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Overheard in the dye studio:
Kimberly: “so, let’s join this KAL and knit a sweater.”
Me: “In my spare time?” “What sweater is it – I’ve got several unfinished projects right now so the time is right to add another.” (Distracted much? me?)
This whole thing got me thinking. Last year for Christmas, I had wanted one of the infamous Bohus sweater kits found here (click on Bohus Stickning when you get there) – this one specifically:
though I’m smitten with the ‘Wild Apple’ project further down the page. Anyways, I wanted it last year. Visited it via the magic of the internet often, and told Kimberly about it as we talked sweaters. I wasn’t convinced I needed it. She was – “You wanted it last year, you want it this year… what about that doesn’t say that you want this?”. Good logical girl, that Kimberly. So, I ordered it. If I’m lucky, I’ll be finished with the KAL project just in time to start the Bohus after Christmas.
Here’s the KAL project (ravelry link): Summer Braids Cardigan
I dyed some of my very own DK weight yarn in the new-ish colorway ‘Artemis’, shades of green and a little sky-blue:
and I started knitting just before Thanksgiving:
Then I dropped a stitch… and fixed it by re-knitting the rows in that section.
and I’m passed this point now, 1 inch from the shoulders.
I’m not going to jinx it by saying how much I love the color or the yarn or the easy-to-memorize pattern… or even that so far I’ve understood the directions (I have a knack for suddenly not being able to read simple English when it comes to patterns) and I’ve followed them (this is also a critical issue for me – I rarely do it and them and astonished and stunned when the finished project looks nothing like the intended item). I will simply say, so far…. so good. And also – it’s amazing how much free time you have for knitting if you just SIT DOWN. Just sayin’. Amazingly, dyeing more yarn, spinning more yarn (the spindle now sits by the teapot), and look! Blogging. Must go knit now, I’m one inch away from binding up the shoulders and trying this bad boy on. You know, in a non-jinxish sort of way.
P.S. whatever you do, please don’t point out any other sweater projects for me until at least Jan. 20th.
P.P.S. you still have time to order your Bohus kit to knit yours with me… in our spare time 
Ok, maybe not. But my birthday was Nov 5th, and that was during the New England Fiber Festival, and I was thrilled to share my birthday with the festival. Friends brought me cupcakes and sang really loud, I was taken out to dinner and had the best chocolate-mousse-cheesecake-with-caramel dessert ever in my life. It was a wonderful birthday – and I got to celebrate it all over again when I got home, with spouse & daughter. It was like the never-ending birthday!
Here’s the booth:
and I saw the most amazing things this weekend! This lovely lady allowed me to take her picture – she totally ROCKS the vintage hand knits, right down to her stockings. Click to make big, it’s totally worth it. She dyed the yarn for the striping at the top of the blouse as well.
and then, THIS walked into the booth (again, you’ll want to click both photos to check out the details) – completely made from rescued thriftstore sweaters, cut into pieces & serged together, right down to the little pointy tip of the hood.
Awesome, eh?
So there are some new colors available…
Artemis, Persephone, Nora’s Waterdragon, Camouflage, Milky Way, Nebula 7027, Andromeda, and Andromeda’s Big Sister.
 
 
Most of these colors come from recent clubs. See what you’ve been missing? Good stuff! The yarns above are available now on the website here. There are a few days left to sign up for clubs - I’m really excited about the Stellar Club this go-round – planning some time-consuming but beautiful and totally worth it dye proces work and can’t wait to share it with you!
There was Rhinebeck – and I had the best time ever! Here’s a couple of pics of the booth, and a wonderful picture of my friends, Sandi Wiseheart and Patrick Roll:
Now normally, I don’t much approve of pictures of me. This one surprised me – taken by MrKnitterotica (one of those imaginary friends from the interwebs) in the middle of a busy day at Rhinebeck.
It’s me, and I was surprised at how… relaxed I look! Now Rhinebeck is busy. I love the busy, but usually *getting* everything to Rhinebeck leaves me almost too exhausted to enjoy my favorite part – the people ‘busy’ part. This year, the stress was way less and the happy way higher. Life is too short to be so stressed you don’t enjoy the end result. I enjoyed Rhinebeck big time this year. I might even have enjoyed some fried dough more than once.
So, moving on. Busy month, this October. The very weekend after Rhinebeck, was Stitches East. Once again, I was surprised at myself. Usually I’m so tired after Rhinebeck, I find myself staring at a wall on Monday, too worn out to do more than stare. This time, I had 3 days to dye missing inventory and repack for Stitches – and it went off without a hitch. I got home late Sunday night, went to sleep, and wonder of wonders – was not at all tired on Monday – or Tuesday or Wednesday for that matter. It was weird – I kept waiting for the exhausted to clunk me on the head but it never happened. It’s amazing what happens when there is less stress in a person’s life!
At Stitches, I had a double booth for the first time. I was nervous about filling it so soon after Rhinebeck, but I think it turned out ok:
This year, because Stitches wasn’t over Halloween, I was able to take Nora out Trick or Treating – she went through a neighborhood with friends which she’s never done before. We’ve always gone to the mall for candy-collecting as we don’t live in a large neighborhood. She LOVED it this year. I suspect it has a lot to do with running through the streets after dark with friends.
No, she’s not going as ‘Braveheart’ or a smurf. My warrior daughter is an Avatar, one of her favorite movies.
Ok, more tomorrow – I’ve got to go dye some yarn now!
I recently and finally received my copy of the Yarn Harlot’s newest book “All Wound Up” and began reading in my spare time. (This means 1 page per day. it’s slow going.)
All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin
I was reminded in the book, about how little I’ve been knitting lately and so I dug out the current socks on the needles. Colorway: Sky’s the Limit. Pattern: my own, toe-up with a small amount of lace.
The best part about my sock knitting? Multi-tasking with 2 at once:
So there ya go. I do knit! I don’t think I’ll have them finished in time for my birthday (Nov 5th. I turn 40.) but we’ll see if I can’t get to the heel over the weekend – come by the booth and say hello at the New England Fiber Festival this weekend! See you there. (I’ll be the one in the party hat.)
(Click pics to make big)
Sock Summit was AWESOME. We have family in the area, so the rest of the family did vacation-type things, while I did yarn-type things.
Nora got to catch (and release) small wild lizards called ‘blue belly lizards’. Then she caught a garter snake that came *THIS* close to becoming a pet. She has her heart set on a Bearded Dragon so the lizard catching was the best part of the whole trip for her I think.
So here’s the booth all purty and ready to go for Sock Summit! This year I shared a booth with Astrid from Damselfly Yarns and we had a blast. We both took some time for a class or two, and I learned all about how to light up your textiles with Syne Mitchell in her ‘Twinkle Toes’ class – very cool stuff. Learned about the history and evolution of sock yarn in the industry today with Clara Parkes.
These were a surprise project in the colorway ‘Godrick’s House’ from the Harry Potter colors. The pattern is called ‘Horntail Gauntlets’ (the dragon Harry stole the golden egg from in The Goblet of Fire). It has a dragon scale motif, comes to points at the wrist to represent the dragon’s tail, and has small ‘bobbles’ near the edge to represent the dragon’s egg. It is currently winging it’s way back to me in my boxes from Sock Summit so when it arrives I’ll get more pics. The pattern is by the lovely Beth over at www.yarnforsale.com and I’ve heard a rumor about a matching sock project. I hope to have this pattern kitted up in time for Stitches Midwest so stay tuned!
Sandi Wiseheart makes Tiaras!
We had an impromptu yoga circle in the lobby Saturday evening. I remember these lovely ladies were there, (Stephanie & Sandi) along with several others… I have vague memories of some downward dog stuff going on… I honestly have no recollection of taking this photo but as it’s on my camera, we’re going to assume it was the yarn fumes of a good day at Sock Summit left me in a haze.
After the stunning color of row upon row of yarn and fiber and crafting goodies, it was a shock the day after to drive through the desert of Eastern Washington into Idaho. With more family just a few hours’ drive from Vancouver WA where we had been, how could we not make the visit? This whole ‘west coast/east coast’ thing is tough on family trips (or rather, the wallets of the folks who have to fly to visit). So off we went for a few days in Idaho in Coeur d’Alene for some quality lake – I mean *family* time.
That would be my humble self and spouse and a canoe. Fun was had by all.
Nora with ‘Racer’ the garter snake
So, now it’s time to get everything packed up for Stitches Midwest in Schaumburg, IL – will you be there? There will be new colors, lovely patterns for socks & shawls, crochet projects, roving…. tons of fun projects! If there’s something specific you want to bring for you, now is the time to speak up!
Oh! and don’t forget the Bacon contest drawing is almost upon us! (rav link for details)
Nora’s first installment of her yarn club… she wanted to dye Mermaids. I happen to be ‘experimenting’ with knitted flats and so we sat down and thought outside the box.
It took us forever to find a stencil of a mermaid – and in fact, we did not find one. Instead we found a nice giant sticker of The Little Mermaid, and the plastic sheets to make your own stencils. That, along with a few ‘ocean-ish’ stencils and we were off & running.
I held the stencil in place, while Nora applied the dye. I used a dye thickening agent to help keep the dye inside the stencil, which really worked pretty well.
Mermaids – Check.
Starfish – Check.
Seaweed – Check.
Air bubbles – ok, sorta. (Use your imagination)
Fill in the blanks with a lovely shade of ‘ocean’ blue.
After it was steamed & dry, it was re-skeined and mermaids were ‘captured’ into club members’ packages, complete with a delicate ring stitch marker with a pearl and ocean-blue accent beads.
Now normally, Nora uses dye by the gallons so I tried to get ‘ahead’ of her this time, and made a good 10/12 cups of mermaid green to start with, and then because of the stencil and the thickener, we hardly used any of it. You’ll excuse me while I go knit more flats for more mermaid yarn. This turned out so to be so much fun, we need to make more Mermaid yarn. Look for it to go ‘public’ at Stitches Mid-West Schaumburg Illinois at the end of August.
Mass Sheep & Wool Festival was delightful. For those of you who came looking to say hello to Nora, she was so bummed about not being able to stay at the fairgrounds in the booth. Her allergies were just too bad. Her and her dad had a nice weekend at the hotel pool though! Thankfully, whatever she reacted to so badly has faded and she’s MUCH better – even back to riding lessons without a sniffle. Still going to have the allergy tests done – by your regular ‘western medicine’ allergist as well as an acupuncturist. Anyways, hopefully come next year we’ll have it under control so she can come work in the booth with me!
This year we were inside on of the barns, and had a double booth. It was delightful to stretch out and have enough room for everyone to get into the booth this year! As usual, Dan of GnomeSpun Yarns, Jesh of Jesh Knits and Hillary from Jellyfish Knits brought along wonderful things to put in the booth for you – roving, dyed silks, new patterns, painted flats… tons of fun stuff! Special thanks to all 3 of them for hanging out all weekend in the booth to help out, and for staying extra late to setup – who knew it would take soooo long to put everything on pegs, eh? Good times. (note to self: bring pizza next year to stave of starvation.)
 
So, not long after this festival, I packed it all up and went to Columbus Ohio for the Summer TNNA show – a wholesale yarn/needlearts show for those that don’t know. This is where your LYS go to find new wonderful goodness to add to their stores for you. There are 4 TNNA shows per year around the country. I was at the West Coast version in January, and last year I went to the fall show in St. Charles (just outside of St. Louis). That was a bit far of a drive, I must say. Anyways, it was very odd packing up the truck and only having a few bags of yarn – this show is not cash & carry – they place orders for future delivery, so I really only needed one of everything. Here’s the booth:
For those of you keeping up, we’re still looking for a farm. Nora’s class hatched chickens this year, and when the time came for them to find a home, I couldn’t resist. Blog, meet ‘Peep’ and ‘Skywalker’ (so named by democratic vote by the kids when they hatched). We’ve been talking to the ‘ranch’ where she takes her riding lessons about some type of lease for the summer – chickens in the backyard is one thing. A horse… not so much.
So what else is new? Well, it is the 20th of June and the first installment of the new Stellar Club, Greek Mythology Lace Club, and Nora’s Club all go out in less than 10 days. Have you signed up? There’s still time, and there’s still room.
Things to look forward to on the blog: New color releases, new patterns (and kits), and some heart to heart talk about dyeing, and new weaving projects. Stay Tuned!
Awesome time at the festival. AWESOME. There were friends, there was homemade chocolate ice cream & meringue with chocolate chips and home-brewed beer, and did I mention ice cream? There were kids and bunnies and sheep and alpaca and food and lots of yarn and roving and more friends. If you want to know what it was really like, read those 2 sentences over and over again, for 2 days while running on an adreniline rush high of getting to do what you love best…. and that would about cover how it feels for me.
This year, the lovely folks who put the Festival book together gave everyone a good time in the Scavenger Hunt! What’s that you say? You didn’t know there was a Scavenger Hunt? It was interesting… The Hood building where my booth is for example, was labeled as #28 but it’s actually 31. Vendors were listed in building 16 but building 16 was closed and locked with no vendors. It was fascinating to see the confused look on folks faces as they tried to find the vendors they were looking for in buildings they couldn’t find – I had to explain the ‘game’ to several of them. The best part, was the cover of the booklet that listed the dates/times of the show as May 14-15th, 9-5. But it closed at 4pm on Sunday. I wonder who won the Scavenger Hunt this year? Anyways, a good time was had by all.
Here’s the booth (click for full glory):
Close-up on the yarn:
And brace yourself for the total cuteness of kids & bunnies. 2 boys… 2 bunnies being escorted around the show – it was fate.
wait – there’s more.
Had a wonderful time. Dan a.k.a. BrewerGnome on Ravelry, a.k.a. Gnomespun Yarns had amazing colors in wonderfully hard-to-find fibers in the booth, and was there in the nick of time to help teach a new spinner the ‘ropes’ as her husband wrote out the check for her first wheel. Brings a tear to the eye. A new family member.
If you missed out on the lovely weather (it was a monsoon on Sunday) at the festival this year, then drop the hamburger plans with the inlaws you’ve been cooking up for Memorial Day Weekend, and head on over to the Mass Sheep & Wool Festival instead. I’ll wait there for you…….
…… but WAIT! BIG NEWS! They’ve moved our booth/tent location!! Instead of being outside near the fleece judging building, we’ll be INSIDE!
Craft Barn 2, space 1 & 3 (2 spaces right next to each other – be still my heart).
I’ll bring way more Silvery Sparkly Roving (does that make it vampire roving?) along with tons of Superwash BFL in tons of wonderful colors. What’s your favorite color? Let me know now so I dye that to bring I’m partial to blues and greens myself. (And yes, It’s real Silver, Emily.)
Nora will be coming with me to Mass. this year – we had a scheduling conflict for NH and she and her dad just couldn’t make it. She’s pretty excited. When she found out I had a 2nd booth space this year, she promptly began planning her display. Ya, I’m in trouble now. I guess I should be grateful there aren’t horses for sale at this festival…
Will you be coming out this weekend to the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival? You really should. I’ll be bringing lots of shiney new roving – roving with merino….silk….and SILVER for your spinning pleasure, all in one-of-a-kind colors. Not going to make it? Better plan now for the Mass. Sheep & Wool Festival in a couple of weeks – I’ll bring more and wait for you there.
Here’s a closer shot:
Robins have been spotted! As have crocus, and the tulips are flowering with wild abandon. This winter seemed particularly long. I couldn’t wait for spring, it felt as if it would never actually arrive. Now the trees are messing with people’s allergies, yards are turning green, and the real sign of spring: Golfers are out in force. I drive by several different golf courses or driving ranges over the course of the week and this year, it seemed as if there were more golfers than I’d ever noticed before.
As some of you may know, we’re still looking at farms to get back to growing our own food, and finding a place for that horse for Nora (and one for me too, thank you very much). We spent some time in the car this weekend looking at several. I’ll keep you posted, but we have a lot of looking still to do. In the meantime, there’s plenty to keep me busy here!
Upcoming show schedule:
May 14-15th at the NH sheep & wool festival! NOT on Mother’s Day weekend this time so mark your calendars!!
May 28-29th at the Mass sheep & wool festival!
June 4th-5th at the Maine Fiber Frolic! This is my first time vending here and I’m very excited!
June 9th-13th at the Summer TNNA show – this one is wholesale so tell your LYS to look for me!
July 28th-31st at Sock Summit in Vancouver, WA and can barely stand to wait until July for it.
Aug 25th-28th at Stitches Mid-West in Schaumburg, IL (near Chicago) – had a blast last time!
Sept 24th-25th at the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival in Greenwich NY.
Oct 15th-16th at Rhinebeck (aka NY sheep & wool festival)
Spring brings new things – and there are several new things on the website now. I am thrilled to say you can now order your favorite color yarns in Skinny-Ewe Lace, FlockSock, Silver-Sock, Super-Sheep DK, or BFL roving! Check it out on the website here!
Also new on the website: Romulan Cloak, Bloody Mary,Beaded Cuff mitts or socks!
Romulan Cloak Shawlette – In the new Romulan Raspberry Colorway!
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A lovely
new shawl by Michelle Miller of Fickle Knitter Designs! Pattern
requires only one skein of FlockSock Sock yarn to complete! The
shape mimics the Romulan Warbird ship and makes a wonderful shawlette or scarf to tuck in during a windy spring walk.
Choose the original in Romulan Raspberry, or pick a color from
the dyed yarn page, and write it in below for your kit color
choice.
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Bloody Mary – It’s Cocktail hour for your knitting!
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Brand new pattern by
RedScot,
combined with a brand new colorway – ‘Bloody Mary Mix’! Sometimes described as a meal in itself (depending on serving-styles),
the Bloody Mary sits high in the cocktail firmament, but how do you
drink yours? Wearing Bloody Mary Socks, of course!!Kit
includes 400 yard skein of FlockSock Sock yarn in the new ‘Bloody Mary
Mix’, hand-dyed one at a time (just like the perfect drink), and the
wonderful new pattern, in full color.
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Beaded Cuff – Socks or Mittens!
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Lovely cables with a bit of shiny bling beads! Kit comes with
400 yds sock yarn, matching/color-coordinating beads and the pattern for
socks or mittens.
Shown in the ‘Sunset’ colorway. Choose your
color from the dyed yarn page, and write it in below for your kit color
choice.
If you have any questions, just ask!
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Several new colors are finally available on the website!
Romulan Raspberry, Medusa, Barnyard by Nora,Cheeky, Lavender Buds, and Aphrodite!
     
Medusa and Aphrodite are both from the last round of the Greek Mythology Lace Club. Click on the yarn to read more about the god, goddess, monster or hero.
 
So much new stuff! There are several shawls on the way as well, so stay tuned!! They’ll go up in the next couple of days. Right now, I’m going to go take a nap and try to get ahead of the sleep deprivation that the upcoming show schedule will require!
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