A New Year

Happy New Year and I hope it's a brighter, healthier and more sociable one than 2020!

I have been gently easing into 2021 and am trying to start the year with the right balance of work, planning and relaxation for me. When you run your own business, everyone tells you things like "Oh you'll be able to take time off whenever you want" or "You're so lucky, you can always have a holiday " but the reality is that you spend all your time and brain power on work and never take the time needed to rest. So I'm trying to be sensible and know my limits this year, what I can realistically manage to achieve and focus on the best ways to reach my targets and spread my passion for colourful yarn.

One of the ways I want to spread my passion as part is through a brand new yarn club. I love mini skeins and scrappy packs - they give you the chance to use as much colour as possible without having to buy lots of excess yarn. They're very budget friendly and there are many patterns out there to suit mini skeins and to play with colour. I'll be sharing some of my favourite patterns soon but firstly I want to tell you more about the club.

As a colour therapist, colour is my foundation, it guides my every day and can completely change my approach to a project or task. It influences everything I do from what I put on in the morning and how I decorate my house to what I look for when out and about in nature and ultimately, how I run HennyPennyMakes. Colour is everything for me and so I've decided to run a Colour Therapy club this year, with each month focusing on a different colour. The first colour we're looking at is pink and I'm offering four different options so that everyone can find a choice of minis to suit them.

I love sock and blanket making so I have semi solid and variegated options to suit both of these and I'm hoping by the end of the year, that I'll have a pair of socks in every colour of the rainbow. That was the reason I started dyeing yarn and it would be lovely to finally achieve that goal!

Ugly sisters on Silver sparkle - 75% Superwash Merino, 15% Nylon and 10% Silver stellina

I'm also going to run the dyed to order section of the website slightly differently this year. In the past I've always tried to have as many of my colourways available all the time but I know it wasn't easy searching through many colours to find your favourite, and the last thing I want is to cause overwhelm so instead I'm going to try and do it by colour each month to tie into the colour therapy club. So at the moment I've added some of my favourite pinks in case you prefer crafting with full skeins rather than minis. As always, my dyed to order yarns are available on a variety of bases including my standard sock yarn which is a merino nylon mix, the soft fluffy kid mohair and silk and a chunky merino which takes the dye beautifully.

Woo Woo on Standard sock - our 75% Superwash Merino and 25% Nylon sock yarn

In the pink on Kidsilk - 72% Superkid Mohair, 28% Mulberry Silk.

The last of my plans for this year is to have a monthly shop update with ready to ship yarns and the first of these will be on Friday 29th January. If you can't wait that long, there is plenty of colourful yarn in the shop at the moment and one or two items in the sale section too.