The Woolchemist

08/08/2026

The last club reveal I still owe you is the most recent one: July’s inspiration was the elusive Will-I’-the-Wisp. This mysterious floating light that can be seen over bogs and marshes is said to be lanterns carried by trickster fae to lure wanderers from safe paths into danger.
The colourway I created is equally mysterious and witchy, with UV reactive dyes recalling the glow of these lanterns, and some deep tones resembling the darkness of the treacherous marshes. The contrast colour for the club was a UV reactive purple semisolid called “Fae Lantern”.
If you’d like to get on board for the last few months of the Mythical Creatures of Caledonia club, the listing is still open for August’s creature, the Cat Sìth. You can find the link in my Etsy Shop or the club’s story highlights, the latter also has images of all previous shades!

07/08/2026

“The Beithir” marked the halfway point of this year’s Mythical Creatures of Caledonia monthly mystery skein club. This surprising beauty was the colourway for June, inspired by the giant serpentine monster of the mountain caves and corries of the Scottish Highlands, also deemed to be the physical manifestation of thunder and lightning, which is why I named the moss-eaten-rock-coloured contrast skeins “Where Thunder Sleeps”. Legend claims that to escape certain death when you meet one, you have to reach the nearest body of water (loch or river) before it does.

When creating The Beithir colourway, I pulled greens and greys and heather pinks and purples from the landscape it calls home, and mixed it with the luminous aquamarine of rain beaten reptile scales and electric storms.

I’ll be revealing the July colourway based on the Will-o’-the-Wisp tomorrow! Meanwhile, if you want to get on board with this exciting club, orders for August’s mystery colourway inspired by the Cat Sìth is now open in my Etsy shop!

06/08/2026

I realised I’m a few months behind with revealing the colourways I created for the Mythical Creatures of Caledonia mystery skein yarn club, so over the coming days I’ll bring you those you haven’t seen yet, starting with The Redcap, which was May’s creature of the month. It was a challenge to come up with colours that can translate the legend of this creature onto yarn, without the end result being a muddled mess but I’m delighted with how it turned out. I might even go as far as to say this has become one of my favourites of the series yet!
The lingering memory of blood once shed over long abandoned battlefields… lonely, mysterious ruins and misty meadows that speak of lives cut short in violence… and the threat of a malevolent goblin to remind us not to leave the beaten path.
Do you like the Redcap colourway? Did it evoke the legend for you when you saw it? Let me know! And watch this space for the reveal of The Beithir tomorrow ☺️

05/08/2026

The news have broken, the 2026 vendor list is now LIVE on East Neuk Knits’ website so I can announce that I’ll be there as one of many fantastic vendors in November!

I could not be more thrilled, ENK was an absolute delight, even though I’ve been fortunate enough to vend at several exceptional, perfectly planned and executed events over the years, the atmosphere of this festival at BOWHOUSE was second to none. If you are looking for a real treat before Christmas, book your tickets when they go on sale in a couple of weeks’ time! 🥰

05/08/2026

The next club listing is LIVE on Etsy! The creature for August is the Cat Sìth, this pitch black large faerie cat that quietly stalks the boundaries between worlds, looking for departed souls to steal away. One of the longest standing myths, part of it still lingers in enduring superstitions about black cats.
Also, I promise I will reveal the previous two shades ASAP! I’ve been struggling with my routines since the kids are home for the summer holidays, these long breaks are not easy for the working-from-home small business owner mum, especially us neurospicy ones who thrive on order and routines, and hyperfocus is our superpower. The constant overstimulation and interruptions of kids running around, doorbell ringing, and pleas for snack or first aid are not doing great things to my creativity, nor my productivity. One week until I can get back to my calm creative chaos, and until I can start working from my new studio space in Edinburgh, which will give me the opportunity to be so much more productive and also leave my house for work regularly for the first time in nearly 5 years! I am beyond excited, it genuinely feels like I’m being released from prison 😅 (And I know this makes me sound like a terrible mother who can’t wait to “get rid” of her kids, but those who walked this path know exactly how juggling a million roles, yet never being fully there for any of them, feels like. So I won’t apologise, my feelings are valid and I know for a fact I’ll be a much more patient and present mum in the time I will spend with them when I get my work-life balance back! 🥳

PS: check out my Etsy tonight, I’ll have some new listings up including a restock of The Moon Hoarder that you guys so kindly snapped up last week! 🥰

01/08/2026

Another one for your diaries! My next in person event will be the wonderful Wool @ Portsoy, in just 4 weeks’ time! So many fantastic vendors in both the Church Centre and across the road on the Station Hotel in Portsoy! Event is open 10-4 on Saturday and you can enter by making a donation at the door. So looking forward to seeing all my woolly friends from the North! 🤗 If you live further afield, this show is definitely worth a visit. And as a bonus, the entire area is an absolute gem. 😍 See you there?

30/07/2026

In case you haven’t spotted my name when browsing the The Glasgow School of Yarn website looking at the 2026 vendors, I’m so very happy to announce that I’ll be returning to this lovely festival in October, for the event’s 15th anniversary at a brand new venue: The Briggait! I’m already planning my show special colourway!

Tickets go live tomorrow so set your reminders! See you there 🤩

16/07/2026

New colourways! 💫
I’m back from my holidays, and dived back into work, spending most of these hot summer days boiling by the dye pans, fulfilling orders (thank you!🥰) replenishing stock for in 6 weeks’ time, and filing a box for Leila at Make It Special Inverness.
But in between following recipes and working to order, my favourite days are when I have some time to play with colour and create something new from my heart and soul. Sometimes, the results of these sessions become permanent colourways in my repertoire, and sometimes they are just a one-off batch either because I can’t quite recreate them, or because they are extremely labour intensive and time (and dye) consuming and doing them regularly just wouldn’t be feasible.
The above two shades will likely return, but not too often: like Dragon Scales, they are glazed colourways made in 2 steps using countless different dye stocks, all mixed from several dye powders, taking me much longer to dye up than most of my shades. But I love the process and especially the end result, so there is no way I won’t be dyeing them again!
The first 3 photos, the darker version is called “Melancholia”. Everything about these skeins bring a heavy, beautiful sadness to my mind, those moments when life settles on the chest like a stone, the future is obscured by an impenetrable fog and tears settle in the throat making it hard to swallow and breathe. What these moments of pain often bring with them however, is cathartic breaking of emotional dams, facing up to hard truths, and almost always growth and strength.
The lighter version on the last photos (using the same base but glazed with a half strength stock) I affectionately named “The Moon Hoarder” after my ruling planet, Saturn 🪐. Contrary to what we thought until 2019, Saturn has way more moons than Jupiter, the tally currently stands at 274 confirmed moons, as opposed to Jupiter’s “measly” 101. Saturn’s archetype also corresponds with seriousness and even sadness, him being the Lord of Karma in both Western and Vedic astrology, expecting us to learn and build with patience. Not here for the joyride but boy is he beautiful!
These skeins are now available in my Etsy Shop until stocks last, Melancholia on Deluxe Sock 4ply and Gold Sparkle Sock 4ply, The Moon Hoarder on Deluxe Sock 4ply. I’ll put links in my stories so you can find them easily if you fell in love.
(Did I mentioned they are both suited for assigned pooling? And that I’m working on a pattern for an assigned pooling crochet shawl? 🤩)

09/07/2026

What an absolutely delightful and genius idea! 🥰

Thus month, you can find a big selection of my yarns in Nibbles, Needles and Hooks where I’m Dyer of the Month!

(And if you’d still prefer a classic 24 minis Advent that’s inspired bt a theme, my “Through the Stones” Advent preorders are still open until the 15th although payment in instalments is now closed - check my Instagram pinned post for more info)

*Make your own Nibbles, Needles and Hooks advent calendar *

July addition

Each month, I am purchasing yarn from our Dyer of the Month, wrapping it up and putting it away for Christmas.

Advantages
* It spreads the cost of an advent calendar over 12 months
* I'm getting the EXACT colours I want
* I can support every small business that comes through the shop (and I know that happy dances happen!)
* No mini skein ends to weave in!
* I get more yarn
* I know EXACTLY what's going to happen with each skein (it's going in my advent calendar 🤭)

Disadvantages
* More yarn?

This month, my yarn is from The Woolchemist
The Denali Clan - Silver Sparkle Sock 4ply

The Woolchemist

30/06/2026

Up, up and away! I am visiting my family and friends in beautiful (and very HOT) Hungary for the next 10 days. Shop update will happen and dyeing to order will resume on my return, from the 13th of July.
Meanwhile, you can find my yarns in:
🧶 Wheel of Fate in Edinburgh
🧶 with Leila at Make it Special in Inverness,
🧶 and JULY ONLY also with Liz at Liz Grec in Lower Pilsley, where I’m July’s Dyer of the Month! 🤩

June Yarn Club mystery skeins inspired by the Beithir have all been sent out yesterday, and orders for the new club, based on the Will-o’-the-Wisp, is live on Etsy!

Advent 2026 preorders paid in instalments is now closed, but you can still order your chosen base with payment in full until the 15th of July. After this date, I will start dyeing the Advents and all spare boxes (mostly Deluxe 4ply / 25 minis Crofters Collections) will go on Sale in August/September.