The Floor is here!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I know I enjoyed mine! It was a little sad in places without my little brother. Sort of like something was missing that should have been there. Still I felt that he must have been there in spirit watching over and laughing with all of the festivities.


I received some very nice gifts this year. The very best was the floor for my new studio. My parents offered to pay for my brand new pergo floor as my Christmas gift. I am absolutely thrilled! Before this there was beige carpet, which works well throughout the rest of the house, but not so much in a dye studio. Now I just need to get all of the yarn and dye moved over here and I should be back in business dyeing up a storm! I have some great ideas for some new colorways for the new year. I can't wait to share them with you guys!

Super Natural Stripes

I finished my first sweater for the baby. I really didn't think it would take this long. I'll be 6 months along on Christmas! I have been working on some other super secret projects, which I can't reveal quite yet, maybe sometime in January...

So the baby sweater I completed is called Super Natural stripes (rav link). The pattern is free online. The yarn called for is Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton, but I substituted Inca Cotton instead. The green is actually a color that the manufacturer can no longer get because of severe loss of the green cotton plants. I really wish they could, because it is my favorite organic cotton color. Luckily I had one magic ball left in my stash which I was saving for a special project. I think this qualifies! I have just enough leftover to make a striped hat to match! I think it would also be really cute and knit out of Ur, with contrasting Desert and Ecru. I might just have to make one up in those colors, since it was such a fun sweater to knit!


Here is a close up of the button. I found it at the Button Emporium in downtown Portland. I just love going in there. I really love the natural wood with the natural cotton. The oak leaves just add something super special to it too. Overall I love this sweater and would definitely knit it again!

Also on the needles and slowly coming along is this set of baby overalls. I started them before I officially knew I was going to have a boy. The pattern is Hermine from Dale of Norway Soft Treasures for Little Ones book. The book is currently out of print, but sometimes they reprint the same patterns in newer books, so make sure to keep an eye out for it if you want it. I have learned the hard way that when I see a DoN pattern I like to grab it before it is gone! The yarn is Dale of Norway baby Ull in Color #2203 yellow and #9436 Olive.

Early Christmas

I am so blessed by all of my great friends and family. Here is a little proof of how awesome they are:

First up the lovely ladies of Knot Another Hat put together a little yarn package for me. Included was 3 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca's Organic Cotton (the blue yarn in the back), a pattern to go with it, and then a skein of Cashmere 5 yarn (the purple in the front). It all came with a lovely note explaining how I can think of my brother while I knit pretty new things for my new little one to come. I really believe that we put happy thoughts into our projects as we knit them, so I totally plan on doing that as I make my baby little sweaters.

So, what of the red ornament kit to the side? Well, Knot Another Hat also had their December Knit Night with gifts for everyone. I received the lovely ornament kit. It is just perfect, because for next Christmas I am planning a soft baby friendly Christmas tree. This is one of the many reasons why I love and support my local yarn shop!

Next early Christmas present is from my husband! He got a brand new phone, so I got his old one! He also signed me up for a data plan. So now I can check my mail on the go, which means staying connected with LavenderSheep no matter where I am! I'm still getting used to all of the new features, but so far it has been a whole lot of fun! The phone is the G1 Android phone, in case you were curious.

Lastly I will leave you with a picture that makes me smile! This is Blair with his wild winter hair! We had a few dry days in there and his fro puffed up extra huge. He also won't let me cut it because he doesn't want his head to be cold, so for now the wild hair stays!

Wool Single

New yarn! Well, actually I have had it around for awhile. I just recently discovered that it hadn't made it up on the site yet. Ooops!


So, I put it up! This was actually some fun I was having this last fall with kettle dyeing and some lovely wool singles I acquired. I think it will be a permanent fixture in the LavenderSheep line. I just love this yarn so much. It's your standard worsted weight wool single, dyed up in subtle kettle dyed shades. Make sure to check them all out!

500 and a Tree Hunt

Of all things, I noticed that this is my 500th post! I tried to think up something really cool for my 500th, but my mind went totally blank. Maybe I'll do something extra special for my blogiversary next month. So, instead how about we have some pretty pictures from our tree hunt today? Yay!

Blair found the perfect tree right off the bat! It was awesome! We just started looking around when we found a tree that somebody else had cut down earlier and discarded. This isn't exactly smiled upon in the tree hunting rules, but it happens. The tree looked just fine to us, only a little tall. So we trimmed a bit off the bottom and adopted it as our own!

Soon, my parents found a good tree. They are far more picky about things like symmetry and spacing of branches than we are. Their trees are always beautiful, while ours have a little more character. You can view our trees from 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Molly had a lot of fun wandering around exploring everything. My mom made her a couple of polar fleece jackets, which she just loves during the cold weather months.


Lastly, we need some knitting content! I posted awhile ago that I had knit a Neckwarmer for Blair. Well, I finally got a picture of him wearing it! It kept his nose and chin very warm. He kept moving it between warming his neck and warming his nose. I might take it back out and make it long enough to cover his neck and face, but I'll have to get his final word on it before I decide. Most of the time he folds it over on his neck because he doesn't like it too long.

One last note: I received a message from my website without a return email address. It was as follows:

i would like to order roving for my niece who has just started spinning. could you tell me what quantity of roving to buy, to make leg warmers for a teenager

To answer, I would say 4 oz would probably be enough, but mileage may vary. As in depending on how fine the fiber is spun into yarn will determine how much of it there is to knit. If it is spun at a bulky weight probably more like 6-8oz, whereas there would definitely be more than enough yarn with 4oz of sock weight yarn.

Hopefully, this message gets back to whoever left it on the website. Also, any added advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Happy December!

Well at least, hopefully, calmer than last month! I think I can live with less of the ups if it means less of the downs as well. My family is holding up well. Thankfully my little brother was always an upbeat kind of guy. Even when he was upset it was easy to get him laughing again. So there are plenty of happy memories to think about and not all sad and tears. I'll probably share more as time goes on, especially around Christmas time, which was one of his favorite holidays.

Ok, back to normal, or at least semi-normal.


Last year I ran a sale for Free Shipping ANYWHERE in the world, so that is what I am going to do again this year for the month of December! Check out the shop for more details!

Also, a big THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my brother's passing. Your words have meant more to me and my family than you can ever imagine. We are truly grateful. We hope everyone out there stays happy and healthy this holiday season!

Rest in Peace, Little Brother

I am sad to say that my little brother passed away early this morning.


He was the sunshine of my family. Always cheerful to everyone he met. I am still in shock that he has gone so suddenly. He will be missed so terribly!

Giving Thanks

This year has been filled with many changes and surprises. So many of them have been so good and I am so happy and thankful for them all!

Definitely the baby and the new house are near the top of my list for things to be thankful for. The baby is doing well and kicking everyday. Moving into our new house is going along. Maybe not entirely smoothly, but we are here in our new home with most of the essential things that make a home a home.

Most of all I am thankful for my husband. He has picked up whatever slack there has been. He has been on the ball through everything. He has even made sure I haven't picked up boxes that are too heavy for me and has been super patient when I was too tired to keep working. I don't know how I could do it without him by my side.

So even though this year my family came down with the flu and we are unable to celebrate the holiday with them, I am really happy that I can spend it with my husband. Our first, and hopefully only, Thanksgiving where it will be just the two of us in our brand new home!

I hope everyone out there is doing well and keeping well! Happy Thanksgiving!

Exciting November News, part 2

So you guys already know that I am going to have a baby in March and it will be a little boy! We are very excited about this. Well, on top of that LavenderSheep is moving to a new location!!! We found a beautiful house in Cascade Locks where there will be room for us, our new baby, and studio space for dyeing and other crafts!!! That last one was an absolute must for me!

The house has 4 bedrooms, so I am going to convert one into a dye studio. The house has beige carpet in all of the bedrooms. Somehow I don't think it will mix well with dyeing yarn, unless I want a technicolor rainbow for a floor. So as soon as we move in I am going to get linoleum instead. So what does this mean for the online shop? Well, hopefully you guys won't even see a difference. We don't have to move immediately from where we currently live, so the shop inventory will stay here until we can safely move it to its new home. Also, since we are only about 20 minutes away I can easily fill orders even as we are moving everything else. I'll be back and forth between the 2 places for awhile anyway. I just can't wait to have my new studio and share brand new photos for it! Cascade Locks is also a very beautiful place. I can't wait to share photos of it too!

There will also be a few other positive changes with the move, so stay tuned to hear more about them!

Blair's Neckwarmer

So maybe I am managing a thing or two that isn't baby knitting. The other day I thought my husband looked cold, so I did a little stash diving and came up with a skein of Shibui Knits Baby Alpaca DK in Midnight. I originally bought this skein for him last spring at the shop hop with the idea that I would knit him a scarf. However, I think cowls and neckwarmers are way more awesome!

So I poked around on ravelry looking for a good manly pattern. Finally after much consultation with the man in question I finally decided upon the Darkside Cowl, which is a free download on Ravelry. You guys might remember that I knit one for myself last January out of some bulky tweed yarn. I really love the pattern! The only thing I modified from the original pattern is I added an additional repeat. This is because the baby alpaca yarn is DK weight instead of the worsted weight the pattern calls for. I also went down to a size #6US so it wouldn't be too lacy looking. Needless to say he loves it! I just couldn't manage a picture of him wearing it because it's too dark out when he gets home from work. Thank goodness Ms Lavender was willing to step up and be a model!

I definitely recommend this pattern for some quick holiday knitting. It only took me a couple of days to finish it off. Now Blair should be warm all winter long!