A major announcement

Sometimes it seems like I only manage to post on this blog when I have a major announcement to make.  This post is no exception!

Announcing:

 

 I'm very excited about this show.  It's going to be a lot of work, but I already have great volunteers, some tentative vendors, and a fantastic business partner.  Today we confirmed our first teacher- Karen Pauli, author of Care & Feeding of Spinning Wheels, is coming to teach a workshop based on her book, and might also teach a drop spindle class for us. Karen received a Laurel in the Society for Creative Anachronism for her work.

My strong right hand is CKay Hinchliffe, who is editor in chief of publications because I can't spell, and keeps prodding me about advertising, without which this beast won't fly. Our first flyers should head out next week, and I really hope the web site will be up and running by Friday. 

Our hostess, Georgia Meyer, is going to be in charge of the money and admissions.  She's a wonderful lady, and I'm really excited to be working with her. Her husband Marcos Gallardo is a sweet, funny man, who will be handling the farm tours (yes you get to interact with the alpacas!) Coping with parking, and coordinating security. 

I hope you can come join us, because this is going to be a wonderful, fantastic, awesome festival. 

Just too hot....

The AC isn't working,  and it is so hot the computers are complaining.  It's hot enough to die- and too hot to dye, or to make stitch markers.

This month's sock blank club will be running at least one, and maybe two weeks late getting out.  The good news is that  I'm finally getting the knitting machine I wanted, and I'll be able to whip out and dye the October blanks at the same time.  I can't wait- they're going to be fun!

This month's themes are back to school, and harvest.

Witches, pumpkins, monsters  or ghosts?

Last State Fair post, I promise

So here's a picture of all the yarn spun by me at the State Fair

EVERYBODY WINS!

 Only had four comments on the blog, so everybody wins!  If you are local to the Milwaukee area, you can pick up your yarn for me this Thursday at Milwaukee String Theory meeting at the Collectivo , on Humbolt just north of Locust. If you are not local to Milwaukee, please e-mail me at: Char at luvinewe.com and we'll arrange shipping options .

If there's anything you're looking for from the Etsy shop, as a 15% off coupon until the end of the month, and winners of this contest will ship free, even if I have to refund the money to your paypal account.

Thanks for playing!

Until next year.....

State fair is over until next year.  I had an awesome time spinning and teaching, and even learned some new tricks for my spinning repertoire!  The yarn that looks like someone sheared a clown is my very first core spun mohair yarn!  I love it- it's going to make an awesome accent on a hat or some mittens!  I was really prolific today, finished about four skeins bringing the total for the run of the fair up to 12!

I'll be giving away half of that- one skein each to six people who comment on yesterday's blog post before 1 AM tonight!

I'm looking forward to seein g some of you at Milwaukee String Theory on Thursday evening.  If you win yarn, you can pick it up there.

Back to the State Fair

Today was a grand day at the fair!  Lots of interest in the wheel , and two children even asked, un prompted by parents, if they could try making yarn!

Passed out a  lot of flyers for Milwaukee String theory, hopefully some of those folks will actually show up one of these Thursdays. 

Made a lot of yarn today.  Finished plying the Finn with some of the blue, and finished another bobbin full of the raspberry blue roving I got from Ogle Designs last week.  As promised, Some of the skeins made at the fair this year will be given away tomorrow evening!

Comment on this post between now and  1 am Monday August 12, and tell me what your favorite thing about going to the fair is, and you will be in the running for one of six skeins to be given away.  Winners will be posted and contacted for pick up or shipping information on Monday .  Pictures of the yarn will be posted tomorrow, but only comments on THIS POST will get you a chance at a skein of yarn!  One entry per person, please!

I'll be back at Wisconsin Wool Works in the Sheep barn again tomorrow, spinning from 9-3.  Come see me! 

The view from my wheel

This weekend was one of the most productive spinning weekends I've had in months.  I spent it at the Wisconsin Wool Works booth at the State Fair, in the Sheep Barn! I spun for 6 or so hours each day, and finished three small skeins of plied yarn.

I also got to talk to hundreds of people who were interested in sheep, knitting, and especially the spinning wheel.  I had one engineer asked to take my wheel apart so that he could finish building electric spinner for his sister, I had one little boy between two and three years old watch me for about 5 minutes really intently, and then explain to his mommy that it works just like his bicycle.  Including explaining how gears work.  His mom's in trouble when he grows up, I don't envy her trying to keep him from getting bored in public school.

Interestingly, there were more boys interested in the spinning wheel than girls. And more adult men than women.  Maybe it's because its machinery?

In any case, I talked myself hoarse both days.  I really want to thank CKay and Michael for getting up early and helping me get to the fair on Sunday, because having the car there made it possible to bring the spinning wheel home.  They even went and got the car for me so that I could do that.

Keep watching-there will be a giveaway of some of the yarns spun of the State Fair at the end of next weekend.

A better than average day.

So much has gone on in the last couple of weeks that it's almost impossible to catch you up. Between the holiday, an emergency costuming commission, and the Spoonflower fabrics arriving, I've been very busy! I think I finally managed to get all the Ravelry swap boxes finished and I'll  be shipping some tomorrow, and one next week.

I'm only going to be participating in one swap in the month of June.  June is just too busy.  There are two steam punk events, father's day, a possible second trip to Minneapolis, and at least three other family things going on this month, plus vacation! 

I want to try and use June to start building a client base both for the Etsy shop, and the Spoonflower shop.  It would be really cool, if we could get some movement on the Luvin'Ewe shop on Cafepress as well.

In that vein, here's the coupon code for the etsy shop for the month of June: LEblog 613 This one is for $5.00 off any order of $25.00 or more. 

In the hopes of building some readership here, there will be a give away each week this month.  Watch this space for more details.


Thanks for checking in!  See you later this week.

Washing Wool

Clean water

So today I finally got around to washing the Finn wool I picked up from Spry Whimsy at the Spin in.
Ingrid told me it was filthy when I bought it, and Boy! She was right!

A Hexi puff Kind of day

What is a hexipuff you ask?

A hexipuff is a tiny project that only takes a few minutes to make.  It's a component of a much larger project called the Beekeeper's Quilt by tiny owl knits.

I got the pattern as a gift, and I'm really excited about working it up.  It takes hundreds of tiny hexipuffs to make a good sized couch throw.  This is a good pattern for the in between times.  Since I have a bunch of running around and waiting to do today, this is the perfect project to take along.  

The Wisconsin Spin In

So I promised you guys a long post about the spin in.  I managed to get out there all three days and I had an absolutely wonderful time. My only real criticism is the times posted on the website did not always match times posted in the program book.

I got out there on Friday afternoon about 2:30, only to discover that the show floor didn't open until 4:00 PM.  So I ran to target, and got some lunch at McDonald's, and got back just after four. I didn't stay very long on Friday, because I hadn't  signed up for any Friday classes.  I did get a chance to preview most of the vendors on Friday.  The local Spindle and Dyepot  guild had a table, as did the Green Bay knitting guild,  the local knitting guild was teaching classes on the balcony all afternoon,  and in fact they were there all weekend, the local branch of the alpaca association were there, and many many vendors and farms.

On Friday I made contact with the Spindle and Dyepot folks, and met Peter from Spry Whimsy  who introduced me to Spinolutions spinning wheels.  Their wheels work on a pendulum type system, and the action as a little different from what I'm used to but I'm in love.  They're an American made wheel, made from beech plywood, and there are four models.  I'm in love with a Hopper, which is their smallest travel wheel.

The other person I met on Friday was Durp. He was just five days old.

Saturday my friend Teresa came with me, and we arrived around Noon.  I signed up for and took Andrea Mielke's  Alpaca Fiber: Hands On Class.  While the class wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be, I learned so much that day.  I had hoped there would be more information on grading an alpaca fleece, not really grading but how to choose one depending on which were planning to use it for, and it was more of a fiber prep and use class.  After spinning for 20 years though, I finally figured out the difference between woolen and worsted yarn, and how to make them! Not only did we prep fiber, and I got to use combs for the first time, but we did some spinning, and both a wet felt project, and a needle felt project There was an awful lot packed into the 3 hour class.

That evening Teresa and I were both signed up for the fiber and yarn sampling event.  They served us supper, which was a cold box lunch, and then we got to play with some of the Fairy Yarnmother's hand dyed fibers and yarns.  Susan Forbes is the Fairy Yarnmother, and that lady has so much talent!  The flowers she made for us to work with were lovely.  We got to play with some silk, and with various wools and wool blends, including some wool blended with bamboo which was just amazing to spin.  I'm going to end up with a lovely yarn from those.


 4/24/13: ETA-I was right Lovely yarn from this!


Sunday morning CK and Kelly came with me to the spin in.  Kelly was looking for a drop spindle of her own.  She ended up purchasing one from Spry Whimsy whose spindles are locally made by a man  who makes tops so he understands spin and balance.  She also purchased a lovely wool roving in a green and olive color way. C Kay got some needles, and a blue and teal roving that reminded me of Lake Michigan.

 the one in the front is mine

 Hannah. our 4H-r

 My Sunday morning class was with Susan Forbes!  I took her sock blank painting class.  I had so much fun!  I can't wait to see how these knit up.  We talked about color theory, chose a selection of colors, and went to work.  Even with just seven colors to work with, the variety of patterns and designs we came up with were amazing. We had a mother and daughter pair in the class.  Hannah was in her teens and belongs to her local 4H group.  She and her family had eight llamas!

 

After we each finished our sock blank Susan  came through and touched them up with a little bit of black dye and turned them from lovely to amazing works of art .

Susan touching up a sock blank

 I think this one may be my favorite. Kristy made it.

 Packing up dye to take home

My blank as balls

my Blank as a skein

All in all it was an amazing weekend.  I have only two regrets:

1. that I didn't have about $5000 to spend 
2. that I ever thought it was a good idea to take my ceramic mug onto a concrete show floor.  I dropped it Saturday night and it shattered. 
   
   That was the only down spot in the entire weekend.  If your local or even semi local you absolutely need a plan to come next year!

Upcoming classes!

I'm so excited about the classes I have coming up, that I'm taking not teaching for once! I'm going to the Wisconsin Spin In in two weeks, and I'll be participating in the fiber sampling, and taking a dyeing class. 
I'm also taking a series of classes on canning my own jams, jellies, and pickles! Lots of pictures coming up

In the meantime the next few days are going to be  computer free. 

See you Monday!

Stitch Markers Galore!

Today I'm going to work on getting all the stitch markers up on the Etsy site. There are 50 or so sets, so this is going to take a while.  All of them need photos, and I need to figure out how to price them. This morning I worked on the Shrinky Dink stitch markers for my swap partners.  I will post pictures later. There are a couple of other cute extras for stitch markers as well.  I'll get pictures of those too.  Now if I can only get my phone to upload directly to Picasa I'd be happy.

I got Swag!

lookee what came from Cafepress last week! Mini Button-lots of mini buttons!

Chasing Rainbows!

get the pattern from Ravelry!

I had so much fun designing this little sock!   It is my first live pattern on Ravelry,  and is also available as a Kit on Etsy!

What is done cannort be frogged.....

Midori's Dreamcoat

  My first two "you have to pay for this" patterns went off to the beta testers today!  EEEP.  Clock starts tomorrow, three weeks till results, four (I hope!) till publication!!!!!!!

Going shopping

Swapping....

I've recently gotten active over on Ravelry.  I'm having lots of fun, participating on the forums there.  I post as LuvinEwe, and I'm active on several swap boards, including the project bag swap and swag swap.  I'm really looking forward to my first project bag arriving. 

There's been an interesting thread over on the Tiny Owl Knits board ( you should check out her patterns! really nice stuff!) About swapping , target amounts to spend, and "over spoiling."  The consesus seems to be- Try not to give so much that your partner feels bad that they didn't/couldn't reciprocate.  The thing is- those "target dollars" spent-  do you count the value of what you pull from stash? or just the value that you actually outlay on new, just for your partner items?  How do you value time spent in making handmade items?  My personal feeling, is that I would rather get one lovely handmade treat- an ornament or something else small and cute, than anything store bought, no matter how much is spent.  I value the time and thought put into a swap package far more than cash outlay. 

My next two swaps will be on the "Reducio Sock" board- a Harry Potter themed mini sock swap, and "once upon a time" a fairy tale themed mini sock swap.  I've got lots of cool ideas already, and can't wait to have partners assigned.....

I'll post my swap swag as it comes- I hope you enjoy seeing my packages as much as I do, and that it will encourage you to join a swap or two, too!  (look at all the to's in that last sentence- and all used properly- I'm so proud of that!)

Spinning again'.

Picked up a spindle the first the in months this morning to spin up some camel/ Silk blend top.    Lovely stuff, will make a  luscious lace weight yarn.

 I got the top from AppleCart Creations at the Echos of Past, trade Fair in Oshkosh yesterday.  Bought two  ounces. Should make Some significant yardage.

I'm working it up on a Fimo Spindle I got at the WI Sheep and Wool show a couple of years ago.  Spins easily & long, plus the colors an so happy-making!

Falling Leaves Free Pattern

I had a request for Leaf Pattern. this one gives you two corners, a central motif, and sides which can be repeated.

It is in the Public Domain. Use it as you see fit.

It's watching me........

 I took a break from knitting for others yesterday, to knit up something for myself.  I decided to give Tiny Owl Knits' "Fairy Castles" a try.

Being me, I can't leave a pattern alone, so I attempted to give it a branch.  which ended up looking more like a nose.....

before felting

after felting

Interior

The inside turned out well- plenty of room for snips and tapestry needles.