Putting A Little Love In My Heart

You can ask my friends, I have a slight obsession with Japanese Pop Culture, Especially anything dealing with anime or manga.  I can’t help it.  I’ve always said that Japan was at the top of my international places to visit .  And the recent disasters in Japan have really pulled at my heart.  I want help in some way.  So after thinking about it I’ve launched a line of stitch markers and tools of which all the proceeds will go to Save the Children to help with the disaster.  My inspiration was the Fan Dance.  Have a look.

 

 

 

 

If you would like to help out please visit my shiny new Artfire Shop.

It’s mine! All Mine!

I went with my mother to a fiber festival over the weekend.  It was nice to give her a more in depth look at the world that has sucked me in so completely.  It was held in Townsend, TN where my Grandmother live so it as convenient.  Mom was excited because the vendors we located in the school gym, where she played basketball in high school.  I think that may have been what led her to indulge me in a little bit of a shopping spree.  But of all the things she bought me I think that my favorite (she always asks0 is the Trindle!

 

I’ve wanted a Trindle every since I saw one in Abbey Franquemont’s book Respect the Spindle.  What is a Trindle?  It’s a unique type of spindle you can visit the Trindleman’s Shop on Etsy and check them out.  I purchased mine from Gale’s Art booth at the Smoky Mountain Fiber Arts Festival. 

 

Well, a picture is worth 1,000 words so I’ll let Fuji Film do the talking!

 

Doesn’t really look like a lot , does it?

 

The shaft is made from purpleheart  and the arms arm metal beads.  See the black rubber ball at the top?  Well it has holes that the three arms that you see to the side fit in.  Need a closer look?  Here you go.

 

Look close and you can see it.

 

You stich the pointy end of the arm in the hole.  I would just forestall any possible difficulties by not holding on to the bead when inserting or removing the arms.  I don’t want to stress the glue anymore than I need to. But then I’m seriously over protective of this thing.   So you put the arm in like so.

 

 

Once you get all three arms in it looks like this.

 

 

 

Isn’t that the most ingenious thing?  You can get the arms in different weight to help you spin different weight of yarn.  This one is weighted for lace to sport weight.  Don’t like top whorl?  The ball is movable and you can make it bottom whorl if you want to.  So to test it out I took some random wool I had.

 

 

I spun for a bit and I have to say, I like it.  Spins well and I’m still pretty much a novice at spindle spinning.  Hopefully this will help me want to practice more.  This was what I ended up after a little bit.

 

 

Man I love this thing!

Got my Phat Fiber Box!!!

As much fun as I have dreaming up my samples for the box, I love getting inspiration from looking at the other Phatties samples. And now my March box is here!  And so many lovely samples!  Look!  Don’t worry I’ll give you a guided tour…

 

 

First up from Handarbeitskram, a lovely pink stitch marker.

 

 

A funny pin from Zippy Pins. (I love pins.)

 

 

A stitch marker from Lampyridae.  And some honey candy!

 

 

In the yarns we have Wintermint, a 65% Superwash Wool 35% Bamboo fingering weight yarn from Sky Loom Weavers.

 

 

A mini cupcake of 100% Falkland Isle Superwash Wool in a sport weight yarn from The Alpaca Legacy.

 

 

Some Mint Chocolate Swirl on 100% Superwash Merino fingering weight yarn from The Lazy Lamb Yarn Shop and some candies!

 

 

And the last of the yarns, a 3 ply fingering weight yarn of 50% Alpaca, 45% Icelandic, and 5% Angora fibers from Cedarland Farm.

 

 

To start off the fiber portion we have Romney Lamb Locks in Assorted Colors from Fleecemakers Fibers.

 

 

Next some lovely Falkland Wool from Woolgatherings.

 

 

Followed by some scrumptious Superwash BFL in the For the  Love of Mining colorway from Ava, Ludu & Bees.

 

 

Luscious Yummy Marzipan Bamboo from WC Mercantile. 

 

 

 

A cute Black Forest Tweed Cupcake with merino, bamboo, silk noil tweed, sari silk, and angelina fibers from Boho Knitter Chic Spins. 

 

 

A Carmel Candy Apple with llama, shetland, silk, bamboo, alpaca, and firestar from The Critter Ranch.

 

 

From Silver Sun Alpacas, Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes of alpaca and bamboo fibers.

 

 

Cjkoho Designs’ See’s Scotchmallow is next made with merino and silk.

 

 

A Bon Bon with bling in Sugarland with BFL, silk, and merino from Natchwoolie.

 

 

A mini batt of alpaca in the All Sorts colorway from Distant Star Alpaca.

 

 

From KnitSpin some Cherry Grape Swirl pencil roving in 100% wool.

 

 

And two patterns, one from Kira K Designs and the other from Stash Enhancement, see the cute penny button?

 

 

See why I love this group?  Now off you go visit the shops this enabler needs to get to work on her April Samples.  My inspiration?  That’s a post for another day.

March Phat Fiber Is Out!

The March theme for the Phat Fiber Box is Sweet Shop.  As soon as the theme was decided this song began to run through my head.

 

But there are a myriad of lollipops out there how would I choose?  I knew automatically that I wanted to stitch markers based on Dum Dum Pops, because they're just awesome.  To find out some really interesting information on the history of Dum Dum flavors go here.  So that was one part of the equation.

 

So I sat down to make a list of requirements.  I wanted a swirly lollipop.  The colors needed to be springy and pastel.  It needed to translate really well into samples.  So off to Flickr I went looking through pictures for an inordinate amount of time.  (This always happens when I know just what I want.)  Fortunately I found this gorgeous picture and knew exactly where I was going.

 

 

And so I got going...

The stitch markers turned out yummy.  For sale in the store will be sets of cherry, lime, lemon, grape, and orange, five of the seven original flavors.  As seen here...

 

Now Sold Out.  Look for a Variant Set Soon!

 

Going into the Phat Fiber box will be blue raspberry, bubble gum, and cream soda along with a real life Dum Dum to enjoy as seen here.

 

 

On to the fiber!  That's why you're here right? 

 

The Samples

 

Full Size Worsted Weight Yarn

 

Full Size Corriedale Roving

 

All are now available at the shop.  Now on to next month’s theme:  Butterflies and Flutterbys.