wow...it has been so long

i really haven't been posting much lately. why is that you think? three kids? working full time? holidays? birthdays?

ALL OF THE ABOVE.

But, I'm sure you may or may not be able to sympathize. I assure you, though, I haven't been sitting idle in this time. I've been very very busy.

So, below will be a snap shot into what I've been busy doing...with Comfort Wool at least.

Hats for the kids:
Hat and Mitten set for an auction winner at my kids' school.

YYMN sleep sack for a customer
sweater for my daughter. I HEAVILY modified the Daffodil pattern from Rav.
A Hootie Who romper for a YYMN. Newborn size.

Custom Yarns...
A little experimental dyeing..."the road less traveled."
A custom dye and knit...My colorway "Birch Blossom" and my romper design.

Another Hootie Who romper YYMN. Size 3mo.

A Jungle Gym overalls for a newborn. YYMN. (This pattern was just released. More info coming in separate blog post.)

Thinking of Spring...FULL

NO NEW CUSTOMS UNTIL SUMMER. If I have time, I will list more spots via my cart. Thanks! ♥
______________
Customs list is already being planned. All new custom spots will be listed on the cart only. I'm not currently taking customs via email. I get too confused!

Here is a listing explaining


Spots are listed on my cart.

Current List:

January: Mel ~ Sleep Sack and Hat (DONE)
February: JoAnna (Awaiting Payment)
March: Andrea
May: Jenny

my customs are closed until 2011

Thank you for all of your kind inquiries regarding custom knitting.

Unfortunately, at this time, I simply can not take on anymore customs.

Custom knitting spots will be available again starting in January 2011.

Thank you for understanding.


Current Customs List:

DONE ~ L. - NB Owl Romper using Lollytree Yarn
DONE ~ B. - 3m Owl Romper
DONE ~ A. - 12m Birch Blossom Romper
DONE C. - 12m Owl Romper
DONE ~ J. - NB overalls
Postponed to Feb. ~ Jo. - Romper

Pre-Order and simplicity sweater club

RFR Pre-Order

Kelly: Shipped Monday, August 23
Rach: Ships Tuesday the 24th
Kristen: Drying Monday August 23
Beth: Yarn arrived on August 21.
Lisa: Yarn arrived on August 21
Kiersten: Drying Monday August 23
Laura: Shipped on Friday, August 20

simplicity sweater club

meg: shipped Monday, August 23
dev: ships Tuesday, August 24
kate: invoiced
kelly: dyeing this week
erin: dyeing this week.

summer is winding down....dyeing updates

summer is winding down and i'm sad to think of leaving my sweet babies to go back to work. but then, i remember how well taken care of they are at their school. I also remember how much my students need me and how much I adore them, and I get excited at the prospect of being part of their lives and teaching them.

ahhh...and i remember, that with the school year comes cooler days. a wonderful reminder when the temperature is suppose to be triple digits tomorrow.

but that isn't why i started this blog post at all.

I wanted to update my people waiting on their pre-orders. I'm wading through a 350 Mosaic Moon coop at the moment, trying to get those packaged and out of my living space. I love yarn, but WHOA.

So...here is where we are:

Run Fox Run

Cestari orders: Should ship this Friday. I beg of you to not be too mad if I fall behind this update since I'm technically ahead of schedule. ♥

Mt Meadow: Ordered

Nova: Ordered

Simplicity Sweater Club

All bases ordered.

Some updates

Blogging is hard.

Summer is harder

Three kids always under the feet, trips to keep them engaged. A newborn. You get the idea.

I do have some updates, so hang on to your seat!

Where to begin...

First some custom updates.

Working on a romper in Nurturing Threads Wizard colorway. This project is touch and go. I'm down to just 2.5 ounces and need to complete 8" of leg and two short sleeves. Pray for me, will ya?



Then there was some knitting for a neice on the way. This is knit in Western Sky Knits Iris colorway



And I can't not knit for myself. This is madelinetosh sock in ginger. I'm knitting up a simple things for myself for the fall.



And I also finished a Goodale in MM Copper Patina







And I've been working on a new pattern, because little boys need cute things, too.



And some dyeing.

school's (almost) out for summer!

as most of you know, i am a teacher by day. by night is, of course, another story.

i went back to work, from maternity leave on May 10th, hence the reason, I've not been posting much at all since then. But never fear, I've been busy...busy busy busy.

Since I don't want to bore you with the details of all the knitting, dyeing, schooling that has been going on. I'll just show you pretty pictures. Everyone loves pretty pictures.

Skirted Overalls in my Birch Blossom colorway. I never did get a finished pictures WITH the buttons.

A Springtime in Hollis sweater and longies set in Comfort Wool Breezy colorway (dyed by Lauren)

I also reverse engineered a sweater tank for my daughter, Elliot. Dyed by me on superwash in my Ichiban colorway.

Dyed some yarn as well...

This will be part of a set. The colorway is still drying

This was a "fortunate" mistake

So, yeah. That is about it. I know. Not much for 5 weeks. But work slows me down. Alot. Look for much more regular updates now that summer is a mere 4 days away! Woot Woot!

I've been waiting to share this....

but had to wait for the customer to get her package. the buttons were a surprise!
she sent some action shots from her cell for now. How Cute!

breezy springtime in hollis

is done...

i really think Tessa Anne of the Button Shop out did herself on these. They really add a simple elegance and beauty to this sweater. They match the dusty rose color wonderfully and really bring out the femininity of the sweater.

Custom STIH

This is done, but waiting on buttons from Tessa Ann. This was knit in CWC (Lauren)'s colorway Breezy on Anise BFL. It is a size 6 mo.

Just waiting on these beauties from TessaAnn to come in.

Beginnings and Endings

Ahhh, that title could mean something so much deeper then it does. I swear I'm not waxing poetic folks.

It is quiet literal.

The end of this is near. I'm waiting on my buttons to arrive and they are off to their new owner, who so kindly let me "play" with designing overalls. I am very happy with the final product, but there will be some minor tweaking.

My kids have been sick the last two days. Stomach bug. So, the newbie and I have been staying FAR away from all the stuff coming out of my children, and by extension....my children. Very very far away. At least one wall between us.

Last night, as I watched a movie with my son (I know, I said far away. We were on opposite sides of the couch.), I got the spin bug once again. I wanted to try to spin some singles. If, by chance, they suck, I'll call it "art yarn" and pretend it was intentional. Or ply it to try to hide some of it.

And today, I started a Springtime in Hollis for Cheryl in Lauren's colorway...Breezy.

Done!

an Easter miracle

You don't have to celebrate this holiday to appreciate the miracle I'm talking about.
This is the kind of miracle only a knitter with a sense of humor can appreciate. Last night, I wove in 31 ends. I still had 5 to wrestle this morning and I hadn't even knit the second leg of the pants yet. Today, I looked at the amount of yarn I had left to work with for the second leg, and this is what I had staring back at me.
Yep. Just that. Those two small colorway balls are about the size of a golfball, give or take. And at this time, I started counting rows. How many rows would I have to make with the amount of colorway that I had? (The solids were good to go.)

The answer was simple. Seventeen. Seventeen rows!!! Thirty-eight stitches per row. Right. You feeling me here? And experienced knitters know this was a leap of faith. It was touch and go at times. What is a girl to do but beg her friends for whatever colorway they had available in scraps. A dear dear friend...whom I won't call out...Devorah....reminded me that I could contact the dyer and maybe beg her to dye me a little. Luckily, I have myself on speed dial and already knew my answer to my own question. I wasn't able to help myself as I didn't have any Cestari. Great. What a big help I am to myself. No one had any when I asked, and I needed to keep going.

So, I just kept knitting. And I do this often when I start to realize "Hey, this might not work." My rule of thumb is simple. Are you listening here?

"It is all in your head."

Confused? It's simple really.

The Logic:
If you don't look at it, you won't notice you are running out. Therefore, if your mind doesn't know you are running out, you will NOT run out. It's worked more times then I care to count. With a mere three or four inches to spare. But worked all the same.

(Please do not ask about the number of times it did not in fact work. I really can't actually count that high.)

Anyhow...the result of this holiday miracle is pictured below...before I completed the second leg. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it all done. After all, I'm tired. It's been a long day and night time pics are the worse then the early dawn pics...like the one pictured below.

Update: Just need a drawstring. Which is a battle, since I don't have enough of any one color to knit an i-Cord. Hmmm...to be continued