Again?

Well, my birthday has come and passed this year (Again? When can I stop having these and just stay the same age?) and I was planning on some awesome Etsy coupon code for my shop but that didn't happen. I have to say though, it wasn't entirely my fault... I happened to be visiting NYC at the time. It was a good time, even with the miles of walking each day. Yes, we used the subway too but it certainly wasn't always the best way to get somewhere. I visited the mecca of all yarn stores (in my opinion, anyway) Purl Soho, along with Lion Brand Studio and The Yarn Co. So many amazing yarns I finally got to see in person! Not that my LYS doesn't have unique and exotic yarn brands, but of course they can't carry everything at once.

Besides my lovely vacation, I've been putting some work into my Etsy shop. I've listed at least 15 new rovings and have been working on new items to join the shop soon. I even have some duplicate colorways, a new thing for me. Right now I only have 5 colorways that I have more than 4oz available,  but I plan for more in the future. Also I will be working on colorways that I can repeat - I will indicate in my listings which ones are repeatable and which ones are one of a kind.

And yes, I even have another thing up my sleeve... I'm planning a craft show. My very first! Not a super large one, but there will be 6-7 vendors participating. If you are going to be in the Mid Michigan area on May 12th, take note! I will have more information soon including items for sale, address and time. Keep your eyes peeled!

updates

I will be participating in two more craft shows before the end of the year! If you are in the greater Lansing area please come check it out, and not just for me! I was part of the second show last year and I can tell you there is just tons and tons of awesome stuff people make and sell there. I think I actually finished up all of my Christmas shopping there last year!

Woman's Day Craft Show
What: Holiday Shopping
Where: Charlar PLace
4230 Charlar Drive
Holt, MI 48842
When: Sunday, Nov 29th 2011, 1pm-5pm
Who: Food and Beverage, Pantry to the Linen Closet, Kitchen to Bath, Health and Beauty, Fashion and Design... And More!
Also, each booth will be donating an item for the Relay for Life Auction Tent.

9th Annual Hometown Christmas Bazaar, Sponsored by The Friendship Guild
Saturday, Dec 3rd 2011, 9am-4pm
First Congregational Church
300 S. Main St.
Eaton Rapids, MI 48827
Tons of holiday crafts, food, jewelry, knit and crochet goods, handspun yarn and roving, health and beauty goods, accessories, and just so much more!

In other news, i've somehow started listening to podcasts. Knitting and Spinning podcasts, to be precise. I enjoy it because it's like i'm at knitting group and part of the conversation but i don't actually have to talk or stop knitting/spinning to gesture wildly with my hands while talking...
I started listening to the Stash and Burn podcast from the very first episode and I was totally hooked. Listen while knitting, listen while cleaning, listen at work (only when i'm allowed i promise!). And because of them, i found out about Just One More Row Podcast. And now i'm listening to them from episode one. I love it. I almost like Just One More Row better because I feel like we are in the same time of our life- I'm not married, I don't have kids, I spin, have an Etsy store and do craft shows (you're coming to those two, right?)

Sigh, i'm terrible at this thing.
A few things that happened since my last post:

• My birthday! it was a low key thing with friends and i enjoyed it very much.
• I finished a crochet blanket that i had started very shortly i had started crocheting, perhaps 5 years ago? Here it is on my full size bed.
  
  
  
• I got overwhelmed with work, but still had time to dye things for a craft show with Flint Handmade on May 7th (pictures of the event here! {also a picture of me at my booth- i'm on the right})
• I heard about many more craft shows in Flint and got overwhelmed with work again that I didn't respond in time for most of them. Boo.
• I finished a pair of socks!
  
  
  
• And I did a multitude of other things i have since forgotten.

As far as the future goes, I do have some exciting news. I'm moving to a new apartment in exactly 30 days, and i'll have my very own dedicated craft room! Well, that's not entirely true... I'll still have to share- but at least it wont have to fight for space in my bedroom or living room any more! In an attempt to make my life easier, I decided that i needed to organize and get rid of things before i could even think of packing. And in this spirit i've started uploading pictures of my stash on ravelry. I do have some yarn that I have for sale/trade if you're interested. Also in an effort to organize and reduce the stash i have more that i'm willing to trade, but i think i'll let my friends have first dibs of it.

Just a quick little update to let you know i've posted some brand new handspun yarn into my etsy shop. I have to say it's pretty darn awesome. http://www.etsy.com/shop/icemelon

In just under two weeks is my birthday... i might also have a little present in the form of a coupon code for my etsy shop!

I’ve only ever been half organized when it came to my yarn and spinning stuff. When I moved into my new apartment over the summer I had set up some of the wire mesh cubes I had in my old room, but they just were too… blah. I had been eyeing a shelving unit from IKEA for who knows how many years now, and I finally had enough money and a big enough car to tote it home in. I put it together all by myself one night and dragged it into my bedroom where the old cubes had been. I sort of haphazardly transferred everything over and there it sat like that for a few months. Finally I decided to re-organize it and clean off the top which had accumulated lots of odds and ends.

It’s kind of a tight fit at the end of my bed but it was the only spot there was enough wall space. This shelf is sort of gigantic, and I absolutely love it! There are plants that live on top because they are my cats favorite plants to eat, (Oh yeah, I acquired two cats recently too, but I suppose that’s another blog post!) and it’s easier to close the bedroom door when I’m not home rather then come home to a plant knocked over dirt everywhere. This happened once.

There are bins that fit oh-so-perfectly that had originally been bought for the old cubes. I think I would have been totally heart broken if they didn’t fit, because I wouldn’t have gone ahead and bought the new shelf. Only buy what works with what you have, right?

The contents of the cubes are as follows (from upper left zigzagging down): The green half bin has thank you cards, extra business cards, and random paper goods for my etsy. Next are pattern books, magazines, and buttons. Also there is some fiber that’s been recently dyed I just shoved in there. The next cube is my Dream in Color yarn stash, which doesn’t fit into the next bin: the brown bin is full of my “nice” yarn. Pretty much anything that isn’t acrylic and also my sock yarn. The green bin directly under is full of fiber to spin. The dotted bin has my own handspun yarn I just can’t bring myself to sell. The next cube has a divider in it that actually makes four little cubby holes, and right now there is random yarn, FOs, and a WIP. Next to that is cotton in a plastic container and crochet hooks and knitting needles. Below that is my ball winder, swift, a cd spindle I made years ago, and leftover handspun bits. The wicker bin has odds and ends. The next brown bin has undyed fiber. The cube with the Amazon box sticking out has some etsy items that are listed, along with shipping materials. The bottom row is pretty much random yarn/odds and ends. As you can see I keep my laundry detergent down there... but it’s right next to the laundry basket so that makes sense, right?

Whew, that was a lot of explaining! How does everyone else keep their hobbies organized? Oh, and here’s a close-up of that Dream in Color cube, how could I resist?

Between getting more hours at work and then changing jobs (and working even more at the new one) and moving into a new apartment (and never bothering to get internet), I've sort of let things get pushed into the background. Since I started knitting last year I've never really looked back. I still haven't tackled any very large projects, but I did sort of stumble into sock knitting.

These are socks I made for the boyfriend for Christmas. It sort of took me a year to finish these, because they were meant for his birthday earlier last year. I'd like to think that because he had to wait so long to get them it made him appreciate them more!

I think for the future if i'm going to knit something for a present, I should just assume it wont be done at the nearest holiday. I say this because i'm still trying to finish projects meant for this past xmas.. nearing two months ago.

Now that the weather has changed thoroughly from summer into fall (including rain that isn't quite rain but still manages to chill you to the bone), i've been wearing more handmade items. One of these happens to be some socks a friend knit for me out of my own handspun yarn.

These were probably finished sometime near the end of april, but in the summer i try to stay away from socks as humanly possible! (and even now that it's only 50F degrees, i'm still finding ways to not wear socks. Hello, slip-ons!) These are amazing... the quality of her work is something that i can only hope to get to with years of practice.

The yarn was from superwash merino roving which i dyed with acid dyes, and then spun into a dk/sport weight(ish) yarn. 2ply.
While this makes them super cuddly and soft and yummy, it also means they pill. A lot. I should take a picture of them today, it's a sharp contrast. New vs lived in. I still think i like the latter best.

I learned to knit.

So I made some stuff. (this is project 4 or 5- first were hats, this is a darkside cowl (rav link))

I dyed a thing.

Nature spun sport weight, dyed with acid dyes. Currently it's being worked into an itty bitty baby hat.

More to come?

I've updated my shop with more Falkland roving. I've dyed all the Falkland I had, and listed most of it. Of course I'm keeping some for myself, though! Depending on how much I love it when it's a finished yarn, I may order more.

My mom and I are working on a super secret project together, too! Some of my friends already know about it, but shh! Once we get it off the ground, I'll let you know what's goin on, and it's really exciting! (and shiny.. did i mention shiny?)

Tomorrow looks like a dye day with with the friend who's knitting socks out of my handspun yarn. I'm so excited!

Well I've managed to make a mini update on my Etsy with a few rovings. I think I actually need to start listing them as "Combed top" because i guess that's technically what it is. But how many people search for combed top when they're looking for it? Maybe I'll poke around and see what other sellers think.
Well, anyway, here are a few pictures. They are all Falkland wool, which I haven't actually spun with yet myself. I've saved a few from this batch though so I can get a better feel of how the wool spins and how the color changes.







Other than that, my friend has two Blythe dolls and I've been experimenting making tiny crochet clothes...

Six pounds!

That's how much wool came in the mail a few days ago! I got a mix of Falkland, Blue Faced Leicester, and Merino roving. So far I've only dyed about a pound of it, with big plans for the rest. Look for a major shop update sometime in the next week or so- I've been working a lot lately at my day job so unfortunately sometimes I have to push the Etsy love back a bit.



However, I did manage to finish some yummy yarns last week!




First was Some roving I grabbed from Shunklies Etsy shop just before my birthday. Merino and silk, so nice and soft! There were a few different purples blended together, which after spinning came together to make one soft purple. I decided to preserve that soft and squishy feeling of the roving i'd spin a nice bulky yarn. In the end I plied it from a center pull ball, which resulted in the bulkiest softest yarn ever!




The other yarn is a SOCK WEIGHT. Yes, let that sink in for a minute. It's 4oz, about 330 yards. My first sock yarn ever! It's superwash too, which is pretty awesome! I showed it to my friend whom also spins (and knits!) and she graciously offered to knit me a pair of socks from it. My very first sock yarn into my very first pair of handknit socks! The roving we actually dyed together and i really had my doubts... my mom saw it and dubbed it "the dried blood roving". So, not so pleasant but the colors actually came out really soft and dark purple-pinkish. This yarn certaintly isn't totally sock weight by any stretch, with some thicker and thinner parts, but overall it's balanced and enough yardage to get a pair of socks :)

I'll let you know when i'm ready to do an etsy update! My shop is going to be packed full of new rovings!

Updates? What are those?
It was my birthday...um, two weeks ago. I guess that was going to be my excuse last week, but then I failed.
I've been dyeing lots of wool though, and I've managed to complete a project that wasn't a hat.
First, the project. Loosely based on these, (rav link) I used mini mochi and a smallish hook and just sort of ... made them. Ugh, I'm so bad at that... i see something I like and I think, hey, I could totally pull that off. And then i don't buy the pattern, and i feel sorta bad for just makin myself stuff.


I'm only showing you this picture because damn, don't my hands look good? I'm pretty sure my hands never look that good in real life.
I don't know why people have a beef with mini mochi! I'm pretty much in love with it, except that i really don't like thin yarn very much. So that means when Crystal Palace rolls out Mochi 5, a worsted weight, I will probably go crazy and get every skein I can find of it.

Ooooorrr maybe not, because i'm poor.
Anyway, more details here, another rav link.


I also updated my shop with a few more rovings. And you know what? you should buy them. Becuase i'm poor. but more reason than that- they're awesome and soft and wonderful and the colors are amazing. That, and I just bought a rediculous amount of new stuff to dye and well. Lets just leave it at rediculous, ok?

Ah, not much time to do a long post, but i've updated my shop!

http://icemelon.etsy.com

I've added three rovings, all inspired by Homer's Odyssey. Unfortunately my internet keeps on going in and out, so i'm pretty frustrated about spending time on updating if it isn't going to work. but for the time being, some eye candy in the form of yarn I spun from Yarnzombie's Roving balls.

Stay tuned, tomorrow i'm thinking there's gonna be a shop update, and a blog update!
Isn't that exciting!?

..Yeah, I didn't think it would be too terribly exciting, but work with me here! New rovings, perhaps a few more hats and maybe even something for the kiddies! I've spun a few new yarns too, but i'm not sure if they're going on etsy or not.
Oh, and some new crochet projects! They're secret until tomorrow :)

Needless to say, I always feel like I'm a few days behind.
Which, brings me to my next statement: These pictures are more than a few days old.
This is my Christmas Cactus, which always seems more like a valentines cactus if you ask me. The nubs are a bit bigger now, but nothing has started to open yet.



I did manage to dye a couple of ounces of roving this past week as well, using Easter egg dyes. I had bought them maybe last year, already out of season, if you will. I was with a friend sort of half teaching her how to dye and we were discussing how old these must be, so It really came to no surprise when we plopped them into their cups and-
"oh, my, what IS that color supposed to be?"
"Brown? No, maybe it was supposed to be purple, but wait, that can't be right?"
And so started the dyeing session! We dyed the last of my wool mill ends, which was only an ounce or two, into this weird blueish brownish color pool.
I also had four ounces of Blue Faced Leicester which we dyed a more pretty blue and pink.

Yeah, it's a pretty crappy picture but they were still drying. The BFL is on the left, and the mill ends are on the right. I'm still trying to decide how to spin these up... 2-ply, bulky single, or a fun art yarn with lots of extras?
I'm not sure, but I get the feeling that it'll take a few days...

Ugh, sick again.
It's really just a cold at this point, with a bit of a sore throat thrown in for good measure. The worst was waking myself up coughing this morning, but the most annoying is the constant drip, drip, drip from my nose. You know when you have one of those good cries and everything just goes everywhere and, well, you know what i mean, right?
It's like that, except all outta my nose.

Yeah i know, you probably didn't need that mental picture today did you?
I was going to try to catch up with some things i've been working on such, but I just can't bring myself to do it when i feel like i just want to curl up into a snotty ball and sleep for days!

Ah well, maybe tomorrow right?

I don't know how i forgot about this yarn i spun last week. It's a blend of baby alpaca, carbonized bamboo, merino and lots of angelina sparkle. i made the rolags on my hand carders and didn't stop until i ran out the stuff i had out for blending. the alpaca and merino were dyed by me with a mix of plain food coloring and professional acid dyes. acid dyes are scary! i mean, the fact that i have to wear a protective mask when mixing the powders? scary!
Then again, i'm used to working with food coloring, which at best stains your fingers for a day or two. ah well.

Back to the yarn!


weighing in just under 3 oz, it's about 70 some yards of navajo plied squishy goodness! seriously, seriously soft stuff here. I think i might just keep it for myself... as long as i can find a pattern that fits it! Otherwise i don't know if i can justify letting it sit with no use, it's seriously that awesome.

Does anyone have any ideas for this super soft and squishy and sparkly and other S-adjectives yarn?

Things on my to-do list today included taking a shower and not being a bum.

Considering it's almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon and I haven't done either, that's pretty bad.

but I'd like to think I have a really good excuse! Well alright, not a really good excuse. Probably not even a pretty crappy excuse. I blame the weather:


It's been like this for weeks now. It's been above freezing all of three days this month, and probably only for a few hours at that. That isn't to say that it's been snowing non-stop, it's just that the snow hasn't melted yet. Which means there's probably a good foot of snow on the ground that just wont go away! It doesn't help that it really hasn't been very sunny either. Ehh, don't get me wrong, Michigan is fine, winter is fine, but the no sun bit sort of grinds on me.


In better spirited news, I bought a huge 8oz thing of Northern Lights in Violets, and spun it all up last week. I made a ripple cowl out of one skein. I really didn't check out a pattern, I just sort of made a starting chain and went from there. I'm glad it didn't turn out massive or tiny, and holy crap is it soft! I really was not expecting to get something that soft out of the roving, which I felt was a little scratchy and sort of low quality... But that isn't to say I wont buy it again. I was left with another skein of 2 ply, and a single.








That's pretty much all I've been up to in the fiber world.
Classes started again last week, and I've only got two classes this time around. Hopefully I'll be less stressed knowing that I'm almost done at LCC, and these classes seem like they're really straightforward and fairly easy. Time will tell though, I guess. I get pretty bad by the end of the semester with homework and things like actually going to class. We'll see!

A little while back, I won some yarn from a blog giveaway here: http://peasoupoftheday.blogspot.com/

I had no idea what to do with it. 300 yards of superwash wool? I didn't want to just simply make another hat, oh no- this yarn was special. I carried this yarn in my purse for weeks on end, just hoping that one of the zillion times I had to dig in my purse for my wallet or keys would magically grant me realization of what to do with this yarn. I tossed around a few ideas here and there, but nothing really seemed appropriate. Until a few days ago, that is. My plan came through fruition on Sunday afternoon, while spending some time at my Dad's house.
I give you, the Divine Cowl.



I decided to use a stitch pattern from rheatheylia to work it's magic. I just sort of started in the middle of the pattern, after making a starting chain and slip stitching into the first chain to make a loop. I did not expect the yarn to line up colors like this, but after the second round I noticed what it was doing, so I tried to keep my tension steady so as to continue what it was doing.



Isn't that just magic?

I just finished this hat for a friend of a friend.
I made it using Jo-ann's sensations Natural Collection, Dream Weave in Purple.

Simple ear flap hat, with braids and pom-poms. No real pattern, but because I've made so many hats I just sort of go for it. I pretty much only bought the yarn because I thought it was the color she'd want. She said bright purple wool yarn- but the only yarn I could find that matched this was this stuff. And it was sort of expensive (for me) even though it was on sale for just under $5. I had seen this yarn before though and really liked the feel of it- And realistically though, who can beat a yarn that's 75% wool, 25% silk for that price?



I doubled up on the yarn, holding two strands together for a thicker fabric. I knew I needed over 100 yards to complete the hat itself without the flaps, braids, and poms so that was at least two balls right there. I decided on five because it seemed most logical at the time. Two for the majority of the hat, two more for the rest and flaps, and the fifth just in case I didn't have enough for the poms. Well, I ended up using just under three balls of yarn. Which is fine, but I'm also slightly annoyed that I spent that extra almost $10 on yarn that I didn't need. (which again would be fine, except that I'm not making as much money at my new day job...)

In any case, this hat is very warm. I wore it around the house for a few minutes after taking pictures and I didn't want to take it off! I hope she enjoys it, and maybe I can make myself a hat with the extra- perhaps minus the pom-poms.