FO Friday 33

I hope everyone had a great week and will have an even better weekend. Unfortunately this post is going to be very very short, as it's late Thursday night and I have the Queen Bee Craft Market in Del Mar, CA tomorrow and Saturday. If you live in the area, please come out and support local crafters! I'm sharing a booth with my friend Sharon of Ami Amour. You can see all of the Candy Skein yarn in person (and others yet to be revealed), and even purchase a few if you are so inclined. ;)

I also don't have an FO to share, though I am ALMOST finished with my first sock of my first pair. YAY! Anyway, so yeah, I can't wait to check out everyone's FOs. I know quite a few of you have really good stuff to share from the look and sound of things based on Wednesday!

Share your FOs!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 39

Before I forget, I'm going to add this to the top of this post. If you are participating in WIPW, please make sure to use the link to your WIPW from this week, and not the main page of your blog/website or the link that Mister Linky saved from last week. Thank you!

I hope everyone is having a great week. We're having beautiful weather (in the 80sF range) and it's perfect since I've had to dye a lot of yarn recently. It helps them dry faster than normal. As I mentioned yesterday, I will be sharing a table with Sharon (my friend and owner of Ami Amour) at the Queen Bee Market this weekend, so am trying to get as much yarn dyed as possible. I also need to tag them, label, etc. So I ask you, please count all of this work as one of my WIPs. LOL

Now on to the good stuff...



This is an epic week. Not only did I opened my online hand dyed yarn shop, Candy Skein, it was also my dog Milo's 2nd birthday yesterday. Another thing to make it epic (well, other than catching OBL), I AM KNITTING MY FIRST SOCK. That's right, the whole reason I originally wanted to learn to knit, socks. I can't tell you how excited I am. Seriously. Not only am I knitting my first sock, I'm doing a pretty good job at it (or at least at this point). I don't really want to toot my own horn, but doesn't it fit perfectly so far?

Even more awesome? I'm not really using a pattern. I started out looking at this pattern, but I just got confused. I then watched the sock knitting videos by Knit Picks. Let me tell you, without these, I'd be totally lost on the heel flap/heel turn/gusset. I sort of just started winging the pattern to fit my foot (I have a really long skinny foot) and didn't want really tall socks since summer is practically upon us. I must say, that little heel turn is pretty damn magical. Question though, the heel seems a little pointy. Is it supposed to?

Anyway, that's it from me for now. I mean, seriously, isn't an epic 3/4 sock enough? ;)

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!

Welcome to Candy Skein!

Welcome to Candy Skein, my hand dyed yarns and other assorted goodies store! Today is the day I open up my virtual doors to you, selling many of the hand dyed yarn I've shared on this blog, and more!

Here is where you can find Candy Skein. You can navigate to each link from the main website, but I thought I would share each link individually as well:

Candy Skein website

Candy Skein on Ravelry

Candy Skein on Artfire

I wanted to thank everyone for being so supportive and really giving me the the idea to open an online store due to the great feedback I received on my hand dyed yarns. I'm so excited that I'm finally able to share my company's name (though, if you did a little investigating on my Ravelry page, or even the left sidebar you would have already known), logo (designed by my lovely husband, Kurt) and website. I have worked so hard the past few months to make this a reality.

Right now I have 22 skeins of hand dyed yarn in several weights and colors available in the store. I will have more in the coming weeks, and please, if there is a colorway in a certain color, but not in the weight that you would like, don't hesitate to email (email address on the Candy Skein website) or contact me through Artfire. All colorways can be repeated (yet in different dye lots of course) in any weight yarn listed. I plan to have larger batches of dye lots in the coming months for those of you who like to work on larger projects. I also plan to sell handmade stitch markers and other items soon!

Please remember that the pictures in the shop and on my website, though represent a close color match, will look different in person due to monitor screen settings.

In other big news, Candy Skein will be at Queen Bee Market this Friday and Saturday (Friday, May 6th 4pm-9pm and Saturday, May 7th 9am-4pm) at the Del Mar Hilton, across from the Del Mar Fairgrounds! If you live in the San Diego or southern California area, please come out and see us (and the other 50+ vendors). It is a great opportunity to see and feel the yarn in person, and snatch them up before anyone online does! Due to the craft show, the online shop will be closed Friday and Saturday, May 6-7, but will reopen on Sunday, May 8th. I wanted to thank Sharon (Ami Amour) for being so kind to invite me to share her booths.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to email me (candyskein@gmail.com) or you can leave a comment here. Thank you!

Yarn Diet '11 Check In

Is your mind blown that I'm actually remembering to do a yarn diet post? Mine is! That being said, my mind is also blown that we are almost done. I won't get too much into reflecting back right now since we still have another month to go, but I will say it's been a lot easier than I thought. I'm sorry to all of you who are also participating for my lack of posts. I promise for next time that I will be better at it. That's right, I said next time! Since I didn't update last month, I'll just give you the totals that now exist since I don't have any numbers to look back from.

Skeins used in the month of March and April: 8
Total skein count left: 267 (counting all yarn bought during yarn diet), 234 (without)
Total FOs completed in March and April: 3
Total yarn purchases in March and April: 1
Total purchase remaining: 3

If you have a recent yarn diet post you'd like to share, please add it to the ongoing Mister Linky below! Good luck with the last month of the yarn diet and I look forward to your updates.

FO Friday 32

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you had a great week and have an even better weekend. Unfortunately, all of my time has been spent getting my company ready for next week. It's basically a full time job. So, I don't have a FO. :( UNLESS you count finishing my website (well, except for linking it to the actual items listed on Artfire, because it has to be listed to do that) and getting my Artfire store set up (except for clicking the activate link and listing the yarn that is currently in the crock pot).

I just wanted to say thank you to all who participate in WIPW each week. We had the most people this week, at 44 and it seems to be growing. I also wanted to apologize for not being able to respond to each comment left on my blog and not commenting on your blogs until Thursdays. I am currently watching my nieces on Wednesdays (all day) and my sister currently doesn't have internet. That leaves me Wednesday night (but let me tell you, after a full day with an almost 2 year old and most of the day with a almost 7 year old, I'm pretty tired. How do you parents do it?) or Thursday to go through each link. I hope you don't mind that I don't comment until the next day. :) I still manage to get to everyone.

Don't forget, please visit the blog on Tuesday. I will be announcing my company launch and other exciting things!

Share your FOs!