The book came!

I think it got here a few days ago, and I've been pouring over it ever since. My mom got a copy of it too, and she called me to tell me how much she liked it. I spun her some self-striping yarn in blues (her favorite color) for her birthday last fall so she could knit the mittens from the book when it came out. Here are the photos of the pages with my yarns (pg. 88 & 100):





I'm planning on knitting the bonnet for myself!

Today I'm spinning up some vegan yarn from these beautiful batts:



I wanted to make my own vegan fiber blends, since they're usually expensive to buy in roving form when they're made with organic cotton, so I carded up these batts from 50% organic cotton and 50% bamboo and then hand-painted them. I have 2oz in pale yellows & green and 2oz in pale orange, yellow, green, and pink, so I'm planning on plying them together. I love how they're spinning up so far! The picture doesn't show it well, but the matte cotton and the shiny bamboo are all swirled together - lovely! These blends are time-consuming to make, since it takes several passes through the carder to get them well blended and smooth, but I might make some more to spin some single ply yarns from.



I also started crocheting a market bag from hemp twine today, using this pattern. I was going to buy a bunch of hemp yarn, but I decided to just use the cord I had on hand. It's stiff, and I sort of have to wrestle with it, but this bag should last forever! Our local farmers market starts next Thursday (I think), I'm so excited! It's literally right outside our apartment, maybe a block away.

Hurray!

My yarn is in a book! And it's coming out soooon - I just got the shipping notification that it'll be here next Thursday. The book is called Knit One, Embellish Too: Hats, Mittens, and Scarves with a Twist, and it's written by Cosy of cosyknitsliterally on etsy. All her knitted designs are so lovely & amazing - I never buying knitting books, but I would have bought this one even if my yarns weren't in it. I think it's her unique combination of traditional & new styles, plus her good sense of color and pretty but simple embroidery. And the buttons - I'm a sucker for a good vintage button! You can see the cosy's flickr photos of all the projects in the book HERE, and the projects my handspun are in are HERE and HERE. I can't wait to get the book and start knitting!



In other news, Molly uploaded the pictures of our bamboo dyeing adventures to her flickr account - go see them!

Nevermind!

The weather has been crazy today. It keeps getting super super dark and stormy, pouring down rain, and then five minutes later it'll be super sunny. And then it repeats all over again.

I did get some pictures taken today, though! So my shop is not completely empty. I'm going to try to spin a LOT this week so I can list more.

New yarns:





Here are some of the vegan yarns I'm saving for the craft show:

Dreary

It's so very dark outside right now, it barely even looks like daytime. So cloudy! Which means that I probably won't really be able to update the shop today, since I can't take good pictures. I woke up this morning to a COMPLETELY EMPTY shop! Eep!! So I really badly need to update very soon. I have a pile of yarn that's been collecting, but I need to stockpile for the two shows I'm doing in June.

This past Sunday, I got together with Molly, Steph, and Carissa to dye bamboo, a super secret process. (Not really). Molly took pictures, so I'll link to them as soon as they're up! I'm rinsing all my dyed bamboo & organic cotton right now, so I'll be spinning that up as soon as it's dry. I also have a bunch of fun organic cotton yarns that I need to take pictures of to show you guys! I just spun my first 100% organic cotton patchwork yarn last week! It's so fluffy and soft, and perfect for summer knitting!

Wow, the skies just opened up, and it's pouring rain like mad right now! So much for that walk to the post office - I guess I'll try to grab a ride there tomorrow morning. Back to work for me! I'll leave you with this picture of some colorgrown (undyed) organic green cotton yarn that I spun recently:

Go go go

I love being productive! Sure, my etsy shop is quiet (and nearly empty, eep!), but I've been making lots of things. Here are a few glimpses at what I'm working on:



I drew out some new tags for my handspun, plus some other business-related images, and today I just got an idea for a screenprinted shirt/patch, so I'll be drawing some more! I still need to make special tags for my batts, vegan yarns, and self-striping yarns. And also some more felted & embroidered leaves. Yep, I'm still spinning leafy yarns.



A pile of self-striping yarns for the craft show. I've almost reached my self-striping yarn quota for craft show #1! Not that that's a huge accomplishment, because I still have plenty of patchwork yarns, novelty yarns, and vegan yarns to spin. Not to mention I want to have some knitted stuff for sale. Oh, and then I need to do it all over again for craft show #2! Did I mention that they're only a week apart?



Aaand, a big humungous self-striping yarn custom order. These are the balls of roving all dyed up and ready to be pre-drafted. I'm done with the dyeing, so I'll probably start spinning them up tomorrow.

So, things might be quiet around here for a while! I'm hoping to have some yarns to list on etsy Thursday, or this weekend at the latest.

Whew.

I managed to fill up all six of my regular bobbins today, but just barely! Plied yarns are hard work. I always forget how much actual spinning goes into them - they only end up being like 150 yds when finished, but if you count both singles + plying, that's 450 yds each!! My fingers & back kept getting really sore, so I took several breaks. But I did it! Once I finish plying them together, I'll have 3 new patchwork yarns, and one of them is 100% bamboo. I'm not sure if they'll be going up on etsy, though - one is a custom order and the others I might set aside for my upcoming craft show.





My bobbins are always so messy! Especially the bamboo, it likes to slide around.

I forgot to mention, we bought some plants at MDSW! There were actually several nurseries that were selling there. We got lemon balm, peppermint, and rosemary. I forgot to take a picture of the little plantlets that I planted a while back - our windowsills are almost full!



I also spun a bamboo yarn yesterday:



It's spun from a few different dyeing mishaps. I'm totally at a loss for what colors I was going for, but some of it ended up a greyish pink/peach (brains!) and the rest is a strange brownish pink with greenish bits (rotten meat!). It looked pretty gross before I started spinning it (the shininess didn't help), but I think it looks sorta pretty spun up. If it doesn't sell, I'll just keep it and make some sort of a zombie-themed project with it.

NEWS!

Sheep & Wool was fun! But before I get into that, here's a bit of news that I'm even more excited about - I finally got it together and started a yarn club! It's all vegan fibers, too. Check it out!



I ended up only going to MDSW on Sunday - which was probably a good thing, because from what I heard it was MUCH more laid-back (but still crowded, and some long lines). I bought mostly business-related stuff, like an extra bulky bobbin for my wheel, more organic cotton (including some amazing colorgrown green) & ecospun, 5lbs of rambouillet top, and some washed kid mohair, but I also got one 'frivolous' thing for me:



2 oz of naturally dyed BFL in "Jade" (greys with greenish tones). I spent a lot of time looking at all the naturally dyed wares from A Verb For Keeping Warm in the Cloverhill booth. I almost never buy handdyed fibers, but I couldn't pass this one up! I managed to talk myself out of some of the naturally dyed tussah silk, just barely. I loved the Cloverhill booth so much - it was chock full of goods from lots of indie spinners and dyers, and I always love seeing other people's handspun in person!

I ran into a few people I know, but also missed a few people whom I 'know' from online. But that's okay, there's always next year!