In case you’ve missed my endless chatter about it elsewhere, Swhorls are now available in the shop. I’ll also have them at the GSSB festival (Barn 3) and of course Rhinebeck (booth 26D) if you’d like to try them in person!
Actual knitting content coming shortly.
Right after I came in here and talked about how I was going to post more, dammit, really, I mean it this time… my camera up and died. And given my frequent lack of eloquence with words, I feel like any blog post from me is rather lacking without pictures.
Luckily for me (and you, I suppose), this happened at about the same time that I opened up membership for a tiny little secret spindle club, the funds from which I was able to use to buy a very shiny new to me camera.
These are some mittens that I’ve been meaning to knit for years and years; I actually think I put together a kit for them before I even started this blog four (!!) years ago. I needed something quick and fun before starting my next work project and these definitely fit the bill. Plus, even though it’s 100 degrees now, I will be very grateful that they’re ready to wear by the time winter rolls around.
These socks actually belong to my dear Sandi, who not only knit my pattern, she also let me graft her toes when I saw her this weekend. I may have fan-girled a bit.
This is Sandi’s Sidekick, which is really a fantastic wheel that I may have considered grabbing and running off with. I’m pretty sure she could’ve taken me down, though, plus it was her birthday party so that seemed kind of mean.
This is my Tour de Fleece spinning; for the first time EVER I think I will actually reach my TdF goal. Which may be helped by the fact that my goal was to spin one single skein. Of sock yarn. On the wheel. I can’t fail with standards this low!
And this is one of the new spindles from the 3d printed line (which will have a name eventually, I swear). This particular one is already sold, but there will be plenty more where it came from in the next week or two when I launch the full shop. (Note to self: come up with a name for the spindle line before launching the full shop.)
That’s all I’ve got for the moment, though rest assured that now that I’ve got a new camera, I am taking pictures of pretty much everything, and there’s all sorts of exciting stuff going on, so I really will be back with more. Seriously. I mean it. Don’t look at me like that.
So I was totally hoping to do the thing wherein I disappear for a week and come back and oh, look, I have something new and shiny and finished to show you!
But I don’t. My knit mojo, she is gone. Instead I only have a half-finished sweater, which really had better be full-finished by next week, because at that point I’ll have to put it aside for some super secret work stuff, regardless of what state it’s in.
In the meantime, if you find your life lacking in Jesh related things, I can help you fill the void! Because there’s a sale on in the shop, so I can clear out some stock and get new stuff made for festival season. Prices are already marked down, so no math required!
Spindles are 30% off:
Handspun and kits are 25% off:
And the few remaining batts are 10% off:
New shop: I haz it! And there’s a shiny new splash page up, too.
There are still a few minor details here and there to tweak with the cart software, and I’d love to have your help—so anyone who purchases something today from the new site and tells me how it goes will get 25% refunded from their purchase price. Happy shopping!
The good news: The handspun and kits are all finished and packed up,
diversion shawl is done and blocking, and the weather for this weekend looks awesome.
The bad news: I still have six spindles to finish, ALL of the spindles need to be weighed and labeled, I can’t find my spindle labels, I wasted an hour of prime packing time fighting with my stupid @#*%ing blocking pins to get the diversion shawl laid out, I’ve got a cold from hell, and all of my attempts at drinking hot tea to combat said cold are being thwarted by the 90 degree weather today.
Also, I tried to start a new sock project so I would have some travel knitting, but variegated yarn + lace pattern + not even using the right size needle = frog.
I don’t think I could be any busier right now if I tried. (Actually, forget I said that—no use tempting fate, here.) So, have a list.
1. Finally got the yarn to continue on with my sweater, and started a sleeve tonight.
I’ve also been working on mathing out the other sizes and writing clear, coherent instructions so that my test knitters can get started, but I gotta say, it’s a challenge. The thing is that once you’re knitting the sweater it’s really easy to see how the lace and cable columns fit together and everything lines up, but getting there is… an issue. Still, I’ll get it worked out. Hopefully.
2. Washing handspun is magic. I know this, and have known this for quite a while, but seeing it in action still gets me every time.
These skeins of laceweight singles are actually for cowl kits that I’m going to have with me at the MA sheep and woolcraft fair at the end of the month; there will be handspun versions and spin your own, and Jen will have a handdyed version both at MA and at NHSW this weekend.
(The kits include beads for the picot cast on unless you request it without; my original handspun sample was knit without, only because I hadn’t thought of beading it at that point.)
3. After MASW I’m going to be migrating all of my shop stuff (spindles, fiber, yarn, kits, and patterns) over to this site from Etsy. I’m telling you this now because a) I’ve already started working on it, but it’s going to take me that long to get everything set up, and b) the few items left over on Etsy are 30% off so that I don’t have to move them. 
So busy I don’t have a spare moment to write up a decent blog post about all that I’ve been up to. But here’s a sleeve:
(there’s two of them now)
And for all of you who might be interested, an anonymous (and fantastic) donor has offered to match all of my sales (pattern, spindle, and fiber) until Valentine’s day in a donation to MSF/DWB. I will also be donating 75% of proceeds from pattern sales for the remainder of the month.
Now if you’ll pardon me, I have to go card more batts and re-stock the store!
Stuff is going to start looking a little different around here. Nicer. Sharper. Cleaner.
I got a new camera.
I keep meaning to, you know, take a picture of myself and the camera together, but… I keep finding more interesting things to photograph.
I know it’s not Caturday. But lookit that face!
(PS New camera means new pictures means ye olde shoppe is re-opened—new stuff goin’ up just about every day. I have a lot of spindles!)
Eight days left and I’ve entered that point where mentally, I know I’m ahead of (or, at the very least, on) schedule, but emotionally, I’m in panic mode. What if I forget (insert important object here)? What if it’s cold? What if it rains? What if I’m not bringing enough spindles?
What if I’m bringing too many spindles? (I know, I know. There’s no such thing as too many. But what if?)
Obviously the only way to de-stress is to…
start a new knitting project.
Ten days left ’til I leave for Rhinebeck and I couldn’t be more excited or panicked. The shop is shut down so I can start labeling and packing spindles, because I am not waiting for the night before to do it like I did last year. Viv has been washed and blocked and fits perfectly—
so once the clasps get here I can sew ‘em on fast and that will be done too.
I was also hoping to get in one last skein of handspun before potentially handing over my bobbin to have copies made,
but this is only the first ply so that may or may not happen.
Still on the to-do list: finish up the last handful of spindles, label and pack them as noted above, figure out what knitting and spinning projects to take with me, and clean this place up a bit so I don’t come home to a disaster area.
(That last one might end up being too much to handle. We’ll see.)
