TreasureGoddess

SPARKLE Socks!!

2012-01-18T22:08:00.001-06:00

Post showing the fabulous new SPARKLY socks I got as a gift from Tim the Great over at the new blog home....NEW & Slightly Improved TreasureGoddess Blog!

Please change your feeds to the new web address and come say howdy!

TreasureGoddess has a new home!

2012-01-13T00:33:00.001-06:00

Please come and see me at my new home, change your blog rolls, google blog reader lists, etc. We'll have lots of new yarny adventures I'm sure.

New TreasureGoddess Blog: New TreasureGoddess Blog

Craftzine 5.4.3.2.1. things about...

2012-01-06T22:14:00.000-06:00

Click the button above for a cool tour meeting all kinds of creative people! Here's my info:

I'm TreasureGoddess Christine. I live & breathe wool. I love dying it, carding it, spinning it, knitting it, crocheting it, heck, I love just carrying around a skein of handspun yarn and petting it like a little dog. Forget purse dogs, we should all be carrying purse skeins of yarn! I *heart* everything wooly or alpaca-y or mohairy! My favorite thing to do is to create knitting and crochet patterns for unusual textured or art yarns.

One project I am particularly proud of
is that I've raised two very crafty, creative and entrepreneurial children. One creates his own line of animal magnets and the other creates amazing art with old cd's, fingernail polish, glitter and other misc craft supplies she finds around the house. My kids rock. I would choose to hang out with these two even if they weren't related to me. (and I don't particularly like kids so this is saying something!)

Two mistakes I've made in the past
Mistake #1 The Leaky Boob Sweater, where I learned that it truly pays to TRY ON a sweater as you make it, not just to make sure it fits, but also to make sure there's not a strange pooling in the handpainted yarn or some other unflattering feature along the way.
Mistake #2 Undervaluing my work. In the past I've brushed compliments aside with an "oh anyone could do that" or "it's not that special" kind of attitude. I've also underpriced my patterns, yarn and hand dyed fiber in the past as well. I create amazing, unique and FUN fibery things and should be PROUD of what I've created. I've learned when my prices are more realistic, my sales are stronger.

Three Things that make my work unique
#1 Me. I'm a bit odd, quirky and fun loving. I believe my patterns and fiber creations reflect that. I am the TreasureGoddess! I snort when I laugh too hard, which usually makes me laugh even harder. I think of myself as the Goddess of Wooly Treasures.
#2 My family. We have a strange part redneck, part art & culture, part LOUD, part soothing and part crazy life. The outdoor adventures clearly play a role in my creation process, as there's always knitting along to keep me sane.
#3 My studio. My studio is in the middle of utter chaos. It's full of textures, colors, yarns, photos, flowers, colored pencils, spinning wheel, implements of destruction (knitting needles), magazines, fabric, unfinished projects, amazing natural light, view of the creek behind our house, and also doubles as our dining room when we have big family gatherings. No quiet studio loft with white walls and amazing counter space for me.

Four tools I love to use
#1 Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel, stained to enhance the wood and the wheel is painted deep red. It makes me happy and makes amazing yarn from nice, sturdy and respectable yarn to crazy art yarn supercoils!
#2 Knitpicks interchangeable circular knitting needles.
#3 Roaster for dying large batches of spinning fiber or yarn
#4 Notebooks. Can't EVER have enough.

Five Inspirations
#1 Nature. As much as it tries to eat me, maim me or kill me, it truly is inspiring and beautiful. I'm glad we still have wild areas of the country to explore. And I'm very glad there's bugspray.
#2 Knitters and Spinners and Crocheters. Just talking with other fiber artists, seeing their projects, their color choices, textured stitches used....it gets my brain crazily finding new tangents or what about this stitch with that yarn and on and on and on. Knitters, Spinners and Crocheters ROCK!
#3 Craft Blogs. There are so many creative people out there!
#4 Old movies. Amazing costumes, textures, fabrics, styles
#5 Ravelry.com. My life is so much better with ravelry!

the Kansas Creative Quarterly & WOOLFEST 2012!

2012-01-03T13:23:00.000-06:00

The Kansas Creative Quarterly is a cool little online resource that features artists in our little corner of the midwest. Their winter finds is HERE. It has some warm & wooly items available online in each artist's own little online venue. It also has a nice directory of Handmade Artists Supplies HERE. The list includes some pretty fabulous fiber & handspun yarn artist shops (including mine). I was intrigued by the t-shirt yarn shop. Very cool.

YAY! Winter Woolfest!! Sat, January 7th, 10am-4pm at Columbian Theater in downtown Wamego, KS. Free mini classes and demonstrations, fiber vendors and WOOLY FUN FOR ALL! I can't wait! I will be a vendor there. I'm bringing batts, fiber braids, yarn, felted flower pins & cool little fiber related goodies. Please come and see me and tell me to stop spending all my profits on everyone else's shops!! There are some amazing vendors there!!!

Merry Sheepmas!

2011-12-25T13:44:00.001-06:00

ALSO MAJOR after Christmas Yarn Sale ALERT!!!!

Knit Wit in Olathe, KS (no website to link) 1815 S Ridgeview Rd, Olathe KS 66062
Dec 26th 9am-4pm
I think it's 25% or 30% off yarn, there's a sale on knitting bags, needles, patterns all on sale & SUPER AMAZING $3 tubs of yarns. YARN, PEOPLE!! I will be there at 9am and may or may not knock over anyone standing between me and the mohair. Just a warning. I'll be polite and talk AFTER my hands are full of yarn. :) (those that don't know me think I'm kidding here, you have been warned.)

Yarn Barn in Lawrence, KS Yarn Barn Website
Dec. 26-29th Sale on yarns, mill end cones, selected looms & spinning wheels.

Merry Christmas Eve!

2011-12-23T23:51:00.000-06:00

I've pretty much come to the realization that the Christmas Sweater will probably be a New Year's Sweater or a Valentine's Day Sweater...or next year's sweater.... no, I'll just knit on this thing straight and true, not deviating to that pretty sock yarn calling my name, nor the beautiful lace scarf waiting for my attention, or wrist warmers, or the 43,082 things I'd rather be knitting.... I WILL finish this thing, it just realistically can't be completed in the next 24 hours. Ah well. I'm good with it.

Proof that I embraced the sparkle in Vegas.....

My husband and I had such fun, I was so very, very proud of him at the awards dinner! As each bigwig stood up to speak, they each thanked their super salesmen and then the wives as we hold the family together, etc while the men are out selling their arses off. I think they told it more eloquently than that, but you get the picture. My husband was the first one to accept his super saleman award. In his little speech he said that those presidents and vp's were all right and he wanted to say how much his wife was a part of him getting such good sales. I got all teary, I couldn't believe it, it was soooo sweet.....then he said his wife was always telling him to hit the road selling if he was home more than 4 days in a row. Cripes. He's totally right. HA! He'd be driving me insane and I'd casually suggest that the big client out in McPherson would probably be expecting him soon....or how are those guys out in Garden City doing? You know, it's been a while since you visited your clients in Iowa....

Ah well, I was still proud of him, smartass and all. It was a GLORIOUS trip and I was very thankful that we wives got to go enjoy the vacation as well. I hardly left the spa, slept in each morning and ate and drank to my heart's content. (and that's saying something!)

Merry Merry Christmas to you all, happy sparkle too!

Hang in there Christmas Knitters!!!

2011-12-22T14:27:00.000-06:00

I feel a time warp coming! Actually, there's a photo of me JUST AFTER dancing the TIME WARP from the Rocky Horror Picture Show in full gold sparkle dress at a piano bar in a casino.....but the photos are stuck on my husband's i-phone. I know. I have to say in all modesty that I ROCKED the gold sparkle dress. ROCKED it. AND there's photos of me rockin that same dress with ELVIS people! STUCK ON THE PHONE. Cripes.

In the meantime, all I have to share is this pitiful Christmas sweater in progress. It's actually a fine sweater out of cascade 220 wool for the husband. But it's for THIS Christmas. I know. Yes, it's the 22nd of December. I'm aware of that fact. Thank you for pointing it out. Please stop wasting my Christmas knitting time.

I was feeling quite smug on December 14th as I'd decided it was insane to knit 7 pair of wrist warmers for Christmas. I've done that. I barely survived. My family barely survived. I gave teachers felted flower lapel pins that I happen to still have a ton of. The teachers were happy, my wrists were fine and my soul wasn't shattered. It was going to be a nice, normal Christmas season.

But then I got the itch. It was the 15th of December. I had a sweater's worth of cascade 220 just sitting there looking at me. So I cast on. What the heck, right? I had 10 days. Well, after MUCH restarting and reknitting and taking off the needles on and trying on and reknitting and knitting and knitting it's now the 22nd of December and I have this. The problem is that since I had TEN WHOLE DAYS I figured I didn't have to knit all the time. I took a nap or two, I wrapped gifts, I even READ A BOOK WHILE TAKING A BATH. Looking back, I see I was just in total knitting denial, tempting the fates of time.

This doesn't look like a sweater ready for blocking and wrapping does it? At least the minor heart attack last night at knit night where I laid the sweater on the table and even held it up to me and thought it was STILL too small......but when I tried it on the rather grumpy I'm-tired-of-trying-this-stupid-thing-on-and-don't-think-I-want-a-sweater-anymore man of mine last night IT FITS. What do you MEAN you don't think you want a sweater anymore? Forget it, I don't have time for this...I've got to KNIT man!

A reminder...check your knitting in the DAYLIGHT once in a while...

Crap! Ah well, at least it's a quick fix, just drop down a TON of rows and fix the purl that's supposed to be a knit and the knit that's supposed to be a purl....except the stitch in the middle of the seed stitch will be a bit more of a pain in the arse, but still fixable.

I have come to terms with the fact that this may be a New Year's Sweater. I'm fine with that, but still can't seem to stop knitting. Just in case. There could be a time warp, right? It could happen. I just have to see how far I get before the big day. Just because.

ALSO----a very amazing person knit me a very amazing gift!!! It's ORANGE and it SPARKLES and it's just freaking awesome. I'll take photos and post after Sweaterpocalypse is over.

Did I mention they were ORANGE AND SPARKLY???? I *heart* them so very very much!

Another Christmas of wrist warmers

2011-12-09T09:54:00.002-06:00

A few years back, I made about 18 pairs of wrist warmers for teacher gifts, mom's present, nurses gifts, etc. It about made me insane because OF COURSE I didn't start before December. Why would I? When have I EVER planned ahead?

This year I'm doing things a bit more sane. I actually knit this gray pair for ME and wanted mom to try them on to see if she'd like these a bit more than those shown below, the basic model of 3X1 ribbing with a thumb hole. Mom had pretty much worn her pair thin and needed a new pair. I've got a pair of the good old ribbed version ready in a pretty deep burgandy red (no photo yet) but she loved that gray pair so much that I had to send them with her.

I can't recommend this free pattern by Janelle Masters enough! Susie's Reading Mitts, a fabulous SUPER SPEEDY knit that was quite enjoyable also! I knit one mitt in one day and used one ball of Rowan RYC Cashsoft for each mitt with size 5 dpns. If you're looking for a quick knit for someone you forgot to add to your Chrismtas list, this could be just the pattern for you. I'll be knitting myself a pair but probably after Christmas...or I'll procrastinate the important knitting and make myself a pair NOW!

My crank-em-out ribbed version came from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts but I changed the ribbing to doing 8 rounds of 1X1 rib at top & bottom, then knitting 3x1 rib in the body. Stretchy, fun and easy peasy.

I'm also going to start a sweater for my husband sometime this week, worsted weight yarn (cascade 220), raglan style in the round, have to learn some kind of intarsia in the round as he wants a point coming down on the front and the sleeves in one color and the rest in another.... and I may or may not have it done for Christmas. I'm not going to stress about it, just if it happens to get done, awesome. Right? yeah, right. I'm going to knit my freaking fingers off and stress and all the rest. Ah well. I think I need to quit asking people's opinions about what they'd like me to knit for them and just knit what I WANT TO so I'd have a pattern to follow...BUT I'll be having a little more knitting time as I'm headed to VEGAS BABY!! Jeff won the President's Club Award for sales in his company, so we're headed to the land of glitter on the company dollar! YAY! I think I'll pack some glittery yarn to get in the spirit. :)

Good luck to all my holiday knitting friends. Remember that sleep is important. It's totally fine to wrap a skein of yarn and a note saying what that yarn will become if the item isn't done by C Day. I've done it before. Heck, the man that I love ended up getting ONE SOCK for our first Valentine's Day and he MARRIED ME! How bout that? That must be the antidote to the boyfriend-sweater-curse!

I've gone a bit batty

2011-12-07T22:15:00.001-06:00

Thin Mints Fluffy Batt...Kansas Corriedale wool, Kansas hand dyed alpaca and a hint of sparkle

Firey Sparkle Red Fluffy Batt...hand dyed wool, silk and a hint of sparkle

Va Va VOOM Fluffy Batt...hand dyed superwash merino wool with yellow, orange and HOT PINK sparkle!

More Fluffy Batts at the shop...TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop

They're all SO FLUFFY!!! And SO SPARKLY!!! oooohhhh the sparkle....just wait till you see the dress I'll be wearing next week in Vegas!!! It's Vegalicious, the entire thing is gold sequined. I laugh to remember that unbelievably anal girl that picked out each and every piece of sparkle, every little strand that DARED to make its way into her fiber her first year at Yarn School.....

You've come a long way, baby.....EMBRACE the SPARKLE!!!!

Ulgy doesn't block out....

2011-11-30T08:09:00.002-06:00

I think at some point I need to realize that I was NOT meant to have an orange sweater. The current pile above is a Snow White in progress. Pattern is beautiful, yarn is NOT the right thing for this pattern, I'm almost entirely sure. But not totally sure. The yarn is lovely, a slightly thick & thin & nappy Noro Cash Iroha, soft and luxurious. It just is....well....turning out to be more of a Cinderella's ugly stepsister sweater than the beautiful Snow White sweater it was supposed to resemble.

I pulled this mess out of a bag at the back of the yarn stash and figured it was the perfect time to work on this. Actually it's NOT even remotely NEAR the right time, but that's what my fingers decided to knit. Not the pairs of wrist warmers for Christmas presents, not the sweater for my husband (not even cast on yet), not finishing a pair of socks for me, nope. I HAD to knit this ugly, funky, ORANGE, bumpy sweater. Now. I realize a sane knitter would maybe try it on, look in a mirror and face the reality of the ugly, but I just can't do it. It's like a sick obsession. Even though I have a PRETTY BIG FEELING that this thing will be unwearable in public, I have GOT to finish it.

I have a history of the ugly orange sweater quest.....Anyone remember these?

The Toilet Seat Cover Sweater

The Leaky B00B Sweater

Now I have to admit a few sweaters have made it through, this is what gives me that insane hope that even though the pile of orange is looking horrid, it could possibly turn into a vision of loveliness.....

I have at least learned one thing on this insane orange sweater quest. I will NOT weave in all the ends and then try it on and then frog it. Just joined the sleeves to the body and am working up towards the cast off. It shouldn't be long until the Snow White is unvelied in all its ~~hideousness~~ glory. Cross your fingers for me.

Yarny Dream

2011-11-29T09:10:00.002-06:00

WARNING----DO NOT fall asleep while knitting AND watching UFC! (Ultimate Fighting Championship) also called MMA (mixed martial arts). In a nutshell, two guys kickbox, judo, karate, and beat the holy hell out of each other. It's awesome. It just doesn't make for sweet dreams when you fall asleep while knitting.

I woke up Sunday morning with a dpn (double pointed needle) poking me in the ribcage and yarn all over my face. The dream had flashes of vividness to me so I quickly wrote down a few notes. The parts I remember was that I was in a small country school and fighting a major battle....with felted and knitted items. Basically, everything felted was coming to life as GIANT RATS. Not just regular giant rats (bigger than my new puppy by the way), but alien powered super rats that could zap things into dust with beams from their sharp ratty teeth. Yup.

SO, there I was, with all these knitters and crocheters and felters at a nice little fiber retreat (something like Yarn School at Harveyville). People kept on knitting while these alien rat things were bursting out of everywhere. Then ZAP POW they'd be zapped into dust. I figured out you had to STOMP the yarny creations to stop the transformation. I yelled at the other knitters to STOMP THE YARN! STOMP THE FELTED BITS! STOMP THOSE FLOWERS! Some figured it out and were fighting the battle with me, others just kept on knitting without noticing the havoc.

The worst offender was this big sweater that had stripes of felted bands that had been picked up and knit with FUN FUR EYELASH ACRYLIC yarn. It was the mother ship. The felted stripes were black (like the mutant alien rats) and the fun fur was neither fun nor fur and in horrid stripes of cotton candy pinks, baby boy blues and a sickly purple/grey. There were felted flowers flying through the air as each explosion helped more morph into rats. I was finally getting through the knitters and crafters and we were waging a major war, stomping and stomping on all the felted wool bits....then I woke up.

I'm thinking I'll take a break from the whole crocheted felted flowers thing for a while. :) I crocheted a BIG box from Little Knits (amazing sales on yarns) full of noro yarn into a crap ton of flowers and felted my heart out. I sold a lot at the Creative Hand show and have more ready for a few more craft shows coming up.

I'll also apologize in advance in case you walk up to me and happen to be wearing a sweater with felted bands and fun fur yarn. I will stomp you. repeatedly. and not just to keep the alien rats from morphing either. How does my brain come up with such horrid images??? Oh the fun fur.....the horror....

Frank the new puppy. NOT stompable. Australian Shepherd, 10 wks old, adorable. (way better than a photo of alien rats, right?)

Winner! Winner! Turkey Dinner! TWO cowls given away!

2011-11-29T07:07:00.001-06:00

I ended up having my son pull TWO names out of the hat and we have TWO winners! YAY! Two super cowls will be on their way to Lynn & Cheryl. I've emailed you both this morning to get your mailing addresses. If you've not heard from me, please send me an email to Christine(DOT)Long(DOT)tg(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

YAY for warmth and funkiness all in one! Thanks all for checking in and leaving nice comments here & at facebook too! I'll be listing more super cowls on my etsy shop: TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop

Super Cowl!!! GIVEAWAY!!

2011-11-21T07:09:00.001-06:00

What's that? It's an infinity scarf.....it's a hood....it's a cowl.....NO, It's SUPER COWL!!! lah lah lah LLLLLAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

These are some fun and funky super cowls I created recently for the Creative Hand Show last weekend. Fabulous show!! You've GOT to put it on your calendar next year!! It's always the weekend before Thanksgiving and next year will be at the same location, the Old Shawnee Town Hall in Shawnee, KS (suburb of KC).

Here's a few color shots.... pay attention to the burgandy/red/brick one. It's the one that's going to be a GIVEAWAY! YAY!

I sold two amazingly BIG cowls, not infinity long loops, but super tall super thick super funky thick & thin bumpy cowls and didn't even take a photo!!!! (I KNOW, can you believe it???) I'm going to have to make more of those. I also sold all the blue ones except one which I'm keeping for myself. I happen to have an extra of the burgandy/brick red cowl, which I'd like to share with someone out there in blogland!!! Leave a comment here on this post or make a comment on the TreasureGoddess facebook page and I'll add you to the drawing. I'll draw on Sunday night, 11/27 at 10pm central time.

If you're the winner, feel free to keep it as a present to yourself or send it to someone and cross one thing off your holiday knitting list. I'll have my kiddo do the drawing, he LOVES knitters! Also, my son is feeling GREAT!!! He has had a weekend of almost NO stomach pain. YAY! Thanks to all for the nice emails & rav msgs. I truly appreciate the good thoughts. It's nice to not worry about health for a while and just enjoy the changing leaves, cooler weather and KNITTING!!

Your giveaway SUPER COWL is made of 100% wool, overdyed by moi and knitted with 2 strands of worsted weight together in a seed stitch pattern with a funky twist in the middle for superior twisting & draping. It's not a true mobius, but a "join, making sure there IS a twist in the stitches" type of thing. It's fun and truly funky and warm as can be!

I'll post the particulars in a free pattern/recipe soon. Thanks and happy knitting all!!

*****Make sure to leave your email addy or some way to contact you, but leave it in that format that spambots can't grab, like mine....ChristineDOTlongDOTtgATgmailDOTcom or something like that. :)

Knitters Rock and a pirate sheep

2011-10-31T18:34:00.001-05:00

I forgot to say that after I'd had that little Incident at the Quick Trip, I went on to the CVS pharmacy. I was waiting on my son's medicine to be prepared so I wandered through the store for a while. As all knitters probably do, I ended up in front of the magazine stand, where there were a few knitting magazines. Not having a lot of energy and being emotionally drained, I sat my butt right on the carpet and began flipping through Vogue Knitting.

A lady walked up behind me in the skinny aisle. I didn't even look up from my magazine, just said "Please let me know if I'm in your way and I'll move my butt off the floor." I heard, "Is that Christine?" I looked up and it was one of our guild members. She gave me a hug, said, "I'm praying for your son and hope he feels better and that you do too." Then she walked away after I tried to say thanks through my tears.

A day that was all kinds of crazy stressful, or as my daughter would say "a hot mess of ugly", suddenly turned into a calm afternoon and I felt loved and hugged. ALL BECAUSE OF A KNITTER. Knitters rock. We do. We find people that are cold and knit things to make them warm. We hug. I love that about us.

I think my new sign I should wear should just say "knitter" and that would explain it all. It means I'm quite crazy and probably have a house full of wool but I'd do just about anything for a friend or for someone in need. I rock. We all need those signs!!

OH and let me know what you think of the pic below as a logo? I'm trying out the pirate sheep idea with the whole TreasureGoddess name.

When you hear TreasureGoddess you think calm, rational yarn loving woman, right?

2011-10-30T20:51:00.003-05:00

It's story time again. It's been a while, right? Well, as they say, Crazy always Outs. Ok, it may be the Voices that say that, I'm pretty sure I've heard it said on the Outside of my head too.

Let me preface this story with a link. Brave Girls Club, Signs Story Go on, click and read. It's a lovely story. I had this story in my mind at the time of The Diet Coke Incident. In summary, it's the idea that everyone's got something going on that they're dealing with. If we wore signs around our necks maybe everyone would be more kind to each other. My sign would say "my little boy is sick and the doctors can't seem to make him better." I would smile as others saw my sign and gave me smiles of encouragement and I walk calmly through this life. Ok, that's absolutely imaginary as I don't think I've ever walked calmly through life and if I did it would probably alter the general consciousness and I'd cause a black hole to suck us right on out to where ever you get sucked to when you enter a black hole...

OK back to the story. We're all happy feely now, right? Wearing our signs? Being patient with one another? Good.

The Diet Coke Incident...
My kiddo has CF (cystic fibrosis), which is a lung & digestive disease. He's almost 12 yrs old and has been pretty healthy for the last couple of years. Joe's digestive tract just decided to stop working about 2 months ago. We'd been in and out of Children's Mercy clinics, Emergency Room, even admitted for a weekend and then sent home, each time the telling us he's just fine and then the damn thing would start over. In a nutshell, he's been in pain and barfing for 2 months. He was pretty small to begin with but he'd reached a critical level. I'd not slept the night through for almost 2 months, he'd be up dry heaving or barfing from 2-4:30am every stinking night. The poor kid.

This put me in full zombie mode. The GI team FINALLY figured out what was causing this (but not how to fix it) and we were just waiting for a room to open up at Children's Mercy hospital. It was a Wednesday around 11am. I was on my way to the CVS pharmacy to pick up yet more meds and pulled into the Quick Trip in my neighborhood for a diet coke. I was thinking about the story of what my sign would say and how I should really try to go out of my way to be kind to others as no one really knows what's going on with another person's life.

I was pouring myself a diet coke in the Quick Trip and somehow the 32 oz cup just slipped out of my hand and dropped to the ground causing a HUGE splash of diet coke everywhere. I stood there just watching it for a moment until it registered in my mind. I think I actually said "wow." (It was a really big splash) I hear laughter and a snarky voice saying "This must be one of those Johnson County alcoholic moms we're always hearing about." I turned around, saw these two cutsie 20-yr olds laughing away snarkily. I Snapped, with a capital S. I turned and got RIGHT-IN-HER-FACE with my finger poking RIGHT at the tip of her nose and yelled "HEY! YEAH, I DROPPED THE FUXXING CUP OF FUXXING DIET COKE. YOU KNOW WHY? MY LITTLE KID IF FUXXING SICK AND THE FUXXING DOCTORS CAN'T MAKE HIM FUXXING BETTER! WHAT'S SO FUXXING FUNNY ABOUT THAT?" There was a lot more, but it's honestly a blur of f-bombs yelled at the top of my lungs (and I'm really REALLY loud when I mean to be) and severe finger poking. I'm pretty sure she about burst into tears and I do remember feeling really good about that. Then I calmly walked over, pulled another 32 oz styrofoam cup off the wall and filled myself another diet coke. There was COMPLETE SILENCE in that shop. There were a TON of people, which all quietly moved away, much like the Biblical parting of the seas, when I walked to the counter to pay.

I walked calmly to my car and looked at myself in the mirror. I have to admit, if I'd not known my own story I may have thought I was an alcoholic gutter dweller. The bags under my eyes, crazy freaked out hair, mascara that had run down into the cracks and crags of my face did not present a normal Johnson County mother-type figure. I also realized that the standard "come back soon" wasn't spoken to me when I left the shop either. ha! I also realized I'd not thought about her sign, that she might've been having a hard time in life, but also decided I really didn't give a flying fuxx. Ah well. I'm not exceedingly patient on little sleep and excessive stress.

Joe's been in the hospital almost 2 weeks now. They seem to have got his system working again, but it's very slow. He's been on a feeding tube (which sucks) but it's built his strength and weight back up to levels before this stuff started. My son's feeling better and has started a new business while stuck in his bed. He's beginning "Joe Co." (his name is Joe) and is creating really cute animal magnets and pins. My dear knitting friends WHO ROCK decided his little business venture needed investors and started him off with a significant gift card to Michael's craft shop for supplies. I'll be sharing photos of his critters soon. They're pretty darn adorable. Sheep, octopi (? octopusses) ladybugs, pandas, frogs and dogs. YAY! SHEEP! YAY! OCTOPI!

I've been knitting my arse off and am getting ready for the Creative Hand Show in a couple of weeks. I'm also crocheting away on tons and tons of little flowers to felt up and attach to barrettes and pinbacks. crafty crafty and I've not poked anyone for at least a week. :) YAY ME!

Sock ER -- Woven Darn

2011-10-19T21:58:00.001-05:00

Are you guys tired of these sock tutorials yet? Do you already know all this and can't believe someone is taking the time to photograph herself stitching up holes in socks? I hope not. I've still got a couple tutorials to complete, a duplicate stitch version where you can't even tell any hole or weak spot was ever there, and I'm going to try needle felting a hole. I've heard about it but never thought to try. We'll see what happens and then I promise no more sock darning photos for a while!

OK, introducing my very favoritest darning method ever, the WOVEN DARN! YAY! I use this baby all the time for patching up holes on the bottom of my socks. It works on holes and weak spots both. When done in the same sockyarn, it blends right in.

I'll use different yarn so my stitches stand out (and because I can't find any more of the original yarn and I don't really care that the bottom of my feet have different colored patches).

Gather your supplies...sock with a hole, sockyarn scraps of same yarn or similar colors out of same fiber content, darning needle, scissors, and darning egg or bouncy ball. Some people say to use a light bulb, but even typing that gave me chills. ICK it sounds like fingernails on the chalkboard!!

Leaving a 3-4" tail, begin a few rows below and work into a few rows past the hole.

Stitch strands up and down to use as a weaving base. I'm sure there's a name for that...warp? weave? It starts with a "W" but I just do this by the seat of my pants.

Now also working a few stitches into the good sock past the hole, weave your needle side to side going over and under the yarn strands and any existing stitches.

I should warn any official weavers to turn away now or the imprecise photos to follow may make your eyes bleed. Just. Look. Away. This is crappy weaving, but it's fast, it's effective and I love it!

Keep working back and forth until you fill up the stitches well, then rotate the sock and weave up and down filling in more strands and strength, virtually weaving a patch right over the hole. You need to make sure to always go 3 to 4 stitches into the good stitches at the sides of the holes to anchor the patch and not cause larger holes in the future.

Here's the inside view. Weave in your ends on the inside across and through the patch diagonally, up and down or whatever crazy way you like. It just adds to the strength and texture of the patch!

Even though I've used conrasting yarn, you can't tell to look at my foot from the side or back. Only visible if I turn my foot upside down!

YAY ME! After about 15 minutes of work, I've saved this fabulous pair of socks from the trash bin!

Sock ER -- Triage

2011-10-16T20:59:00.001-05:00

This SHOULD have been my first tutorial and my first step, but I didn't realize how important this step was until just the other day! Take the time to sort through your whole stash of handknit socks. Look at each one, pulling out which need work and which can be put into the drawer for wearing.

This is my big pile of darning. I think I made it through last winter on only FOUR pair of wool socks, avoiding this mess. Ridiculous! Now I'm going to have a WHOLE drawer of warm woolie socks to choose from each day!

Sort the socks into pairs, then pull out all your sockyarn scraps. Find either the original yarn or something of similar color and same fiber.

Bag each pair of socks with its darning yarn into separate baggies. Put them in a basket or shelf with a little bag including a pair of scissors, darning needles and your darning egg (or bouncy ball if you don't have a darning egg).

It seems silly, but spending 15-30 minutes ONCE instead of doing this EACH time you decide to darn a sock makes it so much easier! With everything sorted out, I sat myself down in a comfy chair with good light, grabbed the basket of sorted bags and darned 3 pair in almost no time at all! I'll follow up tomorrow with my favorite darning method, the Woven Darn. :)

Sock ER -- Oops Dropped Stitches Tutorial

2011-10-12T16:21:00.003-05:00

This tutorial can help with any form of dropped stitches, but it's part of my "Sock ER" fix-it series. If any stitches drop on you while knitting yourself new toes, now you'll be able to ROCK it, not stress about it and just pick them up easy peasy!

First, a photo of my completed new toes on a lovely 3X1 ribbed very old, very comfy pair of socks. The left sock has new toes from the same yarn in a different colorway and the right sock has different yarn, but same fiber (100% wool) and approximately the same gauge.

Let's say after you separate the bad toe from the rest of the sock, you have a stitch that's dropped down a few rounds. Don't freak out, it's very easy and empowering to learn to fix your own mistakes.

As I was slipping my knitting needles into stitches around the sock, I came to the point where a stitch had gone down a few rows.

The first thing I need to do is to NOT FREAK OUT. Then I put my knitting needle through the ACTIVE stitch, even if it's rows below the rest of them. Continue slipping the rest of the stitches around the sock onto the knitting needles.

After you've got all the stitches on the needles, begin the new yarn (of the same or different yarn to knit yourself a new toe on the sock). I just leave the yarn tails hanging loose until the end and then weave in the ends. Knit until you come to a dropped stitch. ***TIP: Start the new yarn at the side of a sock, not on the top or bottom of the foot. It'll look nicer and you won't have the bump where you wove in ends in an uncomfortable spot.***

Next, DROP the stitch (or push it off the end of your needle). Don't freak out, it's not going to run down to the end of the sock. I promise!

Insert a crochet hook into the ACTIVE dropped stitch. Then put that crochet hook through the lowest of the yarn ladders behind the stitch.

Pull the active stitch through the ladder loop on the crochet hook, making a new stitch one row up from where you started. Then repeat this all the way until you have no ladders left and you're on the same level as the stitches on the needles.

Next you'll put that stitch that's been worked right up the line onto the left handed needle.

Now tell yourself "YAY ME!" You just picked up a dropped stitch and worked it right up the line and are ready to knit around and around creating new toes for your formerly worn out socks!! How cool are you? Unbelievably cool, for sure!

PS, thanks for the good thoughts & prayers while my son was in the hospital. He's home and though he's not back to regular level of health yet, he's getting a bit obnoxious, which means he's feeling better for sure! I had a lot of time to knit and darn so I'll have more tutorials out soon. Stay tuned for the woven darn for the bottom of a sock, coming soon!!

Knit on...especially if you're knitting Picc Line Covers!

2011-10-07T00:02:00.001-05:00

Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises
--Elizabeth Zimmermann

Sometimes when life gets too hairy (not too mohairy, that could never happen) it's a true comfort to knit. I remember the days before knitting and how hard of a time it was to cope with stressful situations without having the yarn and the needles in my hands. I confess to making a crapton of horrid things out of plastic canvas and acrylic yarn. Not just coasters, that would be understandable and almost accepted. When I learned my infant son had Cystic Fibrosis, a chronic and terminal genetic lung and digestive disease, I crafted my living ass off. I spent hours and hours (a few weeks actually) stitching up coaster sets for all my family for Christmas. I bought a book at a craft store and created BUG HOUSES with embroidered little pictures of bugs for all the little kids I could find. I morphed those into beanie babies houses which had "I <3 Beanie Babies" (<3 means "heart"). I made CRAFT KITS of the plastic canvas pieces and yarn in the hopes of selling these to other similarly possessed crafters. I am embarrassed to say some of those are still in my craft room today.

I crafted my ass off with this yarn and needles and plastic. The repetition of stitches helped ease my worries a bit, but it didn't satisfy the manic urge. When I found knitting, my soul was happy. It's what my fingers and heart had been searching for. There's something about sitting and knitting that calms me. Knitting stitch after stitch. Garter stitch is the true balm for my soul. Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit.

My kiddo is back in the hospital for intestinal issues from the disease that he's fighting. He's amazing. No kid should have to go through the crap that this kid does. I know kids everywhere are fighting all kinds of horrid things. I don't know how those moms handle it. It's hard. This current issues is a minor one compared to what many kids are dealing with and even with what he's done in the past. But for some reason it was harder for me to be strong throughout the day.

Elizabeth Zimmermann really did have it right. Knit on. It helps. If you find yourself in a situation where you just can't even knit, just hold the yarn. Hold a project. Or just know that you could knit. Just knowing you have this thing you can do, this thing that unites women and men all over the world and throughout history gives a strength, a sense of calm that somehow makes things manageable.

We're lucky that my son's only in-house for a short stay. He doesn't even have to have a picc line (as of this typing). BUT there's plenty of people that do. We brought along a few for Joe should he need it, and also delivered a big batch to the hospital knit by friends local and world-wide through the internet. If you find you have some spare time and some superwash wool, please think of knitting up a few. Send me an email to christine(DOT)Long(DOT)TG(AT)gmail(DOT)com and I'll get you shipping info of where to send them. Or send them to your local hospitals.

Giving someone a hand knitted picc line cover knit with love means so much to someone that's feeling low.

Links to free pattern: Ravelry Picc Line Cover Pattern
Non-Ravelry free pattern link

Sock ER -- New Toes

2011-09-26T08:52:00.001-05:00

Today's pair of socks needs some surgery. You can already see a new brown toe on the end of one of these babies. It's partner isn't doing too well.

Look closely at the sock, evaluate its needs. This one has holes AND weak spots. A quick darning of a small hole isn't really an option. It needs a whole new toe & part of the foot reknit.

Find a spot a few rows (rounds) below the weak spots. You don't want to darn into weak yarn as it'll just cause more holes in the future. Snip ONE strand of yarn.

Work that yarn out of the sock stitch by stitch, leaving open loops in your wake. DO NOT FREAK OUT. This is (most likely) WOOL and won't go unraveling on you and leave you with a pile of yarn. The worst that may happen is a stitch may run down one or two stitches. You can deal with it. Really. :)

I find it's easier to unknit this round if I use a smaller knitting needle to help pull the yarn through the stitches.

Snip the yarn tail as you go. Having a shorter tail to pull through means less tugging on the stitches and you'll have less chance of stitches working down a row or more.

After making it around the tube, pat yourself on the back. You've done it! You now have a foot and a separated toe.

Put the loose stitch loops onto knitting needles and knit yourself a new foot and toe!

Scatter the yarn scraps around the yard or near trees where you know birds and squirrels have nests. The critters love wool scraps to make their nests warm and cozy!

I'm off to knit myself a new toe plus a little bit of the foot. I'll share a photo of how to deal with if a stitch has unknit a few rows down too. I didn't have any stitches unravel, but I'll force one to and take pics for you. Be back with toasty toes fresh from the Sock ER soon!

Autumn Glory

2011-09-19T09:46:00.001-05:00

Autumn Glory handspun BFL wool yarn by TreasureGoddess

I dearly love the fall. It's my favorite time of the year. Football, cool evenings, WOOL SOCKS, wool EVERYTHING! It's time to pull out the stash of hand knit socks. I'm sure you all have your socks safely stored away, clean and pristine with no holes or weak spots as they've all been darned already, right? If so, you're WAY better than I am. I pulled my pile of socks out. Yes, pile. It was a big hairy pile of socks and only about half of them were cleaned, none of them darned, it was a big mess. I had a hard time pulling out an actual pair that was wearable.

SO these next couple of weeks before the cold sets in I'm going to work to get things ship shape for my tootsies and those of my family. They've all now been washed and are hanging dry. I'll share with you my sock issues and how I plan to deal with them. Maybe it'll help you out too. Maybe it'll inspire you to fix up your woolies. OR inspire you to KNIT some socks for yourself. There's nothing better than putting on a pair of wool socks. nothing!

The only issue I have holding me back from knitting more socks is I have the socks that never end on the needles. NEVER ENDING socks. The husband has decided that he, too, loves handknit wool socks. Wonderful! Except the husband also decided last year that he ONLY loves KNEE HIGH wool socks now. I'm not a fancy schmancy sock knitter. I'm a 3X1 rib sock knitter. It's comforting, easy and fits EVERYONE. No, I'm not doing calf shaping on his socks. I'm just knitting 3X1 rib (Knit 3, Purl 1) FOR freaking EVER! I've actually finished the toe on sock #1 and now have to steel myself to knit a dark grey blah tube yet again.

The only good thing is that my husband picked out bright orangish-red sockyarn for his feet! It's the light at the end of my woolie tunnel. To keep myself from going crazy, I'm rewarding myself by knitting a bit of (what else?) MOHAIR! :) Here's my start to Mohair Bias Loop designed by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. Everything's better with Mohair!

Bahama Knitting!

2011-09-06T21:59:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it. I tell you, we couldn't have picked a more peaceful time for our vacation! We were on the very first flight after the hurricane passed through Marsh Harbour, Bahamas. The airport had power, a few grocery stores had intermittent power, the liquor store had a generator (YAY!) so we did just fine. Jeff's aunt & uncle and their boat all passed through the storm relatively unharmed. They were all a bit worn down, beat up but liveable. We added our survival food & water to the boat's storage, stocked up on some beer & rum and hit the waters. We still had a rainstorm each day, but they passed through pretty quickly.

Everyone was exhausted, so we went to a different small island each day and Jeff and I would snorkel a bit, explore a bit, look for shells and nap. Lots and lots of napping! There's nothing like sitting, knitting on a sailboat while floating in a harbour of teal blue waters. NOTHING! I'm so glad everything worked out for the best, and I have to selfishly say I'm very glad I didn't end up as shark bait either! It was also good that we had a boat to stay on as most of the resorts were closed down while we were there. I think the first shop we saw open was on the day we left.

I finished the short sleeves on my featherweight lace cardi, but never actually wore it as it never got too chilly at night. The rest of the time I knit on my 2nd silk citron out of crafty-in-a-good-way 100% silk. mmmmmmm Have I let you know I'm on a quest to find more of this yarn? If ANYONE knows of more of it, I'm desperate to get my hands on some!! I cant stop knitting citron's out of the stuff and have Christmas presents on my mind!

The sunsets out there were so beautiful, it just took my breath away.

Here's my version of a Bahama sunset, with mohair. Because everything's better with mohair!

I did do some snorkeling and only had one minor freakout. Jeff pointed out there wasn't as many fish out there since most of them had washed or swum to calmer, deeper waters. You'd think that would be a comforting thought, but then I thought about the fish that would be left would be VERY HUNGRY. :) I really belong ON the boat, not IN the water. The rough seas did leave amazing shells on some of the beaches. We came home with a small conch shell for each kid plus a couple for ourselves. The guy in the airport working the xray machine over the bags called me over on the way back to the US. I thought, "oh crap!" to myself. He just said, "Ma'am, did you leave ANY shells on the beach at all?" I said, "yes, all the ugly ones." On the way over, I was randomly selected at ALL THREE airports we passed through for special screening. I was patted down phsyically in KC, had the wand passed over me while I was pulled off to the side in Houston and then my hands were tested for explosives in Ft. Lauderdale. We knitters must look like danger or something.

Thanks again for good thoughts & prayers. I'm SO GLAD Jeff's family AND their boat (their entire livelihood and home) were all OK. We visited the wrecks of the sailboats that stayed in Marsh Harbour while there. It wasn't pretty. No deaths in the Bahamas through the storm, a true miracle!!

floating in paradise

2011-08-28T07:18:00.000-05:00

We made it to the boat! Jeff's family is safe and sound and the boat made it through the storm. YAY! The 5 sailboats that stayed in Marsh Harbour are either sunk or crashed onto shore. Jeff's family made the right decision to move their boat to Man Of War's habour. Their boat was roughed up but safe and sound.

The islands have spotty power off & on. We've got a boat full of supplies, food, water and beer! Pretty weather and we should have a nice visit in paradise. I'm hoping there may be some gold doubloons washed ashore from the hurricane.

love to all, thanks for all your prayers for safety for us and our family!! ps, I'm casting off on the 2nd sleeve (I only had to make TWO this time!) I blocked the bulk of the sweater with some steam at our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale last night. I should be wearing it this evening over my sundress. YAY! Not shark bait AND with a FO of malabrigo lace!! How could this day get any better? Oh yeah, I'm in the BAHAMAS mammas!

Fort Lauderdale is Fabulous!

2011-08-26T19:50:00.000-05:00

Ok, flights were fine, on time and all. We're in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and it's a beautiful calm evening, 93 degrees when we landed. Heard from Jeff's uncle and they weathered the storm in their friend's house fine. Boat is ok, just messy and everything inside was whirled up and thrown about. Minimal damage. Winds are still 40 mph today, so they're not able to get to Marsh Harbour Island, where we'll fly to tomorrow. We've got a friend of theirs to connect to on the island and we'll figure it out after that.

I didn't knit but a few rows on a very simple, yet lovely mohair & boucle scarf, garter stitch with a ruffle. I slept most of the way here and we even got to spend the evening with my cousin Mary, the Knitter! I'm feeling less like shark bait with every passing moment. It seems we'll have a lovely time in paradise after all, and we'll help clean up and patch up the boat, and live off canned goods (on the boat) and our beef jerky & bottled water (checked bag). If there happens to be a store with food left or a restaurant that reopens, even better. If not, I'll get to knit in paradise with the man that I love NOT on rolling seas. YAY!

I'll talk at you guys later!
Christine, the now only slightly freaked out knitter. :)

heading out

2011-08-26T07:54:00.003-05:00

We're off to Ft. Lauderdale today (Friday). We'll make sure we hear from Jeff's uncle and that there's a boat to stay on still and that they can get to us on the airport. I'm not going over without that. We're supposed to fly from FL to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas tomorrow (Sat) around noon.

I'm sure it'll be a paradise after the hurricane goes by. I'm sure I won't be fish food. I'm sure there won't be monster swells even in the protected harbours. I'm sure there won't be looting or crime. I'm sure of it. mostly.

I love you guys. The blog has been such fun and I sure as hell hope I just come back with fabulous new yarny adventures. (Actually I'm pretty sure we'll spend a day and a half sitting in an airport somewhere). I packed rain gear, bikini, wool socks, sundresses, survival gear, food, water, batteries, toilet paper, dramamine and YARN!

I've got mohair, sockyarn and the in progress cardigan. I figure malabrigo & mohair will be calming. :)

PEACE people! I hope to be back Sept 1st with fabulous photos of sandy beaches & sunshine. I can dream, right?

ps, just in case, I gave my kids lots of hugs before I left, but make sure to knit socks for them to grow into and tell them their momma loved them more than yarn!

It's bananas!

2011-08-25T09:56:00.001-05:00

My son loaded the image of my Zombie Message banana I gave him onto facebook. His description of the photo is "Evil message my mom wrote on a banana." HA! I didn't actually think it was evil, but when I asked him did he eat it, he said, "well, YEAH, what did you think?"

The magical how-to....just take a new banana and lightly scratch a message on it with a toothpick.

Then magically, it appears the next day. If you use a slightly ripe banana like I did, the writing shows up darker and quicker.

Photos from the Kitchn Blog, which has some great ideas and recipes!

Banana inspired fiber!! Ok, not really. It's actually lemon curd inspired, but it's the only yellow stuff I've got!

I should get an award for the best mom ever. seriously!

2011-08-24T09:19:00.000-05:00

After being inspired by the Bloggess's post on bananas, and a few other mom blogs that send cute little notes to their kids in the lunchboxes, I realized there needed to be some middle ground.

You know, there really is a NEED for a way to get the kids to eat the lunch food you prepare for them. Silly uber-moms that pack raisins, tortilla wraps and other healthy things must smile with pride when they think of their healthy little children eating those lunches prepared with mom's love and growing strong little bones and such. Have you ever BEEN in a school lunchroom? Those things are either thrown in the trash or the whole lunch is traded away for a pudding cup.

A GOOD mom would want to ensure her child is actually EATING the food she sent, right? OK. Problem solved.

There! Any child seeing that in their lunchbox would not DARE trash or trade that banana, would they? You'd also be keeping their minds on the important things in life, like preparing for the zombie apocalypse. I was going to write "Zombies LOVE eating kids that eat pudding cups" but figured I'd save that note for another day.

Now this is actually a YARN ADVENTURER type blog, here's what's come out of my dye pots and off the spinning wheel lately.

Bahamas trip update...Jeff's uncle & aunt are on Man of War Island in the Sea of Abaco, the northern most bunch of islands when you look at all the hurricane maps. They're straight east of Ft. Lauderdale. We're waiting and watching updates. Right now flights are still scheduled to arrive 8/27 in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas (when we're scheduled). Flights through 8/26 have been cancelled. Jeff wants to check a bag full of survival supplies, food and water to be the relief effort. I said we're waiting to see what happens first as there's no way I'm flying there not knowing if we'd have a way off that island to find his family and WHO the HELL flies INTO a storm devastated economically poor country immediately after a hurricane anyway? Maybe I should send a message via banana to the husband... "Are you BSC? STAY the hell HOME!" (BSC= Bat Shit Crazy)

Stop it, Irene!!

2011-08-23T08:12:00.000-05:00

Cripes almighty. My husband's uncle & aunt own a sailboat in the Bahamas and are currently tied up to a ball floating in Man of War Cay in the Sea of Abaco, waiting for the hurricane to come. They're expecting the storm to hit tomorrow (Wed) and they'll weather it on the water.

Our flights are of course non refundable or changeable. Guess we're waiting to see how bad the hurricane is and if it's passed through yet by Friday morning.

Hang in there Steve & Kim!! or should I say HANG ONTO SOMETHING!! Sure is different watching hurricanes brewing when you have people you know & love in the path. And, a bit selfishly I admit, when you may or may not be heading directly into the aftermath.

Sleevequest 2011

2011-08-22T16:51:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving for the bahamas 3.5 days from now. I've slacked off a bit on my featherweight cardigan that I began just for this trip. It's a super fast vacation with my husband, a little 2nd honeymoon escape, and we're only bringing one carry-on bag and a small backpack. Good thing yarn squooshes, huh? I thought this would be the ideal cardi for this trip as it's soft, lightweight, squishes up to almost nothing since it was knit with laceweight yarn, is MALABRIGO BABY, and it matches all of my sundresses that I'm bringing. It can get a little chilly on the boat in the early morning and late evenings.

Only problem? NO SLEEVES. cripes. I kept thinking I had a couple more weeks, a couple more weeks, um HOLY CRAPAMOLY! SO I've got a few evenings ahead plus plane rides on the way. I have this ISSUE with sleeves. I don't like them and they don't like me. The last sweater I knit sleeves for had THREE by the time I was done. SO, I can either figure that there's no way in holy hell I will have 2 sleeves knit in laceweight yarn with 1X1 ribbed cuffs and just wear some crappy heavy thing. OR I could wear it as is, which quite honestly does look bad without actual sleeves. I think I'm just going to knit my living ass off and enjoy this floaty heavenly soft cardigan WITH SLEEVES!

Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

And, as always, we've got family staying at our house, so no freaky stash stealers come over please. PLUS we've got a new guard dog. Well, she guards my ankles as she sleeps at my feet while I knit, but I'm SURE if she knew my stash (or kids) were being threatened, she'd go insane.

mmmmmohair!

2011-08-06T20:07:00.000-05:00

I think I must've just cooked my brain. I spent at least half the vacation at the lake carding mohair, spinning mohair (with a crap-ton sitting on my lap), mohair floating through the air, and then KNITTING with mohair. It was fabulous. Fabulously hair, fluffy and mohairy.

This scarf is my own design, but is VERY simple, basically just garter stitch forever and a ruffled edge at each end. I'll publish a free pattern for it shortly. :)

I will say I didn't break into any of the other batches of mohair to knit, I got distracted by some sunset colored hand painted 100% silk by Crafty in a Good Way Andrea. HOLY CRAP that woman could dye yarn!! Too bad she's off saving the world by being a nurse. *sigh* I'm now on a mission to unearth all the rest of her 100% silk yarn. If you have any sitting in your stash, it really REALLY wants to be knit up by me. I cast on, finished and then cast on a 2nd Citron. You haven't citron-ed until you've citron-ed in 100% silk. yummy doesn't even begin to describe it.

Color is most true in the close-up of the ruffled edge. Yes, there may be a theme going on, I just can't get enough of the ruffle!

I was just cranking out the knits at the lake. Here's the start of my Featherweight Cardigan out of malabrigo lace. It's so soft to knit that I'm loving just holding it in my hands as I knit. Plain old stockinette is a dream to knit along.

I should go to the lake for three weeks more often!

Field Trip!

2011-07-30T19:26:00.001-05:00

This is the pet emu at Sumptuous Yarns just outside of Versailles, Missouri. I can't remember his name, but he's quite friendly. A pet emu. How cool is that???

These guys & gals were hanging out in the shade, since it was 99 degrees the day we went and visited the farm. The little goat looking critters are the jacob sheep. They and the alpacas had recently been shorn, so I'm sure they were much happier dealing with the heat this way. It sounds like they behave a lot like goats too, eating everything in sight and work their way through the fences whenever they're able.

Since I just happened to arrive after shearing time, I left there with a jacob fleece of my very own. :) YAY! After getting back to the lakehouse, I realized I had a bigger job than I'd realized. I also wished I'd paid more attention way back at my first yarn school, when I first saw Nikol pulling out a fleece, showing how to skirt it & wash it & all that. I remember walking away at that point of my first yarn school, thinking to myself, "What kind of FREAK would EVER buy a RAW fleece with the Crappy parts of it all still attached?!?" Apparently THIS kind of freak. ha! I also hated sparkle my first yarn school, and worked the entire time to come home sparkle free. Now I've EMBRACED THE SPARKLE...just WAIT till you see the batts I've been cranking out!

Here's a few photos pre-washing & pre-skirting. I have to say I'm sure I threw out more than the bare minimum due to not having a freaking clue what I was doing combined with it being 99 degrees with 66% humidity. OK calm down to all you true fiber people out there. I didn't actually throw it away, as in the trash. I distributed it up a hill that's full of birdhouses. I'm sure it'll line the nests for winter. (actually I just walked up the hill and heaved it out there but I was feeling all nature-ish)

After my own version of skirting, I filled the washing machine with warm water, swished some dawn dish detergent around in it, put in the locks and let it soak. Spun it out, hauled it out of there, then repeated the process 3 more times, then with just plain water once. It's dried and fluffy as heck. I can't WAIT to spin it up, but think it'll have to wait until I'm back home in the air conditioning.

Fiber (and family) Vacation at the Lake!

2011-07-16T07:20:00.001-05:00

We're heading out for a long stay at the lake. We have people staying in our house while we're gone, one of whom is rather large and burly, so no freaky people need to come & cause havoc!

It's officially a "family" vacation. BUT one that I got to bring as much fiber as I wanted (or would fit) into the van & trailer. Ready to load up is one spinning wheel, one drum carder, one large skeiner because I'm NOT using a little niddy noddy for all that handspun, one large tub crammed with baggies of locks, roving, wool, alpaca, llama, SPARKLE, mohair and other fluffy things. And each of our bags of food may or may not have bags of fiber crammed below the cans & boxes. I was feeling quite Yarn Harlot-y while packing as I found remarkable places you can stuff fiber for this trip. If I even process 1/100th of what I brought it should be a haul.

Now, there should be lots of this...

and some of this...

plenty of this...

I packed an unbelievable crap ton of mohair for knitting, because who doesn't love knitting mohair in 100+ degree hot, humid weather? I actually have, um, SEVEN different projects worth of mohair packed. And one 100% silk lace project.

I also plan to do a ton of drum carding & spinning on the screened in porch in my bikini in between dips in the lake. No photos of that. You're welcome.

I hope to have interesting scenery for the next few blog posts. Enjoy, stay cool my friends!

WHEEE! LYS in KC has spinning fiber now!!!

2011-07-15T15:43:00.000-05:00

The Studio KC now has spinning fiber!! It has some beautiful bfl from Mountain Colors combed tops of targhee/bfl wool, some amazing hand painted wool braids from J Wray Co and some luxury combed tops including baby alpaca/merino/silk, BFL, superwash merino and superwash merino/tencel from ME! TreasureGoddess hand painted fibers!!! SQUEEEEEEEE!

It's so nice to have a local shop with some spinning goodies to feel & squoosh & smell & see in person without having to find a fiber festival or drive to Lawrence.

Please go see and squoosh for yourself. I'm loving that the Studio is really pulling in some nice quality spinning goodies right here in KC!

It is mine!! Mine, mine, alllll mine! (insert evil laughter here)

2011-07-11T08:17:00.000-05:00

At the Yarn U event at Lebanon, MO this weekend, I got me a drum carder!! WHEEEEEEEEE! Imagine the photo above, but with a sweet brush attachment and covered in brown & cream llama fiber. LOTS of LLAMA! I also bought a bag of a washed llama blanket from Whirlwind Ranch.

It's a beautiful thing, made by Hogge Millwork in Iowa. I'd been looking at the ashland drum carders for some time, but both my husband and I were impressed by the woodwork and precision of this creation. We'll see how it holds up. So far, it's amazing!

Also, it's 7-11 Day! Can I get another Woo Hoo? WOO HOO! Get yourself to a 7-11 for a free slushie! Click HERE to find a store near you. I'm thinking a coke & cherry icee sounds like a perfect breakfast for a day that's going to be 148 degrees outside. :)

Better photos soon, I promise!

First day at the MakerFaire KC!

2011-06-25T22:10:00.002-05:00

It was awesome. the end.

ok, I have actual photographic proof of the awesomeness. First of all, let it be noted that I was NOT the biggest redneck at the event. I was well behaved, dressed appropriately and my clothing matched. I only had a small tear in the side of my jeans.

Mark Smeltzer, member & creator in Experimental Instrument Orchestra. This group creates its own instruments out of found materials & junk and is AMAZING! The fiddle he was playing is made from one of those old tennis rackets that had the wooden frame screwed down, a pie plate and a bunt pan with some wires and a violin bow. unreal. They just returned from playing in LONDON! Crazy cool and very inspiring. PLUS he gave me some ideas for places to go & hang out and do some pickin (my banjo hillbilly was showin a bit I admit).

A car entirely covered in BOTTLECAPS in an artful, creative manner. I'm totally going to start saving my bottlecaps now. What a great excuse to have a cold one!

A robotman doing the robot dance and pulling his battery power on the cart behind him. Awesome. I missed photos of Ironman and the bad guy from Ironman (what is he called, rustman?) They were amazing.

But I did happen to catch this action shot of someone's cute kid being detained by some Storm Troopers & Boba Fett.....

ok, that is my kid. Good thing there wasn't any carbonite around.

Here's my booth shots:

Oh yeah, FIBER & YARN were there too! Sorry, got no photos of the important stuff. I did happen to find a few braids & batts from these vendors. I promise photos tomorrow. There was an amazing booth of fiber & yarn & drop spindles & spinners spinning for Nerd Girl Yarns and Traci Bunkers had a sweet booth Bonkers too!

We'll be at Union Station (KC, MO) tomorrow from 10am-6pm. Come and say hi! I'm the first booth of the inside vendors.

MakerFaireKC! #makerfairekc woo hoo!

2011-06-22T17:06:00.000-05:00

I can't WAIT! The countdown is on!! I'm a maker at the MakerFaireKC this weekend, June 25-26th at Union Station in KC, MO! YAY! There's inventors, bakers, candlemakers, science things, printers, crafters, basically anyone that MAKES and is creative will be representing at the fair. It's $12/person to get in the door, but there's discount tickets available online. click HERE for the discount link. There's bands playing and even a hydrogen powered fuel cell car! Come say howdy and if you tell me you read my blog, I'll give you a freebie.

I'll have my handspun yarn & hand dyed fiber & knitting patterns, but am branching out to reach a wider audience with this show. I've been crocheting my arse off and now have 117 felted flower pins/barettes and 22 felted flower headbands along with a ton of cool handmade gift tags for crafters to put on their handmade gifts. I've also got some fun yarn and fiber journals as well.

Here's a shot of the latest batch of flowers in the washing machine before they get felted. (I use my last two pairs of skinny jeans as felting tools now)

My fabulous display of felted flower headbands is below.

What's in your tornado bunker?

2011-05-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

Would anyone be surprised that mohair was in mine? Normally tornado weather doesn't worry me, watches, warnings, sirens and the like? They usually don't get my pulse racing at all. I grew up in Kansas, for cripes sake. No biggie. Until Joplin. Watching that kind of destruction in such a short amount of time really got to me. I'm proud of the community and the fact that our kids are even getting involved gathering water, soap, necessities, toys, clothes, etc to send as well as money donations through the red cross & heart to heart.

The Wednesday after that horrible tornado came through was a bit overcast in the morning. I watched the news, the meteorologist said with the colder temperatures, there was almost no risk of dangerous weather. I gave a big sigh of relief and headed out to run errands. A little before 11am I heard sirens. It actually pissed me off. I thought, what kind of crappy ass idiots were running a tornado siren test TODAY? (KC tests its sirens on some Wed's) With the skies all cloudy and dark? Just 3 days after Joplin's devastation? What kind of jackasses would DO that? Then I looked at the sky again. Huh. It WAS pretty damn dark out. Huh. Mayyyybe this wasn't a test. Huh. Those sure look like wall clouds as far as I can see. Maybe I should get myself back home and check the news. Just to make sure.

Yup. Tornadoes. Just very small ones and thank goodness no damage for us. BUT not only are sirens going off and my kids are in the basements of their schools (gotta love texts nowadays--keeps you in touch), BUT there are multiple tornadoes spotted. VERY close. SO after hauling the bug-out bag (emergency supplies in a backpack), the small safe with our family papers, the laptop & ipad down to the basement back closet, I grabbed a knitting bag on the way down. Somehow the one I chose? Lovely, soft, comforting, MAHVOLOUS MOHAIR! I didn't do any actual knitting until later.

I actually had a knitting friend driving through that crap to come & knit with me. I pretty much told her I was leaving the front door unlocked, there was a tornado spotted 2 blocks away, for her to either run the heck away or get the heck into the basement as soon as she got here! I admit I did freak out a bit, When I heard the news call out another tornado 3 blocks away on the other side of my house, I grabbed a twin mattress and shoved it into the closet as well to huddle beneath.

Needless to say, we didn't blow away. My friend and I sat & knitted after the danger had passed us by. I was very shaken up by the close calls (one tornado did touch down right near our oldest kids' school, but no damage other than blowing trash around). It was comforting to just sit and knit good old garter stitch in this lovely blue mohair 2 ply yarn. We watched the news until the storms passed by and were very thankful for no loss of life or property.

This heavenly mohair was a gift from my friend Tanya (blogless) in a Christmas swap a few years back. It's been waiting patiently and somehow I don't have it in ravelry, so until I find the tag, will remain nameless. I'll do some digging and find it soon! I'll also have a free pattern up shortly to share. It's very VERY simple, just start with twice the stitches you want, knit every row (garter stitch) for as long as you want your ruffle to be, then knit 2 together across, then continue on knitting every row until you have just enough left to knit the ruffle on the other end. Knit one in the front & back of each stitch across (or Knit one, Make one across), knit the same amount of rows you knit in the first ruffle, then bind off knit wise.

Heaven, pure heaven. Somehow out of a laceweight merino cardigan in process, socks on the needles, handspun wool/alpaca/silk cowl in progress, the stressed out woman in me grabbed just what I needed for a calming project to take along, mohair. I was surprised when I looked to see what I'd grabbed as my mind didn't even register that I'd grabbed a knitting bag in the process. :)

Do over

2011-05-21T22:01:00.003-05:00

So, even though I was pushing the envelope, out of my comfort zone, and trying new things....sometimes it just doesn't work. While I'm now in love with the odd combo of the orangish pink & green sock yarn I dyed last week, the greens just have NOT grown on me. It's jarring. It's odd. It's not right.
BEFORE:

SO, that means it's time for a do-over. While dying a crap ton of fiber yesterday, I threw those two skeins in a pot of green dye & lots of vinegar and VOILA! I love them.
AFTER:

Having extra dye bath left over that needed using made me wander about the stash. I found 6 skeins of malabrigo-like yarn in colors from the 80's, hunter green & dusty rose. *shudder* I see country blue and geese every time I think of those colors. *shudder* ok the yarn wasn't bad, just the NAMES of the hunter green & dusty rose? HORRID!
BEFORE:

After a bath in a large pot on the stove full of brick red dyes, it's transformed into gorgeousness!
AFTER:

My last little do-over was when I ran out of yarn & fiber but still felt the need to dye.... The new 'do!

Get out of your comfort zone

2011-05-16T10:21:00.004-05:00

I used to HATE hearing that from my girl scout leader way back in the 80's. It meant she had an activity that was GOOD FOR US and would MAKE US GROW and all that crap. I've found myself pushing that comfort zone quite a bit lately. I'm no longer in the corporate grind, I am building a little career out of fiber, yarn and friendship. I'm learning to cook. I MAKE BREAD for cripes sake. I never, ever thought I would type those words. STILL freaks me out, actually. I've taken care of chickens, when I used to be terrified of the things.

I'm like June freaking Cleaver (if June Cleaver occasionally went out with one orange hand and one turquoise hand in public).

I've started dyeing yarns & fibers in colors and combinations that don't immediately appeal to me. I thought these colors (above) were hideous. As I combined these intense pinks & greens & ornangish bits, I pretty much knew they'd be going into a dye pot for an overdye to hide the hideousness. Even as they were drying, they still gave me the heebie jeebies. They've started to grow on me. As I reskeined them, handled them, squooshed them, these skeins seem to have become something different. I like them. I really do. I think I may even have to save one of them for myself.

These are more my usual mode. Semi-solid yarns or yarns that stay within a general color family. Somehow all this new age hippie love thinking has changed me a bit. After a lifetime of being told that redheads CAN NOT wear red. Can not even THINK of wearing red, I've found that I LOVE LOVE LOVE bright, intense reds with just a hint of orange. I LOVE THEM!

I've got two full skeins of this gorgeous BRIGHT red/orange stuff plus a couple extra bits that were wound off the cone between yarn knots. I wonder if I have enough for a little cardigan? Some form of a summer sweatery thing?

Yarns were dyed when a little group of friends got together for a very cool dye night. Fun, fiber & friends. What else could you want for a Friday night?

Snakes & Chickens in the suburbs

2011-05-12T09:03:00.000-05:00

Any of you with averse reactions to snakes should click away now. I'll have happy yarny things drying and will have those photos soon. :)

We had a bit of excitement yesterday.

THIS 6 foot long thing

Tried to eat THESE

Until Outdoorsman did his usual amazing snake wrangling and then THIS CHILD disposed of the offending snake.

Outdoorsman was on a phone call with a client (he's a salesman by day, super-outdoorsman by the rest of the time) when he heard a mighty squawking coming from the "chicken coop" aka under the back porch. He sees this BIG ARSE black snake coming out from there. While STILL ON THE PHONE he goes out, picks up two logs from the wood pile and pins the snake. After hanging up from the sales call, he goes out and while it's hissing and rattling its tail and coiled and royally PISSED OFF, he manages to grab the thing by the back of the head. This snake is 5-6 feet long, coils part of itself around his arm until Outdoorsman does his traditional snake wrangling--aka stands there and whips the snake in a big circle above his head like a lasso...whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop and then lets it fly. It usually is dizzy and confused enough that it slithers off in a new direction. This one didn't get to slither off, but got its head removed.

I KNOW black snakes aren't poisonous and I KNOW they're good for your garden as they eat bugs and rodents and such. But they also eat SMALL CHICKENS which still happen to live in our suburban back yard. This big momma also has been laying hundreds of eggs and Jeff's been pulling out quite a few baby snakes from the creek at the end of our yard as our kids and all the neighborhood kids spend a LOT of time in those waters.

I come home from running errands and missed all the excitement. Before going into the house, I walk back in my espadrille wedge heeled shoes and was getting ready to open the door to see what had my chickies all freaking out and THERE WAS THE SNAKE STILL SLITHERING IN A PILE!!! Jeff thought the kids would want to see it, and left it there till after school. Apparently snakes are like chickens and still boogie around for a while without their heads. ICK ICK ICK. Let's just say I set a world record for high wedge heels up uneven turf and let out a mighty HOLY CRAP MOTHER FUXXER...... stream of cursing that would've made olympic history should it have been a sport.

My daughter who can't possibly be related to me (even though she does look pretty damn identical to me at that age) thought it was VERY COOL and even protested having to put on gloves to carry it out of the yard after school. Who the hell IS she?

Let's end this post on something happy. Something yarny. Something that doesn't try to eat my chickens or move independently of its head.

AAAHHHHHhhhhhhh that's better. Deep Teals worsted weight wool yarn hand dyed by moi. Isn't that better?

April Ennea Collective issue is live!

2011-05-02T20:58:00.003-05:00

Ennea Collective

New issue of the Ennea Collective is up! It's a pretty issue, theme is Naturally Celtic. It's got some sweet knitting patterns in it plus some spinning articles too. I'm thinking those celtic knot fingerless mitts may be calling my name.....

Still knitting away on my Whispy Cardigan. It's got a LOT of stockinette, in laceweight yarn. You really get your money's worth when knitting with lace yarn.

When good yarns go bad.....
Anyone remember my Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pie Shawl? The one with the unfortunate appendage? That yarn was just doomed. While I HAD TO HAVE IT NOW NOW NOW when I saw it at a Knitting in the Heartland vendor market a few years back, once I knit it up, it was just not meant to be. I actually thought it was hideously ugly (even without the appendage).

Well, when life (or your totally unstoppable urge to BUY YARN NOW) gives you ugly yarn, make it beautiful!!! I frogged the shawl, reskeined the yarn, soaked it, then put it in timeout for a few years. The other day I stumbled upon it in the stash. It's lovely merino wool, soft, fluffy and squooshy. It shouldn't be stuck in the back of the stash. I overdyed it with a deep forest green and VOILA! I'm now enjoying knitting this into a cardigan that will be worn all summer long!

If you find yourself with some ugly yarn, think of a way to give it new life. Either find someone that thinks it's beautiful and make a lovely gift of it or overdye it into another color that you love! If you've not got a dye lab on your back porch, find a friend that does. OR mix up some kool aid dyes. Have some fun. Enjoy your yarn!

Chicken Herding Fiber Dying Yarn Spinning Knitter, with the hats to prove it.

2011-04-25T15:19:00.007-05:00

The TreasureGoddess Hat

This is the hat I wear while teaching classes on techniques for knitting with art yarn, I also wear it while selling my handspun yarns & fibers at events, and 99% of the time at the lake when I'm relaxing during the summer. It's hard to believe, but this was once an expensive, high quality handmade hat bought at a fancy schamcy hat shop in Cabos, Mexico. I used to think I should've just got a hat off a corner vendor for $10, but I'm sure it wouldn't have taken the abuse this poor, gorgeously ORANGE hat has gone through. I've dyed, spun and knit some amazing fibers while wearing this hat!

Then I went to Mopaca this March, an amazing alpaca festival, complete with the critters themselves AND people selling their fiber. The only issue is I went on the day BEFORE it was actually open to the public due to an error on their website. It saved me money as two years ago when I went I bought an obscene amount of alpaca. BUT there happened to be a cowboy hat stand setting up as I wandered through the building... I ended up with TWO hats. For no reason other than the belonged on my head. Little did I know one would end up being JUST THE HAT for my new occupation!!!

Chicken Herding Hat

Yes, chicken herding. When I came home from my lovely fiber weekend at KAWS, I found the boys smiling. Standing there smiling. BIG SMILES at me. It freaked me out. Then I walked inside and heard "tweet tweet tweet chirp chirp chirp". The man had brought home a box full of 6 little balls of yellow fluff. 6 cute little poop factories. (First photo is 2 weeks old and the other is 3 weeks old, just taken today.)

Yes, we DO live in the middle of the city. No, chickens are NOT approved by our city or homes association. Yes, I am actually HERDING them as they're sort-of contained in a shelter under our porch, which gets good light, shelter from the elements and predators. I take them outside to scratch & peck and free range poop. They are able to crawl/hop/short flight around and then go back into their little pen with food & water & such. They are truly crapping machines. Yet another reason why I don't want my own alpacas. Just think how much poop those things would make!!

My goin-out fancy schmancy cowgirl hat, if I ever actually went out anywhere (also bought at mopaca)

My Knitter Hat
Ok, I admit this one was a bit much, but hey, my new excitement is hanging out with little chickens. See how much I need to go out and USE my goin-out fancy hat?

As actual proof that I am still a knitter, I started Whispy Cardi out of some of my own hand dyed merino wool lace yarn. The colors are most true in the photo of the skeins, but the closeup of knitting shows how there's a lot goin' on in that deep dark green yarn. So far, so good. I HAD to knit this after falling in love with See Jo Knit's amazing Featherweight Cardigan by the same designer, Hannah Fetig.

I'm getting used to this not working in the real world any longer thing. I have to say, it's an adventure and I freaking LOVE it. I'm still looking for a real job, just hoping that it'll not have to start for a while yet.

AND of course my first real jobs are being a mom & a wife. But I'm not sticking any of them up on my head and taking a photo. I figure these hats & a ball of yarn will have to do for now.

KAWS...like Jaws, but with more yarn

2011-04-19T13:59:00.003-05:00

Here's a few highlights from my weekend in Manhattan. My class for teaching techniques for knitting with art yarn was SUCH FUN! :) YAY! ART YARN!!

Thanks to fiberTERIan for coming along, sharing my vendor booth and keeping me mostly sane!

PS, I'm working on a tutorial for making those fun felted flowers, should be on the blog in a couple of weeks!! Stay tuned. :)

mo-o-THER!! one of your hands is ORANGE and the other is GREEN! (whisper yelled)

2011-03-29T21:39:00.006-05:00

I've found it! I've finally, finally found it! The perfect explanation to use when we're questioned for doing something the rest of the world finds odd and we find just being fibery people!

We were at my daughter's high school-to-be at the pre-tryout cheer meeting. Holy crapamoly those high school cheerleaders are freaking INTENSE. You know what's even MORE intense than them? The cheer coaches & teachers. I was signing us in on the sheet when I heard this "*gasp* OH...My...What?" from the head coach. Lizzie whisper yelled "mo-o-THER!! One of your hands is ORANGE and the other is GREEN!!" I looked at the coach and said, "Oh. Well, I'm an artist." The coach's eyes got big, smiled at us and said "OH, how exciting!" I replied, "Yes. Yes, it is." It was awesome.

(And, yes, that is in fact three empty 1.5 gallon tubs of vinegar in the background. I was dyin' my arse off last week. There's nothing better than the smell of vinegar & wool, baby.)

How many times have you tried to explain your yarn at the office on the desk, in every tote bag and purse you own, your orange & purple fingers (or maybe that part is just me)? The more you try to explain the amazingness of the fiber world, the more people's eyes glaze over and they start backing slowly away from you in a non-threatening manner.

Go on, use it. It works in almost every occasion. Try it. "Oh, I'm an artist." That's all you have to say. It's funny that an "artist" gets instant approval while Crazy Yarn Girls/Boys just get strange looks and lots of gossip in the elevator.

Oh, and for the record? My hands were not "orange" and "green". They were crumbling brick red-orange and pouting peacock teal.

Unemployed!

2011-03-15T15:19:00.005-05:00

I suddenly found myself reorganized right out of a job. SO, as anyone that had her priorities straight and finds herself suddenly unemployed, we're making cuts and scrimping and saving. Goodbye fancy Arbonne facial system, hello Oil of Olay. Goodbye shopping at the LYS, hello stash! (thank GOD for a sweet stash) Goodbye big F150 King Ranch Truck, hello rebuilt sad little dented and rebuilt trucklett (from my wreck last year). *sigh*

Hello ski trip. what? Yup. We're going the cheap route, (packing sandwiches, bringing our cooler full of food & drinks, staying free on the husband's points at hotels) but still living large and heading to Colorado with all 4 kids, the hubster and a van full of yarn. YAY! We're only skiing two days, but I figure that should be more than enough as none of the kids have skiied other than hitting the local mini ski place in MO once. I'm looking forward to the 10 hour drive each way. Another YAY! I'm taking ORANGE YARN and lots of it. 10 skeins of noro cash iroha in a fabulous bright and sunshiney ORANGE! I'm taking a few patterns and my knitpicks set of circs and we'll see what that yarn wants to grow up to be. Another AMEN for a sweet stash full of yarn.

The surprise of unemployment is actually a good thing, but it's stressful. We'll get through and I plan to ramp the heck out of the dying & spinning business when I return from the slopes. And as always, I'm knitting on....

Edited to add...I think I'll start the Snow White pattern from Ysolda. It's going to be called "Evil Stepmother" though as I'll be stuck in a van with FOUR CHILDREN (two of them step) and with the history of the overprotectiveness I exude as a mother and the throw-them-off-the-cliff-then-see-what-happens parenting plan of Outdoorsman, I'm going out on a limb and thinking there may potential for a little, um, venting of the frustrations. Just a hunch, but it's probably a good bet.

When life gives you lemons....

2011-03-06T13:23:00.003-06:00

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Well, what do you do if life gives you shit? NO, you don't make shit-n-ade. When life gives you shit, you SIT AND KNIT! and knit. and knit. and knit.

Life is very, very good. But there's a LOT of extra stress going on. Thank God for family, friends (here in person and on the innernets) and thank GOD for knitting. It's helped me through so many tough times in my life. I can't tell you how much knitting has been done in hospitals (our family is accident prone AND having a son with CF - cystic fibrosis- means lots and lots of time spent sitting, waiting and worrying.)

It'll all work out for the best, I have no doubt. I've just got to make it through the next couple of weeks and not lose my freaking mind. :) No problem, right?

My project of choice right now is good old garter stitch. Knit, knit, knit, knit, knit. It's soothing, comforting and MAN do I love garter stitch projects. They're squooshy, have good texture and make lovely projects. My project? Another square of my Itty Bitty Sockyarn Bits Blanket (free pattern link on ravelry). For a non-ravelry free download, click HERE

more fibery fun

2011-02-26T21:56:00.003-06:00

Strawberry Vanilla Sherbert Superwash Merino

Grape Cherry Bubblegum

Royal Mohair

This one I just spun up but it's soaking in a bowl of warm water with wool rinse. SO, finished photos tomorrow maybe.

Cha Cha Cha Changes....

2011-02-24T12:26:00.004-06:00

I will soon have much more time to devote to all things fiber and much less money in which to do that devoting. :) I'm also going to have to change my description on ravelry & etsy. I'm no longer "a good little corporate drone that dreams of playing with fiber all day long." Or at least SOON I will be no longer a good little corporate drone....

It's all good. It's just sudden and freaky and HOLY CRAPAMOLY-ish and all that.

SO, in the meantime, I've decided to ramp up the old TreasureGoddess etsy shop. Here's a few shots of things to put put up there soon...

Silk/Alpaca/Superfine Merino wool roving hand dyed by TreasureGoddess (2 lbs)

Hand Dyed 1001 yards of merino/silk laceweight in Pale Peacock Colorway

Twurple Hand Dyed Sockyarn Teal + Purple = Twurple

Newest curtains :) Superwash Merino...8 sets of 8 oz glorious hand dyed spinning fiber!

New Ennea Collective issue is LIVE, YAY!

2011-02-22T10:08:00.003-06:00

AAAANNNNDDDDDD I have a pattern in there too! I have to say, it's one of my all time favorites. I love a delicate lace pattern in heavier yarn. My favorite part is that it's totally reversible! WOO HOO! Please check out the magazine. This is the 3rd issue and there's some seriously cool stuff in there! Articles, patterns, even tips on weaving.

Lattice Ladders Scarf in Ennea Collective and here's the link to the ravelry page Lattice Ladders Scarf on Ravelry. I'd have to say I'd be your best friend forever if you went and hearted it on ravelry..... I'm such a beggar. Only heart it if you actually like it.

Here's a few photos. PS, the yarn ROCKS. It was all handspun from fiberTERIan. Thanks, my friend! She's opening a ravelry shop soon with amazing handspun yarn too, I'll post links once she's in business!

OK the last one you can hardly SEE the scarf. It's the infinity scarf version, wrapped double around as a super cowl. I had to include it as my hair looks fabulous. It NEVER looks like that. *sigh*

The scarf is a fast knit, looks way more complicated than the simple pattern actually is and is FUN! Thanks to the ladies at Ennea Collective for including my design.

PS, there's some seriously cute patterns in this issue. There's a hat that's on my list plus some amazing lace cowls... Check it out! Ennea Collective Online Magazine

Sweet mother, someone stop me!

2011-02-18T12:02:00.004-06:00

Have you knit up Shaelyn? A beautiful and FUN knit shawl by Leila Raabe.

I knit one out of some beautiful fingering weight Kauni I had in the stash. Then I immediately cast on for another one out of the rest of the ball. I fell a little short, so ended with 6 rows (3 ridges) of garter stitch and then did my version of a super stretchy bindoff. VERY LOOSELY, I knit one, then slipped that stitch to the left needle. Then I knit two stitches together, then slipped THAT stitch to the left needle. Keep on keepin' on in that way until you're across the whole shawl.

The colors were fabulous and Leila gave little hints of how to count your stitches so you don't even have to LOOK at the pattern. That rocked. It's been a stressful few days at Chez Weasley (everything's fine, just a lot of various crap to deal with). These shawls have been blessings to me. I do have to say it took EVERY part of my willpower not to run out and buy another skein of Kauni to finish the shawl...and THEN there'd be even MORE yarn left over....you get where I'm going with this, right? I saw a whole army of Shaylyn shawls! oh man, I STILL want to go buy more yarn. I wonder how this would look in a lovely solid? I happen to have some orange opal that is calling my name.....

Luke.....there is....another......~~Skywalker~~...Shaelyn.....

(The unblocked 2nd Shaelyn.)

Thank You Vicki

2011-02-16T23:00:00.002-06:00

Remember that post a while back? The one about how you should think about your yarn in case something happens to you? Well, I am the recipient of some lovely yarn and a knit sweater from a local knitter that recently died. I'm so very honored to have been on her list. Vicki Stopple was an amazing knitter. Technically she was unstoppable. Cables, lace, colorwork, intricate sweaters, amazing. Beyond the knitting, she was a lovely woman, kind and funny. I'm proud to have known her a little bit.

I remember my first few meetings at the Sunflower Knitters Guild. I went to the morning meetings first and was very timid and quiet. YES I WAS TOO! I was a brand new knitter and not actually sure if I'd be allowed at the meeting and scared to bits that I'd have to prove my knitterly skills. Needless to say, the women there were welcoming, kind and funny. Vicki was thoughtful and kind and cracked me up too. She died recently and asked that some of her yarn, books and sweaters be distributed among a few of us lucky ones.

I'm honored to be able to knit with her yarn. I've got plans for socks for my kids, a scarf or two and hats galore. I think she'd like to know that my family will be kept warm by her kind gift.

The most amazing part of all? One of her sweaters, a lovely in-progress cardigan, fits me like it was KNIT just for me. I absolutely love it. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's a simple garter stitch rib, one of my favorite simple yet classy stitch patterns. I actually just finished a pair of legwarmers using that very same stitch. I need to weave in a few ends, decide if I want to put on buttons or a zipper closure and it's good to go. I actually wore it for two days with all the ends hanging out as I was just so touched.

Thank you Vicki. Your kindness touched my soul. I feel better about the day when I leave my yarn to my friends. Much like those that get more than just warmth from prayer shawls, I feel like I've received way more than just yarn and a sweater. Each stitch I make with this yarn will include good thoughts for the woman that gave me the yarn and the people I'm knitting for.

Wool you be my Valentine?

2011-02-14T15:42:00.003-06:00

Ok, I totally stole that woolly valentine from Handmade By Mother but could you blame me? Isn't it amazingly cool? Also, you totally need to check out Handmade by Mother. She finds the most craptastical crocheted & knitted patterns that boggle the mind. I have to say I'm a fan of her Valentine project. Not only is the acrylic crocheted heart vest enough to make you shiver, the model has LESS of a chest than I do. (something that's hard to find). Now, not having a chest does mean you use less yarn on sweaters...good things, but makes it difficult to fill out a swimsuit top. (especially if anyone had *cough* crocheted a bikini out of suede yarn. *cough* *cough*).

ANYWAY, Happy Valentine's Day to one and all. And to all you over-achieving-moms that made your own valentines by hand, caligraphy penned them, hand made the cookies, candies and gifts for the teachers....(oh crap! totall forgot about the teacher's gift. CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!) I have to salute you. I truly do. I did, actually print out valentines for my son from the computer and he cut them out. We stapled a piece of halloween candy on the back of each one. That's handmade and crafty, right? And our kids are still eating that halloween candy, so I'm sure it's still good. I was feeling quite GUNG HO SUPERMOMMISH until Joe asked at 7:14am (we leave the house at 7:16am) what about his valentine box? CRAP! SUPERMOM to the RESCUE! I just happened to have cleaned out my desk at work and FINALLY brought home this amazing red, fancy gift box that I was going to use to package up a Christmas present home..... Dumped it out (there may or may not have been YARN in there)...handed to him and we ran out the door. Sweet. I'd EVEN saved these cute puppy & kitten fake tattoo's in little cute boxes for my daughter to use for her friends. Cheerleader at the middle school now, so all things "cute" are cool now. As she was hopping out of the truck she said, "um, MOM, did you realize these dogs & cats are all in PUMPKINS?" decided to pass on handing out of cute tattoo's after all.

SO. Business as usual at Chez Weasley. Christmas Box for Valentine's Day at the elementary school and Halloween treats at the middle school... Life would be so much simpler if everyone just wanted yarn. Yarn is the EVERY SEASON gift.

Coils and KAWS and MAWS, Oh My!

2011-02-10T15:52:00.002-06:00

I'm busy busy busy spinning up a TON of coils handspun art yarn! Why? Well, because I'm teaching at KAWS in April! WOO HOO! Kansas Alliance of Weavers and Spinners has their annual retreat/festival/fiber fest in Manhattan, KS this year, hosted by MAWS (Manhattan Alliance of Weavers & Spinners). WOO HOO!

I'll be teaching techniques for knitting with art yarn and selling at the vendor market too! YAY! The class is called "Getting Looped with Art Yarn" and will cover 3 basic techniques for working with coils, puffs, granny stacks and other funky fun yarny things. The classes look amazing, all types of fibery fun. I just hope to not spend all my vendor table profits on more yarn & fiber to take home just for ME!

Click HERE for info on the conference and class schedule.

PS, I'm going to switch my Sophisticated Coils Art Yarn Hat pattern from FREE to a charge on March 1st. If you'd like it FREE, please download & save/print it out now. Click HERE to download it from ravelry or click HERE for a non-ravelry free download.

it may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a zoo to keep me warm

2011-02-03T17:35:00.005-06:00

When it's -2 F outside, I need to get some critters involved. I was toasty warm on my way to work today. Wearing a 1950's mink stole over my head, my down coat, alpaca gloves, wool sweater, merino socks and leather cowboy boots. That plus a seat heater in the truck created pure heaven. Of course, I did get a few "looks" in the elevator.

Later as the day warmed up, I fashioned myself a mink collar (folded the stole in half) and looked much more respectable. It made me feel like a fancy lady, like I should be wearing dresses like Lucy Ricardo and cooking roast for Sunday dinner. *sigh* PS, check out my new smile! I can't recommend my new dentist enough. THEY ROCK! Their theme is "We Cater to Cowards." Sign me up. Many crowns & bridges later, I have some beautiful normal non-hillbilly teeth. Yup. Fancy schmancy fur collar wearin normal teeth! If you're in the KC area, look them up. They do plain old dentistry up to reconstructive surgery (like me). AND they have massage chairs.
KC Dental Arts. My dentist is Dr. Bowen, but all 3 are highly recommended.

Ah well. This is a FIBER blog, right? Sorry about that. Here's a little bit of thick & thin handspun. Warm, woolly and wonderful. Can't you just see that as a snuggly classy cowl?

PS, for dinner we had hot dogs rolled up in crescent rolls. But when you dine with mink on, it's fancy. :)

A lovely weekend

2011-01-31T16:04:00.004-06:00

While the menfolk were all outdoors working and playing the day away, I took care of getting that yarn off the curtain rod, reskeined, photographed and such. The older boys were hauling loads of muddy water out of the 4 foot deep hole in our front yard and then mixing concrete to set up for the basketball goal that Santa brought. The younger boys were snowman building, snow fort building and generally causing mayhem with much glee. (About half an hour later, the snowman's head with hat, nose, buttons, etc was found across the yard after it'd been used to launch in a snow war.

My contributions from the weekend....

I tell you, that Jaycee from Insubordiknit is awesome. She set a spark in me two years ago the first time I took a class from her and her latest class just made it worse. I love me some art yarn. I love spinning it, I love knitting with it, I love looking at it. I just love it.

I do love my own little regular bulky two ply handspun yarn too... This one's called "Be my Valentine".

I need to get another project ready for those boys so that I can have another day of spinning!

PS, the girl child apparently was having her own special day. Just found out via FACEBOOK that she's now got a boyfriend, hanging at the mall with her friends. cripes almighty. I know people have survived having daughters. I've seen it. I'm just not sure I'm strong enough. Good thing there's plenty of fiber and plenty of beer. I'm gonna need them both.

Amazing, indeed!

2011-01-26T14:42:00.002-06:00

Have you heard about it? Seen it? SQUOOSHED it? Amazing Yarn by Lion Brand. 53% wool, 47% acrylic. Looks an awful lot like Noro Kureyon, but is SOFT and so far, no little knots with strange non-related colorways stuck in the middle. 147 yards/skein, beautiful colors, soft & fluffy and would be amazing next to the skin. I'm not a big fan of craft store yarns for knitted projects. I know it. BUT I happen to now have 6 skeins of this stuff in the cedar chest with my favorite yarns. Crazy.

I see so much potential in this yarn. And I think I'd better start printing off those 40% off coupons I get by email too!

WOO HOO for SMOKERS!

2011-01-25T13:53:00.005-06:00

Seriously. Smokers saved my ass this weekend. I spent the weekend in Harveyville, KS, the home of Yarn School! for an art yarn spinning workshop put on by the amazing Insubordiknit Jaycee! I took her first workshop, Sit and Spin a couple years back and loved it. LOVE LOVE LOVED it. The workshop for 2011 is Softcore & Hardcore. I'm a fan of both. It always amazes me that I not only learned techniques for creating art yarns, but little tips that improve my "regular spinning" skills as well. It was a blast. AND it was at Harveyville. With Nikol's cooking, atmosphere and amazing creative people. I love that place.

Through the whole weekend I took ONE photo. That's it. I was too busy spinning, petting fibers, laughing, EATING, sleeping, relaxing, and....um....getting locked out in the snow in the morning when I was half nekkid. Yup. It was before 8am Sat morning. I had to run out to the van to find a charger & extension cord. No biggie. I put a robe on over my nightgown, slipped on some slippers, grabbed the keys and stuck my phone in the pocket of the robe and ran outside. Got the cords, went back to the door. damn. Locked. 8am. In a robe. NO SOCKS. SLIPPERS. In the snow. cripes almighty.

I wasn't concerned. I banged on the door. A lot. Loudly. Of course this is the FAR door. Everyone's either downstairs eating breakfast or already spinning. More door banging. Still not worried. I was smart enough to have my phone with me. I called Teri & I called Chelle (the fiber girls I drove out with). Nope. No answer. No phone coverage in the basement. Getting a bit cold now. Slightly concerned. Went slipping through the snow to the van. Foot slipped out of the slipper INTO the snow. cripes. Sat in the van, cursing the fact that I don't have internet access on my stupid phone and can't look up the phone number for Yarn School. Slippered my way back to the door and more banging. Starting to FREAK OUT by now. Figured Nikol would have to feed the sheep at some point in the day, so went through the snow in my cold, wet slippers around the school towards the sheep pen. Made it to the front door and saw a little steam rising from the ash can outside the front door. WOO HOO for the smokers! They had the front door unlocked from someone getting that nicotine hit to start the day. YAY!

20 minutes later I was wearing warm socks, CLOTHING and back down amongst the spinners. I have to say I was freaking out a bit, thinking how insane it would be to be stuck OUTSIDE while my spinning class was going on INSIDE without me! I *heart* the smokers. :)

What is it about Yarn School that turns me into a total idiot? Is it just an overload of fiber to the brain? I do have to say, I packed PLENTY of underwear. We don't want a repeat of the Yarn School, Commando Style. I was prepared. I was just an idiot. It's like being around that much creativity just short circuits my brain. I may have been drooling occasionally as well, but I'm calling that the effects of the recent dental surgery.

A photo from my dining room this morning. Lots of goodies from the weekend drying. Curtains are for ~~people with more money than me~~ the unimaginative.

Thank God for 4 wheel drive, GPS's and mohair!

2011-01-20T08:56:00.004-06:00

KC had another snowstorm hit yesterday afternoon. No biggie, right? It was a beautiful snow, falling straight down with the sun still slightly shining. I headed out for my drive home, which usually takes me 5 minutes with traffic. I sat in a long line of cars waiting to get out of the business park. I sat there. Patiently. Sat. Sat for about 20 minutes, then decided that since the highways were at a full stop and 90% of those ahead of me were surely trying to get onto those very highways I'd do the smart thing. I'd turn around and try the other way out of the compound. I edged forward, went over a small curb and headed the other way. A few trucks followed. No biggie.

Made it out of the office park and turned onto a main road that had a titch of a hill on it. Let's just say it took me another 40 minutes to make it half-way up that hill and ALMOST to the first turn-off into this strange little neighborhood full of hills & windy roads and almost no outlest. ALMOST. As in 3 lanes were blocked with various wrecks, stalled cars and cars spun out and stuck. There was ONE LANE left. The far right lane. That I was in. I just needed ONE MORE CAR to move forward a bit so I could turn off and wind my way past the crazies and make forward motion. Did I say that 30 of those 40 minutes were sitting at a dead SIT while the car ahead of me had 3 carlengths open ahead of her? BLOCKING my way off that road and out of the craziness? And that I was a bit low on gas? And that there was NO EMERGENCY KNITTING in the vehicle with me?

I very nicely got out of my truck, walked up to the car and tapped on her window. I asked her, nicely, if she'd mind moving up just a bit so I could get around her, PLEASE? She said no and rolled up her window. I stood there a minute. I knocked again and she sat there holding her steering wheel and not looking at me. I knocked louder. I began knocking and not stopping. Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knocking. and smiling. I'm a nice person, damnit. Finally she cracked the window and stated that she NEEDED that room to be able to get a running start at the rest of the hill. Of course by this time the REST OF THE WORLD was getting around us and blocking her running area from getting around the other wrecked & spun out cars, but I was blocked from that line by a van sitting sideways spinning its wheels.

I looked down to pull off my shoe (to beat it on her window in pure frustration and a titch of road rage) but alas. I was wearing my comfy wooly slipper shoes and a fluffy mohair sweater. The sweater's pattern name is SERENITY for cripes sake. Sweet mother mohair! I patted the mohair. It actually calmed me instantly. I realized I am a Knitter. I am a Spinner. I CREATE things. I wrangle mere fiber into string and that string into garments. I am all powerful. I am WEARING MOHAIR. I may or may not have roared.

I calmly walked back to my truck. I pushed the button to pull in my side mirrors. I revved up the engine. I went up over the curb, between the fire hydrant and the rather large wooden fence. I drove along the snow buried sidewalk and waved with ALL FIVE FINGERS (see how nice I am?) at the woman who was making me insane. I smiled. I drove up that hill on the sidewalk with maybe 4 inches of clearance between the truck and the fence. That sidewalk area was mounded with snow cleared from the last snowstorm we had, so my truck had some serious 4WD work getting up and around without flattening the fence. I turned onto the road, used my GPS and made it through the strange little neighborhood with ONE OUTLET and was on my happy way home. At least 4 other trucks followed suit. Although I'm pretty sure the one behind me only used one finger when waving at our friend.

The world is a safer place because I knit. I truly believe there would be less road rage if more people wore mohair. Happy goats, happy drivers.

PS, the destash is still going on. A bunch of yarn is on its way to new homes, but there's still a bit left. Click TreasureGoddess Destash to see if there's anything left that wants to come live in your stash!

Do you a Stash Will Document?

2011-01-06T08:49:00.007-06:00

I ended the year by spending Dec 30, 2010 on an oral surgeon's chair for 9 hours. NINE HOURS. I was getting my hillbilly mouth all fixed up. Did EVERYTHING. All at once, rather than spread the pain throughout a series of appointments. I'd cracked quite a few teeth in the big wreck (in Jan 2010) and since we were doing so much structural work anyway, decided to go on and pretty up the rest of the smile while we were at it. It wasn't pleasant and I'm still living on soup, applesauce and hershey's chocolate syrup. (not at the same time). I did "conscious sedation" which I highly recommend for any dental phobic people like me!

Just like for any medical procedure where you are sedated, you have to sign off on paperwork saying you won't sue them if you die. (or I guess your family wouldn't sue them, since you'd be dead, huh?). Being the mildly dramatic person that I am, of course I centered in on that and decided that I had a 50% chance of dropping dead in the dental chair. I can't help it. It's who I am. It's what I do. I'm so freaking pollyanna happy sunshine 99% of my life and the other 1% is all death, darkness and decay.

I have a good setup for my financial will, plans established for my children, my soul's in pretty good shape, but then I realized. The stash. THE STASH! I had a little hand written note buried in the cedar chest at the foot of the bed with a note to Jeff to call my knitter friends for them to decide what to do with the stash (probably from the last time I was 50% sure I was going to die back when I had a non-cancerous breast lump removed a few years back.) A note's a fine start, but that's not gonna do it.

You've heard the horror stories, a Knitter dies, her family doesn't understand and somehow THOUSANDS of dollars worth of yarn are unceremonially shoved into trash bags and sold in a garage sale or estate sale for $5. Of course I never happen to FIND these deals, but I've HEARD of them. We have a local knitter in our guild that's in poor health. When she took a turn for the worse a few years ago, her husband BURNED her yarn. BURNED it. Then she GOT BETTER! Could you imagine? Literally gone up in smoke. (As we know, wool doesn't burn, it smolders. BUT if you have a big enough bonfire you can pretty much get rid of anything. I imagine he had some resentment issues against the yarn. Boggles the mind!)

I've invested WAY too much money on WAY too much yarn over the years to let it end up in a trash bag for $5. I'm working on a detailed list of contacts and instructions. Things like distributing the sockyarn to my local knitters to knit enough socks for my kids that they could wear them as they grow up, ending with pairs in adult sizes for each of them. Having a yarn sale with proceeds going to a fund for the kids' college fund. Which yarn gets donated to local retirement homes. Which yarn needs to be knit up into Picc Line Covers for CF kids. Which treasured yarn needs to be given to knitting friends locally and in blogland as rememberences of our friendship and yarny adventures we've had. What goodies to send to my cousin that now KNITS! The list goes on and on.

In creating this list, I also realized that there was no humanly way possible to distribute and organize this monster stash even if I DID drop dead on the dental chair and I DID have a nice organized Stash Will Document (SWD) saved in our fireproof safe. How would anyone know to look in the 42 different places for my yarn? How would any non-knitter know what was sockyarn and what was the treasured yarn and what was the crap yarn?

We moved into our new house in October and I've now got ROOM for STORAGE! My goal is to get the stash under control. Not only for when I drop dead, but for my own personal knitting pleasure! I'm not much of a resolution maker. Not only do I almost never follow through to complete them, I usually don't even get them MADE to later not complete. Ah well. Maybe this year will be different. In 2011 I'm going to GET THE STASH UNDER CONTROL.

* FIND the ENTIRE stash
* ORGANIZE the stash by type of yarn
* CULL the stash -- destash coming soon!
* Create & keep the SWD current and saved with the rest of our important documents
* Knit to my heart's content

What does this mean for you? A SUPER DESTASH IS COMING!!! WOO HOO!!! As I organize I need to realize that my tastes in knitting have truly changed from the beginning of my knitting days. I need to decide what I will actually knit and what won't and let that yarn go to someone else's stash to be knit instead of crammed into a ziplock bag.

A note to all of you that made not buying yarn a resolution. Were you aware that helping another knitter DESTASH DOESN'T COUNT? It's true. I promise. You ARE Knitting from the Stash. You're just knitting down another knitter's stash. See? Makes perfect sense. DESTASH DOESN'T COUNT!

Think of adding a SWD to your list of things to do in 2011.

Dead fish, sockyarn and a cashmere cowl

2010-12-28T09:00:00.003-06:00

In anyone else's vehicle, that'd be a strange combination. In mine, it's just another day.

My husband, the outdoorsman, got a Happy Crappie Christmas this year! This is the shot after I returned home from the Craigslist exchange. I found a taxidermist online, that happened to have two mounted crappie's (pronounced "croppies" for the non-fisherpeople out there), fish we often pull out of the Lake of the Ozarks. I had to drive about 45 minutes to meet the wife of the fish mounter, hence the sockyarn for the sitting & waiting in the parking lot. The cashmere cowl? Well, these fish are actually just fish SKINS (and eyeballs) and are unbelievably delicate. The slightest bump means broken fins, etc. The cowl was the only thing I could find to cushion the fish from bumping into each other on the ride home.

I know it. I shuddered too when I thought about it. Then I realized that I spend most of my life with goat & sheep hair rubbing up against my face and loving every minute of it. The cowl is handspun from Spunky Eclectic fiber, a 80/20 blend of merino and cashmere, knit into the ZOMG Cowl pattern. Still my favorite handspun yarn and favorite knitting pattern ever. It's funny how you can say things like mmmmmm cashmere mmmmmmm merino mmmmmmmm alpaca mmmmmmm mohair..... and not think of them as the outside layer of smelly critters. Oh. Now I can. Sorry about that.

Merry Christmas from our Kin to Your'n

2010-12-22T15:45:00.003-06:00

Merry, Merry, Happy, Happy and all that! Hope you've got plenty of good vittles in the pot and a little homebrew to wash it down with. We'll be celebrating our first Christmas in the new house!

My holiday weekend may not be filled with much knitting. I woke up the other morning with SO MUCH PAIN in my right shoulder. I've either got a knitting related injury or I was abducted by aliens in the night to do manual labor. I'm thinking it must be aliens as my husband woke up the SAME MORNING with his RIGHT collarbone area hurting. Each night I go to bed and it's just a light ache, I wake up with it on FIRE with PAIN. Aliens. Gotta be.

May any travels you do be in a time warp where it feels like no time has passed while massive knitting is done, may you have good weather, safe roads, good food, good company and may the aliens leave you alone.

New Ennea Collective is out! Late Fall -- Deep Sea

2010-12-20T12:49:00.002-06:00

The Late Fall issue of the Ennea Collective is out! Click the logo above to go check it out! Very cool fingerless mitts and a sweater have been added to my queue! They've got some great FREE articles on spinning as well as awesome knitting patterns for a small fee. I'm a big fan.

Dialog in my office building's elevator today...

2010-12-17T11:21:00.010-06:00

--strange looks being given to me I noticed because the walls of the elevator are like a fuzzy mirror--
ME: Um, it's a legwarmer.
Office Elevator Rider #1: Of course it is.
Me: 'Cause it's Christmas, you know?
Office Elevator Rider #2: Of course it is.

I snapped a shot of myself as I walked out of the building towards the nice patch of snow behind a truck at the end of the parking lot to see why I got the strange looks. I try to get maximum blockage between me & the 6 floor office building built out of SOLID WINDOWS for any yarn related photo shoot. Damn. CYG strikes again. LOOK AWAY from the bad hair. It was a photoshoot for the other end of me. My family's christmas party is TONIGHT. I've not got the luxury of doing my hair or having someone model the legwarmers and THEN take photos. These could have HYPOTHETICALLY been just completed minutes ago during a conference call. hypothetically.

Introducing......Aunt Angie's Legwarmers!

See? They're Legwarmers. OF COURSE THEY ARE! It's just hard to tell when they're fitted over a paper towels roll instead of on actual LEGS. More action shots from the coffee break photo shoot...

Project was knitted out of less than one skein of sockyarn. I used Mountain Colors Crazyfoot which I LOOOOVVVVEEEEE! I'll be writing up the pattern for sale on ravelry and etsy, but think I'll be offering it free to anyone that would sign up for a newsletter here from the blog, what do you think? I'd be nice and not spam or send stuff very often (heck, I barely even post on a regular basis). I'd include patterns, cyg stories or recipes once in a while from the world of TreasureGoddess. I'll also offer the pattern free to any blog readers because you guys rock. REALLY REALLY rock. Thanks for reading, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and may all your holiday knitting be done and you STILL get to sleep at some point! (we can dream, right?)

** I just realized someone may wonder WHY on EARTH I'd put my legwarmer onto a paper towel roll. Well, after I FELL OVER after trying to balance on one foot with my butt up in the air, that crazy bad hair day hair getting in my face and holding my arm at a strange angle to get a close up of the legwarmer ON the leg to show the stitch pattern, I went back upstairs to the office to find something to model the legwarmer. Why don't offices have bottles of wine in them? That would've worked awesome! It was pretty much business as usual for my photoshoots.

Could you imagine being Anne of KnitSpot? Having a creative photographic husband doing lovely photo shoots in your beautiful garden or in your rustic home while the sun shines "just so" on your lovely lace wrist cuffs, shawls, hats, etc? A photoshoot where you neither fall on your HEAD or your ARSE and actually have hundreds of photos to choose from? Where you don't have to cram these shoots in on a coffee break in the parking lot of your office building because that's the only time the light is right when you're slaving away like a corporate drone? *sigh* Yeah, I'm sure I'd get bored with all that. Ah well! Until then, it's CYG Photo shoots or nothing!

PS--Aunt Angie's legwarmers are designed with just enough shaping to allow you to wear them 80's style all scrunched down on top of your jeans or sneaky-style under pants or skirts and stay up well to keep you warm!

What can you do with holey socks?

2010-12-09T09:11:00.003-06:00

The very first thing you can do is DARN them! There's lots of tutorials on how to do this, so I'll just leave a few links below. I'm not fancy schmancy about it, I just thread a darning needle with some sock yarn that may or may not match the socks in question and weave back and forth until I've created a little fabric to cover the hole.

What do you do when you've darned and darned and DARN IT the whole foot of the sock is too weak to darn any more? Do you throw them out? NO! DON'T DO IT! There's lots you can still do! I've got at least 4 ideas to share here. If you've got more ideas, please leave a comment to share too!

DARN-IT! TreasureGoddess Tutorial--How to knit a new foot for your sock!
Did you knit the Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern for replacable sock feet? Good for you. You don't need this tutorial at all. Go off and feel smug in your preparedness and leave the rest of us alone.

This tutorial is actually designed for socks knit top-down, but would also work for toe-uppers. You may have a little ridge at the join if your sock was knit toe-up.

Step 1: Pick the yarn for your new footed socks. I picked a yarn that would stand out for ease of the tutorial (and because these socks are so old that I've not got the original yarn anymore anyway). You can pick something that coordinates or go for a contrast for shock value. Whatever floats your boat. or rocks your socks.

Step 2: Make the snip. Snip ONE STITCH just above where your holes or weak spots are. If it's just the toes, snip right before that area. These socks have entire week bottoms, heels, toes, etc, so I'm gonna snip just where the heel flap begins after the cuff. Because I never really close that little eyelet left from my turned heel, I started there.

Step 3: Use a knitting needle to work that snipped yarn through all the way around the foot, separating the good part from the holey part.

Step 4: Put loose stitches from cuff onto double pointed needles.

Step 5: Knit yourself a new foot for your socks (or new toes if you only had to reknit that part).

Step 6: Parade about in your NEW non-holey socks! Impress your friends, bore your family, tell everyone you know about your resourcefulness and sock knitting prowess.

I've not finished my new/old pair of socks yet so I'll post that photo with next week's super cool thing to do with holey socks tip!

Darning Links:
Darning Tutorial from Knitty
ehow to darn socks
Youtube Darning Socks video

Why you need to knit 3 sleeves too!

2010-12-06T15:44:00.004-06:00

The Serenity mohair sweater is COMPLETED!

Details: Pattern by Sarah Famer (purchased for $5 on ravelry)
Yarn: Kidsilk Haze in a lovely lavender bought for almost nothing at the guild's swap & shop from my dear friend Chelle!
Sleeves: 3, because I'm an idiot. But a GENIUS idiot. Because I ended up with....drumroll please.......

A matching Serenity slouchy hat!

See? Doesn't it look like it was planned? Like I totally MEANT to knit myself a matching hat? And not at all like I was a total idiot and knitted one sleeve on dpns and one sleeve on a circular needle to make one 3-4 inches larger than the other, so I had to knit a 3rd sleeve on dpns. RIGHT? TOTALLY PLANNED.

You know, for a woman that hates knitting sleeves, I'm thinking this was a pretty damn cool idea. I may just have to knit myself a 3rd sleeve with a few extra stitches for all my sweaters! I have to say, it rocks. It really, really does.

My Molly Weasley Scarf

2010-11-19T10:11:00.009-06:00

It rocked. There's nothing better than going to a midnight Harry Potter movie with good friends, knitting the night away. What? There were two women "of that age" snorting inappropriately in laughter while waiting for the movie to start? What? FORGETICUS! BIG TIME FORGETICUS! Michief Managed. --I do know the actual spell is Obliviate, no worries!--

I do love Molly Weasley. Dearly Dearly love her. You know, redheads named Molly rock! I'm priviledged to resemble either Molly Ringwald or Molly Weasley, and actually have more in common with the mother of the clan of redheads where small explosions and off-kilter inventions are a daily way of life.

My most favorite yarn deserves to be knit into my most favorite pattern. "I love this cotton!" given to me by my youngest Weasley boy for mother's day. I thought this yarn that was picked out, purchased and hand wrapped by my son deserved to be knit into something to be worn and loved. I was making the mistake of having it sit by my bedside table, being admired. Looked at. Then, on our Weasley Weekend (my two redheaded kiddo's and I watched Harry Potter movies #3-5 all day long on Sunday) I pulled out that yarn and a size 10.5 circular needle and cast on. Joey was so proud of his yarn being knit. I now realize I have the perfect pattern for this perfect yarn!

The way these crazy colors are working into this fluttery lacy scarf, it looks like something that would be right at home around Molly Weasley's neck for sure. It suits her style, and apparently that of my own as well as I am absolutely loving it. I'm using the same stitch count and pattern as I used to make all FIVE of my sockyarn feather & fan scarves (I knit two of the red ones shown below), but with a larger needle. Want to make one with me?

Pick up a skein of sockyarn and size 8 needles or a couple skeins of worsted weight yarn (I'm guessing about 300 yards) and a size 10.5 needles.

Cast on 36 stitches LOOSLEY (use a larger needle if necessary)

Knit 6 rows or 3 ridges in garter stitch (knit every row for 6 rows)

Row 1: K2tog 3 times, [YO, K1] 6 times, K2tog 6 times, [YO, K1] 6 times, K2 tog 3 times.
Row2-4: Knit across

Repeat rows 1-4 until you're close to the end of your yarn. End with 6 rows of knitting (3 garter stitch ridges) after the last Row 1 of the pattern.

Bind off LOOSELY.
Block lightly and WEAR in a true Molly Weasley style, with many colors mixing together, and ends fluttering about. Hug your children and their friends, cook a lot of food, whoop up on death eaters that threaten your family.

The original pattern I used to make my first feather & fan scarf is the Old Shale Scarf from Tiennie, who I just adore. She said a while back to go ahead and print my version of the pattern. I just changed stitch count and not much else, but I've had lots of requests for the numbers I use, so knock yourself out. I'm just trying to make it through the day without falling asleep and then plan to finish my Molly Weasley Scarf over the weekend!

Molly Ringwald

2010-11-11T11:22:00.006-06:00

I'm casting on for a new sweater. I'm going to knit this.
Molly Ringwald

Then I will dance about like this.

And then I'm sure my teenaged dream will come true. Hollywood will realize that they really and truly DO need a double for Molly and they'll call me. Because I rock like that and because I still occasionally dance like that too. The fact that it mortifies my children is just a bonus.

I'm pretty clumsy, so a stunt double is out of the question, but if they need a Molly Look-a-Like that KNITS because you KNOW that the next big uber movie for the brat pack will feature a perky, quirky slightly pouty redhead with fabulous taste in hand knitted accessories. Hollywood NEEDS me. They just haven't figured that part out yet, but I'm patient. I'm a knitter. I have things to do while I wait.

I may have enough of this handspun silk to make the sweater, otherwise I'll have to go shopping!

See? We were freaking TWINS. No, we didn't just have red hair, freckles and big toothy grins, we were TWINS.

***GASP*** I just lost the uber cool link for the dance medly on youtube and now have to find it again and it doesn't show up in my history. *sigh* There will be a uber cool link soon.

The link is fixed. Click HERE and dance about like you're an 80's girl again. You know you wanna.

Third Verse...same as the First!

2010-11-09T14:35:00.004-06:00

I had no idea when I was a Violent Femmes fan in the 1980's that they were such a wise band. Now, looking back, I realize that not only were they wise before their time, but they also MUST have been singing about KNITTING!

You know those times when you're sitting amdist a CRAP TON of yarn and have no idea of what you could possibly knit? You feel pure angst and the need to knit but just have no knitting mojo what-so-ever? How could one person have SO much yarn and not want to knit ANY of it? This happened a few days back and I swear when the song "Prove My Love" came on my ipod, it all just clicked.

Just last night
I was reminded of
just how bad
it had gotten and
just how sick
I had become.

Then a glimpse of an old project formerly gone bad sparks a little glimmer of knitterly hope. For me, it was the Serenity Sweater. Does anyone remember the two sleeves I knit for it? I thought to myself, THIS time it could be different. I could knit this lovely sweater out of my true love mohair.

but it could change
with this relationship
de-de range
we've all been thru some shit
and if it were a thing
I think this thing's begun

Yup, I decided I WAS going to knit that sweater. I was going to do it and it WOULD work. But first, an appeal to the Knitting Gods that the shxt that made me crazy last time around on this project doesn't come back to bit me in the arse again.

Tell me now
what do I have to do
to prove my love to you

Seriously Knitting Gods, do I need to sacrifice something else? I've already knit an entirely extra sleeve for this thing. Because yes, I was an idiot and no, never thought to compare the thing to the original sleeve BEFORE I completed the entire thing. Yes, it's also knit out of mohair, lovely, floaty, hairy, almost impossible to frog mohair. Surely the gods would be happy with just one extra sleeve, right? That's a pretty damn big sacrifice I'd say.

I'd do anything
I'd do it all
I'd climb a mountain
I'd cross the ocean
I'd knit an entire extra sleeve just to satisfy your sick needs of sacrificial fiber... (wait, that's not in the original song, is it?)
I'd do it all
to prove my love for you

So I did it. I got out the mohair. I cast on with the SAME double pointed needles I'd used on the first non-freakishly large sleeve and knit. and knit. and knit. And THIS TIME I compared the sleeve to it's partner after about a 1/3 of the way.....

And my very favorite part of the song? When they say
Third verse, same as the first

See? Oh baby. I'm back to love love loving my knitting again! And I'm totally bouncing around in pure 80's style singing that song in my head. I did draw the line at going back to my blue eyeshadow days of yore, but just barely. Man, bright blue eyeshadow would totally rock that purple mohair sweater look, wouldn't it?

Creative Hand sale in KC!

2010-11-09T08:31:00.003-06:00

Friday, Nov 19th from 4-9 and Sat, Nov 20th 10-5
Click either the photo or the map to get to the Creative Hand website.

OH this is a fabulous sale! There are some seriously talented artists out in the KC area! Come for the fasion show Friday night at 7pm! Shawls, hats, mittens, dish towels, capes, felted soaps, note cards, patterns, HANDSPUN YARN!, fiber, HAND DYED YARN!, more patterns, toys, stockings, holiday gifts, silk hand dyed scarves, you name it, it's THERE! I'll have some patterns, handspun yarn, art yarn, hats and cowls for sale amidst the rest of the glorious stuff. I was blown away last year at the sale and instantly signed up for the fiber guild.

Cool article in a local paper about the upcoming sale! Creative Hand Sale article with neat descriptions

What the hell is a Hackle? And WHY don't I have one yet???

2010-11-02T12:06:00.003-05:00

As I was reading the Yarn Harlot's latest blog post, I saw she took a cool class on combining fiber using combs and hackles. I have been busting my arse trying to combine fiber with some lovely borrowed hand carders, which is a HELL of a workout, let me tell you. AND it makes these itty bitty rolags (cigar shaped tubes of fiber) which are cute, but I think a royal pain in the butt to spin. Ok, the spinning isn't hard, it's the creating ENOUGH of the little buggars to have anything worth while spinning. If I were a laceweight spinner, that'd probably not be an issue, but I like dk weight, sport weight, worsted, chunky and UBER chunky weight yarn.

I remember distintcly learning to blend fiber with combs at yarn school. I also remember almost impaling myself and how no one would get too close when I was working the fiber through these Freddy Kruger implements of destruction. Though I loved the results, I knew that I'd kill myself of someone near me (or both) and I'm quite fond of having all four children, my husband and myself with all our fingers and various body parts intact. I must have forced myself to totally forget about the existence of these things, which are basically small pieces of wood with very long, very sharp metal implements sticking out of them that blend fiber for spinning.

After googling, I realized that a hackle is basically a giant long comb, but you attach it to a table or counter and blend enough fiber that you can then pull through a diz (thing with a hole in the middle like a button) and create actual spinnable fiber!! Click the photo below to go to a gorgeous etsy shop full of hand crafted fiber tools that I would LOVE to own....

Now, after coming to the realization that yes, I have a crap ton of fiber that's just begging me to blend it into new creations and spin into amazing artyarn but we all know that at some point I'd be impaled upon these tools I almost gave up.

God Bless YOUTUBE! After watching tons of very creative and not-at-all-clumsy people create amazing spinning fiber with these sharp metal and wood creations I hit upon the ultimate Hackle for me!
Yarn Zombie's DIY Hackle V 3.0 using plastic picks. Here's the videos that have inspired me. I know what I want the husband to make me for my birthday!!!!

More DIY Hackle Tutorials:
DIY Hackle from All things Shea

Aran Brew's homemade Hackle

Have you seen it? Ennea Collective is out! Spin Knit Weave online magazine!

2010-10-20T14:22:00.003-05:00

I have to say, it's pretty dang awesome. The world NEEDS more of this! Spinning, Knitting and Weaving patterns, cool calculator things and articles! ARTICLES! I *heart* reading about knitting & spinning (and weaving is growing on me as much as I'm trying NOT to go there) almost as much as knitting and spinning itself!

I also happen to have my first published article and pattern that's not self-published. YAY! There's also some beautiful fingerless mitts and a shawl for handspun that's to die for. Already added to my queue on ravelry!

The patterns are for sale, but are priced pretty low and the articles are all free. Did I say how much I LOVE reading articles about spinning and knitting? Or even articles of knitting WITH yarn you've SPUN? It's genius. Please go check it out. :) Next issue is due out in December. I can't wait.

Here's a few more photos of my Sidewinder Cowl. I have to say a HUGE thank you to my dear friend Carmen of GirlyPurls for taking the fabulously atsy shots that were used in the magazine. The regular, boring photos are from my daughter & me. :) I love that big warm cowls can also be plopped on your head and become fashionable ear warmers/hats without a top.

The article I wrote was how to spin the yarn to create this cowl. My personal technique for plying off both ends of a center pull ball. There's also a link to a video I created to boot. Go read it & watch it and tell me what you think. And now, my very favoritest shot.... (thanks again Carmen!) Do you think it's too crazy to use it as my avatar? MAN I have a big mouth.

Raining balls of yarn

2010-10-12T11:09:00.003-05:00

OK, I promise to stop with the videos soon! MAN I'd be out there playing with the cats!

You know, one nice thing about moving and packing up all your things is that you have much less places to LOSE your knitting projects. I'm almost finished with the 2nd sock of the last of the sock yarn still in the house, and I can't find the first one. I know it's not been packed. It HAS to be here somewhere. I've only got about half the furniture and NONE of the clutter, so how could I possibly lose the thing? *sigh* Will have to finish packing the last little bits tonight and see if it turns up. I'm not very anal about knitting my socks (compared to almost other piece of knitting I do). I actually LIKE fraternal socks. I love how one may pool in funky manners and the other diagonally stripes. I love that. I do, however, enjoy two socks that are the SAME LENGTH. I need to find the first completed sock so its mate will be reasonably the same length when worn. Yes, I wear long pants with my wool socks. No, nobody will be able to verify if one is longer than the other. Yes, I'll know. And Yes, it WILL make me insane. So maybe I'm not as relaxed about my sock knitting as I thought I was.

Save the Wool!

2010-10-11T14:27:00.006-05:00

This amazing, wonderful wooly stuff is in danger. Local mills are almost a thing of the past and even in England where wool is king, wool is hitting an all-time low, making it too expensive for many farmers to raise sheep for this amazing fiber. Go hug a sheep and buy some wool from a local yarn shop or online.

Another interesting post of wooliness is from Brooklyn Tweed. Have you heard of his new yarn adventure? Brooklyn Tweed's New Yarn Line is amazing. Not just putting a famous name on a line of existing yarn, this man went out and created his special blends of wools and has amazing patterns to showcase these new yarns (many featuring my true love--garter stitch).

Go on, pull some good old wool out of the stash (or even better go BUY MORE at a LYS, online shop or Etsy Store!) and revel in this amazing fiber. No static electricity, no plasticky scrinch feeling as you knit it, it floats, it stays warm even when wet, it breathes, it wicks moisture away from your body and it's WOOL people. I *heart* it very much. Knit a pair of socks for someone you love. Lets help keep this industry alive.

PS, I totally blame the Stashbuckler for the Sesame Street video. She posted a fabulous Grover clip on her blog and I've been yearning for SS all day long. :)

Sneak Peek! Ennea Collective plus online knitting magazine directory

2010-10-06T09:25:00.004-05:00

Ennea Collective Sneak Peak

OH, I'm SOOOOOO excited for this new online magazine! Have you heard about it yet? The Ennea Collective's first issue is supposed to come out around Oct 15th! Featuring articles, patterns & tutorials for spinning, weaving and knitting! Can I get a WOO HOO? WOO HOO!!!!!

Plus, I have a pattern and article coming out in the first issue! YAY!

Click HERE to go to the website. There's a sneak peek at a few photos to whet your appetite. There's also a Ravelry Group and Facebook Page for those non-ravelers out there.

I just love good online resources for knitting, spinning and crafting of all sorts!
Here's a few of my knitting online favorites:
Knitty

Twist Collective

PopKnits

Knotions

KnitCircus

Petite Purls

Knitch

Do you have some favorites to add to the list? I'd love to know! Please post in comments.

4! Ounce! Challenge!

2010-09-30T13:11:00.005-05:00

Have you heard of the 4! Ounce! Challenge!? Adrian of Hello Yarn, David from Southern Cross Fibre and Amy of Spunky Eclectic joined together for a cool contest. Spin up 4 ounces of fiber from any of the three, design & knit something using the 4 oz, submit it to them and get in a drawing for a crap ton of fibery goodness. Guess when the last day was to submit a design? Anyone? Sept 30th. Um, TODAY. Anyone want to guess when good old, organized, well planned out Christine submitted her design? Um, 5 minutes ago. Awesome!

Go check the ravelry group for a bunch of cool ideas and patterns for ideas for what to do with just 4 oz of fiber/yarn.

Here's my pattern, (ravelry link) the ZOMG Cowl. I spun up some spunky eclectic fiber, 80/20 merino/cashmere and knit up the softest, squooshiest cowl EVER!

ZOhMyGosh this is the softest, warmest, squooshiest cowl EVER! The ZOMG Cowl is just the thing to keep you warm on a cool autumn afternoon/winter day while zooming around the suburbs on a dune buggy with a rusty old muffler pulled from a wrecked car to keep your neighbors from calling the cops because the thing is SO. FREAKIN. LOUD.

Or, um, just the thing to wear on a cool autumn afternoon/winter day walking through the neighborhood like a normal person. That works too. But seriously, you totally need a dune buggy. PS, I know the ZOMG is the snarkier version of OMG, but I'm a bit snarky that way, so it just seems to fit.

PS, my favorite way to wear a cowl is to plop it on my head and wear it like a uber-trendy earwarmer. I amaze myself with my fashionista awesomeness. I also embarrass my children with that very same fashionista awesomeness. Wonder why the kids don't ride with me?

ZOMG Cowl

More finding goodies while packing

2010-09-27T08:25:00.005-05:00

I found this little baby under the bed (in its ziplock bag of course) when I was packing over the weekend. I figured it was a sign to sit down and relax for a while, so sat and knit it up into a Chickadee Cowl by Kristen Kapur. I modify this cowl to fewer stitches (I cast on 59 instead of 79) as linen stitch tends to grow sideways and I like a snug fitting cowl. It was spun from merino wool hand dyed by Nikol at ArtClub, and from Yarn School, which is coming soon! Sure wish I was going this year. *sigh*

We had a wonderful weekend at Chez Weasley, spending time with lots of family, packing, sitting and remembering fun things as we found buried treasures under beds, in backs of closets, etc. AND the KC CHIEFS are 3-0! Can I get a WOO HOO? MAN there's nothing better than football knitting in the fall.

It's amazing what you find when you start packing!

2010-09-22T20:41:00.003-05:00

I pulled this little project out of the back of the craft closet. Wow, I used to cross stitch. It's been ages. Probably at least 4 Halloweens ago I started this baby. Found it with the "Boo to You" and the eyes stitched. Finished this up just in time for Halloween! I love quick projects, especially those you tuck into something for NO finishing whatsoever!

Oh, and I'm totally screwed as when I shipped off all the sockyarn, I apparently forgot just how fast it is to knit socks when you knit a few rounds waiting at football practice, a few rounds waiting after choir practice..... Holy crap. One down, one to go and then I'm out of sockyarn. Figured I'd better ~~cast on~~ thread up another cross stitch project. Found this one that was probably also started about 4 autumns ago... This ought to keep me busy once the 2nd sock is completed. Only issue is that you can't really cross stitch those itty bitty beads a few stitches at a time like you can knit socks....ugh. I'll be glad when the move's all done!

That ain't right

2010-09-21T18:09:00.005-05:00

**They may not look like much, but those are the LARGE sized space bags all sucked down to blocks of wool. You can fit a king sized comforter in each one of those babies.**

That just ain't right! Look at 'em. Layin'there. TOUCHIN'each other. No protection, just rubbin' all up against each other with nary a sheath of rubber/plastic/ziplock in between. All kinds, all types, all mixed up together. Associatin' with each other. sockyarns with bulky, handspun with commercial, solids, stripes, laceweight, cotton, wool, alpaca......

Boggles my mind. I know NORMAL knitters have yarn all in pretty baskets together. They have them on shelves together. I, myself, had some different types toghether, sort of. BUT they all were in ZIPLOCK freezer gallon bags. Every single colorway, every type, each freakin sockyarn had its own. Yes. It may be overkill, but it keeps me and my yarn bug free and happy.

Even worse than seeing them all sucked into bags together, even worse than the fact that one of the space bags has apparently sprung a leak and isn't even protecting the yarn as a whole while its all mashed in there together, is the fact that it's NO LONGER IN MY HOUSE! I KNOW! Insane, right?

Well, we happened upon the perfect house for the Weasleys. And we happened to buy it. Within 4 hours of finding it, the owners accepted our original offer. And within another 24 hours, our freaky Weasley Burrow split level house CRAMMED with CRAP (and a great deal of yarn) had to be mostly emptied out as people were in here LOOKING at it. Yeah. We do nothing planned out and organized. That would make sense.

Of course, that's not the whole stash. It's just what happened to be in my extra dresser. Each in its individual freezer weight ziplock bag. Husband had to get rid of 2 dressers, so apparently extra yarn that isn't being knit immediately does not earn much respect in the whole taking up space thing as CLOTHING that IS being worn on a daily basis. I know. It doesn't work for me either, but in the spirit of not trying to kill each other through this little upheaval, I caved. I said goodbye to a good part of the stash. It now lives at another knitter's house in her guest room. I couldn't take the risk of sending it to the inlaw's. It had to be somewhere that if the place burns down, a knitter would save it.

I actually helped carry the cedar chest to the garage to be shipped away. The cedar chest is home to all things malabrigo and cascade 220 (also each in its own freezer weight gallon ziplock bag.) Yes, I KNOW it's a cedar chest but you just can't be too careful. No, that's NOT crazy. Just well prepared. For those few non-yarny readers of the blog, that chest is my life-blood of yarn. It completes me. I made it through about half a night. I couldn't take it. It was just SITTING THERE. In my garage. Waiting to be driven away. I woke Jeff (there may or may not have been tears flowing down my face at this point) at about 1am. I couldn't sleep. I wanted my yarn back. We weren't going to be moving for another month. I just couldn't do it. He agreed and in a very non-grumpy manner after I made him promise and sign his name that he would, in fact, help me find a way to put it back into the house, let him go to sleep. Hey, sleepy promises don't mean shxt. A CYG's gotta do what a CYG's gotta do. *CYG=Crazy Yarn Girl A great deal of other crap was moved out of the TOP floor's closet which is now home to the cedar chest of glory. The husband earned extra points for not grumping about the fact that it is down 3 sets of stairs and took some serious finaglin' to fit into the closet and caused a few bumped knuckles. I do love that man.

Though it's sad to leave the Weasley house of many levels and exploding things, I figure the new house will have more room for yarn AND children. Plus all the animal skins, dune buggy, ultra wood stove and the husband with a penchant for exploding things are coming along. It may just feel like home after all.

For those of you not impressed with the level of my moving-crap-out-to-sell-this-house, let me point out that at this very moment I have NO extra sockyarn in my house. The only sockyarn I have is an almost knit first sock and the remaining sockyarn to create its mate.

Yay for Knitting Roundups on One Pretty Thing!

2010-09-10T15:05:00.005-05:00

Have you seen One Pretty Thing? She's the queen rounder-upper of all things crafty on the innernets. I *heart* her blog very much. She has crafting roundups, diy roundups, free printable roundups, kids craft roundups, crocheting roundups, crafty reading roundups, KNITTING ROUNDUPS! and roundups I can't even remember. I love this blog because it really goes through the TONS of stuff out there and picks out the cool bits in craftiness for me to check out! Click HERE to go see the newest Knitting Roundup!

Guess who's little twisted drop stitch video is listed in the most recent roundup? YAY! Now get out there and KNIT you a super speedy, cool scarf! You can use any type of yarn, from handspun art yarn to cascade 220 to *shudders* fun fur. I'm just sayin' it COULD be done. Holiday knitting is coming closer and closer. Crank out a few scarves and start putting DONE check marks next to names on your Good List. :)

Know when to walk away...know when to run

2010-09-08T10:49:00.003-05:00

I'm running. Running like hell. I can knit this sweater no more. It's a lovely pattern. It's lovely yarn. Who doesn't love Silky Wool? It's just a horrid, horrid combination for me. Bad. Real bad.

In the words of Kenny Rogers, "You've got to know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run." SO, I've knit this sweater almost entirely TWICE. Knit it 2 years ago. Fully un-wove the already woven-in ends. Frogged it. Reskeined the yarn. PUT IT AWAY. Then somehow I decided I'd not given the combo a fair shake and did it again. All of it. Again. I had walked away, but I came back. I knit. Again I wove in ends. Again I sewed down a waist hem. Again I knit the whole damn thing except for the sleeves and realized that I need to run. RUN AWAY FAST.

The yarn has been reskeined yet again. It has been bagged up and will be delivered to another knitter without such a love/hate relationship with it. It will be out of my house and not tempting me that if I just knit it again, THIS TIME it would be different.

You know, looking at that pretty, pretty yarn and the pretty, pretty pictures of models riding bikes home from the farmers market with baskets full of fresh produce, I could almost see that sweater becoming mine. I could ride a bike home from the farmers market if I just had that sweater..... OUT OF THE STASH! BE GONE WITH YOU! NO MORE TEMPTATION!

It just wasn't meant to be.

God bless Labor Day!

2010-09-03T13:35:00.002-05:00

I'm so excited to NOT be laboring this weekend! AND an extra day off to boot! WOO HOO!

I'll be working on the crap ton of crocheted roses. All those ends.....the cool thing is since it's gonna be felted anyway and you need to secure the petals etc. I just thread the needles, stab it back & forth in a non-professional and quite messy method and when they're felted, they're fabulous anyway! MAN, I forgot how much I love felting knitted objects! Ok, these are technically crocheted, but you get the idea.

That's no little craft tote either. It's about 12 inches tall, 9 inches wide and 16 inches across. CRAMMED full with noro wool crocheted into flower bits.

I feel a crafty tutorial is in order, so I'll take some photos along the way. Christine's Crocheted Roses...coming soon to a blog near you....

Happy Crafting, everyone!

Tutorial: Recycled Packaging with Handspun Yarn Scraps!

2010-08-31T10:23:00.002-05:00

Supply List:
Toilet Paper rolls
Markers or paint & brushes
Clear drying glue (Aleene's craft glue or elmers works fine)
popsicle stick for applying glue (or use your fingers)
Yarn scraps...bonus points if they're handspun! YAY!

TreasureGoddess free patterns

2010-08-27T07:21:00.003-05:00

All the links to tutorials and free patterns on the right are now fixed! Sorry about that, hadn't realized they'd all expired. cripes. :) Most of the pattern links to ravelry info pages. If you're not on ravelry, please send me an email to treasuregoddessATkcDOTsurewestDOTnet or leave a comment here and I'll send you the pdf directly.

Guess what followed Jeff home yesterday? Can we keep it? Can we? Yup. The husband now has a project! WOO HOO! How else did you think I found the time to actually work on the blog? Its paint is rusting off, battery was all crudded up, one of the seat cusions just is sitting on top if it, you can't tighten the seat belts and you get covered in rust when you ride on it, but it RUNS and it's so much fun!

When the husband has a big project to occupy his time I get so much spinning & knitting & blogging done! And the best thing? Since it's nice weather, I don't have to come downstairs and find oil pans next to open flames inside my house. (scan to the end of the post for photo).

Sleeves...cryptonite to the TreasureGoddess

2010-08-26T16:58:00.002-05:00

What is it about them? Why do they derail my knitted projects so severely? They're TUBES for cripes sake. TUBES that take LESS YARN and LESS STITCHES than the body of the sweater. I knit sweaters in the round. It makes no sense what-so-ever. After taking a walk through my WIPS, I realized almost every stinking one of them is sitting waiting patiently for sleeves. The photos are all old. Apparently not only do I not feel like knitting them, I don't feel like photographing their lack of sleeveiness either.

Slinky Ribs by Wendy Bernard. Actually have finished the whole darn thing except for the sleeves. Neck edging? done. Hem at bottom of sweater? sewn down. button band? done. Sleeves? nothing. nada. nope. They're even gonna be SHORT. ugh

OK, this one's not too bad. The sleeves are actually THERE only because it's a raglan cap sleeve and they were part of the body. I've done the neck edging and only have the sleeve edging remaining. This one is pitiful that it's not completed yet. If I motivate myself, I could actually WEAR it before the cold weather comes in.

And who could forget this little sleeve incident? Looks like I'll be knitting THREE sleeves before this sweater is complete.

Maybe I don't need sleeves anyway. I wore this yesterday with a denim skirt and it was just right. :)

TreasureGoddess Tutorial on YouTube!

2010-08-23T20:58:00.006-05:00

What do you think? Other than the fact that I can't stand still, it's a bit too dark, I talk too fast, my lake dress doesn't match the trademark TreasureGoddess ORANGE lopsided cowgirl hat and it's totally amateurish, what do you think? Is it at least helpful in learning a cool stitch for using handspun yarn? More techniques for knitting with art yarn will follow soon! PS--the video on youtube is much clearer (and bigger). Click HERE to see the TreasureGoddessChic channel.

This stitch is used on my Handspun Twisted Drop Stitch Scarf.

It seems I've always had a flair for fashion that's just a titch off society's norm. My aunt pulled this gem out for me the other day. I remember I LOVED this dress. Loved it so that I wore it almost every day. I also remember it came with an attached bow and I took it off because it would have made the outfit look "gaudy." Yup. I think the hope that I'll show a polished, professional image to the world as TreasureGoddess is not gonna happen. That ship sailed long ago. Man, check out the rick-rack on that dress! This world is a better place with rick-rack in it.

The knitting mojo is back.

2010-08-23T15:45:00.003-05:00

Well that didn't take long. I apparently have a true addiction to craft. Though I couldn't bring myself to knit, I did instantly glom onto crochet, sewing -- I got out mom's hand-me-down Bernat machine and sewed up some cloth napkins, and even picked up the Autumn cross stitch project that has been sitting on the bed-side table since, um, LAST Autumn. Ah well. When I discussed with the husband the fact that I went almost 3 entire days & nights without knitting, he'd had no clue. To him anything slightly craft related is "knitting". He was not impressed with the magnitude of my knitterly loss. Ah well. I'z back now.

And I haz official FINISHED OBJECT photos! YAY!

Red/orange fluffiness is some hand dyed (by moi) 50/50 mohair/alpaca knit in Citron, an awesome free pattern from the Winter 09 issue of knitty.

The green number is knit with 2 skeins of Plymouth Mulberry Merino 50/50 merino/silk, only $8.50 a skein from a LYS, Knit Wit in Olathe, KS (no website). The pattern is mine, the Hippie Headkerchief & Shawlette. Only modifications are to knit until I ran out of both skeins, creating a little larger shawlette and also continued the stitch pattern right up until the bind off row, not doing a garter stitch edge. I love it so very much and just know it'll get worn a LOT this fall/winter! If you're interested in the shawlette pattern (shown here in green), it's $3. You don't have to have a paypal or ravelry account to purchase.

Man, I love fiber presents. Knitters ROCK!

2010-08-19T09:35:00.001-05:00

Before I left, I gave a skein of my hand dyed laceweight heaven (1100 yards of silk/baby alpaca/CASHMERE) to a dear friend. When I returned from the family vacation, THIS lacey bit of loveliness was gifted to me! THANK YOU CHERY! WOO HOO! She not only knit my aoelian, but a twin out of some lovely blue lacey lamb as well. My colors aren't quite true on my version, it's actually a glowing warm mango orange. I dyed it HOT PINK and then overdyed with a wash of orange. It's lovely all knit up and I'm so happy to be able to wear it this fall & winter! (Chery's photo of me wearing the shawl wrapped around my head is the best color capture.)

I not only had this lovely shawl, but a present waiting in the mail as well! Kelly, from Celtic Cast-On, decided after reading about my post in which I shared my love of all things mohair, to SEND ME MOHAIR YARN! Just BECAUSE I love it so! How amazing is that? And not only is it lovely, hairy, fluffy mohair, it has ALL my favorite colors in it too! TWO big balls of Jaeger Super Kid. It's got greens, reds, ORANGES and all things yummy. I think it wants to be a lace scarf when it grows up. I'm flipping through stitch pattern books to find just the right pattern! I'll post a free pattern here when it's done. THANK YOU!

Am I the only one? Or do you all run about the house and yard flapping your arms like a big fluffy butterfly when you try on a new shawl? Nope? Just me. OK. Give it a try. If you're lucky enough to have a shawl like this one, I swear you feel like you will just lift off and take flight! (wonder if this is why all our neighbors seem to be moving away? nah, it's probably the dead racoon, barbequed squirrels and loud children. Not the strange lady taking photos of yarn in the grass and flapping her shawled arms like a flightless fowl.)

I have not knit for over 32 hours now

2010-08-17T17:17:00.003-05:00

No, I am not dead. I have not broken all 10 fingers and toes. I am not blind (although my stupid retina issues from the big wreck in Jan are giving me big black flashes of light and three semi-permanent spots I'm going to have to give names to if they hang around much longer). I have put the knitting down. And walked away.

There may have been cursing.

Yup. You know how you can feel like a freaking GENIUS when you've knit something? This amazing power. I. MADE. THIS. You create a piece of clothing with substance, style and warmth out of some sticks and strings. You are a CREATOR of KNITTERLY things. You, my friend, are a GENIUS. Well, see above for how knitting can bring you back to reality. I am an idiot. I shouldn't be trusted with sharp sticks. How do I manage to feed and clothe myself on a daily basis? Yeah. And people think knitting's boring.

I broke a cardinal rule of knitting. I knit one sleeve on size 7 dpns. I found the sz 7 circular needle before beginning the 2nd sleeve. I knew it was wrong. I knew bad things could happen, but I was a CREATOR. I have a good and solid gauge. I didn't NEED to follow rules that apply to mere mortals. I got kicked in the arse. TWO INCHES wider. Yup. I don't have the heart to frog it back. I put the knitting away and will come back to it another day and start fresh on dpns like a good little mortal. I will leave the other monster sleeve and if I need the yarn to finish the sweater, will put it in the freezer and then frog it. Otherwise, it may become a freakishly long hat, which just happens to match the sleeve edging of my sweater.

I couldn't bring myself to pick up another knitting project, so I pulled out a bunch of noro kureyon wool scraps and a crochet hook. And I crocheted. and crocheted. and crocheted. I've got about 3 more half-skeins to go. Then I'll use the tails to secure the roses & toss them all into the washing machine to felt up into a lovely woolly bouquet.

I tried to remember the last time I've gone more than 24 hours without knitting something. anything. even a round on a sock. I can't remember. It's a little bit frightening. Am I the only one? Is that strange? ok, is that strange for a Knitter? Even on my honeymoon I put in a few rows after getting up in the morning on a sock. I think it's been over 5 years of knitting something Every. Single. Day.

OK, I have a super sweet (and not at all freaky like today) post coming SOON of amazing knitterly things I received when I got back from the uber-family-vacation. It involves MOHAIR and HAND KNITTED SHAWLS and CASHMERE and PICC LINE COVERS. Knitters rock.

I got a kick out of this photo when I was going through the vacation shots. You know how vacation photos always show the group SMILING and casual and posed in front of the mountain/lake/ocean? Well, I think this shot is a bit more realistic. I don't actually remember this instance, but am pretty sure you could substitute the following caption...."Get your ARSE OFF of [your brother, the edge of that cliff, the top of the van, your sister, etc] and don't MAKE me come over there!" We had such a good time! (and yes, that IS a yarn t-shirt I'm wearing. I got it from Twist, a cool LYS in Wichita, KS.)

Thank you Elizabeth Zimmermann

2010-08-11T07:09:00.007-05:00

In true EZ style, I knit my way through the family vacation, across the wilderness for days 2-12 of the super vacation. The knitting? It kept me sane. Mostly. I believe EZ wrote in her Knitters Almanac that a shawl was the perfect vacation knitting project. You could knit forever on it and it kept you from killing your family members in pure frustration of spending so much time together in a close space. (I'm pretty sure she worded it a bit nicer than that, but it's a pretty close summary.) Citron shawl in TreasureGoddess hand dyed mohair/alpaca light fingering/heavy laceweight yarn. The ruffle was knit across the entire state of Nebraska and part of South Dakota.

To summarize days 2-12 of the uber family vacation, we did NOT get eaten by bears (though we saw pretty darn fresh bear poo on one of our backwoods trails in Montana). I think both of us parents should get awards for surviving that long with 4 children and a minivan and EACH OTHER for 12 days. There were a few Knit-Sanity-Needing moments, and I'll let you figure out who did what. Most of the trip was pure, relaxed enjoying nature and family time fun.

ONE of us had a major come-upart that included sobbing, cursing, sob-yelling and a wagging of a finger in the other's face and may have included the words "YOU GET YOUR ARSE BACK UP THERE AND GET MY BABIES BACK OFF THAT FUXXING CLIFF RIGHT FUXXING NOW!" or something to that effect. I actually saw a couple hikers coming down with their super backpacks, walking sticks and pack dogs. They stopped, and without making eye contact, quietly backed away in a non-threatening manner. Much like you're trained to do with a momma bear separated from her cubs. (This is not the cliff in the story, see the MOUNTAIN MAN is actually ON the boulder with the young ones this time? Their cliff resembled what's in the background of the photo. Somehow everyone was quite eager to please the momma bear and play by the rules after the "great come-upart". The kids refer to this photo as the one "just after mom lost it".)

ONE of us went onto a puffed-up-with-all-the-knowledge-of-the-world Professorial Explanation of WHY that mountain stream flowing along was "crystal clear mountain waters" and that anyone not allowing the children and him or herself to drink from it was denying the children a true American Experience. Because That's The Way Things Are. Yeah, well ONE of us later had massive exploding diarrhea all night long. The OTHER ONE of us only said, "Huh. How 'bout that" when he or she brought the Professor another roll of toilet paper. After much flushing, it was Explained that even the original Mountain Men would have one night of stomach upset to get their stomachs acclimated to the natural water and after that one night they were officially ready to drink from any mountain stream with no worries. I think the OTHER ONE of us should get a medal because he or she did not point out that this was the stupidist thing he or she had ever heard but just again said "Huh. How 'bout that" and walked away to pick up his or her knitting.

Yellowstone was absolutely amazing. We hiked around most of the HUGE park for a couple of days and even got to stay at the Old Faithful Inn in a suite that overlooked the geyser. It was a rustic inn and had no air conditioning or tv, just nature. It was fabulous. We saw bison up close and personal (one was even walking through the forest next to the parking lot and was about 5 feet away when we stepped through the trees...HELLOOO BUFFALO!, we saw snakes, deer, elk, more bear poo and bear scratches on trees with bits of bear fun in it, but no bears. We saw the campsite where the poor campers were mauled/killed the week before. ONE of us did a demonstration of the bear ripping campers to bits for the children and the OTHER ONE of us did a quiet eye roll in a dignified fashion.

We spent about 4 days in Montana near Red Lodge and in the Bear Tooth Mountains and even had 55 people at a family reunion. There was a "kids" baseball game that lasted for about 2 1/2 days including everyone from the about 6-26yrs old and a few dads here and there. There was full-body-contact croquet (our kids play a bit rough and introduced this sport to the others.) There was much running amok screaming, playing, giggling and drinking pop until midnight and then not being able to settle down until 3am. Parents were able to sit around sipping a beer, knitting, chatting and enjoying the sounds of all our kids playing and remembering our own childhoods of doing pretty much the same thing with cousins on Grandpa's farm in western Kansas.

All that and mountain scenery too? And did I tell you there's NO BUGS THERE? NOT ONE SINGLE TICK and I think all of us together had maybe ONE mosquito bite. TOTAL. I tell you, it was THISCLOSE to heaven. Can you imagine waking up, sitting on the porch with your knitting, a cup of tea and THIS as your scenery?

EZ had it figured out. Nature and family and knitting. Although I'm pretty sure she never lost it in a fit of rage/sobbing/cursing fright up on the mountain top. I did realize that it's a good thing I use circular needles as I'd have jabbed the CRAP out of that poor husband of mine if I'd been armed with a regular old metal straight needles in the backpack. Hmmmmm. Maybe there was a side of the laid back, relaxed, feisty old woman EZ that we didn't know. She used circular needles for almost everything too....... Naa, I just can't see it. I need to channel more EZ and less craZY on the next family vacation. Happy 100th Birthday EZ! You inspire us even today. In knitting and in facing the wilderness with a sense of calm and how one stitch after another can calm the soul.

Day 1, minivan survival

2010-07-28T22:52:00.003-05:00

We made it to Scottsbluff, NE today. It was our biggest driving day, about 10 hrs in the minivan with 4 kids, husband and a lot of yarn. I knit my fingers off, had a few naps and except for the last hour of the trip (which was OVERLOAD and I would've thrown any one or all 4 of the kids out the window....) it was a really calm, fun, awesome start to the super vacation across America.

No knitting photos, I'm hoping to finish the citron tomorrow. I've got about 4 rows left on the ruffle. You know, I love the LOOK of the ruffle on the shawlette. I do. I'm just not loving the bajillion stitches of the ruffle. I am not. I'm forcing myself to finish it before picking up any other yarn or I'd never finish it. It's good sanity-saving knitting.

Scottsbluff is amazing. We got there in time to head up to the top on the last shuttle of the day, then hiked ALL the trails around & over & down. A few highlights...

We stayed on SOME of the trails....but you know we're on vacation with OUTDOORSMAN who is physically unable to stay on a trail. We did see a rattlesnake as well, but weren't able to get to it for a close-up (darn). We ended up hiking down just as the sun was getting ready to set. Fabulous. And did I say almost NO HUMIDITY? freaking awesome. Left 95 degrees and 90% humidity in KC, thank you very much.

Road trip...just think of the knitting time!

2010-07-27T22:16:00.005-05:00

OK, is it wrong that I'm just as excited about all the knitting time as I am about our destination? Yellowstone, baby. Leaving at crack-oh-dawn in the morning. I'm thinking the knit time won't start until after nap time has ended.

First, the new pattern's official PEOPLE photos are all complete. No one fell in the mud, no city police officers were needed. I decided to keep a few of the artsy shots in the pattern and it's a nice mix of ways to show off the cool scarf!

The Handspun Luau Scarf! Just think of wrapping this around your neck in the cold drab days of winter. You'll suddenly feel like you're on a Hawaiian beach ready for the Luau party! Super speedy knit and easy too. It looks fabulously complicated due to the faggoting, but is actually a ONE ROW pattern!

The yarn was purchased from Cool Climates Etsy Shop and was amazing to work with. She's got great style and makes a lovely yarn that's fashionable to boot. One skein worked up into a scarf that will keep my daughter warm all winter long.

Ok, enough of the hard sell. Sorry about that. :) Pattern's only $3 and is also lots of fun with a basic bulky handspun yarn also. The dark purple version was spun up by tjstein, or as I call her, she-who-blogs-not-enough. The yarn is sparkly and thick and sproingy. 100 yards will make you a nice long scarf!

SO on to the most important part of the trip preparations...what YARN to pack! (Yes, I packed underwear. Thank you to the reminder emails from my dear friends--Yarn School Comando Style isn't gonna have the same problem in Yellowstone.)

Packed and ready to go....
Almost completed Citron out of RED!ORANGE! hand dyed alpaca/mohair. I'm just about ready for the big ruffle at the end.

Purple mohair serenity sweater. I'm almost up to the arm holes! Light and fluffy like perfectly whipped cream. except hairy. and purple. purplymohairy.

The YELLOW sweater for YELLOWSTONE. Almost ready to do the sleeves & neckline of the slinky ribs out of silky wool. It's kind of meh for me, but am hoping it turns out well. Usually silky wool isn't too impressive in its still-knitting state. I think it has amazing drape ON the body, so we'll see.

Jeff's 2nd pair of uber long uber GRAY socks. Damnit. If I ever make it to the feet, I get to knit them with this cool Dream In Color Smooshy orangish brick red. I just got to make it that far.....

Swatching yarn, 700 yards of heavenly cormo sockyarn hand dyed in my favoritest orange. Going to design me a shawlette. If I don't go insane with all the stitch patterns of every book and website floating around in my brain. (Photo of the hand dyed orangeness on the Commando Yarn School link above).

There may be a skein of bright blue mohair in there also. I don't know. I was wandering about petting it and now can't find it. I'll let you know.

***remember, our house is FULL while we're away with my burly man-cousin, lover of small firearms.

Officer Friendly...protecting the world from temporary wooly accessorizing

2010-07-26T14:05:00.006-05:00

Note to self...Bring STEP LADDER and a LOOKOUT next time I try to use local statues for knitting photo props!

A friend pointed out that some of my handspun artsy-fartsy designs could look great using some of the local artwork as photo props. She mentioned this very statue. I remembered the statue. I went off with camera, scarves, white paper plate (to set the white balance for the perfect shot) and found my statue. Only thing is it's standing on a pedastal about 4.5 feet off the ground. In the middle of a muddy flower garden. On a busy street. And a free outdoor concert was going on half a block away. I lugged a box that was in the back of the truck over and was climbing on it, actually got one foot and an elbow above the edge, grabbed onto his ankle and heard "Just WHAT do you think you're DOING up there?" I lost my grip and FELL on my arse in the mud.

Apparently it's a crime against man (or against statues) to go climbing about and arranging scarves on local art inside city limits. EVEN if it's HANDSPUN. Go figure. It too closely resembles vandalism, or at least that's what Officer Friendly said last night. I tried to explain that it was actually a case of "temporary accessorizing" but he wasn't amused. Also not going for the idea that if he just gave me a little boost I could have the perfect shot. As we were discussing the situation, this car drove by and a man hollered "LET HER GO, MAN!"

I ask you, how great would that statue look sporting a luau themed handspun art yarn scarf? AMAZINGLY GREAT, but that's apparently an adventure for another day. Also, his right hand is open just enough that I could totally hang a knitting bag from there, or a project on the needles...

Not to be discouraged, I headed out around the suburbs and found there's not a lot to offer in the way of statues. I think I'm going to have to stick with using real, live models. But, since I was on a mission from Handspun, here's my results of the evening...

Kansas City is the city of fountains and there's a ton of statues & fountains down at the plaza, but they also have a larger cop-to-person ratio. :) I thought I'd just mosey around the 'burbs and see what I could come up with.

Actual pattern with actual PEOPLE photos coming soon. It's an easy stitch pattern, but creates this very textured cool faggoting that shows off handspun to an advantage, letting the yarn shine through.

The world is a better place with mohair in it.

2010-07-21T14:07:00.003-05:00

I couldn't wait. Cast on at 11pm last night while watching the 2nd season of the Dick Van Dyke Show. Knit a bit more this morning before leaving for work, and over lunch...who needs to eat? That's mohair knitting time, people! Eat when you're at work! I should've known. Out of all the sockyarns I've knit (and there's quite a few on that list), my very very favoritest one of all is Mountain Colors Bearfoot. Which has MOHAIR in it.

The red Citron on the needles? MOHAIR and alpaca.

The purple loveliness above? Kidsilk Haze MOHAIR held double knitting up Serenity Sweater. Boy, even having to pick up dropped stitches through the garter stitch hem part couldn't get me down. I love the hairy stuff!

Now I'm drawn to cast on for a new design using some unbelievably blue heavenly hairy mohair I got for my birthday last year into a cowl/hood/scarf thingy. How do I not have a photo? Dangit. Now once I pick it up to take pictures, you KNOW I gotta cast on for something, right?

I've got to get myself away from the hairy. I'm going on a TEN DAY trip in a minivan with FOUR kids and the husband (he-who-cannot-stay-on-a-path) into the wild outdoors of Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana soon. It's gonna be HOT and wildernessy and last time I checked, there's not an affordable portable air conditioner to keep me able to swath myself in mohair across the country. Is there? Does anyone know of something? I could totally rock myself out hiking around Yellowstone in my very own air conditioned bubble. Man, I wish ticks & mosquitos were blocked by mohair. Wouldn't that rock? I wonder...

We have my burly man-cousin set up to stay at the house and he's well armed (as are the old men contingent that spend most of their days & nights sitting in various driveways watching the world go by) so no one come break in for the stash. Plus I'm gonna pack most of it with me to save what remains of my sanity. Didn't Elizabeth Zimmermann say that on family vacations one should bring lace to keep from killing your family? It was something like that. I do still have some laceweight deep teal mohair/alpaca yarn too.....

The yarn fumes were particularly potent last night...

2010-07-20T18:34:00.002-05:00

Oh momma...It wasn't my fault. It was the yarn crack. Seriously. How do resist it? FABULOUS yarn and people wanting to make deals? Really freaking GOOD deals? I remember something like this....

"Do you think you could use something like this" wafting the yarn beneath my nose...

"Oh, no, definitely not. It's pretty though...and soft...no...probably not."

"What if it was only $10?" more wafting of the yarn, yarn fumes rising...

"Most certainly not. I'm here to UNLOAD yarn on others, not increase my stash. No, thank you. It's lovely, but just not for me."

yarn is put in my hands, quite unfair, really

"What about if it were only $5? It really looks like your colors"

GRABS YARN, RUBS ON FACE, DEEPLY INHALES SOLD! YES! YES!

Then it just gets not pretty. There is flashing of cash. Yarn flies from tables, crammed without ceremony into tote bags that were EMPTY a short time ago. I can't be held responsible.

I will state, for the record, that I did come home with more money than I spent and unloaded a LOT of TreasureGoddess hand dyed laceweight and misc stash bits. I just, well, went home with more yarn than I came with. **Most of the photos are only 1-2 skeins, but an awful lot of those (plus photos not shared) came home in groups of 6-10 skeins each...

Here's just a few...it's too long a photo post if I showed it all...
The Sunflower Knitters Guild has some mighty fine meetings and knitters with exceptional taste. I thank you all for my new treasures.

Can't you smell it? mmmmmmmmmmm new stash yarns. Fabulous.

Are you a Phat Fiber Junkie? Well, why the heck not?!?

2010-07-16T15:43:00.002-05:00

OK, it has come to my attention that there are fiber junkies and yarn junkies out there who know absolutely nothing of Phat Fiber Boxes! HOLY CRAPAMOLY PEOPLE, these things ROCK! Getting a phat fiber sampler box in the mail is like Christmas morning when you were 12 yrs old and got the new bike under the tree but EVEN BETTER! 'Cause it's YARN and FIBER!

Click the Phat Fiber logo box for official info and how to get your hands on some of this fiber/yarn crack.

The official story is on the site, but the nut-shell version is this...you can get a box of samples of hand dyed yarns, handspun yarns, hand dyed fibers, crazy batts, clouds, stitch markers, patterns, HEAVEN IN A BOX PEOPLE! It's a great way to sample etsy yarns & fibers & misc since most of those goods aren't sitting in the LYS waiting for you to browse through.

Jessie (the founder) has the July preview videos up on the blog right now. Her husband Marcus is a riot. This month's theme is Seawead and Scallywags and it rocks. Lots of pirate themed goodies in there. I've created a pattern for a lacy wrist cuff or headband made from a little bit of dk silk, milk fiber or bamboo to help give an idea of what to knit up from a little spun sample. My pattern is shown in the video #4 near the end. Here's a teaser of a couple of shots... I hope to have it up on ravelry soon too. A fun way to knit up some shimmery lace in just a few hours.

One step closer to a true hillbilly

2010-07-15T11:15:00.011-05:00

Silly me. I thought once Mother Nature and I made friends, a weekend at the lake would be relaxing. Guess who pissed off the Tooth Fairy this time? I publicly apologize for telling my step-son to take his tooth that earned him $1 at our house to his mom's house to get his 10 cents over there as well. (The Tooth Fairy is a bit of a tightwad over there.) Apparently this is not approved behavior and I promise to never ever do it again. I crossed the fairy line and I've paid the price.

We've had a few interactions with this ~~bitch~~ fairy before....youngest step-son had his permanent front tooth knocked out of place and up his gumline and we spent most of the 4th of July in an ozarks hospital. It wasn't pretty. My son had his permanent front tooth snapped off into another kid's head during a freak running-about-playing-kickball incident last year. Also not pretty.

The newest incident was yours truly. Still HAVE my permanent front teeth, but they're loose. After dinner at the lake last weekend, I looked up as I pulled the chain from a light on the ceiling fan in the kitchen (20 foot high ceiling). BAM! CRASH! SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER TINKLE TINKLE TINKLE muffled cursing-sobbing-freaking out etc.

Holy crapamoly, they made things better in the 1960's. They made them to LAST. They made glass globes a 1/2 inch thick of HEAVY FREAKING GLASS. In a nutshell, it smashed me in the front teeth, knocked my four front teeth loosy goosy, it shattered after hitting the ground, SO glad it didn't shatter on my face (cause it was 1/2 inch THICK I guess). SO, 6 days later, I've only got ONE loose front tooth and none of them have turned black, so we think they're gonna be fine. They actually feel bruised now and I get a jolt when anything touches them, but it's healing as well as can be hoped. As much as my son thinks it'd be cool for mom to be able to spit through her teeth with her mouth shut, I'm thinking this ended for the best.

I have to say WOO HOO for my mother in law and husband. Husband kept all children at bay, cleaned the mess (more glass bits than you can imagine). Mother in law got me a frozen margarita in those pouches to hold OUTSIDE my mouth as an ice pack and one to put INSIDE my mouth as well. Yup, she rocks.

Why yes, that IS a crap ton of acrylic yarn on my carpet up on that opening photo. And yes, it is mine. And no, not nearly all of my acrylic stash either, that's just the most recent acquisition. Husband came home from a garage sale with bags and bags of yarn for me. I have to say, he did pretty well. Most of it is lion brand and there was very little that was hot pink and fur-like. Some has been donated, some crocheted, the pink hairy stuff was given to my teenaged daughter who proclaimed it was the coolest stuff she'd ever seen. I even gave it to her without shuddering noticably. I can't help it. I'm a true yarn snob with a secret love of crocheted acrylic granny squares. I draw the line at fun fur. It is neither fun, nor fur and gives me the heebie jeebies.

There was some non-hillbilly lake knitting...this beautiful hot orange/red hairy loveliness I dyed up. 50% mohair 50% alpaca. Heavenly hairy just-heavier-than-laceweight-too-light-for-fingering BRIGHT yarn is on its way to becoming Citron. Now it just looks like a blob, but it's got potential.

**Did anyone notice the plastic bag with the Studio's (LYS) flower symbol on it in the photo of acrylic yarn? I saw that first thing and got ALL KINDS of excited, thinking the husband brought me home GOOD YARN, but some heartless knitter out there emptied it of the good stuff and filled it with red heart. That's just cruel.

In which Mother Nature said, "BITE ME" and I did.

2010-07-06T18:13:00.006-05:00

Mother Nature and I have a long, long history. One of her sending hordes of creatures to BITE ME (ticks) or FRIGHTEN ME (many, many ticks...remember the moving freckles? no? The Tale of What Killed Country Christine) or generally BLOW ME OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH and scorpions in my knitting bag and big arse spiders. Let's just say it's never boring when I head out to the great outdoors.

Well, this time apparently the tables were turned! See the lovely cilantro? From my very own herb garden. See the lovely spring roll? Created by my husband with cilantro from my very own herb garden a couple weeks ago. I ate at least 4 of these babies and they were exceptionally yummy. Well, when a dear friend had stopped by, since I'm of a generous nature, I snipped some herbs and offered her a bouquet of fresh cilantro. She noticed these little grey bumps on it. I looked closer, saw that those bumps had EYES and ANTENNAE looking things on their heads. Yup. baby slugs. Lots and lots and LOTS of baby slugs. COVERING the herbs. She promptly dropped herbs onto the ground, said "no thanks" to the herbs, she went home and I went on inside.

I asked the husband, "Honey, you DID wash off the herbs really well, right?" He said, "Oh yeah. I know how freaky you are about dirt and things, so they were unbelievably clean." *I relaxed and sighed* I told him about the baby slugs. He pointed out that he'd not only washed the herbs, but chopped them up with a rather large kitchen knife. I went ahead and ate yet ONE MORE spring roll. About half an hour later, we're cleaning up the mess and I go to put the lid on the little container of chopped cilantro and guess what's sitting there, right on top, LOOKING AT ME????? Yup. A slug. Bigger than the little grey baby bumps, this one had to be a pre-teen at least. I'd love to say I took a photo of it, but in reality, I screamed, had a major fit of the heebie-jeebie-shakes (not nearly as cool as the hippie-hippie-shakes in the song) and threw it AND the container it was in, into the trash and had another super heebie-jeebie-shake (ewwww I just had one now remembering ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK).

I have to say it even mildly grossed out OUTDOORSMAN the husband. Not enough to make him freak out spectacularly like I did, but he decided to not eat any more spring rolls. We tried to tell ourselves we just had more protein in them, but then we decided that slugs probably don't have protein anyway, just phlem. *shakes yet again* ICK! You know, the ONE TIME he doesn't WHIRRRRRRR up his cooking in the food processor....

Well, since this episode, I've managed to go outdoors and not be majorly molested by the forces of nature. Twice! I've camped in western kansas for 4 days and gone to the lake twice! *knocks on wood* I'm thinking the Mother and I may have finally reached a truce. Let's hope so.

On the latest outdoors adventure, I knitted. A lot. And have no freaking PHOTO to share as I left my KNITTING BAG at the LYS today after work. CRAP! I knit almost an entire Citron shawlette out of some beautatious deep red/orange alpaca/mohair laceweight I dyed up a few weeks ago. It's fabulous. And I've got no way to give you an artsy shot of the shawl in process. Ah well. Here's what it looked like BEFORE Friday....Guess I'll just have to go to the yarn shop tomorrow. (I know, terrible, isn't it?)

bikini spinning, not as hot as you'd think

2010-07-02T19:10:00.004-05:00

You know when a normal non-fibery person hears that, they imagine a cute, young scantilly clad thing riding a bike with a strategically placed droplet upon her brow....us fiber people know the truth. It's a 42 yr old with thunder thighs, feet pumping on a spinning wheel, covered in green & purple wool fluff and sweating like a hog wearing the swimsuit because it's 98 degrees with 85% humidity at the lake of the ozarks. Oh yeah. That's how I spent most of last weekend and I have to say, it rocked. I was actually covered in green wool bits and purple SILK fluff. I spun up a POUND of my silk roving I'd dyed a while back into dk weight singles yarn to kit up with my new Hippie Kerchief/Shawlette pattern!

Oh yeah...I've got actual PATTERNS out now. :) And an e-book collection! WOO HOO! I'll begin the obnoxious self promotion soon. Oh, and I've got some great mother nature vs TreasureGoddess stories, a few CYG tales and Survival tips for Knitters in the Wild!

I finished up the month of May wearing my handknits. It's amazing how much my wardrobe has expanded! I have the same stuff, just now I WEAR a lot of it. It was probably one of the best things I've done. I'll do it again when the weather gets colder.

Sorry to disappear there for a while, so much going on that I couldn't keep up! Life's good, family, friends, knitting and all. I missed you, blogland. I'm back. And here's a quick look at my new ebook...Knitted Treasures for Handspun Yarn. A collection of lots of ideas for knitting with little bits of handspun. :) Click the photo below to go see the individual patterns. I'd love to hear what you think.

I'm still here, actual post soon!

2010-06-08T16:15:00.002-05:00

MAN, have I got the posts for you! Life's still crazy, as usual.

I've got posts about finishing up the Wear Your Knits monthly challenge and how it's really made my life better! I'm wearing a skein of left-over handspun twisted and tied as a necklace right now, in fact!

I've got a post for knitters in the wild survival tips and an example of how a sz 15 needle saved the day in the wilderness last weekend.

I've got a post about how I accidentally ATE mother nature instead of her sending her critters to eat me on purpose.

I've got a new ebook full of cool patterns to knit with little bits of handspun.

But for now, I'll leave you with these pretties...

Repurposing the Uggo

2010-05-26T13:26:00.003-05:00

Wear Your Knits Challenge Day #17 & 18 were repeats of Sizzling. I wore the red sizzle cotton sweater on Monday and the purple lower cut one on Tues. I really like them and am so glad I made myself start WEARING my hand knits! You've seen the photos so will spare you armpit-reshots.

Here's one that didn't quite make it to the WEAR portion of our challenge....

Ok, the truly scary thing? Is that I have enough to make that horrid sweater TWICE! 970 yards of WORSTED WEIGHT COTTON hand dyed in a strange variation of the rainbow. Now, I like the colors. I do. They'd make fabulous socks. If they were WOOL and FINGERING WEIGHT. But as a sweater? Being worn in PUBLIC? Not gonna happen.

This whole Wear Your Knits Challenge really got me motivated. I've finished or fixed a lot of sweaters that were just sitting there patiently, never seeing the light of day. One other perk is that it's forced me to LOOK at each of the items I've created and decide to DO something with them. Wear them, Gift them or FROG them. This baby? Frogged. Quickly. Without even looking back.

I pulled it out to make sure it was indeed as freaky as I thought it was, and yes. There's a reason it's been buried in the bottom drawer under all the crap yarn part of the stash. I had no ideas on what this yarn could become other than a CrapLoad of washcloths, and that's not gonna happen. My dear friends got me started with some great ideas. By 11:30pm, I'd pulled out the size H crochet hook and went to town granny squaring it. Now, this giant pile of cotton is on its way to becoming a couple of crocheted granny square market bags! If it works, I'll pop a free pattern up here when it's done.

The really horrid part? When I pulled out the price tag that went with the yarn. $60 (minus 20%). SIXTY FREAKING DOLLARS ON COTTON?????? *urp* Oh, I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth just now. Sorry.

Now, I have no issue with people that WANT to spend $60 on cotton yarn. Really. It's just that my stash wants have changed SO FREAKING MUCH from the time I was a new little knitter that it's frightening. OHhhhhh the wool I could have bought....can't you see it? Cascade 220 in huge piles....ah well. Live and learn. And make granny squares.