Yay!

So happy news!  I am now a Phat Fiber Contributor! And box drop is coming up. And as usual I'm obsessing. (Eh, it's what I do.) So lightning strike of inspiration coupled with a recent interest in Dire Straits. (I have no idea why.) I knew I would never be able to sleep until I finished it, so here is my parody of Dire Straits' Money for Nothing

 

I want my PFSB (Phat Fiber Sampler Box)

 

I want my, I want my PFSB

Now look at them fibers, that’s the way you do it.
You stalk the Etsy for the PFSB
You’re box huntin’, that’s the way you do it
Phat Fiber Sampler, mini shopping spree

 

Now you’re box huntin, that’s the way you do it
Lemme tell you that box is fun,
Maybe get some hand dyed silky sock yarn
Maybe get some beautiful handspun

 

You got to wait for the box drop email
Yes, it’s coming; wait and see
You got to wait and stalk until drop time
Ask for help from the Gods of Etsy

 

You got to wait for the box drop email
Yes, it’s coming; wait and see
You got to wait and stalk until drop time
Ask for help from the Gods of Etsy

 

Look a’ here, Look a’ here

You wanna learn to spin some hand spun
You wanna learn to knit some gloves
Look at that box, it’s fillin’ up the camera

Man, sure could be fun

Oh and right there, what that? Cashmere and Yak blend?
Bet you that will crochet up just like a dream?
You’re box huntin’, that’s the way you do it
Get your Phat Fiber Sampler, mini shopping spree

 

You got to wait for the box drop email
Yes, it’s coming; wait and see
You got to wait and stalk until drop time
Ask for help from the Gods of Etsy

 

Listen here

Now you’re box huntin’, that’s the way you do it
You click the button for your PFSB
You’re box huntin’, that’s the way you do it
Phat Fiber Sampler, mini shopping spree

 

Phat Fiber Sampler
Mini shopping spree
Phat Fiber Sampler
Mini shopping spree

Look at that, look at that,
I want my
I want my
I want my PFSB

 

Refresh your memory of the original version:

 

ribbit Ribbit

So this weekend my darling husband took me to several thrift stores looking for pieces for my Halloween costume, which I'll keep you up to date on that progress. No such luck on that front, but I bagged 6 sweaters.

 

No I’m not stocking up for winter. I'm going to give into my childish, destructive side and rip them apart and then dye to my little heart's content. I'm most excited about the cashmere sweater and most scared by it as well. A couple are wool blends with synthetics and I'm not sure how those will turn out. But all in all it should be fun. So look for hand painted yarn in the store soon. ^_^

 

I’m test knitting a really cool hat pattern for Lee Meredith and that is going well, quite fun actually.I still haven’t finished my 2nd pair of Xmas sock, hey don’t look at me like that.  I’m working on it. I’ve got some spinning to do so this will be all for today.  I’ll leave you with my favorite pic this week.  My dog, Ranger, watching our favorite show, Mythbusters.

 

 

 

 

Jamie is his favorite, but I’m an Adam Fan.  Later gators!

Ok I’ll Admit It

I’m a little absentminded, easily distracted perhaps. Whatever you want to call it, it boils down to I misplace a lot of things. So I'm working on a line of products for my shop to help me and the other absentminded knitters out there. Surely I'm not the only one, right?

 

The first products I am adding to the shop  are “Leashed" Scissors. Scissors with a chain on them so you can secure them to your work in progress bag. I love them because I have about 20 pairs of scissors in this house and I can never find even one set when I need them. Here are some pictures of the pairs I will be listed today.

 

 

 

I’ve almost perfected my glasses holder, I’m not a fan of the traditional lanyard.  After that I’m making something to hold my stitch markers and then something for needles.  Then perhaps I can not have to spend the majority of my time looking for my tools.

 

If you have a suggestion, send it to me.  If you want a “Leashed” pair of Scissors of your own visit my shop.

Weekly Shop Update

Over Saturday and Sunday I updated my shop. I put up 14 new stitch marker sets. That's all the sets I had made. It'll be stitch markers mania this week to be ready for next weeks update. Wanna see what's new? Visit my shop.  Here is an overview of the new additions still available.  .

 

 

The best news?  I’ve sold five sets since I started the update.  *happydance*  I feel good.  I’ll be riding this high all week!  Also good news?  I found another supplier for my beads.  Inexpensive without sacrificing quality, just how I like it.  I’ll be placing an order soon, so if you have a color request, speak now!

 

Good news for you?  All orders will receive a gift just as a thank you to you from me.  What?  Well you’ll have to buy to find out.

 

On the agenda this week…

1. MAKE MORE STITCH MARKERS
2. Finalize and make stock of wrist distaffs
3. Stock up on free gifts (hint, hint.  Go buy stitch markers!)
4. Place bead order.

Up and coming events in NC:

• September 18 – Spin in public day
• October 3 – Farm Fest at Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, NC
• October 22 – 24 – Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair at WNC Ag. Center in Fletcher, NC

Talk to you soon!

Socks, shop, and Spin Control

Some crazy woman decided that for Christmas everyone in the family would get hand knit socks who did not already have a pair. Oh yeah that was me.

 

Sometimes I wonder about my own sanity.

 

Good news is I do have one pair made, one on the needles, and the yarn for two more pairs. I still have to buy yarn for three more pairs. Also on the holiday checklist: Sheldon the turtle, A Haruni lace shawl, a watch cap and cowl set, an OpArt blanket, a set of mittens, a scarf, a lace bag, and a coffee cup coozie. That's not unreasonable, is it? I also have two different sets of roving to spin. Going to be fun huh?

 

Since my last post, I sold two more sets of stitch markers. I'll be updating my shop again on Sunday with at least five new stitch marker sets. Right now I'm trying to figure out if I can cut costs by ordering in bulk online. I'm crunching the numbers and weighing the pros and cons.

 

I will soon have some different offerings stitch marker wise within a week or two. I'll update and let you know before hand. I'm still trying to keep my stitch marker sets one of a kind, because I personally like the idea myself. But what is your opinion?

 

And last but not least I’ve been eyeing the spinner’s control cards out, but the seem unreasonably priced to me.  I know they’re a great tool and I really would like one, but I just cannot make myself spend $16+ on one, so I made one of my own using MS Works Word Processor.  It doesn’t have as many options as the store bought one, but I think it work well enough for me. 

 

And that is what has been up with me.  What about you?

 

Almost forgot about this!

I know it’s been awhile, but Life got in the way.  And honestly I've been rather busy. But I promise to do better. First off, for my birthday in May I got my newest toy, a spinning wheel. My parents bought me a Double Treadle Fiber Production from Babes Fiber Garden. I love it. Which meant I got to really participate in this years Tour de Fleece, unfortunately I did not meet my goal of 30 minutes of spinning each day. Fun was had anyway. I look forward to next year. Also I now have my own Esty shop!

 

 

Come by and check out my stitch markers.  I’m perfecting my wrist distaff design and hope to have them in the shop soon.  So that’s why I’ve been away among other things.  But I’ll be back soon.

Spin Spin Sugar

So on my last trip home to see the ‘rents i worked on a project with my dad.  While drooling over the drop spindles available on Etsy  I discovered something called a kick spindle.  Imagine a drop spindle and a spinning wheel had a baby, that’s basically a kick spindle.  They were available anywhere from $50 to $500, but as you will no doubt find out, I have this why buy it when I can make it life philosophy.

 

So I go to my father the carpenter and discuss the project with him. So we makes  a quick trip to the local Lowes costing about $10.  Our shopping list was a couple dowel rods (sizes 3/8”, 1/2”, and 3/4”) a bun foot, and 1/2” cup hooks.. The extra wood was going to be provide by the inordinate amount lumber he has laying around.

 

So we went out to the workshop, read altered garage, and played with lots of fun tools including the miter saw, the drill press, and the radial arm saw.  Some measuring and Gorilla Glue later it was completed and drying.  As a bonus we made a 1 yd and a 2 yd Niddy Noddy.

 

A week later I finally had a moment to sit and spin, hehe, and it worked, just needed a few adjustments.  But I was able to spin an entire ball of roving.  See.

 

 

So here’s the to do list for the Kick Spindle :

1. Shorten the shaft.
2. Reduce the angle.
3. Sand/strip the wood.
4. Do some cut outs on the upright
5. Smooth off edges.
6. Repaint.
7. Add non slip to the bottom.

I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going.

 

As a bonus, here’s a pic of the yarn I spun, I call it Smoky after my husband’s pet rat, on the 1 yd Niddy Noddy we made.

 

 

A Pic of Smoky.

A Day at the Farm and a demanding cardigan

Well as I promised I’ve been working on getting together a blog on my day at the sheep shearing. Here's the story, first I would like to point out that the weather hates me and it snowed the night

 

Perhaps I should start off by explaining what I thought  it would be like.  I was imagining groups of people holding down protesting sheep.  Then the electric shears would be brought out and within five to ten minutes you would have a naked sheep.  I was wrong.  We went to Rising Meadows Farm, if you haven’t visited, go it’s very awesome.  At the farm the were kickin’ it old school.  Really old school.

 

 

If you can’t tell the shearer (is that even a word?) is using a pair of snippy scissor-like shears.  They had a barn full of sheep waiting patiently to lose anywhere from

5 to 10 lbs, as seen here.

 

 

There was one sheep, I think it was a Navajo – Churro, and he/she did not appear to be happy about his/her destiny.  Don’t you think?

 

If you look closely you can see the evil-looking red eye.

 

It was a chilly day and as I watched sheep after sheep stripped my thought were not filled with concern for nearly naked sheep, but more about what warm things I would make with the wool I would buy.  (Mostly a pair of fingerless gloves, but we know how that’s going.)  The sunny spot in the barn is the spot furthest away from the action, so the choice was slight warmth and a poor view of the action or shiver and see what i came for.  Guess which option I chose.

 

Amazing enough once they got the sheep off their feet they seemed to chill right out and relax.  Maybe it’s like the way I almost go to sleep every time I get my hair cut. Either way they just kind of lay there like a bag of jelly.  See what I mean…

 

 

Once the fleece is sheared off the sheep it is then taken out to the skirting table, where they remove the second cuts, unredeemable dung tags (poo crusted fleece locks), and bad spots.  The wonderful people from Gate City Yarns were on hand to help with the skirting and answering of questions.  We were allowed to help skirt the fleece while we discussed what was good to look for in a fleece. 

 

 

In the end I ended up with just over 4.5 lbs of fleece from the first shearing of a lovely Corriedale sheep named Ginny.  It is incredibly soft.  In aCom little over month I have washed about half of it and I am processing and spinning is as I go along.

What’s on the Needles

Right now I’m wrestling with a cardigan.  I used Laura Chau’s Easy Top Down Raglan Cardigan Pattern Which is very aptly named.  My future Sister-In-Law had given me 3 skeins Red Heart Yarn (Boo!) for Christmas in the colorway Monet (YAY!) Perfect for this project.  Except that I decided to knit a size bigger since that’s my idea of cozy and that meant that 3 skeins, 732 yds, of yarn were not enough.  So I bought two more skeins hoping that would be enough to finish the body, the sleeves and make some pockets.  I’m on the sleeves now and have a little over a skein left; so I’m hopeful.  I’ve been knitting this thing for 36 days I’m hoping to be able to wear it next weekend. 

 

Here is the completed body sans sleeves.

 

Dates to Remember

May 2 Open Farm Day at Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, NC

June 12 – 20 Pick one for World Wide Knit In Public Day

September 18 World Wide Spin in Public Day
October 3 Farm Fest at Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, NC
October 22-24, Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair at the WNC Ag Center in Fletcher, NC

 

If I’ve missed an event in the area, please let me know. 

Spring is Coming (I Hope) and the Creative Juices are Flowing

I am still working on coming up with a pattern for my dainty hands.  I'm swatching right now.  Have I mentioned I detest swatching?  Well, I do.  I have to keep telling myself it's necessary. But I hope to have a pattern available within a week or so.  Depends on how much of a kick in the pants I give myself.

It also depends on how the other project brewing in my brain goes.  Its a bag that was inspired by two things, the KnitFit bag by Bethany McRae and the Odyssey by Homer, more specifically the tale of Odysseus and the Bag of Winds.  In this chapter Odysseus is given a bag of winds from Aeolus, the god of the winds.  So I have a cute little cabled bag in mind.  There's a good chance that the bag will be done before the fingerless mittens, we shall see. 

I also have to get pictures up from Shearing Day and also from the ones I found of Farm Day last year.  Some pictures of my fleece, wool, and homespun are laying around too.

Dates to remember:
May 2, Open Farm Day at Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, NC
October 3 Farm Fest at Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, NC
October 22-24, Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair at the WNC Ag Center in Fletcher, NC

That's it!! I'll do it my self!

I've been looking for a good pattern to use to knit myself a pair of fingerless mittens. I have bought many pairs throughout the years but now I want to make a pair for myself. Plus it's about time that I knit something for myself. So I went to Ravelry and searched through the free patterns (I just received an order from Knit Picks so my knitting budget for this month in blown.) I found a few that I like but every time I cast on and get a few rows in I realize that they are going to be too big for my dainty little hands and wrists (Thanks, Mom!)

Finally I've thrown up my hands and said I'll do it myself. So here is where I'm at:

I'm using US #4 needles and some random acrylic yarn I've got lying around. I'm just playing with it for right now. These are the elements I want to incorporate: a gusseted thumb, some cable work on the back of the hand, and a long ribbed cuff. I'll post pictures as I go along. I hope that I will be up dating very soon.