A Few Quick Polls Regarding Yarn

I normally don't have too many polls on my blog, but I thought it would be great to get your ideas on what kind of yarn you would (or do) buy from indie yarn dyers (or just in general). As you all know, I'm working on building an online indie dyeing company and who better to ask than those of you who love yarn and see my dyed skeins weekly! If you have a moment, please be kind enough to answer a few questions for me. It is a huge help, as I want to make sure I cater to those of you out there who may be interested in my shop. Thank you SOOO much for the help!

What makes you buy yarn from an indie seller?
	The color
	The weight
	Great customer service
	Variety of both color and weight
	All of the above
	None of the above
pollcode.com free polls

What weight yarn do you buy/use most often?
	Lace
	Fingering
	Sport
	DK
	Worsted
	Chunky
pollcode.com free polls

What is your favorite color yarn?
	Reds
	Oranges
	Yellows
	Greens
	Blues
	Purples
	Browns
	Grays/Blacks
pollcode.com free polls

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 34

I hope everyone is having a great week! I am so far, and am excited because I just found out I don't have to watch my nieces tomorrow. That may sound terrible. I love watching them, but right now I'm on a huge roll with the blog and yarn dyeing. I've dyed 3 skeins in the last day and a half and love the results. I can't wait to share them with you all, but that's for another post.



I don't have a ton to share this week, as I've spent most of my time with said yarn and website. That being said, I thought I would take some new pics of my Chroma scarf (no, really, it WILL be done this week) in my new light box. This pic matches the color really well, so you can get a good look at what it REALLY looks like. Pretty, isn't it? (Seriously, you must be so sick of this scarf by now. You're probably thinking, oh my god, just finish it already!)




I know this isn't a project just yet, but I have six balls of this beautiful yarn. I started swatching to make this tank top yesterday, but my gauge was off so I have to go up a needle size. I don't have size US 10 that I like, so I may just ask my neighbor if I could borrow hers. We'll see. I've never done that before, but I DID just babysit her cat. I thought this was a great pattern to start clothing on, nice and simple. I think I'm going to do a few rows of ribbing so it doesn't curl at the bottom.



Old pic from yesterday on the left, new one on the right.

I thought you would all enjoy these pics. I went and got a different light bulb for my light box yesterday and loved to see the change between pictures. I also changed the setting a little on the camera. The new pic is a much closer representation of the true color of the yarn.



For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Dyeing for Fun Part 13

I'm so excited because I'm getting close to opening shop. There is still much to be done, but so far so good. I've been working really hard with the website, dyeing the yarn, as well as even building a light box to take better pictures. Thanks to Alea for finding the link on a DIY light box. :) I'm really happy how the pictures turned out, but think I'll continue to experiment, getting a brighter bulb to see if it is better or worse for picking up the colors. I'm also trying to become more familiar with my camera's modes. Here is one of my latest dye jobs. Enjoy!


Colorway: Sour Apple
Fiber content: 100% Merino Wool
Weight: Lace Weight
Yardage: 880 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Hand Wash/Dry Flat
Dyed with: Wilton's Icing Dye

FO Friday 27

Today is Friday, and another week I didn't finish anything. I had hoped to finish the Chroma scarf, but was unable to knit pretty much all Wednesday and Thursday. I've been hard at work dyeing yarn and working on the website so that I can open shop in the coming weeks. Since I don't have an official FO, I decided to cheat. Remember me saying we cleaned our deck and replanted the area? I thought I would show our finished product. Everyone can use a few flower pictures on a Friday afternoon, especially if it's as rainy and dreary where you are, as it is today in San Diego.

This is the view looking at our deck from the pathway that surrounds the pond. You can see all the wonderful things we have planted. As far as edibles, we have an artichoke plant, a lemon, lime and even an orange tree. Unfortunately, the poor orange tree (on the far right) is struggling to survive after all of the rain we've received this winter. I hope it pulls through since we've had it for 6 years and the past few seasons it's produced amazing oranges. We then have two hibiscus' (the really tall thing in the middle is a red one, and behind the orange tree you can see, but we have a yellow one), four gardenia plants (in the long boxes up front, they are about to bloom I believe. Yes Mom, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. I know you're allergic). Then we have a mix of flowers and other plants.

This is a closer pic of our lemon tree. Look at the size of our lemons! LOL I can't wait until they ripen so we can make fresh lemonade and use them in tiki drinks.

This is the ledge outside our kitchen window. Don't you just love the tulips? To the left of those are cute little flowers for the hundreds of hummingbirds we have in the area. If you look closely through the window, you can see the huge jug of white distilled vinegar. I must have been dyeing yarn while I took this picture! LOL

A close up of the beautiful tulips

And the lily! Can you get any more spring than lilies and tulips?

I had to add this pic because the color is amazing, isn't it?

Share your FOs!

Helping Japan

There are so many wonderful people in the fiber art community reaching out to help Japan. I thought I would spread the word as best I could, sharing their endeavors. Please check out the great acts that a few of our fellow WIPW and FO Friday community members are doing.



CraftyCripple is asking people to donate to Red Cross on behalf of the people of Japan. The great thing is, each donor has a chance to win an amazing stuffed owl (picture above) that she made! How can you beat that? Don't hesitate to give whatever you can and then comment back to her to let her know you donated and would like to be entered to win. The contest ends tomorrow (Friday) at 0900 UK time. For more information, including links to the Red Cross website, please visit her site here.


Countess Ablaze brought to my attention via her blog, that a group on Ravelry is making blankets for Japan. You can help out making the actual blankets, or you can even just donate some yarn. You can find out more about it (with all the links you need to participate) here and an update here.



Claire over at Curiously Crafted Creations has designed an awesome crochet crane pattern (shown above). She will be donating all proceeds to Japan via the Red Cross and hopes to sell 1,000 cranes. Also, for those who can't crochet, she (and others) will be selling their cranes for the same cause. For more information, please visit her blog here.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask one of these lovely ladies.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 33

Are we in a time warp where Wednesday comes around faster than the other days? Maybe it was because I didn't get any crochet/knitting done this weekend except for the trip up to Long Beach to take my in laws to the Queen Mary and a tiki bar. Who knows, but I can't believe it's Wednesday AGAIN!

First off, before I get to WIPW, I want to say how happy I am that Denise's husband is getting better! I'm not sure if you have all been keeping up with her blog, but I'm sitting here typing this with a huge smile on my face to hear such wonderful news. SO YAYAY for that! Denise, please send me your address via email (link in the sidebar).

Okay, back to WIPW:



I'm still working on the blanket of course, and really haven't done much with it. BUT, I did get to two rows of the 3rd color, so I figured I could show you that. :) So here it is. After one more row of that, I'll be repeating back to blue. I made it so wide that I have decided that ripples will go lengthwise. Should be interesting. The length is the size of my couch, so I think it will be a nice length.




Here is my scarf as of yesterday afternoon. I took it to my meet up group, so it's a little longer as I type this. I hope to finish it by FO Friday, but my yarn balls never seem to shrink. It's like the never ending yarn. I'm sure I'll be surprised once I get close to the end. I love it. As you can see, the two colorways have restarted. Sorry for the crap picture of the whole thing, but it was rainy today so it's weird lighting the blew out the colors. I also took a closeup looking away from the scarf so you can get a better idea of the fuzziness and texture of Chroma since a lot of people seemed interested in it. I still plan to write a review up on it when I finish my scarf.




I probably shouldn't have started something else, but I haven't made a dishcloth/washcloth in awhile and I was itching to make another one. I'm using the same pattern I used for this dishcloth, because I love how it turned out. I fell in love with the colors of this particular yarn, so I hope I'm just as happy with this one as the last.

I hope you have a great rest of the week!

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Dyeing for Fun Part 12

I saved this one for last in the three that I dyed together, first the Strawberry Margarita, then last week was the Blue Raspberry. Today I'm sharing the last of the bunch because it's a mix of both. I had a ton of mixed dye leftover, and so I grabbed another blank skein and mixed in the pink and teal blue together. I love the outcome, and it actually reminds me a little of the yarn I dyed for my fingerless gloves. It's so fun to see what the two colors mixed into.






Colorway: Berry Blast
Fiber content: 100% Peruvian Highland Wool
Weight: Worsted weight
Yardage: 220 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Hand Wash/Dry Flat
Dyed with: Kool-aid and Wilton's Icing Dye

FO Friday 26

Happy Friday everyone! I'm super excited because my in-laws are coming to town and I haven't seen them in quite some time. We're hoping the weatherman is wrong, as they are predicting rain almost the whole time they're supposed to be here, which is a huge bummer since they love coming to San Diego and eating outside since to them that's rare coming from the snowy Midwest. Keep your fingers cross for us.

Today I don't have anything new to show you, but I do have a few things to share. You may remember I made two dogs for my mother-in-law for Christmas, a corgi and a wiener dog to represent the two she lost this past year. She loved them dearly and I thought it would be awesome to have something to remember them by. I never sent them to her, as I found out they would be visiting us and thought these were presents that were better given in person than by mail. I recently put the final touches on them, with collars, name tags and a little sweater for Otto, as he always wore one when it was cold. They never bought an official sweater for him, but always just cut sweatshirt sleeves. I tried to go with that ragged look with mine to match. Each tag has the name of the dog it represents, and on back each say Love, Kurt and Tami. It's hard to get a pic of Otto's tag, as he is so short. LOL I hope she loves them as much as I do.




Also I promised a picture of the pillow in "action". Weirdly, the pictures I took earlier in the week with daylight were way too dark, so this is last night with the lights on. All of the walls of the room are the light color, and the dark color you see to the right is our long accent wall in the room. I figured this corner got it all kind of in one pic.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 32

Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a great week, and if you aren't, the good news is it's hump day! I haven't had too much time to knit, but have a little to show. Hopefully next week my time will free up a little and I'll be able to get my knit/crochet on.

I know I promised you all pictures of the pillow finished and on the couch, but I thought I'd share that on Friday (yes, maybe that is a little cheating) since I probably won't have my scarf finished by then.


This is the only thing I have to show today, but it has grown since last week! I'm super excited about it now that I've hit the light color of the Galapagos colorway and the hot pink in the Regency colorway. Again, this is the Noro Striped scarf, but I'm using Knit Pick's new yarn, Chroma. I love the way the two colorways are meshing.

Sorry to be so brief today, but I have a ton of my plate right now. As I mentioned, I hope next week I'll have more stuff to show once my in laws have left, the house is finished and a few other things are off my plate, or at least off the worry plate.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Dyeing for Fun Part 11

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope you aren't getting tired of my dyeing posts each week, but I love to share my new colorways before I open shop. It's nice to see which you all like, dislike, etc. Today I'm going to share a colorway that I actually dyed the same day I made the Strawberry Margarita colorway. I guess you could say that I went on a dyeing frenzy. I'll have one more to share next week from that one session. Today I'm sharing a very happy and bright colorway, Blue Raspberry. It's kettle dyed so that there is slight variation within the skein.




Colorway: Blue Raspberry
Fiber content: 100% Merino Wool
Weight: DK weight
Yardage: 246 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Hand wash/Dry flat
Dyed with: Wilton's Icing Dye

FO Friday 25

Happy Friday everyone! The whole complete package, with the new paint colors, will be posted on Monday, as we still have to paint the back wall on Saturday.

I will say, it was a fun project to work on, and was pretty fast but at the end, I was sick of making the little flower circles. I actually made less because I ended up making the bigger circles slightly larger than the original pattern called for and thought it would just be way too busy if I made all of them. Also, I have to admit, my fingers hurt and I was just tired of crocheting. LOL

Materials Used:

K crochet hook
H crochet hook
Red Heart Eco-Ways (Aquarium)
Red Heart Eco-Ways (Peacock)
Red Heart Eco-Ways (Cinnabar)
Pre-made pillow
Tapestry needle

The front

The back

Share your FOs!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 31

Greetings everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I spent mine painting! We got most of the downstairs painted, but it took us 3 1/2 hours on Saturday and 6 hours straight on Sunday. There are a few touch up that need to happen, as well as the long accent wall still needs it's fresh coat of paint. By the time we had to take a break on Sunday to eat around 5, we couldn't bring ourselves to continue after our meal. Who can blame us?

You may wonder why I'm blabbing so much about our painting, but it's because it brings me to my first WIP.


This may not look like much now, but it will be a pillow! When I bought the latest Crochet Today! magazine, I fell in love with the two patterns. Of course, at the time I didn't realize I would be changing the colors of my downstairs so quickly, which gives me a perfect opportunity to make them now. I went to Joann's Tuesday with 40% coupons in hand and our paint swatches to see how close we can get it with yarn and also to buy the pillows that will fill out the crochet shell. Yes...I had to use my 2nd yarn diet purchase (post coming tomorrow probably), but I think it will be well worth it. As you can see, I'm almost through one full skein of yarn and I just bought it Tuesday. We needed something to tie in the wall colors with our red...yes red...couches. I think this will be perfect. Right now I'm making the petal one (the one with the circles) and will be doing the circles in a red (to match the couch) and possibly a darker teal (to match the accent wall) since the main color matches every other wall in the room. What do you think, two colors for the circles or one? I'd probably do the larger circles in the red and the smaller ones in the darker teal. I hope to have this pillow finished for Friday...we'll see.



On to my second WIP. I'm crazy excited about this one. Remember my yarn purchase last week from Knit Picks? I bought three balls of Chroma yarn. Two of them are for the Noro Striped Scarf that everyone and their brother seems to make. I couldn't resist. They always are so beautiful and Chroma was more in my yarn budget than Noro is (and softer IMO). The two colorways I'm using are Regency and Galapagos. Originally I wanted Galapagos and Midwinter, but they were out of Midwinter when I made my order. I have to say, I'm pretty happy with Regency so far. Isn't it beautiful? I love not knowing what colors come next or what they will look like next to each other.


For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Dyeing for Fun Part 10

The next few weeks, I'll be sharing a few kettle dyed yarns that I dyed last week. I was originally going to just do one skein, but it ended up a fun day and ended up with three pretty skeins. Today I'll start with this one. I was hoping for a good pink, despite it being hard to photograph.




Colorway: Strawberry Margarita
Fiber content: 100% Merino Wool
Weight: DK weight
Yardage: 246 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Hand wash/Dry flat
Dyed with: Kool-aid

FO Friday 24

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I don't have a FO this week, due to working on a blanket, and now starting a scarf (yes, another one!). Not the kind of projects you can finish quickly, but I promise to have something finished next week!

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. I'll be busy crocheting/knitting and painting my living room/dining room.

Share your FOs!

Yarn Diet '11- The Second Month & First Yarn Purchase

Holy smokes, it's March. I can't believe it. I didn't even really update for February because it flew by so quickly! Anyway, I thought I would give you an update on my yarn diet and also show pictures of the lovely yarn that I spent way too much money on this week. That being said, it was my first yarn purchase of the year (and of the diet) so I'm sitting pretty. :) I probably would have lasted a little longer, but couldn't resist the new Knit Picks Felici and Chroma yarn.

Here are my stats:

Skeins used in the month of February: 2
Total skein count left: 239 (not counting the new yarn)
Total FOs completed in February: 1 (ouch, not good)
Total yarn purchases in February: 1 (though it didn't arrive until March, but will count it in February since the money came out of my account then).
Total purchase remaining: 4


Now, on to the FUN part, the YARN!!!!!!!!!! As I mentioned, I splurged. Oops. I do have project ideas for a lot of it, so that helps, right?

This is what I ordered:

Items Shipped
Qty Item # Item Description
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 25221 Felici Moonlit
2 25219 Felici Botany
1 25228 Felici Sport Boutique
2 25220 Felici Caprica
2 25032 Diving Board Multi Stroll Multi
1 25251 Galapagos Chroma Worsted
5 24422 Marlin Comfy Worsted
2 23794 Natural Bare Merino Wool Lace
2 24927 Neapolitan Felici Sport
1 25260 Prism Chroma Worsted
1 25257 Regency Chroma Worsted
1 25229 Felici Sport Sunny Day

And the pics!



How are YOU doing on your yarn diet? Did you purchase new yarn? If so, share a link to your blog post telling us about it!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 30

Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm excited to say I've been on a painting frenzy. I painted our bathroom yesterday and decided to start repainting our living room. The sad thing about the bathroom is I was painting it the same color it already was, a light green, so it wasn't very satisfying. Hence the reason I plan to go out this morning and buy NEW colors for the living room/family room area. We've lived in the house for 5 years come April 20th, so it's time to spruce it up a bit.

On a side note, I wanted to welcome all of my new followers to the blog! I've now hit 60! Thank you! I look forward to seeing everyone's projects through WIPW and FO Friday, as well as "talking" with you in comments.



I've been working hard since Friday on the blanket I started a few weeks ago (WIPW 26). I've decided to stop complaining about the annoying yarn and work through it. So far, so good. Since it's Wednesday, I was trying to get to the point of having all three colors, even if the 3rd was just started, but of course I screwed up. In my hurry and putting it down and picking it back up throughout the day, I crocheted going the other way, meaning one side was double as thick. Oy. The really bad thing is this yarn is pretty impossible to frog, so it actually ripped. The GOOD thing, the yarn is so fuzzy, it will be easy to hide a join when I have to put the yarn back together. So, unfortunately, I only share two colors. The third is a light cream color. Hopefully I'll have it ready, with even more finished in WIPW 31 next week.

The bad thing about devoting my time to a blanket, is I probably won't have a FO Friday to share, though I will make sure to schedule a post for all of you to share your finished objects/projects. :)

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!