It is dismal outside. All day, rainy and cold. To add to my mood, I finished this project for a client today.
That is one crabby monster hat! I hope he knows that April showers bring May flowers. (Ok, I need the reminder, too!!!)
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!!)
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.
After our long, long, loooooong winter, this weekend has been quite nice…about 65 degrees or so. Yesterday, I had planned to dye a bunch while the kids were outside playing, but first the neighbor kid came over (my kids are great together, but add one more and interesting things happen) and then the power on our whole block went out, plunging my studio to pitch black, and my microwave and roaster inoperable.
It worked out well. I actually (gasp) went outside. I brought up a wool/mohair roving I had dyed (I will show that off tomorrow), set Lizzie Lendrum up outside, and went at it. After I got the rhythm going and could concentrate less on the spinning, I noticed things around the neighborhood. A landscape crew was cleaning up the lawn of the house for sale near us (anyone handy and want to live across the street from their yarn addiction? It’s a fixer upper, but in the woods!), there was cleaning and burning across the ravine, and the music of chainsaws and leaf blowers ripped through the pretty songs of the cardinals.
My other love, besides fiber and color, is gardening. It has really been bothering me for awhile that our yard looked terrible (we have oak trees, so we are talking acorns and branches everywhere). I had hoped to work with my husband and children to get it done, but honestly there is no free weekend in sight. At just that moment, my dear child comes up to me and says those magic words, “Mommy, I’m bored!”.
Didn’t need to ask me twice. Out came boots and rakes and gloves and wheelbarrows, and we attacked the front yard. Ah….much better. I cleared away all of last year’s stubble from my flower garden, too….and it looks like most of it will be coming back this year. Huzzah!
Of course the child labor didn’t last long, but they were surprisingly helpful. The oldest is waiting for her money (“I’ll do it if you pay me $1”), I insisted she only worked 50c worth. We are still in negotiations.
I cleared out my vege garden boxes, too, and found that my chives and oregano came back. Word is still out on the rosemary (guessing not….too many -0 days this winter) and thyme (showing signs of hopefulness). I also did some visual planning of where I plan to build more boxes this year. Our home is on a hill that is slowly eroding. That spot happens to be the only place in our yard with enough sun for fruits & vegetables, so it works well to need to put planting boxes there. I am dreading the work of putting the boxes in, but it will be worth it.
Right now I’d love to be outside a spinning away again. My husband and kids are at a baseball game. Me, I’m doing taxes. (Yes, I know, late…..we’ve been go-go-go since the last week in February, and I grabbed the chance to do them without interruption. Of course, I am still procrastinating by writing so verbously here. 😛
Here’s what was dry enough to do something with!!
‘Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Showers’ was part commission, and part EtsyFAST challenge (April’s theme is Storms). She picked one, this is the other! Laceweight Merino.
Here is some more Koi Pond….I can’t hardly keep it in stock, so I made more! The green is a little more loud on this version. Superwash Merino & Nylon Sock Yarn.
I’m calling this ‘Purple Rain’, mostly so it will fit in the Storms challenge. Can you tell I love purple?!?
Here is another version of ‘Designer’s Challenge’. This one is more brown, and the blue is bluer.
And this little stash is for me to play with on my spinning wheel….I have some ideas for art and novelty yarns.
Last week, I was featured on JJMFinance‘s blog. Jim is an accountant who has been very helpful to Etsy people, and has written a few accounting programs specifically for Etsians. You can read my interview, then hit the rest of his blog to see more talented artists and see what they have to say about business issues.
Also, I want to thank all of you that made my April Fool’s sale successful. Now there is a bit more room for me to make some new colors!!!
I never have sales. Well, almost never. I prefer to keep my prices reasonable in the first place and spend my energy making more great yarn and roving.
But it is April Fool’s day, and although my husband suggested raising my prices (uh….I think that’d be a joke on me!!), I have decided to have a sale. A pretty decent sale!
So click on the link below, and 25% will be taken off your order at checkout. Good for today only!
Also, you will note that I’ve added a newsletter sign up over in the right column. Sign up, and I’ll send out a newsletter about once a month (never more than twice a month) containing news, pictures, and offers only available to subscribers. It’s double opt in, so you’ll get an email asking if you really want to sign up. Please do!! 🙂
Ha! Now you are in for it. My first yarn has dried (and I’ve finally had time to do photographs), so you get to see my first (poor) efforts at spinning.
Here are my singles:
Gee, can’t tell which one I did first, can you? *Grin*
Here’s my plied yarn. Please ignore the weird knot thing there and the occasional loop. One single ran out before the other, so I tried to Navajo Ply the rest. Not pretty nor easy to do with a seriously overspun single.
And here is the finished product. A whopping 66 yards, which I’ll either make into a coffee mug cozy, or just leave it out as is for decoration. I have a plan for the second yarn (including making enough to do something with), but I am waiting for my spinning book to arrive. I ordered Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn by Maggie Casey on recommendation. Tracking says it left Des Moines on Sunday, but projected arrival is Thursday. I guess I’ll just have to do something else until the book comes!!
This morning my community choir had a bit of a retreat due to missing a bunch of practices over the winter. It was fun and novel to be meeting in the morning instead of evening, and afterward we enjoyed a potluck lunch and fellowship. Our concert is April 13, so we are feeling the crunch!
This afternoon, I tackled a project that I’ve been putting off pretty much since we moved into this house a bit more than a year ago. About a week after we moved in, the garbage disposal gave out on us. We can (and have) live without one, but they are really handy. Also over the past year, the brackets holding the kitchen faucet to the sink have rusted clean off. It was a cheap-o faucet, so I’m not surprised. The spray hose didn’t work either.
Instead of putting in a similar boring old kitchen faucet, I went e-bay hunting and bought this pretty thing. (I didn’t pay that much for it!). It looks huge compared to what we had before, but we will be able to get pots and my husband’s head under it (he sometimes washes his hair in the sink).
Being the resident handy person, I sacrificed my afternoon to lying uncomfortably on my back, wedged under the cabinet. The faucet took awhile, since I needed to scrub all the old gook off, and knock off a bunch of rust on the cast iron sink. The disposal went in surprisingly very easily, and this one is soooo much quieter than our previous one.
Now we just need to replace the garage door opener, and I think all our home appliances will be working again. (Knock on wood!!)
Here’s what is ‘Fresh from the Dyepot’ this week!
Designer’s Challenge – I saw this combination in a shelter magazine. The sofa was blue, the walls chocolate, and the lamps and throw pillows were orange. Although not my style for in the house, it makes a striking combination. Don’t you want to knit some socks from this hand painted yarn?
Impatiens – This pretty coral pink reminds me of the hanging basket of impatiens my family usually buys for me for Mother’s Day.
Ruby Red – This dark red semi-solid yarn was created for a client through Etsy’s Alchemy. The base yarn is 70% Merino wool, 30% silk.
Color Wheel – I tried a different method of making my ever popular hand dyed rainbow sock yarn, and this is what happened. The burgundy was a bit of a surprise, but the yarn is still stunning!
Rusty – This yarn started as orange, then I dumped in some red. A week later, I wasn’t quite happy with it, and I had some leftover dye from Ruby Red up there, so I over-dyed it again. The beautiful subtle highlights and depth of color were hard to capture on camera.
Orange Red – Ok, I am seldom at a loss for a yarn title, but this one eluded me. This is also an overdye that started more yellowy-orange, and then I added a layer of red.
Nessie – This has to be my favorite this week. I started playing with shades of color, and so here is my blue-green tribute to the legendary Loch Ness Monster.
I will be adding most of these yarns (I made 2 of most) to both ThePaintedTiger.com and my Etsy Shop sometime in the next week, and I’ll link up the titles once they are out. Happy Fiber Stalking!!
First of all, yes, indeed Lizzie Beth Lendrum arrived here yesterday, and she is happily adjusting to her new home. The light is terrible today, so I’ll just keep her to myself for a bit longer!
In most places, Robins are the bird associated with spring. Not in our current house. A few weeks ago, we spotted one of these…..
Looks beautiful and majestic, right? Now our skies look like this:
Last year, we had no clue what these were. 50 or so of them would perch in the trees on the property in front of us. We finally got out the binoculars and a wildlife book. Our majestic flyers turn out to be…….
Turkey Vultures
Not quite so beautiful and romantic sounding, huh? I think they follow the ice break up in the Mississippi River. They’ll be here about a month, then suddenly one day be gone. If you’d like a good picture of their mug only a mum could love, click here.
