Cashmere......so soft

Happy Sunday,

I have been dyeing some unbelievable cashmere and cashmere and silk yarns. Truly they are gorgeous. The cashmere is very soft and I had to be careful when winding it as it will break easily. The added silk in the silk/cashmere blend makes that yarn stronger, but I will still keep the cashmere alone because it feels like velvet...! People will just need to know that it is more delicate. I am going to have these yarns available soon in the ETSY shop, but a few friends are test knitting the yarns right now.

I had to keep one skein for myself of course and it is this one pictured here in the Colorway Meadow. I know I am biased, but isn't it just incredibly beautiful? I even put the photo in this new "framing" software I found to show it off more, but not sure I like this tool. Hmmm, (thinking out loud!!) I am making a lace scarf and I hope to show it to you soon. I have never worked with a yarn so heavenly and so soft!



This is the one I gave to Kirsten and the colorway is called Caribbean Waters (thanks for the name Kirsten!). It turned out beautifully as well. Sarah has another photo on her blog of one called Raspberry Souffle that I forgot to take a photo of.



So once I make sure the yarn is as wonderful as I think, about 12 skeins of it will be listed in the shop. In the meantime, I listed a lot of new items in the past few days. Some beautiful new colorways in merino and tencel, a new silk and merino, superwash merino and also some adorable new kits. Take a look. The merino and tencel yarn is incredible and so is the new merino and silk. The spinning and sock kits have also been really popular and I enjoy dyeing yarn and fibers to match the fabric bags. All the fabric bags have been updated too with a lanyard for attaching to your belt or another bag and a great new toggle closure.

In other news, I am collaborating with some of my favorite knitwear designers, the Garter Belt Design Team. Check out the patterns on their website. These three, soon to be four, wonderful women each received a skein of yarn from me and will be coming up with a unique pattern. More details in the early fall, but I am excited about this.

Well, I think I am going out to breakfast and I feel like pancakes and bacon, despite the fact that I am supposed to be giving up all white flour sugary type things and well bacon is probably not on the plan either. But tomorrow is the day I really start, so in the meantime, I will enjoy this yummy breakfast. How many times have those of you who have to watch your diet, have said this? Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

YarnB

Naughtie the Nautilus Sock Puppet

This is really pretty cute!! Knitpolis made this adorable puppet called Naughtie the Nautilus Sock puppet out of the YarnBotanika lime lemon twist superwash merino yarn. It is great to see it knit up. It looked more lime than lemon to me in the skein, so this is interesting to see, thanks.. Thanks a lot for the photos!!

Please check out Knitpolis's blog because she has great taste in yarn!! She has tons of my favorites including Handmaiden's yarn which I am just dyeing to buy some of. I really want to try that Seacell yarn!

On Line Tests-I Always Have To Take Them

I am sure I got a higher score for being on the computer too much. I can't seem to avoid taking these tests. I got this from Elizabeth's blog in my favorite town, Madison, Wisconsin. She is one of the Garter-Belt designers!!

If you take this, let me know your score, ok? I'd like to know if you are more of a nerd than me....

Knitting Update

Hi,
I have been really sick the last week so I haven't felt like doing much. Knitting has really saved me from getting down in the dumps. I started two new projects that I bought the yarn for. The first is the Ruby sweater which I showed before. You can see the front of the sweater here done in Opal bright pink sock yarn. Then I learned a new technique for making a front pocket... Let me show you the photo of the finished sweater as a reminder and then a photo of the pocket I am adding on. I am using a Regia sock yarn for that. I thought it was self-striping but it is more of a variegated yarn. This sweater is going to be adorable. The sleeves will also be variegated.

Finished sweater photo (Ruby):


The front of my sweater (not done of course) but you can see the bright pink background and the start of the pocket. This is a fun knit by the way!! To Wooltopia, I can't wait for you to start.



Second, I started the lace tee. I am using a yarn called Trinity by Jaeger which is made of silk and cotton and has sort of a nubby texture. I am using a pale green color. It probably was not the best choice for my first real lace pattern, but it is gorgeous and very light and shows the stitches and pattern quite well. I am in love with working on this pattern. Thank you Kirsten for your lace tips because they have helped quite a bit.

Here is what the finished sweater will look like.


And here is the start of my border which goes along the bottom of the sweater. You can see the border in the above photo. Then I guess I will pick up stitches from there and keep knitting. I can hardly put it down...!


Well that is it for my knitting update. I need to go lay down again. Feel awful!! Also to you luxury fiber fanatatics, I just put a few gorgeous rovings into the ETSY shop to take a peek. I am so bummed I have not been spinning lately and I need to change that. I just put a few alpaca, merino and tussah rovings in there which are heavenly and one merino and tencel. A few more should be at kpixie by the end of next week along with other things. More sock yarn coming soon.

Have a good day and stay cool!!!!!!

Fiber Fiber Fiber

Hello, thanks for the compliments that a lot of you leave. My blog is pretty much showing new colors and fibers lately, but that is mostly what I have been doing. I have done more knitting but at this point, the photos would not be too interesting, so hopefully I will have some soon. I have been trying to figure out various ways to show photos here and blogger doesn't make it that easy. Someone I know who has a blog can put the photos side by side sort of in a table and they look great. I just emailed her and I hope she can help me. If anyone else knows how to do this, please let me know.

In the meantime, I made something called a "photo mosaic." Here are some photos of fiber that I dyed this past week. A few are going in the ETSY shop soon and some to KPIXIE.

I have done some yarn too and will try to post that soon. I am such a color addict. I want to buy even more colors but also I will be using a friends mixing log sheet where I will keep track of different amounts of one color mixed with another to get a multitude of colors. I LOVE COLOR!!
Here is one way of looking at the photos......
I wish these where thumbnails though and I do not think they are.....
HMMM.. too tired to figure it out now.



Good night........

This New Merino and Tencel Yarn

I really love this new Merino and Tencel yarn. It looks like silk in a way, it has such a nice shine and it takes the dye very well. I think I sent kpixie 12 or 14 skeins and they were sold within 24 hours! So I think I better get some more! I just love the shine and I am going to use some for a project soon, I just have to figure out which project as it is a fingering weight.

I have also been trying to dye yarn and fiber to match the fabric of Knitted Bits bags lately and that has been an interesting challenge. A few have not turned out like I hoped, but this one turned out well. I have to do a lot of dye mixing to get the shades closer to the fabric since I couldn't keep every single shade of dye of course....

I can't tell you how cool this looks in person with the shine coming through. I am trying to post some new things on ETSy and having lots of trouble. Their server must be down.



Here is another colorway that turned out pretty neat. I have been wanting to do this for a long time. First see the photo of Lake Tahoe. For those of you who have not been there, it is just a beautiful place. The lake is so blue and so is the sky and it is contrasted by the sparkling white snow and the ever greens. I tried to capture all of this in this yarn and it turned out really great. As a matter of fact, I just tried dyeing some fiber in this same colorway and I can't wait to see how it turns out. It is in the dyepot now steaming........

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, California


Lake Tahoe Yarn, Merino and Tencel


Happy Monday!

UGH it is hot and humid

UGH, I am really not used to all the humidity we are having. It is so hot... I am struggling with it this year, even in the air conditioning.

Last night I picked up the needles again and started working on the very cute Bees Knees Ruby Pattern. I learned a new technique that was pretty fun that involves making the front pocket. I will take some photos when it looks more interesting. Basically you move some of the stitches onto a waste yarn while also doing increases every stitch. Then you knit up the back part and come back and knit the front of the pocket. I can't wait to get to that part....I am using both Opal and Regia Sock yarns for this.
It is for my little cousin Alexis and I hope it fits her! I am making it in a size 4 T so that it will be way too big now.


KPixie posted a ton of our sock yarn today and it is fun to see them up on their site. They are great to work with and I enjoy my association with them very much.. I am hoping to do a dye day in a few days. The merino/tencel is pretty cool with a nice shine to it....

I went to Stitch N Bitch in a new location last week and really liked the people. I'm going to try to keep going to that meeting even though it is a short drive away. It was fun.

I joined this Mystery Stole KAL that looks so fun. But I am unsure because a) there is so much email already that it totally overwhelms me and b) I have to do a provisional cast on which I have never done and I don't know why but it intimidates me . We'll see... I might try the cast on tomorrow. I am going to print out this tutorial.

Well, time to go knit a few rows on Ruby.

Another Kit-The Traveler Sock Kit

This one is fun because I can dye the yarn to match the bags that Sarah sews. The needles are actually handcarved by Lindsay, another knitter and blogger who lives in Wisconsin. I love her needles actually......I love wood and handcrafted items..!! I actually have a similar bag that I got from Trek (will look up her link later-it was on a previous post), and I carry it everywhere with my socks that I am knitting. I love it!

This one is Raspberries Chocolate and Cream.


Ripe Avacados (Merino and Tencel!)
I called this one Jamaica after staring at it for awhile. I really love how it turned out as this one was all mixed colors. Merino and Tencel in my favorite all time colors!! I finished the listings in the ETSY shop...





ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..Good night :)