A custom order I did yesterday. Love this one….
Category Archives: custom yarn
Two For Sale!
August 30, 2007 – 7:50 pm
John helped me dye today and we had a blast. The only problem is that I was slightly distracted and completely dyed the wrong colorway on one of my orders. But this good news for one of you as I have one skein of 300 yards of DK weight wool-silk ZuluKnitty for sale! It’s $32.00 plus shipping. The first person to comment and pay gets it. I don’t have any more of this right now and don’t dye a lot of it so it’s a pretty special skein. It’s pretty huh? SOLD!
We also messed around with some colors and John picked these out for a new colorway called Pansy. He was going for something else but we agreed that it looked exactly like pansies so there you have it. The colors are yellow, deep purple & dark emerald.
It’s 400 yards of 100% superwash merino for $25.00 plus shipping. The first one evah! Same thing as above. First one to comment and pay gets it mailed out tomorrow. It really was supposed to be called “Snake Bite” but well, it doesn’t really say that does it? SOLD!
We’ve had so much fun already and even though I was worried John would be bored while I worked but he was a fantastic assistant. See?!
I had to tell him that wasn’t really the proper way to dye yarn. But y’all know John. He doesn’t like to follow directions very well! But we still love him lots right? HAA!
Lace Love
March 27, 2007 – 3:30 pm
Did I get your attention? And no, I’m still not knitting lace. However, I am dyeing lace and selling new lace patterns from the Goddess of lace, Miriam Felton, in the shop. I’ve been a bit stressed out about this most recent dye-job because it’s not only for a very important and dear person to me, but it’s for an incredibly important event as well. My girl Bev is getting married and she asked me to dye yarn for her for a lace project. Of course I said yes and was very honored she trusted me enough to dye yarn I’ve never dyed before. We decided on the Zephyr Wool-Silk (See Margene!? You learned me!) and she showed me the painting she wanted to see in the yarn. She specifically wanted the greens to be like the lighter color of grass in the foreground of the painting and similar to the greens in Gimlet. IT’s hard to see in the picture but there are three shades of green. I was worried at first that it might be too bright but after I rewound it, I love it. She loves it too. I can’t wait to see her wrapped up in it on her wedding day. The color really is so, Bev.
I had a whole bunch more to talk about but Supergirl is sick. She threw up last night and then seemed to be on the mend today until about 15 minutes ago when she came out from her nap crying because she had thrown up again. Seeing a lethargic Supergirl breaks my heart. I’m glad that T. was home today because between the two of us we were able to take care of her and completely clean out our garage. The boy went to camp at the JCC for the day. He wanted OUT of here.
I do have to mention that it was a very big day for me. I recycled all of my teaching materials. For anyone out there who is or has been a teacher you know what I’m talking about. I had a 4-drawer file cabinet and three Rubbermaid containers filled with 10 years of teaching handouts/tests/etc. All of my work for English 9, 10, World Geography, and a number of Senior electives have been taking up too much damn space and I’m just not going to ever use it again. It’s gone. I pulled out things I thought could still be used and will bring them up to the local high school. But otherwise I had to let it all go. I don’t ever see myself going back into teaching in a public school again and it was time to let go of that part of me. The weird thing is that I feel free.
Carole and I are planning on going to SnB tonight. I can’t even remember the last time I was able to go. The past few months have just been way too busy. I’m sad to say goodbye to Cari who is moving away but excited for her too. Mona? Molly? You guys going? I hope so! I need to go check on my girly. I think her washcloth needs to be cooled off again.
Inner Rage
February 22, 2007 – 5:14 pm
Isn’t ironic that after the Julie Amero post I dye a new colorway for John of Yarn Ball Boogie that we name Inner Rage? I love it. It has shade of deep red, orange and bright yellow. They all blend together to make one beautiful skein of yarn. This skein shows the colors a bit more muted because it’s in my new yarn. I want to wait for the Indie Swaggers to get their yarn and then I’ll talk more about it.
One more picture with the roving he ordered too. You can see how the colors are a bight brighter in the roving compared to the skein. Yum. Click them both to see the bigger version.
I want to thank every single one of you who donated and posted about Julie Amero. I took all of the names, doubled the ones who did both, and the winner is…….
Congratulations and thank you Helena. You win a $25.00 gift certificate to Scout’s Swag.
I’m completely wiped out. I busted out all of the Indie Swag and another big order I had and now I’m ready to just sit here, watch tv, have a beer and knit on Supergirl’s Cabo Hoodie. Oh, and speaking of Indie Swag? I will have an announcement about round II very soon so make sure you keep an eye here on the blog. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to make it as fair as possible to everyone and Adam and I have something in the works. It sure pays to have a brilliant, computer geek as a good friend! And hey, have you checked out his new shop? He’s got some beautiful yarn for sale over at Yarn Nerd. Make sure and get on over there if you haven’t yet. He’s good peeps.
Also, if you have a minute, please go over to Carole’s blog and send her husband Todd some get well soon vibes. He was admitted to the hospital last night with an aggressive case of cellulitis, and is on IV antibiotics, as well as morphine for pain. He is still there as they want him on IV antibiotics for 48 hours. The scariest part was that he had two antibiotic shots yesterday which didn’t seem to do anything. Fingers crossed that what they gave him today will do the trick. I just tried calling her a bit ago but her cell phone doesn’t work in the hospital. I’ll update if I hear anything.
Supergirl just came running in to drag me outside to see this.
It almost matches the yarn.
Have You Had Your Daily Fiber?
February 18, 2007 – 3:43 pm
I have. I’ve dyed for three days straight and am slowly getting caught up with orders. Because of the lovely weather I was unable to dye for an entire week. I’ve also been waiting on yarn to get here for the Indie Swag and I dyed half of that today thank goodness. I’ve been extremely stressed out waiting on all of this yarn to get here. Friday and Saturday were spent on custom orders and are ready to mail out tomorrow. Can you tell what’s the most popular colorway right now? Click to see the bigger version.
The Indie Swag colorway this month is totally rad. Yes. I said rad. My amazing graphic designer & friend Cynthia of hula-la created this colorway and we both love it. The name is even fun. Also, Indie Swaggers are going to get a brand new yarn I’ll talk about in a few days. I just got it in and am very excited about it. I’m not sure if I’ve seen anyone else dye with it yet either. More on that later.
I had something else to talk about and I can’t remember. I’m tired. I just ate a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich with a glass of milk. I was feeling slightly hypoglycemic so it sounded good. I think it’s been seven years since I’ve had one of these sandwiches. I never eat sandwiches. Do you? What’s your favorite? Just curious.
I’m going to knit. Maybe I’ll take a nap? I haven’t done that in a few years either. Did you hear about the new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine that shows taking a 30 minute nap decreases your chances of having a heart attack? I order naps all around! Tell your friends,family, employer that you’re just trying to live longer.
Eye Candy Friday
February 9, 2007 – 6:44 am
How about a little fiber candy?
From top to bottom - Calorimetry, Cookie, Hot Fudge Sundae, Snow Bunny & Illini. Even though I have a ton of yarn that is currently backordered, I’ve still been able to get some work done this week. It’s never good when you have like oh say, 50+ skeins that need to be dyed and you don’t have the yarn for it. I hope my cute UPS guy brings it to me soon. Very soon folks.
Here’s another custom colorway I dyed this week. Without cheating and looking at my Flickr pictures can you figure out what inspired this? I’ll give you one hint. Think little boy.
I can’t wait to hear how this little boy likes his custom dyed yarn. His mama already saw it and loves it. Have a good weekend everyone.
I had to come back and show you these. I was sitting at my dining room table when I looked out and noticed the houses behind mine were glowing. The sky was unbelievable this morning. It was one of the prettiest sunrises I’ve seen in a long time. It’s amazing what happens when there are clouds in the sky. Click the picture to see them individually. They are amazing.
Project Spectrum
February 6, 2007 – 11:45 am
Still feeling like crap so I thought I’d take some pictures for Project Spectrum to brighten up my mood. When you live in New Mexico it’s pretty easy to get shots of things that are blue. Just look up. I love the picture of the little birdfeeder Supergirl made at preschool. Do you see the buds on the tree? That makes me happy. I’m ready for the warm weather.
I also added a new colorway to the Gallery that I dyed last week for a friend to knit with’s daughter. It’s a perfect colorway for Project Spectrum April/May isn’t it? It’s called Prepster. Maybe I should call it Project Spectrum Prepster? I’m going to dye some roving for Bev’s birthday present later today. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in roving.
I really wanted to go to Stitch ‘n’ Bitch tonight but I’m not sure if I feel good enough to go. I think I need another night just hanging out and watching American Idol with the kids and T. I didn’t sleep very well last night and am feeling it right now. Maybe it’s time for a triple shot of something? Which one should I go for? Espresso? Nyquil? Vodka? It’s a toss up. I’m cracking up at people’s comments about mixing them all together. How about we call it a Vodkaspressquil? Nyquitini? I can’t imagine what that would do to a person’s system. I guess the the Nyquil and vodka would overpower the caffeine? Maybe I need to wait until another adult is in the house…..too funny. I’m so tired this is completely making me laugh.
Whoops. I Missed My Blog’s Birthday.
February 5, 2007 – 11:29 am
February 3rd was my one year anniversary of this blog. I’ve had other blogs/journals for almost 8 years but this domain name was just started a year ago. Happy Blogiversary to me. Can’t you feel the enthusiasm? No? Well, I don’t feel so hot. I’ve already done the ZICAM, Dayquil and Airborne. I need to get some Emergen-C too. I refuse to get sick. I rarely do and I’m going to keep it that way dangit. Anyway, I’m going to hold some sort of contest when I get close to my 10,000th comment so keep an eye out for that in about a month or two. I only have around 1,000 more to go until then so I’ll let you know as I get closer. I’ll think up something cool for a prize.
Here is some yarn I dyed for Carole. She wanted a subtle, variegated charcoal grey for Wicked. I can’t wait to see this knit up. Getting a good picture of this proved to be impossible. But you get the idea. I’m too tired to mess with it. Click to see it a bit better.
I’m going to bring this to Carole, come home and finish packaging up a few more orders and then I think a nap must happen. Blech. The good news is that I got a lot of work done over the weekend so it’s okay if I take the rest of the day off from work. I’ve already been to the PO once and mailed out about 15 packages. I think that’s enough work for today don’t you? Yeah, me too.
Ribby Pulli Yarn Pr0n
January 30, 2007 – 3:58 pm
When I started getting the yarn ready to dye on Sunday I thought, “Heck, two Ribby Pulli orders will be a piece of cake!” I didn’t realize that it ended up being almost 4 pounds of yarn to dye. Yes. You read that correctly. Pounds. Needless to say it took a loooooong time. But I got my first two sweater orders done and they are really pretty. I think my customers will be happy. The first one wanted purple and black on the bottom and Million Dollar Baby on the top. Y’all know how much I love purple so this was extra fun to dye. I can’t wait to see them both made into the sweater. This is also the Louet Gems and goodness is it amazing. I am totally in love with this yarn. It’s overcast so the colors are not spot on. If you click them you can see them up close and see the colors better.
The second order was for the Double Door (what Bonne Marie named the Blue & Black colorway) for the bottom like in the original sweater and Hot Fudge Sundae for the top.
Just a little note for anyone dyeing garments with hand dyed yarn; remember to alternate the skeins as you knit. Because every skein of hand-dyed yarn will be a little bit different it keeps the transition between skeins more gradual. I know it makes it kind of a pain to have two balls of yarn out while you’re knitting but trust me, it will look better.
And one last yarn pr0n picture. I decided not to use the Calorimetry yarn I dyed for my Calorimtery. (Say that 5 times fast) I thought the yarn I dyed was more of a worsted weight and it’s not. Since we’re supposed to get yet ANOTHER storm, I won’t be able to dye for a few days. Instead? I grabbed a skein of this. It just jumped off the shelf at Village Wools into my hands. Manos del Uruguay #118. I don’t know what it is about Manos that I love so much but I just do. Aren’t you proud of me for not buying the purple colorway? I almost did……My plan is to have Calorimetry done before I go to sleep tonight. Oh stop laughing you! The only thing that will keep me from finishing it is if my wrist bothers me. I had another weird thing biopsied yesterday and it’s on my right wrist in a place that needs to bend for knitting. So we’ll see I guess.
Finally, the shop is updated with a ton of stuff. Just go check it all out. I was out of a bunch of the Chibis and they are now all stocked again. The bags are stocked too. I should be getting in more Martini Blockers in the medium size in a few days. And oh!! Thanks to Adam, the gallery is updated with seven new colorways. They have all been shown here on my blog before, but they are now official colorways in the shop. Check them out.
I’m off to knit. Peace out!
Brain Explodes!
January 18, 2007 – 4:44 pm
Wow. The past few days have been completely nuts. In a good way of course. I want to thank you for all of your kind words and support regarding the whole Ribby Pulli process/yarn. It’s such a beautiful sweater and I can’t wait to see a whole bunch more knit up with my yarn.
The weather continues to be horrible and I am unable dye outside. I can’t handle getting behind at this point so I finally asked if I could use the dye room at Village Wools. Thankfully there aren’t a ton of classes this month in that particular room which allows me to dye inside and get some work done. I got a 1/3rd of the Indie Swag dyed today and will get almost the rest of it done tomorrow. It was so nice to work inside! What a concept! It’s been stressing me out not being able to work as you can imagine. It will go out mid week next week. It’s sooooo pretty. All I can say, is that I had a little help from Craftylilly. A custom order she asked about turned into this month’s colorway….
I was able to get a few things done in the past week I’d like to show you as they will be new colorways in the shop. The first one was dyed for the sweet Cookie from her best girl Knitty Otter for her birthday. It has two shades of pink and two shades of brown. I love how it came out. She just got it today so I can share it with you. The colorway is called *Cookie* of course!
Then this is the one I dyed for my Knit Mitt Kit Swap partner. They are all of her favorite colors and I’m pretty sure she’ll love it. I can’t tell you the name of it until she receives it. This was done with the new Louet Bulky and oh mah god is it delicious! I don’t normally like greens but I’m totally in love with this colorway.
And I finally got the videos of the boy skiing. This one is my favorite one. You see Superboy fly down the mountain and then his buddy fly down after him on his back with our friend screaming at him to stop before hitting a tower! I seriously crack up every time I watch it. This one is so cute as it’s his first run. This last one is funny too because his friend starts off skiing so carefully down the mountain and then you see T. scream by with Superboy on his heels, again, flying down the mountain. Too freaking funny. We’re going to take him back soon so I can go with him.
