I’m so, so excited! Have you ever heard of Phat Fiber boxes? They’re these fabulous little things that put a whole world of fibery samples at your fingertips. (You can fully investigate them here. )
The idea is that us yarn and fiber dealers send in samples of our work, and the samples are then combined in themed boxes for people to buy. Lovely stuff! I sent in some yarn for the July box, which has the theme of “Seaweed, Ships, and Scallywags.” I wasn’t able to send in quite enough samples to score my own box, but I fully intend to get one in August.
Here’s a little preview of the mini-skeins I sent in as samples. They’re tweedy fingering weights that will be appearing in my Etsy store soon. So cute!
Posted in Yarn
|
Tagged phat fiber, sample
|
As you have no doubt already noticed, Maiden Yarn has a spiffy new theme! Do let me know what you think.
I just rediscovered my spinning wheels. *insert big mushy heart and ecstatic arm waving here* It’s been so long since I’ve spun just for “pleasure” or on a spur of the moment thing. After working on some silk laceweight, I have Bing Crosby in my head singing, “Once and for always, let’s say that it’s agreed. . .” He sings it to his lady love in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and it pretty much sums up my feelings toward the wheels at this point.
On the one wheel I have this gorgeous stuff. It’s the laceweight silk I promised my sister a year ago.
And on the other I have this. Cinnamon alpaca laceweight that will probably wind up in Filigree Willow Laceweights. (Sorry about the nasty photo. I have concluded that TV rooms are out to sabotage photography everywhere.)
Continue reading →
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!
Hello, everyone. I wish I could say I’ve been spending these last months in darkest Peru, learning the secret arts of cochineal dyeing, but that would be far from the truth. The truth of the matter is that . . . (are you sitting down?) I’ve not been knitting or spinning much, if at all.
There. The painful bit is over. And so is the silence of the blogger! I didn’t have many projects of a fibery nature going, therefore I had nothing to blog about, therefore I didn’t blog, which led to more ventures into non-fiber hobbies, and you get the idea. It really was the Bermuda Triangle there for a bit. But, everyone needs a little lull from life-consuming hobbies at least once in a while, and I’ve had my lull. Now clear the pool, I’m coming in!
Continue reading →
To lots of people garbage bags carry negative connotations. They symbolize things thrown away, things unwanted, smashed cereal boxes, banana peels, yesterday’s bacon grease, and other smelly things.
But, for spinners there is a magic about garbage bags because, when found in the right places, they usually contain fiber in vast quantities. Quantities so large, your ordinary bag won’t hold them. Sound exciting?
Well, while in Texas I was given an early birthday present. Two garbage bags full of cinnamon colored alpaca. Oh my goodness. Major fluffy soft.
And I even have a project idea for it! But, before I get to new project time, I have to overcome another project. Remember the indigo dyed merino? It’s decided to haunt me for some reason. Continue reading →
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!
It’s hard to believe there are only three days left in April! And, while I did forget on a couple of days this last week, I went ahead and took extra pictures to make up for them.
Here is some indigo-dyed cotton. The yarn had a very interesting texture which I wanted to capture in this close up.
This is a ball of some handspun that I made a long time ago. Quite probably with some of the first fiber I ever dyed. Lovely intense colors.
Continue reading →
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!
Posted in Etsy, Fiber
|
Tagged batts, sale, spinning
|
Well, I’m actually somewhat embarrassed, but here’s last week’s offering, for what it’s worth.
Ta-da. I think I’ll go creep into a little hole now. Don’t worry. I’ll get over it eventually.
