The first newsletter goes out tomorrow!!

Posted on April 24, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

As you can see in my sidebar, I have newsletter that you can receive in your email once (or maybe twice) a month.  Why should you sign up?

  • Special discounts not offered elsewhere.
  • First dibs on special yarns and sock clubs

I’m going to send out the first newsletter tomorrow, and it it you will find a link to my first club, SSSSYC, and to preorders for Stars and Stripes, Forever and Rainbow Brite Stripe.  Let me tell you more about those:

Stars & Stripes Forever Sock Yarn

This is Stars & Stripes, Forever.  As you can see, it is a self-patterning red, white, and blue yarn.  The stripes knit up to about 2 rows each, and the field of stars to about 4 rows.  This year, I will be dyeing this on a new yarn.  It will be 60% Merino wool, 30% Bamboo, and 10% Nylon.  I’ve come up with some new ways to streamline production, so I am excited to be able to offer more of them this year.  I am taking pre-orders on this yarn so I can order the right amount of base yarn.  I hope to offer more this summer, but I’m not making any guarantees beyond the initial pre-orders.  Stars & Stripes will be offered in the sock club, also.

 

Rainbow Brite Stripe

This is Rainbow Brite Stripe.  This will also be on the Bamboo blend yarn.  The shades of colors will be different, but you will get a bright cheerful rainbow with colors that go 2-3 rows on standard socks.  This yarn is also offered in the sock club, and separately via Pre-Order.

 

Super Striped Summer Sock Yarn Club (SSSSYC)

This will be my first (and hopefully not last) sock club, and I’m going to open it up to newsletter subscribers first.  I am only taking 12 members, so you’ll need to be quick….there are more of you than that on the mailing list!  Included in the 3 month club are Stars & Stripes, Rainbow Brite, (both on bamboo blend yarn) and a mystery variegated yarn that will be on my house blend of 80% merino/20% Nylon.  The price includes Priority Mail shipping (grr….rates going up again in May!), plus a budget for me to pick out some great goodies for you.   Call in SSSSYC this summer, cause you have to get those socks knitted!

 

Did I convince you yet?  Sign on up for the newsletter, since the first one is going out Friday evening!!  If you miss it, stay tuned….I’ll be opening up remaining club spots and orders for summer yarns on Monday, April 28 to everyone.

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Stitch Markers

Posted on April 23, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

Being the recipient of my mother’s beading tools and goody box of jewelry that needs reworking, I have decided to try my hand at stitch markers.  Here are two sets for your appraisal!

Auntie Z’s Reclaimed Turquoise Stitch Markers

 Upcycled stitch markers

Wood & purple glass stitch markers

Wood and glass stitch markers

I have a couple other sets, but the magnolia bush background wasn’t so kind to them, so I’ll show ’em to you as I get them photographed and listed!

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Front Page!

Posted on April 22, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

Yup, there was April Showers, on the front page of Etsy on Sunday night! Thanks, WHSKR , for catching the screen shot for me!

There's April Showers!! 

Which transistions nicely into a new feature I’d like to bring you…..ThePaintedTiger ‘finds’.  Whskr has this adorable sock knitting bag that she made.  Tiger approved with the red kitty on it!

Sock Knitting Bag by Whskr

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Fiber Friday, April 18

Posted on April 18, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

I got in a new brand of dyes this week, so I don’t have bunches to show you, but I hope you’ll enjoy them none-the-less!!

This is April Showers, which is a thick and thin art yarn I hand spun from roving I dyed in a gentle blue grey with bits of pink and purple.  I plied it with a gray thread and seed beads in blue, purple, and clear…both sparkly and pearlescent. 
April Showers - Closeup

 

This purple and pink yarn is the result of the roving I showed you last week.  I ended up with about 203 yards, and I’m pretty happy with it.  My first ply was not nearly as good as my second, but that is how things go, right?

Hand Spun - Purple

 

This is Cinnamon Toast, which is hand dyed on Superwash Merino & Nylon Sock Yarn.

Cinnamon Toast Sock Yarn

Sapphire is also on the Superwash Merino & Nylon Sock Yarn

Sapphire Sock Yarn

This rainbow roving is 85% wool and 15% mohair, from the Brown Sheep Company.  There are about 4.1 ounces.

Rainbow Roving

 

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A Slice of Heaven and Earth

Posted on April 17, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

I made 8 sets of these, as this colorway was selected as the signature yarn for Pam at Yarny-Goodness. Hopefully they will be in the mail and in her shop very soon!  They are shipping tomorrow.  Don’t ask me to make one for you, they are exclusive to Yarny-Goodness.  Pester her about them! 🙂

The yarn is called “A Slice of Heaven and Earth”, and shows a cross-section of earth from core to sky. It comes pre-split into balls, the two being dyed identically.  I apologize for any drool you get on your computer.

A Slice of Heaven and Earth

A Slice of Heaven and Earth Socks
(There are more pictures and descriptions in my flickr photostream….just click one of the pictures to get there.)

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Stormy Rovings

Posted on April 14, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

This month’s April Challenge for Etsy’s Fiber Arts Street Team is Storms, so I am working on some hand dyed and hand spun yarns for that.

April Showers

This is a pale blue – gray roving with some bits of pink/purple here and there. I spun it up really thick and thin (think billowy clouds), and then I’m going to ply it with some pretty seed beads I have to make some glistening rain drops.

Stormy

This is the black roving I told you about last week. The black that didn’t want to be black! The paler grey on the left was on the top of the tub, and the deep burgundy grey to the right was on the bottom. I think it is neat, and I plan to do a similar thick and thin art yarn thing with it (assuming my first one turns out nice!!).

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Fiber Friday, April 11

Posted on April 11, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

My Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Showers lace yarn sold out within 5 minutes on Etsy last week, so I made 2 more.  One will go up later today on Etsy, the second to follow when the first sells.

Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Showers

After doing clouds, I needed some rainbows, so here is a full study of the genre!  All of these are on my favorite base, a Superwash Merino and Nylon blend sock yarn.

Tropical Rainbow - Sock Yarn

Tropical Rainbow – These started out as pure primaries, allowing mixing in between.

Color Wheel

Color Wheel – I used more standard red and blue here, which led to a darker green and purple.

Rainbow Sock Yarn

Faded Glory Rainbow – I used the same dye stock as Color Wheel, except now they were murked up a bit, and the base yarn was dyed a pale yellow.

Fall Rainbow

Harvest Rainbow – This one is my favorite, and will be impossible to replicate exactly, as I used the same dye baths as above and the base yarn was a weird pale green color.

Cinnamon Fern - Sock

Cinnamon Fern – Just for good measure, I threw in this study in greens and browns.

As usual, these hand dyed sock yarns will be listed on Etsy and ThePaintedTiger.  

I need some viewer input here……do you like the previews?  Would you rather the yarn/fiber actually be available in my shop when I post my Fiber Friday posts?  Do you say ‘Wow, I’ve gotta have it’, and then forget to check back on Monday (when the yarns hit ThePaintedTiger.com ?

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It’s roasting in here!

Posted on April 9, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

Here’s this week’s yarn a cooking away in my new roaster oven.  This is a new thing for me, since I’ve been zapping my yarn in the microwave.  The story of why I’d like to get away from that deserves it’s own post, which I will get to someday!

Roasting!

So far, I’m liking it.  Lots of yarn fits in there (that is 11 skeins), and I just set it and ignore it for an hour, rather than trying to remember to zap stuff every 5 minutes or so,  and switching out my different pots of yarn so they all get cooked. 

I showed the roaster to my husband when he came home, and we got to talking about the microwave.  He wants it to go away, and I want to be sure the roaster is going to work out well first.  (Yes, I’m conservative and hedgy that way).  I opened the thing up, and there was the roving I was cooking over the weekend when the power went out.  *embarrased grin, here*  The extra setting time seemed to do it good though.  I was shooting for black, but got a wonderful gradient of purple, pink, and blueish greys.  (I did order a different black dye that is supposed to work better….I’m tired of fighting for black!).  Once that is all rinsed and dried, I’ll show it off.

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A Crabby Project for a Rainy Day

Posted on April 9, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

It is dismal outside.  All day, rainy and cold.  To add to my mood, I finished this project for a client today.

Monster Hat

That is one crabby monster hat!  I hope he knows that April showers bring May flowers.  (Ok, I need the reminder, too!!!)

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Second Spinning Project

Posted on April 7, 2008 by ThePaintedTiger

Yes, I know….you already hate me for my first yarn.  What can I say….I have a crafty thumb!  (Or maybe Lizzie learned well from her first owner, and is giving me hints along the way!!)

Wool & Mohair roving to yarn
 This project started out as a big tangled mess of top that I got from Carol at the Sheep Shed Studio.  It is 85% wool and 15% mohair.  Last week, I untangled the whole mess, and looked like I needed to be sheared when done (note to self, wear slick clothes when untangling foofy roving)!  I wound it up around a box and made myself a mini-bump.  Since I know what this roving is (as opposed to the rest of the box of mystery fiber), my plan was to dye and sell that to pay for the rest of the wool.  So…..I liberally applied some purple and magenta colors to about 4.5 ounces and cooked until the water went clear. 

Well, nearly clear.  Then came the rinsing.  I rinsed quite a bit, and wasn’t terribly gentle (the other wool in the bin did just fine with handling, but this stuff…..), so after the roving dyed, it didn’t foof like the other stuff had.  I snapped it.  Yeah, decidedly compacted with felty bits.

Not being one to turn down an opportunity, I took to spinning it.  I pre-drafted long pencil rovings, pulling them gently to get the draft started and break up felty bits.  It spins great.  The staple is very long, so I’ve had to keep my hands further apart.  Apparently I am spinning worsted, since I tend to squish all the air out.  I’ll have to play around with techniques on my next project.

 I haven’t decided on a project for this yet, I think the final product will be a light worsted weight.  I think maybe a little pretty purple bag to carry my pretty little purple bible so it doesn’t get all squished in the diaper bag.

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