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 did it again. I let this poor blog languish. I’m sorry! This is just plain ridiculous. All it seems to take is one instance of “I’ll do that later” and the whole blog avalanches over the precipice and into the dye water.
Speaking of, I’ve been very busy dyeing things since I got back from Colorado earlier this month. I haven’t done this large of a dye batch in a long time. 
It stretched over two or three days. The first day was all sorts of fun, ha ha ha. I dyed four batches of various things, and of the four, none of them came out the color I was aiming for. God was so gracious in that they were still usable. They just weren’t coming out as intended. Rather frustrating at the time. I actually found myself not wanting to dye again. Ever. (Scary thought, no?)
But I took a day off from dyeing and tackled the rest with renewed vim, vigor, and some free choice in regards to colorways. In short: I got to play! Well, play with most of it.
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When I first began dyeing my own yarn and fiber, some people thought I would never “need” to buy colored stuff again. Ha ha ha ha. That’s like saying “You cook, so you won’t ever need to buy food at a restaurant again.”
Or, if you want to get really out there, it’s like saying, “You stand up, why would you ever want to sit down again?”
There’s so much to be said for dyeing your own stuff, but every so often you want a break. And, as it happened this time, I found this gorgeous braid for sale. It’s a merino/mohair mix (a blend I’ve never bought before) and the colors jumped right off the screen and grabbed me. (Yes, it was scary, but a good scary.)
Isn’t it pretty? I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. The thought of a hat or smooshy cowl crossed my mind, or perhaps a little shawlette. I could go for socks, as it’s a four ounce braid, but I don’t particularly feel like spinning sock yarn right now. Ha, well, true, I probably won’t get around to spinning this until later this year. Oh, I bought it at FiberFancy, if you’d care to take a peek at some of the other lovely stuff there.
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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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My spinning has finally picked up again, and I’ve had a few minor victories that put me well on the road to happy spinning again.
I finished the silk laceweight for my sister.
And, while I was at it, I almost finished up the Willow fingering weight. (That’s due to be finished as soon as possible so I can dive into some lovely merino.)
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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.
I have a total of three laceweight spinning projects going on right now. The alpaca and silk you’ve seen, so here’s the new baby.
Angora cobweb fluffy laceweight. Ahhhhhhhh. You cannot believe how soft this yarn is when it’s plied. It’s like the tactile rendition of feeling warm and fuzzy inside!
I’m actually spinning this on a nifty contraption that a friend of mine plans to make available on Etsy. I’m not at liberty to divulge many of the juicy details, but I will say that I could not spin this delicate of a yarn on any of the other tools I have in the house.
The grand Etsy store updates continue! I just listed a couple more yarns, and soon a nice big order of fiber will come in, and I can start all over again. Hooray!
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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!
So I got to the end of week four and realized that I still had three days left in the month. Of those three, I took pictures on two. And of those two, I only like the way one day turned out.
Here is my first ever cabled yarn lolling about in an abalone shell.
And this is a super close up of which I am very, very fond.
That does it for the April photos! And, while it had some highlights to it, I don’t think I’ll be doing the yarn photo a day thing again. It was a little too stressful to try to come up with the various photoshoots and actually take time to do them.
Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading off to Texas again! It dawned on me yesterday that that means I need to pick a knitting project or two to take along. I haven’t knit in what seems like a really long time. What projects do I have going, again? I remember casting the shawl back on. (And it’s still sitting in the cast on stage, by the way.) Perhaps I should take along the brown socks. . . but that’s patterned chart reading. Something simpler may be called for. Do I fight the urge to start a new project, or go with the flow?
I’ve discovered that I made a mistake in hurrying to get those batts up in the store. While I love the batts, I love creating yarns and fibers even more. I’ve gotten distracted by piles of gorgeous fluffy things to the detriment of my first love. This I have decided to change! I’m hoping to place a good sized yarn and fiber order when I get home from Texas. It’s time to rock the dye world again!
I’m running a sale on spinning batts over at maidenyarn.etsy.com. All the batts have been marked down and will remain on sale until May 1st!
