Valencia Progress

I am almost to the sleeves on my Valencia! I am so proud! I love this sweater!


This is the front. I decided not to do the waist shaping, since it is so heavily ribbed. I really want to make sure it fits and this way it definitely will!


This is the cable up the back. I also love that since the yarn is my handpainted superwash worsted each ball is a tiny bit different. So the first one was very purple and the second one has a bit more blue in it. I like that it looks on purpose as it shifts in color.

I can't wait to get it all done and then try it on. I might even get a photo up here with me wearing it, instead of Maud. We'll see, I make no promises.

Summer Sky

Wow! This week has been a busy one. On top of the normal busyness my husband dropped that we might be traveling to Dublin, Ireland sometime this fall. So a slight panic happened as we both tried to figure out details like passports and such. I, of course, have been spending my time looking up things like yarn shops and good place to eat while over there. We won't have the final ok until next week, but I am still pretty excited about the possibility.

Ok, so onto shop news:

I have been able to put baby X into the baby bjorn and dye yarn. There are lots of new additions all over the shop, but I thought I would point this one out especially. This is the Tencel Sock Yarn in Summer Sky, which I knit the Birch Scarf out of a couple of months ago. I weighed the scarf and it came in at literally 2 grams under the weight of a regular skein, meaning that only one skein of this lovely yarn will make one lovely Birch scarf. You can find the pattern for sale in the shop here too.

I also have it dyed up just in time for Oregon Flock and Fiber! I will definitely be there with the lovely ladies from Gardiner Yarn Works. I am so looking forward to it!

4 Looms 4 Sale!

I am finally clearing out my looms! Funny how with opening a yarn dyeing business, taking up a lot more knitting, not to mention having a kid, means there is no time to weave any more. To give a little back story, in college my major was Fibers & Business. A great many of my Fibers classes were in weaving, so of course I had to have a loom of my own and more! These looms have followed me since college, and I think it is finally time to make room for other things. I have up them all up on ebay, with most of them having local delivery, I'll explain below. So here goes:

This beautiful loom is a Lillstina, which was made intentionally for rug weaving. It has all string heddles, which are super gentle on fibers of all kinds. I love that it is tough enough to weave a rug but gentle enough to weave a lace placemat as well. It has 8-shafts and is a table loom with legs. It can come apart in pieces for storage and transport. It and a variety of accessories are for sale here!


Next up is a 4-shaft table loom which belonged to my grandmother. I inherited it when she moved into a retirement home. I can't find a sticker on it anywhere naming what kind of brand or where she got it from, so it is a mystery to me. I do know she wove very nice table runners, scarves, and tapestries on it. It and a variety of accessories are available here!


This was also my grandmother's and I also inherited it when she moved into her retirement home. I actually never learned to weave on an inkle loom. I remember my grandmother trying to show me, but I think I only made a mess of it. I know there are plenty of resources online for how to use one, so if someone had the time I'm sure it would be easy enough to figure out. It also includes a shuttle and hand beater. It is also the only loom I'm willing to ship, because of its compact size. It is for sale here!


Lastly this is a handmade tapestry loom. My grandmother was part of a local weaving guild and they did all sorts of interesting projects. One of them was to make their own tapestry looms. I think my grandmother didn't make one because she already had the table loom. One of her friends did make one. Though she passed away 10+ years ago, when I inherited it. I haven't done any weaving on it. The weaving there is the original it came with. It is very sturdy and well made. It comes with a shuttle which makes the shed for the weaving. Pretty cool overall. It is for sale here.

Dishwasher

So, keeping with the theme of home improvements, we got a new dishwasher!


Not exactly a planned expense, but a necessary one. As my husband put it, we had just settled on getting a new washer & dryer when the dishwasher thought otherwise. Blair was doing dishes on Saturday and realized that the load from the night before hadn't run. He thought at first that maybe the timer hadn't worked, so he started it again. It sounded kinda weird. We could hear the pump, but not any water swishing around. He checked and sure enough, no water. We aren't entirely sure what went wrong with it, but since we had already spent money on a new part for it before, we decided its time had come. So I got onto Consumer Reports (which is worth every penny) and did research while Blair made breakfast. We called up Sears and ordered a new one that needed to be picked up in Portland. We called up my parents, who thankfully were willing to come and help us! Yay!

Oh, and when we went to take the old dishwasher out we learned that it wasn't properly grounded. Let's just say water + electricity = bad. My dad is an electrician, so thankfully the new one is now properly installed. The new one is in the photo above. We love it! It is a Kenmore 1374, just in case you are in the market for a new dishwasher. It's much quieter than our old one and has all the nifty features to keep my techie husband happy. Overall we are much much happier with the upgrade to our kitchen!

Shelves

This weekend we spent some time on a home improvement project:


Blair did most of the work, while I handed him things and carried the baby in the baby bjorn. I am just so proud of these shelves. Neither one of us are super handy, so this was a big accomplishment!