Sew - Sew!

I wanted to share some finished objects, just they are sewn objects!


Up first is a little eye mask for my husband. He doesn't like it this time of year because the sun comes right in our window and wakes him up too early. So I promised to make him an eye mask to block out the sun. My only trouble is that I didn't have any wide elastic on hand. So I thought about it and boxers have wide elastic! He has a few pairs that he wasn't going to ever wear again. This particular pair I bought him while we were going to school at UO (Go ducks!). I think they are awesome! I took them apart and was surprised to find that the elastic on the inside was superman! So, I put it all together with a bit of organic cotton batting and it works perfectly! It is super soft and keeps out all but the brightest light!

My other sew-sew project is a crayon & coloring book bag (pdf). I saw one of these on another blog and thought that it would be perfect. A friend's daughter is turning 6 in June. Her favorite color is purple (which I can totally relate to). It was a really quick and easy project to do. I don't even sew all that much, but the directions were really easy to follow. It also only needs 3 fat quarters to make it, though I used fabric from my stash. My only complaint is that the pattern itself doesn't have a picture of a finished example. I only knew what it looked like from seeing one online. Though now that you have seen one, you can make one too!

My other so-so news is that my husband will be travelling to North Carolina over the next couple of weeks for work. This includes my birthday! However he is going to make it up to me in a yarnie sort of way, so all is good. Though if any of you guys have any insight into the area around Lenoir or Hickory, NC, please let me know!

This does mean that there will be a slight delay to getting my website up. We have been bustling around here trying to get everything together for his departure. I am still working on it and yarn orders. They are just in between making packing lists and mapping the nearest yarn stores! However it should give me a little more time to give you some little sneak peaks into some of the new yarns I am dyeing!

Knitting at the Sea Shore

First up the last skein of Charlie yarn has been raffled off by Debby of She Knits by the Seashore! The last skein of the yarn will be dyed up this week by me. Overall you guys raised $110 by buying yarn through me! Debby has so far raised a total of $1668 for Get Your Guts in Gear! You can still donate to Chris's ride anytime! He starts the race on June 6, which also happens to be my birthday. How cool is that? Debby has promised to blog about the race on her blog as it happens. I'm pretty excited to see how it all goes!

My other exciting Sea Shore related news is that there is a new yarn shop carrying my yarn! Yarn for All Seasons is located in Newport, Oregon, which is along the Oregon Coast! I am so excited! I think some time this summer I will have to pack up my knitting and go visit them! So, if you find yourself in Newport, make sure to go and check out their shop!

Another site, which is now carrying my patterns is Crafted Online. It is a brand new site that offers online patterns and classes on a variety of craft topics, including knitting and crochet. I think they have some very interesting ideas, so make sure to check them out as well!

And the Winner is...

#3 & #4 posts from the random number generator! Which are Teri and Davy Stevenson. I believe that both of you already have my email address. You have won a skein of my new sock yarn with the higher twist in the colorway of your choice! Just let me know what colorway you would like and I will dye it up for you! A big thank you to everyone who commented it was a lot of help!

I have now wound the new yarn into skeins and it is a tiny bit heavier than my old sock yarn. It ended up being 460 yards for 105 grams. I just love this yarn! I think it will take the dye quite well. Though I have decided that the new skeins will be released on the new website! Actually I have quite a few new things that I am going to put on the new site!

I have decided from your comments that I will close my etsy shop slowly. I will let the yarn that is already posted there either sell or expire. As soon as I have the new site up I will post an announcement on my etsy shop so that people will see it and hopefully transition well.

I am really excited about the new site! I have a couple of new yarns I want to introduce and some new ideas. Now the question is would you guys like me to save all the new changes for when the site goes live? or would you like to see some sneak previews?


I will leave you with this stealth photo that I took of a squirrel outside my window. Actually there were 2 of them, but the other one was much more skiddish! This one was completely brave and let me snap away at photos. There was a lid on the container, but it doesn't always snap shut on the back side, so they can get it off. Though this morning they completely knocked over the container and the bird's cage. My birdie is still alright. I just have to go and sweep the rest of the bird seed off the porch! I still haven't decided whether squirrels are cute or complete pests!

Moving up!

Actually today's post is mostly announcements and a few questions for you guys. I am working on a couple of ideas and I really need your opinions.

Ok, big news #1: I am going to launch a new shop on my website! Of course it is a complete work in progress at the moment. My goal is to get it all up and launched by June. Of course, ideally this would be June 1st, but we shall see! I love my etsy shop, but I feel like I have grown out of it. The new website will let me have more categories, offer specials much more easily, accept credit cards, and whole bunch of things that I am discovering as I work on it. So the question for you guys is what do you think I should do with my etsy shop? Should I close it and just leave a message saying that I moved? Should I slowly move items over onto the new site as they expire? Should I just have one-offs or specials over there? I have been debating this for a bit and would love to know what you guys think!

The other news that I think I have mentioned already is the change over to a new base sock yarn. I personally love the sock base that I have been using because it is lightweight and makes for a lighter sock. I am very gentle on my socks and I have never had a problem with holes or anything else with any sock yarn, including my own. However, I have heard from a couple of people that wear their socks pretty hard that they have worn holes in their socks. I have also seen a lot of people making scarves and other things out of my sock yarn so that they don't wear out the pretty yarn. So I have decided to switch to a new sock yarn that is still 100% superwash, still just as light, but has a much higher twist. This added twist should make the yarn sturdier and able to withstand more wear as socks. Now the question is should I keep the old sock yarn or should I just replace it completely with the new sock yarn? The new yarn is virtually the same only with a higher twist and maybe a little less yardage.

This brings me to one final announcement. Actually it brings me to why I am asking about the yarn. I had originally planned that I would just replace my sock yarn as soon as what I had on hand was gone. So I dyed up one last skein of Charlie Sock yarn for the cause. Well that one skein sold and I am now worried that there are still people that want this yarn and want donations to be sent to Get Your Guts in Gear. So, here's the deal: I'm not sure what I am going to decide about the sock yarn quite yet. I want to hear what you guys think. However, if you would like to have a skein of Charlie yarn I have decided to open it up to preorders. As in if you want a skein of this awesome, limited edition yarn, leave a comment with your email address or email me at lavendersheep (at) gmail (dot) com by June 1st. I will send you a paypal invoice for the yarn, which you then pay. I will donate 50%, as promised, to Get Your Guts in Gear on Chris's behalf, before he races. Then I will order all the yarn after June 1st and then send the skeins out to you guys as soon as they are dyed. This way everyone that wants a skein can get one and the money will get to Chris and Get Your Guts in Gear! A big thank you to everyone that has already bought a skein of yarn!

Oh, and as a last note, there might be a yarn type prize if you leave me a comment and help me out! Thank you!

Mother's Day!

I think today is another quick post. I just wanted to share with you guys what I got for my mother for mother's day:


Isn't it adorable? It is a Lawn Ohm. He is a meditating lawn gnome, which makes me smile every time I look at him. He was made by a local artist in Portland who casts each one out of cement. I just knew that my mother would love him and find a good spot for him. I bought him from my friend Susan, who is a member of my knit group. She has an awesome website called Simple Family Living which sells natural and organic products, which includes organic yarn! She hasn't put the Lawn Ohm's up yet, because they are cement and shipping costs could get a bit high. Still I think they are really awesome and reasonably priced. If you want one, I am sure that you can message Susan directly through her site.

As long as I am promoting my friends, I thought that I would mention my friend Amy's new photography site. I have been helping her out a little to figure out business cards and such. She is an amazing photographer! She has an incredible ability to capture candid shots. Make sure to look through some of the wedding photos she has taken. If you are in the area and need a good photographer, make sure to check her out!

Sock Club!

Just a quick post today. I have been dyeing yarn like crazy for a new customer, which I will announce as soon as the yarn is shipped off to them. It has been a busy week and has gone by too fast. I will hopefully have a post up about my knitting projects soon. Maybe even some sewing projects...

Anyway, back to what I really want to tell you guys all about: I have been asked to be a part of the Northwest/Portland themed sock club for Knit/Purl! I have been working back and forth with them to design the perfect colorway. Of course I can't tell you what it is, but I can tell you that I am super excited about it! The sock club runs for 1 year, every other month and it even has a local pick up option for those of you in the Portland area. Make sure to check it out!

TKG Shop Hop

On Saturday I went on the Tigard Knitting Guild's Shop Hop! I had a lot of fun and got a lot of loot and photos:
Here is the wonderful bus to take us on our journey! The guy on the left was our wonderful driver Marv!
First off we each received a beautiful basket from Lantern Moon. It was filled with some nice things, like a bag from Woolgirl, crochet hooks from Abundant Yarn, and donations from many other shops.


This is what it looked like in most of the shops. This is actually The Naked Sheep. We also visited Tangle Knitting Studio, Wool n Wares, Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks, Close Knit and Twisted. All of the shops were really cool and definitely worth visiting if you are in the area.

We stopped for lunch at Abundant Yarn. They had really tasty sandwiches! I can see myself eating lunch there again sometime. They also had a ton of yarn and really helpful people. I also knew a few people on the trip! As you can see there is Donna and Chrissy. Donna is the wonderful President of the TKG and one of the main organizers of the whole event! If you look really closely you can also see Katrina holding the bottle of orange soda. Also along on the trip that I didn't manage to photograph were Amanda, who sat next to me on the bus, and Tammy with her daughter Kim. It was so awesome to see all of these people and catch up with them in person!

Ok, now for the good stuff! The yarn! I really didn't get that much or at least I feel that way! Some of the ladies on the trip had lists of projects. I saw one lady with a spreadsheet of projects with a list competitive yarn prices and everything. I got a few things that I really really liked and made some mental notes of where to go when I need something in the future. Pictured above from left to right is Cascade Superwash Paints (so many colors I could hardly choose), Alpaca Sox (for my hubby for driving me that early in the morning), Meilenweit Mega Boot Stretch (just for me!), and 3 balls of Noro Kureyon (because most projects require 3 balls). I tried to pick yarn that I couldn't get locally or I thought was interesting. I am looking forward to making those alpaca socks for my husband, though I probably won't have to get them done until it is cold outside again!

I did also find some really neat patterns. I really love to collect baby patterns and when I saw these I had to have them! I actually saw these same baby booty patterns online this last week. You can buy them directly from the designer in her etsy shop! I definitely will have to make up a few pairs of these!

During the trip everybody got at least one raffle prize! There were 55 prizes donated, 2 of them donated by me! There were awesome things ranging from balls of yarn to a lifetime supply of Kookaburra Woolwash! The raffle I got was this really cool bag with a ball of Berrocco Sox and a notepad. It was donated by Molehill Farms. The TKG also includes a thank you card with every raffle prize so all I have to do is write them a nice note, add a stamp, and send it off!


Lastly, as if everything else wasn't enough, we got these really cool bags from Namaste! They donated enough for everyone on the trip to get one! They open at the top and bottom with a divider in the middle, which means double the projects! I actually got mine a teensy bit early because I had Blair meet me at Twisted so he wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Lake Oswego to pick me up. While I was out having fun he hit the lego store and Powells. He said he had a good day too!

I had a lot of fun on this trip! I think I will definitely go again next year, only I will be much more prepared! I did have a lot of fun visiting shops I had never visited before. I will definitely have to give a full report to my knitting group this next week!

5 Facts

I was tagged by Carolyn of Yarn Therapy for this meme:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Fact #1: I played the violin from 4th grade to 7th grade. I don't think I was very good, but I enjoyed it and met some of the neatest people.

Fact#2: I very nearly became an accountant. In fact I was only 3 classes short from becoming one when I graduated from college. I loved the classes, but I decided that there was too much stress involved. So instead I changed my major to Business with a focus in Accounting for Entrepreneurs with a double major in Art with a focus in Fibers (Textiles).

Fact#3: I recently bought a new pair of shoes. I bought my last pair of shoes 4 years ago. I'm not a fan of shoe shopping at all.

Fact#4: The number 6 is my favorite number and also my lucky number.

Fact#5: My favorite food is Halibut fish and chips. I look forward to going to Black Sheep Gathering every year in Eugene so I can stop by Newman's for their awesome fish & chips.

If you read this and think it is interesting, consider yourself tagged!