Summer Updates

Well, we are mid-way through summer, and I am sad that I have abandoned my blog once again.  But with summer here I am going to try and update a little more often, just to share a few things happening in my life and on my needles.

The biggest update for me is last week's fiber festival. I have been planning and preparing for several months now and now that it's over, I'm sad that I don't have that anticipation anymore, is that normal?

The Houston Fiber Festival had it's fourth year and I was one of the vendors this time around.  I spent a good deal of May and June dying yarn, ordering and matting prints and getting my fixtures together to take.  I love that I am able to share my yarnie art with people on top of my lovely yarn colors.

Having both payed off! The large art was able to draw in visitors that wanted to hear my story and having prints of my paintings meant that I was able to sell and share my art with people who wanted a little pop of color in their homes and offices!  And the yarn did well too! I quickly learned which colors - speckle-ish (go figure) and cool tones - and bases - fingering/sock wins out over worsted - were the most popular and what to focus on going forward.

The event was a week ago and I spent the following Monday updating my shop with the leftover inventory.  Take a peek if you are wanting a lovely art print or some beautifully painted yarn!

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In other life news, I will be moving to a new apartment/studio in a week, so sadly not much dying or painting will get to happen for a period of time as I adjust.  But moving is for the best sometimes.  It allows you to purge and clean as well as start fresh in a new place.  I am excited to make this transition and see lots of amazing things to come.

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On my needles I have been working on a few things lately, finishing many since summer started.  While that is a post for another day, I will share my latest finished project.  The "Mini Madness Shawl" was started about three weeks ago when I found that I had a fair amount of sock yarn scraps that could fade into each other.  I purchased this pattern and went to town.  The last section I even decided needed some weight and bling, and added beads to make it sparkle! I am very happy with this huge shawl and know that it will get worn a lot when the school year starts up again.

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How are your summers going? Too fast, not fast enough? What's on the needles right now?  Leave a comment and let me know, I always love hearing from readers.

Until next time!

~Lisa

Measuring Success

Well, I did it.  Last Friday I officially launched my hand-dyed yarn to the world...erm... local community.  

With 14 skeins total, I posted everything on Etsy and advertised to my local knitting groups, offering free shipping because I would deliver it the next time I saw them.   Let me just say, I love the community that I am a part of.

By the end of Monday night, I had sold all but 2 skeins! Which put me at enough revenue to order more yarn and do a second go. Of which I will of course be doing.  

I ended up with three colorways for my first run: "Mushroom Petal Bloom", "Fallen Moon Drops", and "Morning Garden Stream".  What I really enjoy about each of these is how they are all very different, yet would be perfect for a "fade" type project all together.

The yarn base itself is a gorgeous 2ply light fingering yarn, which dyes up really well.  As of right now I am using food dye and liquid watercolor.  I've had a lot of people question what I mean by liquid watercolor.  To clear the air, it's a dye based, highly concentrated painting material.  In the classroom we use it like regular watercolor, squirting it into a paint tray.  But I did some experimenting and it turns out you can use it like you would food dye to color yarn! I am loving the oranges and violets I am getting with it.

There has been some sceptism about using "safe" dye as opposed to acid dyes, most of which has been about fading.  I'm not sure if that's true or how it will all work out. I do know that I should switch over eventually, but my current situation doesn't really allow for it.  

What do you think? Would you buy yarn if it was made using something beside acid dyes?

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I'll be dying up more soon and posting it on Etsy for the whole world, not just my local friends, so keep an eye out! Also I'll be vending at a small local fiber festival in November.  The East Texas Fiber Fest should be a good chance to get my toes wet.

One step closer to owning a yarn shop/art gallery!

~Lisa 

Dye Pot [Attempt Two]

I told myself when I started this blog back up again in January that I would post every week on Monday or Tuesday without fail.  I almost forgot this week, which is sad because the post is so exciting! Luckily I decided to sit down and whip it out really quick for everyone to read.

I'm back in the dye studio (AKA My kitchen) this week with some really exciting news!

Remember these? My idea to dye yarn based on my paintings? Well I am not giving up! I was able to get a cone of my yarn - light fingering, sw merino - and got five 450 yard skeins (with 330 yards left for a smaller skein).  I dyed up three a few weeks ago in the first two and the last one above.  The first colorway - Morning Garden Stream - turned out perfect, the other two were close but not quite there.

The pink/green has too much color variation and the teal has a purple that is too neon to match that painting.  Regardless, my LYS Ladies loved them all.

So I took the last two and half skeins this past week and focused mainly on the colorway I knew I could replicate.  Attempting to do two full skeins of the same colorway was a bit scary at first, but I knew it needed to be done if I ever want to scale.

With the other "half" skein I decided to play with the teal color.  I've decided that those two are going to be my main focus going forward.  Let me just say, getting the perfect purple with food dyes and watercolor is becoming difficult.  I think I finally got it with a mixture of grape koolaid and violet watercolor.  

The results are above, taken badly on my phone camera.  The two gold skeins turned out perfect! I am so excited that this colorway is working.  The teal one is getting closer, but I put too much gold in this skein to truly match the painting.  Next time. 

I went ahead and printed some bands and skeined it up, just to show how it will look all ready to sell.  I plan to get the ball bands printed better than the ones above - my printer was low on ink - but you get the idea. 

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I am so excited! I need another cone, or two, or five, to really get going on this, but I honestly think I have a thing going for the summer :)

~Lisa

Day by Day

Isn't life crazy sometimes? I feel like all of the days just sort of blend into one long day.  Take, for example, my 50 hour work week last week. How did I survive that? I don't know, but here I am, back at it again this week. 

Enough about work, lets talk about something more important: Art! So many things are still happening around here, where do I begin?

Knitting:

I've had a bit more downtime this week, and as such my current pair of socks are flying along.  The first one is almost done and then the second will hit the needles.  I am loving the way my handdyed yarn is pooling, but afraid it may fade with washing. Time will tell.

I'm titling these socks "Gone Fishing" for three reasons: 1) They remind me of Nemo 2) The diagonal pattern is very ocean-y and 3) I'm using the fish lips kiss heel.  

Etsy:

I have been working on more clay bead markers, and am really proud of the current sets I have up on my Etsy shop.  Each set is a different color from the rainbow and all the beads are 100% unique.  The swirl thing is something I learned as a child and have always loved to do.

Speaking of Etsy, my shop was recently featured on My Sister's Knitter Blog! And if you hurry you can even enter for a chance to win a pair of my shoes ;)

Art:

I finished my large water-scape painting on Monday. I have yet to take a good photo of it, so the color is a bit off, but you can get a feel either way.  I am really happy with this painting.  It forced me to see layers and transparency in a whole new light.

Weekly Inspirations:

Knitting:  Not that you need to go peeking at my stash, but I had the day off yesterday and finally cataloged everything I didn't have on Ravelry. 30+ entries! Most of them came from an older lady who donated a ton to me last year.

Painting: I went to Houston last week and one of my favorite galleries let me peek at these.  Aren't they just right up the alley of where I've been going with my paintings lately???
Food: I got the Chococo Cookbook at Hastings for $1 about a month ago.  Most of the recipes are fairly simple and all sound delicious.  Now I just need to find someone to bake them for!
Life:  My garden is in bloom! I have a pepper plant with a flower, and lots of turning tomatoes! I also planted some flowers and they smell amazing.  I am really in love with my little garden.

I hope you all have a fantastic week.  I am linking up with Yarn Along today :) 

~Lisa

TGIFriday Night

Maybe blogging should just be a monthly thing, as it seems that's all I really have time for these days.  Between 30+ hour (and split shift) work days, teaching after school and all my volunteer commitments, life just seems too busy to sit down and blog regularly.

But that doesn't mean things haven't been happening around here, for they definitely have. Just not the same ways they used to.

For one, I've been spinning a lot more.  I finally got my wheel to spin consistently AND was given two more bobbins that fit it, so the wheel has been turning a lot more.  So much that I finished this gorgeous purple alpaca in two weeks (a feet for me!). The question is, what will I ply it with? I want to maybe do something shiny, silver...

I also unearthed some polymer (Sculpy) clay and have sense become re-addicted to bead making. So much that I am working on a new line of markers to utilize they beads.  Currently I have some Earth Day markers up, but I have some rainbow ones in the works as well.

Somehow painting is happening as well, despite my random schedule.  This is my most recent, which is about half done.  The plan is to have those balls floating in water, so I want to do some layers to make some fall back and some com forward.  Isn't it wild!?

My art classes ended this week and despite my anticipation at the extra free time, I was almost in tears after the last one.  The kids this year - every single one - were absolutely stunning and inspiring and fabulous.  There just are too many words to say how proud I am of them all.

I also finished my Mix Tape this month, in fact it has been almost a month since it came off the needles.  I really like the colors and feel, but it's got an awkward shape, so I haven't found a way to wear it that makes me happy (and thus the hanging photo). 

Sadly, that's the only knit news I have, for I have been spinning and painting so much that knitting has kind of taken a back seat.  Hopefully soon it will get picked up.

Weekly Monthly Inspirations:

Knitting: Just look at Andi's sock collection! I love it so very very much. I can't imagine ever having a collection so beautiful as her's (and a good portion are just vanilla socks in great yarns!)
Art: Three new artists at Navasota again! Abby, Christy and Eric are all living at the house and creating wonderful things. I have met Abby, who is a fiber artist, and she is fabulous :)
Food:  No recipes to share, just that I have been getting weekly produce baskets and working from them to make delicious meals.  I never knew stir fried chard and onions were actually delicious!

Life: Relay for Life is next week and I joined again! Want to contribute? Watch my video then go HERE HERE HERE !! to donate to my cause.  Even $5 can make a difference.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and if I don't see you before then, a wonderful May ;)

~Lisa

Everything but Knitting

As much as knitting is a part of my life, I feel like I have barely had time to knit lately, let alone breathe...

Don't get me wrong, good things are happening, and many of them are artsy/crafty.  Knitting just isn't one of them.

For example, I unearthed a stack of greeting cards that wasn't on my shop already.  Instead of just listing them alone, I decided I wanted to make markers to match. Thus these cool sets were born. Now on Etsy, $10 gets you five markers and a matching card. 

Maybe it's been all the painting that has been happening.  With a group show opening this week, I knew I wanted to finish my current painting in time. AND I DID! Barely, but I did. It's 40 x 32 and I honestly can't remember what I titled it right now...

It's a single tree overlooking the water. Can you tell? 

I did get some spinning done this weekend.  Does that count towards knitting? I finally have all my yarn spun for what I hope to be a zickzack scarf.

I've also been busy trying to practice good food habits. I found a local farm that does produce baskets by the week and was able to acquire this last week.  It has so many wonderful things in it for a very low cost. 

One of the things was a beet, which I don't really have experience with.  I decided to roast it with some sweet potato.  Paired with orange pork chops and orange quinoa, it turned out amazing!

Weekly Inspirations:

Knitting:  I discovered this designer today, Casapinka, and I love her use of lace and color. I really do want to knit them all! My favorite right now is Kitty Invisibility Cloak.
Art: The new artists have moved into the Horlock House (my old residency).  I'm so excited that one is a fiber artist!
Food: Besides the above, I also made green onion pancakes with the massive bunch in my basket.  I had never even heard of them until I did a google search, and all they are is flour and water, but man they are good! 

Life: I am starting to pull some night shifts at my job, which is great.  But that means less me time, which is not great.  How is that inspiring? I'll let you know when I find out.

Have a wonderful week!

~Lisa

2015 in Review and a Special Etsy Sale!

Well, here it is, the inevitable new year. Some look forward to it while others dread it. Some make resolutions, so prefer to not. As for me, resolutions seem a bit pointless. I do however make GOALS, which is more about working towards something. 

If I set goals last year, I don't think I really met many of them, or at least not in the ways I had hoped. I don't even know if I remember them all to be honest.  But I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this past year and all the amazing things I was able to do, goal or not. 

First, by the numbers:

23 Knitting Projects logged onto Ravelry. 

22 oil paintings and 4 (larger than I used to do) gouache paintings.

Too many to count knitted white balls for my tree installations. 

19 blog posts (not enough!)

10 pairs of shoes sold on Etsy and 20 orders on Etsy total.

And now onto the photos :)

Project I'm most proud of:

Malabrigo Oyster

Project that took the longest to finish:

Lost in Transit Lustra (started in 2010!)

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Favorite project designed by me!

Midnight Surf Socks

PS- Pattern can be purchased here!

Favorite item to actually wear:

Texas Tell It 

Favorite Gift Knit:

I Love my Sister Shawl 

Skills I learned this year:

Double Knitting
Spinning on a wheel!

Steeking

Knitting in movie theaters/not having to look down
Mastered short rows (via all those darn balls)

Now onto the second part of this post.  

I wanted to do a huge shout out thank you to everyone who has been supporting me, either by buying items from my shop, posting on my blog or just being awesome. And SOOO...

All shoe orders are $5 off between now and Jan 31st, just use the code "HI2016". That's a CUSTOM ordered pair of knitted shoes, for just $25 + shipping.  Trust me, I don't do this often. Take advantage while you can! And I added a few new colors to the list as well, so go take a lookie :) 

I hope that everyone has had a great 2015 and that 2016 treats you well also. What are your "resolutions". Any knitting things on that list? 

~Lisa 

Short, Busy Weeks

It's been one of those weeks.  The kind that seem super busy yet nothing really gets done.  Yea, those.

This week should have been more eventful, what with all the Halloween/Work/Life things going on. But alas, it was not so much. And thus a quickie update.

The best place to start is by letting everyone know that I FINALLY updated my Etsy shop with the abstract watercolors I made last month for a local art fair.  While not knitting themed, they were fun to do and experiment with.  Check them out if you want a cheap, original piece of art!

On the topic of art fairs, I am doing a holiday market in two weeks. I have decided not to focus so much on art as on knitting stuff for this one and am busily preparing lots of winter headbands, hats and such.  It may be Texas, but people still need these things for the (brief) cold snap we will get later. 

I decided to give the cute wooden lap loom a try and have begun playing with color and design.  I am also learning how tight to pull to keep things from sinking in.  I have no idea what I will actually make with these besides random squares, but it's still fun!

Our local poetry group, Mic Check, started a workshop at a local high school this past Monday, while not a stellar poet like many of the others, I decided to volunteer some time. Man, the kids were amazing! We gave them the prompt of writing about being misunderstood or ignored.  The above was my response.

Weekly Inspirations:

Art: The (former) President of Mic Check, the amazing Madi Mae Parker is currently touring the lower states.  Her show, One Thousand Promises, is amazing, She and her partner, Franchesca, performed at Mic Check last week and blew the lid off it!
Food: I am planning to get back into the less sugar diet again this week. Sugar makes me depressed.  First plan of attack! Stop eating this amazing gelato - Talenti. 
Knitting: A fellow member of my knitting group has some real talent for designing simple, FREE patterns.  You should check them out!
Life: Halloween came and went. I went to a party last night, that was fun.  I also traveled to Austin recently for a school tour - I'll talk on that next week.  Seems like there is inspiration everywhere these days, I just need to find it.

Hope everyone has a great start to a new month!

~Lisa 

The Next Big Thing - Product Testers Wanted :)

I hope that everyone had a splendid week and a wonderful new year. Mine was pretty casual - stayed up late watching TV shows and knitting. But isn't that the best way to spend the holiday? 

I am writing today with a request for all of my friends in blogland. 

This past holiday, I wanted to give my brother's girlfriend a homemade gift. Knowing that she was going to be student teaching this coming semester, I thought some sort of lesson plan book would be a good idea. After doing some googling and shopping, I decided to try my hand at making here a homemade binder. 

After finishing her's (which I never did take a photo of...) I got to thinking about knitters and how we all have so many patterns floating around. We all need a place to keep them right? Thus "The Pattern Keeper" was born (title may change). 

Each binder starts with archival matboard for the covers, and is then assembled using simple material. The cover features a beautiful, handpainted watercolor stitch design.

The binder portion is created with 3 binder rings inserted along the spine. These are just simple rings like you find in any standard binder. The only thing is they don't have the fancy mechanism to open and close. 

Inside each binder is matching paper to cover the fabric. The front cover also has a pocket to fit all of your random papers. The plan right now is to also include blank dividers and some of the page protector sheets to get the user started. I am also considering adding graph paper for the budding designer.

So what I am asking all of my readers is for opinions. I have 4 of these made up, and will send them to you, completely free, to analyze, test, and review. I really want to start selling these on Etsy - I think they could go well - but I want to have real feedback before I jump in,

Interested? Comment here or Email me - Lisa(dot)Urban(dot)24(at)Gmail(dot)com. I would love to send you a handmade binder to try and use !

~Lisa 

Share All the Things Friday - Etsy Edition

So I'm not going to lie, I have kinda been waiting all week to post just so I can do a "Share all the things Friday" post. If you haven't heard of this, it's an amazing topic that has been started by the lovely Truly Myrtle. If you haven't checked her's out, you should.

Mostly out of bordem, I found myself spending several evenings on Etsy exploring the knitting related shops and lusting over all the things that I only wish I could afford. I figured, why not share them all with my fellow bloggers as well, so that you can do some drooling.

Photo (C) SevenYaks on Etsy

All I want for Christmas is one of these gorgeous spindles courtesy SevenYaks. All of her spindles are simply stunning and so light weight. The worl is made of cut acrylic, and the shafts are made of wood. I can only imagine how much of a dream it is to watch these snowflakes spin round and round. 

Photo (C) TurtleMade on Etsy

On the not of spindles, check out what TurtleMade is doing! It may seem cheesy, but she is using a 3D printer to make drop spindles. The colors are kinda wild, but isn't it such a fun idea? I almost want to try a Turkish spindle just so I can buy one of these.  And if these don't float your boat, she has lots of yarn too!

Photo (C) Fashion Touch Supplies on Etsy

In the realm of yarns, I have yet to buy any off of Etsy (Yes, it's a sin, I know!). But I have found lots of dyers that I wish to purchase from. The first is Fashion Touch Supplies.  The color above is the one that I discovered first. Maybe it's the autumn colors that drew me in? This yarn is 200 yards of 100% pure virgin wool and the photo has me wanting to reach out and squish it.  And if the yarn isn't enough, she has lots of pretty rovings, beads and more!

Photo (C) WoolSilkLace

Of all the shops I found, I think this is the one I am going to cave and order from soonest. How can you not fall in love with this absolutely stunning 2 color striping sock yarn from WoolSilkLace? The yarn base is 75% merino, 20% Nylon and 5% Stellina ( a blend of polyacryl and polyester). And if this colorway doesn't have you drooling, then you should check out some of her others. They range from mystical to practical and everywhere in between. 

Photo (C) Heidishoppe

My final love for the day is these crazy, silly cat bowls from Heidishoppe.  Who wouldn't want to store and use their yarn in on of these? They're so silly and fun and would really brighten up any knitter or cat lover's day! And for the non-knitter, she also has mugs, cups, banks and more!

Weekly Inspirations:

Knitting: It's official. I have too many projects on my needles. Two scarves (lost in transit and the Scotland Angora), a gift hat, my sweater AND a sculpture project. I haven't had this many in a LONG time. Right now, the gift hat is taking priority....
Art: I've met some really great local artists here in Texas. If you're interested, you should check out: Jennifer Christy , Miriam at Wyle Soul Photography , Scott McDermott, Nancy Hampton Elliott

Food:  This week I made my absolute favorite soup recipe: Italian Chicken and Veggie Soup. My mom discovered it a few years back and I have been obsessed ever since. 

Life:  In exactly a week I will begin my 2 day drive back to Kansas for the holidays. I am dreading it (I can't knit and drive!) but also looking forward to the time to think and figure out what my next step is.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and that the weekend finds you full of fun and relaxation. I think I will be painting a lot, but what else is new.

~Lisa