There's a brand new color at Wind Rose Fiber Studio and that color is Cinnamon! It's a really beautiful brown with russet undertones. When I was deciding on a name, cinnamon spice came to mind. I think it will look very pretty blended with all of the colors of autumn.
I'm adding handpainted sock yarns to my inventory at Wind Rose and these are the first two! Crimson Wine has two shades of crimson red contrasted by a deep burgundy. Turquoise & Spruce ranges from a deep spruce to a light turquoise with shades of pewter grey.
All the yarn details are on their listings, but I wanted to explain why I'm calling them "Great Skeins". I gave them this name because of their yardage. Each skein comes with a bountiful 500 yards which is enough for a lot of sock patterns not to mention all sorts of projects.
To you, my blog readers, I'll share my inspiration. It's rather self serving. You see, maybe about a year ago, I got the idea in my head to spin a bunch of yarn and dye it so I would always have whatever I needed at my fingertips. Months later, it has become painfully clear that I just don't have enough free time to do all of that spinning. Well, I figure the next best thing is to at least paint my own yarn. I use fingering or sock weight yarn all of the time so I decided that it would be a good place to start.
So why am I selling my stash? I guess just because I enjoy making things and selling them. I also figure that there is no reason for pretty skeins of yarn to have to wait until I get around to using them. If someone buys one of my favorites, I'll just paint some more. I guess it's first come, first serve!
This pretty fiber is 80% Black Alpaca and 20% Cultivated Silk. I've actually carried this fiber for quite some time at Wind Rose, but I wanted to showcase it again today. It's now being processed to show off the colors better than before. This product used to be a soft grey, but now the silk and Alpaca are a little less blended giving this combed top a gorgeous salt and pepper look. It is luxuriously soft and now incredibly striking too!
It's always fun to say "I finished it!" My life has been so busy lately that I'm feeling an extra sense of accomplishment whenever I manage to complete anything. I'm sure you can relate to that feeling!
This project went very smoothly and fast too for the size of the market bag. It measures approximately 14 x 19 inches. I really like the strap design because they are so comfortable. They were made by (Tks) crocheting long rectangles and then whip stitching them together lengthwise. It makes them very strong, thick and well cushioned. I can see using this kind of strap for other projects in the future.
In my previous post about this project, I offer the source of the pattern and the yarn details in case you're interested. It was definitely fun to make and its the kind of thing that would make a nice gift. We all use market bags for one thing or another. Right now I'm probably going to use mine to hold my other Tunisian crochet project until I manage to finish it. I think I may be on a roll!
Yesterday afternoon I sat down at my Mac for a quick check of facebook. I follow TED and that's how I learned that Steve Jobs had passed away. My husband and I spent much of our morning coffee time talking about the impact of Steve Jobs on our lives. As long as we have been a couple, Apple Macintosh has been in our home and part of our everyday existence.
I sat down at my first Apple computer in 1995. My husband was ahead of me by a few years and laughed at my newcomer notions and frustrations about computing. In spite of those moments, I still remember being awestruck the first time I chatted about the weather with a stranger from India. It wasn't long before I found the hours zooming by as I explored the world from my desktop. It's been 16 years and there are still moments when I get the chills. What an amazing time to be alive and Apple, in so many ways, has been my tour guide.
With Happy Mac holding my hand all the way, I have gone from wide eyed newcomer, to one of the geekiest women I know. I have two online stores, three blogs, a website, a YouTube channel and of course accounts on gmail, facebook and twitter. I do all of my accounting with Numbers and write all of my patterns on Pages. I keep track of my images on iPhoto and edit my videos with iMovie. Whenever I'm not working at my computer, iTunes keeps me company while I sit and work on my own creations. On the one hand, I'm old fashioned enough to sit at a spinning wheel and spin my own yarn, and on the other hand, I can't imagine life without an Apple in my house. The profound contribution of Steve Jobs is something to be remembered, celebrated and honored. There was a suggestion that a great way to do this would be to go out and create something. I like that. What if we all focused our energy on creating something new and wonderful? What if our creation added beauty to the world or solved one of life's puzzles? What if it helped everyone to envision the world in a whole new way? What if?
It's always fun to welcome a new product to Wind Rose Fiber Studio and I'm especially excited about StarBright! StarBright is a blending nylon. More specifically, it's a high luster tri-lobal nylon that, although it doesn't have the luster level of Firestar, has far more luster than Snow Mountain. StarBright's softness is equal to a 19 micron wool which puts it in the superfine realm. It also has a great staple length of approximately 3 inches. I think you're going to enjoy this wonderful new addition to the blending nylon family!
Hello blog world! How have you been? People are always saying "What a crazy week I had", but honestly, my past week has had elements of true crazy. That, along with the fact that my other half was away on work travel, kept me very distracted.
As a result, I have little to show for myself in the way of creative accomplishments. My only offering is this piece of chunky tatted wall art I made yesterday afternoon. It was my way of celebrating Friday and the end of a rather maddening seven days.
I love the idea of fiber wall art, but I've only just begun to play around with it. This is a rather simple design. I like the contemporary feel of it and it's just the sort of piece I needed for my chosen wall space. In case you were wondering, my wall is not this pinkish red color, but more of an earthy yellow. I just needed a background that didn't wash out the colors and red seemed to do the trick.
In tatting, you can create very elaborate designs. When placed vertically, they make me think of scrolled metal art only much softer. The challenge using yarn is both making the tools to tat on this scale, and also creating a piece that will hold its shape. In making this leaf design, I was experimenting with the ability of the yarn to hold a more elongated shape. Though this picture was taken with the piece laying down flat, it does maintain this shape hanging on the wall.
I'm looking forward to making more tatted wall art. I have designs dancing around in my brain. It will be fun to set them free!
Here it is, in all its glory, my hairpin lace project! A couple nights ago, I went to my monthly guild meeting and this year they're introducing a challenge. The wise women of the guild have called upon our group to complete a project that has maybe been sitting around for a while. It could also be trying out something new that you've always wanted to do.
The idea is that we commit to completing our personal challenge by March 14th, 2012. At that point, all of our creations will be professionally photographed and made into a calendar. Of course we will then buy the calendar to help support our guild and all of the good things it does. We'll get the added kick of having our project featured on it pages. That is, if we finish our project. 
I didn't have to think very long to come up with my own personal commitment. My hairpin lace project is both new, as I have never made a hairpin lace piece before, and sitting around. It spends most of its days in this basket. Nice basket, huh?
I started what will eventually become a colorful, hairpin lace sweater back in... gee let me check.... gosh, was it really January 9th? This is worse than I thought! This personal commitment is exactly the push I need to get back to work. March 14th. That gives me 181 days to finish my project. I think I can. I think I can.
Well, I did it. I made a Facebook page for Wind Rose Fiber Studio. You can now openly like me.
There's something so silly about Facebook and yet I can't help but be grateful that it exists. All of my family and most of my friends live in other parts of the country. Without a vehicle like Facebook, I know I would lose touch with some very special people.
I went back and forth on whether or not to create a page for Wind Rose. I even made one about a year ago and then deleted it. Since then, the page design seems to have improved, so I'm going for it.
I hope you will enjoy the convenience of being able to see updates on your regular visits to Facebook. It will be fun to have conversations with you and share our thoughts on all things fiber!
It was the turn of this century when I began my own crafting business and became a real customer of commercial yarn. I had yet to begin spinning my own, but I was designing my own products and selling at craft shows. After a few years, I felt like I had sampled every yarn on the market. This can't really be true, but I bet I came close!
After a few years, my world turned to spinning and dyeing. I went from yarn snob to serious yarn snob. At one point I even decided to eliminate commercial yarn altogether. Then, a couple of years ago, my focus began to shift again. While my business had become a dyeing enterprise and still is, I began to focus more on design and pattern writing.
When I create a new pattern, I usually end up making several run-throughs of the design before I'm happy with my finished product. I found myself turning back to commercial yarn because it saved time and I could work up my first prototypes with inexpensive fiber. I also decided that I wanted to make my models out of yarn that was affordable and readily accessible to everyone. This meant going back to the big chain stores. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. Commercial yarn just keeps getting better doesn't it?
So I opened my heart back up to commercial yarn and began to visit my old haunts. They are probably your haunts too, like Webs and Yarn Market. Not only has the variety of natural fiber yarns expanded, but the acrylics too. Once more, the acrylics are becoming more sophisticated and softer than ever and don't even get me started on the blends. There are so many wonderful blends! Here are some of my recent purchases.
The thick and thin on the left is by Universal Yarn. It's called Bamboo Bloom Handpaints in a colorway called Koi Pond. It's 48% Rayon from bamboo, 44% wool and 8% acrylic. It comes in nice 3.5oz, 154 yard skeins. I was looking for a variegated worsted weight to make up my Regensburg Scarf, and I think this is going to be very pretty.On the far right is a sock yarn by Wisdom Yarns called Poems Socks in the color Aurora Borealis. I'm so happy that sock yarn has become as popular as it is because I love this weight for so many projects. The beefy skeins are nice too. This one comes with 459 yards which is plenty for me to make my City Scarf. I'm working on Christmas projects and these colors are just perfect for someone on my list!
Now I have no idea what I'm going to do with the crazy acrylic in the center. I first saw this Triana yarn by Katia when I was in Germany earlier this year. Sadly for me, the woman ahead of me got the very last skein in the little shop in Uberlingen, but the store owner showed me a scarf that had been knitted from this novelty fiber. I should have guessed that this style of yarn would become all the rage as it seems to be popping up everywhere. Even Patons is launching their own version tomorrow called Pirouette which is selling out practically before it hits the stores. There are YouTube videos demonstrating how to work with this style of yarn. So far all I've seen are a bunch of ruffly scarves. I'm sure over time, the creative community will come up with some cool designs for this new, funky yarn. I hope I do too!
It's always fun to say "I finished it!" My life has been so busy lately that I'm feeling an extra sense of accomplishment whenever I manage to complete anything. I'm sure you can relate to that feeling!
I finished this piece of chunky tatted wall art a few minutes ago. I couldn't wait to take a picture and share it with you. I'm proud of this one because I designed it on the spot. I took out a piece of paper and doodled until I had a shape I liked, then I jumped right into the tatting. I took my best guesses as far as the size of the rings and chains. My fear was that my outer chains would be too short and that the whole piece would curl like a bowl. If I made them too long, well, that wouldn't look good either. Everything turned out great and I couldn't be more pleased!
Hello blog world! How have you been? People are always saying "What a crazy week I had", but honestly, my past week has had elements of true crazy. That, along with the fact that my other half was away on work travel, kept me very distracted.
I didn't have to think very long to come up with my own personal commitment. My hairpin lace project is both new, as I have never made a hairpin lace piece before, and sitting around. It spends most of its days in this basket. Nice basket, huh?
It was the turn of this century when I began my own crafting business and became a real customer of commercial yarn. I had yet to begin spinning my own, but I was designing my own products and selling at craft shows. After a few years, I felt like I had sampled every yarn on the market. This can't really be true, but I bet I came close!
