So here is one of the yarns that I finished last weekend. This was inspired by this month's EtsyFAST challenge. Our theme was "books" which I took pretty literally, because I am funny that way.

I call this one "Leatherbound"

I swear by my pretty floral needle case.

Spent some time at the studio this weekend, and finished a new knitting needle case and lots of yarn. Check it out:






I have 2 other new yarns as well, but no pictures yet.

Also, I hung lights on our bar, and it looks AWESOME!

Had an excellent weekend at Open Studios. Got to hang out with my studiomate and do some spinning, and even had a sale. Some number of years ago, I made myself a cute black hat with kitty ears...only due to a serious inability to judge height, I made the decreases too soon, and the thing barely covered the top of my forehead. I was very pleased to finally find it a happy home with someone who will actually be able to wear it. The nice weather brought all the people out so it was pretty fun.

We also bought a new bar for the studio, which will make a nice place to work and greet people on open studio days, in addition to providing a flat surface for measuring fabric and the like. We are going to decorate it with red christmas lights to enhance our "college dorm" design aesthetic. Amber recently purchased some huge hanging paper lanterns and we have other lights up on the wall, and tiny paper lanterns at our door. It feels all fun and quirky there now....just like us!

New bags

I don't know why, but I seem to be on a "brown" kick, and have 2 finished bags to share.

The first is a tote bag. I actually started this last summer, and then it sat on the sewing machine for several months until I was inspired to finish it. I think it's cool that there is this crazy paisley pattern in a very neutral color. The outside fabric is ultrasuede, so it is slightly fuzzy and soft to the touch.



The second item is a crocheted purse. I was experimenting with an alternating double crochet/single crochet stitch pattern and really like the texture. Added the leaf applique because it seemed a little too plain for me. Yeah, I had to add some metallic paint. You know how I just love shiny objects.

I turned the heels on my socks last night at knitting. I may actually finish these sometime this year. Woo-hoo!

New yarns

Finally got some pictures of my newest yarns.

This is the one that I started a while back and finally completed earlier this month.

Iridescence:





So this is one ply of black alpaca and multi-colored firestar (batt purchased from loop on etsy) and one ply of natural black suri llama and alpaca blend (from thecritterranch). It is super soft and has just the right amount of sparkle. I love it. I will be keeping this for myself, but I haven't decided what to make with it yet.

The second new yarn is for this month's Big Damn Crafters challenge. Our theme this month is Mal, and so I used a batt of alpaca in 3 natural shades of cream and brown which was blended with coordinating angelina. I liked the idea of using undyed fiber, but couldn't resist the sparkles. Go figure. I know that you are all surprised by that. In any case, I think it is a good representation, if Mal was going to be a yarn, I am pretty sure it would look like this:

I create!

Still no pictures of the yarn to share, I am afraid. But soon, I promise. I had a productive evening at the studio last night. It was good to have some company, and I completed 2 items. The first was a little tote bag, which has been waiting to be done since about August. I haven't done much sewing lately, and it was kind of fun to break out the sewing machine. The second was a new needle case. I don't have new pictures of those to share, but the needle case looks pretty much like this:



I absolutely adore those fabrics.

In other news, I am looking into some craft fair options and need to submit photos of my work. I have a hard time picking which things to submit. So, I ask for your opinions. Take a look at my etsy shop or my flickr collection and pick 1-3 items that you think best represent my work. Also, since the shows will be in the spring/summer, keep in mind that winter items are probably not my best bet.

So, in the spirit of trying to accomplish some of my crafting goals for this year, I decided that I would find Socks 2.4 and see what kind of state they were in. Much to my surprise, they looked like this:



They actually look sock-like! I didn't remember having done so much, and seeing them in that state, I was more inspired to start working on them again, so I brought them to knitting last week. And then I remembered why I had stopped working on them the last time: I was working both socks at the same time on 2 circular needles. Then one of the needles broke. Though I tried valiantly to do both socks using Magic Loop, the remaining needle simply isn't long enough and made the project fiddly and frustrating. I am happy to report that I purchased a second needle this week and am ready to continue working on them. So I hope to have a completed pair of socks to show off soon.

In other news, I finished my two pink scarves of doom, and am glad to be done with them:





And I have been keeping busy with my spinning and have completed a few new yarns, though I only have pictures of one of them. I call this one Suprise!


To be honest, I am not sure how I feel about it. It's pretty soft though, being a llama/alpace blend.

One thing I am sure about is that I am totally in love with one of the other yarns I finished, and it is likely to be the 2nd yarn I have loved too much to part with. I will take pictures soon, I promise.

And now I will leave you with this pictures, sent to me by earthgirl from the show she did recently.

In search of the perfect pattern

I have been searching for a sweater pattern, and I came across this one and fell in love. I did some swatching last night and the yarn knits up beautifully, but I think the pattern may be too busy for the yarn. It's hard to tell on such a small piece, but I am not sure I like how it is coming out, so I may save the pattern and use a different yarn. In the meantime, I am back to the drawing board. The variegation in the Jubilation yarn is such that it changes every 3-4 stitches, so I think I am going to go for something more simple. I have this idea in my head which I think will work, though I don't have a pattern for it, so we will see how it goes.

What should I do with this?

I am feeling ready to cast on for one of my 2009 goals - which is to make a sweater for myself. The problem is, although I know which yarn I want to use (Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious Single Silk in Jubilation), I can't figure out what kind of sweater to make with it. So you tell me, what would you make with this yarn:

Jabberwocky

I bought this Blue Moon fiber which is merino and mulberry silk (50/50, I think) at Rhinebeck. It's their "Jabberwocky" colorway, and it is much more colorful than my usual yarns.





I am not sure whether I want to rename it, as my yarn bears little resemblance either to their yarns in this color, and the name doesn't totally seem appropriate. If anyone has any suggestions, I would certainly welcome them.

Winter Wonderland

Inspired by the snowy landscape, I created these two new yarns last week:


Frozen: blue wool, white mohair, iridescent thread


White Witch: blue wool, white mohair, iridescent thread, blue, white, and clear beads


And then, out of a need to make something that was not pastel, I whipped out this single ply yarn:


Midnight: cotswold, mohair, sparkle

Iridescence

I rarely post pictures of unfinished work, but I am so in love with this I have to share it, even though it's not complete. First of all, let me say that I bought this batt from loop on etsy and it was a dream to spin with. The colorway is called Iridescence, and it's black alpaca that's been blended with an assortment of firestar in pretty much every color. You all know how I can help myself when it comes to shiny objects. And the alpaca fiber was so soft and silky, I want to marry it. It was that good.

Anyway, here's what the single looks like so far:


I started to ply it on itself, but the glitter was a bit much, even for me, so I am going to spin up a solid black single to ply it with. I think it is going to be gorgeous when it's done.

Well, I feel like the day is wasting, and I have spinning and knitting to get done today. Happy Sunday!

Happy 2009 everyone!

I stopped making "resolutions" years ago, as they seemed destined for failure. Instead, I have had a tradition of setting goals.

This year, some of my crafting goals include:

1. Knit a sweater.
2. Finish socks v 2.5
3. Create usable crafting space at home
4. Spin alpaca fleece
5. Participate in at least 1 craft fair
6. Be profitable.

I am off to a good start, I spent part of my new year's day cleaning up my crafting room, throwing things away and organizing. I can't believe how much unusable stuff I had: dried up glue, empty paint containers, paintbrushes with no bristles left. Today I will be heading to the store this evening to look at storage units. I am thinking about getting one of those 9 cube organizer things, with some cute drawers to help keep my yarn and fiber organized.

The Sun Always Shines...

Here's some more new yarn for you...I have been a pretty busy girl.

I call this one "Sun Always Shines" (yes, I did have A-Ha stuck in my head, for no apparent reason).

She's a Brick...

Finished up this little skein of yarn on my new wheel. I am still playing around with it and getting the feel of things, so I wanted to do a single ply. I really love the color of this one.

In case anyone was wondering

This is what about 40 tiny Jayne hats looks like:



Pretty cunning, dontcha think?

I actually finished about 50 of them in the last couple of months and shipped them off to my new friend at Firefly Cargo Bay, who will be distributing them at some cons next year. Whee!


My hands actually hurt a little bit from so much knitting. But there is no rest for me, as I still have Christmas presents to finish up (hooray for procrastination!).

Once again, I gave in to my inner princess, and created this very girly scarf.



This time, it's blue, and sparkly. I incorporated some handspun yarn in there, so it's not entirely frilly. Right?

mmmm....yarn

Lately, I seem to be particularly inspired by food. If you know me at all, you won't find that very surprising. Here are a few recent yarns inspired by sweet treats:


Mint Chocolate


Berries 'n Cream

So yesterday, I brought my new wheel to the studio to play.

I carried it in like this:



Pretty cool, huh? You know what's even cooler? When it came out of the bag, it looked like this:



and a few short minutes later, it looked like this:

.



So far, I am enjoying spinning on it. It takes a little getting used to, as it is a little different from my Traveler. But, so far, so good.

It's an awfully pretty night, and I wanted to take a moment to share this picture:

I got my new spinning wheel! Yay! I picked it up from my dad's house yesterday and put it together. It is just as cute as I remember, and I will be sure to take pictures this weekend so I can show it off.

It also occurs to me that I didn't share pics of the fingerless mittens that I made for my co-worker. She used to borrow mine all the time, and so finally commissioned a pair for herself. In black. I used a reverse stockinette background to help the cable stand out a little bit more, but working with the black yarn was kind of a pain, which is why these ended up taking about 6 months to complete. Whoops.



She loves them, though and wears them around work all the time. As a result, another co-worker recently asked me to make a pair for his wife.



I love the braided cable.

Had a busy weekend at the open studios. Got to hang out with Amber and do some knitting on Saturday, and even had a sale. Sunday was a little slower, lots of people stopped in to fondle the yarn and knitted things, and I got a lot of spinning done, so it was still a productive day.

I will be there again next Saturday from 12 - 5, if anyone wants to stop by the Western Ave Studios and visit me. I may have my new wheel by then, and I may bring it to the studio to play.

This is the wheel that I bought at Rhinebeck, and they are finally finished making it, and it should be shipping out to me this week. The people at SpinKnit got their website up, so you can go see what my wheel is going to look like. I can't wait to get it here. Isn't it just the cutest thing you ever saw?

I keep meaning to post more. And I swear if I was feeling like myself, I would. I haven't even been making anything. But I do finally have something to share. And considering that it has taken me just about 2 months to finish, I am pretty darn proud of this.

This winter accessories set was started in response to the October challenge for EtsyFAST which was "Candy". I chose Twizzlers as my candy inspiration. Mmmm....twizzlers.



And some closeups:






I started this with just the scarf, but it was taking me so long, due to my illness, that I got bored with it, and made the hat as a way to take a break from it. Then I got bored again, and made the fingerless mittens...because, well, I love me some fingerless mittens.

All three pieces are knit in a spiral rib pattern from Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky, and I used almost every last bit of 5 hanks of the stuff. It's soft, warm, and totally squishable.

I still don't feel totally like myself. I keep thinking that maybe tomorrow I will feel better. And who knows, maybe tomorrow I will.

NY Sheep and Wool was great. Much better than last year. Of course this year did not involve spending countless hours on a cramped and smelly bus.

Also, I bought a new spinning wheel. I wish I had thought to take a picture of it. It's so adorable. It's in the process of being made for me right now. How awesome is that?

In addition to the wheel, I bought a little bit of yarn and fiber (heh heh heh, well, a little bit by my standards). And some wine. To fuel the crafting, of course.

I did show SOME self control and did not, in fact, buy an alpaca fleece. Or a fleece of any sort. Oh sure, if they had taken credit cards, we totally would have, but that's not the point!

Has it really been that long since I posted? I guess so. I swear, I have a good reason.

I've had the plague. Or good as. Sinus infection/ear infection/bronchitis combo has pretty much had me out of commission for the last 3 weeks. It has not been a fun time.

On the plus side, I am off to Rhinebeck. Yay! What little money I have not spent on antibiotics I intend to use to comfort myself with the purchase of fiber. Yeah. That'll work.

After not really having any sales from my shop for months, I am happy that things seem to be picking up a little. It is unfortunate that one of the items that I sold this month was reported MIA by the buyer, and I ended up having to refund her money. That was the autumn magnet board, too, so I am pretty broken-hearted about it, seeing that I almost didn't put the thing up for sale at all, because I liked it so much. Plus, I don't understand how something in a 24" x 24" x 3" box goes missing. But that's how life is, I guess.

Anyway, I had a breakthrough in making tiny pom poms for my mini Jayne hats this morning. In case you don't remember, the previous incarnations looked like this:



Though cute, in a Ma Cobb kind of way, I really wanted them to be more pom pom like. And finally, after constructing my own 3/4" pom pom maker (and yes, I know they sell pom pom makers in that size, but they are like $6, and I have only seen them online), they now look like this:



Pretty cunning, don't ya think?

Sorry it has taken me so long to post (life has been a little on the crazy side), but I received 3 awesome little guys from my partner in the Stuffie Swap.

First, she made me these adorable representations of my kitties, Kolya and Gwydion:


Kolya is slightly smaller and a little bit devious. Gwydion is big, lovable, and a bit dense. They look just like my boys and I love them. (and yes, Gwyd's eyes really are 2 different colors)

And then there was also a "flying purple people eater":


It's one-eyed, and one-horned! And it's got happy faces in it's belly (or on it's belly). I think it is hilarious, and I brought it in to work to help cheer me up when I am having a bad day.

I haven't received word from my partner that her stuffie has reached her, and other than that, my own crafting has been somewhat uninspired these last few weeks. I am working on a new stripey scarf as a gift for a friend, but otherwise not a whole lot has been going on. I do have plans to get together with a friend this weekend for some crafting time, so here's hoping I will find my long-lost inspiration.

More scarves!

I was a crocheting fool last weekend. In addition to the scarf I made for a friend, and the silly ruffled neckwarmer, I also made 6 other stripey scarves, in various colors:



They are all about 3 inches wide, and range from 5 feet to 7 feet long. Fun!

No, this is the silliest thing I have ever made

A friend saw the lacy, sparkly pink scarf I made last week, and asked me to make her one. I still had plenty of that novelty yarn left, so I made her a similar scarf.



And then, my inner, pretty-pretty-princess got the better of me, and I got it in my head to make this, using the remainder of that yarn:

Yes. It is pink. And sparkly. And ruffled. It's also incredibly warm. I like how the design came out, and I might need to make one for me...in different colors, of course.

I think I need to dig out every black yarn I have and make something from them, just to balance this out.

I received a couple of cool items from my Dresden Dolls swap partner. I got a funky fabric choker with a chunky piano keys pendant. This is definitely a unique item, and I think it is cool:



I also got a green and black striped neckwarmer. It's so cute, and I found it it is also just the right size to wear as a headband, though I didn't get a pic of that.


And then, I got this adorable handpainted bag. This was based off of one of my favorite pics.



So all in all, it was a great swap.