So I’ve been getting more involved on Etsy and trying to stir up some business in my shop. (CLICK HERE!)

One of the things I’ve been trying to do is to make more things to go in the shop, and different things so it’s not so one track.

I’ve added a few new knitted pieces this week including another one of those fabulous scarflettes I just love to crochet and also a felted bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wonderful scarflette out of Malabrigo Worsted Merino in Velvet Grapes colorway with reclaimed buttons. It’s SO soft.

 

 

 

 

 

And felted tote in Noro scraps that I’ve been hoarding for awhile. It turned out really cool for using all different colorways. It’s fully lined in a green cotton fabric that was once a set of bed sheets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lining was designed and sewn by my mother in law who is a professional seamstress. Which means it’ll stay where it’s supposed to, unlike my sewing.

This afternoon I got a hankerin’ for a new crafty outlet so I made up some stitch  markers. Keep in mind I’m new to this and it’s not my forte, but I think for a first go at it they turned out okay. I dig them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it. My new hobby. We’ll see if any of these sell. It’s something fun and different to do which I like.

I’ve been a bit addicted to the chat rooms on Etsy as well which has meant a few things a) more people are seeing my stuff (but no one’s buying anything either so that’s weird.) b) I’m seeing more of other peoples shops and c) I’m buying things.

One of the great shops I found though is Osayin Holistics which is this great shop for bath and body stuff. She’s been working with me to get me stuff without beeswax in it, which I’m very allergic to. I’ve ordered some lip balm from her, but her soaps look divine. So if you’re in the market for affordable, holistic and chemical free bath and body stuff check her out.

Click here for Osayin Holistics

As usual I’ve got a million things on the needles, but the the project I’m most proud of this week is this one:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I taught my baby brother Jonny to knit. And that scarf he’s graciously modeling there is his first finished object. He went on to knit a hat IN THE ROUND as his second project and is currently working on another hat as we speak. He also made me (and Loud and Mouthy) take him to Michael’s today to stock up on knitting needles and yarn. He also signed up for a Ravelry invite. HOW CUTE IS THAT? I love him. I love my other brother James too, but James refused to learn to knit.

My brothers were both here for the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a good time.

So my two besties and I have formed a collaborative blog that we’ve been slowly but surely working on over the last few months. Well we finally got our shit together and have managed to put together a video of us and a couple of blog posts so far. We even had a little quickie contest hosted on the blog last night. It’s still knitting based, the humor and talking points are all knit based, but we’ll also be expanding it out to be a little more than just knitting. Music and politics, books and movies, you name it we’ll probably talk about it.

So if you’ve got a few minutes you should check it out. I’m pretty excited about it.

click this for Loud and Mouthy

We’ll start with election night:

 

This means good news for my favorite candidate. The favorite senator turned President-Elect Barack Obama. This is Laura and I at the election night party hosted by the Democratic Party of Nevada where I missed the official announcement that Obama had won, but I did make it down there to watch his speech on the big screen with several hundred (maybe thousand?) of my newest nearest and dearest friends. And yes, in fine American patriot fashion we snuck our own beer in so we didn’t have to pay casino bar prices.  It was a good night and most importantly I’m glad this whole thing is over and I can return to watching normal television instead of MSNBC and CNN on a loop all day.

Moving on to fiber related things!

We took a trip to the Grand Canyon last weekend. There were sheep on the side of the road. I demanded that the car get pulled over, nearly tucked and rolled out the passenger side door and ran (RAN guys! This fat girl RAN towards sheep, who then ran away from me.) to get pictures of the sheep. They were freshly shorn which made me wonder where in all of the majestic land of Arizona there was fresh wool ripe for spinning, dying and knitting. And how I could get my grubby little mitts on it. Also, they walk in a line. How cute is that? There’s a video of me talking to the sheep, but I figure in order to preserve some shred of professional respect in the fiber community that it’s best for me not to post it on the Internet for all to mock.

On to actual yarn, I’ve been dying again. And here are the results:

 

This is an alpaca/wool blend that is deliciously soft and slightly fuzzy that is dyed in a colorway I’m calling ‘Cheated Hearts’ (keeping with the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s themed yarns).

 

This one is ‘The Sweets’ and there are two hanks of this colorway in the same alpaca/wool blend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is my ‘Modern Romance’ colorway in the alpaca/wool blend as well.  Each of these alpaca/wool blend hanks are going to be for sale exclusively at Knit Las Vegas located in majestic Henderson, NV. However, as always if you like any of these colorways and have a specific fiber you want it on, simply email me and I can do a batch of any of the colorways listed here on any fiber you can think of.

I also dyed up the samples I’ll be contributing to the Phat Fiber subscription service for their January box. Here are the colorways the boxes will be getting:

Katchemak colorway

 

 

 

 

Kenai colorway

 

 

 

Modern Romance

 

 

 

 

Cheated Hearts

 

 

 

 

 

Wires and Waves

 

 

So two are Alaskan themed ones, two are Yeah Yeah Yeah’s ones and the last one is a Rilo Kiley song reference.

As for knitting lately, I’ve been working on a design for socks which are still currently nameless but feature a really cool cable pattern on the top of the foot and a slip stitch pattern on the ball of the foot to help with padding and hopefully reduce the need for darning after only a few wearing’s. (Several pairs of my  hand knit socks are in need of darning.) I also knit up this little sample to write a pattern to accompany the mini hanks for the Phat Fiber folks:

It’s a tiny hat keychain. It uses just a little less than the amount of yarn in each of the mini hanks I’ll be sending out.

Also I knit up some of my hand dyed cotton into a baby shrug for my cousin Heather who is due to give birth to her baby girl any minute now.

 

 

My dear friend Laura has gotten in on the yarn dying game as well and she played around in my ’studio’ (in quotes because really it’s my kitchen counter with a cheap plastic table cloth protecting the granite counter tops.) yesterday. I don’t have pictures of her yarns yet as they are still drip drying in my spare bathroom, but they are pretty and definitely scream ‘LAURA!’ which I just adore.

We also blew up a Pyrex baking dish yesterday. And lit 100% wool sock yarn on fire. Wonders never cease. Also, word to the wise: if you are using the microwave to heat set yarn let your poor Pyrex dish take a break every once in awhile because contrary to their supposedly indestructible nature I blew one up. Literally, it warped then blew up. Like a tiny glass bomb all over my kitchen. Thankfully no one was harmed in the making of these yarns. Other than Pyrex’s reputation for quality in the Cortez/Willoughby household.