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  • Off the Wheel: Swaledale Wool

    April 10, 2021 by

    What can I say about spinning Swaledale wool…. Well, mine was FULL of kemp. Not that I didn’t expect kemp, but dang. It fell out when I spun both singles, it fell out when I plied, it fell out when I washed/tensioned it, and it fell out when I wove it into a table runner.… Read more

  • First 100g of North Ronaldsay Wool is Spun!

    April 8, 2021 by

    As I mentioned in my last post, I ordered 300g of North Ronaldsay wool roving from Hearthside Fibers, and since it arrived on Monday, I was anxious to get some spun. This rare, conservation breed of sheep eats mostly seaweed, so I was curious to see how this diet would affect the wool. Because North… Read more

  • Late Night Weaving & Special Fiber Arrival

    April 6, 2021 by

    I made a quick trip to my weaving studio last night and brought home my small loom (15″ Schacht Cricket) so I can weave from home again. I decided to weave some of the Romney wool yarn that I bought the year before last during the 2019 Deep South Yarn Hop. This yarn came from… Read more

  • 100% Tibetan Yak off the needles

    April 5, 2021 by

    When I owned my yarn shop (In the Loop Yarn Shop in Hartselle, AL), I bought several skeins of 100% Yak wool from Darn Good Yarn. I had knitted with yak/silk yarn before and found it glorious, so I was a little disappointed when the DGY yak yarn arrived. It apparently wasn’t yak down, but… Read more

  • Spring Spinning has begun!

    April 5, 2021 by

    For the past few weeks, I’ve been on a spinning kick, mostly because I haven’t been in my weaving studio as much because of bad weather here in the Southeastern U.S. (tornadoes, thunderstorms, flooding, etc.). I’ve had to cancel multiple classes, which is a bummer, but it has given me a chance to start processing… Read more

  • Latest off the Loom: Sewanee Scarf

    March 20, 2021 by

    I’ve been thinking about Sewanee: The University of the South a lot lately…mostly because I haven’t been able to make my frequent trips there because of the pandemic. I earned my M.A. in Literature there in 2014 and completed most of my coursework for my MFA in Creative Writing there too. My children spent every… Read more

  • Latest off the Loom: Two Scarves

    February 24, 2021 by

    Two scarves have come off my loom in the last few weeks. The first is an organic cotton/lamb’s wool blend warp and cotton blend weft short scarf. The second is a cashmere/merino/silk/alpaca blend scarf in gold and blue stripes. I’m happier with the cashmere blend scarf, overall, but both scarves turned out alright.

  • Spinning & Prepping Raw Fleece Fiber

    February 23, 2021 by

    The nice (and warm) weather put me in a spinning mood this week. It’s in the 70’s today, making it hard to believe that it was snowing 3-4 inches last week. I bought some Hearthside Fibers Shetland/Tussah Silk Hand Dyed Roving during the Deep South Yarn Hop last November, so I decided to spin it… Read more

  • WIP: On the Needles

    February 17, 2021 by

    When autumn started last year, I put most of my knitting projects on hold in order to weave more. This left two sweater projects on the needles: “Soundtrack” pattern by Marie Green and a seamless sweater from a Craftsy class. I’ve slowly been working on them since the new year, but I’m not pressuring myself… Read more

  • More Hand Dyed Yarns Available from Mythos Yarns

    February 8, 2021 by

    My Mythos Yarns Etsy shop is now stocked with DK & Fingering weight tonal yarns inventory. Free shipping on orders of $35+. All my yarns are hand dyed in small batches using professional acid fast dyes. Yarns available: 100% Superwash Merino DK Tonals, 100% Merino Wool DK Tonals, & 80/20 Merino & Angora blend Fingering… Read more

  • 2021 Weaving: Silk/Wool Shibori Dyed Scarf

    January 27, 2021 by

    I finished up this project on Monday when I was dyeing kitchen towels. I hadn’t tried Shibori dyeing any of my woven scarves before, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m mostly happy with the results, but there are a few things I would do differently next time–both with the weaving and the… Read more

  • Monday’s Shibori Dyeing Project

    January 27, 2021 by

    Aside from teaching Shibori dyeing, I also try to keep Shibori dyed kitchen towels in stock at my studio. They make great gifts for family and friends, too. On Monday, since I was going to be at home anyway, I decided to spend the afternoon dyeing 100% cotton flour sack kitchen towels and a scarf… Read more

  • 2021 Weaving: Cotton/Wool Scarf

    January 16, 2021 by

    My second 2021 scarf came off the loom yesterday–a cotton/wool scarf in cream and multicolored yarns. I warped this project as if I were weaving houndstooth, but only wove with the multicolored yarn instead of alternating back and forth with both yarns. The effect isn’t as striking as I would like, so I’ll be weaving… Read more

  • 2021 Weaving: 1st Project of the New Year

    January 15, 2021 by

    I got a bit of a late start with my weaving in the new year, but since I wove so much October-December of 2020, I’m not beating myself up over it. For this project, I used Blue Heron hand dyed cotton/rayon seed yarn for the warp and a two-ply blue cotton for the weft. I’m… Read more

  • 2021 Dyeing: Turmeric Dyed Shibori-Style T-shirt Yarn

    January 15, 2021 by

    I’ve been naturally dyeing yarn/fiber/fabric with turmeric for over 5 years now. The range of yellows produced with this single root has always fascinated me. For this project, I dyed some of my husband’s old undershirts (t-shirts)–Shibori-style–and then let them sit in the dye pot around 24 hours. I kept the pot on low heat… Read more

  • Dyeing Yarn with Avocado Pits/Skins this Week

    January 14, 2021 by

    I’ve done a good bit of natural dyeing over the past 5 years, but not quite as much with avocados. So, I decided to dye some merino/angora yarn I had on hand using the skins and pits from two avocados. I let the avocados simmer for about 12 hours, turned the heat off overnight, and… Read more

  • Happy New Year!

    January 1, 2021 by

    2020 was a super productive year for me…probably the most productive to date, weaving-wise. I did my best to make the most of staying at home for a large part of the year and it certainly paid off. I wove 42 items and knitted 16 finished items. Of course, this is my full-time occupation, so… Read more

  • Finished Object: Cotton/Wool Blend Pullover

    July 28, 2020 by

    A week ago today, I finished the pullover I was knitting…using a pattern from a sweater app (knittingfool.com Sweater Generator). Essentially, you add in the row count/stitch count (4″) of the yarn, the recommended needle size and the bust size you want. I followed the directions up to a certain point…until I saw that if… Read more

  • Finished Object: Remnant Yarn Woven Shawl

    July 13, 2020 by

    Another remnant yarn shawl came off the loom this week after spending a really long time on the loom. I normally finish weaving projects in a day or two, but with all my knitting lately, I put this project off for quite a while. I’m happy with the results, even though I considered it a… Read more

  • Finished Object: Wedge Yoke Lace Pullover

    June 19, 2020 by

    It’s finally off my needles! I’m mostly happy with this pullover, although I did make it too big. It still fits, but feels huge. I think I’ll start going down a size on future projects because this seems to be the going trend for me. The yarn I used (Louisa Harding Trenzar) had a little… Read more

  • Knitted Pullover Progress as of June 8

    June 9, 2020 by

    In my last post, I mentioned my two WIPs:  Nuuk from Jonna Hietala (using Noro Tennen yarn “Alpine” colorway) and the second is Wedge Yoke Lace Pullover by Eunny Jang (using Louisa Harding Trenzar yarn “Pumpkin” colorway).  I was hoping to be finished with at least one of them by now, but life has prevented that from happening…more… Read more

  • Memorial Day Week: 2 New Projects & (more) New Yarn

    May 31, 2020 by

    I’ve started two new knitting projects as of Memorial Day…both of which are raglan style knitted tops. The first one is Nuuk from Jonna Hietala (using Noro Tennen yarn “Alpine” colorway) and the second is Wedge Yoke Lace Pullover by Eunny Jang (using Louisa Harding Trenzar yarn “Pumpkin” colorway). The first is worsted weight yarn… Read more

  • Additions to my stash from 2 LYS

    May 27, 2020 by

    I think I’ve bought more yarn during this pandemic than I have to-date this year. But, in my defense, my wedding anniversary, birthday, and Mother’s Day did fall during this time…so I’m technically getting “gifts” of yarn from my husband for those events. And, there was a sale at my LYS (Hook A Frog Fiber… Read more

  • It is FINISHED!! Anker’s Summer Shirt

    May 25, 2020 by

    I finished my Anker’s Summer Shirt by Petiteknits a few days ago and I’m super pleased with the end results. Part of me already wants to make another one, but I would like to try a few other top-down raglan tops before I circle back around to this one again. Yarn used on this top:… Read more

  • WIP: Anker’s Summer Shirt by Petiteknits

    May 17, 2020 by

    I’m making steady progress on the Anker’s Summer Shirt pattern by Petiteknits. I started knitting it on April 30th–while also knitting the seamless raglan sweater and other projects–so it has taken me a little while to make real progress on it until the end of this last week. I’m on the home stretch now, however,… Read more

  • It’s Finally Done! My 1st adult knitted sweater

    May 14, 2020 by

    After about 6 weeks of off-and-on knitting, my first adult knitted sweater is finished. Although it’s made to be oversized, I wish I had chosen the smaller size because it does feel really big, but I’ll deal with it. I’m super proud of it…mostly because I’ve always shied away from really large projects like this… Read more

  • Sweater Update: April 25th

    April 28, 2020 by

    I finally finished the body of my seamless raglan sweater and now I’m working on the arms. I was getting low on the orange color yarn, so I had to improvise and add in a dark brown color of the same yarn to make sure I had enough for the whole sweater. I’ve reserved a… Read more

  • Weekend Weaving Projects

    April 22, 2020 by

    I decided to take a break from sweater knitting over the weekend so I could dress my loom again after a couple of weeks hiatus. I ended up weaving two remnant yarn shawls on my 32″ Kromski Harp loom, one in neutral colors and one in warm colors with a few cool colors thrown in.… Read more

  • Sweater Update: It looks like a sweater now!

    April 16, 2020 by

    I’ve been working on my first (adult) sweater for a week and half now (minus the 3 day break I took to knit my uncle’s beanie) and I’m almost halfway there, I think. Because I’m not used to knitting so much (hours everyday), my right shoulder has been giving me some problems and I’ve taken… Read more

  • “Be Loving” Beanie for my uncle

    April 16, 2020 by

    I took a break for a few days from my sweater knitting to make a beanie for my Uncle Eugene’s 82nd birthday. He is my oldest uncle and sends me a birthday card (most years)…and his birthday falls one day after my own. This year, I decided that I would knit him a beanie since… Read more

  • My first (adult) knitted sweater project

    April 7, 2020 by

    As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m not the kind of knitter who likes long, drawn out projects, but one of my friends was knitting a sweater recently and I finally broke down and started knitting one myself. I’ve knitted baby sweaters before, but never an adult sweater. I’ve crocheted tops for myself, but never… Read more

  • 17th Wedding Anniversary and Mystery Yarn

    April 6, 2020 by

    April 1st was my 17th wedding anniversary, so my husband and I hopped in the car and visited all of the outdoor places that were significant to us in the area. Since he proposed to me in the same city as my favorite yarn shop, he bought me another mystery yarn bag that Hook A… Read more

  • Mystery Grab Bag from Hook A Frog (Madison, AL)

    March 28, 2020 by

    Yesterday, I picked up a mystery grab bag from LYS, Hook A Frog Fiber & Fun in Madison, AL. They’re offering these mystery grab bags via curbside pickup or FREE shipping. I told her what I wanted (anything DK weight or heavier, yarn-wise) and she put a bag together for me to pick up. They’re… Read more

  • Finally Finished! “Straight-Up Cowl”

    March 27, 2020 by

    I started working on the “Straight-Up Cowl” by Jillian Robbins during the Deep South Yarn Hop in early November…on the recommendation of a yarn shop store manager. It took me until yesterday to finish the cowl…not because I’m a slow knitter, but because the pattern about bored me to tears–and all the purl stitches threatened… Read more

  • Art Batt Spinning in 2020

    January 30, 2020 by

    Last fall, the yarn shop I work at hosted a fiber blending workshop with Claire Cabe of Lucca Dot Yarn, who also happens to be a good friend and mentor. Some of the participants weren’t spinners themselves, so Claire and I spun for those who couldn’t spin for themselves. I thought most of them would… Read more

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