90% Knitting - Episode 10

ON THE NEEDLES:

• Moody Blues socks, my hand-dyed. Still working on #2
• Wendy's Autumn Dream Scarf, by Wendy Johnson, yarn by Indie Dyer. No progress, but it is still active.
• Slouchy Cardigan, pattern from Greetings from Knit Cafe, by Helene Roux. I'm actually following the mods from Belleepoque's Rav notes on how to do the sweater top down.
• Preemie Baby Beanie, pattern by Karen Everitt, leftover sock yarn.

FINISHED OBJECTS:

• Pedestrian Crossing Cowl, pattern by Melissa Tuttle Sibley, Malabrigo Rios in Indicetia
• Bunny Nugget, pattern by Rebecca Danger, my hand-dyed
• March YOSS Shamrockin' Socks - done only in the sense they are going to be frogged due to excessive stupidity and lack of common sense on my part. Total and utter sock FAIL. :(

ON THE WHEEL/IN THE DYE:

• Still spinning the camel on the wheel while I wait to start the Knit Girllls SAL with the Tempted fiber on Friday.
• Bought a fabulous new spindle - a Trindle - at Homespun Yarn Party.
• Dyeing galore to try and restock the shop for this Friday's update. This week, there will be some worsted and fingering self-striping, some light fingering vareigated and some Falkland top, as well as a few more bags. The shop will update this week between 4-6 p.m. eastern, NOT 5-7 as I said in the videocast! Argh!

RESOURCES/RECOMMENDATIONS:

• CraftSanity magazine again, since the video got goofed up last week right as I was talking about it.
• Japanese Garden Shawl drawing winner - Marigayle!

10%:

• Happy birthday Lala/Laura from The Knit Girllls!
• This month's Quickie KAL drawing winner is...announced in this segment of the videocast! ;)
• This week's Quickie KAL pattern will be Preemie Baby Beanies by Karen Everitt. I chose this in support of Melissa/Meliabella's Sweet Caroline KAL on the His & Her's podcast group.
• Homespun Yarn Party was so much fun last Sunday! Really enjoyed meeting those of you who introduced yourselves to me there! :)
• Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who came and made opening day of the shop a huge success last Friday! I really appreciate each and every one of you!

Thank you!

I want to say the biggest THANK YOU to everyone who visited the shop last Friday and who made a purchase. Your response to everything was incredible. I never expected to see so much sell out so quickly! You are amazing, and I am most thankful for you all!

We are busy skeining and dyeing and sewing so that we can restock the shop for you. My plan, at this point, is to do a shop update every Friday. The time will vary, but I will post it on the Etsy shop site a few days in advance so you'll know. I'll try to also post it in the blog. This week's update, on Friday, April 1 (no foolin'!) will go up between 4 - 6 p.m. eastern.

There was a month's worth of dyeing up in the shop when it opened, so for sure our weekly updates will not be nearly as large as what we originally had to offer, but I hope to have a nice variety of things every week. :)

Open for Business!

The Fibernymph Dye Works Etsy shop is now open for business! :)

90% Knitting - Episode 9

The big announcement this week is that the Fibernymph Dye Works Etsy shop will open on Friday, between noon and 2:00 p.m. eastern. Hope you stop by! You can sign up for the FDW Update Newsletter on the new blog. (I'm still updating the old blog too, but we'll be completely switched over in the new few weeks.)

ON THE NEEDLES:

• March YOSS plain vanilla in Shamrockin' colorway of Big Footie, Keegan Lane Yarns.
• Pedestrian Crossing Cowl, pattern by Melissa Tuttle Sibley; Malabrigo Rios, Indecitia colorway.

ON THE WHEEL/IN THE DYE:

• Finished spinning the BFL/Silk in Juniper colorway from Dyeabolical Yarns.
• Re-started spinning the camel down I started a couple years ago from Anne Tullett's Luxury Natural Fibers.
• Dyed a lot of self-striping sock yarn and variegated light fingering; also sewed up our first batch of bags.

RESOURCES/RECOMMENDATIONS:

• CraftSanity Magazine - available in PDF or hard copy
• Wendy Johnson's Japanese Garden Shawl. She's donating the profits from this pattern to the American Red Cross for relief efforts in Japan through the end of April. I'm offering a drawing for one copy of this pattern on the Rav group. Enter here.
• I will also be donating any profits I make from now through the end of April from my two patterns on Ravelry, Call Before Digging and Twisted & Twining to relief efforts in Japan through Mission to the World.

10%:

• This week's Quickie KAL will be Bunny Nuggets and/or Chubby Chirps, free patterns both from Rebecca Danger. Make either or make both and post pictures on the Rav thread to be entered in the monthly KAL drawing. First monthly KAL drawing will be on next week's episode.
• Going to the Homespun Yarn Party on Sunday in Savage, MD!
• I'm obsessed with Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad. Totally addictive!

Shop Announcement

I'm happy to announce that the Fibernymph Dye Works Etsy shop will be open for business as of this coming Friday, March 25, 2011. It will go live sometime between noon and 2:00 eastern (need to give myself some wiggle room in case there are any glitches!). Please stop by and check out all of the yarn, fiber and bags we've been working on for your enjoyment!

And just a reminder, my blog will soon be moving to it's new home, The Fibernymph Dye Works Blog. Until I post a final announcement about that, I'll still be updating this blog as well. But the new one, in addition to having a focus on the shop, will also be home to the 90% Knitting videocast as well as my regular (albeit scarce lately...sorry!) knitterly posts.

This is an exciting time for me. I can't remember the last time in life I've ever been this incredibly busy. Maybe back when I had newborns in the house? Setting up this business has very much been like having a newborn around! It's fairly all I think about when I'm awake. Well, that and laundry. But mostly the shop. ;)

90% Knitting - Episode 8

This week my daughter Emma joins me for the videocast. We're also using a new camera, which hopefully will not throw in any technical surprises with regard to viewing it. Fingers crossed!

(Note that right around the 15 minute mark, there is a weird jump in what I'm saying...had to stop to deal with a phone call and had to stop recording for a few minutes, but that isn't overly obvious in the video, it just kind of looks like I randomly switched topics...I'm scattered, but not that scattered. LOL)

Welcome to all of the new members this week who introduced themselves on the 90% Knitting Rav board.

And thank you to ALL of you who watch 90% Knitting. There are a ton of knitting videocasts out right now, so I appreciate that you choose to use your valuable time watching mine. :)

The shawl I'm wearing is the Traveling Woman, pattern by Liz Abinate, which I made last year out of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, Moss colorway.

ON THE NEEDLES:

• Moody Blues Sock #2, my hand-dyed self-striping yarn.
• March YOSS plain vanilla Sock #2, Keegan Lane Yarns in the Shamrockin' colorway.
• Autumn Dream Scarf, pattern by Wendy Johnson, yarn from Indie Dyer, 100% Merino, Dragonfly colorway.

FINISHED OBJECTS:

• Beret de Printemps, pattern by Jeni Chase; Malabrigo Silky Merino yarn in the Archangel colorway.
• Mitered Leaves Shamrock, pattern by Vickie Howell, yarn is Univeral Yarns Ditto.
• Round Dishcloth, patterny by Amy Carpenter, yarn is Peaches & Cream cotton

ON THE WHEEL:

• Dyeabolical Yarns, BFL & Silk fiber, Juniper colorway. Since I forgot to bring the bobbins in for recording, here's a picture...the one on the left is the second quarter(ish) of the fiber. I'm so bad at dividing fiber equally.
  
  
  
• Check out my special episode, Intro to Spinning.
• If you'd like to see a good video plying demonstration, check out the one LynnZimm -- spinner extraordinaire! -- recorded last week.
• Dyed four braids of 100% Merino top for the shop, including the one informally being referred to as the "Happy Hippy" colorway. ;) Did some yarn dyeing as well, though some was for specific people, so I didn't show it, and the rest of it was still damp.

DESIGN PROJECTS:

• I'm teaching my first class at the new LYS this Saturday, Beginning Knitting. 

OOPS:

• Dyeing oops...learned that dye doesn't always do what you think it will do under certain circumstances. So noted. :}

RESOURCES/RECOMMENDATIONS:

• If you're looking for a drop spindle, check out the ones made by Highland Handmades. I've heard nothing but good things about them. Individual spindles and fibers are available in her shop now, but Heather is putting together more spinning kits for anyone just starting out or who'd like both a spindle and a bit of starting fiber. She said they'll be listed sometime this weekend.

10%:

• Received my Knit Girllls SAL fiber in the mail from Tempted today! Yum!
• The 90% Knitting Quickie KAL pattern for this week will be the Pedestrian Crossing Cowl by Melissa Tuttle Sibley of Keegan Lane Yarns. Perfect project for Malabrigo Rios, if you're still looking for a Malabrigo March project.
• Made reservations for the hubby and I to go to Rhinebeck in October. Yeay!
• New videocasts you might want to check out...I haven't had a chance to watch all of them yet, but you can't say there aren't viewing options! ;) (Rather than link them all here, you can find the links to them over to the right in the sidebar for Knitting Videocasts.)
• A Chronic Knitter
• Complex Textures
• Dragonfly Soars
• Knit Bytes
• Needle Bound
• Suezee Knits
• The Expectant Knitter
• This Cat Knits
• I'm putting together a new blog to go along with the shop once it opens. Eventually, this blog will no longer be updated, and all new videocasts will be posted over on the Fibernymph Dye Works blog (the old ones have already been put up over there as well), along with shop news and my own knitting, spinning and fiber-related news. There is a button over there that will let you sign up to be on the FDW mailing list and receive updates about the shop a few times a month.

90% Knitting - Intro to Spinning

Because there seemed to be a lot of interest on spinning on the 90% Knitting Ravelry group, especially from new spinners, today I recorded the first in a series of special episodes on spinning. This one mainly talks about the basics of what to know about fiber and your spinning tools before you actually get started spinning. As I said in the

The book I referred to is The Knitter's Book of Wool, by Clara Parkes. I realllly recommend this book to all knitters, but especially if you want to spin. You need to know your fibers!

I may have referred to the S & Z twists backwards. I said that spinning clockwise creates an S twist and spinning counterclockwise creates a Z twist. After I recorded, I thought about it and decided I had it backwards. So I looked it up in several different places. Depending on where you look, you'll see it both ways! Gah! Regardless, what is important to note is that if you spin clockwise, you must ply counterclockwise and vice versa. But I'll talk about that more when I get to the plying episode. :)

Thanks for watching!

90% Knitting - Episode 7

So sorry for the horrible lighting in this episode! Between needing to have my ceiling light on and my unforunate choice of a hot pink shirt (never! again!), the colors in this episode are quite off at some parts. Blargh. :( 

Thank you to everyone who introduced themselves in the Ravelry group this week! We've over 200 members now, and to celebrate that, I did a couple of random drawings. Wombatknitter and flangel813 will both be receiving a little something direct from my stash!

ON THE NEEDLES:

• Moody Blues Socks, from my hand-dyed yarn.
• Plain Vanilla March YOSS sock; Keegan Lanes Yarn, Shamrockin' colorway.
• Beret de Printemps, pattern by Jeni Chase; Malabrigo Silky Merino, Archangel colorway.

FINISHED OBJECTS:

• I got nuthin'.

ON THE WHEEL/IN THE DYE:

• No spinning, but I dyed some roving and several skeins of self-striping worsted weight. Still testing out colorways for the shop! Shared some swatches of how they might knit up.

DESIGN PROJECTS:

• Planning outlines for upcoming classes I'll be teaching at a LYS, Stormy Blue, this month and next.

OOPS:

• Beret de Printemps mess...I should NOT knit lace while watching TV, no matter how simple the chart seems.

RESOURCES/RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Namaste Buddy Case - what do you use yours for?
• Knitter's Review e-newsletter and web site, specifically the events calendar. Events I'm hoping to get to this spring:

• Homespun Yarn Party, Savage, MD, March 27
• Spring Fling, St. Louis, April 28 - May 1
• Maryland Sheep & Wool - Howard County Fair Grounds, MD; May 7 & 8
• Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival, Waynesburg, PA; May 21 & 22
• Great Lakes Fiber Show, Wayne County Fair Grounds, Wooster, OH; May 28 & 29

10%:

• Stash enhancement - I fell down with a large Rios purchase from TLE's update last Monday. Also received a lovely skein of Wollmeise in the mail in a swap, and I won a TLE gift certificate as well as a skein of Bugga in Blue Lobster from the Spring Fling Feb. KAL.
• This week's Ravelry group Quickie KAL pattern is the Mitered Leaf Shamrock, by Vickie Howell. Great way to knit a little something for St. Patrick's Day next week and use up some leftovers in the process!

90% Knitting - Episode 6

ON THE NEEDLES:

• Moody Blues socks, plain vanilla pattern, my hand-dyed self-striping sock yarn.
• Will be casting on soon for Beret de Printemps (pattern by Jeni Chase) out of Malabrigo Silky Merino in Archangel and my March YOSS plain vanillas out of Keegan Lane Yarns Toasty Sock Big Footies in Shamrockin'.

FOs:

• February YOSS plain vanillas w/ ribbed cuff out of Fleece Artist Somoko in Sun.
• Slouchy Copy Cat Hat (pattern by Terra Jamieson) for last week's Quickie KAL out of Plymouth Tweed.
• Haruni (HUZZAH!!) (pattern by Emily Ross out of The Loopy Ewe Solids in white.

ON THE WHEEL/IN THE DYE:

• Spinning Dyeabolical Yarns BFL/Silk top in Juniper on my wheel.
• Spinning my hand-dyed Targhee-Mohair in Storm Clouds on my drop spindle.
• Dyed three colorways of sportweight self-striping.

DESIGN PROJECTS:

• Simple lace pattern for a class I'll be teaching next month.

OOPS:

• A few minor dyeing mishaps, but it's all part of the learning process!

RESOURCES/RECOMMENDATIONS:

• It's Malabrigo March on Ravelry!
• Addi Turbos and HiyaHiya circs. I compare them, but ultimately I love them both.

10%:

• This week's Quickie KAL project in the 90% Knitting group on Rav will be the free Round Dishcloth pattern by Amy Carpenter. I'll be using Peaches & Cream yarn for mine, but any unmercerized cotton yarn will do!
• 3191Q, the quarterly indie published magazine put out by the women behind 3191 Miles Apart web site. Fabulous photography, inspiring articles, projects and recipes. Love it! (Sorry, I was way off on the price. A year's subscription within the US is $58, individual issues $20, including shipping. I still think they're worth it.)
• Anton Strout's Simon Canderous series of the urban fantasy genre. Good storytelling, fun sense of humor throughout. The fourth in the series, Dead Waters, just came out.