This week has been a little more laid back than usual, but I don’t mind that at all. Friday will be a dye day, with some “hired to dye” yarns in various colorways.

But last week I was able to dye a whole bunch of my Fall yarns, and I am thrilled to report that the new yarn bases behaved themselves better than expected. Here are three of the new single-ply fingerings –

And here is one of the two-ply superwash skeins. This one took the colors just like I thought it would – lots of brilliance and depth, and it held color changes quite nicely. I still really want to make something for myself from a skein of this yarn, and I finally found the perfect pattern. Now I just need to decide what color I want!

It suddenly occurred to me that I completely forgot to share pictures of the April Phat box I received! Shame on me. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure. These are the fibers.

I hadn’t been expecting to receive a contributor’s box, as I hadn’t sent in quite enough samples, but it came anyway, to my great delight!

I’ve already started spinning up quite a few of the samples on my drop spindle. (Which I recently went after with my stash of calligraphy pens and inks and decorated it to within an inch of its life.) My current idea is to spin them all up and possibly knit a tam from them and the yarn samples. The colors are fairly well matched. Lots of rainbow-y themes and blues and greens. Sounds like the recipe for a lovely tam to me!

Part of the fun of the Phat Fiber box is seeing what everyone comes up with for samples. I’ve been getting sneak previews of what June’s box is going to be (Science Fiction theme!) and I’d really, really like to be in on it. I’ve got ideas for three Jules Verne batts, and Wall-E sock yarns. Due to lack of time and funds, it’s looking like I might barely be able to squeak into the box with the Jules Verne, but as roving, not batts. We shall see.

I recently participated in a trade with a local dyer. MamaJude does simply beautiful work with plant dyes and can also dye cotton. I cannot dye cotton, so we worked out a swap where she would acquire a couple skeins of cotton boucle from me, and I would receive some indigo batts from her.

The batts arrived a few days ago, and they are gorgeous! There are six of them total. I haven’t weighed them, but I’m guessing the batch is in the six-to-eight ounces category. Here’s the best picture I could nab of one in the fading afternoon light.

I keep thinking that I should mix these with some of the lovely soysilk I have stashed away and make something large. But they’re so light and fluffy, I’m wondering if I could find a light spring/early autumn top or cardigan pattern. That might do them more justice. Whatever I decide on, it’s going to have to wait awhile. I’ve got two or three other spinning jobs lined up, plus the BFL lace I’m finishing up now.

My aunt’s shawl yarn, however, is now finished. I set the twist earlier this week.

And, speaking of shawls, here’s a picture of my finished “Hatter’s Party Scarf” shawl.
Shortly after I finished it I was able to wear it out and about at a botanical garden on a chilly day. This convinced me that I could, in fact, find excuses to make a larger shawl and wear it often.

I’m really tickled with how it turned out. I have so few projects made where I actually spun the yarn and then made it into something, it’s nice to have another pretty one. The fringe was rather fun to make as well. A very simple matter of dropped stitches! (Dropped on purpose.) My main trouble was making sure I dropped the stitches all the way back to the twisted row. Something about that single-ply merino/mohair made it keep snagging on itself.

And, as a final item, here are some little felt squares that came with my new batts. Aren’t they cute?

I loved every minute of it.

In fact, that’s all the confirmation I need to know that I’m doing what I really want to be doing. Selling fiber and yarn definitely holds enough excitement for me to last as long as God wants me here.

One of those sales was a refilling sale for the local yarn store. They needed more of the wholesale laceweights in certain colors, so I was able to stock them up on those. Here’s a picture of a few of the early colorways we put together. They have since been refined a little bit, and Dawn Treader isn’t pictured, but it’ll give you a general idea.

For the refill, they needed (among other things) six skeins of Dawn Treader. That’s the biggest yarn run in one colorway I have ever done, as of yet. I’ve got a custom Etsy order lined up for eight skeins of Blackberry lace, so that’ll take the record in terms of number of skeins.

I also dyed up my last two braids of Corriedale roving, so be watching for those in the store. One is the fiber version of my new colorway “Ink” (you can see the sock version here), and the other is probably going to be called “Japanese Bridge.” It’s reminiscent of Monet’s famous painting.

I’m discovering that I need to get way more fiber braids in my store ASAP. All the Bluefaced Leicester in Dawn Treader are gone, as are all the other braids I listed at the beginning of the month. I’ve got a bit more of undyed coming in (Wensleydale fiber!) but it’ll be a while before I can place another large fiber order. Hopefully we can hold out long enough.

Between all this order shipping I’ve been working away on a fun spinning project. It’s a llama, silk, and merino (I think) hand spun yarn, and I beaded a portion of it.
This was my first time beading a yarn.

I realize that Spring begins in March. But personally, I don’t really count it as Spring until it feels Spring-ish. And yesterday I went on a picnic lunch in a lovely park, and now realize that Spring is fully Spring-ish. So, happy Spring!

I guess the biggest news I have to share is that I’m expanding into the wholesale realm. A local yarn store is going to be carrying six special colorways of my merino/silk laceweight. (Including Dawn Treader!) If you’re in the Athens, GA area, stop by and visit Main Street Yarns to take a peek. It’s a lovely store with all sorts of goodies. (I have to be very strict with my wallet when I’m there.) I just sent off a lovely lineup of twelve skeins, but completely forgot to take a picture of them before they left! Gack!
There’s a chance that I’ll be visiting the yarn store next week, so I’ll have to take my camera and attempt to get a shot of the yarns hanging up on the wall.

Along the same line of “business,” I’m looking into giving my laceweight yarn bases some names. So, instead of calling it “70/30 merino silk” I would call it “Hawthorn Lace” or something like that. I’ve seen this done in various stores and supposedly it helps people remember the yarns. I’m all for it, except that I have to come up with the names. No pressure, right? It just reflects on me and my business if I choose poorly. Yeeks. Some top ideas now are naming them after various vines, or floral/botanical type things.

I have been dyeing tons lately for my April/May inventory. At least three large dye runs in one week. Here are a couple goodies from that for you to see. I decided to attempt dyeing an entire pound of fiber in the same colorway, so I chose Dawn Treader. (Of course, I mean, it’s gorgeous!) I’m very grateful that the story ended happily ever after, and I ended up with a full pound of Bluefaced Leicester in Dawn Treader. In fact, one of the 4 oz. braids sold within a day or two of my listing them on Etsy. Yay!

And below is seven and a half ounces of Corriedale in a one-of-a-kind colorway. (I doubt I could repeat it if I tried.) I’ve decided (with some naming help) to call it “Mountain Orchard.” It makes me think of sunshine on apples and leaves and mountain streams.

And I’ve been spinning up a storm, too! Take a look at these gorgeous little beauties. They’re the yarn for my aunt’s shawl, all spun up and ready to go. (Except for a quick twist-setting dunk.) Eight skeins, and I still need to calculate the yardage. As far as I know, we won’t run short. But I don’t know very far, and knitting patterns can be tricky.

This yarn is some of the most delicious stuff I have ever had my hands on. It’s light and springy like the Bluefaced Leicester in it, but it has a touch of baby alpaca for added softness and smoosh, and a bit of mohair halo. It looks like I won’t be dyeing it after all, and that it will remain happy in its natural color when my knitting sister takes it into her skillful hands.

For not having dyed in a while, I certainly jumped back in feet first. The ones up above there are my Malabrigo yarns. A friend and I are putting together some Malabrigo sets with matching stitch markers to put in my store, and I’ll be sending some little samples off to the Phat Fiber Boxes for April’s distribution. Lots of fun!

But, besides those, I went through a whole stack of yarns this time around. In fact, I felt like the Brave Little Tailor in one of my favorite old fairy tales. Seventeen yarns processed in one morning. (Yes, but don’t mention that I dyed less than half of those that round. The rest were twist-setting and dye-testing.) Still, I don’t think I’ve done that big of a batch since last year.

I’ve got some lovely laceweight, and a gorgeous set of bulky skeins, plus some odds and ends of other things. I was rather pleasantly surprised at how many I was able to do, what with being out of practice. The last thing I wanted to do was get halfway in and have an energy crash. When yarns are on the stove, there is no way to stop without risking the loss of the yarn. And, by extenuation, sanity.

Here’s the laceweight I dyed. It was supposed to be Dawn Treader, but I got way too much purple in there and came up with these three skeins. As I said before, I have no idea what I’m going to call it—besides gorgeous.

The shawl was supposed to be my dear aunt’s Christmas and birthday present, however both of those dates have passed, so I decided I’d better get hopping. The last thing I want to do is end up like I did with my last two “birthday gift” yarns and not deliver on them until after the next year’s birthday.

Before I got started on the shawl yarn I had to reel off the cinnamon alpaca that was already on my favorite spinning wheel. (This photo only strengthens my mental connection between brown alpaca and herringbone. For some odd reason I think they were made for each other.)

Once I got all that reeled off the bobbin, I went ahead and started spinning up samples. This was a little more difficult than I bargained for, as the original pattern calls for a worsted weight yarn made of llama. Llama is rather heavy and drapey, but my batts are not. They are wonderfully springy and fluff up like you wouldn’t believe. So it took me a good four or five tries to nail a proper sort of worsted weight. (More of the fiber being used!)

I’m hoping against hope that I have enough of these batts to finish out the shawl. There are all these abstract variables floating about.

After getting the right weight (or so I hoped), I gave the little piece of sample yarn to my sister, who will be doing the actual knitting of shawl, and she knit up a tiny swatch. Thankfully it was bang on with blocking. Hurrah for gauges that actually work!

I’ve got a half of a bobbin of this lovely stuff at the moment, and I intend to add to it pretty soon. The shawl calls for 820 yards of worsted weight, and I have twelve(ish) ounces of batt. This is going to be close. If all else fails, I can get a few ounces of something else and spin one of the yarn plies with it, then stick it in with two of the batt plies.

Spinning and general crafting levels have been down as we’ve had lots of wonderful house guests for the last several weeks, but now things are grinding back towards normal and I can get back to spinning. And dyeing. Lovely dyeing.

Here’s my first stab at dyeing some mohair/silk laceweight in my Blackberry Jam colorway. I still get the yarn quivers whenever I look at this. Gorgeous.

I also managed to get way too much purple on a batch of Dawn Treader lace, and it turned out amazing. My only problem is that now I’ve got to come up with a name for the new colorway.

And then there’s the two-skein set of bulky weight that I just amazed myself with. How does one go about naming a combination of black, emerald green, and purple? I may wind up having to put a picture up here and run a name contest.

Spinning-wise, I’ve been working away on some merino/mohair fingering weight. I decided to spin it as a single-ply yarn, primarily for quickness of spinning, but (to make it legit) also for color separation purposes. But that sort of undermined my idea for using it as sock yarn as, supposedly, socks of single-ply don’t stand up to wear and tear as well. (Although I do have a pair knit from Mini Moochi, and they’re lovely and squishable.)

I have a project in mind for the yarn, believe it or not. Really.

Be amazed.

What happened to the days of just spinning at random and letting the yarn fall where it might? I don’t know, but if they ever stop by again I hope they bring some ideas with them, because I don’t think my yarn bin can hold much more. You see, I’ve discovered the problem with spinning. You end up with two stashes. One of fiber, and one of yarn. Trying to get rid of your stash is like trying to have all the laundry clean at once.

But, back to the pattern. While wandering around on Ravelry I came across a very fun scarf/mini-shawl pattern called The Hatter’s Party Scarf. It’s knit from tip to tip, going back and forth across the shorter way, so it’ll help keep my yarn colors from mushing together.

I’m very pleased with how this yarn turned out. Fiber Fancy did an excellent job on the dyeing—not one dye leak when I set the twist—and I love the colors. Ironically enough, they’re not my usual diet of reds, blues, and greens. How did that happen? At least it isn’t a mid-knitting-life identity crisis. I’m just broadening my color horizons.

(Like I need that.)

Don’t get me wrong, I love the yarns. I’m just really ready to start dyeing more, and experiment with new yarn bases and all that jazz. (Yep, short interest span. That’s me.) And stuff needs to sell before I buy more yarns. It’s a horrible fact of life.

Not that I’ve had time to dye lately. (I wish.) I’ve been working on putting together some How-To DVDs for my mother’s business, and one of these involves crochet. Yep, I get to play with all these lovelies. (Yes, they’re acrylic, but not all acrylic is bad acrylic! Now I’ll wait for the stones to stop being thrown. )

Ahem. We’re going to be filming the next week or so, which means lots of work and doing tough things. If God brings it to mind, please pray that I’ll be able to just jump in and get stuff done. I’m an expert at sticking a toe in the water of a new project, then whining for a couple days about the temperature.

But, I have made some rather good progress on my second alpaca sock, and I have found the secret to finishing a never-ending pair of extra-tall socks! The key is to go and stay in a rather chilly house for a few days. Take the sock knitting, and just barely enough pairs of regular-height socks. By the middle of the first day you’ll find yourself huddled on the couch watching old, instant-stream TV shows off of Netflix and knitting for your life in the hopes of warmer toes.

Unfortunately this knitting streak didn’t cross over to the other pair of unfinished socks I brought along, or the Emily Dickinson shawl that I had hoped to start again. However, I did have a lovely time resting, reading (three whole books!), and movie-watching.

If I’d been thinking I would have taken along the Fall Shawl and a large needle for “weaving in the ends” purposes. Oh well. It’ll get done eventually.
As you may be able to see, I didn’t quite finish the pattern. Due to my scandalous “departing of the text” and “altering,” the final project was smaller than I thought. So, I stopped knitting a ways from the end of the neck and left myself a handy little notch out of the middle. That way it actually stays on for the most part. I think a really interesting shawl pin or button will be in order for this. The best way to wear it is with the two edges meeting in the front like the front of a cardigan. It keeps my shoulders and neck warm and doesn’t look half bad—once you learn to ignore the gazillion and three little bits of yarn dangling off of it.

Yes, I think a button and loop would be the best way to keep it on in the front. I know of some rather fun buttons at JoAnn Etc. They’re wooden, and not quite square. Or I could purchase some from this interesting shop - We shall see what comes.

Speaking of buttons, I still don’t have them for the Sky Pirate gloves! They shall have to languish under my desk a while longer.

But, on the bright side, here’s one of my more recent yarn creations. It sold right away, but I will definitely be making the colorway again.

When I first made it, I didn’t keep track of how I did the colors, so I thought it was non-reproducible. Then a good friend asked me to pretty-please try again for her sake, and I tried, and (praise God!) it worked! So, it is now fully reproducible. Allow me to introduce, the Dawn Treader yarn!

Shortly after I recreated that, my friend with the drum carder came for a visit. We had to cut things short, due to the threat of impending snow, (Yes, snow here in the Southeast. Lots of it.) but we still got ten batts of the Iowa fleece all carded up. I have some interesting plans for these. Hopefully it will work out.

And, as a fun note to end the post on, my knitting sister (who is also my amazing yarn photographer for the Etsy sites) put together a collage of all the products I made and listed last year. Quite a few, eh?