Praying for rain...

Today was extraordinarily hot and muggy. Even Bailey thinks so. I found him hiding under the dog trailer.

My plants are not doing so well in this stuff. Thankfully we are expecting a cold front, but Sunday the weathermen are expecting a day of 91 and hot!!! Holy moly! So, pray for rain.

I'm very thankful to have my studio space in the basement. It is the coolest place in the house, and today it paid off. I spent my day in the studio dyeing 2.5 pounds of wool. It's a colorway people continue to look for in stock, Sea Glass. Of the 2.5 pounds 1.5 of it is BFL combed top. The other pound is a 50/50 Merino/Tencel blend.

I tried a different olive coloring. It's the Dharma Trading Company's Avacado. Without having to use Brilliant Kelly Green, it turned out to be pretty awesome. The only other difference is the blue. It isn't as pale as the previous colorway, however, I believe it will turn out just as splendid. Phat Fiber's theme for the month of July is the Seaside Cottage. I think that this colorway will fit nicely. That's why the .5 pounds of BFL will be samples.

The packets of wool are cool, now. Have a great evening, and pray for rain.
<3

Someday A.D.

I'm gearing up for the Autumn Drive.

That means three days of dyeing on a gorgeous weekend. 

Will I ever see the light of day from my kitchen? 

Of course! 

Saturday, I have plans to meet up with Carissa of Bumblebee Acres at the Woodstock Farmers Market. 

I hope to accomplish some spinning and much needed down time. 

Then it's back to the dye pots.

~*~

Thus far the day has brought some nifty little colorways. 

I mixed all the dyes for my Hallucinogenic Lipstick! 

Doctor Who fans will love this colorway. 

Everyone loves a woman described as "hell in heels"! 

The remake of Morgaine, Lady of the Lake, did not go so well. 

The blue was not nearly pale enough for woad, and the red is deeper.

The red actually looks like blood as intended, yay!

I'll still mark it as this colorway, but issue a disclaimer to anyone who bought it previously.

Isla Tropicana, is a new colorway that turned out fantastic and amazing! 

Has anyone ever seen the Glade Relaxing Moments Island Escape cans? 

That is where I got the inspiration. 

However, it doesn't quite look exactly like it. 

There are two more colorways to come tomorrow.  (That's 2.5 pounds)

Then I'll be dyeing up close to three pounds of loose fleece and small bits of roving. 

These will be for carding or for sale by the ounce. 

~*~

Things I love about this business: 

1. creating something new
2. exploring and experimenting
3. sharing
4. creating something from a creation (spinning and knitting)

This business makes me feel alive because it is full of passion for creation!

Through this I feel like a deity and creator of my own destiny. 

It makes me who I am! 

I love myself, and therefore I love God! 

~*~

Have a happy weekend!

<3 

Ask. Believe. Receive.

Upping the Ante

For the past week my personal life has been crazy! I pulled a muscle in my leg and glute area. So, my shifts have been limited as well as my boss's patience. It happened at my day job bagging groceries & moving turkeys. For the next week I'm unable to work for more than 4 hours. It stinks, but it's giving me time to work on the advertising aspect of the shop. I've been creating graphics for Phat Fiber and Ravelry. That's right, I just started advertising on Ravelry.

Also, I've been working on what to dye up for the January box. (Hints have been dropped on twitter.) In the mean time I've joined the F.I.X. Co-op. Again, the plan is to start in January. So many things going on, but so little time. In addition to creating items for the box and prize box, I'll be doing a dye/work day today, tomorrow, and Saturday. It should be a whole lot of fun. There are so many ideas buzzing around in my head they need to get sorted and put down on paper. Doing this will give me some time to let the mail carrier bring in the mystery fibers for the Phat Fiber Box. Oh the yummies!

A few months ago I decided to make Spinner's Mates for some of my fiber pimps and friends for Christmas. About 2 months ago I finally finished gathering all measurements, fabrics, thread, etc. Today is the day to get the fabric cut and the preliminary pinning done. Depending on when the mystery fiber from International Fleeces arrives (super fast shipping as always, too) that will stop the sewing and start the dye day process.

My Etsy shop is being used for clearance items only. All updates will be run through Artfire from here on out. There are so many options with ArtFire, which are just starting to be explored by Etsy. My next update should be no later than Wednesday of the upcoming week.

Have a great weekend.
TTFN!

P.S. No giveaway this month. There is a lot to do. There will be one in January after the Phat Fiber Box has been shipped. Yes, I will spoil you.

Dye Day Challenge

Status: Complete

This day was a challenge because motivation was no where in sight. I mean no where. The past month as wiped me out completely. I've still got some residual effect going on, too. To try and perk me out of this funk dye day commenced with set up @ 10 a.m. Monday.

The main goal was to replicate my favorite colorway Jellyfishing. Goal was accomplished. Jellysfishing is going to be a permenant colorway from now on. It's not nearly as pretty in superwash as in regular wools. I attempted to do another Spongebob themed one and it didn't turn out as much as I liked...it might be a Mrs. Puff colorway. The other colorways really don't have any rhyme or reason, but we'll see what names I can come up with.

Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day to enter my July give-away. Well part one anyways. The unvieling of part two will be on July 16th. (Hopefully before I go to Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Festival.)

Something new on my blog is the Pepsi Refresh button. I urge you to help our native peoples and vote for this idea. The top two will win funding for their project. Right now we're at 74th place and voting ends on July 31st. I know we can help make a difference in these people's lives. Let's keep voting every day.

I started spinning up some batts on the Kromski Sonata this past Saturday at the Castle Gardens Nursery Craft/Antique/Flea Expo in Richmond. It's amazing how much differently the two wheels spin. It's like night and day. For now I am going back to the Sonata. I've been able to spin up two batts so far. There is still more work to be done. I'm blending two different batts together and there two more of each to go. This Saturday (7/17) I will be at the same location peddling my wares. The new colorways from this past dye day will be there and three new yarns. Also, I intend on setting up a better display than before. This expo is free to the public. If you're in the area, stop on by. We're in booth 18.

Hope you guys are having a cool day.

Windy and windier

Photos Friday was canceled. Unfortunately the wind kept me from going out and taking pictures. I really wanted to go to the local conservation park and take some shots of the ducks, geese, trees and anything else that struck my fancy. Don't worry. I'll make it up to you with photos of tomorrow's Beltane festival.
For those of you who don't know what Beltane is, I've included a link to Wikipedia's version. However, our celebration has a few differences because a Grove ADF Druids. Here is our take on the festival of Beltane.

Having that said, we have a load of things to do. After the two dye days, which is a lot of clean up, we have to ready the food and put finishing touches on the ritual. Peter and I will be officiating this ritual so the work load for that is double. We'll be heading out a lot earlier than normal so the may pole can be dug out of the garage and set up. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us enough to set it up and dance around in the side yard. This maypole is going to be much smaller than the one used at our friend's Beltane celebration. All the maidens had to move a telephone pole to its hole in the ground. Let's talk about heavy! Just think we'll be doing it again on the 8th this year. Ready the muscles!

There is still a whole lot of wool on the drying racks. When I'm not readying for tomorrow, it'll be the wool braid-a-thon. And again, tomorrow will be a braid-a-thon. There are some great colorways that turned out. Some of them will not be repeatable. :( I'm wondering how on Earth this Agate color came out. Most of my experimentals will not be available as a repeat, either. It will be noted which colorways will not be repeated. More than likely "LIMITED EDITION" will be in the title. I'm introducing two different types of fiber this week, too. The first being a Merino 64s. Then the long awaited Rambouillet. There will only be four braids of the Rambouillet for now. I'm hoping on a line of credit to order a full bump of it this week. ::crosses fingers::

The fifth colorway I created is another Sailor Moon colorway. Think Sailor Jupiter! Yeah, buddy! It will be out in Rambouillet and Merino. The other mix and match colorways still need names.

Rememer there will be another shop update on Monday or Tuesday. I'll twitter and facebook when the shop is being updated. So, stay tuned!

Busy Busy

Last night I experimented with the att U-verse Video on Demand service. There was a free Cardio Hip Hop and a 10 minute ab program. I tried the Hip Hop program, but never found the rhythm. The 10 minute ab one I could do in my sleep. It's a bunch of the things we did in the military with a few more twists. It really worked, too.

This morning after some much needed Spongeboob Squarepants I did 30 minutes of free step aerobics and the 10 minute ab work out. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was a great movie for the background. It gave me some more colorway inspiration for today.

After loosing steam for two weeks my body volunteered to start building the dye day set up around noon-thirty to one o'clock. (Yes, noon-thirty. O'dark-thirty is 12:30 a.m.) I've got 4 new colorways coming to the shop on either Monday or Tuesday evening. It all depends when the roving has finished drying and when I'm working the day job next week. Here are the colorways:

1. The Magrathean - Slartibartfast's cloak/coat has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. So I wanted to make a colorway to match.
2. Boudica - She was the Queen of the Iceni Tribe during the Roman invasion into today's United Kingdom. Queen Boudica was the only woman to ever stand up to the Romans and win. She had some big balls!
3. Capital Offense - The gnome race of World of Warcraft is a peculiar one indeed. That is all I have to say regarding this explosive colorway.
   
4. Love & Beauty Shock - My favorite cartoon growing up was Sailor Moon. Now I'm not a morning person, but I'd wake up at 5 a.m. to watch that show. The title of this colorway is the name of an attack Sailor Venus uses in the end of the SuperS and throughout the Stars Season.
   

One of the Magrathean batches were screwed up. I've got to come up with a name for it and come up with a new way to dye it with Superwash roving. It'll probably kept in my screw up pile. I'm hoping to have more in Rambouillet. There may be more colorways tomorrow, too. So far it's been 3 lbs of wool dyed. (Merino 64s, SW Merino and SW BFL)

My hands are drying out from all the acid in the presoak. Hooray for the Bee Bars! Wednesday will be the last day for the raffle for one of those little beauties. So if you haven't found something at the site, keep an eye out for Monday and Tuesday.

Have a great night and stay tuned for another photos Friday.