Introducing Devon .

Things remain very busy at Chez Bears as I get ready for Wonderwool Wales this weekend .

I've just popped in here to give you all a preview of my brand new yarn.

It has been spun especially for me .

It's totally British , having been grown, processed , spun and dyed in the UK.

I knew right from the start what I would call this yarn and what I wanted to achieve with it .

I have had a love affair with the Devon coast for years and the fact that most of the processing is done in Devon it, to me, was a no brainer .

Devon is a blend of Exmoor/ Blueface and Alpaca and is so soft and bouncy .

It comes in three thicknesses , Aran , Double Knit and Four Ply .

All the colours reflect the Devon coast and coastal villages .

So without no more ado I give you Devon.

L to R Thrift - Instow - Sea Lavender - Budleigh.

L to R Ocean - Lynmouth - Tussock - Hartland 

L to R Devon Blue - Clovelly - Sunshine - Salcombe 

L to R Branscombe - Tor - Topsham - Dune .

Hope you like them.

The yarn will have it's first outing this weekend at Wonderwool Wales .

We will be on stand T8 this year so i hope some of you will come along and see the yarn in real life .

I promise I'll Blog all about the show when I get back.

Who Stole March ???

Right , come on ,own up . Which one of you lot stole March ???

Seriously I don't know where the past month has gone . It's been murderously busy here at Chez Bears and something had to give . Unfortunately it was the Blog so I'll fill you in now .

I'm going to have to wrack my brains to remember everything that has happened.

As previously posted Papa had his birthday back in Feb .The Cubs had bought him a swanky new field scope for his bird spotting so he had to try it out . I surprised him with a visit to Martin Mere Wildlife and Wetland Trust Site to see the Winter visiting Whooper Swans. Every year we say we will go and never do .Well now we've been and what a sight .

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There were hundreds of swans and shelducks feeding at teatime.

This is papa in one of the hides using his new scope . He's wearing the Johnny Kingdom coat that the Cubs bought him for Christmas .It was a good day out.

The 10th March heralded my birthday . DD and DS 2 paid for me to got to see Oliver at the Palace Theatre in Manchester . DS1 is working on a swanky new website for me and DS3 got me vouchers for Hobbycraft. I got two lovely fibrey books from Papa.Two days after my birthday we drove down to Wales for a lovely five days with Artis-Anne and Tony. We so love going down there they are such warm friendly and generous people .We spent the time chilling out spinning chatting and eating far to much cake .We had a lovely day out at Machynlleth market.Got a new bed for Meg and some bits. Could have spent a fortune in the Hippy Shop there. All to soon it was time to come home and get some work done.

These past weeks I've dyed a fair few kilos of yarn and fibre ready for the shows and I've had to keep updating the Etsy Shop as it has been busy there to .I've just finished a mammoth update today . Why not take a look .

Well you'd think that Spring had well and truly sprung if you looked in my garden.And last week we had record breaking temperatures . Hence the mega dyeing session. But today the weather is rather Baltic with icy winds .Snow is on the cards for Easter , i hope not.

Well that's it March was busy to say the least and April isn't going to be much different. We have two big shows , for which I'm still dyeing , and the caravan wants sorting out before we can go away . It's all go .

Sorry for the long gap . I can't promise I'll be back soon but I'll try :0)

And the Winner is

Sorry it's a day late but I've been busy . Hmm what's new :0)

I put all the names of people 'who had left a comment on the Blog since the 18th of February ' into Papa's big hat.

Then asked him to draw out a name .

 He has got his eyes shut . Honest.

And the winner is Pookledo.

Whoever you are please email me at info(at)laalbear(dot)co(dot)uk using @ and full stops

Or if you are on Ravelry PM me with your address .

Thank you 

Puddytatpurr

Artis-Anne

Dajon

Auntienoo

Moonandmuttley
Nic

and Sue 

for taking part. Better luck next time .

Come Take a Walk

Well another week has gone by .Today is Papa's birthday.Happy Birthday Chuck ( for my American readers Chuck is a North Lancashire term of endearment ) I've just reckoned up and realised we have been a couple for 43 years this year :0) married for 42.

I have been knitting and dyeing fibre this week. The fibre will be put in the shop shortly the knitting is being kept under wraps at the mo as it's all new designs and the patterns need tweeking.

So as there aren't any pics of projects etc I've decided to take you for a walk .

A few weeks ago we bumped into a man whilst on our usual railway walk and we got chatting about different walks . He mentioned Worden Park which is a park on the edge of a near by town . Now I have lived in our village since I was born and I'm ashamed to say I'd never been. The walk sounded nice as it was by water.

So off we went to explore and he was right .It was lovely . Loads of birds to see which was right up Papa's street as he is a keen birdwatcher and load of nooks and crannies for Meg to explore .`

Any way here's a walk through the woods .  :0)

 Snowdrops

 Masses of them

First of the ponds

 there's a little railway runs all round the park in Summer

 One of the stations

 Papa looking for birds

 Daffodils in bud.In a few weeks this banking will be a mass of yellow

First of the weirs

 Papa striding out

Second weir. The sound of water falling over these weirs is great

 Third weir

 The tree to which these roots belong was to tall for me to get it in a picture

 Papa in his Johnny Kingdom jacket the cubs bought him for Christmas

 I love this huge burr on this fallen tree

 Another pond

 Bluebell shoots.By May this will all be blue

 Last of the ponds .
Hope you enjoyed the walk. I plan to take pictures throughout the year to show the changing seasons .It should be interesting.
Well guess who's got another obsession :0) It's pod casts, they are great. So far I have listened to Aplayfulday
Yarns from the Plain  Miss Elle Knits and Ba Ba Black Sheep
I do have a favourite but it wouldn't be polite to say which it is but they are all great . If you are knitting /spinning/crocheting minded give them a whirl they are all on ITunes .
Well that's it for today It's taken me ages to do this blog as my stupid computer was on a mega go slow so I had to trasfer to the netbook.Anyway it's done now so enjoy :0)

Oops

I've done it again haven't I.Another week has gone by and no Blogging.

It's been busy again Chez Bears . It was half term this week so it was off to Morecambe with the Grandbears for our bi-annual trip. We were one down this time as eldest Grandbear has her half term a week later thatn the other two this time. She was well miffed as this is the first time she's missed in 10 years .I thought she would have stopped coming by now as she is 18 but she loves our days out .

I've not got any pics as it was bloody cold when we did our walk along the Stone Jetty. I think it was the quickest we'd ever done .

There's been plenty of knitting and crocheting,

 This a scarf I made for GD 2's 16th birthday. She loved the blankets I made for Baby Bear in Rico Pom Pom so I made her a Dr Who length scarf in it . Went down very well.

 I've finished my Ripple Blanket and it does brighten the front room up.

 Another Pop Pom baby blanket this time for a friend of DD's

And this is my latest blanket . This time a Granny Ripple blanket . It's very quick to do .

I have now decided to curb my obsession a bit as it was encroaching on my knitting projects and my pattern designing. So now I only crochet after 9 pm in the evening till bedtime . It's amazing how much I still get done

Mmm it would appear LaalBear has taken another step into Technoland . Papa bought me an Ipod for Christmas . We already have one that we share and have it connected up to a docking station. It's fine but our tastes in music differ a lot . I have quite a varied taste from classic , new age , 40's-60's and a few modern. Papa is strictly a Country and Western and 50's/ 60's. . Now i've got my own it is filling up with allsorts and today I've learnt the joy of Podcasts. I've only downloaded a couple yet but if any of you know of any knitty podcasts i should try let me know .

We've also been busy looking after Baby Bear.

I know i've  been a bit remiss in posting pics of her but I don't like posting to many pics of my Grandchildren

for family privacy reasons .

But she is so cute I thought I'd indulge you . 

Can't believe it's nearly a year since she was born :0)

Now I just noticed the other day that I had gone past 20.000 hits to my Blog so to celebrate that and the fact I've been neglecting my readers I've decided to have a give away. 

Leave a comment on the blog and I'll put your name in a hat for a draw for this Limey Project bag .It makes  a good knitting bag for all you knitters and if you don't knit it's ok for make up etc.
I'll make the draw on Leap Year day 29th Feb :0)

Right ! that's all for today I'm going to get a bit of knitting done before we go out tonight with Papa's brothers PS how do you like my knitting alter ego .:0)))

Fame comes to Chez bears

Cripes is it a week since I blogged. I've been meaning to do a bit more blogging than i have been but as usual tempes has bloomin well fugited again. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day for me .When I hear people say they're bored I haven't a clue what they're talking about. I've always got something to do whether it's knitting, spinning, crocheting . I can't sit at night and just watch TV i have to be working on some project or another.At present I've got about four projects on the go plus I'm busy designing and knitting up samples ready for the shows .And then there's housework ,shopping and walking Meg  squeezed into the day somehow .

And this week has been dyeing week .

Thanks to my friens Artis-Anne I have learnt the delights of double dyeing and this is the result

Don't they look lush.This wool will be a new line at Wonderwool Wales. It's Aran weight Blue Face Leicester and will have DK and Sock in the same colour ways and base yarn so you can make hats , scarves and socks to match.:0)

Now for thefame bit .This week LaalBear has been featured in Knit Now knitting magazine.

I'm so thrilled. I've had small mentions before but this is a third of a page and a link through to my shop . We'll have to see if it gets me any more sales .

This last pic is terrible . It would appear that I've bought more Stylecraft yarn .

It just confirms that I have an obsesive compulsive streak in me and that 2012 is definately the year of the blanket . See what I mean about time .This little lot will certainly occupy a lot . So what . I don't drink and I don't smoke and this box of yarn is equal to about five twenty packs of cigarettes but when I've crocheted this lot up I'll have a couple of warm blankets and a smoker will have a pile of ash :0)

That's all for now folks . I'll try and pop back before next Friday LOL

P.S. Ooops I forgot to say that there is a sale of lace weight yarns over in the shop.
All lace weight yarns have been reduced by £5 . There's no code as I've taken the money off at source .
If you fancy taking look go HERE

Is it February all Ready

Well that was a quick month. Can't believe we are into February already .

The days are very definately lengthening now though. It's great to be able to go out for a walk in the afternoon without the thought of having to be back by four.

Things have been busy at Chez Bears . Getting the long awaited news that we had got in for Woolfest has got me fired up and ready to dye .I've just taken delivery of some new yarns and fibres and hopefully there will be an announcement in late March of some very new stuff . Watch this space:0)

Now for some piccies 

First of all is a progress report on my Ripple Blanket. I'm just loving working on this.

It's a nice easy tele/film watching project. I'm going to order more of these colours and make some cushion covers to brighten up our front room.

Finished Granny Square Blanket.

 Merino /Cashmere

Merino.Bamboo

These two little shawls were produced using my new Shawl Balls. These are balls of yarn that have been specifically designed for shawl knitting and have large bands of colours that change as you knit .

If you want to give them a try they are now on sale in my Etsy Shop  in the Sock yarn/Shawl Ball section.

The next pic is a new venture for me . Designing.

I made all my girls beaded hand warmers for Christmas and enjoyed knitting them so much I've decided to try and put my ideas down on paper and produce patterns for them .

This is the first . I'm in the middle of writing it up just need to figure out converting files to PDF's .

Number 1 son will come in handy here .I will post back when they are ready :0)

Well that's all for now except to say Hi to my Hamilton follower. So thrilled that we will meet in June at Woolfest. My stall number is D84. And I would be thrilled to meet anyone who follows my Blog at the shows this year. Don't be shy pop by and say Hello ;0)