While I was getting ready to make the previous scarf, I had an idea for a fun spring/summer design to create on a chiffon. The idea was vaguely inspired by cherry blossoms and tiny spring flowers, and involved having tiny white circles dotting one end of the scarf. As you can see, it worked.

I’m thinking I might offer these for sale for this coming spring. Any idea on what colors? I’m liking the green, although I might go a bit softer with it. A nice, distinctive pink would be pretty. Something between peach and petal. And a soft, French blue-grey would be gorgeous. Maybe a golden-yellow, like a mango? Does anyone even wear mango?

My sister was gracious enough to lend me her tiny teapot, so I curled up at my desk with my prettiest teacup, and a whole pot full of Lipton’s “Vanilla Caramel Truffle,” with lots of heavy cream and sugar. Sometimes an emotionally low day requires such things.

Unfortunately, the emotional benefits were quickly overridden with a sudden headache. Either I used too much sugar, or it was just inevitable. Either way, the tea tasted really good.

The irony of taking refuge in my room lay in the fact that I was completely surrounded by piles and piles of unfinished projects. (Not to mention stacks of old notebooks from my emptied desk!) We’ve been busy filming some how-to DVDs for my family’s business, so I had adhered to the deceptively simple practice of “Oh, I’ll just lay this here until I get a chance to put it away.”

Let me tell you, that doesn’t work so well. Especially not two-and-a-half weeks at a time. The piles were downright scary.

If you don’t believe me, take a look.

That was my view from my desk chair. Inspiring, eh?

I was definitely in danger of succumbing to “Unfinished Project Guilt Syndrome.” Thankfully, I managed to squeak out of that and have been spending a good portion of this morning in removing those stacks and piles. And organizing a bit. I’ve had some thumping good ideas for new (and better) ways to store my various belongings. Particularly my stash.

I did a little web research this morning to see how much my idea might cost me, and I’m still in sticker shock. I’ve inherited an interesting trait that can wreck havoc with my pocket book – I always go for the higher quality / more expensive stuff. Always. I’ve never tested it, but I can imagine walking down a line of unmarked sofas at a furniture store and managing to want the most expensive. Maybe there’s a way to earn a living doing that. I’ll have to look into it.

Anyway, my brilliant storage idea would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 – for the first half of the project. Excuse me while I go try to build cardboard bookshelves. (I’d actually do that if cardboard didn’t tend to get dusty. I’ve built some pretty amazing things out of cardboard, if I do say so myself, and I might just wind up having to do it again.)

But, back to the unfinished project syndrome. To combat the rising tide of painful-project-memories, I took some pictures of my almost finished “Oh, Brioche” scarf. Knit from Malabrigo Worsted that I dyed myself. And it turned out pretty gorgeous.

It’s as soft as it looks, too.

~ Happy crafting,
Rebekah

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!

Oh! You heard it here first – I will be participating in Etsy’s Christmas in July sale (July 15th through 25th). I’m running a special on shipping for those of you who want to stock up on Christmas gifts. Pay shipping on only one item in your order. All the other items in the order ship free!

And, while this is not lace, I’ve started knitting a scarf from this lovely, hand dyed pink yarn a good friend gave to me. I’m knitting it on the bias, and then throwing in dropped stitch stripes every so often.

The only thing I can think of is that the yarn didn’t have long enough to presoak (but we gave it a couple days of soaking!) or perhaps it had some sort of chemical in it, which would be odd because it was supposed to be organic cotton. Queer.

And to make things queerer, take a look at the picture. All these yarns were dunked twice. The one on the right was actually dunked three times. Notice anything odd about the color intensity? The brightest yarn (on the left) is a) superwash and b) soaked longer than the one on the far right. They’re both merino wool. Apparently the length of soak time does effect yarns… but the cotton soaked every bit as long as the superwash!

While we were waiting for the indigo to simmer itself into a usable state we did some more regular dyeing. Unfortunately I didn’t get pictures of the results, but my aunt promised to take some photos and send them along. However, I took some of the leftover dyes and did an impromptu multi-colored batch of fleece. Remind me not to put black dye right in on top of the red. It swallows everything up whole. Not that I don’t like this; it just wasn’t what was expected.

But, on a high note, my aunt knit up that fall-inspired single yarn into a gorgeous scarf. Didn’t she do well?

And, though not quite as impressive, here’s the finished merino/silk scarf. My first big knit project. (If you don’t count the little red scarf, which didn’t involve yarnovers.) It’s almost done blocking, and it turned out huge. It’s really more of a narrow wrap than a scarf. But I like it.

If you’re wondering, the tam hasn’t dropped off the face of the earth. I’ve worked on it a bit. The dyeing has taken up a lot of my attention, but I haven’t forgotten it! In fact, I’ve graduated in my “knitter-ness.” I’ve thought about bringing the project with me on two occasions, decided not to, and regretted it. Maybe I should just strap the project bag to myself.

I took two projects along on the trip in the hope of being semi-productive. One was the drop spindle New Zealand wool that I’ve been hiding in my closet, reluctant to do. And the other was the merino/silk scarf. Only one project got done.
And it was . . .

The scarf. Now I just have to block it. I got rather good at carefully “un-knitting” after I had to bother my sister five or six times. But eventually I mastered the pattern or didn’t notice my mistakes anymore. Oh, I also had the thrilling experience of having the scarf half pulled off the needles a couple of times. And once completely. (That last time I ran to my sister. Positively ran. Well, it was more of a shame-faced shuffle. Next time I’ll be more careful when I pull a project out of its bag.)

And, on the drive home, I made a cotton washrag to scrub out my dye pots. It’s a modified scatter stitch, which seems to have turned in to a random broken rib stitch. Oh well. It works. I’m assuming you don’t need to block a wash rag.

Electric Blue

The New Zealand has been officially retired. The original idea was to spin up the whole pound of it on the drop spindle, dye it with indigo, and then crochet it into a specific sweater pattern. Well, it’s a crochet pattern, so it’ll take a lot of yarn, I don’t really like the pattern any more (too many holes in it), and drop spindling takes a long time. I’ll ply up the four balls of single that I have and use it for something. And I’ll put the roving to some other use. For instance . . .

I am now seriously considering selling hand-dyed roving, yarn, and handspun online. If I use the white roving I already have it’ll keep the start-up “out of pocket” cost down.

Selling is something I’ve thought about for awhile, but always backed away from for two reasons. One, I thought I had to be able to make a big profit right away. Two, there are so many yarn and fiber dealers out there, why would someone want my creations? The first one is obviously incorrect. I don’t have to make a big profit. Just preferably meet expenses with a little left over. As for the second, well, I can try to keep cost (thus prices) down while still delivering great products. If they like the yarn, they like the yarn. I’d really appreciate prayer for wisdom and guidance on this.

Merino Scarf

The pattern is very easy to remember. And, as a bonus, it’s getting easier to work with the needles. For awhile there it looked very bleak. I’d either be knitting like I was trying to tie two short hairs into a knot, or flinging loops about with sudden abandon. It’s just taking a lot longer than crocheting. And, like anything I’m new at, it requires a certain level of concentration.

The sweater is dry now! I’ll get some pictures up soon. And the red yarn is ready for knitting, as soon as I figure out what pattern I want to do. Something simple, but not too simple.
Oh, and I still have to finish plying the second half of the merino/silk yarn.

I got to thinking about the massive pile of still-dirty fleece I have left, and thought it might be nice to get it all cleaned up before we take any trips. I really don’t want to come back and find the “m” things enjoying themselves. Wait, is it the moths that eat it or their young? Anyway, I wonder if getting it all washed soon is physically possible. Well, we shall see!

Oh, and on a happy note, I spent an afternoon transplanting little seedlings to bigger pots. Here are some of my baby marigolds, waiting to grow into big, strong dye plants. The camera was acting up, so everything looks a little redder than it actually is.

Seedlings

So, here is the first break’s goal.

Two Projects to Finish

I’ll wait for you to collect your wits.

Are we good now? Okay. Let me explain. I’m running out of yarn and constantly having to modify patterns to make the sweater work at all. My sister suggesting knitting it, as that takes less yarn and usually has a nicer look, so I found a pattern I like and plan to tackle it as soon as I get all the yarn unraveled, straightened, measured, and re-wound.

On a brighter note, I finished the shawl-necked sweater! I don’t have any good pictures yet, and it might be awhile before I get any because it’s about to become a sodden heap. The yarn insists on crocking, and I don’t want to be constantly worried about leaving pink stains.