Fiber Charmer travels

Well, not me so much as my fiber and yarns.

These past couple of weeks have been very exciting. I've sent yarn and fiber to Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel and tomorrow to the Netherlands. My fiber is getting to take some adventures that I haven't, yet.

There was a small update yesterday, but I also spent some quality time winding mini skeins for the July Phat Fiber Sampler Box. I'll confess that I'm not going with the Art Nouveau theme, mostly because my idea didn't work out, and I'm running out of time to get samples sent in.

I'm sending in Alpaca Lace in the Beach Glass colorway. I skeined up about 60 of them yesterday, and today I have to label them all. Thus, there may not be an update today.

The one good thing about labelling is that it gives me an excuse to stay inside and try to stay cool with all the heat and humidity we're experiencing right now.

Overdyeing - good

Yay for overdyeing! I added some yellow to the dyepot and tossed in the green, rust and peach yarn (believe me, not nearly as pretty as it could have been). It looks fabulous!

I let it sit overnight to cool, so today I'll rinse and dry it.

I may not be able to update the shop until tomorrow, but I've got the experimental roving and laceweight yarn in the viola inspired colors to add. I'll check on the progression dyed rovings and see if this new, more labor intensive way kept the colors from travelling as much. Keep your fingers crossed.

Time races by when you're busy

Stitches South is only a few weeks away!

I'm about to hole up in my house and dye like a madwoman!

When I first signed up for Stitches South, it was back in last August. Mid-April seemed ages away. Even on January 1, it seemed like I had all the time in the world.

I looked at my calendar a day or two ago and thought, "Oh snap! I only have that much time left?!"

Keep an eye on the twitter feed sidebar. I'm not sure I'll be updating the blog too much, but I do update the Facebook very regularly, and it links to twitter.

I will mention that I'm sponsor for the Cookie A. Knit.Sock.Love KAL on Ravelry. This month's Thelonius is one of the socks I'm sponsoring.

Happy Knitting!

Solid Lotion Bar

Until I get pictures taken and uploaded, here's something fun to do. I've made this recipe for solid lotion bars, and I really love them. I used coconut oil, olive oil and beeswax. Enjoy!

More dye challenges

The most fascinating and annoying aspect of dyeing is how the colors change from one yarn base to the next.

I've been working with two other bases that say they have the same fibers as Chris sock - 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. All I can say is "huh?"

The way they take the same colors in the same concentrations is beyond strange. I'm sure other, more experienced dyers have gone through much of this and found what concentrations work for what wool, but for the novice dyer like myself, it's an exploration that some days confounds and frustrates us.

That's not to say I'm not getting some wonderful and beautiful results. Sometimes I do. Other times I think thank goodness I can overdye this crap!

Anyway, I've been actually working with dyes and not spending as much time here on the computer. That's why you've not seen much here lately.

I do owe you some pictures, and I'll get around to it. I've got some other, more pressing stuff going on today, such as visiting a friend with cancer and a cat at the vet for several days, so it will take me a few more days to post some pictures. Bear with me!

Be back soon!

I've been at SAFF, and now I'm playing catch up with all the household stuff. I'll update the blog soon. It's funny how the hubby actually wants to eat and complains if there's no food in the house. (and yes, he can get some himself, and he's picked up food quite a lot recently. While Publix makes a mean rotisserie chicken, homecooking is still usually better.)

Different fibers, same dyes

I've been very busy these past few weeks.

I did go out of town for a nearly a week with Gale to go to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. That was a lot of fun. I really like that show.

I've had some administrative tasks for Fiber Charmer, such as registering the name as a trade name and getting my business license.

I got sneak attacked on etsy the same night I got back into town from the show. I was so excited to pack up all those orders and get them mailed out. In fact, go check out Handmade Movement and join in a sneak attack or two. It is an amazing boost to the new artist or crafter to get those sales.

I dyed up enough yarn to send out 71 samples to the Phat Fiber Box for their October Steampunk themed box. 70 are mini skeins ranging in length from 15 to about 30 yards long. Most are 25 yards. I'd started with 15 as it was the minimum suggested, but they looked too skimpy, so I only did a few of them before boosting it to 25 yards. If I was near the end of the skein from which I was winding, I just kept going which is why there are a few that are larger. I had one short skein that was about 200 yards, so I just sent it in as is.

I just started getting back into gear and dyeing again a day or two ago. As you can see from the photos, I tried Steampunk on two other bases. I'm nearing the end of the Chris Sock yarn. On the left is a 100% merino, worsted weight yarn. I didn't really like it in the skein, but once it was dyed up and bloomed, my goodness! The one on the right is that seductive blend, MCN, which is superwash merino, cashmere and nylon. Let me say that yarn is a dye hog. It didn't look quite so splotchy when I was dyeing it, but I had run out of dyes, so I decided to just see what would happen. As you can clearly see, it needs a lot more dye. It's getting more, and luckily I have some time to decide on whether I'll overdye it by immersion or handpaint it some more.

I do have another skein of the MCN which I dyed with other colors, and while it's not so splotchy, it's not good either. The not so good experiences do tend to teach us more, don't they?

I'm really hoping to have my logo next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I will be selling at the Atlanta Knitting Guild each month, starting in October. I'll have one of a kind yarns there from test dyeing, or yarns that I'm having a lot of difficulty getting the colors to photograph well.

I'll be working on getting my Artfire store up and running later this week too. I'll post the link when I've got it set up.

Have a great weekend, what's left of it.

More dyeing today

I dyed 20 skeins last week, most of it on Friday. I'm planning to get another 15-20 done today, then spend some quality time with the camera tomorrow.

I've been working on color combinations for intentionally pooling yarns, and it's been fun. I've got a colorway that I've had in mind for some time now, and I think I'll work on it today.

I didn't know it'd been so long!

The past couple of weeks have been busy with everything but dyeing yarn.

I had my birthday, a major excuse to goof off and go shopping with a friend. I did surprisingly little damage to my wallet at the mall, mostly because I was planning on purchasing a drum carder from a friend.

I did purchase said drum carder, and he delivered it with the "packing material", raw fleeces. Now I have creamy llama fleece, dark grey or brown llama fleece and some Corriedale to scour and run through my new-to-me drum carder.

I've been canning. Probably not as crazily as it seems, but I've got lots of relish canned up. I've delivered cucumbers to the Great Harvest Bakery, to my knit group, and to my family. I'm spreading it around so no one says, "Oh no! Not more cucumbers!"

I've made homemade dogfood for our poor, allergy ridden dog. She's loving it, and this recipe is pretty easy.

I've made non-toxic, homemade deodorant. So far, so good.

I've gotten the proof of my Fiber Charmer logo! I think it's really cute, but it's one of those things I need to let the back of my mind think about for a day or two.

There will be dyeing again this week. There will also be more canning as the tomatoes are starting to come in, but this week I'll be better about scheduling things. That's one thing about being unemployed for awhile. You get used to having so much time that it's hard to manage it when it starts filling up again.

For once, procrastination was good

I procrastinated taking pictures on Sunday, and that turned out to be a good move.

My repaired camera came home on Monday! Today I'll reload the memory card and batteries, and I can take some better pictures. I'm quite happy about that.

Also, I've been waiting for that all important sales tax number from the state, and it was in yesterday's mail.

Today's agenda, between loads of laundry, includes taking and posting pictures, as well as getting some yarn listed on etsy! Woohoo!

What a feeling!

It's an amazing feeling to see that someone has purchased my yarn and posted it on Ravelry! In my head I'm thinking "they like it! They really like it!" It's very exciting.

As for the photography and etsy thing, I've got something else to try before I go buy a whole new camera. Honestly, I'd like to put off buying a fancy-schmancy new camera for a little while as we just had to repair the air conditioner a few weeks ago, and while it was cheaper than buying a whole new unit, it wasn't cheap. As the temperature here has reached 97F either yesterday or today, we need a working a/c.

I've got hubs on staycation this week, and I can assign picture taking to him. He's done photography professionally, although it was almost always weddings and dances, so working with yarn will be different for him.

No dyeing these past few days

I've been busy with other "important to me" activities.

I participated in my first transport of rescued dogs from the shelter to their foster.

I was told by a Georgia Power contractor about a starving dog in an abandoned house on my street, so now I've been working on my first "real" rescue. It's exciting and scary and takes more time than I thought, but it's all worth it to save this guy.

Since this is a fiber blog, you can read more about it over on SouthBork in a little while. I've not written that post up yet.