We've Moved!

I've moved the blog! Visit playatlifefiberarts.com to see what I'm up to at the shop, where I'll be vending this year, and what I'm obsessing about lately.

Boo! YAY!

There are some drawbacks to approaching work from a playful perspective when you're multi-tasking. In dyeing, largely it's the spontaneous, non-repeatable colorways that result from a sprinkle of this and a dash of that. Despite my best attempt at noting application technique, quantity, and time I often cannot duplicate colorways.

Then there are the mistakes. I once left a half pound each of superwash BFL and Merino in the crockpot overnight. Why I didn't remember before I fell asleep, I do not know. When I woke up the next morning, I sat up and immediately remembered that I left the crock pot going. The crock pot was bubbling away and my basement studio smelled like cooking hair. Not quite burned but definitely well done. Which is what I called the fiber. As it was superwash, it had not felted so I decided to salvage it for my own personal use. A whole pound of unsellable fiber? Boo. A whole pound of fiber just for me? YAY! I'm planning on carding them together with a bit of bronze angelina.

Well Done SW BFL and SW Merino Combed Top

Which leads me to my current large spinning project. The first batch of fiber I dyed up for the October Long on Color fiber club bled. It bled and bled and bled. I must have forgotten to add acid to that dye because the subsequent batches from new dye stock were totally fine. This left me with one 4oz test braid and four 4oz braids that were fine to spin but weren't good enough for the club. Boo. But now I have 20oz of Polwarth in this lovely colorway! YAY!

Jack's Lament Polwarth Combed Top ( the mistake-free version)

One bobbin down, 2 more to go!

It's December!

Our tree is up and the kids are already very excited about Christmas day. It's going to be a long month :)

I'm wrapping up the Long on Color fiber club this month. I have something fun and festive planned. Here's a little clue while the fiber steams away.



I'll be moving the blog over to my new website in the next few weeks. I'll be posting at both sites for a while during the transition but feel free bookmark http://playatlifefiberarts.com now.

WIP Wednesday

Two blog posts in one week? NO WAY ;)

It's Work In Progress Wednesday and I am once again working on this pattern I wrote forever ago. I'm double, triple, quadruple checking the maths and making sure the yardage requirements are correct for the last time. I am going to get this pattern released. I AM!





And I got my Little Red Bicycle mini skein club shipment. So sparkly and colorful!!! I need to get some of these other projects done so I can start puffing in earnest.

left-right Arctic Islands, Dollhouse, Saffron, Great Race of the Yith, Granny Smith

Puffing - Holiday Style

I love mini skeins. I love that I can knit swatches for the shop and not feel guilty about cannibalizing yarn inventory. I love that I can do this in one evening! I made 5 things in less than 5 hours while yarn was dyeing in the basement. The sparkly puffs are killing me. They're so soft and squishy and SPARKLY! Yup...I'm still crazy about the puffs.

Holiday Collection 2011

New Obsession

So much for Fiber Friday, huh?

My old cell phone died recently and I was able to upgrade to smarty-pants phone. I had hoped this would help me get some daily progress photos done with the intention of adding them to an at least weekly blog post. Mwahaha...yeah, that didn't happen! But I have been taking lots and lots of photos and using Instagram to get them on my flickr and Twitter.




New school year transitioning is tough in Aspie land but now that things have calmed down considerably at home, I'm recommitting myself to blogging at least weekly. I'm really hoping to do some short and sweet posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You'll hold me to that, right?

Finished Object Friday - 9/2

It's ok if I string out all the objects I finished a month ago so I can blog weekly, right? GOOD!

Here's the shawl I started on my birthday for the first ever G+ knitalong.

Bashful Butterflies, designed by Julia Temiseva, is a great pattern for a quick, satisfying knit. I used a skein of my Revelous sock yarn and went up a couple needle sizes to use more yarn. Not only did I use almost all the yarn, the larger needle made for a lovely fabric with wonderful drape. This project reaffirms my love for yarn blends with a high content of fibers other than wool. I have some new SW Merino/Tencel yarn in the dye pot as I type. I can't wait to work with it!

Sneak peek of tonight's update - MINIS!!!

Finished Object Friday - 8/26

In an effort to be more bloggy, I'm introducing Finished Object Friday! I'll be posting a recently finished knitting, crocheting or spinning project every Friday.

This plan is genius. I have motivation to blog and finish things. Which means I can cast on more new things and work through my Ravelry queue. It can't fail!*

For this inaugaural post, I give you Obnoxious Leftover Fish Socks!

These were knit with Phat Fiber samples and leftovers from other sock projects. I started them in December of last year and I have made another sock since.

Lessons learned:

I don't like this heel. It's fiddly, easy to mess up, and the pick up stitches on the side leave bigger holes than any other heel I've ever knit. It also fits funny on me. The first sock I did (left) has a heel nipple - not cool.

Even with an art degree, I made some mistakes with my color combo choices. The best contrast uses cool background colors and warm foreground colors. I also got some great ideas for self striping yarn and colorwork sets.

NO MORE ONE SOCK AT A TIME! I finished sock #1 ages ago and it took me forever to pick the project back up. Never again. Two socks at a time from now on.

Have you finished anything lately? Leave me a comment with a link to your Ravelry project page! I'd love to see it.

* Tongue planted firmly in cheek

Gearing up for Tour de Fleece 2011

It's that time again! The Tour de France is set to start at the beginning of July. Which means time for the Tour de Fleece! While cyclists are racing through France, spinner's around the world will be racing themselves and each other to finish their spinning goals.

I haven't joined a team yet! Nor have I set a goal for myself. In years past, I used the time to finish spinning projects that had been languishing on my spindles. Now I have a wheel and even more spindles and too many options! I will likely use the time once again to finish up spinning WIPs. But I also want to try out corespinning and coils.

The shop is stocked with lots of fiber right now! I'll be getting some batts up in the next few weeks too. Keep an eye out for my Tour de Fleece Ravelry ad! There's a special coupon code for 15% off at the shop.

Find out more about the Tour de Fleece and join a team at the Ravelry group!

Bad Blogger! No Cookie for you!

I have been remiss in keeping up with my blog. I recently moved my art blogging to its very own url ( www.cgovernoillustration.com ) where I have an online portfolio. And I haven't been back here to update things since! Bad Blogger!

So what's been going on? I branched out more with my hand dyed fibers and borrowed a friend's drum carder (very long term so it seems!)

I started working with a new mill that gives me access to new fibers and yarns. I have a big order headed my way as I write with new blends of Blitheful (SW BFL Sock yarn), Revelous (SW Merino/Bamboo/Nylon Sock Yarn), and Merry Merino Lace. All three will work really well in the new Gradient Maki.

And I'm doing more craft shows and fiber festivals where semi-solids and subtle hand painted yarns sell very, very well. I'm currently getting ready for the RI Fiber Festival at Coggeshall Farm Museum in Bristol, RI. I'll be dyeing up some new Scrumpet DK in some popular colors for this show. Maybe I'll do some Purposeful Poolers too!

Stay tuned! I'll be trying to blog more often. :pinky swear:

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.