New Yarn

Marina
70% Superwash Merino
30% Seacell
Sport weight
112gr/380yds

Five when?

Not on Friday, obviously.

I finished a scarf with my new Organico yarn (for sale on Etsy):



This yarn is so soft that is like knitting with butter.

I dyed a Halloween colorway (I basically never do seasonal colors, but this one really wanted to be orange):



I wounded in a ball the yarn for my October pattern:



I posted several roving on Etsy:



and I made lots of soaps for the store.

Five on Friday

Thanks to the long weekend, I accomplish a lot this week.

I photographed new yarns and posted them on etsy:



I published a pattern:



I swatched for Fence:



And I took stock of my stash:

Stash Consumption Plan for 2009:

Jan: Karabella Aurora 8, 16 skeins = 1568.0 yards in royal purple - Ingenue
Feb: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan, 1 ball - gifted
Mar: Karabella Aurora 8, 1.8 skeins = 175 yards in teal
Apr: Karabella Aurora 8, 1 skein = 98 yards in chinos
May: Hand Jive Knits Nature's Palette Fingering, 2 skeins = 370.0 yards in Orchid - Purple Charlotte
Jun: Hand Jive Knits Nature's Palette Fingering, 1 skein = 185.0 yards (169.2 m) in Odd Duck - Purple Charlotte
Jul: Hand Jive Knits Nature's Palette Fingering, 1 skein = 185.0 yards (169.2 m) in Zinfandel - Purple Charlotte
Aug: Lana Grossa Point Print, 1 skein = 121.0 yards in 505
Sep: Mountain Colors Twizzle, 1 skein = 250.0 yards in Rosehip - June is for Jag
Oct: Karabella Aurora 8, 3.3 skeins =323.4 yards in stonewashed denin
Nov: Karabella Aurora 8, 8 skeins = 784.0 yards in royal blue - Children's Hooded Tunic #232
Dec: Karabella Aurora 8, 10 skeins in clematis - Lace Vine Vest Fence

and of my projects:

Five on Friday

I know I skipped last Friday, but I pledge first week of school insanity. Let's see of I can come up with five thing.

I posted two new yarns on etsy:





I frogged my Karebella Lace Vest (yes, it is cursed!), but I already picked another pattern for the yarn (I am sticking to a vest.)

Oh, and my July pattern is done (we won't talk about the fact that it is September.)

Etsy update

Click here for the shop.

All out

Sneak Peak

Rainbow Blanket Shawl Kit

Available at the Full Thread Ahead booth at Stitches West.

The 2008 Peninsula 2 Pier LYS Shop Hop

The 2008 Peninsula 2 Pier LYS Shop Hop has been scheduled for September 18-21.
Join 19 outstanding local yarn stores from Burlingame to Carmel for this fun weekend event.

Stop at any one of the participating 19 stores and pick up your P2P passport and map.

Visit each of the participating shops between September 18 and 21 and collect passport stamps at each of them. Build your stash and collect inspiration along the way. Don’t forget to collect your free exclusive one-skein knitting pattern designed by each store when you purchase the yarn to make the pattern.

No purchase is necessary to have your passport stamped.

Turn in your completed passport at the last shop you visit. This MUST be done during the LYS Shop Hop. If your passport contains stamps from all of the participating shops, you’ll be in the running for our fabulous grand prize!

Even if you don’t make it to all of the shops, you still have a chance to win in a raffle drawing by turning in your passport with 12 or more stamps!

Those with 19 stamps are eligible for the drawing for a $500 gift certificate to the store of the winner’s choice.

Those with 15 or more stamps are eligible for the drawing for a $300 gift certificate to the store of the winner’s choice.

Those with 12 or more stamps are eligible for the drawing for a $150 gift certificate to the store of the winner’s choice.

You need not be present to win. Winners will be notified using the contact information they provided in their passports. The winners’ names will be posted on this website as soon as it is available.
Pick your starting point and hit the road!

For more details, visit the Peninsula 2 Pier site or check in with any of the 19 participating stores.

And after the public service announcement, here is what I have been dyeing for FTA's beautiful Lace Capelet:

Emma

I have a large number of cousins and cousins' spouses back in Italy (I have 14 cousins, most of them married, do the math.) The girls among us have a mailing list to keep daily in contact and since I talk (yes, even there) mostly about knitting and yarn, my hand-dyed yarn caught their interest. Next thing know, each of them demanded a colorway with their favorite colors in it, hence "Le Cugine" collection.

Here is Emma, one of the latest:



The skein on the left is merino/tencel, the one on the right is seacell/silk, both available on Etsy.

My yarn never looked so nice

I am the Artist of the Month at Yarn4Socks, and Donna and Valerie sure know hot to take a photo, go over there and look, my yarn never looked so nice!

In addition to my regular colorways, I also created an exclusive one for them, Fire in the Forest:

1, 2, 3 ........

Last time I posted was how many days ago? 10? No, 11?

Note to myself, next year do not take, repeat, DO NOT, take any wholesale order for the yarn business while your other business is open 7 days a week. Last time I checked, still 7 days in a week (and 24 hours in a day.)

Anyway, if you are a member Full Toes Ahead, I hope you are happy with the colorway and the pattern. If you do not, what are you waiting for?

In the mist of skeining, dyeing, and re-skeining, there was one FO: I finally finished and felted the felted bag that was 95% done since August:



Needle: US 11 / 8.0 mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Lion Wool Solid 1 skeins = 158.0 yards (144.5m) in Sage and Lion Brand Lion Wool Prints 2 skeins = 286.0 yards (261.5m) Majestic Mountain
Pre-felting dimensions: 18x19"
Post-felting dimensions: 14.5x11"

But mostly there were WIPs while I am working my x-mas list.



Socks for my brother, toe-up, but see what I am doing? I have put the first sock on hold on some scrape yarn and started the second one from the other end of the ball. I have developed a real phobia about running out of yarn. It have not having good sock karma lately (after the Gryffindor sock, even the Jaywalker has been misbehaving, but we won't talk about that.)

I have received some wonderful stitch markers from Emma Crookshanks of Hufflepuff for Hogwarts Sock Swap I:



Aren't they beautiful? I do appreciate the paper as well!

But my good fortune did not stop there, I won one of the prizes for Knit Unto Others and a skein of sock yarn from Wooly Wonka Fiber is on its way to me!

Yarn is taking over my house

I have three wholesale orders I am trying to get out of the house, so wherever I look, there is yarn. And dust bunnies, like Paperino keeps pointing out while trying to kick them with his ball (alpaca does create a lot of dust bunnies) while dribbling around empty cones.



All this re-skeining and dyeing does not leave much time for knitting, but thanks to soccer and swim practices, I do have a couples of updates.

The SKB has a sleeve, well almost:



I have decided I like neither options offered so I have decided for a 3/4 straight sleeve.

The Knitting Pure and Simple Baby Pullover has almost a sleeve too:



I should finish both next week - we'll see!

Well, if you have been reading until now, in the spirit of "getting as much yarn as possible out of the house, what about free shipping on my Etsy shop? Just put "blog" in the comment box, and I'll send you a revised invoice.

Disaster recovery

1. Post on the blog, so that many people smarter than will give me sympathy and suggestions. Agnes is a genius, I kept thinking that I could not possible send my pal a pair of sock with one toe in a different color, but of course, as she said, both toes in a coordinating color!

2. Go to the LYS and see if I can find that coordinating color (you would think that in my stash of 200+ different yarns I could find something, think again.)

3. Get an amazing package from Karen of ABC's of Creative Pursuits:



3. Dye some new yarn:



Panda Sock Yarn, a wool, bamboo, and nylon blend, that I just got and love. It will go on etsy soon, and look on the side bar ---------->
I even have a newsletter now!

4. Swatch my freshly dyed yarn:



Swatching a new yarn always makes me happy, new yarn with new colorway, double points.

5. Dye some more:



6. And more:



7. OK, enough with the dyeing, let's go back to task. I fished this from my stash:



and I sent it to my pal with an apologetic note telling her about the disaster and that her socks are doomed will be a little late.

9. Finishing the Gaeta Tank Top for One Planet Yarn and Fiber:



Nothing to do with socks, but saying "Done!" always feels good.

10. What if the coordinating toes thing does not work? Need to knit another pair of socks right now. Toe up socks, it would take a while before I muster the courage to knit another top down sock. Decide to use my pattern, it should go fast and smoothly (stay tuned on this blog to see how many times I can screw up a pattern that I wrote.) Look for yarn, and decide on this one:


Yarn Botanika Merino/Tencel in Hot Summer Nights

Roll the yarn in two equal balls:





Swatch the yarn, and NOT get gauge.

11. Go look for another yarn and spend few hours debating between this:



and this:



Fleece Artist won because it is superwash. Swatch. Get gauge. Do the happy dance.

12. Since I am swatching, swatch for the Hogwarts Sock Swap as well:



And while I am at it, email Sheri to see if she has an extra hank of Louet Gems in Burgundy in dye lot # 80-1582-9, you know, just in case.

13. Cancel Paperino's party for Sunday, since most of his friends are on vacation, and reschedule for September. Thia has nothing to do with the socks, but the idea I do not have to deal with a bunch of 7 years old this Sunday makes me feel better anyway.

What's wrong with this picture?

Once again, on Thursday I went to FTA to have lunch with Hollis and drop these:



After lunch I wondered around the store knitting one of the many socks on the needles, and I was so mesmerized by all the new yarns, especially the table covered with Sea Wool, that look what I did:

Spring Break is over

Spring Break is over, the kids are back to school, and nobody looked at me this morning and asked: "What are we going to do today?". Somehow, the fact that I am responsible for their entertainment during breaks has not sunk in yet. Ten years of working mom habits are hard to break.
But break was fun. We went bowling, and swimming (want more knitting time? get the kids on a swim team and you get about 6 hours of interrupted knitting time per week). We visit Hollis, and that was especially delightful. When I used to work there, we never got to have lunches together, or just hang out; usually she was running in while she was running out.
I brought her some of my yarns, so if you are in the Bay Area, stop by and take a look!
And since we are talking business, I have update my shop and I still have this bag



to wind and put up there. If you happen to be a store owner, I do wholesale orders, just let me know if you are interested.
After long consideration, I have decided to put patterns for sale on my patterns page. The first one up is a pattern that was available on Chiagu until now:



Payment by paypal, pattern emailed to you as a pdf file. Next pattern up will be something I have designed for One Planet Yarn and Fiber - not saying anything more.

Now that I am done with the self-promoting, back to the knitting.
Mia is done! All done, seams and all. the only thing that is missing a kilt pin to close it. See how the list for the UFO Resurrection 2007 is getting shorter? The list of things on the needles is NOT getting any shorter, but at least I won't have any project from 2006 soon. Or by the end of 2007, I will settle for that.

I should be working on my Snap Cardigan, but last night the only project I had in the basket near my bed I was inspired to knit on my Sugar Maple Shawl in cashmere. I have used 200 of the 800 yards of yarn I plan to use, so I am 25% done!

Things that make me happy

A very short phone call I received put me in a very bad mood yesterday. Funny that it bothered me so much because it is really nothing, and I did receive very good news on other matters, so I should have been on cloud nine. Being my usual "I never have enough to do" me, I am trying to launch two businesses at once. My own hand-dyed yarns are going wholesale, and I am opening an imports from Italy business with a friend of mine (we are not going to import yarns, sorry, but, now that I think of it, if I found something when I am over there .....)
So got very good news on both fronts, then the petty whine phone call, and boy, was I unhappy. Solution? Let's concentrate on things that make me happy.

1. Yarn. Enough said.

2. My yarn:



This is 100% Blue Faced Leicester Superwash in sock weight, 3-ply, that I am going to offer in skeins of 90gr/380yds. I fell in love with BFL at Stitches, when I bought a skein at Lisa Souza's booth, and I decided on the spot that I needed to dye some myself. BFL is an especially soft yet strong fiber and has a luster to it that makes colors stand out. I am knitting a mini sock with this colorway, and I am loving it!

3. Finished socks:



Pattern by Nancy Bush from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Icehouse - 1 hank

4. People knitting up my patters - check out The Very Berry T-shirt gallery, and if you have knit one (or any other of my patterns), please send me a photo!