue flashes and red speckles. As I think it represents the dancer's fluidity with which she carries herself but also a nod to her fighting skills and her scattered mind.

Companion/Inara

I have previously spoken about my inspiration for Inara's colourway, and how I feel the rich layered purples represent her strength of character and her beauty, so it was a pleasure to include her as a mini for this club.

Pilot/Wash

Wash and Zoe will always be my personal favourite characters aboard the ship, so it was a no brainer when I chose Wash as one of the crew member skeins, With his quirky one liners and his snappy dress sense how could I not! I took inspiration from his crazy shirts, with their pale green under colour and colourful prints and patterning. I followed this by creating a light mint green underlay and using orange, blue, teal and black for speckles and splashes.

As to why these four over the others, I have been working on some new Firefly themed colourways that I will début in the next quarter as well as some more Dr Who inspired colourways. Some of the ideas I had for crew members for Firefly couldn't be demonstrated to my satisfaction on mini skeins. Hence why these 4 of 9.

Goodies!

We can't forget this club's wonderful goodies. made in collaboration with some other artisans, including buttons from Crazy buttons and Allsorts, and some charms from Pinz n Thingz.
The notions pouches and stitch markers were made by me with the buttons made by Angie of Crazy buttons, she does beautiful work.

I will be offering themed notions kits upon my return from holiday in April and there will be a limited number of these Firefly ones up for grabs, so if you like them don't miss out!

Now onwards! Boldly into the next quarter and the beginning of voting on the next theme. Thanks to everyone on Ravelry who gave suggestions in the group as to possible themes for next quarter, The Random thing picker has spoken!

The themes for voting are!

• Discworld
• Fifth Element
• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Don't worry if your theme isn't here for voting, I'll be working on lots of new colourways on my return from holiday so you'll see one or two based on some of the different themes suggested to me, Also keep an eye out towards the end of this year, there will be some exciting things happening, exciting but kind of secret so I can't share them just yet :D

In other news, there will be a "Because yarn is expensable, right?" Market Night this coming Saturday April 2nd over on the Facebook page, don't forget to check it out as all our ready to ship yarns will be on offer. with 10% off over £20 spent and 15% off over £50.

So what are you waiting for, Get Voting and Get Shopping!

Origin Stories & Updates

Now every Superhero, and Super villain has one, unless you're the Joker and then well you just cray.....

Not saying i'm any of those things, but I thought I'd share a little bit about my origin story or how Third Vault on the Left and Third Vault Yarns and Designs came to be.

I've always been a crafty person and I love to dabble in things and have a rather terrible or beautiful habit of throwing myself into a new craft very wholeheartedly until i'm at least decent at it (or blindly bashing on anyway, shhhhhhh!).

Anyway I learnt to knit at a very young age. I was taught by my mother on the playground, didn't have the patience to appreciate it at that age though as I was far more into footy and fashion design. I grew up always wanting to be a fashion designer and loving sewing, designing at every chance I got. I loved making things for everyone, to the point I'm pretty sure my family got a little tired of my handmade gifts for Christmas, Birthdays, (but you know I was having a clear out and I found a little lavender potporri bag I hand sewed for my mother, for a long ago mother's day tucked into one of her drawers, long since stopped smelling, but cherished).

Over the years I re-discovered knitting, making random things and putting them down to go to the UFO pile in the sky. I still remember the cringeworthy bright orange and chocolate brown scarf I decided to make my mother on our large family holiday to America, I spent a fair amount of my time in that Huntington beach house, proudly knitting that acrylic horror. That's not me talking down about acrylic, it has its uses and you can get some really lovely acrylic, evidenced by my spanish hauls from New year 2015, this however was bargain bin walmart stuff.

Fast forward to University I'd finished Textiles A Level and was currently studying my first year of Computer Science at University (I know right, a little bit of a disconnect). I decided at the end of the year I wanted to do a fashion show, a whole collection of outfits telling the story of a young lady, morning to evening and random stops in between. That was great fun, a little harsh on the student budget because by this time I was in LOVE, with Silk, not the cheapest certainly but it turned into some gorgeous pieces.

Fast forward 2010-2011, I was on placement at Microsoft and had seriously messed up knees. On crutches for 4 months and nowhere near as flexible or able to be kneeling on the floor drafting patterns and cutting fabric. I made one thing that whole year, I loved it but I took so many breaks making it, definitely a lot more labour and pain than love at the time. I got back to university, my social and crafting pursuits wildly up in the air (I still struggle with my knees at points). Promptly joined the Stitch n Bitch society which had undergone a massive overhaul whilst I was away and took back to Knitting like a fish rediscovering water. I've been doing it ever since. 

The next year I with a couple of friends took over the committee and in the spring/summer term, after discovering a love of hand dyed yarn, decided to teach a workshop for the members. Promptly taught myself through youtube videos and random tutorials, tested out a couple of things with another friend and comittee member and taught the class. Everyone loved it and so did I, Never really stopped since. I taught another dyeing workshop, kept dyeing for myself and eventually did some commission dyeing. Upon graduating I said F- this I want to do something I love and share my love of geekiness colour and yarn with others so here I am now :) I took up knitting design, mostly to assuage the designing bug that just wouldn't quite and my complete inability to knit a pattern, jumper or otherwise without making changes for me, or playing with the design. Be fearless knitters people!

 My own origin story !

My first 2 hand dyed yarns, food colouring and white vinegar :)

On a serious note, getting back in to knitting did a wonderful thing in helping me through a time when I took a big knockback, and suddenly found that I couldn't do half the things that I loved. Yarn, Colour and Squishyness, played a very large part in adding a little bit more joy to my life. In getting into dyeing yarn for sale, I wanted to share that feeling and love, the evocativeness of colour, the tactileness and the ability to dream and create with something and make it that much more beautiful with the work and love we put in.

In other more current news, Unravel started today! I'll be there from tomorrow morning, checking in with Porpoise fur and Yarn in the City in the Barley Room and the YARN oh the YARN.
I found myself singing today ( as per my recent fortune cookie, "sing every day")

"You put a spell on me, and I want your yarn!"

So yeah I might be leaving my purse little lighter and my bags a little heavier!

I'll also be wearing the Sample of my Newest Shawl Pattern Stained Glass, published last week and only on Limited Time Discount for a few more days.

Only available on Ravelry at the moment

I might also be wearing the fingerless gloves designed to be knit with this shawlette in a kit of two 50g skeins of fingering weight. Come find me if you want a preview :D.

There will be a large shop update next week and a final teaser for the Firefly yarn club (only 2 more spaces). Until I get the whole box finished and sent out.

Until next time, let me know if you'll be wandering at unravel, we can have a knit, chat and a yarn ogle :P

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?

The Votes are in and it's Shiny!

I've counted up all your votes, and you wonderful people have chosen Firefly!

I'm incredibly excited and I confess i've been planning this nearly since the beginning of the month, but I also planned the Doctor Who box option too, so you might get to see some new Whovian colourways this quarter.

I'll be working with a couple of other artisans to bring you a very snazzy club box. Just a quick reminder of what will be in the box.

The club boxes (£42) will include a 100g skein of yarn in an exclusive colourway. There will also be a set of mini skeins two of which are colourways you've already seen before but are just gorgeous. Take a look at Mal and Inara all knit up together in Lili Comme Tout's fantastic pattern Papyrus .

There will also be some mystery theme related goodies, which is where the other artisans come in, though i'll be making a few.

The exclusive club skein can be in one of our 100% superwash merino bases, Companion 4ply, Echo Dk or Space Aran or you can change from one our standard bases to one of the luxury bases.

• Tesseract lace 600m (55% Sw Blue Faced Leicester 45% Silk) + £2 per skein
• Hevelin 4ply 400m (MCN - 80% Sw Merino 10% Cashmere 10% Nylon) + £3 per skein
• Sinaya Dk 212m (MCN) + £3 per skein
• Selkie Dk 212m (50% Sw Merino 50% Silk) + £2 per skein

There will also be a limited number of single 100g skein offerings for £16 + postage, if a luxury base is chosen add £2 or £3 per skein depending on the option as detailed above.

Extra 100g skeins can be added to the club box or with the single skein for an addition £15 (standard skein) each.

Sign ups are available to subscribers of the yarn club mailing list on the 31st and will be open to everyone else with the next blog post in the first week of February.