I launched a new product today (with more coming) and I’m rather excited about them. They’re batt kits for those people lucky enough to own a drum-carder.
Coordinating colors in the nice, small amounts you need for blending a batt. The only trouble is how to go about spreading the word among the drum-carding community.
I also received permission to do something very exciting. Cyan Worlds gave me the green light on creating some Myst-inspired yarns! (Myst is a series of amazing computer games, very heavy on the visual arts side.) I get to make them! Yay!!!! I’d like to have them available in October sometime, but we’ll see what happens. It’s not like I’m creating the official Myst yarns or anything, but I’ll be able to have lots of fun with it, and, maybe, become the official Myst yarn person. I can dream.
And, last but certainly not least, this is the month of the indigo merino. I have almost an entire bobbin of singles done already.
I realized I’ve been leaving you in suspense over my purple sweater! It did get finished, and I literally had to take it to Colorado unblocked and block it in a friend’s washing machine, but it got finished. I wore it a lot and really, really enjoyed it. Several people commented on it (in a good way). Yay! The photo, or rather a piece of the photo, I snagged from a friend’s picture of the trip. We were playing an acting game called Freeze.
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I took some time out the other day to dye up a few more rovings for Maiden Yarn. Unfortunately, I didn’t think ahead enough, and I found myself with pre-soaked four ounce bundles of roving, and no foil pans big enough to hold them.
I did have one non-disposable tray left, so I used it for one of the batches: this lovely repeat colorway. (You may recognize the color pattern from way back when. I dyed it first on some of the silver-gray Romney roving I bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival.) The fun thing about the repeats was that it braided up with colors to colors, as you can see. I’m really happy with the way that one turned out.
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Announcing the grand opening of my second Etsy store — Filigree Willow Laceweights
Come on over and take a peek. I’m so, so excited!
And, on that note, I am so, so loving custom orders. You probably remember my first custom yarn (Raven’s Wing) and the gorgeous yarn that came out of that. Well, prepare for custom order number two.
Absolutely gorgeous emerald yarn. This green took forever to achieve (no less than three times in the dye pot) but it was so worth it. The yarn practically glows from within. And it’s superwash, which means it is very soft.
I can’t wait for the next custom challenge, whatever it may be.
Especially when you’ve got two. . .
That’s right. I’m going to open a second Etsy store. Filigree Willow Laceweights. This one is designed specifically with lace knitters in mind and will carry only higher-end laceweight yarns that have been hand dyed or handspun. I’m so excited! Imagine a place where you can go revel in skein after skein of gorgeous yarn and not worry about it being the wrong weight. Plus, I’m documenting how I achieve certain colorways, so I can recreate yarns in whatever amount is needed.
Right now I’m focusing on building inventory, so it’s not quite ready to open yet, but if you’d like to take a quick peek at the space it’s www.laceweightyarns.etsy.com.
And what about MaidenYarn? Oh, it’s not going away at all. I have more fingering weight yarns and batts all ready to go. See what I’ve been working on the last couple days? Some are for MaidenYarn, and some are for Filigree Willow. I can enjoy dyeing twice the amount of yarn now!
Be amazed! Take a look at this eyeball-searing shade of red. My poor camera hates it, and I love it! This is the result of switching the normal up a bit.
To explain. In the natural course of events, I ran out of my Crimson dye about a week ago.
Now, I’ve used two red dyes before. One is Crimson (my favorite) and the other is Fire Red. I had always preferred Crimson because of the deeper color tones. (The Fire Red tended to go orangey.) Well, when I ran out I hastened to order more, but the place I was buying from didn’t have Crimson!
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I really hope the rest of the year won’t decide to follow January’s pacing. At that rate I won’t get much done!
I mean, we’re already almost through a twelfth of the year. Yikes! It would be so much easier if I had only one, or even two hobbies. Then I could focus on them solely and really get stuff cranked out.
But would it be as fun? Part of the fun of hobbies is to be able to do different things and keep them fresh. If it’s not interesting, why do it? Now, granted, I’ve taken hobby-gathering and turned it into an extreme sport, but I only keep the ones I enjoy. The trouble is that I enjoy a few too many to maintain with sanity.
The solution? Rotate them out as the mood strikes, and try not to leave any unfinished projects. The first part is easy. I’m still working on the second part. Although I am proud to report that I still only have one knitting project going, despite a red sock yarn’s constant pleading and a shawl pattern’s lingering glances.
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I’m a knitter now. Let me be the first to admit it. The dye. . . I mean die-hard crocheter has fallen. I have succumbed to the knitting realm and now have way too many knitted projects planned.
And to prove how nuts I am, go take a look at my queue and favorites on Ravelry. (I’m LoveFiber on there.) 
Not only am I knitting my first big knitting project now — and here’s a picture of my lovely sweater so far — but I have plans for another sweater, two or three giant shawls . . . no, four or five shawls, and a myriad of socks, wraps, and various things that will only overrun my closet. Which is already overrun. Although hopefully I will be able to use things from the closet to make things which go back into the closet and therefore pioneer self-sustaining closet environments.
My goal is to not. Buy. Any. More. Yarn. Until I’ve used up at least some of what I already have. Not too much. Just enough. *cough cough* Will someone please take the KnitPicks and Webs catalogs off my desk?
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This is a post of “finally”s. I finally got around to taking a picture of the progress I’ve made on my cowl. 
It’s a good five inches long, and I’m coming up on the end of yarn ball number one. The question is whether to continue on and make it really big, or just have a second ball of navy mohair laying around for who knows what.
I thought about making a matching hat out of it. One of those things that are sort of like tams, only a bit more floppy and mushroom shaped. Possibly with the same lace pattern so it will match!
What with the cold weather lately I’ve been wearing my merino/oppossum tam a lot, and I’ve gotten quite a few compliments on it. Enough to make me wear it every time I stick my head out of the door. And it’s nice and warm, too. I don’t notice it when it’s on my head, but when I take it off I get colder.
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What with Christmas coming up I was way overdue for another dye run. And, can you believe it? I didn’t feel like dyeing things! Gasp. Earthquake. General turmoil and chaos. Hey, everyone gets bankrupt in the idea department at some point. I had a ton of things I wanted to dye, but I only summed up energy and time to do the first few.
One was a no-brainer. I wanted to add green to some pink/blue yarn I dyed way back when. Mix dye. Dump. Cook. Simple simple.
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