eat agar

Rock sweater

2012-01-22T13:51:00.001-07:00

I made my first yarn bomb this morning:

Sukoshi is all spun up

2012-01-21T21:05:00.001-07:00

I finished skeining up all of my first "big" batch of yarn today, 683 yards in total. Divided up that into seven skeins and tomorrow I'll try to post it on Etsy.
In other news I got a bunch of books from amazon that I ordered instead of textbooks, like Cooking in the Moment and Novella Carpenter's new compendium on urban farming. Exciting stuff!

New Yarns!

2012-01-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

I cranked out four new skeins this week and prepped a ginormous batch of fluff for a new endevour- I'm going to take a stab a developing a less arty, more yarny line of yarn. The working title is すこし, or sukoshi for you non-Nihongo speakers out there.

Honey and hops

2012-01-07T10:37:00.001-07:00

Steeping some hop flowers in the T'ej I started a few days ago. It smells both weird and delicious at the same time. I love this book. I need to pick up the new version, it has a DVD on kraut making.

Not Vinegar

2012-01-01T13:25:00.001-07:00

Time to bottle this business up. Actually, it turned out pretty tasty. It was really bland a few months ago but seems to have developed a backbone in my creepy basement. The best part is that it smells amazing, just like the cherries it started out as.

Cookie Fail

2011-12-24T16:07:00.001-07:00

I tried tweaking a sugar cookie recipe into a candycane cookie one and something went horribly wrong. Blech.

たこちゃん！

2011-12-21T20:17:00.001-07:00

I wrote a book! This was my midterm project for Japanese II.

Tako-chan by ホルトンデスレイ | Make Your Own Book

Socks are not so scary

2011-12-19T21:28:00.001-07:00

Finally had time to sit and figure out how to do two socks at once. Anais' Totoro mits will be Totoro socks instead.

2011-12-11T15:58:00.001-07:00

So overall this Firefly thing has been successful, I feel like enough people were willing to buy the yarn that I am comfortable with taking my hobby to the next level. And I wrote a pettern while I was here, to boot!

Wirecore!!

2011-11-30T14:37:00.001-07:00

This was so much fun to make. I've been wanting to try it for a while and what's even better is that it totally solves the "how to make a cool, not overcomplicated bracelet out of art yarn?" problem I've been having for a few months. Weaving it up looked okay, but the technical aspects of sewing together proved too much for my feeble fingers. I'm going to add these to the table at the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market, I might even have a whole skein for sale...it's exciting stuff to spin up.

Guerilla marketing

2011-11-29T18:27:00.001-07:00

Put these up this afternoon. I have a notion to do more and yarn bomb with some fancy new wirecore I just spun up.

Pie!

2011-11-24T16:50:00.001-07:00

My great aunt in law had a deer trophy taking up room in her house and I surprised myself by saying I'd take it home.

If this isn't scary...

2011-10-29T17:54:00.001-06:00

I don't know what is. He's gotten really good at getting down on his own but I have to keep an eye out for the ghost of the old lady. She likes to push us all down these stairs.

Before & After

2011-10-26T14:30:00.001-06:00

Last of the calendulas, yesterday.

I forgot the teepee.

Maybe the alley cats will appreciate the it.

Hello there!?

I hope none of your friends come to join you.

Exciting!

2011-10-25T12:36:00.001-06:00

I just found out that I'm one of the juried vendors for this craft show in December.

Kwiatkowski press

2011-10-16T13:39:00.001-06:00

I've had my eyes peeled for some of this guys work ever since the Westword article came out. Spotted this on the way to Pints.

At the arty park

I've wanted to take the kids here for a while. On the way home from picking them up at the art museum we finally did. It's pretty awesome.

Pear House

2011-10-13T20:24:00.001-06:00

Oh vignette blur, is there anything you can't prettify?

Can it!

2011-10-11T13:09:00.001-06:00

Gerry, Toby and I just hit the farm for the (second to?) last time and I picked two full bags of these. Now I just need to pick up some more jars...

Sarin beets

2011-10-07T15:06:00.001-06:00

Alice Waters recipe for quick pickles. Boiling vinegar makes my lungs angry.

Meet Gunther!

2011-10-04T22:40:00.001-06:00

This is my "new" car

It has some title issues, but after that it'll be my new Eva.

My bike broke...

2011-10-03T17:19:00.001-06:00

and I've decided to just live here instead of going home.

Pocket Vulture!

2011-09-29T15:31:00.001-06:00

We met this guy by Boulder Creek today

He looks like a Boris.

Toby wanted to take him home.

Uyuni fizz fluff

2011-09-26T00:25:00.001-06:00

Pavo-vicuña, silk, mohair, angora

Sock monster on the carder.

Bill can't watch. Lint?!

To Market

2011-09-24T14:54:00.000-06:00

I'm excited/nervous/yea! I'm going to have a table at the Art by Craft Market next month, so if you need me on October 9th my yarn, wheel and I will be here:

Pear tree yarn

2011-07-30T22:01:00.001-06:00

I might make this into my first all mine cardigan. I might also point out the fact that I'm plying...mostly because I rarely ever do.

Dye day

2011-07-28T18:38:00.002-06:00

I had a guest colorist help me dye up all this wool, tussah, noil and mohair. Anais was especially skillful at putting together odd combos of colors that generally turned some shade of purple. I discovered an easter egg dying kit in the pantry so I was able to make some yellowish shades. The turquoise is my favorite, it was like magic to see how really, really turquoise it turned out.

July Potager

2011-07-24T19:37:00.001-06:00

I can't believe how vertical things have gotten. Especially the flowers. I almost have a ripe tomato, too.

2011-07-21T18:17:00.001-06:00

Finished Kuusk

Half-Kuusk

My first really real lace project.

Cherry wine

2011-07-15T21:19:00.001-06:00

In the secondary, as they say. My first wine made from wild cherries foraged at midnight from the banks of Cherry Creek.

By the side of the road

2011-07-06T14:20:00.001-06:00

Found these while waiting for my old new Volvo to unoverheat near the Colorado Wyoming border yesterday.

Isn't he adorable?

Good thing I got one last shot of all that hair before he cut some off this morning!

Swamp gas spun up

2011-07-03T22:28:00.001-06:00

Potager plot

2011-07-03T11:56:00.001-06:00

I have baby tomatoes.

Swamp Gas fluff

2011-06-25T13:22:00.001-06:00

Shetland wool, various green wool roving, bamboo, alpaca, angelina, banana silk

Desaturated

2011-06-24T16:34:00.001-06:00

159 yards of Lincoln wool, black silk and yellow and green mohair

Prototype cuff bracelet

2011-06-24T13:41:00.001-06:00

My handspun artyarn plus a repurposed bedsheet equals armcandy, yes?

2011-06-07T20:54:00.000-06:00

At the risk of outing myself as a complete dork, I wanted to share something awesome. There is this movie I first saw in some philosophy class years and years ago that I try to rent/borrow/despair of ever finding again called Mindwalk. The last time I watched it I found a VHS copy at the library and a used copy on half.com was something like $90 (now they go for about $20, but still...). It has Liv Ullman and the guy from Law and Order in it and basically all it is them waxing philosophical and discussing quantum physics while they meander around Mont St. Michele. I just re-subscribed to Netflix and according to them the movie may as well not exist. But when I googled it I discovered this, they have the whole thing on google video. The sound quality is terrible, but its not that much worse than the worn out tapes I'm used to.

2011-06-07T18:14:00.001-06:00

Fuzzybee

2011-06-02T14:39:00.001-06:00

86 yards of roving, sari shreds, silk and bamboo.

Petit dejuner radishes

2011-05-31T09:57:00.001-06:00

Anais found these yesterday in our old plot.

Wash Park Picnic

2011-05-29T12:03:00.001-06:00

Peanut butter coconut oatmeal cookies and plum sake

Fuzzybee & Mother-in-Law

2011-05-27T16:14:00.001-06:00

Wool, silk, sari shreds, tencel, bamboo

Foxtails

2011-05-27T15:28:00.001-06:00

156 yards: wool, tencel: dk-light worsted

Community garden plot

2011-05-26T21:18:00.001-06:00

Garlic, chard, brussles

136yrds skinny art yarn

What I did this afternoon.

Fluff

Fox tail?

Weaving?

2011-05-23T15:42:00.000-06:00

If I can wrap my head around it, I'm going to give weaving a try again. I dug out the inkle loom I got a year or so ago and have been regarding it as I interneted. Scarves from my handspun sound like a delicious, efficient use of time and materials. Plus it kind of bugs me that I still haven't defeated weaving, yet.

2011-05-16T19:33:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Mom!
(I lost my phone and this was the only way I could think of to get a picture to you.)

Birthday

2009-11-08T21:40:00.001-07:00

Birthday

Halloween

2009-10-31T19:14:00.001-06:00

Halloween

October snowstorm

2009-10-29T16:41:00.001-06:00

Holding stuff

2009-10-23T19:33:00.001-06:00

Smiley face

Smiley baby

2009-10-07T11:23:00.001-06:00

2009-10-01T15:24:00.001-06:00

2009-10-01T15:19:00.001-06:00

Belly Button

2009-08-11T18:18:00.001-06:00

Post wrap nap

2009-08-08T17:02:00.001-06:00

Anais and Toby

EJ in repose

2009-08-06T17:02:00.001-06:00

The good witch

2009-08-04T10:43:00.001-06:00

Under the bili-lite

At the coffee shop

2009-07-28T11:49:00.001-06:00

Bunny nugget finished

2009-07-24T19:20:00.001-06:00

Cast on for Bunny Nugget

2009-07-24T14:35:00.001-06:00

Pumpkin

Holly in the garden

Fishing

Bubbie in the garden

iRib interp

2009-07-24T14:27:00.001-06:00

A Cupcake For Bubie

2009-04-02T23:51:00.001-06:00

Posted with LifeCast

Atelier Sweater-handspun version

2009-03-29T17:15:00.001-06:00

Posted with LifeCast

New Yarn-Eggies and Mercurial

2009-03-28T13:04:00.001-06:00

Posted with LifeCast

Baby Kyoto

2009-03-28T13:03:00.001-06:00

Posted with LifeCast

2009-03-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

I'm working on putting my very first really real original pattern together. I have a tendency to kind of improvise when I knit things, sometimes working froma pattern or just winging it freehand, but this is the first time I actually thought it through and created a piece on my own that wasn't a hat or a scarf. Which isn't to say that it just sprung from my needles like some yarny Athena. There are some heavy Norah Gaughan influences and a dash of loop-d-loop. I'm calling it the Atelier Sweater, because I can see my own daughter stuffing colored pencils in the pocket and getting down Reggio Emilia style.

I'm planning on making a few more in a thick and thin cream colored wool yarn for the shop and possibly selling the pattern as well.

I finished spinning my winter cycle of yarns last night, all three of them and will get those up next Friday.

New Yarn

2009-02-24T16:47:00.001-07:00

Posted with LifeCast

2009-02-03T20:21:00.001-07:00

Posted with LifeCast

2009-02-03T19:59:00.001-07:00

For want of a shoe, a camera shoe anyway, my new yarn postings will be on the arty side this time around. Better than having nothing to show for the week, though. I'll probably have them up before Friday. No Internet in the house right now, though, so I'll have to update via the coffe shop down the street. Darn.
And where are my new Moo cards, eh? I got shiney new stitch markers from Spindle Cat Studios in the mail yesterday. With a holder even, so they're elf proof. Yea!

Posted with LifeCast

2009-02-02T17:16:00.001-07:00

I've got yarn to list. Really I do. I just lost my routine and now the yarn piles up accusingly. I bought more fluff, Sheep Shed Studio fluff. If I list any of that it'll go under recycled. I plan to use most of it for baby projects though.

Posted with LifeCast

2009-02-02T14:47:00.001-07:00

Posted with LifeCast

2009-01-31T19:46:00.001-07:00

Here's what I've been up to:

Along with knitting up a baby storm. I'm resizing the Kyoto sweater from Knitty and have a nearly full shoe box full of other baby knits to show for my efforts. So not much Etsying, but at least I have a decent excuse now.

2009-01-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

I've been sort of productive lately, knitting a baby legwarmer here, a glovie there. It's the finishing that kills me, I'm so lazy about it. I need to get me some 42-inch circulars.

I have gotten back into the habit of spinning more yarn. They've been smaller batches of fluff that make for nearly lace-weight yarn. One skein was even 19 wraps per inch. I broke out the seacell I bought in Boulder a few months ago. I blended it with more thrown silk and then some tunis I had dyed grayish. I was nervous about the tunis because it tends to take on a life of its own if I blend it with the wrong thing. It worked fine with the seacell, though, made it a lot smoother to draft.

I'm going to try to get four more pairs of glovies done by next Tuesday. And maybe that other baby legwarmer.

2008-12-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

I am officially in a fiber funk. I have yarn to list, Hatdiva sent me a huge box full of batts and all I want to do is sit around. Blah. I'm going to a writing workshop in a few days, in Oaxaca of all places. I want to jump back in to the process of getting my Master's. Maybe I'm locking up because I have too much I want to get done...

Here's a glimpse of some of the mini batts Hatdiva sent me. They are so soft. She also sent me a monster batt, longer than I am tall, although that may not be saying much.

2008-11-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

Birthday sale! I've made shipping free on my handknits until my birthday on December 2nd. I also have a new set of yarns drying and waiting to be photographed. They are...wintery. Romney or silver Cotswold based with splashes of color and texture here and there. I plan on having all of them up in the shop by next Friday.

2008-11-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

I started a real job last week so lately I've been adjusting to that and getting in yarn time. I also started a knitting project with some recycled sweater yarn, a white angora/lamb's wool. Frogging it has turned into a headache because the fibers are so soft that when I come to a snag it wants to break in half instead of free. I managed to get a whole sleeve free and dyed a variegated blue. Now I'm working on Elizabeth Zimmerman's shawl pattern from A Knitter's Almanac. Though I will probably end up with a blanket rather than the shawl.

I've been using the flax and hemp I recently bought in a lot of the new yarns and I realized this morning that I seem pathologically unable to avoid using pink. I just did a skein based on the poster for Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and it has both the flax/hemp and the pink. The sweets series (I made a chunky one and a skinny one) has bunches of pink, too. Maybe avoiding it will be my project for this week, that and upping my output.

2008-11-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been wondering about silk, specifically tussah silk. I figured that there was a range of accuracy in terms of just how humanely it was processed, but after doing some research online and particualrly after reading this page I'm wondering if i should just switch to soy or seacell. The problem is that even these shiney new eco fibers have environmental impacts. Bamboo, for example, is not actually made of unadulturated bamboo but bamboo chemically processed into viscose according to this site. And viscose creates toxic by-products. So, so much for bamboo? Green Guide says it still creates less of an impact than, say, cotton or it's synthetic cousins because plant production requires few resources or pesticides. But it's popularity is causing farmers to create monocultures. And more research reveals a bit of a debate over whether or not fiber production is sustainable. Fortunately, unfortunately...

2008-10-28T16:33:00.000-06:00

Cheese! I ordered a cheese making kit from the New England Cheesemaking Company last week and it arrived today, complete with a block of cheese wax. As soon as I have the cash for it I'm going to go out and buy about four gallons of milk. I also found an super soft angora/lambswool sweater at the thrift store a few days ago. I dyed up the sleeve I frogged in royal blue and since I did it without the presoak it came out in several shades of blue and almost purple. And I made French bread on Sunday, real yeasty bread. It was so good, we ate all but two of the little loaf-buns before True Blood was over.

2008-10-20T16:09:00.000-06:00

I made the front page of etsy! They have buttons set up for people to display when that happens, but I liked this one better: I think it encapsulates how I'm feeling more better. Hatdiva was very kind to let me know about it, otherwise I never would have found out (except for the mysterious two hundred or so extra views to my lemon tree listing).She also pointed me in the direction of a Flickr group for front page screen shots. This one is mine. Yea! I also listed new yarns today, Yea!
I feel like I've been slowly way down lately, maybe post-academic depression? Missing school, how dorky is that?

2008-10-14T14:33:00.000-06:00

Look what was waiting for me when I got home. A whole pound of wool from Sandy and the sheep at the Homestead! It's some of Aina's wool, a Romney/Lincoln cross.

I had some trouble with cleaning a Tunis fleece I bought from them a few weeks ago and asked her if she had any tips. I wasn't upset or anything, it was only $4 a pound, and I figured I had made the mistake of not being picky enough when I first went over it. Sandy was so sweet, offering some advice and to refund if I was unhappy with it. But of course it turned out fine! I just had to wash it a few extra times.

So I really wasn't expecting to find this at my door today, in fact I thought maybe an address had gotten switched or something. I feel like a bonifide yarnie!

2008-10-12T10:44:00.000-06:00

I finished Gerry's sweater last night. I actually followed the instructions in the book and sewing it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It's a little small, but he seems to like it anyway.

2008-10-11T16:07:00.000-06:00

Look what I scored for $3 at Goodwill today!

Gonna make me a scarf...just as soon as I figure out how to set it up. Hmmm. My Moo stickers finally got here, too.

2008-10-10T16:22:00.000-06:00

I started in on making a loom this week. I'm stuck at attaching the heddles and learning a whole lot more jargon that comes with learning to weave.

I made my first trip to Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins, too. I picked up some hemp, flax and seacell fiber to try out. I've never dyed plant fiber before, mainly because it's so much easier and safer to do wool and cheap enough to buy dyed plant fiber from others, but I may pick up some "real" dyes for this stuff. I'm really liking gray these days, paired up with something bright.

productivity

2008-10-01T15:25:00.000-06:00

Despite the fact that the apartment is a mess I seem to be getting a lot done lately. I finally settled on a

pattern for my pluckyfluff yarn. I bought a batt from her months ago but couldn't figure out what to make with it. I'm making, of all things, a neckwarmer in 3x1 ribbing with intermittent cable twists. I hated neckwarmers when I was younger. My mom always lugged them along when we would go skiing and they seemed so silly to me then. But now this seems like the perfect solution. I didn't want to waste it on a

hat and the only other accessory I wear all the time is scarf, but I don't have enough yardage to make the kind I would want. "Cowl" it is then!

My grandparents came by a few days ago and left us a box of peaches and some pears. I had just left the box on the kitchen table and Anais was helping herself, but they were on the verge of getting too ripe so I froze most of what was left last night. We still have a third of a box of apples from their last visit. When I first

moved to Denver I never bought fruit

because it seemed so weird, having to actually pay for what had been free most of my life.

We went thrift store shopping yesterday and I found a new salad spinner for, like, $3 and a hugemous handknit sweater for $2. I started in on frogging it last night and did a burn test this morning and it's definitely natural, mostly protein fibers. There's so much here I'll be able to do something from the Norah Gaughan book I just bought. I'm thinking of shrinking down the Kaari sweater for Anais. She loves pockets! We also found her a wicker bird cage like the one in Kiki's Delivery Service. When we got it home she proceeded to cram it full of her stuffed animals.

My ravelry ad went live today! I bought a notebook one and new one in the marketplace section. I excited to see how they do. Before now I had only used the etsy ads, which usually only last a day and cost just as much. My hope is that sales pick up because of this new ad, but I keep telling myself not to be too optimistic with the economy getting all nostalgic for the late '20's.

I'm also dying up that tunis today. Anais helped pick out colors and drown the fluff. I had an idea for a colorway yesterday. I don't usually use orange, it is one of my least favorites along with reds, but it occurred to me that orange and pink and possibly gray would be an interesting combination.

I still have yarns to list, too, just two of them this week but maybe I'll manage to get a few more done before Friday...phyew!

so far today...

2008-09-29T15:24:00.000-06:00

Last night I plunked myself down with a mug full of gimlet and I carded the tunis I got last week. I think I'm going to dye it up in a few days. Today we ran around and did errands here and there and went to the park. Anais finally tried out the "big girl" swings on her own. Yea! There was a box for me when we came home, from Yarnia. They have bags of leftover threads for $3ish. Maybe I'll try some corespinning?

A little while ago I swapped with bornlippy, my scarf for her squirrely bag. I love bags, that's probably one of my girliest traits. It arrived in the mail the other day and I've been toting it around ever since. I have to say it is very solid, one of the most professionally crafted handmade bags I now own. I love it!

2008-09-28T09:22:00.000-06:00

I'm processing raw wool today. Mmm, fun. I'm also hoping to get some yarn made and my grandparents are coming to town.

for starters

2008-09-27T11:13:00.000-06:00

I'm not very good at getting out and interacting with people, but I would like to take a crack at the whole "making a living doing something I love" thing. I started spinning almost a year ago and totally fell in love with art yarns like Lampe's Lumps and Pluckyfluff. I love the combination of textures and colors, how it's an abstract construction with practical applications. I've always loved making art; ceramics, photography, painting; but learning to spin yarn has been about more than just art for art's sake for me because it also overlaps with my interest in history and getting to the root of things. Spinning and making fabric is one of the oldest crafts, up there with cave painting and pottery making. In a dorky sense, I get a little excited knowing that I would have such a useful skill in a post-apocalyptic future.

I have an etsy shop but those things certainly don't advertise themselves and this blog, along with my other sites on Ravlery and Flickr, are part of my self-promotion.