The Goods- on Sale

I have some pretty hard-core packing to do. I have been given a minuscule weight limit of goods to bring with me, and quite a generous amount of long-term storage. I try not to get attached or sentimental about objects and belongings, but I fail miserably. The thoughts of my couch, and my dining room table, and my pots and pans boxed up and unused and unloved in a warehouse in New Jersey makes me shutter.

Same with my crafty stuff. I can't take it all with me.

I'm clearing out my bins of stock that comprise my Etsy Store. For this week only, everything is 50% off. The sad fate of the storage locker should not befall these goods:

Superfine Merino blended with kid mohair.




Batts. I have a whole bin of batts left, all of them comprised of luxury fiber.




And here's some really gorgeous sock yarn that I dyed up with natural dyes- Eucalyptus and onion skins.



I also have lots and lots of jewlery left. Get it while it lasts! http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnotMyDayJob

To get the 50% off, use the code "AUREVOIR" at checkout.

Countdown to March 8

What is March 8, you ask?

That will be the last day that I'll be running my Etsy store. Due to the logistics and the shipping limits being imposed on me, I can't take my stock with me. Also, there is the small worry that I can't feasibly ship while I'm moving. So I'm giving myself a nice cut-off date before the stress gets too much.

Here's the deal: I'm still having 30% everything with the code "Trente". Wait a week- that might turn into "quarante" as my need for a clutter-free move gets the best of me. I still have lots of good stuff, so buy it while you can! Especially some of those batts I have listed as there is no way I can store those. Smooshing them down would be tragic!

Speaking of batts, look what one of my shop patrons made:



Isn't it pretty? She's a fantastic spinner, and she lives in France to boot.

I was quite taken with this one as well:



It was a braid of merino/silk roving in the "Hydrangea" colorway. She plied it with a string spaced with delicate pearly-pink beads. Swoon!

I'll be keeping you posted, but I might have some more lace merino yarn to list this weekend, and that will be all as far as updates go.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnotMyDayJob

Battier than a Belfry

Guess what?



I've updated my Etsy shop with MORE BATTS!





Scoop them up and spin yourself something awesome for fall! All of them are soft and well-blended. Most of the fiber I have hand dyed, and some of it is natural colored (Sheepy brown! Alpaca fawn!). A lot of work goes into each one, and they are completely unique. Some of these have merino, romney, bfl, alpaca, silk, bamboo, Leicester Longwool...really whatever I feel inspired by at the time.

This is the last of the batt updates for a while as I tucked the carder away, bundled up all my fiber and gave the house a good hoovering. I don't know how other batt-makers do it, but usually I end up with bits of fiber tracked all over the house. It seems like the alpaca is the most willing to travel and go places. It's hard to have a lot of company over with all this fluff flying around, and still appear somewhat normal to other people. I'm sure I'll be pulling the carder out again before the end of the year, if only for the selfish reason that I have a hankering to spin a rather gorgeous Rambouillet fleece.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnotMyDayJob

New Spinning Batts!

I have been going a little crazy with the drum carder lately. The unexpected super high humidity we've been having means that I don't have to deal with the static and flyaways that always seem to end up in my eyeballs or in my dinner, so I will toast to that. A la votre!



I do love blending fiber and colors to make beautiful and unique handspun creations. It's pretty labor intensive...not only does the carding process take quite a bit of monotonous cranking, but I usually make a pretty big mess in the process. I can't just take a few fibers from the pile and blend them; I have to take out my entire scrap and carding stash and lay it all out and pick handfuls of what I feel would match up well together. Once I have all this out and set up, it's impracticable to put it away at the end of the day, so I tend to do my carding in week-long sessions where the dining room table is occupied by piles of fiber, and we have to sit on the floor in the next room to eat. I need to use good judgement as far as my timing goes.



Plus, all the fur flying in the process means that my vacuum cleaner makes a death rattle in protest. Worrisome. I plead with it daily.



After much experimentation, I find that the batts I like best are under 2oz. They just hang together a bit better into compact bundles, and because I'm not jamming so much on the carded, I end up with less waste as well.



Everything can be found in my Etsy Shop, and I will be listing more in the coming days. Each batt is made up of merino or a super luxe blend that might contain merino, alpaca, silk, bamboo, faux cashmere, BFL, cashgora, angora and kid mohair. Most of it I have hand dyed; some of it is natural sheepy colored; still other bits are leftover from spinning projects that have accumulated over the years. All of it is super soft and ready to be made into a special yarn.



Best of all, anything 2oz and under is only $12-$13 as I only have so much space to store big, fluffy batts and I need to move these things so I can make more.

www.KnotMyDayJob.etsy.com

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

The geese are flying south.



Sweet potatoes are becoming my favorite comfort food once again and I'm making a voluptuous red sauce out what might be one of the last weeks I'll get tomatoes. The crisper is full of the apples that I've been waiting for since last November, and I'm trying to limit myself to a reasonable number a day. 3 maybe? 4 if they are small. Oh, they are so good.

Best of all, the colder water fall ushers in has caused Oysters to build up their glycogen stores once again. Instead of the limp, pallid, deflated creatures I've been politely slurping all summer, there is now an influx of fat, flavorful ostreidae. It's truly a New York tradition to feast on these glorious little bivalves as there are oyster middens that the Lenapes created after their own oyster feasts.



Jonathan Swift once said, "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster", and I was quite worked up on liquid courage the first time I dared myself to try one. They are probably the most amazingly simple thing to eat- all it requires is a squeeze of lemon and maybe some hot sauce, but this is all about getting the freshest oysters you can find and savoring their oceanic briney goodness.



It's also a good time to check out wine, beer and food tastings in the event. They frequently start out quiet and serious, but then turn raucous and joyful about halfway through, and then you generally meet about 20 of your new best friends.



Also, when I get 5 minutes to myself at home, I've been carding really lovely luxury batts like the batty lady that I am. Expect an Etsy shop update next week.

Etsy Shop Update! Really!

Some "hurry-up and wait" emergencies at work meant I had some time to sit down and work on a long-overdue Etsy shop updates. Here's a few things that have been listed:


Merino/Silk sock weight yarn that I dyed using Eucalyptus leaves


Merino lace weight in tonal greens and blues


Merino/silk roving. Gorgeous stuff, lovely to spin. I could almost eat it.

Also- I have started a spinning batt club that I have listed in the shop. I have a lot of fiber that needs to be turned into batts, but the batts can not be squished down once I've made them. I live in an apartment that is filled with yarn, fiber and homemade beer.

I. Can. Not. Have. One. More. Fluffy. Fiber. Batt. In. The. House.

Or giant kettles. Dyeing yarn and making beer both require huge kettles, which are hard to store. No more hobbies that involve kettles. Space is my biggest issue when I'm making and trying to store batts, but I can make time to make batts and ship them out once a month. Membership is very limited as is my time, so sign up quick like a bunny!

Deep Winter is a Cure for Stashbusting of All Sorts

Waking up to less than ideal weather conditions makes me happy to kick around the house in yoga pants and knock things off my to-do list. Every day has been a new craftadventure and I've started so many new projects. It's been fabulous, but I had to rein it in as I was taking over the house in a big way.

I made granola.



Huge batches of it. Ya know, the granola plant might catch fire tomorrow and there will be no more granola in the world for ages but I'll be happily munching away at my own granola stash because I have jars of it. It's easy to make, fun to modify to your liking, and it's much less sweet than commercial brands.

I made pickles.



A trip to the Foodshed Market in Boerum Hill led to the acquisition of some winter treasures. It's an indoor farmer's market that happens every Sunday. There are quite a few food vendors (like Luke's Lobster Rolls, be still my heart) and a few good veggie vendors. Most of the produce consisted of things that loved the cold or could be stored- lots of onions and kale and root veggies. We did find some hothouse cukes and I went to work right away on turning them into spicy pickles. I've made pickled cauliflower a couple of times, but here in New York, they worship the almighty cucumber pickle. I think there are a little sweet, but I added a couple jalapeno peppers in there so they have a pretty hefty kick to them as well.

Despite my constant striving towards vegetarianism, I'm debating signing up for a pork CSA this spring from the Piggery. We do a fruit and vegetable CSA every summer into the fall and we only have to run out to the grocery store for eggs, flour and sugar all summer long. I don't even really cook meat at home, but this is really appealing to me.

Oh, speaking of pigs...I got my AVFKW January club. It's a lovely BFL/silk blend in the most delicate pale pink. And the color is called...Wilbur. I take this as a sign.



What started as a way to repair my own broken bits of jewlery has bloomed into a full-blown beading craze. I've pulled out my bead stash and strung some necklaces, just for fun.



Bry had brought me back these gorgeous stone beads from Tibet years ago. I finally got around to stringing them up and found a labradorite pendant to match. I love when that lightbulb goes off and you realize that something can be stash no more. I'm waiting for an order to come in for toggle clasps so I can make a few more. They are simple once you get the technique down, and I'm fortunate to work close by to several large bead emporiums in the fashion district.

I love glass beads.



There's so many creative possibilities here. I've got a few strands of freshwater pearls that have broken over the years that I've dug up. They are in need of a Chanel-style makeover. I've promised the beau that I wouldn't start getting into metal smithing -yet- but this is a great apartment craft as it requires minimal space and storage.

As for spinning, I've got a huge project going. Remember Cadfael the BFL ram? He's finally getting some attention.



And holy hell, what a pain in my ass he is. It's not a very big fleece, but I've spent more time on this than any other fleece that I've prepped. Not that I'm surprised- I knew this would be like this. Every single little curly lock needs to be pulled apart by hand. It's really time consuming, as there are thousands of tightly-coiled locks in this fleece. If I didn't do this, I would damage the fleece and my carder irreparably. The teeth on my carder would end up looking like Austin Power's in all his toothy glory.

Once I have each lock separated and fluffed, I feed it lock by lock into the carder. Then I card the resulting batt four times to get it smooth as possible.



And it's being spun into a fingering-weight single.



I'm aiming for a worsted-weight 2-ply. I'm clueless on a yardage estimate so far, so I'm not really spinning with a particular project in mind yet.

I've also been knitting. I started a small sock-yarn shawl-


It's the beginnings of the "In the Land of Oz" shawl by Adrienne Fong. It's BMFA Socks that Rock Mediumweight in "Luna Sea". It's very pretty, and not so busy that it will make the lace look like clown barf.

I'm more than halfway done the Spey Valley Socks:



I've also cast on for a sweater, but I don't have pictures yet. Also, I'm upset at myself at my lack of awesome pictures (maybe if I had some daylight and you could actually see things) so I'm taking a photography class just to get accustomed to the bad-ass beast with a lens.

FO- Hurricaine Hat

I spent a lot of time last week on the subway going to various events and parties. Taking the subway means 1. I might get a strange new disease and end up in a medical textbook and 2. I can finish a hat in two days without breaking a sweat.

Well, not quite two days. This did start out life as a fibery beast.



3.8 oz of handcarded batt from Butterfly Girl. It was a blend of 67% bamboo, 25% merino and 8% glitz. Very sparkly. It sat in my spinning stash for a couple years, and then I dug it out as part of my spinning stash bust in October.

I spun it up and made a DK weight 2-ply. I got about 154 yards from 3.4 oz of fiber. The colorway is "Curtain Dress", which makes me happy.



I loved the swirly-whirly look, so I knitted up the Hurricaine Hat.



The mostly-bamboo content means this isn't terribly warm, but it does have nice drape. It will be a really usefull hat to have around come the not-so-bitter spring if it doesn't get nabbed by someone before then. I always like to have a handful of fun little hats on hand to give as gifts.



I wish I would have stepped into direct sunlight for the pictures. This looks like a disco ball in the right light. It was really fast and an easy knit.

Handspun Yarn: The Curtain Dress

In my constant effort to use up my entire stash, I recently spun this gem up:



It's another bat from Butterfly Girl Designs. The color is called "Curtain Dress", and it's a rather dazzling blend of 67% bamboo, 25% merino and 8% firestar. I tore the batt into strips and let it spin up as it wanted to, with no real drafting and letting it lump and bump where it wanted to. This is a lot of fun sometimes if you can learn to give the control up and just let the yarn happen. Coming down after spinning from a sweater (lots of controlled spinning to get the yarn perfect and consistent) makes me okay with just letting this art batt become what it wants.



From 3.8 oz of batt, I ended up with 155 yards of a heavy aran-weight 2-ply.



I'm not quite sure what this will be yet- maybe a simple pair of mitts.

Corespun yarn

I'm a plain vanilla spinner. There. I said it.

I like myself a nice balanced 2-ply, and sturdy round 3 ply, and the occasional even lace singles. Not that I don't admire crazy art yarns. I look on, green with envy, when friends make piles of chaotic gorgeousness. I took a 2 day class that was nothing but freeing your inner anarchist at the wheel. It was fun, but I'm still not convinced that I could ever make anything useful.

Then, last month, I got a weird urge to corespin. After a few yards of trial and error, I found my rhythm and could. not. stop. It was addictive.



I started out with batts from Butterfly Girl in "Rocky Road". It was a soft, luxurious blend of merino, suri alpaca (the best kind of alpaca in my opinion), silk, bamboo, and a little bit of glitz. Corespinning lets you stretch out a small amount of luxury fiber- because you are wrapping it around a core yarn, you will end up using less. This is a perfect technique if you only have a couple ounces of fiber, but you still want the yardage to actually make something.

For my core, I chose some dk weight wool.



This was some yarn that I had frogged from a hoodie years ago. It is still too painful for me to knit with it. I didn't check to see if there was a pattern errata and followed the pattern with blind faith. I didn't question things at all, even when it had me put the hood where one would logically put a second arm hole. I just kept on knitting. Very painful memory right there.

Anyway, I found that hiding the yarn makes me feel better.

I ran the core yarn through my wheel and onto a bobbin, adding more twist. That way, I wouldn't end up with an over-twisted mess once I started the core spinning process.

Basically, you are taking your pretty fiber and letting it wrap around the core yarn. The Bellweather has a great tutorial (as always) on corespinning. She can explian the process much better than I can.

Here are the results:







Parts of the silk were a little tough to draft out evenly resulting in lumpy thicker sections, but I thought I got most of the skein fairly even. It was so fun, once I sat down I couldn't really stop if I wanted to, and it only took me a couple hours to complete.

I ended up with about 160 yards total. I'm planning on making a hat from this- I think the yarn will give it a fun, funky texture.

FO: Belle Starr Hat

Another handspun hat! I think after months of making sweaters, some instant gratification (and stash busting) is in order.

This started out as a batt from Butterfly Girl Designs. It was 3 oz of superwash merino, silk and a bit of sparkle called "Woodland Nymph".



Really pretty.

Ugh, I spun this up in the summer of 2008! It's been sitting in a bin ever since. I'm really trying hard to get rid of all these 100 yard skeins of handspun I have tucked away.



I did an aran weight 2-ply and got about 105 yards. Perfect amount for a lace hat.

I found the Belle Starr hat (pdf) online and dug this yarn out even though the pattern calls for a lighter DK weight. "B" is for Butterfly, and I am still plugging away at the letter "B" in my A-Z stashdown. So I cast on 10 fewer (1 lace repeat less) and ended up with a hat that fits nicely.







It's a handspun hat success. It only took a couple nights at home to make.

The Specs:

I used size 6 US needles and almost all of the 105 yards of yarn. I added an extra inch on the lace pattern as I wanted one a bit longer.