stitches west 2009

...was awesome, as always :)
(almost as much as the company!)

Found myself buying silk blends again this year, weird since I never buy them online-- they must just not translate well across the computer screen because I jump at them in person.


l to r:
Blue Moon Fiber Arts 50/50 merino-silk in Jubilation
Pigeonroof Studios 80/20 merino-silk in Amazon
A Verb for Keeping Warm 50/50 merino-silk in No. 9

Also found a spindle I was hoping to find...


Greensleeves Damsel Monique in Masur Birch .85oz from Carolina Homespun
(I wanted a big Mjolinor in MB, but I think I may like this one more!)

...and a spindle I didn't know I was looking for.


Asciano Fiber Arts, "Mischa" in cocobolo rosewood 1.27oz
(website down?)

The style of spindle is not Mischa, instead the owner told me-- each spindle has a name. She was a real character, but I just couldn't walk away from that yellow/red combo (and that she knocked off $20 for the shaft having a warp-- don't mind a slight wobble for as beautiful as it is.) The yellow band is the wood closest to the bark side of the tree, alive where the red isn't. Neat.

Maybe not as much as the 'most interesting thing' on the market floor, as dubbed by my companion...


Tactile Fiber Arts Superwash BFL in Lichen

I can appreciate natural dyers staying as close to natural bases as they do for their dyes and superwashed fiber is just not it (you can't even make superwash wool in the US for the environmental hazards)... but I can't help but want a machine washable wool for socks. I'm really excited about this fiber base addition to Tactile's lineup.

I couldn't make it to the Knitmore Girls meetup at 2 at the Purlescence booth, but I stopped by early to say hi and Jasmin FORCED a swag bag on me ;)


(minus a KG button that went onto my now-vintage aVfKW/Tactile canvas bag)

I bought the Mini Mochi from Purlescence as a mini thank you for the shop sponsoring the Knitmore Girls podcast (I'm a fan! and won't the MM make an amazing woven scarf?)... but the rest was swag donated to the 'girls by Verena, Purlescence and others (!!) It even included a pleated scarf pattern by Chloe Sparkle/The Hundredth Monkey-- really nice and one of those 'great for handspun' options.

That was my favorite part of the market this year-- running into knitters and talking in person. Kristi's right that you kind of have to grab me because I am ridiculously shy, but it's great when it happens :)

Lots of awesome on and off of the floor this year. Thanks again :)

spinning to stitches

The Stash and Burn ladies have inspired me to take a look at my past Stitches West purchases (and maybe get some worked up and out of the stash!) before heading back again for 2009. So, I'm spinning some Pigeonroof Studios Superwash BFL purchased @ Article Pract's booth last year (for a 4 ply, cabled sock yarn. goodness i love this spindle-- bosworth red cedar featherweight, 12g) and realizing I've done pretty good as far as using past purchases, not much leftover from past SW's. It's not a free pass to go nuts, but I can finally put together my 'must-see' booth list before I cross the stitches market threshold since I usually peter or paul out before seeing it all and I don't want to miss a select few.

My list starts with bay area handdyers at the top... There are a lot of excellent handdyers attending this year, but I have a real softspot for locals :)

A Verb for Keeping Warm-- free totebag + 10% next purchase coupon with $80 purchase (did you listen to the latest yknit, where kristine talks about how labor/time intensive natural dyeing is?) You'll also be able to find zero stitch markers here too, freshwater pearl/semiprecious stone lovelies made by my own hands :)

Tactile Fiber Arts-- free totebag + 10% online order with $75 purchase... and I heard Maia say she has naturally dyed superwash BFL and loose washed locks for spinning!! Excited about their "Amber" colorway too.

Pigeonroof Studios-- do I need to say more? (see above!) I wonder if there will be anything left, but a girl's got to try ;)

Fiber Fiend-- I am so there for the intense superwash merino and maybe superwash corriedale, if Margit has some left...

Urban Fauna-- I just received the nicest superwash BFL from Karrie's Girl on the Rocks online shop and can't wait to check out more here (and other local dyers!) at this new store.

Lisa Souza-- yall will probably decimate her handdyed spinning batts before I get there! Can't wait to see if they actually last past the market preview tonite :)

I also want to buy a few patterns this year-- CoCoKnits' new fleece thrummed hat (and I *will* use washed fleece!), Knit Whits' Elfin booties (Stanley is still very loved and I'm thinking the kid will dig a pair of felted boots), and I can't wait to thumb thru the sweater pattern books at Black Water Abbey. I'm sitting here with their worsted weight colorcard on my desk thinking I should buy a sweater's worth of yarn from them, the colors are just amazing and cables would sing in their yarn! Ergh... maybe enough for a hat til I get my other messes under control. And Cookie A's new book will be available for preview at Shelridge Farms-- along with their lovely Canadia goodness.

I'm also kindasorta looking for an 8 dent reed for my 25" Schacht Flip, but I know I can order one thru Verb (and have a good excuse to visit the brick and mortar store!) so it's not that big a deal if I don't find one. I'd love a new spindle too, but I've been a little nuts buying them from the Bellwether and others lately that I don't know if I'll find something I'll love as much :) We'll see!

If you're still figuring your must-see booths and haven't seen it yet, EGarcia has once again put together a map of the market that includes the names of the vendors (ravlink), and highlights those that have spinning supplies for sale. You'll also see that XRX has invited a Girl Scouts troop to man a donation-run bag and coatcheck-- no need to drag armloads around, or even wet umbrellas/coats if it's raining outside.

I would *love* to hear your booth suggestions-- I'm excited about this year and am sure I've missed some!

Til then and no fisticuffs over fiber on the market floor!

Yuki, part one-- cables

Designing comes from a weird place in me, a different place every time. Sometimes I'm faced with a yarn that needs something special, sometimes a motif strikes me as impossible to ignore. I don't really think of myself as a designer but more as a knitter who's struck with a need to get a pattern to paper when it strikes, for fear of the idea slipping away. Notebooks help, but goodness I can barely decipher the pattern I scribbled out for my felted mitered square bag two years later :)

As a knitter, I really appreciate anne's series on the progression of her patterns-- watching her patterns grow up from an idea, a stitch pattern into a fully formed thing gets me a little closer inside her head (in a non-weird knitter appreciation way!) and makes me admire the finished design a little more than had it jumped fully formed from the sea (or thigh, or forehead...) Cookie's installment for Socktoberfest is that same thing-- it sticks with you, makes you feel like you can do it too :)

So in (all that) vein, I've been meaning to share a project in progress and since I've been not knitting at all lately (making zero stitch markers for A Verb for Keeping Warm's booth at Stitches West, playing with my new-to-me Schacht Matchless (!!), hosting a houseguest...) it seems like a good time!


Yuki, part one

Now, I say part one because for this pattern I've been absolutely obsessed over how to manipulate one idea for a stitch pattern and my goal is threefold... cables, cables + colorwork, and colorwork. It may sound crazy but really, it's not-- the same groundwork is enough for all three, and it's just the realization and getting it onto paper that's the hard part :)

So let me back up... Yuki started with me wanting to design a continuous, circularly knit cable pattern that echoed a fishscale, a simple 1x1 cable that would translate well to small spaces and liberally use reverse stockinette so I could show the beautiful backside of handpainted yarns. It took lots of sketching and swatching to get a design that would work on the scale I was looking at and would be easy to work, but I did.



I chose Pigeonroof Studios yarn (merino/cashmere/nylon blend) for the 'part one-- cables' sock not only because I just love this color, but because Krista's colorways aren't too jarring or full of varying saturation or values. You can still see the cable pattern over the handpainted yarn, and it just makes me happy when they can both hang out and not overpower one another. It'd work well in a solid as well, but the almost-large reverse stst spaces on this sock scream to show the way handpainted yarns excel on the purl side.



Keeping true to the lovely look of rev stockinette, the sole of the foot is in the same...



I wanted this cable to work as a base for jumping off into colorwork with, and the dirty secret of it is that cables + colorwork is super awesome and if you can do both, you can do them together :) I'm getting ahead of myself though, that's part two.

But a sneak peek...



Til then!

etsy friday

I'm a big big fan of finding etsy goods thru word of mouth from my friends-- they're always right on with what they think is cool :) So when I found Jelby thru Jen of piddleloop, I couldn't help but ask for a few custom stitch marker holders... you know how many stitch markers I have around here, eh? :)

I asked for an orange sheep...

felted stitch marker holder from Jelby.etsy.com
(pictured with stacked freshwater pearl stitch markers from zero.etsy.com)

...and an amanita mushroom (the mycophile in me still burns)...


felted stitch marker holder from Jelby.etsy.com
(pictured with pale cape amethyst stitch markers from zero.etsy.com)

They are SO COOL. Cary even included a tiny felted mushroom stitch marker-- it's awesome! The felted beads are very light and I could see how well these would work as stitch markers-- not heavy like glass, but so unusual and all handmade using a combination of wet and needle felting to capture the effect. VERY high up on my admiration list. Cary is also really great to work with for custom orders-- both the orange sheep and mushroom were special requests, and they are spot on to what I wanted. You can always convo Jelby to make you something special easy peasy, too! :)

Of course, Jen is a trickster and asked Cary to send me some squid love on a stitch holder... and Cary added her own touch on the other side...


(pictured with oval amethyst stitch markers from zero.etsy.com)

...a FELTED SPACE INVADER. Holy crap on a cracker but this had me squealing when I opened my mail this morning!!!! Jen also included some glass mushroom stitch markers-- I'm wearing one as a pendant today :)

So happy!!!

Further on the happy tip...


Blue faced leicester roving from pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com -- Loganberry

I don't know if you know (but judging from the speed at which her updates sell out, probably!) but Krista from Pigeonroof Studios is taking her shop on as her fulltime work-- a big leap of faith that I'm so excited about! There have been updates almost every day, and with the help of her new Schacht she's also updating her handspun yarns every Saturday. This is definitely the best time to add her shop to your rss feed, or get onto her email list for a headsup on her updates :)

One more shop I visited before the holidays...


Card case by sweetheartsinner.etsy.com

SweetheartSinner makes lots of things using kitsch, pop, punk, robot, pulp, and traditional images-- including this card case I bought for mom for the holidays. My mom had been carrying her essentials (id, cards, cash, etc.) in an ancient metal Camel case I'd given her back from when I was in undergrad (ages ago ;)) and it was literally held together with a rubberband and a prayer. SweetheartSinner's shop to the rescue-- she has over 70 (!!) pages of card cases and such to choose from, and this Hokusai print was perfect for mom. (Another Hokusai dream print would have my choice, but it can't always be about me ;))

The card case is really quite deep, made for holding cigarettes on each side...



...and the hinges inside are perfect for that, and for holding cards and cash securely.



Another etsy hit for the handmade holidays :)

Ah, I'm running out of time, so more next week!! Have a good one, I will ;)

etsy friday

I missed sharing etsy fridays! :)


Merino/cashmere/nylon sock yarn from PigeonroofStudios.etsy.com
Harvest colorway

I've had this Pigeonroof Studios yarn for a while (relatively!) now... I loved it before both in skein and knit up, and Krista's new batches have more cashmere than before! Her etsy updates can still be hard to jump on but she does maintain a mailing list-- you may want to contact her thru etsy to get on it and get a jump on being ready in front of your computer when she updates. (Or, subscribe to her shop's rss feed!)

Normally I don't ball my wool til I'm ready to knit with it, and have tipped my hand here. I've been knitting with this new formulation, the dread secret knitting, and it's wonderful stuff and really does look great worked up-- no pooling. I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to make my next pattern for sale (one of the samples is knit in this yarn) thru Ravelry's pdf pattern delivery service when it goes live. A good friend, Jen from piddleloop, has a secret identity as a pdf pattern designer extraordinaire and I'm trying to convince her to make her services widely available to other designers like me who are all thumbs when it comes to things like that... I'm sure you'll hear more in the coming weeks on all points :)

Speaking of designing, a lot of my holiday gifts were handmade (purchased)-- including this beauty from a famous designer:


Designs By Romi sterling silver shawl pin

You guys know the giant brain behind Muir and Ice Queen (and an upcoming BOOK about beads and fiber and yarn oh my!) also has a shop selling handmade shawl pins, yeah? (Just checking!) Rosemary's not an etsy vendor but I can't keep this one hidden for any longer :) It was a gift for mom along with the Hanami stole and the red glass shawl pin from TexturedTurtle-- and I had a *hard* time giving it away!

It is supercool though-- the spiral is slightly raised so you can actually draw your knitted fabric in without having to dig down with the stickpin to secure the knitting; a really spectacular detail only a knitter could think of. It's also heavier/sturdier than I thought it would be, but in a good way-- not heavy enough to drag down your knitting, but enough so you don't feel like you're going to bend it out of shape using it.

It really is breathtaking.

(And I really did give it away!)

:)

Another holiday gift...


Handdipped incense from FooberryIncense.etsy.com

My mom has been on a huge incense kick lately, which is funny since she always accused me of ulterior motives when I burned it as a teenager :) Water under the bridge, I'm all about the watching the gap-- which is the reason I chose to buy a grip of incense from Fooberry Incense for mom this year.

This is the freshest incense I've ever experienced, leaning more to the blue boxed dry as a bone Nag Champa for my fix. Since Julie makes your order when you place it, the sticks are just heavy with scent. Not only heavy but varied-- Fooberry has over 200 items/scents for sale including unusual ones like BACON and TOMATO as well as standards like dragon's blood and patchouli. Being made to order, it does take a bit to receive but FooberryIncense was sure to let me know each step from creation to shipping so I didn't worry about it arriving in time.

One other custom holiday gift from an etsy vendor was for my son...


Child's vinyl and fabric apron from DesignsByNanaHome.etsy.com

My blurry child :) Seriously though, he WANTED this-- he's been on a "helping" kick in the kitchen lately, washing dishes and "cooking" alongside me, and we have had a throwdown or two over who got to wear (MY) red apron... so I searched etsy for his own. I knew exactly what I wanted (vinyl coated, for wipedowns-- we're messy round here!; not feminine looking; something size and age appropriate) and DesignsByNanaHome had this perfect one! :) Actually, she custom makes these aprons from several different fabrics, all sandwiched with vinyl-- I picked the perfect surfer one for my crazy haired kid :)

I have to say how impressed I was not only with the apron (it has a toggle at the neck so it'll fit as he gets older and taller, the pockets are a really nice touch), but with the packaging. I don't really go for a lot of fancy packing stuff since it just hits the recycle bin, but DesignsByNanaHome *flatpacked* this so the vinyl wouldn't get creased during transit-- and I was just thrilled with that minor detail. The fact I don't have to share my apron anymore is a plus, too :)

Good to be back :) I'll be back next week with new FOs and some pics of dyed rovings I'll list in my etsy shop (I have a new blend of superwash merino/cashmere/nylon, along with sw merino/seacell and my standard superwash merino to dye... wish me luck!)

holiday knitting

Handspun Blue Faced Leicester (superwash) socks
roving from pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com -- blackthorn
more woolen than not-spun, 2 ply dk weight
Started: 23 October 2007, walkaround
Finished: in time for Xmas 2007
US 3 dpns, 4

I did a lot of holiday knitting (for me) this time around, everything having a special place in my heart. These socks I carried around with me for months, sneaking in rounds standing in long lines at the grocery store, waiting at the broadway curb, fighting sleep on the red couch in the living room... wherever I could sneak in the reified prayers of love and longing onto my needles I would. At this point, knitting's a reaction of my hands; the thoughts while knitting these instead were love, wishes of warm feet and a good year ahead and behind.



They're so simple though... but just between you and me? After conquering lots of technique, yarns and FOs it feels the best to just knit... round around round, left alone in the circularity of silence and reaction, reflex. I love learning and trying new things but it's the home of stockinette, the simplicity of things, the calm after the storm in one's arms that I find true solace and joy in. It is the simple pieces that shine in my heart because I'm not thinking of patterns when I knit, but the loved ones they're intended for.



I feel spoiled being able to not only knit gifts, but to use yarn I've spun myself for it. Relatively, this is one of the older yarns from my handspun sock yarn stash and lately I'm spinning a long draw that has more tension in the singles, less soft and poufy, much less fuzzy/woolen looking than this one was. As much as I like the look of smoother/worsted spun yarns, both in pictures and in that nagging sense in the back of my mind that my yarns like these are less "professional" than the slick examples across blogland... lord they are warm. And fuzzy soft. And a joy to squish your toes around in. Perfect for colder weather than the one I'm enjoying (pray no rain today for me-- my son's getting a shiny new red bike that I didn't handmake ;)), for those times one needs to feel held and warm and loved.



I only worry they're too similar to a better photographed pair, despite being dk to the fine fingering of the previous. Too much purple, too easily influenced, too eager to please. Doesn't matter, doesn't matter since both come from the same place in me, that same reaction that has become reflex with time, deeper seated in my heart and hands.

Merry Christmas. Miss you.

:)

color works (sometimes)

Lots of kid knits lately, I know...


Butterflies for Bairns mittens
from Knitting Fair Isle Mittens and Gloves
Trekking XXL 100 & Louet Gems Pearl/fingering (black)
US 1.5 (2.5mm) 32" circular, Holz & Stein & 4" Susanne's dpns, 5 (for thumb)
Started: 4 October 2007
Finished: 6 October 2007

I predict you'll be seeing a lot more toddler mittens in the future from me :) First and most importantly... he LOVES wearing these. He ate popcorn wearing them!! :) Seriously though, at most my little one is ambivalent about handknits (except toys, who doesn't love toy robots and bears?!)-- and usually he prefers storebought things that are already in his drawers. But mittens... he loves these and it makes me ridiculously happy to churn out something so fast that he loves.

On top of being crazy fast to finish, they were a great use of leftover sock yarn. I know traditional fair isle mittens are made with non-superwash yarns, but all of his are probably going to be superwash if I can help it-- the popcorn eating was probably the least messy thing he'll try in these and I love that I can (and will!) toss these in with the wash and not worry about them.



I love trekking xxl 100-- these were leftovers from my favorite pair of Pomatomus I've knit. (The Louet leftovers were from the bmp socks.) I was a bit worried since one of the 3 plies in trekking occasionally ran black, but I think it's fine and not too lost. It was fun to use with the slow gradations of color against the solid background... I may pick up some more ombre colorways in the future just to play with how they look in stranded knitting.

I tweaked the pattern and placement a bit, just to accommodate his longer hand and my use of only 2 yarns. Using a larger needle and an extra stitch in the pattern repeat I was able to squeeze in enough width for his hand, enough for them to be comfortable and easy enough for him to put on himself. I always thought that the waste yarn palm placement of thumbs would wear weird (though looks good off!) but he didn't seem to mind it at all.


(a bit under the weather, both of us.)

So I've been bitten again by the colorwork bug, and had promptly cast on for Eunny's Chuck's Cabled Socks after seeing this crazy brillig pair on Mel's blog. I've had the pattern and yarn for forever, but changed the CC color from Koigu to the Pigeonroof Studios "harvest" colorway (much better imo)...


(with a Japanese Handmade Etc sock knitting bag and a freshwater pearl/tiger's eye stone stitch marker from zeromarkers)

It's a fun knit, once you get the hang of it. (Can you cable? Do colorwork? Then you can do both!) I was careful to swatch in stranded knitting... but should have known there would be a problem then. I was able to manage the 7 sts/inch in colorwork using fingering weight yarn (on US 3's... ugh), but I didn't like it. I like my stranded knitting to be somewhat dense so you can't see the carried yarn behind it (esp. for things with negative ease in them), and 7 sts/inch really isn't dense at all for these yarns. I can get the sock over my heel...



...but I really really dislike the way I can see the orange carried color behind when I do. (It is a push-pull getting this thing on though, for certain). Mel had a wonderful idea to enlarge the instep & back of the leg cable to a 6 strand from four, and was able to do so in a really beautiful way. I am kinda ambivalent about the black yarn as well-- I think I may use a dark solid brown instead and take a hint from Mel on her mods... after I frog this :)

I have to say I really do like the way that variegated yarns look in colorwork against a solid background though-- you can really see the beauty of each as more of a distilled shot than the all-over you usually get.

I do have one more stranded knitting project I'm working on, but this is too long! It's an oldie...

Til then, miss you :)

Fall knitty, q stockings and a contest

q stockings, my new pattern :)
published in fall knitty 2007
additional q stocking pics here in my flickr stream

Yall have no idea how hard it was to keep quiet about this pair of stockings! I breaknecked to get the second done recently (8 days), and liked the completed pair so much I actually bought a skirt (!!!) to wear them with :)

So, let's keep the happiness rolling...

Since contests make me happy, and etsy makes me happy... time for another etsy contest! For those of you who are new to my blog, Etsy is an online marketplace where crafters and artists can sell their handmade work. I try to feature various etsy artists I've purchased from every week here on my blog for "etsy fridays," and have picked a small sampling of favorite stores to give gifts and gift certificates from.

***


$27 gift certificate to LORiOLA.etsy.com

There is a lot of beautiful jewelry on Etsy, but I am just smitten when it comes to LORiOLA's work. She is a glass artist with a great eye for color, a sense of humor about her art and a steady hand when it comes to creating scrollwork in molten glass. I truly believe each of her pieces is a work of art and I'm thrilled to own several different types.

***


$20 gift certificate to pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com

I go on and on about Pigeonroof Studios, but it's not without good reason. She hand dyes yarn and roving for spinning in some of the most exciting colors I've seen on etsy (outside as well), and sells a good variety of handspun yarn for those wanting to try to knit with handspun. I am *captivated* by her eye for and application of color across fiber mediums.

***


$18.50 gift certificate to frostfishcovesoaps.etsy.com

I have bought pounds of handmade soap from etsy for myself and loved ones, and Frost Fish Cove Soaps is my favorite vendor. Their molded, cold process soaps come in a wide variety of scents and ingredients that are foamy, cleansing and a luxury to use. I never thought I could be so excited about soap until finding handmade soaps, but I am and Frost Fish has made me a convert.

***


3 sets to 3 winners: tissue cozy and keyfob set by piddleee.etsy.com
donated by Jen and Wendy of Piddleloop :)

You guys know how I feel about Piddleloop's fabric bags for storing my knitting projects, but did you know they make other awesome fabric creations as well? I didn't until Jen sent me this tissue cozy and keychain set; turns out the Piddleloop team makes lots of things for their local retail markets they we don't see in their etsy store. Here's your chance to see for yourself the excellent handwork that goes into all of their products-- and really, I didn't know I needed to carry kleenex with me til I started, and now I can't stop. It makes me feel like supermom.

***


custom made Chrysanthemums on Black pouch by JapaneseHandmadeEtc.etsy.com
donated by Satomi of JapaneseHandmadeEtc, photo courtesy of her store

You know how much I love my Japanese Handmade Etc box bag pouches for sock knitting (see all SIX of mine here, here and here)... they are the perfect travel size for a sock, hang lightly on the wrist for walking and knitting, are heavily interfaced and reversible so no wayward dpns can poke thru, and really just seem made for housing small knitting projects. They are perfect for non-knitters as well (my son uses his for carrying important toddler boy treasures in, mom likes hers for carrying small essentials like a wallet and keys), and I'm still amazed at how well and with what detail they are put together.

Sorry for leaving this off my original post! :(

***


$10 gift certificate to creativeapples.etsy.com

Creative Apples, by sheer volume alone, is my favorite greeting card seller on etsy. She is a photographer with a huge range, and her work looks awesome mounted on the large blank cards I buy hand over fist. Her shop is full of subject matter (superhero toys, foliage and flowers, cupcakes, robots...) and she will make any image from her flickr stream into a card or print. The choices there are huge and even more varied, so it's no wonder why I have and send so many.

***


$10 gift certificate to time2cre8.etsy.com

I have been a fan of time2cre8 ever since opening up my own etsy store. I buy all of the recycled atlas/comic book handmade business card envelopes for my packages from her, and she constantly amazes me with what she can do with paper-- handmade envelopes, printed tags, aceos and cards. I love the variety of her art and talent across all sorts of media.

***


$10 gift certificate to zero.etsy.com

The best knitting stitch markers on etsy.

:)

Seriously though, this is my little corner of etsy-- I have a shop selling knitting stitch markers made from freshwater pearls, semiprecious stones, and other handmade goods that do well as markers (being light, being unusual and being handmade). As much as I love glass jewelry, I am a big fan of abandoning glass for natural stones for my stitch markers. Freshwater pearls are incredibly light on the needles, much lighter than glass while still a beauty and joy to use. zeromarkers will also custom size your stitch marker rings for free-- you have a choice of US 2, US 4, US 9 and US 13 rings that nearly all sets can be fit with, depending on your knitting poison.

I also, occasionally, sell superwash merino roving for spinning dyed in 4 oz braids when I need a little color outlet.

zero.etsy.com - zerOmarkers

***


photo courtesy of EtsyLabs.etsy.com

Each winner will also receive a 1" button made by at Etsy Labs-- the "gooey nougat center of the Etsy Executive Offices" where lucky NYC artists and crafters can hang out and expand their craft muscles by learning something new and soaking up the etsyness.

***

All of the certificates should be enough to cover at least one item in the above shops with shipping, so no worries about needing alternate payment methods (unless you want to stock up, which my fellow vendors and I fully endorse ;)).



"How can I win something etsy-fabulous?"

By submitting a couplet to the world's longest poem at Choka On It and copy/pasting your couplet in the comments to *this* post. I reserve the right to disqualify you if you don't follow their (simple) submission requirements... I'm mean like that, ask around ;) Any doubts, check my past choka contests here, here, and here for more info. You must leave me either a link to your blog or a valid email address with your comment, no anonymous entries (so the vendors and I can contact you if you win!)

Contest will run til Friday, Sept 28 at 12pm PST (the next Etsy Friday for me, I'm taking a few weeks off!)... and winners will be chosen *at random* (one entry per person), so no worries about your poetry skilz or lack thereof.

Good luck! Keep on stranding on!

etsy friday

it's been near on a week, and the withdrawal pangs haven't subsided.


superwash merino sock yarn from pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com
"harvest" colorway

I keep telling myself I'm not buying any more sock yarn, that I have almost enough to make somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 60 pairs of socks and I should just really stop looking... then Pigeonroof Studios puts up her etsy updates like a thief in the night and I get to seeing pink and can't help it. (I know! I should unsubscribe from her shop's rss feed. I know.) Orange is still one of my favorite colors in sock yarn, and I just love the way her yarn feels knitting up. (No progress on Twisted Flower-cum-Mona yet, I'm considering frogging again for a colorwork sock. No laughing.)

Anyways. I said before that I like Krista's colorways better than koigu (yes, really) and it's still true. They're just really fresh and bright, even the darker leaning ones. (And you can special order any colorway from her sold items list by convo'ing her and not feel like it's the holy grail or something you're reaching for-- it's still just yarn yall, not the love of your life :))

Not the love of my life either, but still nice...



I know, what could it be?


12 pocket circular needle holder by grannyscloset.etsy.com

A circular needle holder by Granny's Closet, with 12 pockets and this awesome orangey red bird on a ball fabric. I've been kinda sorta in the market for a circular needle holder for a while, really liking what's out there but a lot of it far too hip for mah "little life" here (other beautiful circ. needle holders are made by honeycakedesigns.etsy.com and sanfranciscocrafts.etsy.com)... this one is just right for me :)

12 pockets actually, technically, isn't enough, but I've consolidated the US 1/1.5 and US 2/2.5 needles together, and all of the leftover oddly large I have no idea why I own these treetrunk needles in the last upper pocket. I've also been slipping my susan bates knit-chek needle guide into a bottom pocket, easy way to spotcheck I have the right needle since the pockets are (thankfully) not marked-- I think it'd be a little distracting if they were.

In any case, it's a *huge* upgrade from my previous circular needle filing system...



A hard sided metal photo album, with openings in the top for 20 horizontal 4x6 photos. Cost: $1 at the local thrift store. Not bad really, but since the "spine" edge was hard set, the case with all of the needles inside tended to fan upwards and take a lot of space, and needles would often fall out and/or uncurl. The Granny's Closet organizer has super deep pockets as well as a little folding inner lip of fabric at the very top to keep those upper needles from wiggling out of their bonds.

Now if you're looking for a fancy Knitpicks Option organizer, you know you can hook one up from Zonda's talented little hands, right? (She may even make "regular" cases for those of us stuck in the circular dark ages with our Addis ;)... maybe?) There is a waiting list, but if her cases are as well made as the sockfish bag she made for me is (and I'm sure they are)... it'd be worth it.


Stitched and tatted cards purchased from etsy, l to r:
stitched tulip and you are my sunshine stitched cards from minecreations.etsy.com
tatted flowers card from AprilsFlowers.etsy.com

More cards of course, even though as it is with sock yarn I don't think I can possibly use them all. I still try, and that's what's important, eh? :)

I keep saying it, but I really like stitching on cards-- something is so sexy about thread and paper that I have to have and share. And really, you *are* my sunshine. :) The cards from Mine Creations use stitching and fabric together, which I really like since I can be a bit of a sewing voyeur/groupie (so fascinating! i love being intimidated). She also makes her own envelopes using machine stitching for the edges:



Awesome.

I have no idea what tatting is (wikipedia does), but broadly know it's a form of lacemaking. I actually read about it on the choka-on-it site a LONG while back... but how neat is this? April's Flowers makes delicate hand tatted flowers and attaches them to handdrawn "vines" on cards. I think it's so special, a perfect card for someone who appreciates handcraft and would immediately recognize the work that went into this.

Up close:



Nice way to head into the weekend. Not the best way (hard to beat!) but still :)

Have a good one, miss you.

now with 69% more love

Handspun superwash BFL
(Blue Faced Leicester, silly :))
4 oz, approx 14-15 wpi (sport weight)
roving from pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com, "blackthorn"
singles spun long draw

If it were possible to put more love into handknit socks (not convinced quite yet, I always feel toppedoff in that department), I suppose it would be by knitting with handspun yarn. Sure, yarn I've spun myself (and sometimes dyed myself) is more work, super special, but it's the love that's gone into it with extra pairs of hands and head on top of the knitting, more time spent thinking with hands busy in and on the yarn. Maybe it's why I like handpainted yarns so much as well... they're more expensive but it's because they've been thru someone's head and thought process, not a machine and printer.



I'm really happy with these skeins, even though they're not totally even. This is my second (completed) attempt at spinning long draw... and it WORKED. It looks like magic flying out of my hands, like it shouldn't work this way but it does. My main goal in spinning is to spin my own sock yarns, and inching thru I've been happy with the result but not the time it took. Using the long draw method, I was able to spin almost all of the singles for this yarn over a Saturday afternoon filled with anticipation-- where before it would take me (much, much longer than that).



The roving is from pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com -- in Krista's "blackthorn" colorway. I just love the look of it, and this time (as opposed to my last 2-ply sock yarn), this yarn has a lot of loft and light in it. And the color! It'll be fun to see how this one knits up; as a sportweight it should be quick. Too bad I already have a stockinette pair otn...

I wonder if the longer staple length of the BFL helped with my long draw... I'm going to try out some superwash merino later to see if there is a difference.



I'm glad I've overcome my fear of 2ply sock yarns... the 3 ply bfl knit into pomatomus look beautiful, but I was a little bummed running out of yarn at the toe on that pair and 3 plys are pretty much necessarily shorter yardage wise than comparable 2 ply in the same weight. I also think the colors will pop more to the eye, having one color bouncing off the other as opposed to the threeway mishmash, giving up individuality for the good of the team.

Since it's your favorite...



There were two, but we'll save that secret for later.