Category: Fibre Artists

An Epic Case of Procrastinating

Happy December everyone!! It’s good to be back! More than a year has passed and I have been agonising over this website and blog for many many months. An epic case of procrastinating!I’ve not even ventured into it because of my own disappointment in my apathy. Along with that goes my self-judgement and agonising over neglecting all you yarn- and fibre-craft-lovers and hopelessly letting you down.

But I have finally taken the leap, ripped my head out of the sand and updated the Yarns and Fibre Artists.

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Does knitting count as a religion? Or perhaps as exercise?

Hello yarn & fibre-lovers & -crafters

And so we enter another phase of lockdown, albeit a different version of the same phase. It is starting to get a bit confusing trying to keep up with minor changes and what’s new. In version 1 of lockdown level 3, I recall getting very excited that places of worship would be allowed to reopen, with a maximum capacity of 50 worshippers. I immediately thought that this was the right time and perfect reason for Yarmies to become a religion.

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We have yarn; we’ll survive lockdown

Hello blog. We still have (hopefully only) two weeks of lockdown to go and our household is managing (just barely, on some days) to keep our sanity in tact. How are YOU doing? I have to say that the fact that I have a SABLE (stash acquired beyond life expectancy) is definitely in my favour. What more could one ask for… we have yarn; we’ll survive lockdown.

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Image by Deon van Wyk

Crochet for CANSA 2019 – Unforgettable!

I had the wonderful fortune of being invited by a friend (and immensely special person…my sister-from-another-mother) to join her and a friend at the Crochet for CANSA 2019 fund-raising event in Pretoria on Saturday. What an unforgettable experience! Worth every second of the drive from Johannesburg. I do believe that, having been to this one, I’d be willing to travel from even further away, if I had to.

Celebrate! A New Indie Yarn!!

Happy Tuesday to you, Yarn Lover 🌷. I’ve been super busy since the beginning of October. I’m sure you have, too. It’s that crazy time of year, isn’t it? But everything can be managed with a great cup of coffee. Today, I had planned on posting everything yarn-related that we’ve been up to for the past few weeks. But I could not contain my excitement about a new indie yarn! I just had to share it with you.Digiprove sealCopyright protected by Digiprove © 2018 Brenda Olwagen

Long time no see!

Hellooooo dear yarn lovers. Long time no see! It has been a few too many weeks since I last chatted with you. Almost feels like I’ve lost my blog-voice and need to find it again.

It sure has been an eventful (ie: challenging) few weeks with a sick new kitten that infected one of our older cats, our dog-let (actually a biggish border collie) needing surgery, sick kids and other health issues, broken gate, hacked e-mail, dad unexpectedly at the emergency room and… The list of drama actually goes on. Some of it has been the usual daily mishaps and goings-on, but there have been an unusual number of humdinger disasters in-between. Which made me wonder – how has this past month been for you? Whether or not it’s been a tough one for you too, here’s a virtual hug for you 🤗. Everyone can do with a hug, even when you’re feeling on top of the world!  

Clearly this is not Wonder Woman’s blog. Nope, I don’t get everything magically done (I wish!) in between whatever chaos may be happening around me. Come to think of it, I’m not sure even Wonder Woman actually has time for her own blog. It’s at times like these that I envy people with gazillions of Pounds, Euros, Dollars or even Rands who can pay multitudes of other people to deal with it when the paw-paw flies non-stop at the fan. But I’ll spare you the rest of the drama details, because in between all of that was a lot of good stuff, too…Digiprove sealCopyright protected by Digiprove © 2018 Brenda Olwagen

The gift of an Indie-dyer…

Hallo yarn-lover!

I hope you’ve had a great week so far. Just 2 more week-days / work-days to go.

My girls and I just can!not!wait! for this weekend and the Alliepad Alpakkas Farm Visit and Fibre Festival (details on the Events page). I’m so looking forward to a wonderful day out in the Magaliesberg, to the classes, workshops and demonstrations, and to drooling over the hand crafted alpaca-fibre goods and everything on offer from Baah Yarns & Fibre Arts, Linda’s Treehouse, Umbala Handpainted Yarns, Karoo Moon, The Yarn Tree, Craft Academy, Glynis Brooke, L.J. Craft Creations and Stitch Please.

It’ll be the first time I’ll be visiting the alpaca farm, and it’s long overdue. I met the lovely Louisa at a weaving course at the beginning of the year and have been wanting to visit her for ages. But time is a fickle beast – it passes way faster than it theoretically should and somehow there just isn’t enough of it when you need it. I first just need to get through this week with my heart still in my chest…Digiprove sealCopyright protected by Digiprove © 2018 Brenda Olwagen

When the world is ColourSpun!

My “love affair” with yarn was a gradual process, a slow awakening to the sensual delights of a skein of yarn. It started when I  joined the knitting group. You have my endless love and gratitude for leading me to yarn enlightenment, ladies! Seeing the gorgeous stuff that everyone was knitting and crocheting with felt like I had entered into a whole new universe of yarnie existence.

The festival that started it all…

Browsing the websites of the fibre artists was, without doubt, a visual joy. But I had an insatiable desire to touch these yarns in the flesh. As a newbie to natural yarns, nothing beat being able to touch that lusciousness. So I jumped at the chance to go to the Klerksdorp Yarn Festival in 2015 to get yarn for my birthday. I think it was the very first yarn event I went to and I dragged my whole family along…Digiprove sealCopyright protected by Digiprove © 2018 Brenda Olwagen