Month 1 in the bag

The March installment of the Rock Your Socks Off club is officially in the bag. Yarn has been dyed, rehanked and tagged. Stitch markers have been made. Suggested listening has been compiled. Items have been packaged and will make their way to the post office today. I’m going to wait until next week to post pictures of the yarn because I’d like it to be a surprise to those receiving it, but I will say I really like it.

I’ve just placed an order with a great shop on Etsy for the goodies for next months packages. They’re really special and I’m really stoked to share them with the club members. Not a member yet? You still have time to get signed up for April and beyond! Go to the Rock Your Socks Off club page and scroll down for payment options. We’ll also be holding a contest in late March/beginning of April for a full sized version of the goodie for the April packages. Keep your eyes peeled for that. There will also be a super secret discount code offered to my readers for the shop that I got the goodies from. I know, I know it’s all so vague right now but I promise you it’s good stuff and you’ll be stoked once the big reveal happens. I just don’t want to spoil the surprise for club members before they get theirs. I’m going to continue to try to work with other shop owners on Etsy to offer goodies to my members and to help promote other growing businesses, so rest assured that not only will you get wicked sock yarns from me in the club but you’re also very likely to get awesome goodies from other independent artisans, crafters and business owners.

I’d also like to promote another contest that is going to be happening as well, though it’s not my contest. Phat Fiber is hosting a contest for those of you who got either a January or February box, OR if you get a March/April box too. The deadline is May 1st so there’s plenty of time to get your supplies together and get creating. Below are the details as provided by Phat Fiber:

Phat Fiber Spring Competition!

Prizes For Each Category:
$25 gift certificate to The Lote Tree
Winning items featured on Blog and newsletter
Phat Fiber gear (t-shirts/buttons/bags)
Free Phat Fiber Box
$20 toward purchases to Phat Shop of your choice.
Bragging Rights/Glory
More prizes may be added in the future.

Categories:

Handspinning

Knitting/Crochet

Weaving/Felting

How to Enter:
Create a project using only materials supplied by “Phat” shops. Your tools (knitting needles/hooks/wheels/felting needles) may be of mass commercial origin. The point of the competition is to explore the Indie Phat Shops. You may do searches on the blog to find featured shops, or look under the contributor section of the website. When in doubt, ask the seller before purchasing materials if he/she is “Phat”. You may use your samples or samples given to you by box recipients.

How the winners will be determined:
You must submit photos (at least 1 good one and up to 3) of your finished work to phatfiber@yahoo.com with “spring contest submission” in the subject line.
Deadline to Submit your Projects is May 1st. The winner to be announced after voting (annonymously) is closed (around mid-month May).
Everyone is eligible for this competition, but if you are a contributor to Phat Fiber, you must use another contributor’s materials when making your project- minimal supplementation with your own materials will be allowed (since they’re phat too).

I highly recommend getting involved if for no other reason than the $25 gift certificate to the Lote Tree. You owe it to your lips to get some of her Lippschitts, they’re fantastic.

I’ve just finished hanking my samples that are going in the March box, and I think they’re pretty fantastic and I’ve upped the yardage on each sample so that it might be actually useful for something instead of just sitting around taking up space. With this contest in mind, I think you’d be able to make something pretty fantastic with just a few different samples and if you managed to use ALL of the yarn samples that you got in any given box you would have something truly spectacular.

I did manage to get some spinning done this week as well (thanks to an incredibly long movie assignment for my Political Science class.) and here is the result:

This is some BFL in the ‘Anasazi Women’ colorway from Lime n’ Violets Wool Pr0n store. This yarn is currently for sale in my Etsy shop, I’ve renamed it “Red Rock Sunset” because it looks like the sunset on Red Rock Canyon to me.

Aside from that I’m still hammering away on my various knit for hire projects as well as trying to keep my head above water with school and the Craft Empire of Doom. So far, so good. I’ve got more hanks of lace weight coming in to Dyed by DaniDo HQ sometime in the next week, some of those will be going towards another custom order for the Phat Fiber Shop, but the rest will probably make their way into my shop as well. Hell, I may even dye up and then cast on for a shawl of my very own. Perhaps a graduation shawl? We’ll see, I doubt I’ll have time to knit a lace shawl between now and May 18th.

For those about to Sock.

Today I am dying the first month of the Rock Your Socks Off club yarns. I am super excited. I chose my squishy merino base for the yarn this month, I have the playlist of suggested listening already plotted out and am currently listening to it to get in the mood. I got the extra goodies in the mail that will be going with this months orders.

I’ve either been sick or just flat out worn down because for the last two days I just could not get out of bed. I barely even knitted, haven’t touched my wheel since last week sometime and it was all I could do to get the yarn hanked to soak for dying today. I feel better today though and am ready to take on the world again. (Coffee doesn’t hurt either though.)

I got some new bobbins for my wheel in the mail on Saturday and so I have lots of room for new spinning projects. I’m going to try really hard to get a few hanks of handspun in my Etsy shop by the end of next week. That is after my Chemistry test, an essay for Political Science, the March RYSO club yarn gets dyed, and the March samples for Phat Fiber get in the mail. Somewhere after all of that gets done I’ll spin some yarns. Oh, and I finish the two commissioned knit projects I’m working on, both of which require that I write at least certain parts of the pattern to get the finished project to work out properly. One of them is a baby hat that was a drop in client at Knit Las Vegas this week. It’s actually quite cute and I’m looking forward to finishing it because it’s going to be used for professional newborn pictures by Mid March and I’m looking forward to seeing my finished knit in a professional photograph. Check out Brianne Brose Photography for adorable baby pictures, some of which modeling excellent knitwear of their own. (That I did not knit.)

The other project is the great handspun/handdyed mittens for CJ at eXtreme spinning. They’re going to be awesome, I finally got the colorwork chart to work out how it’s supposed to for the thumb gusset which was the difficult part. Now if I just had longer than 15 minutes at a time to work on any one project I might actually get things done! Tomorrow is my late night at the shop, so I’m hoping I can finish at least the first mitt so there is a pattern for CJ, and get the baby hat pattern sorted out so I can actually knit it. I swatched for almost 4 hours last night on the hat and it STILL isn’t what it’s supposed to be. Which does not make me happy. I’m charging a ridiculous price for the hat though so it really does need to be perfect.

Speaking of perfect, ‘Perfect’ by the Smashing Pumpkins just came on my playlist as I was typing that word. Weird!

I’ve decided on the April Rock Your Socks Off band. I just decided as I was typing this because something reminded me. The lead singer of this band and I share April as a birthday month and as a matter of fact our birthdays are only a day apart. I’m going to see the band in April for the FIRST TIME EVER and I’m super excited about it, AND I might even see them TWICE in the same weekend because I’m going to California to see them and then they just confirmed a tour date here in Vegas that bestie Christina Marie has threatened to camp out at the box office to get tickets to. It’s going to be awesome. I also have had an idea for a pattern based on one of their songs floating around my head for awhile so I’ll have to start working on fleshing out that idea before the end of March. Good thing it’s a small pattern.

Say it with me guys: I graduate in May. Only 3 months to go and then I get to knit/spin/dye/design as much as I want. I can fully commit my entire life to fiber arts. (At least until I enroll at UNLV and start on my next degree in the Spring.)

Under a rock.

Or rather under a state of Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution and several text books. First major paper for Political Science is finished and turned in. However I have been a little remiss in the blogging department.

First of all, lets all congratulate Stephanie of LesJouJou who won the hank of Nefarious sock yarn. It’ll be going in the mail tomorrow morning and I’ve been promised that she will be casting on for her first pair of socks with it. I fully expect regular updates and hope to have her fully addicted to knitting socks in no time flat. My first pair of socks were knit with pretty scratchy and horribly patterned wool, Stephanie will be starting out with a great silk/wool base in a hand painted limited run edition. Only the best!

I’m working on a project for/with fantastic spinner and designer CJ at eXtreme spinning but aside from that there has been very little knitting, spinning or crafting happening lately at Chez ‘Do. I’m very wrapped up in classes since this is my last semester at the College of Southern Nevada. I applied for graduation today and barring some unknown ridiculous class they added to the degree requirements at like 10:45 a.m. today just before I turned in my application I should be walking in May.

Since I am taking a Chemistry course, a combo Math course that is an accelerated course that is really two classes in one and the super hefty Political Science course I’m a little on the ‘holyshitholyshitholyshit not enough hours in the day’ brain wave lately.

I will continue to be intermittently here and not here, but I will try my best to keep up with regular entries so as to keep everyone up to date on what’s happening with the Rock Your Socks Off club as well as any new developments with my Etsy shop. And of course, whenever I find something wonderful that I just have to share.

Speaking of which, I’ve got some new roving to rave about. I bought a braid of fantastically soft baby alpaca from Northern Lights Fiber. First of all she’s a fiber artist from my hometown, Anchorage Alaska which ALWAYS makes me happy to support but aside from that she always has absolutely gorgeous color ways and super quick shipping. I also really dig that she does ‘grab bags’ of mini skeins of hand spun yarn and small ounces of hand dyed rovings. I really love the idea of this because it’s like getting a little sampler of her goods at a pretty cheap price to check out the fiber and her dying etc before purchasing a full hank or braid of something. I like that. I also completely bypassed all of that really brilliant stuff and went straight for the big braid of baby alpaca. It’s ALPACA. I mean seriously, can you blame me? And seriously, it’s more beautiful in person than it was in her shop. The colors are rich and absolutely stunning. I just hope that I get a chance to spin it at some point in the near future, I’m just itchin’ to get that stuff on a bobbin. Definitely check out her shop, just don’t buy the Big Blue World roving because I just need to make one more little tiny sale to buy it myself.

Remember too guys that the offer for give away hanks of stash yarn stands if you donate to the Australian Red Cross before the 20th. Why did I pick the 20th? Well that’s my honey bunnies birthday and it’s better than just any random day.

I’ll be hosting another give away in March!

Head Implosion.

That’s what would happen if I ever didn’t have something or many things to do in any given day. Even on my ‘days off’ like today I’ve still managed to do the following:

• Created the suggested listening playlist for the March installment of the Rock Your Socks Off club
• Created the flyer type of thing that’s going to go into each package for the club
• Photographed, edited and listed my first ‘for sale’ hank of handspun (pictures will be posted later in this post)
• Re-organized my Etsy shop so that everything is in it’s appropriate section (bunch of stuff in the sale section by the way!)
• Packaged up several orders that have to go out as soon as the post office opens on Tuesday
• Organized all the comments for the Hannibal Lecter sock yarn give away so tomorrow I can put them in a random number generator and choose a winner
• Collaborated with a fellow Phat Fiber contributor to order some roving through her whole sale account, 5 lbs coming soon to Dyed by DaniDo HQ
• Did 3 sections of Algebra homework
• Did a rough outline for the Power Point presentation that my group is going to use in our presentation on Wed.
• Did the first 5 slides that are on my section of the chapter
• Worked on the first of seven essay answers to my Political Science exam
• Mocked peoples wedding websites with bestie Christina Marie 
• Failed to eat/drink anything but a half cup of coffee all day

Okay so that last one was more like in-action than action. I seriously need to pay attention to what time it is. I got up at 10-ish and before I knew it it was 7 p.m. already.

There’s still things on my to-do list for this evening too, that’s just what I’ve done so far. Tonight I need to cast on for the mitts that CJ designed and I’m test knitting/tech editing. Big Love is on tonight though, so I think I should be able to get pretty far during the show on the first mitt. It’s a pretty bulky mitt so I don’t think it’ll take too long.

Last night while watching Madagascar 2 (which is ADORABLE and hilarious by the way) I spun up the first of the ‘Destiny’ batts from the Phat Fiber Store from the super talented Kristin at Star Spun Fibers.

Here’s the single spun up on the bobbin still. Then I plied it with some of that great batt from CJ at eXtreme spinning that I love so much and use to ply with everything because it’s PERFECT.

The result:

Yarn I’m calling ‘Gypsies Tramps and Thieves’ because it is so bright, so shiny and so fabulous. It looks like something that Cher should wear on her head. It’s that fantastic. The batt from Kristin was absolutely overflowing with handdyed firestar (which for those of you non spinners is the shiny stuff) that makes this yarn practically glow. It also has silk in it which helps with the sheen and makes it super soft to boot. Plied with the shiny and soft wool/mohair/silk blend from CJ and you have a fantastic pile of glittery, shimmery goodness.

I foresee this yarn being great as stripes or embellishments on a solid colored garment or as one out of this world FAB-YOU-LUSS scarflette, hat, mitts or bag. It’s up for sale in my Etsy shop for a pretty low $10 because it’s only 61 yards. The batt had this great red in it, but because I was plying it with a red shade I didn’t use that part of the single only the blue and gold parts. I have another whole batt of this not yet spun, which I can’t decide if I should offer it up as a give away here on the blog in the future (because we all know I’ll keep having contests and giveaways because I love making people come back to read this drivel on the in between) or if I should spin it up and ply it with something different to see what it looks like with a different color.

This week I’ll be hanking and dying for the March installment of the Rock Your Socks Off club. I decided on a colorway, I have the set list ready to go and I’m going to try to get cracking on the stitch markers to go with the packages as well.

Sign ups for March are closed, but buy early to get in on April if you want. Details as usual are on the Rock Your Socks Off page.

I’ll be doing a quickie video explaining why I chose the band/song I did, what inspires me about it and what I think you should do with the yarn. I’m going to try to always offer a pattern suggestion (because I don’t have time to write a new pattern for each month) for each colorway as well as little tips and tricks for working with hand dyed yarns.

Happy Valentines Day – It’s a Love Fest in here.

First of all I want to personally thank everyone who commented on the last post in an attempt to win my affection. Oh, wait, you were trying to win yarn. Well, anyways, I appreciate all the kind words anyways. It has been a rough week here at The House that Knit Built and every little bit helps. Since it’s the Big Day o’ Lovin’ anyways, I also wanted to spread a little love of my own around.

Firstly though, in case you missed it in the comments, Turtle took my encouragement on the Ravelry Contests board to give me the love in haiku form. It seriously made my week. Here it is:

fresh, funky and new
With fun yarn clubs to join too!
But sadly I’m broke!

My haiku for you!!

Beautiful! I love it.

I’d also like to list off a few other people who have made my week a little brighter:

• Firstly, my darling boy Mike who took me to a wonderful dinner, booked us a very romantic hotel room at Mandalay Bay and even let me watch t.v. in the super awesome jetted spa style tub in the room last night. You know what’s even better than a romantic dinner at a 4 star Italian restaurant? Watching C.S.I Miami from the bathtub. Best Valentines Day ever.
• Co-Mouthy Marie Christina Marie who never fails to brighten my days and serves as my personal cheer leader more often than not.
• Our better half, Loud of Loud and Mouthy Laura Marie who also cheer leads and ads that much needed bit of redonk to my day to day
• My friend Scott who is helping to make sure that I a) pass my math courses and b) subsequently graduate on time this May. (He’s a handsome devil too and he’s single ladies!)
• Mr. Pj Perez of Bleeding Neon fame, who has saved my tail this week by stepping up and organizing Mikes upcoming 31st birthday party. I royally screwed it up last year and a very lame time was had by all. Pj has graciously stepped in to make sure I don’t screw it up again.
• CJ from eXtreme spinning for continuing to not only foster my fiber obsession by sending me wonderful fibers to play with but also flattering me by asking for my test knitting abilities on one of her designs. I am a firm believer that the highest compliment a fellow knitter/designer/artist can bestow on someone is to ask them to be apart of their process in some way. Test knitters are what make finished patterns possible and I am very flattered that she thought of me for the task.
• Jessie, who as usual, is working her buhunkis off to get the Phat Fiber boxes ready to go on sale on Monday (OMG MONDAY!), shoot an excellent video showing off all the contributors wares AND to top it all off this week I ordered some of those great batts from the Phat Fiber Shop and I got a bar of her wonderful Gaia soap in the box so not only does the fiber smell delicious but I also got a great bar of soap.

Now lastly while this doesn’t make my day brighter, in fact it was quite sad, I wanted to pass along my condolences and love and support to Roo of Moonwood Farms who unfortunately lost one of her beautiful and woefully young alpacas this week unexpectedly. My heart goes out to her, I can’t imagine the shock of losing such a young animal just on the cusp of being able to bring her herd home. My heart just aches for her. (If I’ve followed the genealogy correctly I believe the little girl who passed away was my personal favorite Marius’ sister, Myra.)

Mike is making enchiladas for dinner tonight and I am very much looking forward to yet another wonderful meal, some snuggles and maybe even some spinning up of the Star Spun batts I got in the mail this week. I hope everyone else is having a lovely weekend and I look forward to picking a winner for that great hank of Nefarious sock yarn on Monday! Check back then.

Last chance! (And a giveaway extravaganza!)

Okay, the deadline to buy into March’s Rock Your Socks Off club is fast approaching! Just two more days and then I’ll close the March sign ups and start dying and making stitch markers and packing and then by the first of the month SHIPPING! I’m so excited guys, I can’t even begin to explain how much fun this is going to be. I’ve had a really great response for a brand new club like this and I hope it continues to grow and we develop a great little community of people all dedicated to rock n’ roll and…well, yarn!

Since my newest obsession lately is spinning, I may even open a second branch of this club up for fiber people who want to spin their own yarns. Please let me know if you’d be interested in a club like this so I can look into getting some roving/fiber in bulk to begin dying. You can leave a comment here on the blog or email me at daniella@danido.com, expressing interest is in no way a commitment to purchase, I’d just like to get  a response about whether there’s a market for such a club.

Also, I seem to have completely disregarded the rockers from outside of the U.S. How ethnocentric of me! Starting in April I will have a Rock Your Socks Off International Club listings available. There will be a small jump in shipping price to Canada from the US price, and then a bit more of a jump to countries in Europe and beyond. I can’t believe I was so silly and quite frankly so lazy as to not include shipping to other countries. We will get that rectified post haste.

A little note about buying the club listing through the PayPal link, I can’t seem to figure out how to get it not to charge another $4 for shipping, so buy the listing and I will refund that silly shipping immediately. Shipping is included in the price of the club so there is no need for it to be added on. I know this is a bit of a hassle and I apologize. I’m working on a better system for the coming months. I’m working on integrating a shopping cart function into the site itself so that this isn’t a problem in the future. I’m much better with sticks and string than computers though so you’ll have to bear with me, if it isn’t a completely cut and dry WordPress plug-in, I fumble with it for awhile until I figure things out.

And now what you’ve really been waiting for right? The Giveaway Extravaganza! In honor of two things this week: the launching of the sock club AND the second box from Phat Fiber coming out this week as well (great giveaways on the Phat Fiber blog by the way, get over there and get you some.) I’m de-stashing and some lucky readers get to be the recipients of my over zealous stash. I know I’ll buy more things from the Phat Fiber contributors so I need to clear out some of the clutter of commercial yarns. I’ve become a bit of a handmade snob and I’ve quite decided I would love to have an entirely ‘handmade’ stash. So reap the benefits of this snobby-ness dear readers before I change my mind (or my bank account starts screaming for mercy!)

Here’s the details:

• If you sign up for the March club before Saturday (Feb.14th) you will get a hank of stash yarn of a value no less than Berrocco Peruvia. (Other possibilities include Lornas Laces Shepard Sport, Araucania Ranco sock yarn, Unique Sheep Pima Petite, Universal Yarns Deluxe Worsted, Malabrigo Worsted, and whatever else I can dig out of my stash racks.)
• If you buy something from my Etsy shop before Monday (Feb. 16th) you will get a free gift with your purchase, of at least 50 yards of one of my other hand dyed yarns.
• If you get sign up for the March club listing before Saturday AND you convince someone else to join the club you will get a hank of stash yarn, they will get a hank of stash yarn AND you will get $5 off your next order from me. (Good for future sock club purchases as well.) When they sign up make sure they mention your name/email address so you both can get your free stuff and the extra discount!)
• If you donate at least $15 to the Australian Red Cross in support of the Victorian Bush Fires (koalas are dying people! Save the cuteness!) you will win a hank of stash yarn. Please just forward me your donation receipt to daniella@danido.com. This offer is good through the 20th of February.

And to be fair for those of you who can’t/don’t want to spend money to win something I’m giving away a hank of Cosmic Fibers hand dyed sock yarn from her Nefarious! Sock Club from last year. The colorway is ‘Hannibal Lecter’.

It’s a great colorway, but it’s been sitting in my stash for almost a year so I’m pretty sure it’s never going to get knit by me. It’s 440 yards of 70% Merino/30% Silk base and it’s super soft. It also comes with a little creepy Hannibal Lecter mask stitch marker. All you have to do to win this hank of yarn is comment here with something you love about me, my site, my store, or what ever comes to mind. Valentines Day is approaching and I could use a little love. Tell me how awesome I am, it’s been a rough week at Casa De DaniDo. The winner will be picked on Monday sometime by random drawing.

If you buy a club membership, convince someone else to, donate to the Red Cross, buy something else from my shop AND tell me how much you love me it’s a very real possibility that you could win 5 or 6 hanks of stash yarn. Winning one does not exclude you from the others, so try for all of them! Muhahaha. I know, slightly evil but that’s why I put the Save the Koalas thing in there, so I could balance out the greedy nature of wanting you to buy stuff from me with something that does some good. I’ve already donated twice but every time I see a picture of a poor scared parched furry face I start madly clicking on the ‘donate’ button to make myself feel better about not being able to personally go administer liquids to the little faces.

Just look at that. Breaks my heart. (Click picture to go to the news story.) I saw this picture on www.cuteoverload.com the other day and almost cried. (Okay, I did cry.)

Get that koala another bottle of Aquafina dammit! Stat!

Gimme Gimme Gimme!

Yarn. Fiber. I love the stuff. I must have it. It’s my only real obsession or addiction. Here’s some that I’ve made or dyed lately:

First up my first full hank of handspun.

Firestarter handspun. This is some Louet merino plied with eXtreme spinning ‘Passionate’ batt that I got a few weeks ago. It’s organic wool, mohair, silk and angelina that makes it slightly sparkly. I love it. I’ve used bits of this batt with several different shades of red and it always looks beautiful and softens up whatever it’s plied with.

I’ve also dyed a few new things for my Etsy Shop too.

2 hanks of a merino/silk lace weight:

This is ‘In Love with Lace’.

This is ‘Seascape’.

They’re both over 1300 yards and are so soft. I’ll be buying more of this base in the future if these two hanks are well received.

Now of course there is my recent obsession with the movie Coraline. So yesterday I dyed up a hank of worsted wool that I had lying around. I was just experimenting with a vision I had in my head of what it should look like. I’ll be dying some sock yarn in a similar colorway, though I’d like less of the yellow and a tad darker blue.

I was most worried about the black though, and I’m happy with how that turned out. I was aiming for something between a dark grey and a ‘soft’ black and I think I got what I was envisioning. I’ve never used straight black in a colorway before, I’ve only ever used my black stock to darken another color. I was interested to see what level of concentration I needed in the dye bath to get a particular shade of black and I’m very happy with the results. I needed to see how this would work out before I dyed the Johnny Cash colorway for the Rock My Socks Off contest winner, Sharon. I’ll be dying that up for her later this week.

Also on the dye list for this week is a trial run of the inaugural color way for the Rock Your Socks Off club. Speaking of the club, the slots are filling up and you only have until this Saturday to buy a slot for March. The first batch of boxes will go out the first week of March. I’m SUPER excited. I just hope the goodies get here in time. I’m still waiting on them, if they don’t come then I guess I’ll be doing some DIY goodies for the March boxes. (How does everyone feel about getting cookies in their box?) 

So, back to the Gimme Gimme Gimme title; I’ve been shopping. A lot. I’ve accrued quite a bit of fantastic fiber over the last few weeks. Today I picked up 2 oz of gorgeous hand dyed batts from the Phat Fiber Store Front, by the fiber artist behind Star Spun Fibers. The colorway that I got is sold out (thanks to myself and Roo of Moonwood Farms) but I highly recommend picking up a few ounces of some of the other one of a kind colorways. For example, just take a peek at this gorgeous one:

(click the picture to go to the listing.)

This is the ‘Tristan and Isolde’ colorway. Jessie asked us all to base our commissioned items off of Pre-Raphelite paintings, so this is one of those.

You can also find a few of the yarns I did for this theme in the shop as well. I love love love the Flaming June colorway the best which is currently for sale at a ridiculously inexpensive $20 for 440 yards of delightfully squishy merino.

As for me for now it’s nose back to the grind stone to get more homework done so I have time to dye this weekend.

A little stress relief

I’m starting to get overwhelmed. School is now officially in full swing and I’m in over my head. I’m taking a combination math course this semester which ends up being a 5 credit course because it’s really two classes in one at an accelerated pace. I should not be taking an accelerated pace because I’m just basically mathematically illiterate. In addition to a math class I’m not prepared to be in, I’m also taking Chemistry (which is science + math, why did I sign up for that again? Oh, right, geography was full.) and Political Science (a class that has proven to be great inspiration for the Mouthy Maries blog) which is a 4 credit course and taught by a man who is maybe half a step away from both insane and pure genius. There are three text books for that class, that we are expected to read in their entirety, as well as 5 movies to watch, a group presentation, a research paper, a book report and 3 exams.

I’m going to offer this little tidbit of info up to those of you who are in your first or second year of college, or who have not yet gone to college: spread this stuff out a bit because trying to shove 15 credits into your last semester in college while balancing a job, a small business, time for knitting/spinning and care of pets is ridiculous and may cause you to start pulling your eyelashes out one by one just to stop thinking about how to calculate the radius of an atom. (Which, by the way, I still can’t figure out. I think it involves math.)

I got off work this afternoon and immediately came home to work on homework. I had a chemistry test that was due by this evening (it’s an online course) that I needed to at least vaguely study for before attempting, then 4 chapters of math homework to complete because I have my first test coming up. I also have a paper for Chemistry that is nearly finished, except the bit about figuring out how many atoms of Beryllium it takes to make an inch. I got through the test and 3 chapters of math, but haven’t been able to figure out the atoms thing and I’m going to have to tackle the last section of math homework in the morning. I also need to watch the first movie for PoliSci so I can get that essay out of the way, and I’m about 2/3 the way through my part of the outline for the group presentation we have to give in two weeks.

The upshot of all of this is that I’m stressed out about school. I’m obsessing about what I have to do and what isn’t done yet and whether I’ve really accomplished anything at all. After 6+ hours of straight homework-ing I decided to step away from it for a minute. I just couldn’t look at numbers anymore.

So I turned on Hulu.com and fired up the last episodes of Burn Notice that I’ve missed and got out the spinning wheel and some fabulous new fiber I received from eXtreme spinning and Moonwood Farms.

I spun up some of the gorgeous batt I received from CJ the other night and it ended up being the wrong shade (not really wrong, but not what I envisioned) to go with the Pink Pistachio ramboulliet I got from Vines a while ago, so I had this great bobbin of wool/silk/angelina in a beautiful pinkish red sitting around just waiting to be plied with something. Then today in the mail came the box from Roo at Moonwood Farms with the raw fleece she had sent along for me to learn how to card with, but lo! what else did I find in my little box of joy? A sneak peek at the Vampires Kiss hand carded roving that will be in the Phat Fiber boxes this month. (Along with some other little goodies as usual because Roo spoils me rotten.)

So here’s what I came up with:

I’m calling it Vampire Passion because it’s a combination of eXtreme Spinning ‘passionate’ batt and Moonwood Farms Vampires Kiss roving. It’s beautiful and soft and though I still over spin in parts (you can see it pretty clearly in the second picture) but I’m getting much more even with the spinning. I have found that the wonderfully fluffy stuff like Roo’s hand carded alpaca and the light-as-air Pygora fiber are easier for me to spin. Which evidently is weird. I have always had a thing for luxury fibers though, so I don’t know why I thought it would be any different with spinning.

Speaking of the Pygora, I did this earlier this week:

This is the naturally colored Pygora plied with a wool/mohair/angelina blend from Silver Sun Alapcas. The Pygora was a gift from CJ of course, but the wool/mohair blend was a sample from the January Phat Fiber box, and it worked out beautifully. I of course, immediately ordered 2 more ounces of the Pygora because it was such a dream to spin.

I am still knitting though. I started on a design for a critter I saw in the new movie Coraline last night. I am absolutely smitten with Neil Gaimen of course, so I shelled out for the opening night IMAX & 3D experience to see the new movie. It was worth every dime. I’m working on a pattern for the felted squid thingy that was seen in the background on Coralines shelf in her room during several scenes. Not a major thing from the movie, but something that captivated me none the less. I found the perfect shade of teal in Cascade this morning and I was off and knitting. Once that actually turns into something other than a giant teal tube I’ll pose pictures and eventually a pattern for it. I was hoping to be able to get it done this weekend, but I have a feeling most of tomorrow is going to be committed to homework again, so I don’t foresee that happening.

Real quickly of course I’d like to put a bug in your ear about the Rock Your Socks Off yarn club as well. I sent out emails to those of you who had either signed up on the newsletter list or who had bought the Etsy listing for the club reservation with a link to how to buy your subscription into the club. It’s right at the bottom of the Rock Your Socks Off club page (linked all over the site and also in the right hand side bar) and there are several levels of commitment to the club for you to choose from. Payment for the March installment is due by February 15th which is a week from today. (It’s technically Sunday now as I’m writing this at 1 a.m.) However you can pay after the 15th and you will be ready to go for the April installment.

I’m very excited to get dying for March, I’ve picked the first band and I’m nearly certain which song I’m going to focus on as well. I’ve been working on the suggested listening set list in my head and I’ve got the first goodies on their way in the mail and they should arrive sometime this week. Now I just have to start winding the hanks off the cones to dye.

And now dear readers I have officially hit the wall of sleepiness and must call it a night. More dying to take place on Monday, I have a great idea for a Coraline inspired yarn in my head and I’m going to try to do a couple of hanks of it in both sock and worsted weights.

Buy your subscription now!

Ready for the Rock Your Socks Off club? Buy your subscription today! There are two payment options on the Rock Your Socks Off page, paypal and google checkout, and there are three levels of subscriptions: 1, 3 and 6 months. (Also an option for local Las Vegans, but that listing is for 3 months only.) I’m taking subscriptions to start in March through the 15th of this month, if you purchase a spot after the 15th, you’ll receive your first order in April. There are limited opening available each month.

Celebrating accomplishments

Here’s to me! And you! And everyone else who has done something good last year, this year, this week or today. Good for you. Good for us. I woke up today in an excellent mood.

I realized something: For over a year I’ve been supporting myself entirely from my craft. With the exception of the occasional day or two subbing last semester I have not made a single dime from any other source that wasn’t in some way involved with my ability and talent as a knitter/dyer/designer/crafter. I work in a yarn shop teaching and helping people pick out and assemble their projects, I knit and design and sell things in my Etsy shop, I dye yarn and now roving and sell it not only in my Etsy shop but also at Knit Las Vegas and soon in the Phat Fiber store as well. I ran someone else’s crafting business for them for almost 6 months, I reverse engineered patterns and designs, I over saw the production of samples, patterns, a website, a photo shoot and personally wrote copy for an entire knitting pattern website.

Guys, what I’m saying is this: I’m legit. I’ve probably been legit for awhile and didn’t even realize it, but this morning I realized it. What threw me over the edge? Waking up to an inbox full of messages from my Phat Fiber co-contributors talking about how and where to get a drum carder, possibly organizing a co-op for the smaller business owners to buy bulk from places and offering support and enthusiasm for each others products. I also had several orders through my shop, a couple of conversations through Etsy as well asking about some of my yarns and the lady who bought my first roving I dyed sharing this:

She spun it already! And look how lovely it is! (Click the picture and it will take you to her blog.)

I’ve decided it’s time to pat myself on the back a little. I don’t do it often, and probably won’t again for a long time but today I’m taking pleasure in being a legit fiber artist who’s managing to scrape and scrabble to make it work. I wrote something about this on the Mouthy Maries Blog. Here’s an excerpt:

I am currently building a little craft empire. I work very hard at my tiny empire and I hold it very near to my heart. I don’t take days off, I don’t take vacations I am always ALWAYS doing something to further my little itty bitty baby business. I do this because I love it, and I want to see it succeed and I have awesome friends who cheerlead and support me every step of the way.  I also work part time at a yarn shop, and licensed to substitute teach in the county where I live (but haven’t had the time to actually do that this semester) and attend college full time and keep a pretty awesome GPA if I don’t say so myself.

I’m going to graduate with my first degree at the end of this semester. It’s only an Associates but I didn’t graduate from high school and this is a pretty big deal. It’s taken me 4 years to get a 2 year degree because I’ve worked full time the entire time I’ve been in school.

I’ve been sort of taught that you should wait for someone else to congratulate you, to validate your accomplishments and that really without those outside validations your successes don’t really count.

To that I say bullshit. I’m buying myself a ring. I’m buying myself a ring with the stone I like (a peridot which is a very pretty but also very inexpensive green stone) in a white gold band with a part of a song lyric that is very important to me engraved in it. I’m buying this for myself as a way to commemorate the fact that for over a year I’ve managed to work and support myself by knitting, dying and designing. I’ve done everything from sell in my own online shop, to reverse pattern writing for another knit wear designer, to simply ring up bags of Cascade 220 for little old ladies making afghans. I’ve taught a multitude of people from different backgrounds how to knit, how to knit socks and how to fix problems in their knitting. I’ve moved from the occasional hobby dyer to filling wholesale orders and barely being able to keep my shop stocked at times. Over 100 people have knit versions of one of my designs. These are big accomplishments  and I don’t need to wait around for someone else to tell me they are. (Though plenty of people have, co-Mouthy Marie Christina at the top of that list.)

So I’m buying myself a ring. I’m buying myself the ring that I want. It’s not that expensive, but it’s the one I want and it’s the one I want to wear every day and remind myself that I earned it on my own and that I am the two hands that crafted the happiness for myself.

If you have something that you’re proud of, that you deserve recognition for, don’t you dare wait for someone else to give you the validation you deserve. Do it for yourself, and do it today.

So there you go. Do something nice for yourself.

I did something nice for myself (in addition to the ring.) I listed six more braids of roving in my shop!

They’re each 2.5 oz braids and they’re all so bright and vivid! I want to keep them all for myself. The ‘Sonoran Sunset’ one may actually disappear out of the shop in short order if it doesn’t get bought by the time I have a chance to sit down and spin again. I really love that one. I just really like the deep purple and bright oranges next to each other.

I’m going to go get ready to go to work, I plan to put on a pretty dress and some make up and have a fantastic day. I hope you do the same.

OH! I nearly forgot, the invoices for the Rock Your Socks Off club will be going out tomorrow morning! Or if you’re antsy in the pantsy to get it paid for now, visit the Rock Your Socks Off info page and scroll down to the bottom and purchase one of the listing there. Dying for March’s club members will commence next week, so if you’d like to get the first installment buy before the 15th of February!