Been ball banding like crazy some of these goodies prepped for Aiguille en Fete, Paris next week. Above some superwash DK merino. Below some new mulberry silk with metallic thread

some merino silk lace

and saving the best for last camel/silk lace  which is so shimmery- just fantastic

lots of other new yarns- I think the baby mille colori balls are really cute

- selling our home for 13 years in London and moving to the country. We are now on the Berkshire/Oxfordhire border between Reading and Henley. While this was a huge move in all aspects, the fabulous upshot is that Debonnaire no longer lives in a storage room but here:

Moving in

Studio in progress:

It is a huge wonderful space and set up like a shop- well at least my version of a stuffed shop. Amazing the amount of goodies I uncovered in the move. In any case, all the yarn , needles, needlepoint and threads, books , patterns and samples are fully on display. The studio is open any day I am not on the road exhibiting so best to call if you’d like to stop by ( 0788-799-4351). The address is Row Lane Farmhouse, Row Lane, Dunsden, Berkshire RG4 9PT. Your sat nav will bring you straight here. It is about a 50 minute drive from West London ,10 minute drive from Henley or Reading.

Other big news is our new dog Theo who arrived with us in September ( as if I didn’t have enough to do). He is quite the stunner

He like his new mother is obsessed with yarn and sheep, so far 3 skeins of silk, 2 skeins hand dyed sock, 2 hats and 1 cowl have been chomped, as well as various assorted needles. Even though he has his own stash of baby sheep, he goes after mine- I felted Christmas sheep beheaded, 2 decorative ones dejambed….

Needless to say, I am smitten

Then yesterday, huge box of  embellished silks finally arrived:

New Silk Lace:

Colours are not done justice with my camera-

Off  with all to Unravel to set up today. Held this weekend at Farnham Maltings, Surrey, the show features about 65 fantastic purveyors of yarn wonderfulness. Check it out:

http://www.farnhammaltings.com/news/unravel/748/574/96/unravel_2012.aspx

A wonderful but exhausting time in north Paris last week exhibiting at L’Aiguille en Fetes. Paris shows open until  pm so we had no time at night to do anything but eat dinner afterward. Managed to stuff in all my favorites however.

French clients were fabulous, most notably Francois who visited me on 2 different days and by the time I had returned had finished 1 pair of mitts with my new supersoft merino superwash:

formidable,n’cest pas ( my pigeon french..)

managed terrible french throughout- although I am still thinking numbers in French and can count to 100 quite quickly now. Hopefully will be able to pronounce ” la laine” correctly next time.

Unusually for moi, the trip passed without any major drama.  Am inordinately proud of the fact that I negotiated a right hand manual van throughout France without incident. In all, fun, fun ,fun. Debonnaire retournera!

You may have seen the Lake District Sheep singing jingle bells last year- but check it out again, sure to make you smile.

When I was young, we had a sheep called Henry the Lamb ( yes, that was his full name). Henry grew huge over the years, was shorn by Ladybird Johnson during her beautify America kick and inspired a children’s book. When Henry died (in my mother’s arms), he seemed as big as Shrek but it was all muscle (ok,  maybe fat too) not wool covering. Henry did not like  the male humanoid  species. Whenever my father drove home, he would zoom around the circular driveway 3-4 times with Henry in hot pursuit and then quickly emerge and race into the house. Henry also tormented my younger brother- he particularly liked to hide behind bushes ( or at least he thought he was hiding) and then charge at any opportunity. And who said sheep are dumb ?  Still makes me laugh….