Christmas coat

One day my five-year-old daughter, Anna, looked in my closet and saw a little green coat hanging. She asked me about it; I told her it was the coat that I had knit for her when she was about two years old. I told her that she had outgrown it.  She wanted to try it on anyway, insisting that it would fit her. Well, it did fit around her chest but the sleeves only went to her elbows - not very useful for a coat. The yarn had been discounted and I'd long since ran out n my stash, and the coat was felted anyway.  I couldn’t invasion a way to lengthen the sleeves that I would be satisfied with, so I had put it away for another child to enjoy someday.

Anna kept talking about her coat.  She wanted to visit and hug it.  I recalled that I had received some gorgeous wine-red Lopi bulky yarn in a craft swap.  It would be perfect for another coat!  Christmas was coming soon, and it would be a perfect gift.

Quirky Bits n Pieces Design Team

The fabulous Kristen over at Quirky Bits n Pieces sell gorgeous dyed fiber locks, handspun yarn, woven scarfs, and yarn bowls.  She put out a Design Team call for artists to create beautiful things with her lovely things and blog / post in social media about them.  Well, isn't that exactly what I already do?  lol  I had to submit my application!  I was so happy (and still am!) to find out that I was accepted onto the team!  (I think the official page is still being built so I'll link that for you when it is ready.)

Well, I am in the first round of artists to receive her goodies.  Oh. My. Goodness.  These locks are SO beautiful!  Her color combinations are phenomenal!  I didn't capture all the shine that they have in this quick snapshot but I hope to get better pictures as I work with them more.

What a cute business card!

She gave the extra touch of doodling on the package. :)

I'm drooling over here!

 
You want to know where my mind is going? So here's a peek into my head: 

I want to spin semi-smoothly onto wire and knit fairy wings. That's been a goal of mine for a long time. :) I also want to play with jewelry shapes, with smoother texture and with rougher textures. I also want to lock spin (remember that blue mohair?) and ply that onto the wire for some thickness and texture to make something chunky / significant presence. I also want to incorporate the locks themselves into a piece, either by lock spinning, or tying, or some other way to feature them. (Similar to those FABULOUS necklaces she's been featuring). And lastly, I want to do something soft to exhibit the shininess of the wool.

And for the next three months there will be MORE to come, too. :D  So keep out for it!

Mystery Yarn Game

Are you ready for some laughs at your next knit night?  Try out my fiber-themed game!

Some 2016 Yarn-Related Goals

I posted some de-stash goals in a Ravelry group earlier this year.  I'd been thinking about it more recently as I've been making progress on dishcloths.  I have other yarn related goals as well so I figured I'd share my list with you all here. :)

• Two major commitments at a time should be my limit this year:
• 1) the MKAL I’m running [still in progress]
• 2) my pet ferret'€™s health [done!]
• 3) Working on next pattern
• Write at least 2 more patterns
• To try to use some of my current lovely yarns for my new pattern designs
• Spin enough of my stash to knit myself Awilda B.’s In Time and Space [starting combing]
• To start to sew together larger hexagons out of my itty bitty hexis for my the beekeeper’s quilt
• Continue to use up the excessive amount of acrylic yarn in my stash
• Make a stash of dishcloths out of my existing stash of dishcloth cotton [Current count is 4]

Catching Up to Date

In my last blog post I was talking about all the crazy things I had going on last year that overwhelmed me.  I left off at the end of August just as I was being buried alive in projects...

I have always loved September.  For me it represents so many new beginnings;  the first day of school, my birthday, it is even Jewish New Year though I've not particular celebrated it that way.  September 2015 was all about just getting through the next step, one little bit of progress over the mountain path, carefully as to not cause an avalanche.

Here's what I worked on month-by month:

September

Searched through lots of pattern books for ideas for my design

Hand knitted socks for my sister

Used Jamberry nail wraps to quit biting my nails

Started knitting socks for my daughter

Started spinning this SAPGAP yarn order

October

Working out pattern details

Finished my daughter's socks

Wrote, tested and published this hat pattern

Started socks for my son

Hand spun and mailed out all this yarn

November

Sewed box bags for a fiber festival

Sewed a special order bag and an new cube-sized bag

Hand spun and hand dyed this yarn

Hand knit this adorable dragon

Started a fund-raiser for my ferret's surgry

Finished writing the pattern, and got it test knit

Sent off my Geek-Swap package

December

Make custom-order slippers

Dyed wool

Sewed more bags

Sewed a different style bag

Designed new fiber graphics

Hand-combed LOTS of wool

Learned a new style of art-yarn

Dyed this wool

Went on vacation to visit my family!

January

Designed something I haven't revealed yet

Hand knit a skirt for my daughter

Made a custom order of two hats

Finished this SAPGAP art-yarn order

Finally finished my son's socks

Got my ferret her life-saving surgery

Started an MKAL for my latest pattern

Whew!  All that was tiring!  That gets us all caught up!  My husband is still on swing shift so I am still 99% a single parent.  However I am going to be careful as to not overload myself to *that* point again.  I am enjoying my freedom of sitting and enjoying an evening of MY choice instead of trying to keep up with that frantic pace.  I still have a lot to get done, but at a much more reasonable pace. :D  I have lots of exciting things to share with you!

The return of peace

Things have indeed been chaotic at my home this summer.  My kids were on top of each other and fighting.  Meanwhile I was trying to push my fiber business off to a start.  I had spinning orders to fulfill, a pattern I wrote, tested, remade, and tested by others, and finally released.  My fiber graphics have become fairly popular and I've sold several orders. Oh, and I've been photo journaling my art projects before bed every night.
 

Today school started again.  I have one kiddo in public school in a special needs class and that is working *wonderfully* for him.  My oldest kiddo I homeschool, and now I'm working on paperwork to get my youngest into preschool.  I hope I can get her in so my oldest and I can get some work done in peace for a few hours.

Recently I've joined in a craft swap hosted by my favorite podcast Knit 1 Geek 2.  I was inspired by my spoilee (the secret person I am spoiling that I will not reveal online) to create yet another knitting pattern.  I am *so* excited about this one but I can't reveal my concept yet.  I can get it done before the deadline if I'm quick, but I would really like it to go through test knitting first if I can.  So, I've pulled in a friend to help me with part of this project and she is just excited as I am!

I can show you a little bit; below are a few swatches I've knit, and above is my stack of research books. :)

Oh, and yesterday, I stuck my toes and spent a little money to promote my latest pattern on Facebook this week.  I'm curious to see how that goes!

Dyeing with Wilton

 I finally got my husband to confess what the look on his face was already telling me; he didn't like the Koolaid dye.  It lost something when knit in with the brown yarn into the bag.  The top stripe was fine, but the shamrock was getting lost.  He didn't want to be picky but I invited him to be.  (I reminded him just how excited I am to *finally* knit something for him.)

He finally pulled out a circuit board and said that's the color he's looking for.


So that night I took my stuff to my guild night and asked the ladies what they thought.  I could either buy the yarn (the shop didn't have my requirements in stock) or I could try Wilton dying.  I decided to do that.  So I did some research online and found some info.


This site has marvelous info on various kinds of dyeing: http://www.dyeyouryarn.com/wilton-general.html
These are the directions I followed (for the most part) and I am SO inspired by her gorgeous roving and yarn!  I will need to play with her technique some more.   http://keeponknittinginthefreeworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/wiltons-icing-gel-dying-tutorial.html


I bought three colors of Wilton icing dye at Michael's Craft store this afternoon; Kelly Green, Moss Green, and Juniper Green.  The Juniper label looked like what I wanted but I wasn't 100% sure how it would translate on yarn so I grabbed the three to play with.  They were about $2.45 a piece (1 oz.) and I had a 40% off coupon.


I got out some mason jars; pints for my mix jars and quarts for my cooking jars.  I mixed them up according the [the second website above]'s directions with vinegar and water.  Then I poured about half into jar and added a cup of warm water.  I dropped in a mini skein (tied at two points) of 10 yards into each jar and stirred it slightly.  Then I lined them up and they jars took turns nuking in the microwave for two minutes.  I think each jar when through three times but I was distracted by my kids.   Anyway, the water became see through.  The last little bit didn't get absorbed as I had overloaded the water.  That's okay.

I let them cool and later pulled them out with tongs and tossed them into a colander and rinsed.  (I wasn't sure if they'd leak on me.  Turns out they were fine, but I didn't want green fingers.)  I squeezed out the excess water and hung them up to dry.

When I check on them later I could see the final color (dry fiber will sometimes look different than when wet.)  They were close, but I decided to play with the fourth mini skein I had set aside.  I mixed a quarter cup of each the Kelly and Moss greens together in a mason jar and added the cup of water and yarn.  I really like how this one came out.  I think its the computer-board green he's wanting.  We'll see when it's completely dry!

Furthermore, I also finally set some alpaca yarn that I finished spinning a few weeks ago.  It is what I was spinning at World Wide Knit in Public Day.  That was my final batt I was working on from that fiber.  It was the very first fiber I processed raw from the animal and I am so excited that it is finally done!  Most of it I spun on my drop spindle  Only two of these skeins where spun on my wheel and the other was plied on my wheel. 


I'm a bit embarrassed that one of the skeins got messed up but this is real life and it's not always pretty.  Somehow there was only one single tie on it when I usually do four!  I didn't realize it until I was hanging it up.  I will probably re-skein it after it is dry and re-set it again.

California Red

Hello!

Last night was my once-a-month spinning guild meeting. It was also our annual alpaca fleece sale as our local supplier sheered just last week. This time we also had another vendor come in with his hand dyed roving and yarns. 

He also brought some raw fleece that I've never spun before; Rambouillet and Targhee. I couldn't resist them so I came home with a pound of the former and half a pound of the latter. They're unskirted so he gave me a bit extra to make up for the waste as he didn't have time to skirt it (take out all the short bits) right then. 

Because of the sale I knew there wouldn't be much room for spinning so I left my wheel at home and brought my drop spindle. I grabbed my California Red roving that I bought at Oregon Flock and Fiber last year.  I also brought Thomas' drop spundle as he came with me. He ended up playing a game in the other room so I used his spindle to teach a new person to spin. I think I've got another one hooked!  :D

This is how much I spun last night, between guild time and later at home. 

Let me tell you a bit about this fiber. I've spun another ball of this roving already and plied it wuth some Shetland. Just recently I blended some with huacaya alpaca to make batts and spun it for my SAPGAP trade. I really like it!  Because of the red hairs being a little corser it isn't as soft as some other wools but it is still soft and squishy. I absolutley love the color depth of this fiber; there are no parallels. 

It spins fantasticly and lets me spin it fairly finely.  Some of this single is what people would call sewing thread. 

The California Red sheep is a rare breed with an interesting history.  It was the result of cross breeding in the 1970s in California to try to create a wool-less meat sheep. Obviously the failed on the wool-less, instead they got a great dual-purpose sheep with wonderful unique fiber. 

If you'd like to know more about this breed of sheep and its interesting story check out this link:  http://www.caredsheep.com

Here is my previosly spun 3 ply (2 Cal Red, 1 Shetland):

I know my blog has been spinning- heavy of late. Because that is where progress is being made. My knitting is slow going as my two projects are. I still need to try the Sasquatch socks on the recipient (hopefully Friday!) and I'm swatching my intarsia for the Luck Sack.  I'll give you a progress report of the design tomorrow.


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