Spring Fling tomorrow!

Super fast post to let everyone know about the spring fling multi vendor even that I am participating in tomorrow. Details:

SPRING FLING MULTI VENDOR EVENT

Thursday March 17th – 3:30 – 6:30

In the Cricket Ridge Office 

(4465 Cricket Ridge Drive, off Aurelius in Holt)

Lia Sophia Jewelry – Try on before you order from the new catalog; super buys on retired pieces; drawing for a free piece of jewelry.

Handpainted yarn from Sarah-Ashley (OurHumbleCastle on Etsy)– she dyes the most luscious palette of yarns in all weights. Your fingers will be itching to start a new knitting or crochet project.

Jane’s Silk Flower Arrangements – it’s springtime all year round with these lovely accent pieces.

Erin (Rosie & Peni.etsy.com) brings Crocheted Cuties and Gorgeous Gift Cards to this sale

Come and look; have a cookie; go home with something pretty and unique.

Questions? Call Sharon at 694-9036

Or email sharonslp@ameritech.net

I meant to blog about this sooner, but I've been so busy dyeing up some beautiful new yarn for tomorrow that I haven't had the time. Funny how that works eh?

FO Duet

I have a new FO to show off- my Summer Squiggle Socks. These were part of the July sock club kit from Rae's Yarn Boutique. The pattern was designed by LynnH, and the yarn is Summer Love by Rita at the Yarn Hollow. 

I had finished the first sock last summer while we were on our mini vacation as a family, but once we got home (we're talking August) Christmas knitting sort of took over. As part of my self imposed sock of the month challenge this year, I decided to use February (the shortest month) to finish up the second sock. I didn't quite make it by the end of February, but it was close. My official finish date (ends woven in and everything) was this past Friday, March 4th. 

I'm pretty happy with them. It's nice to have a second pair of hand knit socks- my first ones could use some darning.









The second FO that I get to show off is not my own. It was knit by one of my customers out of some laceweight I had in the shop back in January. She knit up a beautiful morning dew (ravelry pattern) out of a skein of  "candy mountain" single ply laceweight.

I know some people don't like pooling that much, but look at those sleeves! I love the way the colors play in them.

A few more pictures of her modeling it:

Gorgeous lace isn't it?

Her husband says that he loves the colors of the yarn that "it's the nicest you've bought!" I thought that was a great compliment. I can't tell you how much joy it brings me to see finished objects that people have made using what I've created. Pure bliss!

And on that note, remember the sherbet fiber I showed you in a previous post? The one on merino silk? I  gave it to a friend of mine as part of a care package a group of us put together for her. She stopped in today and showed me this:

she got 558 yards of near laceweight single out of 4 oz of fiber!

She's looking for a pattern for it- if you've got any suggestions I'll be sure to pass them along. I'm pretty sure she'll let me blog about her FO when it's done too!

That's all for tonight. Happy Tuesday!

Lights!

Lights.

My dyeing studio is in the basement, where there is no natural light. (not like it would make a difference, most of the dyeing I do is at night once DJ is asleep) I've been working with one little light bulb...

...and not only that, but that little light bulb is located behind my back as I stand at my table. I have to lean to the side to cast any light at all on the project!

I've had two sets of florescent lights above the table, but they don't turn on when I flip their switch. My wise dad suggested that I try plugging a hair dryer into the circuit to see if the problem was the power source or the bulbs. It was the power source, which actually works out nicely for me. All I needed was to rig some extension cords and plug the lights into a wall socket, and:

I have light!

The dyeing table before:

The dyeing table after:

You can see the difference- even with the camera automatically adjusting for the different light levels.

That's my tale about light.

Photo Catch-up

I keep taking pictures and meaning to share them with you, and then life gets in the way. But not tonight. Are you ready?

First, the shawl that I've been working on : (The test knit for LynnH- she blogged about it here)

is now done:

I needed a model, and DJ gladly obliged:

Last Thursday (Feb 24th) I had a mini trunk show at my Thursday morning knitting group (SSK) I had trouble fitting all of them on to one lonely table:

I have been dyeing some top, as I'm going to start carrying braids of fiber in my shop soon. Hopefully by the end of February. Just kidding- that was a typo. Let's try the end of March. Much better. Anyway, here is Sherbet on Merino/silk: (two sides to the same braid)

Here it is on Andrea (sorry, this particular skein is gone- I can always dye it again on any base you like!)

And again as top, this time Corridale:

Oh. This one is from a while ago. More top that I have dyed:

The one on the right? It's called "Madhouse" I'll be carrying a line of "madhouse" top in my shop, but they probably won't look quite like that one does...

I'm spinning that one up right now for my March spindlers challenge. (that's a link to the Raverly page) It's VERY crunchy wool, but to be honest, I rather like how it spins. I might be relegated to making pot scrubbers out of it, but at least the colors are playful?

I'll tell you more about my plans for madhouse later. I also wanted to show you the results of my February spinning challenge. It's fiber from the lovely ladies at Two if by Hand:

I might have finished (barely) my February spinning, but my February sock is still a work in progress. I'm too lazy to take a photograph right now to share, but I promise you'll see the finished product.

I'm headed off to bed now, but one more thing: That shawl I made? A little bigger (I.e.- make two) and you'd have a rocking skirt:

And the winner is...

Nine people followed my blog during the month of February. Now that it is March, it's time to draw and find out who the winner is. I did the drawing the old-fashioned way- none of this random number generated stuff, although it does have its place. I started by cutting 9 strips of paper:

Then I wrote down the names of those who had entered:

A quick search of the closet located a genuine hat to put them all in:

I thought about having DJ draw the winner, but I was pretty sure he'd end up pulling out all of the names and chewing on them, so my hubby drew the name instead.

Congratulations Debra! I'll contact you personally and make arraignments for you to get your prize. You've got till the end of March to pick something from my shop, or make a custom request.

To everyone else who followed my blog, thank you so much! I hope you enjoy reading my blog and following my yarny and fibery adventures. :)