Merry Christmas!

Just a quick note to remind you that it's not too late for gift certificates! You can get them until noon tomorrow, December 23rd! Once you purchase it, I'll email you (within 6 hours) a personalized, printable gift certificate (it's no extra cost if you'd like me to mail it, but obviously it won't get to the recipient before Christmas!)

(an example of a gift certificate)

Even though I'll be away from a lot of usual internet-y places (like the blog and flickr), the Boutique will continue as usual. In fact, I'll be adding a bunch of new yarns, including a new color of Bananiere on Friday!

Farmer's Market Project #7

I've gotten a little behind on posting the Farmer's Market Project, since being out of town for a few weekends, but I'm back, baby! Renewed determination and commitment to see this through until the end of the season.
This photo was taken 7.19.08 at the Johnson City Farmer's Market. You might recognize the tablecloth from past photos, as this is my favorite booth - always filled with color!

Bright red and yellow shades on mill-ends wool was handspun ultra-fluffy, thick and thin. Plied with a handdyed green hemp thread, the yarn became even fluffier and soft with a squiqqly, fun-in-the-sun vibe.Yellow Tomatoes, available here

I was happy with it, right until my husband looked at it and said "Hulkamania, brother!"
Oh, uh yeah, it does look a bit like it could be knit into a boa for the Hulkster:

Hmmm...

Collaboration

Every yarn is a collaboration between animal, farmer, dyer, spinner. Each yarn I spin is an unspoken agreement use the raw, pure fiber to create an artistic expression, to endeavor to honor the original fiber and the others who have worked with it.
This sense of collaboration and community is why I choose to buy most of my supplies from local fiber farmers and handpaint the fiber myself. Sometimes, though, I like to create something in collaboration with even more artists, to work with someone else's painted fiber.
Last week I purchased some lovely fiber from a few Etsy sellers. The small fiber farm, Fleecemakers, raise Romney sheep and sell the roving dyed and blended in beautiful mixes. I ordered Ocean Wave and Tropical colorways (stay tuned to the shop or my Twitter updates to see the yarns this fiber become!)
I've been a fan of Jayne's work for a while, but when I saw the Fabulosity fiber, I couldn't resist any longer. I snatched it up and created some Fabulous! yarn (that's not bragging, that's the yarn name!)

My favorite part of selling handspun yarn is knowing that everything I spin becomes a collaboration with yet another artist - the knitter or crocheter! The fiber that I admired and squished, that flowed through my fingers and twisted into yarn before my eyes; it will flow through a knitters hands and become something warm, useful and squishy.

Have you collaborated with me (or another fiber artist)? Let me know about it in the comments!

Farmer's Market Project #5

This week's picture was taken at the Johnson City Farmer's Market: ripening Cherokee Tomatoes, from a local farm. Just as the rain subsided, I was smitten with the deep red and receding green of this heirloom variety.


I captured the purpley red on mill-ends wool (rescued wool from what would be thrown out by a commercial spinning mill) and handspun it fluffy, thick and thin. I then wrapped the squishy wool in hemp yarn, handyed the shade of green tomatoes.
The two textures and colors play with each other, like the ripening of a tomato, creating a contrast for your eyes and hands. The knitted (or crocheted) fabric will have a slight tweedy effect with the green just popping up now and then to add some life to the party!

Farmer's Market Project #4

Inspired by these peaches, the seasons' first, I handdyed some local fiber 3 shades of peach.



The three shades in this 2 ply yarn create a self-striping yarn that starts with darker peach at one end and moves towards the lightest, peachiest color at the other end of the skein. Knitted (or crocheted), this skein will create one long color repeat that moves from darkest to lightest along the length of the project.

I was/am very tempted to keep this yarn for myself and knit a scarf out of it! It took all my moral fortitude to stick with the Project and list the yarn in the shop!

PS. This is a super busy week with out-of-town family (and pets) staying in my guest room/studio/office and dyeing lessons in my kitchen and knitting night at Jill's. I might not be around too much!

Farmer's Market Project #2

I had to skip the Farmer's Market last week, since I was IN my best friend's wedding, but the week before that I actually went to 2 local farmer's markets. The new Jonesborough market is still small, but all of the produce (of which there was very little by 10:30 am) was local. My favorite local chocolatier was there (Earth and Sky Creations)- and we bought a chocolate for each of us. On the car ride home they both got melty and so we were at a rush when we stopped by the JC market. So rushed, in fact, that I left my camera in the car and it wasn't until the last minute that I grabbed it and shot the brightest thing I found:

While I was out of town for the wedding, I thought about these flowers, so bright amongst the green leaves. I decide to finally break out the banana fiber I've been too nervous to spin and I dyed it a few shades of green. I found some brilliant impatient-orange recycled silk that are the perfect shade of orange. The banana fiber and recycled silk are recycled in the same way: a Nepalese woman's co-op collects the scraps from sari weaving; apparently banana fiber is a very common fiber in India! While the silk is smooth, with all the fibers parallel, the banana fiber is very crimpy and clustered up, tied together is some places. Making it spinable is a time-consuming task and involves "fluffing" it, pulling apart the fibers, cutting or untying the knots, getting it as parallel as possible (I tried handcarding to no avail!). Because the banana fiber is so uneven and I wanted to ensure a sturdy yarn, I chose to use a commercially spun 100% hemp yarn as the base and spun the banana and silk around the hemp yarn (like corespinning).Impatient Orange - available in the shop

The resulting yarn is fluffy and soft and scrappy, while extremely sturdy and strong.

and funky!

PS. The chocolate got melty, but we popped it in the fridge when we got home (just a few minutes) and it ended up tasting SO amazing - PB for Jay, Chili Powder for me.

Farmer's Market Project #2

Last week, at the Johnson City Farmer's Market, I was struggling to find some yarn-worthy inspiration. We had slept late and most of the fresh veggies were gone. While the goat cheese was delicious, I didn't think white slabs of creamy goodness were going to translate into an interesting yarn. Just as we were leaving, I caught site of these white stalks, which reminded me of Soy fiber (I don't know why; everything reminds me of some fiber!)

I was thinking of that pale green when I dyed the fiber and those spiky stalks on the round one (what is that?) inspired the way I spun it.

I'm not entirely happy with how the color came out, I was going for something a bit more green, but this ended up in the blue-green range. A little of the natural cream of the soy fiber still shows through, like the barely green of the stalks.
This yarn was definitely a lesson in dyeing soy and in trying to match the inspiration photo!

Fiber Friday - Hobby Knob Farm

On a muggy Friday evening last month, Jay and I had the pleasure of visiting Hobby Knob Farm in Weaversville, NC. Shepherdess Elizabeth met us on her big back porch, where she was working on a fleece, cleaning out the grass as it sat on a big screen door.

Elizabeth gave us a grand tour, past the guard llamas that were being groomed for her daughter's upcoming 4-H show and up to the sheep on a leash.
Yes, a sheep on a leash (a very long leash) in the yard! I knew then that I was gonna love this place!

The flock of sheep all live in several huge fields and are rotated throughout the day. When we arrived, Elizabeth put out some feed in the chicken yard and the sheep (and their constant companions, the llamas) came running.
As cute as the sheep are, that chick in the above picture, might be my favorite - she looks like she's wearing pants!

Hobby Knob is focuses on heritage breeds of sheep: Jacobs, Cotswalds and some Shetland crosses.

Elizabeth breeds with other local, small farms to create interesting, beautiful fiber and fantastically adorable lambs!

The fiber I got from Elizabeth is a blend of her wool and mohair with local alpaca. It dyes beautifully soft colors and spins so easily, so smoothly!

This yarn was dyed with the leftover Easter Egg dyes and spun to a heavy worsted weight. I named this first skein spun the fiber I got at my farm visit after Elizabeth!

Farmer's Market Project #1

Last week,while strolling through the very lively Abingdon Farmer's Market, I slyly snapped this photo of a pepper plants and begonias, while my husband bought some peppers.



Throughout the week, I thought about the photo and what aspects I wanted to caputure in the yarn. I was most struck by the variety of greens and the interplay between the shot of red with the rest of the photo. It took me a few days, but on Thursday I pulled out some gray streaked mill-ends wool and a local wool/alpaca/mohair blend from Hobby Knob Farm. I put both fibers into a dyepot with a medium green. As the temperature rose, I sprinkled in a few more greens (dye will "strike" the fiber quicker when it's already heated, so you can get patches of distinct colors while kettle dyeing).


The resulting fiber was dried outside in the sunshine and spun into a bulky single, shot through with begonia red recycled silk. The scrappy silk offers both a contrast of color and texture, the same contrast provided by the begonia in the picture.

I would love some company for the Farmer's Market Project! Read this to learn more and then leave a comment if you'd like to join me. I welcome anyone who does any craft; I'll make a blogroll of those involved, so make sure you leave your blog address!

Fiber I love: Hobbledhoy batts!

Long have I admired Liz, of Hobbledehoy's use of color. I remember reading her Featured Seller interview on Etsy and feeling so inspired! I long watched and drooled over her batts, but they usually sell out so soon after listing, it seemed I kept missing them.
Imagine my delight and surprise when I finally did order a pair and she added a little extra batt!
The wait was definately worth it, the batts were squishy and soft and spun up into the bounciest yarns.
I was extra thrilled when, moments after finishing this yarn:


I went on a walk and snapped this picture:


Usually my pictures inspire my spinning, but this time my fresh yarn inspired to notice the beauty in these buds.
Today I listed the yarn spun from the little extra batt. I added it in with some of my own handdyed purpley mill-ends wool/mohair.
The results reminded me so much of the pansies blooming everwhere; I'm now inspired to try to photograph a few!

As I started writing this post, I realized I'd like to know a little more about the girl behind the yarn, so I asked to interview her and she agreed! Look for it here, on Monday!

Inspiration Monday- Inspiration in a box

I admit it: I love TV. Not all of it, but the shows I watch...well, I can be a bit obsessive about them.
Obsessive enough that I memorialize my love in the form of yarn.
One of my favorite shows is LOST. I like the intrigue, the mysteries and the way a viewer is rewarded for paying attention. I also love the scenery. The lush greens and sinister black were the inspiration for my LOST yarn:
I started with jungle green and ocean blue local wool and swirled organic, undyed cotton, local naturally brown alpaca and a shot of mill-ends black wool. The black (like the Black Cloud on the island), shows up very little, but when it does it surrounds the other color in an immediate hive of noir. In other words, I let it wrap around the other ply, making scary little clouds of black! Despite my best efforts of making a sinister yarn, LOST is squishy and soft!

Another in the vein of dark and mysterious is Battlestar Gallactica:
Jay and I started watching it this winter, on DVD. We then anxiously awaited the release of Season 3 on DVD, and the return of it this March and it might just be the most exciting thing we do on Friday nights (yes, we are geeks - if you're not a fan of the show, you might just want to skip to the pretty pictures)! I had been mulling over the BSG yarn for quite a while before I started it, trying to figure out the overall "color" of the show. Jay really gave me the idea, when we started talking about the overall "gray" tone of the show. The overarching theme of life on the Battlestar, is that life has a lot of gray areas: not all Cylons are bad, not all humans are good, even the good/bad people act out of character, sometimes the "right" thing involves leaving others behind, letting them die or letting the guilty go free. This 'gray area' that permeates the daily life on the Battlestar is symbolized with natural gray alpaca (from the small farm, North Star Alpacas). The stark white bamboo represents the Cylon's coldness and the organic, naturally white Merino wool symbolizes Six's unwavering religious fervor. Her striking red dress makes a small appearance in the form of a blood red recycled silk. The black of the ship and the vastness of space is represented by pitch black mill-end wool.

For lighter fair, I'm a fan of The Office, Friends, I love Lucy, The Cosby Show, Spongebob, Saved by the Bell; all of which inspired yarns for my Month Of Love Series:

Jim & Pam


Dwight & Angela

Carrie & Big

Ross & Rachel

Lucy & Ricky

I'd love to do some more... are there any TV shows you think should be memorialized in yarny glory?

Spinning Nature into Yarn

I realized recently that I post a lot about the things that inspire me (every Monday, in fact), but I rarely describe what happens with that inspiration. So I'm making a concerted effort to change that and to show a little more of the process behind the yarn (the myth behind the man woman).

Natural Inspiration
Lately, surrounded by blooming things, I've been inspired by nature. I think I've particularly attuned to it since this month's Project Spectrum Element is Earth and that the earth is really providing a beautiful palette. The first step in being inspired is to capture the inspiration. To this end, I carry my camera obsessively and take pictures whenever I see anything.

These daffodils were in a no-man's-land near my apartment, so I picked as much as my vases could hold (while still leaving enough outside to inspire others!)

I particularly love their ruffly edge.

This tree is right at my back door and I love to watch (and document) the change from tiny green bud to barely open flower, to full fledge cloud of flowers:

Translating Inspiration:
The trickiest part in translating inspiration to fiber is getting the color just right. My dyeing process is extremely serendipitous, so it's a happy surprise when I get the colors just right:

Once the fibers are dyed, I have to decide how I want them to appear in the finished yarn. For Dogwood Blossoms, I wanted to highlight the three separate colors to symbolize the stages of a dogwood blossoms life, so I spun it long repeats (each 5-15 yards long)

Winding the yarn off the bobbin and into a skein is probably my favorite part, as it's the first time I feel the yarn and see the colors play against each other in the skein

After the yarn is spun, there's still the issue of "styling" and photographing, which I think is vital to conveying my original intent.

I love to read about how others work with their inspiration and how it impacts their work, whether it's in fiber or another media! Let me know what inspires you and how it shows itself in your work, in the comments!

Fiber Friday #7 - Organic Squishy

I'm always searching for the perfect sustainable, responsible yarns for BCB. A product isn't "responsible" unless it fulfills the following standards:

• It must come from a family-owned business or farm (no corporations).
• It must be sustainable (both the business and the product).
• It must be as earth-friendly as possible (either recycled or chemical free and not travel unnecessary distances)

Ones that are unique and eco-friendly, that can be dyed bright happy colors, are pretty hard to come by. Thus, I was thrilled to find Marr Haven, a family farm that processes their own Merino wool without using any chemicals (just water and salt!). Their yarn was reviewed very favorably by Knitter's Review and so I felt confident ordering a LOT of fiber and yarn.

It is exactly what I hoped for! The yarn is soft, squishy and takes the dye beautifully (pictured throughout). I struggled with a name for it...and then decided on "Organic Squishy" - strait and to the point! I'm choosing to dye only 2 skeins in each colorway, except by specific request, and am looking forward to truly have an entire "line" of this yarn in a variety of colors and weights.

The fiber is lofty and extremely easy to spin. It takes the dye so bright and clear (it's the brightest colors in the following yarn):

Fiber Friday #6- Raspberry Fool roving and recipe

Thanks for your fantastic suggestions on yarn names for my first roving!
The general consensus is that it is very Raspberry-ish. (is that really how you spell "raspberry"? I never noticed it had "rasp" in it...)


I decided on Raspberry Fool, because it's just so delicious- and silly-sounding at the same time. Commenter Mooncalf gets extra points for giving us this tasty (-seeming, I'll let you know when I try it) recipe from the BBC.

I've spent the week dyeing a range of greens, one of which has made it into the shop:

Spring Grass - Bananiere.

I'm aching for Spring! Finding ShiningEgg's Green Week has just brightened my mostly-rainy week!

I'm spending this weekend in Cookeville, TN at my Grams' rural house on a mountaintop with no internet access, so if you comment, email or call, I won't be getting it until Sunday night The Boutique will go on normally: all orders purchased from now until Sunday will ship on Monday, as usual.

Have a lovely weekend full of green things!

PS. Mooncalf, email me with your info and I'll send you a discount code for winning!