Spring Giveaway

I can't believe it's March already and I haven't given details of the Spring Giveaway! The weather is making me feel it is already spring - glorious sunshine, the forsythia is almost out and the daffodils also almost there!

This time I'm actually going to do the draw a day early - that is on the 20th rather than the 21st. This is because I will be at the Original Reenactors Market for the weekend and so I can get someone to draw the name for me on the Sunday. I'll post the results hopefully straight away.

To enter the draw you need to follow this blog or "like" The Mulberry Dyer on Facebook and I am now going to include Ravelry members who join A colourful History  group.

The Spring Giveaway is 100g of Pure Silk Boucle. This is a beautiful silk yarn, new to our collection and divine to knit or even crochet, has a beautiful drape for scarves and shawls, ideal for lacy items. The colourway is cochineal and indigo - very rich and lush as you can see! Retail price is £18 for 100g. Normal skein weight is 50g at £9.50.

There is no catch to our giveaway, it doesn't matter where in the World you are based if your name is drawn out of the hat I will ask you for your snail mail and the yarn will be posted out at no cost to you. I would ask merely that you tell your friends and yarny colleagues if you enjoy the yarn. It's a simple promotional excercise.

Autumn Giveaway

Organic Merino Aran

Goodness the summer has vanished - and it feels like it too from the drop in temperature and amount of rain that is falling (well here in Northern France at least!).

a closer view - isn't it soft and squidgy looking?

We started the giveaway in June with the Summer Organic Cotton Boucle (colour still to be chosen - Sarah!). For the Autumn we though we'd offer something warm and comforting! Our choice this time is 3 x 100g hanks of Organic Merino Aran weight yarn. The Merino is not a British yarn, but is pure Merino and beautifully soft and warm. Organically certified and processed the dyer still refuses to go through the hoops!!! We are offereing 300g of the yarn which should be plenty for a hat and scarf to keep the Autumn winds at bay - try looking at Woolly Wormhead's site for some fab hat patterns, I have a scarf pattern that I will include with the yarn! The recommended needle size for the yarn is 4mm and the approximate hank length is 150m.

We have decided that as not everyone wants to join facebook we will also include followers of this blog, if you do NOT wish to be included in the draw please drop me an email and I will miss your name out!

Hope you like our choice of colour - it is Logwood and Lac, the yarn is handpainted and there is our usual guarrantee that if you find any problem with the dye in terms of rub off whilst knitting up then you are entitled to a replacement yarn.

Good luck to all!

Organic Cotton Boucle Yarn

Although I am probably one of the longest established commercial natural dyers, certainly in the UK (I started producing handspun, naturally dyed embroidery silks for reenactors back in the early '90's) I am really conscious that my yarns aren't well known or on my website properly. This stems from the fact that I don't know how to photo them and show them to their best advantage, also the colours will show up differently on everyone's screens and I don't want people to be disappointed when they get a colour that wasn't what they thought it would be. (well it's the computer manipulation I have a problem with, not the taking the picture!)

Unless you've seen our stall you won't know what our yarns are like!

So to try and introduce the different yarns to a wider audience we have decided to do a seasonal giveaway! On the 21st of June, September, December and March (the old start to the next season) we will be doing a draw for someone to win a quantity of one of our yarns.

If you follow us on Facebook then your name will be put into a hat (I have many from different periods!) to win whichever is the choice of yarn for that season. (Should you prefer NOT to be entered into the draw then please send me an email and I will take you out!)

So - for the Summer Giveaway we are choosing a cool yarn - 500g of

Organic Cotton Boucle from our Morus Organic range.

The yarn itself is organic cotton from Peru, the processing is organically certified, the dyes used are either organically certified or approved by GOTS, it's just the dyer who won't go through the hoops required (well actually I have higher standards and environmental issues with organic status!) The price per 100g hank is £15 so that's £75 worth of yarn I'm giving away for the first season!

The recommended needle sizes for this yarn are 4.5mm - 5.5mm with a tension square of 14 stitches and 24 rows to 10cm over stocking stitch. For suggested reading try the Wandering Spirits pattern book by Jean Moss.

The winner will be notified through the facebook page and can either choose to have the yarn commsission dyed (a colour within reason please!) or select a colour that is currently available from stock. As we are attending Woolfest at the end of June then should the winner choose to select from stock they can make a personal choice from there if appropriate.

We hope you will approve of this method of introducing our yarns and over the next month or so we hope to have an Etsy shop up and running, specifically for the yarns!