Dye Party v2.0

That's right, two dye workshops in two weeks! I must say that the first one definitely made the second one run much more smoothly. I had everything ready and didn't forget a single thing!

Here are some of the ladies applying dye to their yarn! The ladies took it in turns between snacking on hors d'oeuvres, drinking wine & raspberry lemonade, and dyeing yarn.


Here is one of the skeins of yarn all ready to go into the dye pot. I like to call these cinnamon rolls because the yarn is wrapped and then rolled like this to steam. The steaming is the last step and it sets the dye.

Here are most of the skeins sitting ready in the steamer pot. The ladies came up with some really pretty yarns! I did take some photos of everyone's skeins laying out to dry, but it was too dark to get really good shots. Most of them are blurry. We finished up a little after 8pm, so it was pretty dusky out.

Don't forget: August is almost over and the special sale on Silky Worsted will end! I have something special planned for September, so stay tuned!

Dye Party v1.0

It seems to be dye party central here! I had a dye party last Tuesday with my fabulous knit group in Stevenson.


Here is a group of them and some of the yarn they had dyed. It was raining out so the lighting wasn't the best. Still it was lots of fun! It is so interesting to me the different colors that each person dyes up. Everything turned out so pretty!

The dye party was held at Teri's house. She is an amazing knitter! She knit up all of these socks from handpainted yarn! She thought it would be inspirational to have them all hanging up while we dyed yarn. If you look closely the 3rd and 4th pairs of socks from the right hand side are knit from my yarn! How cool is that?! I just had to snap a photo of the whole line! On top of the dye party we had a potluck dinner. Those ladies can cook! Everything was amazing. Though the very top was Teri's homemade lemon meringue pie. So lots of good food and good company! I have another dye party tonight with the wonderful ladies of Knot Another Hat. Hopefully the weather will stay nice and I can get some good photos.


In other news: Take a look at what I got! That is nearly 50lbs of yarn all destined for the Knit/Purl Sock Club! I can't say much more than I am really excited. I also got a sneak peek at some of the Koigu for the club. Let me say it is totally gorgeous. Also if you want a sneak peek of the colorway I am dyeing check out this post on the Knit/Purl blog!

Escape to the Coast

This last week it was 106F out here! This is just insane! Of course the weather has changed to rainy and around 65F, practically overnight! That's 40F degrees difference! Anyway, to escape the hot weather Blair and I headed to the coast.


We started out by going to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We had lunch there and the required ice cream cones. It was really good, even though the lines were really long everywhere! We finally got through them all and decided to head north. Please note that the sky is pretty and blue here!
We stopped by the side of the road about 10 miles north to snap a couple of photos. I just think the Oregon Coast is so pretty! I love it! You can start to see the mist/fog rolling inland. We kept heading north and decided we would walk a bit on the beach.


It was really misty out! If you click on the photo you can see the bits of mist accumulating on Blair's hair and eyelashes. It was so cool. We kept giggling at one another and the mist. We couldn't see more than about 20-30 feet. There weren't that many people on the beach either. So we felt like we were all alone in the mist. It was magical! I told Blair that we would keep walking and end up in Avalon on the other side.


We walked around barefoot on the sand, daring one another to walk in the frigid ocean water. It was just a hoot! The tide was either just about all the way in or just going out. We forgot to get a tide time table to find out. We decided we would keep going North on our adventure.


We ended up to Astoria, which wasn't more than 20-30 miles north from the beach we walked on. It was back to being sunny again. Still the weather wasn't more than 75 the whole day. It was the perfect break from all of the heat inland. We think we might need to make another trip sometime this fall in the off-season.

I should have a post about knitting in a couple of days. It has been cloudy and rainy this week, so I am waiting for the sun to take some more photos. I will have a post up about dye parties and such from the dye party I taught last night. Until then, I hope everyone is doing well and staying cool from the heat or dry from the rain!

And Now for Something Completely Different...

I know all summer I have pretty much been only knitting for my OFFF Booth. So I thought I would start a different sort of project:

One of our friend's sons is turning 3 in September. The father is part of our D&D group. He loves to paint miniatures and really gets into his character. I thought that a totally awesome thing to make for his son is a set of miniatures. I am going to make a knight, a monk, a princess, a wizard, a gnome fairy, and an orc barbarian. I figure that a good way to stimulate imagination is by having characters to make up stories about.


Here is my first guy almost finished. He is the Black Knight. I am knitting him out of some leftover black sock yarn that I dyed up. Actually this project is great for using up scraps of yarn. I am combining the yarn with a gold thread to make him look a bit shiny. What I like is that he is turning out pretty soft and squishy, but still bendy and posable. I am using Jan Messent's Knit a Fantasy Story as a starting point for the figures. Then I am making up the knitting as I go. I really hope that each character will get a little easier as I go along.

Silky Single Seeded Rib Mitts

I started a new project!



I whipped out this one mitt in no time at all! They are the Seeded Rib Wristwarmers Pattern by Chrissy Gardiner. I knit them out of my Silky Singles yarn in color Child's Play. I just love how soft and squishy this yarn is! It is just a joy to wear these mitts! Of course I only have one done so far. I am sure that I will have to finish a pair. They also would make a great quick gift. They are knit on 9s, so the simply fly off the needles! I dyed up a bunch of silky single yarn. This mitt weighs 22 grams, so that means that one skein of yarn makes 4-5 mitts. That's two pairs! It could also make a pair of mitts and a matching hat. These mitts are sized for both men and women! So many options!

Roving Along!

I have lots and lots of roving now available in the shop!


The first lot is my set of One-of-a-Kind roving! It is different fibers that I have picked up here and there and have dyed for your enjoyment! There is corriedale wool, alpaca, and a few blends. It is definitely worth checking out! Each fiber is labeled and priced individually.


The second lot is a set of superwash roving. It is really soft and squishy. It would be perfect for spinning your own sock yarn or making baby items. Pretty much anything you need a washable yarn for this roving would work. I just love how soft and fluffy it turned out!

The colors in both lots are vibrant and beautiful. Make sure to check them all out!

The Real August 1st

Ok, so today is actually August 1st! I feel that somehow I have magically gained a week. Though, not for long! August is so close to September and September means The Knit & Crochet Show and Oregon Flock & Fiber!!! So much yarn to dye, so little time! Speaking of yarn, the sale through August is definitely now in effect!


On top of that, with my extra week, I was able to finish one more thing to add to the sale: a free pattern to go with the Silky Worsted! I finished my entrelac scarf out of this amazing yarn! I only used two skeins of Silky Worsted in Color California Poppy! This made a scarf 92 inches long and 8 inches wide! It wraps a couple of times around my neck. It is so comfy and soft I want to wrap it around my neck right now! I love it!


This is how much yarn I had left over from the two skeins! I just love using as much of a skein of yarn as possible and that definitely happened with this yarn and pattern. That is the entire thing knit with the fancy single crochet border. Though if you wanted a shorter scarf you could always use the extra to make a matching hat or a pair of mitts!

I wrote this pattern specifically for this yarn. I added a few modifications to my earlier entrelac pattern, so that it is more compatible with this yarn! Now I need to pack it away safely for Oregon Flock and Fiber, where it will be on display. Though if we actually get some of the rain that the clouds outside keep threatening, then it might just get some use before then!

Ok, silly me!

Ok, so I am confused! I somehow lost a week! I thought it was the 1st today instead of the 25th. My husband just informed me! Still, the sale stands through the month of August. I think I am going to go take a nap before I lose/gain any more time!

Sale!

It is the beginning of a new month, so that means a new yarn of the month is on sale in my shop!


I decided to go with the Silky Worsted yarn! It is the same yarn that I am using for my entrelac scarf. I am nearly done with the pattern and then it will be available for free with a purchase of 2 skeins of the Silky Worsted Yarn. In fact I am just waiting on finishing the scarf so that I can take photos for the pattern. Though if you want to buy your yarn now, before it is all gone, I will send you the pattern as soon as it is ready!


Another big sale thing is I have been adding new items at ridiculously low prices to the Sale! page of the website. I am adding new items there all the time, so make sure you take the time to visit it! You never know what you might find there!

Lastly there is one other special on the site that I have yet to advertise and it has to do with shipping:

• If you are in the US or Canada then there is free shipping when you purchase 4 or more items!
• If you are anywhere else in the world then there is free shipping when you purchase 6 or more items!
• If you are local then local pickup is always free on any number of items.
  
• Patterns always have free shipping anywhere in the world!

I hope that everybody has a great weekend and that you will all enjoy these sales and specials!

Urban Camping

So, we didn't quite make it camping this weekend. We were both tired and it was like 1pm and we still weren't packed up. So I called my mom instead and we took our supplies over to my parents and had a bbq instead. I even took pictures, but for some reason the camera has decided to hide from us. We know it is somewhere between my parents house and ours, so I know we will find it eventually. The big thing that made it urban camping is that we experimented with roasting marshmallows over the bbq. With all of the fires happening around here there is a fire ban, so we don't think that we could even have had a campfire. Which isn't that the whole point of going camping? Anyway, the bbq worked pretty well to roast marshmallows. A few of them even instantaneously ignited without ever touching the flame. Luckily those are my favorite kind!

Since I can't share with you our outdoor adventure photos, I'll share a couple of projects that I just finished up!

First up is another baby sock for my OFFF booth! This one is out of my Tencel yarn. I just have a silky sock left to knit and then I will have a full set of all of my sock yarns knit up! I really love how the Tencel knits up. It is a little shiny and very soft. I know that any baby foot would love to have a pair of these socks, not to mention those of the adult variety.


My other project I finished up is this pair of girl mitts! I just love them! I have been procrastinating on finishing them. For the last 2 months the only thing they needed was the fingers. I finished them in about an hour. Which is definitely a tsk tsk to me! The pattern is my Girl Mitts pattern and the yarn is my Superwash Sock yarn in Color Provence. I can definitely see myself wearing them this fall. One of these lucky mitts will also be on display at my OFFF booth.

Website news: I have added a couple of new things to the site. I have changed the yarn page so that yarns that are available have a color picture and ones that are sold have an undyed picture. So fitting I think! I have also added a couple of items to the sale page. I should be adding stuff everyday, so keep a look out for new things!