500th Giveaway and Annual Big Thanks Sale!

Play at Life Fiber Arts is celebrating its upcoming 500th sale with a yarn giveaway! Sales numbered 490 - 510 will be entered into a random drawing for a free 100g custom dyed Maki!

I'm not sure which yarns will be available yet. It depends on how quickly we get to sale #500! Right now I have plenty of sock yarns -

Wishingstar (Silk/SW Merino)

Boundless Sport (8ply 100% SW Merino)

Jest (2ply SW Merino/Nylon)

Scrumpet (MCN)

The Annual Big Thanks Sale will go into effect Friday morning (Nov. 26) and run through Monday (Nov. 29.) The following discounts will be up and ready to go (no Paypal refunds needed unless you qualify for free shipping!)

15% off all first quality yarns and fibers (clubs included!)

20% off all reclaimed yarns

10% off Clearance items (already reduced 25%!)

(Sale prices may not be combined with other offers)

In Which I Get Angry and Buy Shiny New Tools

Someone is copying me.

I have stayed quiet on this subject. Some of my friends are familiar with the details and my feelings on the matter. I was going to pretend this person didn't exist. You know, Stay Calm and Dye On! But I can't. This is blatant and it isn't cool.

I would be less upset if it were a stranger because, guess what? I'm not the only one doing long color repeats! We all put our own spin on the idea though and other dyers have their own methods and colorways, packaging, way of photographing and displaying...etc.

In this case, we both sponsor a Ravelry sock knitting group. She has actually won my sock yarn in a drawing for this group and has questioned me about my dye techniques. I was vague but honestly it's not really that hard to figure out. I was told something along the lines of, "no worries, I'm probably not going to ever do this."

I started dyeing reclaimed yarn in long color repeats because I could not afford to go to my LYS or shop online. I wanted to do it better and avoid some of the issues consumers find with one particular brand of self striping yarn. I opened my shop because my stash of hand dyed reclaimed yarn had grown beyond what I was able to use. I research all my yarn base and colorway names to make sure I'm not duplicating anyone else's work. I make sure that my work is unique and my own.

I feel like I've been stabbed in the back. I had already been censoring myself to avoid such a thing happening with someone unknown. I will no longer be posting colorway previews and I'm seriously thinking about getting a new account at colourlovers.com so my palette ideas aren't stolen as well. I'm adjusting to this new guarded way of thinking. I tend to think the best of people and it's not in my nature to assume someone is out to steal my ideas.

THE GOOD NEWS:

I have had to reevaluate my dyeing procedure so I can increase my production. I have a new yarn winding tool that will allow me to dye Sockie Maki faster. I'm still working out the kinks but soon there will be a larger variety of Maki in the shop.

I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to keep doing what I do. Maybe a little differently but definitely better and MORE.

*I am not going to name names. I'd prefer that the drama stay off Ravelry. The mods have enough crap to deal with.*

IF - Artificial

Artificial Cityscape - 6"x 4" Altered Postcard, Acrylic and Collage

This went somewhere I wasn't expecting. I'm really liking working on this slick surface. I have an entire box full of old postcards from a Freecycler and plenty of paper and curiosity. Wonder what will come up next week.

Performer

Always Performing - 14"x11" Acrylic and Collage

Finished this one for ARN. I rarely go back to a piece. I usually put it aside and move on. But with the annual group show coming up, I really need pieces to contribute!

I'm not sure it's entirely successful, but I'm ok with it. The last "real" painting I did was for Salad months ago. I want to get back into doing self portraits using all the collage, transfer and textural techniques I've learned over the last several years.

I had a bunch of self portrait ideas lined up just after graduation, but then shit hit the fan with Boy#1's behavior, pregnancy, birth, and finally Boy#1's diagnosis with Asperger's. It's taken me 6 years to get back to the point where I feel like painting something personal.

Illo Dump - Summertime Edition

Over 6 years after graduating with my art degree and I'm finally getting back my motivation to make art on a regular basis.

Mondays seem to be a very good day for this. I've been working on what I hoped to be small, quick pieces for Illustration Friday for the past several weeks. Except with the boys home from school quick gets its own new, shiny definition (ie it won't take you long, but the time you actually get to work on it will be stretched out over several days and/or weeks.) You'd think by now I'd know this and would plan for it. I swear I developed a very persistent version of postpartum ADD that becomes exponentially more severe with each child birthed. Sigh

Double

Scrambling eggs is sometimes the most satisfying part of my day, 6"x4", Acrylic and collage

Breakfast

Breakfast is Coffee, 4"x6", Acrylic and Collage

Diary

What if her goth friends find out that she has a crush on Justin Bieber?, 2"x3", Acrylic and Collage

Root

Carrots notice everything - 6.75" x 6" mixed media

I'm really happy with the subtle textures on this one and glad I did the initial quick and dirty sketch.

IF - Slither

The snake attempted to slither through the carrots without notice. Unfortunately, carrots notice everything.

I vowed in September to submit something to Illustration Friday every week! The shop has been so busy (a good thing) and finding the time to pursue two careers at once while being a work from home mom is challenging to say the least. I'm doubling up again with this quick and dirty sketch. My art group theme for June is "root." I'll be doing a more finished mixed media piece for ARN. I'm looking forward to lots of layering and general glue messiness!

Salad

Tossed Salad - Mixed Media

The Art Right Now! group meetings are up and running! Tonight was our first real meeting for 2010 and it went great. Despite our initial aversion for the theme, every one made some great pieces. I've decided to start taking my illustration work more seriously and worked up a mixed media spot illo perfect for a magazine ad, stock illustration or as a member suggested - grocery store tote. I really enjoyed painting again and surprised myself by falling right back into it without much trouble.

Decisions, Decisions...

Here we are, 3 days into February, and I still can't decide what colorways to dye up for this month's Randomness series. It's going to be an all Maki month; I have so much "regular" yarn in the shop and the Maki are really lacking.

I love choosing colors randomly over at colourlovers.com and seeing how they work together in a palette. I let the random color chooser pick the colors and I line them up in the order I get them. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. But I LOVE the combos that I probably wouldn't normally choose. These are the reason I'm having such a difficult time deciding - I love them all.

Look for popular colorways that have sold out - Umeboshi, Winter Outing, Twinkle Lights and more!

Slater Mill Marketplace

I'm doing my first craft show! I'm teaming up with a couple friends from Knitaholics RI to form Island Fiber Co-operative for the Slater Mill Marketplace being held Saturday for the Knitting Weekend. There's tons of classes and other knit-centric events going on. I'm excited and nervous and exhausted from getting everything ready to go.

I did a dry run with my new wire storage rack and found that it wasn't so easy to set up with my 8-year old sized hands. I figured out how to display my spinning fibers and realized how little reclaimed yarn and Maki I have. I really need to get the husband to help me cut up all the PVC we have to build my Maki winder that I designed. I'll be able to really crank them out then and custom orders will be easier too.

LSG-athon helps Haiti!

A bunch of us LSGers over at Ravelry are donating and raising money for the relief efforts in Haiti. So far we're at over $12,000 and we're hoping to reach $15,000 at least. There's many of us with shops and patterns donating a portion or in some cases all of our profits to the cause.

Play at Life Fiber Arts is donating 50% of all sales from this weekend to the Red Cross! So far I've had 2 sales but we need more. Stop by Play at Life Fiber Arts; everything is still 10% off for our first birthday. And then check out the list below - buy cool stuff - help people! WIN!

• AbbiePrime started the ball rolling by pledging 50% of sales of her October Leaves Fingerless Mitts
• LadyBright joined in to contribute 15% of the sales from her etsy store, Delshire Woods.
• LanieRedis contributing 50% of the Paradoxicality profits for the rest of the month.
• DurableDora is donating profits from her Zazzle store
• Niseema is donating 25% of club fees for the next 24 hours.
• CableFreak is donating all January profits from sales of LittleFreak Yarns.
• Retroknit is pledging 50% of all the sales from Harlow and Bob the Dog for the rest of the month
• eudy is donating half the pattern sales from the calm waters cowl for january
• CyberFiber is donating 100% of January sales from her etsy shop uglyshmugly
• Yarnpants is donating 50% of January sales from her etsy shop
• ButterflyKyss is donating $2 for every sale of pinwheel ruffle hat in January
• twistedredhead is offering 25% of proceeds at Works of Artemis to the Red Cross or MSF
• minou is donating $5 per item sold from her shop Ambrosia and Bliss until the end of January.
• Overbrewed is donating 50% of sales of her designs Melusine and Lucy in the Sky until the end of the month
• Antimony is donating all proceeds from the sale of her design Water Rescue Socks for the rest of the month to Doctors without Borders
• Lotus Yarns is donating 25% of all orders for the rest of January to Doctors without Borders

Base Preview

I received my new sport yarn base yesterday. I am so excited about dyeing and having this in the shop! This 8 ply 100% sw merino yarn is cable plied. Instead of taking 8 singles and plying them together, the mill has taken four 2 ply yarns and plied those together making a bouncy, round yarn with good stitch definition. And 8 plies means a strong yarn that will wear well (like that uber popular European sock yarn!) Sport weight yarns are extremely versatile; still thin enough for socks and lace, but less bulky than worsted for hats, mittens or cowls. I haven't decided how to dye it up yet! Its structure makes it perfect for cables and texture, so I'm thinking kettle dyed semi-solids and super short color repeat hand paints.

I also scored some gorgeous sweaters for my reclaimed bases. I love love love love overdyeing and the blues I picked up will be perfect for the Grey series. I also found some Peruvian bulky and a wool/cotton/silk blend with yummy texture. I can't wait to dig in and see what happens in the dye pot!