56 posts tagged “handdyed”

More new hand spun yarns listed today in my etsy shop! A variety today - a single ply, an art yarn, and even a two-ply. Here is a mosaic of the new skeins -

Kitty Mixers - Barney's Midnight Blues - Hand Spun Two-Ply Yarn in merino wool 150 yards
Kitty Mixers - Barney's Midnight Blues - Hand Spun Two-Ply Yarn in merino wool 112 yards
FunctionArt - River Twilight - Hand Spun Art Yarn 64 yards
FunctionArt - River Twilight - Hand Spun Art Yarn 74 yards
Kitty Singles - Blackberry Sea - Hand Spun Single Ply Yarn in merino wool and bamboo blend 150 yards
Squish-tastic - Bronze Field - Hand Spun Bulky 2ply Yarn 96 yards

Today I'll probably be knitting for my show this Saturday, so most likely will have some new yarns again on Friday.

As for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday madness - right now, since I have my show on Saturday, my plan is to not have any specials on Friday, BUT, I will be having a Cyber Monday sale that will most likely start on Sunday. This sale will *definitely* be for my newsletter subscribers, but I also *might* have some specials for everyone. It's all going to depend on what I have left after my show. Also, Newsletter subscribers ALWAYS get better specials. You can sign up on the side of this blog or at the bottom of this page. I'm not sure what the discounts or specials will be yet, though.

Now, it's off to get some knitting done for ART VS CRAFT this weekend!

Just a a quickie post today to show off my 3 latest single ply yarns. When I received these batches of fiber in the mail from Cloudlover, I was speechless! The colors were so deep and gorgeous! I wanted to spin them right away, but had to wait. I should have been working on more commissions yesterday, but instead I snuck in these 3 spins - (all are now on etsy here!)

Annabel Lee - 166 yards - 5.2 oz - worsted weight

Lenore - 120 yards - 4.2 oz - worsted weight

Lost - 136 yards - 5.2 oz - thicker worsted weight

and I am up early! Yay! Now, if I can just STAY up and not go back to bed, I should be off to the start of a very productive day!

This weekend wasn't so productive. I usually can get multiple yarns done each day, but the past 3 days, I seemed to be stuck on getting just one colorway spun up.

I mentioned color in the interview from Friday, and while I DO love ALL colors, sometimes I have to step outside my comfort zone of plums and blues and certain combinations I return to often - and go with just bright random colors. That is what I spun this weekend - lots of bright colors!

The first, on Friday, was a batch of hand dyed merino wool from The Yarn Wench called "Candyland". It was mostly shades of bright blue, pink and yellow. I went with those colors for the novelty yarns I spun in, and also plied with all 3 colors of thread. Here are the results - what I am calling "Dr Seuss Circus" -

Then, on Saturday, I spun up another batch of "Magic Bus" - this is what was used for the "Hippie Boho" yarns. This batch seemed darker, though, and had a bit more red in it. So, I went with more red yarns in this one, and also spun in bright blue and red angelina for some sparkle. Both skeins are plied with a dark orange thread. Here are the two skeins -

Back on Thursday (listed on Friday) - I also did another batch of Devine Melon - now, this is a colorway and combination I do really love and have gone back to again and again. So, while not new and "outside my comfort zone" - they are of the brighter nature -

Yesterday, I finally spun up another Hello Kitty yarn! I will have pictures of that one and it's coordinating bead-less counterpart tomorrow, along with a dark purple and green art yarn spun from my Spontaneous Spinning club batt from June - which was inspired by the Purple Passion butterfly. These 3 yarns will be listed later today, too. The Hello Kitty and coordinating skein are called "Arctic Princess" and the purple and green one is called "Riddlebox".

But, for now I must got and get to work!

So, this morning when I woke up, I was very tired. I thought, "I have to leave work early today anyways I should just stay home." But, no. I've only got 18 more days left, I should really go in . . .

So, I did.

Well, eventually.

It took me *two hours* to get to work this morning. It usually takes 35-40 minutes. The freeway was *completely shut down*. Ugh. It was a total mess. And, of course, because they were diverting traffic off the freeway there was heavy traffic on the frontage roads, apparently other scheduled lane closures and a sinkhole? pothole? on one of the roads in the area. But, I persevered and finally got here! Yay!

I didn't have much to say today, anyways, but did want to show off the new art yarn that I listed yesterday - Boho Brights. Two skeins of hand dyed merino wool (dyed by the Yarn Wench), with novelty yarns spun in, and plied with thread. Here they are! (You can click on the picture to go to the etsy listing.)

I spun up a new bamboo color last night so should have two single ply skeins listed later today. But, now, must get to work! ;)

I actually don't have much to say this morning. It is snowing. Again. But, oh well.

I spun up another skein of the "PlumGrove Revisited" last night! It is 98 yards, here is a shot I took last night before setting the twist:

I am waiting to hear if this and/or the other skein are spoken for, but if not, they will be listed later today.

I DID decide to list the coily yarn I posted about yesterday. "All the Pretty Coils" is now available on etsy:
Even though I will be tempted to spin tonight (and I just might sneak in a little bit of it!) my plan is to knit. I have a show again this weekend (well, I'm *supposed* to have a show this weekend - but it will very much depend on the weather as I'm not going to make the 5+ hour drive if we are getting yet another snowstorm!) so really want to finish up a couple of knit things. I want to have at least one shawl, and finish the scarf I started the other night. Plus, I want at least one more pair of wristwarmers . . . so, it will most likely be more knitting for me tonight!

and I really do want to blog. Really. I do. But I'm so cranky that I just feel like anything I write will be so negative . . . and I try to avoid that . . . really. I do! ;)

so . . .

The Valentine Craftacular was this past Saturday and as always it was fun! I had fewer sales this year compared to last year, but I'm just so grateful that it was better than the show I did in January. AND, even a slow day at the Craftacular ends up being fun because of the atmosphere, and of course the other great sellers!

This time, I bought a couple of things. I usually don't. Especially since I sort of need all of my sales money now . . . but, I broke down and bought a beautiful hand-dyed (tie-dyed!) scarf and a pair of bright orange/yellow/pink socks from HipKidsTyeDye! The colors are just so amazingly vibrant! And the scarf is just beautiful!

I was also, once again, next to Lulu from Lulu's Stabby Critters! It is amazing the fun critters she felts and she had some new creatures just for Valentine's Day! I was sad to hear she sold her "Princess Leia" though! (but, good for her, of course)

But. The weather. God I am so sick of the weather. So sick of snow and winter and wind chill advisories! My drive home from Madison was very stressful. It was snowing, which wasn't so totally bad, it was nothing like the foot we got last week - but, it was blowing and causing issues on the freeway, and of course other drivers. So, by the time I got home my neck/shoulders were one big knotted mess of stress!

AND! We were supposed to go out for a friend's birthday . . . we still did, actually, and I'm glad. Since I am usually ravenous when I get home from a show it worked out great - we had a really nice dinner and I was able to get a nice girly drink to relax just a little. Then we went bowling. Yes, bowling. Even though I actually once took a bowling class in college (I was basically looking for a cheap/easy class to take to retain my "student" status so I could keep my job at the library) I still kinda suck at it. I did score over 100, though, 2 out of 3 games and by the last game I was so tired that it was amazing I could even get the ball down the lane . . .

Now, I do want to say that I wouldn't have done any of this if I had had to drive far - but all of this fun happened within 5 minutes of home, so . . . low risk since by then it had stopped snowing. Still cold, of course!

Hmmm . . . so Sunday was supposed to be a spinning day! And . . . I did nothing! Okay, I actually spun one yarn:

why, yes, it may look familiar as it is another "version" of the Plum Grove/Plum Lime skeins that have been so popular. I actually love this color combination and this one, especially, seemed to turn out really . . . intense? The fiber (dyed for me by Lynn aka the Yarn Wench) was darker than previous batches, so I used that as an opportunity to go a little wild in the yarns I chose to spin in - I used more purple yarns this time as well as burgundy yarns, along with some new green ones as well. I believe this skein may be spoken for but I have 6 more oz and do plan on doing them similar to this one since I do like how it turned out.

I did do a little bit of knitting, but this skein is all I have to show for the weekend! :(

Oh, wait! I do have another yarn - this is a coily yarn that I spun while at the Craftacular on Saturday. I usually spin Navajo 3-ply yarns while at shows, but this time, I decided to do something a little different! I spun up one of the coily "beehive" yarns!

This is spun from "Getaway", a domestic wool also hand dyed by the Yarn Wench. Turned out different than what I expected but I do like it. This one *might* be listed tonight OR it *might* become my first "WIN THIS YARN" skein! Not sure yet.

And, just because I don't have a lot to show today, I thought I would post this picture of what is probably my current favorite yarn! "Violets Are Blue" art yarn with coils & beehives!

So, that's is it from me for today! And, I think I got through this post without 1. another rant about the weather 2. a rant about the fact i have no more sick time or vacation time so am not sure how i'm going to survive the next 4-1/2 months and 3. a rant about stupid drivers.

So, yay! ;)

Four days in a row of posting, that is! Amazing!

So, we got a ton of snow yesterday. As in about a foot in most areas, some more! I stayed home from work as there was no way I was driving my normal 35-40 minute commute. Others opted to stay home, too, and even though *every* other place was closed, our college was open - as were the public schools in that area. The college did, apparently, close the "offices" at 4pm and evening classes were canceled . . . but . . .

I really think it is ridiculous that they were open in the first place, or that the schools were open as well. Anyone who was watching the news or looked at the radar could SEE we were going to get hit. Hard. Yes, there was a question of timing, but still. I might have gotten to work in the morning, but the commute home would have been horrid.

Some people say we are getting to be "wimps" about the weather, and that we should just "deal with it" as we are in a state that gets snow - we should be used to it. But, I personally don't believe we should be risking our lives just to get to our jobs for one day. Or that the lives of all those kids should be put in jeopardy just because the school district is "out of snow days". Seriously. All it would take is one tragic bus accident and then everyone would be saying, "Oh why didn't we close, it's so dangerous, etc., etc., etc.," . . .

Now, obviously there are some people that are needed on days like yesterday - but, is it really so awful that the malls were closed? On a day when there are near-blizzard conditions, should you really be going shopping anyways?? My boyfriend works at a distribution center for a department store - the message for first shift was "The building is open, come in at your own discretion." By third shift, the message was changed and they were offering unpaid time off - but only because they couldn't move trailers because of the snow! Otherwise, they would have been expected to go in or to burn one of their paid personal days! Restaurants were closing, too. And the buses even stopped running by about 5pm because . . . they were getting stuck all over the city! And causing MORE problems for the plows! Of course, the airport was shut down around noon as they couldn't keep the runway clear . . . now, I understand those people stranded at the airport really wanted to get moving - either back home or onto their vacation or business destination . . . but, again, SAFETY FIRST! I really wouldn't want to be on a plane that had problems on the runway, or problems because it wasn't properly de-iced, or problems up in the air because visibility was so bad . . . so . . .

I guess I am a wimp and don't mind that a city shuts down because of a snow storm. It's just one day. And, I truly believe that businesses SHOULD shut down and not put their employees at risk. Keep the "essential" things running and let everyone else take the snow day. AND compensate those who *MUST* work appropriately!

Wow. I didn't mean to ramble on quite so much about this. I guess it is just something that really bothers me. There was a fatal accident right on the stretch of road I drive every day - and it was in the morning, when conditions weren't even as bad as they were later in the afternoon - is it worth that risk?? NO!!!!

ANYways!! Since I WAS home, I managed to get a yarn done! I should have it listed later today! It is called "Violets are Blue", and I have a more regular-art-yarn skein and then a skein with coils & beehives - but both are spun from the same hand dyed merino wool, with novelty and specialty yarns spun in and plied with matching thread. First skein is the coily one, 66 yards 3.2 oz, and the second one is 98 yards, 4.1 oz.

I also got the "Stardust" coils & beehives skein listed. You can see the listing by clicking on the picture!
AND! I know these disappear fast, but I got a "treasury" list on etsy in the "Treasury West" area . . . so, if you happen to see this before Saturday morning please CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

So, we are getting lots of snow here in Wisconsin so it is home for me today. Not that I don't love my job, but I don't really believe in risking my life just so I can catalog books. And, it seems there are others who share my stay-at-home sentiments since there are TONS of places closed -- including ALL of the area shopping malls!?!?!? I don't know if I ever remember a time when the *malls* closed!! Besides, these kind of snowy blowy days make me just want to stay in . . . and spin! :) So, I will be getting to that soon, but first . . .

Some of you may know HOLLY of HOLLYEQQ.COM (she also has an etsy store, but usually sells wonderful brightly dyed fiber from her website). Well, some of her friends from the fiber community are trying to raise some money for her for some upcoming medical bills . . . for more details, please check out the Homestead Wool & Gift Farm site. They give all the information as well as have wonderful items to purchase and all the proceeds go to Holly. I have two yarns that I have donated (you can click on the pictures to go to the link to buy):

Patience Hand Spun Merino Two Ply

Neon Taffy Song (Neon Holly) Art Yarn

I'll be totally honest and say that I usually don't do things like this, as there is always someone in need . . . but I want to help Holly - she is one of the first "fiber" people I found online and am always cheered by the bright colors she uses and the fun yarns she spins! I feel I "know" her in a way, so want to help and hope that if you love yarns and fibery goodness, you will check out the site and make a purchase to help out!

And, before I get offline to spin, I'll leave with a picture of the two new yarns I spun last night. I haven't had time to take "good" pics today, so this is one from last night - they are both spun from hand dyed merino wool from the Yarn Wench (color called Milkyway), but I am calling them "Midnight Stardust" - the Stardust part coming from the wonderful story by Neil Gaiman.

I should have to top, coily one on etsy later, but I *think* the other one (the art yarn) is already spoken for, which means I need to get spinning so I have something new for tomorrow . . . though I also plan on getting some knitting done today to make the most of my snow day!

First, WOW this is two days in a row I am posting! Woohoo!

As always, I have a few new yarns to share. But, first, I'd like to mention a great blog that I'm currently featured on - MoonDogTreasures. She features some wonderful etsy sellers that offer a variety of handmade goodies, as well as makes some great jewelry herself - here is one of my favorites:
I'd also like to mention another customer of mine that is using my yarns in the wonderful scarves she knits! You can find Phydeaux Designs on etsy, as well as her blog here. She knit this yarn:

into a fabulous scarf! Click on the picture above to see the listing on etsy! Check out her shop for other wonderful cozy scarves, too!

Now, here are the new yarns . . . several of these have already been spoken for, but the others are or will be listed soon. First, two that ARE available and just the perfect thing needed to brighten up these dreary days we've been having! Neon Taffy and Neon Taffy Song are both spun from Falkland wool (dyed by the Yarn Wench) with lots of novelty yarns spun in and plied with colorful thread.

Then, there are the "Last Tango" skeins, also spun from Falkland wool dyed by the Yarn Wench. These two are spoken for, but here is a picture anyways:

Then, there are two I just spun up last night. The first is also already spoken for, and the second will be listed later today. They are both spun from hand dyed merino wool (again, dyed by the Yarn Wench), a color called "Aegean". The first has lots of Cotswold locks spun in and novelty yarns. The locks and two of the yarns were also hand dyed by Lynn aka the Yarn Wench. Plied with green thread. The second is spun and then plied with OnLine Linie "Shari" yarn. Similar to the "Lime Cosmos" skein, except this one - the base fiber is more blue than green.

That's all the new goodies I have for now. Not sure what I'll be spinning next as I've also got to get some knitting done for a show this weekend - it is the HIGH NOON SALOON Valentine CRAFTACULAR in Madison, Wisconsin - at the High Noon Saloon! The Craftacular shows are always fun so I am really looking forward to it! BUT, I do want to have at least a few new knits for it, so I must get going on that this week! I have really been trying to have one new yarn a day, but that may not happen this week as I prepare for the show. We'll see, though . . I always *say* I'm going to knit, but the call of the spinning wheel is too strong, and I end up spinning instead!

Well, I think that is it! Yay for posting two days in a row . . . can I make it 3??

and, I've got tons of new yarns to share!

The first set were spun from hand dyed merino wool (dyed by the Yarn Wench), a color called "DoveSong". The first skein was spun into a thicker single, then plied with Joanns Sensations Angel Hair yarn - which is just so soft and heavenly! The second was plied with thread with lots of coils and beehives!

Angel Hair and Dove Songs:

Angel Wings and Dove Songs:
Then, there are the yarns spun from the "Rocketman" color from the Yarn Wench, also merino wool. These colors are very Red-Hat-ish, so I tried to make a fun Red Hat art yarn:

Then, I decided to just do a fun coils & beehives yarn with the remaining fiber:
And, my last Valentine yarns of the season! The first is an art yarn with novelty yarns and plied with thread, spun from merino wool dyed by the Yarn Wench. The second is pretty much the same as the first, except it is plied with 3 threads that are strung with *60* Hello Kitty face beads!

Buffy's Valentine:

Hello, I Love You Valentine Kitty:
And, finally, here are two yarns spun from carded batts from TerraBellaSpun.

Cordelia's Wish

So named because this blue reminds me of the color of Cordelia's dress in "The Wish" episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

Anya's Charm

Okay, that's all I have time for! I'm hoping to post again later, though . . .