Moment of weakness

After a long day in the office mailing out tax documents to WAY too many investors (YAY Tax Season!) I decided to stop by the knitting store in our lobby, Stitches East, to check out their 50% sale. The store has been there for about 20 years or something like that and now its going out of business. I was weakened by my long day and because of that I bought 10 skeins of Noro Matsuri and 4 skeins of Kureyon Sock. I think I'm going to make Lady Eleanor from the Matsuri. I just need to find someone who owns Scarf Style so I can borrow it. The Kureyon Sock will be added to my pile being used for the babette blanket. 

Now I'm off to work on the new sweater I'm designing! I'm using 100% alpaca and I think it's just growing and growing so I hope it looks ok when I'm done. Otherwise I'm going to have a very expensive and warm tent to wear in the winter.

Inspired to spin

I've been dyeing a lot of spinning fibers and talking about spinning fibers and talking about spinning a lot the last few weeks and one person in particular (you know who you are) has inspired me to pick up my spindle again and start spinning. I'm currently spinning up this gorgeous roving from Portland Fiber Gallery and Weaving Studio:

Its called Catherine Moreland and this was the description "Dyed in the tones of both the green and gold woods of Northanger Abbey and the blue waters of Bath, this roving will brighten up even the most gothic and frightening of projects! Dyed over a soft and silky merino/bamboo base, this roving weighs 6.9 ounces and should learn not to stay up late at night, reading racy novels!" as an Austen freak how could I resist?

It's spinning up beautifully. It reminds me of a young sapling or new spring plants burst their way through the warming earth. 

And I'm using this gorgeous Golding's Spindle that I bought in Rhinebeck this past fall. 

It cost me a nice chunk of change in comparison to my other spindles but after using it I have to say I would have paid even more. This is the best spindle I've ever used. Its spins like butter and I never have to fight with it. I love it. I want more. I can't recommend these spindles enough. OK now its back to the spinnning..."you spin me right round baby right round..."

Wasted Sunday

I went home to dye yesterday but my order from my distributor didn't arrive till I had to be on the road to my Dad's. Carl came with me and we drove up to CT to see Dad. The plan was to stay the night at Dad's and then drive Carl back into the city so he could work and then I was going to come back to Mom's and do a marathon dyeing day. Good plan right? But alas, at 10:30 last night I started to get really sick by 10:45 I was praying to the porcelain god. And it continued till the morning. The hour and a half drive from Dad's to my apartment was the longest drive I've been on in a while. But I'm home and I'm spending my day watching a Rock of Love marathon and trying not to get sick again. 

BUT I finally gave Dad his sweater and he loved it. Ok back to lying down...I hate whoever gave this to me.

A good week

I had my 100th sale yesterday afternoon, I finished my first ever design on Sunday, I started designing my second sweater and I figured out how to purchase a spinning wheel on layaway (no one tell Carl PLEASE)...its been a good week and its only Thursday!

I have to run out to dinner soon but I want to share my good week with you all and let you know that there are spots open in the Elements Fiber Club for the June, September and December mailings so if you missed the February 15th sign-up for the full club you can still get in on the action. Oh and I also setup a Ravelry group for the club. If you're not a part of the club, no worries you can still join and show your support for the shop and share pictures of your FOs and things like that!

I'm going to dye up a few things this weekend for the club, shop and the Phat Fiber Box in March. And I'm going to finally give Dad his sweater!! I can't wait to post the pictures of him wearing it. Its on a hanger right now in my closet and let me say my daddy is a BIG man. Next to Carl's clothes it look like a giant's sweater but Dad did try it on before I finished the collar and it fit him so I'm not worried. I hope Dad likes it!

I hope you're all having a great week too!

Update Complete

The shop has been updated and now I pass out...night night.

Sign-ups for Fiber Club End this Sunday!

Just a quick reminder that sign-ups for the Elements Fiber Club will close on Sunday, February 15th so head over to the shop and check it out! The more who sign up the more fun I can make this. I'm thinking a flickr group or maybe a ravelry group so you can all share your finished yarns with each other and maybe do some general conversating (yah made up word) about your love of fiber! So tell your friends and fellow fiber-whores!  It's going to be fun!

Because Jovi is Awesome

I met Jovi through my shop and she was kind enough to pimp me over on ravelry. She's the sweetest thing ever and a totaly fiber nut (sorry hun but you are). I thought, what better way to pay her back then to pimp her here on the blog. She spun this beautiful yarn from one of my rovings:

And she has many more in her shop dye by other indie dyers. If you love handspun yarns (frankly, who doesn't) head over and check out it. I'm telling you, you'll love it!

Yippie

The computer comes home for the hospital today! Oh I can't wait to have it back.

 

Just wanted to share my joy. I hope you're all having a wonderful hump day.

The Computer

Carl finally had enough the time to bring the computer to the fixer people at the end of the week last week. They took a look at it and the motherboard was all fucked up so that needed to be replaced and the power cord was shot so that needed to be replaced too. Together with parts and labor it was going to cost us $600. We decided to let them fix the computer since it cost us about $900 and we'd have to pay $300 more to replace it. Today I get an email from Carl informing me that the motherboard is fixed but the LCD screen is fucked up. It wasn't fucked up when we brought it in but apparently now its fucked up. Its going to cost another $300-500 to fix the LCD. So we're already in the hole $600 for problem #1 and now we have to decide whether we pay for the screen and spend nearly $1,100 on repairs or buy a new computer which would put us in the hole $1,500. We're opting for the $1,100 option. We still think the computer people fucked up the screen themselves because it worked fine before we shut it down and brought it in. But what can you do. I got to say, when Carl breaks something he REALLY breaks it.

 

Happy Monday!

Busy day

I spent a lot of time dyeing yesterday and got a lot done. Unfortunately, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I still need to dye up the samples for the March Phat Fiber Box I hope to be able to dye them this coming weekend. I brought home a bunch of cones and 1/2 pound hanks to split up this week. Hopefully I will have enough time in the evenings to get them ready for dyeing this weekend.

I did try a new blend of sock yarn this weekend and I'm in LOVE with it. It's a blend of superwash BFL and nylon. It's super soft and it takes color beautifully! I think I might switch to it as my main base yarn for socks. It really is a dream to work with. I also tried out some alpaca/merino roving which was very nice to work with too. So there will be some very new items coming into the shop this coming week so keep an eye out.

A new little friend arrived yesterday and I'm super excited he's finally here!

He came from Gourmetchefff over on etsy and he's perfect! Her shop is currently empty but it looks like you can custom order softies from her so check her out. What I think is really funny is that he looks a lot like Carl! We laughed about that for a while last night while he tried to make the same face as the Doctor. Oh and if you don't know this is David Tennant as Doctor Who then you need to bone-up on your dork-culture.

Today will be filled with studying, knitting and a little Inspector Lynley Season 3. I need to finish the sweater from the design workshop so I can move on to some of the other designs that keep popping into my head. I think I'm going to have to buy a notebook soon so I can write down all these ideas for patterns! I have a hat pattern in mind right now that I think will be really cool. I just need to buy the yarns and swatch it up to see if I'm right or not. I guess my mojo really is back because I'm super inspired by my knitting at present.

Have a great Sunday! It's beautiful out!

How many Namaste bags can a knitter have?

Once again Namaste has produced a mouth-watering bag that I just have to have. The new Zuma is just plain awesome. I really want to the eggplant color (yes I totaly stole that picture but I love it!!) if I can find it. But this would be my third Namaste bag (and probably my 20th knitting bag) do I really need a third one, even if it is super pretty?

In the news

Look Ma' I'm famous!

I think its back!

My knitting mojo that is! I think the weeks of working (or avoiding working) on Dad's sweater sucked a lot of my knitting mojo out of me. It's been hard for me to knit since its completion. Then I went to The Point on Sunday for their SuperBowl Sale and I was inspired to knit again. I bought some gorgeous alpaca yarn that I plan on turning into my second sweater design. I also got some sock yarn because its like a yarn shopping prerequisite. I got home Sunday and started feverishly working on the jacket I was designing when I went to the design class with Stefanie Japel. I really want to finish it so I can a) show it off and b) move on to my next design. I hope to write up the jacket pattern and either sell it or give it away for free on ravelry. Once I'm done with the jacket I can move onto the alpaca sweater. I'm so excited you have no idea!

 

In other news, I received the best comment ever about the shop last night. I had a customer send me this: "I have one of your superwash merino rovings in sunset and i adore it- its one of the best merinos I've spun...I am sooo in love with your merino! it's crazy, i kinda hated merino before i spun yours. and i've spun some well known indie dyers, too." It made me smile. Sometimes I feel like I dye in a bubble. I spend hours letting my creative juices flow and then I post them in the shop for the whole world to see and critique. I'm always worried that people are going to hate what I do or think my products are inferior or something like that. And then someone sends me a message like that I just can't help be smile. They really brightens my whole day.

 

Oh and I have a random question for you, when did the handle-bar mustache become a decorating item/pop culture symbol? Seriously, go to etsy and search mustache and I bet you find over a 100 things with a mustache on it from jewelry to shirts. I don't mean to knock anyone's products I just don't know when or where this started. Seriously, where did it come from?

Happy February!!

Just a quick reminder that sign-ups for the Elements Fiber Club will close on February 15th so head over to the shop and check it out! The more who sign up the more fun I can make this. I'm thinking a flickr group or maybe a ravelry group so you can all share your finished yarns with each other and maybe do some general conversating (yah made up word) about your love of fiber!