Gotta love that sun...

Well, summer vacation is finally here... ::deep sigh::

I wish I could say that I had a ton of finished yarns and knitted projects to share (it has been long enough since my last post), unfortunately, I don't. The last two months or so have been progressively more difficult as my youngest child has decided that she doesn't really like to sleep at night. About 2 weeks ago we discovered that she's been cutting 4 new teeth all at once, which does explain why her crankiness has been kicked up to a whole new level. Regardless of the reason, there's only so much sleep deprivation a parent can take.

So, a few weeks ago my husband and I decided that going without sleep just wasn't going to happen anymore, and since then we've been working diligently (or, at least as diligently as someone can work in a state of complete exhaustion) to get her room finished so she could move in. Last night was her third night in her new room and she only woke up once. I cannot tell you how awesome I think this is.

Hopefully, after a few more nights of sleep, I'll have more of this stuff to show you...

"Reckless" handspun sock yarn

3 ply - fingering weight

approx. 4.3oz and 400 yards

Other than moving the baby into her own room, the major change happening around here has been happening in me. I feel like I've finally overcome the mental hurdles that have been keeping me from reclaiming a better, healthier lifestyle. For the last month, I've been enjoying the benefits of changed eating habits, morning workouts 4-5 days a week and a long walk every night after dinner. I've lost my first ten pounds and I feel better than I've felt in over 5 years. I still have a long way to go before I reach my goal, but I'm very thankful that I'm finally headed in the right direction!

As for Etsy news, there's not a lot to share. The lovely handspun yarn shown above is currently listed in the shop. I spent yesterday working over my dyepots and today I intend to do the same. I still need to place another fiber order (I'm hoping I'll have time to do that today) and in the meantime I'm going to dye up the rest of what I have on hand. Fiber enthusiasts can look forward to a hearty update some time next week. In the meantime, enjoy the beginning of a beautiful summer. :)

Little Changes

Just dropping in quickly to announce a small change in the hand dyed yarns I'm offering in the shop. I've decided to offer my hand dyed sock yarns in 215 yard quantities for $10.50 per skein (I've adjusted the shipping rate on this listing as well so that no one will be charged extra shipping for purchasing a quantity of 2).

I realize that it's nice to only have to fuss with winding one skein of yarn for a pair of socks, however it's also nice to only have to purchase roughly the amount of yarn that you need for a project.

Having the skeins in this quantity should make it a little easier on the bank account if you need around 600 yards for a pair of socks, or if you're wanting to purchase yarn for a color work project.

I'll be looking at the next couple of months as a test period for the change. We'll see how it goes. :)

Finally!

The last few weeks have been a blur. While I have been able to get some new fibers into the shop, I spent much of our spring break taking care of sick kids (sadly, both of my girls caught colds).

On the glass-half-full side of things, I did manage to finish up two of my sock knitting projects...

pattern: Child's First Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks

needle: US1.5

yarn: Four Rivers Yarn & Fiber Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in a OOAK colorway that I call Lavender Farm.

pattern: 2x2 ribbed sock with a purl ridge every 12th row

needle: US 1

yarn: Some sw merino/alpaca handspun that sat in the shop for.ev.er. (After months of it sitting I felt I had to take the listing down and use this poor yarn. It was too lovely to be ignored.)

It feels good to have these two projects finished. In celebration I pulled the next ufo out of the knitting pile: a gorgeous handspun Swallowtail Shawl (rav link). I'm so excited to be working on a shawl again! They always seem to knit up so fast. :)

Today is my birthday and I plan to spend the rest of it cleaning my house, spinning, and baking a German Chocolate Cake. We're visiting with family this weekend (which generally means a lot of time spent in the car), hopefully by the end of it I'll have a new finished shawl. :)

Irresistible

It's been a while since I've seen this sight. It has been raining, snowing, hailing and misting under an overcast sky for months and months. To wake up and find the sky looking this way is just... glorious.

So far this week I've been working. There has been dyeing...

There has been spinning...

But today (and tomorrow, if the weather is still permitting) I'm forsaking my dye pots, getting the heck out of this house and enjoying some of that warm, irresistible sunshine.

Who could blame me?

Coming Soon...

I've been spending the month of February (which now seems to have spilled into the month of March) emptying my bobbins and finishing unfinished yarns. I don't have a lot to share today, except for this...

This month I am going to begin offering custom spinning listings for handspun sock yarns. I was hoping to have this listing available in the shop by now, but I've been suffering from a toothache for a couple of weeks now. I have an appointment scheduled with my dentist to take care of the problem, but I'm going to wait until the pain is under control before I take on any more work. (Who knew that a little tooth could put a full grown woman out of commission so easily?)

Here are the details from the custom spin listing:

Have you ever seen a roving in my shop and wished that you could have it as a sock yarn? Now you can! Just purchase the roving along with this custom sock spin listing and leave instructions in the note to seller box letting me know how you'd like to have it spun. A custom spin usually takes around 7-14 days.

This custom spin will yield approximately 375-450 yards of 2 or 3 ply sock yarn, depending on the fiber and yarn construction (please note that I can make no specific yardage guarantees). You may choose from any roving in the shop, but please keep in mind that some fibers work better as sock yarn than others (and may yield better yardage). For a sturdier sock yarn I highly recommend a 3 ply, though if you intend to use your sock yarn for another project (maybe a shawl?) 2 ply would work well too.

Are you concerned about felting? If so, be sure to purchase a superwash fiber.

The construction choices are:

-2 ply. If you're not worried about heavy-duty, long-wearing socks this construction is wonderful to knit and barberpoles beautifully.

-Traditional 3 ply. This one is great for socks. It has a round construction that produces beautiful stitch definition and has lovely color distribution.

-Navajo/chain ply. This construction shares all the benefits of the traditional 3 ply, except that its colors are more likely to stay intact, can shift more quickly and can be more stripey in appearance when knitted. If you're in love with the color sequence of the roving you purchase and you don't want it to blend or change too much, this may be the choice for you.

*This listing is ONLY for a single, sock-weight custom spin and is only valid when purchased in conjunction with a Four Rivers fiber. I am (on occasion) open to spinning fibers from other vendors, but will only do so at my personal discretion and additional charges will apply. If you wish for me to custom spin someone else's fiber, please contact me to discuss the details BEFORE purchasing.

The cost of the custom spin listings will be $30 (not including the cost of the roving), which yields a little bit of savings considering the amount of yardage offered. These listings will be available only on a first come-first serve basis and I will only be putting up one listing at a time. I estimate that I'll be offering 2-3 each month. A day or so before I list the first one, I'll be putting it at the top of my shop announcements, so if you're interested in nabbing one of these you'll have some warning.

Other than that, I don't have much else to share today. While I have been doing a lot of knitting lately, I still don't have a finished object to share yet (though I should have a few to show soon).

Evolution

This week I've been taking a look around my house and I've been noticing a trend. There are several knitting projects, partially finished and lying around my home in various places. Every time I make progress with my knitting, I hear the siren call of new (or sometimes old) fiber and I can't resist. Before I know what's happening, I've all but abandoned the knitting project and I'm spinning more yarn.

exhibit A

exhibit B

exhibit C

While this isn't exactly a bad thing (I very much want to spin down my stash to a manageable size) I've realized that my knitting queue has grown to over a hundred projects that I'd really like to knit and I've gotten to the point now where I'm only finishing 4-6 knitting projects a year. Somewhere along the line, I must have evolved from a knitter who spins to a spinner who occasionally knits. Again, this isn't necessarily bad, but I have so much more that I'd like to accomplish with my wool.

I think it's time for me to once again lay out some rules for myself, in the hopes that it will produce some positive changes. At this moment I probably have enough fiber to last from now till judgement day and I'll never spin and knit through it unless these changes happen soon.

I've decided that February will be for finishing up what's on my wheel, and that I'll not be allowing myself to spin more fiber for myself (meaning fiber that's not intended for sale in the shop) until I finish knitting up every project I have lying around here on the needles right now. I have some excellent projects in mind for this year, but I know I'll never get around to them until I get everything else out of the way.

This will also help me to finish the spinning projects that have been in limbo on my Kromski, which would be excellent as I'm hoping to sell it this year. I'll keep things updated here as I make progress.