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!!!