Snow!

That's right, it is snowing outside. Here is what is left of the lovely daffodils:

This is pretty much the same photo as the one that I took 2 weeks ago.

Only yesterday the weather looked like this! Sure the snow was creeping down the hills, but I figured it would pass right over the top of us! At least it is good for knitting. I can't show you everything I am working on quite yet, but I can show you a couple of things:

The Harvey kimono is coming along quite nicely. I didn't have a holder handy, so I have slipped all of the pieces onto a spare straight needle that was nearby. The pieces use a 3-needle bind off to attach them at the shoulder. So everything is on hold until the sleeves are made. I am making it out of Inca Cotton from Henry's Attic. I am just so amazed at how soft this yarn is knitting up! It is incredible. I definitely have some ideas in mind for future projects with this yarn!

Lastly, I started a Felted Clog from Fibertrends with my class a couple of weeks ago. Both of my students were really fast, so I had to knit this extra quick to stay up with them! It was such an awesome class! Our last class was last night and everyone had at least one clog complete. This one is actually an experiment. I am using my handpainted worsted wool in color Bad Girl for this clog! The yarn is doubled and both strands ended up matching up without me even trying! The accent color is Cascade 220 in Color#9469 Hot Pink. I love them! I am pretty excited to see how they will felt up. Now to just get the 2nd one done! Though with the weather like this I may just have to stay in and knit! I think that these are going to be put away as Christmas gifts in my Christmas box for next year's gifts. If you are interested in trying out your own pair I still have one skein of the worsted for sale in my shop in color Provence. Wouldn't it look pretty with either a green or purple accent? I also have plenty undyed on hand if you would like to special order a particular colorway. I think I might just have to go dye up some more!

Semi-Solid

Introducing my new collection:


The Semi-Solids!


A friend of mine asked me last fall about dyeing semi-solids. She said that she had all these leftover balls of sock yarn and if she only had a solid for heels and toes she could knit up more socks out of the leftovers. I told her I would give it a try.


I also thought it would be a great time to introduce a new half skein size! After all to make socks for kids or baby booties or other small projects you only need half of a skein. So now you can order a bunch of my different sock yarns in smaller sizes on the order form! This is also really great for making socks toe up if you want two skeins that are both the same size. All half skeins are half the price of a full skein!


So, currently listed in my shop are: Cloud, Carnation, Rainy Day, Sunshine, Lime, Wild Iris, Cherry, Orange, Forget-Me-Not, Kiwi, Cranberry, Tomato, Aqua, Rust, Raspberry, Chocolate, and Midnight.

I also updated my website, including the order form, Superwash Sock Page, and lots of new projects in the FO Gallery!

Don't forget, I have more skeins of Charlie yarn listed in my shop! More details listed here!

Solidarity!

Apparently, I'm not the only one that is interested in doing something for a cause!

My husband shaved his head yesterday at work, because one of his coworkers was diagnosed with cancer. Actually it is a really cool story. At work they have an onsite massage therapist that does chair massages. One of the things that she does is feel around their chest and under their arms. Well, this guy went in and she did her thing and she found a weird feeling lump. She told the guy that he needed to get it checked out right away and had him call a doctor right there and then. The guy went in and found out that he has Hodgkins Disease, which is a form of lymphoma. However, because they found it very early on he has a pretty good chance. He is now undergoing chemo and his hair is starting to fall out. So some of the guys decided on site that they would shave their heads so that he wouldn't feel alone. Pretty soon most of the site was interested. They decided to bid off their hair (or the rights to shave it off). My husband got $40 for the rights to shave off his curly locks! He then bic shaved it smooth. All together they raised over $500 towards a charity of the guy's choice. What is really cool is that Google does matching for donations, so whatever money they raised will be matched by Google when they make the donation.

Web Wednesday!

I am inspired by Krafty1 to put up my own little web Wednesday post. I found two blogs recently that have really put a smile on my face. They are:

• Sprite Stitch which has 8-bit graphics from old school games made in a variety of mediums, including cross stitch, quilting, knitting, and crochet.
  
• Photoshop Disasters which I found off of Redshirt Knitting Blog. It doesn't have much to do with knitting, but it does have some hilarious posts!

In other news: I have 4 more skeins of the Charlie Yarn up in my shop! Read more about it here.

The Most Perfect Day!

Let me just start with saying that my husband is the most awesome guy ever! First off he got me tickets to Cirque du Soleil's show Corteo for Christmas! I was so excited, because I have wanted to go to a Cirque show for the past 8 years and something has always prevented it. Not this year! Though I had to wait all the way until March to go. Then a couple of weeks ago I found out that the Abernethy Grange Fiber Sale was on the same day!

I figured that I couldn't go, but my husband asked when it was and said that we could go before the show. So he took me to Abernathy Grange in Oregon City. I did a bit of fiber shopping, which I will probably share later! Then he took me out to lunch and we had enough time to stop by Powells and a couple of other places downtown before we had to go to the show.

Here is the fabulous tent as we drove in to see Corteo. It is really cool. The show was really awesome and absolutely worth it. We already have plans for going to the next one that comes into Portland!


Lastly, I will leave you with this awesome shot that I got when the show was over. The sun was just setting, the rain clouds had passed and it was the perfect picture to end a perfect day!

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has most certainly sprung around here! I looked out my deck the other day and saw all of these daffodils sprung up from no where! It is so pretty!


The other great thing that has been going on is that I have joined a knit group! The lovely ladies of Stevenson invited me last week to come to their weekly meetings, which are held here! I just couldn't resist. Below is a picture of the view from where we knit! Isn't that awesome? What makes it even better is that it is near my grandmother. So once a week I get to go see her and catch up on the family gossip. Some things that I learned this week: My grandmother is a huge Hillary supporter and watches American Idol!


I have just added some new things to my shop. I have been knitting too, but I have had this sewing bug lately. Actually I sat down at my sewing machine to do my first steeks! They turned out fine, but I think I will be able to do an even better job on the next project. Now that I know how it is done. I might try the crochet method sometime too! Of course this is on the project I can't share with you guys quite yet. Though, check out Destiny's Blog! I might be sharing with you guys sooner than I thought!


Anyway, back to the shop update! I like to collect fat quarters of fabric. In fact I enjoy making project bags for myself and giving them as gifts around the holidays and such. I love them for carrying a ball of sock yarn around. They are also great for mitts, which is what I have been using mine for lately. I just have now made more than I can use, so I thought I would put the extras up in the shop. I'm not sure that my sewing bug is quite gone yet, so there might be a few more up in the future. We shall see!

Also in shop news: I have already sold 2 skeins of the Charlie Yarn! I am so excited by this project and the great feedback I have been receiving! Debby also told me that they have raised over $130 this first week. I am always so impressed with how giving and wonderful knitters can be! I have added a little detail to the sidebar to keep track of all of the skeins sold and all the info that you'll need to find out more about it!

Get Your Guts In Gear!

I am so excited to finally be able to talk about this project with you guys! Ok, so I will start at the very beginning. Last year around this time I stumbled onto Debby's blog She Knits by the Seashore. She was running a fundraiser for Get Your Guts in Gear, a bicycle race that funds research for IBD and Crohn's/Colitis research. I thought this was so cool, because I have Crohn's disease that, thanks to relatively recent research, is in remission. I emailed Debby and we started talking. I learned from her that her husband also has Crohn's and that her cat Charlie had the feline version of IBD. Charlie was also the wonderful spokescat for the fundraiser and was completely adorable. You can even check him out and the post from last year's fundraiser here.


Now for the sad news. After the fundraiser, we kept in contact reading each other's blogs and such. Last Fall Debby posted up the sad news that Charlie had passed away due to complications with his illness. I was so sad on her behalf! I wrote my condolences and asked her if there was any way to donate money on Charlie's behalf for Crohn's & Colitis research. The research that they do for the human disease in turn helps the animal version too. We talked back and forth and Debby came up with the idea of my painting skeins of yarn in Charlie's honor to give out as prizes for this year's fundraiser. I thought it was an awesome idea! I have also added one little thing to it. I have dyed up some extra skeins of the Charlie colorway and I am going to sell them in my shop! I am donating 50% of every sale to the fundraiser! This yarn will be a limited edition run. I will dye up skeins for as long as the fundraiser is running (which is until Memorial day weekend) and then there will not be any more!


So how can you help? Well there are several ways that you can participate! You can buy a skein of exclusive Charlie yarn. You can donate to the fundraiser for any amount on She Knits by the Sea Shore. You can tell your friends and family all about it. Really anything you can do will be wonderful. You can read more about the fundraiser on Debby's blog too. She has much better details about the race and about her husband and Charlie.

Handspun!

You asked for it, you got it! I received a couple of emails from people that were a little disappointed that my handspun yarn was no longer available on the Knot Another Hat website. I believe that this was simply because they couldn't keep up with how quickly it would come in and go out. That and each skein is completely unique, which means that it is hard to track and keep up to date. Well, problem solved! I now am listing them in my Etsy shop!


I have only listed 4 skeins so far, but don't worry I will be at my wheel again soon to put more up. I listed up Strawberry Shortcake, Sea Turtle, Sugarplum Fairy, and Starry Night. They are all so pretty! I am sure that they will fairly fly right out of the shop.


Some of you may have already noticed that I am starting to carry handpainted roving in my shop. This is the second one that I have posted up, since the first one has already sold! It is in color Mountain Sunset and is so pretty! I have also added to the custom order form Superwash Merino Roving and Extrafine Merino Roving! Both of them are super soft and super fun to spin with! I am going to dye up more in the future for the shop. Though if you want a particular color you can custom order it now, instead of waiting!

I'm Back!

I was actually back to work filling orders yesterday! Though I totally slacked on updating the blog. My wisdom teeth are now gone, but I have some lovely bruises instead. The colors of which are quite pretty, if I try not to think about the fact that they are across one cheek! I have 2 classes tomorrow, so I am hoping that everyone will understand that I just got my wisdom teeth out. At least I have stopped looking so much like a chipmunk! Ok, onto knitting:

I finished the first Provence Mitt! It makes me very very happy. I still haven't decided between which set of mitts I like the best, but I do think that I am going to make the 2nd one of this set first. I'm just so glad that I got it done before class tomorrow. It is also weird looking at it in the photo, because the yarn doesn't stripe like that in real life when they are on my hands. I would have included a photo of it on my hand, but all of my acrobatics to get a good shot turned out really blurry! This pattern is my Girl Mitts pattern and is knit with my Superwash Sock yarn in color Provence.


I also got some work done on the Harvey Kimono. I actually have the first front piece done now too. It is turning out to be a really fast knit, which is very good in my mind. It is knit out of Inca Cotton in color Sage. I actually thought I would have more knitting done than this, but apparently pain killers aren't so good for knitting.

In other news: I have listed my electric ball winder up on ebay. I really wanted it to help my business go a little faster, but it turned out that it didn't work that way. This ball winder is really meant for home use. You know for people not winding up lbs of yarn daily, but for those just winding yarn for sweaters or socks. You know, normal things =). Anyway, check out my listing, it is a really handy tool for a normal knitter. Not to worry, though, I figured out a couple of other ways to make the process much faster, which works out much better for me!


Oh, and while I was out photographing the ball winder this little guy came scampering up to see what I was up to. I think he was actually annoyed with me for being outside on the deck at all. He likes to come up and eat bird seed from the container for our bird. He has figured out how to lift the lid on the seed container and stuffs himself quite well. I was actually surprised that he sat still long enough for me to get a picture of him!