Saturday, November 29, 2008

New Endeavor

Next Sunday (12/5) I have the opportunity to be a seller at a craft fair. My sister has made dozens upon dozens of crocheted hats and scarves, I will be offering some of my woven scarves. I've been scouring Etsy.com to see if there will be any kind of market for this kind of thing if I want to keep going. It seems there is :) This is extremely exciting. I'm hoping to sell enough to cover my costs plus a little extra to purchase yarn for the next round.

I'll be setting up my Etsy store after the fair. Whatever I don't sell there will either be put up on Etsy or given away as gifts... or kept for myself ;) I made sure I liked and could wear all of the colors of yarn I bought- just in case I get stuck with them.

Right now my camera is in Maine, so it'll take a few days for me to upload pictures of my latest creations. I think I need to name them. I have one that's all various shades of gray. I think I'm going to call it "Colorblind". That's how my dad describes seeing blue and green next to each other. The next one I've got planned is shade of red and maroon. I can't name it til it's been made and shown me what it wants to be. My friend thinks that all handmade objects have their own personality and identity that is hidden until the object is completed. I must say I've come to agree :)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Finished Objects (henceforth "FO's")

So I've finished two more Christmas presents (the two scarves in my last post that were still on the loom). They've both been washed, dried and dressed with pretty fringe. I'm not sure the photos will do justice, and certainly cannot express how soft they are. I cannot wait to weave with my alpaca. The last scarf I turned out was silk and wool and it's lovely, so the alpaca can only be softer!

I have lots of stuff on my mind, but am not in a particularly chatty mood. So this post will be of little substance- but have some pretty pictures! :)

Friday, November 14, 2008

Number two... (I suck at titles)

So I'm going to be fumbling for a bit trying to figure out how often to update this. I imagine it will be very erratic and much the same in each entry. But what can I say- I miss rambling across the screen. I'm sure I'm not alone in this thought: that seeing things in print helps me reason my way through things.

Anywho...

Today is going to be a yarn post. I've recently delved into weaving. Subsequently, the majority of Christmas gifts this year will be woven. I'm actually only weaving for one member of my family, the rest of this stuff is for my partner's family. (as an aside- I have a tendency to refer to my boyfriend as my partner. I feel kinda funny calling him a "boyfriend" since he's 29, and "partner" just sums up our relationship so nicely.)

But back to the yarn... In addition to weaving, I just learned how to knit socks. Almost all of the fiber I've purchased this month has been sock yarn, which turns out is excellent for weaving. Here's a picture of what just came off the loom.
This is plain weave, using Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock, Mixed Berries. The yarn stripes, and when I wove it together we get this lovely pseudo-plaid that is expected, but unplanned. I love how it turned out.

The next one is a bit more intricate. I'm using Malabrigo Silky Merino. It's wonderful stuff. The colors are Spring Water and Teal Feather (but I think the colors have much more green than the swatches on Malabrigo's site). I'm told this is broken twill, I wanted it to look like water. I can't wait to use this yarn again. It's just decadent.

This picture really doesn't do the yarn justice. But what's a girl to do?

Next in the queue is a charcoal tonal varigated. It was supposed to be a spinach green varigated, but once again the picture on the site completely misrepresented the color. I was so excited to find this green, it looked like exactly what I wanted... when it arrived today I was crushed. There's not even a hint of spinach in this colorway, it's a fairly obnoxious yellow green and brown. Not to say the yarn is ugly, just not at all what I was expecting- it's very sad.

On that note, I believe it's time to start playing Rock Band for the evening (I know- what a wild life- spending Friday night at home playing video games)... I truly am becoming a hermit!!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

First things first...

So I've decided to start a new blog here. This way we can all pretend that I'm going to update it regularly, every entry will be exciting and there will be no pictures at all...




Yeah... right. What fun would that be?

I was going to do a poll before starting this and ask if there are enough stalker people out there that would get a kick out of reading anything I had to say. But I realized that asking stalkers to confess is just a bit silly. I am so guilty of looking up people I haven't seen or talked to in over 5 years (and yes- that makes me feel Really old!)... but that's beside the point.

Let's begin with some basic stats:
Presently,
I have finished grad school.
I am employed, but not full time and not at all in my field.
I have been seeing the same guy for 3 years.
I have been driving the same car for 6 years.

In the past year, I...:
earned my masters in Deaf Education.
learned to knit.
learned to weave.
picked up my guitar again.
played the piano a few times.
toyed with the idea of writing music again.

Now that the basics have been covered, we'll be free to move forward. I'm sure I'll use this as a place to consolidate all the pictures I've been wanting to share with people and stories that I don't tire of telling, but my partner has to hear at least 50 times. In truth, I'm only starting this to post on Ravelry (if you don't know- find out- I lose hours to this site everyday). I wish I had more substance to post here, but in truth, it's past midnight and I'm tired.