Week of July 16th - 23rd

This week I have one new addition to my shop: a skein of handspun wool made from Bluefaced Leicester top, soft white, 94 yards. It's a lovely, squishy yarn and very soft.

Otherwise I've been plugging away at the red lace sweater. Last week I got a last-call email from the current Afghans for Afghans campaign, so I put the sweater on hold and knit up two more hats. That's pretty much the end of my scrap wool stash, and two more people will have warm hats this winter!

Week of June 11th-17th

Two things to show for this week. First, my new scarf. I've gradually been knitting up some of my handspun yarn into infinity scarves for my shop, and the newest is listed here.



One-of-a-kind pieces are always kind of a leap of faith; I could probably count on one hand the number of OOAK items I've sold on Etsy. I love knitting OOAK pieces, but I'm not sure if I have the knack for making them sell. Still, it's worth it to get to work with my handspun and make something pretty and unique.

Second, my complete set of bears. I've made as many as I think I can afford to do right now (Mother Bear Project asks for a donation of $3 per bear to help with shipping costs, which adds up). Here are the new ones:


And here's the full set, eight in all:


I'll get them in the mail this week. I'm still in the mood to knit bears, so my mother and I have worked out an arrangement. I'll knit the bears, then send them to her to stuff and finish, and she'll mail them with the donation to Mother Bear Project. That should keep me going for a while longer!

Art yarns!

After the urge to spin had set in, I actually went and bought myself an Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel. Then I promptly freaked out because I'd spent that much money on something that was basically a gamble - a gamble that I'd

a) Pick up spinning on a wheel faster than on a drop spindle, and
b) Learn to spin well enough to start selling my own yarns.

Fortunately, I know my limits pretty well. Some things, like precalculus and basic chemistry, I just could not "get" and probably never will, no matter how hard I try (and believe me, I did try). Textiles are one area in which I "get" things very quickly; just give me a decent teacher or book to go on, and with a few days of practice, I'll have the basics down. Which is why I'm hoping to make a living as a textile artist rather than something more lucrative that I would be terrible at.

At any rate, I have found a new passion! I spun a couple of practice yarns (the dark blue and red-orange skeins) and now have my first art yarn in my shop (the green one, here). As we speak, I have a similar skein in shades of blue hanging up to dry, and I can't wait to get started on my next yarn, whatever it may be.

Knit and spin

It's been a blazing hot summer for Cleveland, and yet somehow, I find the need to teach myself to spin wool in my un-air-conditioned apartment. I first kind of learned to spin when I took some weaving classes in college (those classes were really what got me into textiles), and was not particularly good at it. Lately, however, I've decided I should expand my skills, so while I was ordering a ball winder on KnitPicks last week I got a Turkish drop spindle and some wool roving. They arrived yesterday, and this afternoon I've been trying to twist the roving up into something resembling yarn.

And it is just as hard as I remembered - spinning is one of those things that's easy to grasp in concept but difficult to execute well. I've managed a couple of feet so far and I figure I'm doing okay for a beginner, but not well enough that I'm going to post pictures. It's a bit discouraging, but I have to keep reminding myself that when I first learned to knit I was TERRIBLE at it, and look where I am now!

I will, however, share some photos of the baby sweaters I've been working on for the past couple of weeks. I started by knitting sweaters for a friend's baby, which lead to me designing my own. I have three patterns up for sale now on Etsy and on Ravelry.