Category Archives: Hand Painted Yarn

Olympic Medals

Well lookie what my dear friend Bev & I cooked up for the Olympics!

(taken from her blog)

Medal3

The thrill of victory.  That’s what we’re all after, isn’t it?  We’ve signed on to the Ravelympics or the Knitting Olympics to strive for something just a little beyond what we thought we could achieve.  There’s no easy here.

For 17 days you’re going to craft your heart out, pushing past the pain, past that decrease you forgot, past the 13 rows you had to tink.  All for glory.  All for knowing that, yes, you can knit a complicated lace stole in 17 days.  For knowing that, yes, you can knit, steek, and finish an entire sweater in 17 days.  For knowing that, yes, you can finish those seven UFOs that have languished on your project page since 2007. For knowing that, yes, you can triumph.

You’ll have your finished objects as a reward.  You’ll have your blog badges from Bobicus Maximus and the Yarn Harlot.  But you deserve even more.

Medal

Why not award yourself the kind of Olympic medal that means the most to a knitter:  a skein of limited-edition, hand-dyed sock yarn exclusively from Scout’s Swag.  Gold. Silver. Bronze.  It’s all there to mark your fortitude, to commemorate your achievement, to celebrate your craftleticism.

Only 80 skeins of Olympic Medals sock yarn will be created.  Each beautifully dyed skein will be 400 yards of superwash merino, enough for socks worthy of an Olympian, or even a shawl to wear as a mantle of your success.  Whether you want to reward yourself or a member of your team, Olympic Medals yarn will be shipped by February 22, just in time to mark your achievement.

Go ahead.  Anticipate the thrill of victory.  No matter what happens in the next 17 days, you’ve earned this medal.

Medal2

Bounce

pattern - Bounce
designer - Yarn Ball Boogie - knitboy1
yarn - hand dyed by me
louet gems bulky

I absolutely love and adore this hat. It was a super easy knit once I got used to knitting into the bottom row. It really could be whipped up in just a few hours. The best part? No double pointed needles! That John is a freaking genius I tell you.  Seriously. I don’t think I will make this colorway available because I didn’t even write down what I did. I kind of like that it’s a one of a kind and it’s all mine. I think it’s only fair for my first ever project with my own yarn.  (I started a pair of socks once but only did one so that doesn’t count)  I am also out of this chunky yarn right now and need to order more. I’ll put a call into Louet and see how quickly I can get more. Surprisingly it took me exactly one skein to make this hat. John thought I’d need more but I didn’t!  So anyway…..LOVE LOVE LOVE!

So much to talk about!

 

Wow. I have had this post in my head for days but life keeps getting in the way. This past weekend was the first weekend of soccer. Both kids played on Saturday and I play on Sunday. This weekend was also the last bike race for T. as well.  It was a great weekend for all of us. All three of us won our soccer games and T. won his bike race! It was the NM State Champion Road Race which means he’s the state champ! Not bad for a 41 year old dad of two kids who works full time. He actually got second place but the person who won was from Mexico so he didn’t count. He was also a pro and TWENTY years younger than T.  We’re all very proud of him.

In other news I’m working hard to balance my life. I usually do a pretty good job of it, but sometimes get a wee bit overwhelmed by all of the things I need to do on a daily basis and now, on top of everything, I’m writing a book. Two days ago I had to get a bunch of custom yarn dyed before I could do anything else and it just took way longer than I intended. There was this one new colorway that sort of created a dyers block over the past month since I took the order. I’m the type that stresses out when I’m forced to be creative. Do you know what I mean? It’s hard to just create art out of nowhere. With my colorways sometimes it’s really easy for me to figure out the proper dyes and other times it’s nearly impossible. Those are the times I email or call Symeon and scream “HELP!” I’m actually glad she didn’t get right back to me the other day because it forced me to work this one out on my own. The colorway was for a customer who wanted camouflage yarn.  Maybe this doesn’t seem like anything too complicated, but I really wanted to get it right. After a month, studying other camo yarns online and racking my brain I finally figured out how I wanted to do it. And man, I love it. I usually don’t like browns and greens but this yarn is absolutely gorgeous. It was almost impossible to get the colors right in this shot, but it’s pretty close. Isn’t it pretty? ***Yes! I can dye more of this colorway! I’m just currently out 4-6 weeks on all orders so know that if you ask me for some!***

In other news, I’ve been trying to finish knitting this chemo hat for a few weeks and I’m finally to the decreases. I need to finish this and get it to T.’s step-sister-in-law now that it’s getting cold back east. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this but she was diagnosed with cancer in May. She is doing really well now and just have to finish out her chemo. I think she has about 4 rounds left. I’m using this Mission Falls 1824 and I really love how soft it is. I’m making A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend by Stephanie. I hope to finish it this weekend. Here is what it’s looking like so far.

I think that’s about it for now. I need to go drop Gus off at the groomers, run, ship some stuff and then WRITE! Send me some good writing vibes. kthnkx. Have a good day my friends!

Taos Wool Festival - 2008

Anyone else going? I have wanted to get up there to the festival since we’ve moved here but it’s always in the middle of soccer season. This year I’m going to miss Supergirl’s game so I can get out of town with a few girlfriends to check it out. I have friends who live there so I have a place to stay which makes it nice. I guess October is the Wool Festival month for me this year since I will be going to Rhinebeck a few weeks after Taos. I’ll be all wooled out!

Also, I dyed a few skeins of this new colorway yesterday. I’m calling it “hope.”  I am more than happy to dye more too. I am out about 4 weeks on all orders so if you don’t mind the wait, just let me know and I can put it up in the shop for you and get you on the dye queue. You can have any fiber dyed in it. I am stocked with all weights of yarn and have some superwash merino roving too. Just look here to see what I have available.

Hurry Up!

Y’all know how hard it is to get some of these pretties!

I want to see all of that gone by the time I come back from running errands…..

Baaaaaaaa!!! Scout’s will be in the Rhinebeck Hizzaouse!

(image from the Sheep & Wool website)

Yep. 100% for sure. I just need to buy my plane ticket. But, wanna know why it’s for sure? Because I’m flying into Newark to stay with my dad, then will borrow his car and on my way up to Rhinebeck I’m picking up my girl Amy Singer! We’re going to drive up and back together and sister already got her tickets so it’s an absolute GO! Can I get a woot woot!?!?  We are so Thelma and Louising it minus the cliff jump. We haven’t decided who gets Brad Pitt yet.  :D  I’m so excited, to finally, after all of these years, meet a whole bunch of you. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around the number of people I will finally get to meet. I’m sure it will be completely overwhelming. I’m not staying in any of the hotels because some good friends of mine live in Bloomington. I can handle a 20 minute drive to save on a hotel room. Amy and I were such total dorks this morning getting all excited about it. The plan is that I’ll/we’ll be up there on Friday all the way through Sunday. She has a book signing on Sunday from 1-2 so we will leave a little bit after that. So who do I get to meet??? Huh!?!?!

And lookie lookie. I need a good name for this little chickadee cowl, designed by the super talented Kirsten, because I started it on the flight to Italy and finished it on the flight to San Fran. last month. It’s been all over the world and back. It’s a really fun and easy pattern and just needs one skein of something chunky. I used a skein of #117 Manos del Uruguay. I can’t wait until it’s actually cool enough to wear it. I wish I could share the story about what happened on the plane to Italy with this but I can’t because I gave that woman my card. Let’s just say I had a very nice woman who took my knitting from me to *show me* how she could knit. And let’s just say I had to rip the whole thing out and start over…..yeah just what we love to do right? Riiiiiiiight.

I also have two one skein of this really pretty yarn for sale. SOLD! I have been playing around with some immersion dyeing and these are a result of that. They range from little bits of white all the way to a gorgeously dark crimson. This is also a one of a kind dealio. I don’t think I wrote down what I did. Or maybe I did? Wait, I could do it again I’m pretty sure. Yeah….that’s the ticket.

For anyone looking for the new Namaste Cali bags I have another order that should be here anyday. I’ll try and get here and announce it when then come in. Okay, all this excitement has me exhausted already and it’s only 9:30am. Any travel agents out there? Who’s really good at getting cheap tickets? I am flying from Albuquerque to Newark. I can’t seem to find anything for less than 417 before taxes and that is just so dang steep! Let me know if you are a good flight getter.

Have a good one my friends!

New Colorways & a Sale in the shop!

I decided to have a sale on my favorite little bags in the shop for Valentine’s Day. I absolutely love my Grab Bag and thought I would mark them down 15% until February 14th to spread the love! The Grab Bag comes in Brown and Blue. I use mine every day as my little purse and get compliments on it all of the time.

grab

I have finally updated the yarn gallery page with six new colorways. Actually, Adam did it for me since I can’t figure out Dreamweaver. I would be lost without him. The new additions are - Convergence, Hokies, Lavender Mint, Lederhosen (The Knitters Uncensored colorway), Loops ( for Kirsten’s sock pattern Sigrid) & Power Couples.

yarn

Right now I am saying I am out 3-5 weeks on all orders but if the weather cooperates, it could be sooner. If you want yarn, just go to gallery page for all of the details. I am now selling 100% silk in laceweight that is simply gorgeous. But I’m pretty dang caught up which means I can take more orders. I feel like it’s the first time since, oh I dunno, June that I’ve been able to catch my breath!
I wanted to also let you know that soon I will be announcing information about Scout’s Indie Swag Round III. I have some different things in store for this round which even includes customer-colorway-collaboration! The new round won’t start until April but the sign-ups will be in March. In a few weeks I will let you know all of the details. So if you have been waiting to hear about the next round it’s coming up! I will also be making the size a bit bigger too. I hate not letting everyone in who wants to take part.

Lace Love

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.

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.

Cheers!

beerI am congratulating myself on a few things. First up, I finished dyeing the 35th skein of Swag Club yarn last night. Yes. You did hear me correctly. Thirty FIVE. (remember how the club was supposed to be limited to 20? Grumble grumble Paypal . . .) If T. weren’t helping me do this I don’t know how I’d get it all done. I’m ready for one of you to come visit me on a monthly basis to help me dye some swag? Any takers?  Now, I’m just waiting on the other swag that goes with it this month and I can get them ready to ship out in about a week or so. And no, that skein is not Swag Club yarn. It’s for Cynthia because she totally kicks ass.

My next cool news is that I am now up as one of the new artists at Indie Finds! Check it out. It’s such a great place to find Indie swag if you’re looking for some cool stuff.

And look! I finished my first ever knitted item with my own yarn. To read more about it go here. I dyed this for one of my classes I taught over the summer to show different things you can do with self striping yarn. I think I definitely need to do some more of this even though it’s extremely time consuming. Rock on with my Socktoberfest self!

socks
socks

It’s pretty cool that they came out exactly as I intended. I also have my socks down to a science and there is nothing like slipping on a hand-made sock that fits perfectly. I am already through the ribbing on the second one. I can’t wait to wear them!

As always, I couldn’t pass up showing you the clouds this morning. They were so pretty as the sun came up and bounced off the bottoms of them.

clouds

Have a good day everyone.

Snakes On a Skein!

This is the new name for the Lime & Violet colorway. It goes perfectly with their newly released sock pattern - Snakes On a Sock! I have it up at the shop now too along with all of these babies. Needles On Fire, Snakes On a Skein, Hot Tropics, Harlot’s Mums, Vodka Gimlet, Color Queen. Oh yeah, and Daisies too!

collage

You know the drill. If you want anything, just ask! For the first time in a long time I’m completely caught up and have all orders dyed. That means yarn for you and fast. I have all 6 fibers/weights in stock.

Look what else I added to the shop

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If there is an amount you don’t see let me know and I can add it. I thought it would be a good idea for the upcoming holidays.

In the next few days I hope to spill some really exciting news. There are a few things I’m waiting to hear back on and then I can share. I can’t WAIT to tell all of you! Super crazy shizznit!

And finally, I’m still going to leave the contest up until September 13th. If you haven’t guessed go for it. There is at least one right answer and perhaps more than that. My lips are sealed….