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!

Valencia KAL

So, I have been doing some knitting, in between contacting instructors for the CGFF, putting together promotional items for Chrissy's CSK, and taking care of a 4 1/2 month old who is starting to teeth. Ah, life is exciting. Anyway, on to the knitting!

I started with recovering the yarn from this sweater. I wasn't happy with the sweater from about the time I knit it. I mistakenly knit the wrong size. Also I tried switching yarn back and forth to avoid pooling or stripes with my handpainted yarn. It didn't end up pooling, but it did end up making this line where I switched balls of yarn, right down the front of it, which drove me a little crazy. So, what's the point in owning a sweater you are never going to wear? Well, my solution is to rip it and start over with the yarn! The yarn is my Superwash Worsted in color Sugarplum Fairy.

I decided I wanted to knit the new sweater by Gardiner Yarn Works, called Valencia. Which always reminds me of the song by the same name by the Decemberists. This is the back of the sweater.


This is the front of the sweater. This is one repeat of the cable pattern. At this point I put it on very long needles and tried it on. I found it was too small, so ripped out and tried again. The trick with this sweater is it has a lot of negative ease so it will be form fitting. I somehow lied to myself and thought the second to the last size would somehow magically fit with 10+ inches of negative ease, even though the pattern very distinctly shows it being worn at 8 inches. Silly me, so I ripped this one and knit the largest size, which has about 6 inches of negative ease. I am actually past this point on the second try. This top knits up so fast and so far has been a lot of fun! I just haven't quite had time to photograph it.

Anyway, at this point I came across a couple of other people on the Gardiner Yarn Works group on Ravelry who wanted to have a knit-a-long for the sweater. So I have decided to join them since I'm already knitting it myself. Chrissy even pops in occasionally to answer questions and give advice. So if you want to knit one too, make sure to check out the group on Ravelry. I am sure I'm going to learn a lot while knitting this one!

Plover Shawl Pins

I wanted to share these new Shawl Pins by Plover Designs:

Each one has a completely unique glass bead in the center, making each one a one-of-a-kind piece of art! I had a hard time deciding, but I picked out 2 copper pins and 2 aluminum for the shop! Check them out before they are gone!

CGFF

I have been very busy lately and here is why! I'v been doing a lot of the background work to put this little festival together! I am so excited to say that I now have a website up and a ravelry group! So if you are interested in being a teacher, a vendor, a student, or just adding your input, make sure to check them both out! The festival will be April 16th & 17th, 2011!

Inca Hat

Here is the second hat I knit for my little guy:


This was a really fun knit. I'm calling this the Inca Hat (rav link) because it is made from Organic Inca Cotton. The brim is Ur and the main part is Desert. The pattern is Fiber Trends Becca Joe's Cap. In the picture for the pattern it totally looks like a girls hat, including a big flower for the brim. I just knit it plain and, of course, left out the big flower. I think it is simply adorable and perfect for keeping the sun out of my baby's eyes.

Whale of a Hat!

Ok, I have a few minutes to breath and write a blog post! 4th of July was awesome! It's our first in our new home, so I wasn't sure how it would go. It was great! I already have plans for next year. X was awesome too. He slept right through the big booming fireworks and barely fussed during the whole day!


Anyway, now that the 4th is over and I have mostly recovered from Black Sheep, I can get caught up on my knitting on here. I made this hat for X (rav link) because it was near impossible to find him a sun hat. I used the leftover Tencel Sock Yarn in Summer Sky (from my Birch Scarf) doubled to make this hat. I really like this trick. If you have lots of sock yarn you can double it and substitute it for worsted weight yarn, which is perfect for a quick baby hat! The pattern is FiberTrends Whales & Sails hat. As you can see it is a bit big on him, but that means he can grow into it over the summer. I plan on making him the Sails hat for next summer. I also made him another hat I'll show you soon and finally found one at Old Navy. So he will have lots of options over the summer!

Happy July!

June is such a busy month, I nearly forgot about July's special. However, I did remember! No amount of post-BSG inventory, my wedding anniversary, or plans for a 4th of July bbq could stand in the way! ha ha!


Anyway, onto July's Special! I want to introduce these wonderful New! Infinity Stitch Markers made by my good friend Donna's husband Colin Boyce of Plover Designs. Donna shared the booth with me at Black Sheep, representing both Gardiner Yarn Works and Plover Designs. She got me totally hooked on these new stitch markers.

Want to know what's so special about them? Well, they are duel purpose! One side fits needles up to size 7US and the other side fits needles up to size 10US. How cool is that? I just love them! They come in a wide variety of colors. The ones I got for the shop are black, blue, clear, green, pink, purple, red, and yellow opalescent. Of course I love them all, so definitely check them out!