And Shortly After The New Year Begins...

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions, BUT I have been noticing my weight creeping upwards again, a pound here and a pound there, until I gained back a good 15 lbs of what I had lost. I knew before the holidays that this upward trend must stop, not so much for the sake of my looks, but for the sake of my general health.

So, yesterday I "re-upped" with Weight Watchers Online. I use a military term for re-joining the program, because it must be regimented as strictly as military units are, or I will start cutting myself too much slack and/or rationalizing.

The good news is, Weight Watchers has revamped the old Points program to something called "Points Plus." Well!

On the old program, it was really hard to stay within my daily allotment of points, because almost everything I put in my mouth had a "value," even healthy stuff like fruit, and certain veggies. Now, every fruit and veggie I have looked up says 0 points! I no longer have to regretfully allow myself 6 sugar snap peas and sacrifice valuable points, and discover that I have no points left by suppertime. Even a whole cup of the darn things has 0 points now!

Tonight when I was famished and supper wasn't even close to being done, I could -- and did, with no guilt -- eat 5 fresh strawberries and one celery rib to take the edge off. It worked, and again -- 0 points!

Trouble is, I am allowed 29 points per day, and am going to have a really hard time racking up my total daily allowance! Yesterday I made it to 16 points by bedtime. Today I've done better. I only have one point left to use up, and being that it's nearly 7 PM, I probably won't bother, though I suppose I could eat a few almonds, and that would take care of it.

I've been told that it's not good to eat less than the daily limit, and that this could force my body into "starvation mode," and I might end up putting on weight instead of losing it. So I will have to be careful to consume them all in a day, or come within a point or two of it.

So much to remember!  But I am so excited about the fruit and veggies. I think this time around, I won't be anywhere near as hungry and cranky as I was last time.

OK, for that final point of the day, the almonds won! (6 of them equal a point, if anyone wants to know...)

2012 Begins...

New Year, new online shop.

I decided to give Artfire a whirl, but will also continue to maintain a presence on Etsy, at least until I see which will be the more successful venue.

In the next few weeks, I'll be adding more hand painted yarns and hand blended spinning fibers, and continuing to contribute to the Phat Fiber Sampler Box.

As soon as I can get some decent photographs of the latest yarns, I'll be making new listings and posting a few shots here, and hopefully lead folks into serious temptation.

Hey, it's a New Year. New yarn will make it a HAPPY New Year...and cashmere blends are coming soon!

My Work is on Tour with Grant Hart!

Grant wore the sweater I designed and knitted in a performance in Frankfurt, along with the matching headband I made to show him what the cable bands would look like on the sweater, long before the sweater was actually done and presented to him. He looks fabulous in the full ensemble.

In terms of how the finished items look on the recipient, I think this is my most successful design to date. (The sweater I designed and knitted for my innkeeper friend in Maine runs a very close second.)

But as I believe I have mentioned previously, Grant never did tell me what size he takes, and I had to guess, solely based on the few times we've hugged. The potential for error -- and failure -- was huge. Not to mention that we sort of disagreed about the cabling. He thought the yarn was complex enough to stand on its own without cables, and I stubbornly refused to give up my vision of him sporting cables.

The original sweater I was trying to copy (and enhance, pictured below) gave Grant this Viking Warrior look that refused to leave my mind, and the wheels started turning. And while the original sweater was a "found" item, mine was specifically intended for him, and based on what my gut instincts were telling me. So, I made the headband and told him to look at it a lot, hold it, maybe wear it now and then, and give it some consideration, because I really was seeing cabled bands on that sweater, and he was going to have some at cuffs and hip, with the body of the sweater being plain to the neckline, which I decided to stabilize with a twisted rib stitch band.

 

My memory of the sizing was pretty darn good, as it turns out. The sweater fits him perfectly, and as I promised him he would, he looks like a million bucks, and I do not mean green and wrinkled!

There are photos kicking around on the web, too, from Birmingham, England, and Essen, Germany, in which he is wearing the ensemble, and others from Belgium in which he is just wearing the sweater, but no headband. I am thrilled that it's been keeping him warm on his journeys, and also that it suits him so well.

It is truly a great pleasure and privilege to knit for him.

Black Walnut Dye

So, here's how the black walnut hull dye experiment turned out. Amazing, how many different shades of brown I got! A lot depended on the type of fiber used, but I knew that before I started. Pretty cool, huh? I'll be selling some of it, and dyeing up more over the next few weeks.

Trying Something New

No, this is not an epic failure of a batch of homemade meatballs, nor is it a strange and frightening incarnation of tofu.

Hurricane Irene left me with a plethora of fallen black walnuts, which my daughter kindly gathered and put in one of those big Homer buckets from the Home Depot.

These are pretty damn big buckets, folks. The thing was 3/4 of the way full of walnuts with bright green husks. Where to stow them until I was ready to deal with them? Why, the garage, of course, where they were promptly forgotten until this morning.

The top layer of nuts was pretty well dried out, but underneath -- oh, joy! A whole lot of nasty, soggy, dark brown husks just oozing their almost-black juice (and a few maggots, but those will be strained out later).

I have two 12 quart kettles full simmering on the stove now, one of which you can see in the picture.

I figure I'll let the kettles stew for a couple of hours, then set them on the back step to cool. Tomorrow I will strain and filter the liquid, and we shall see what we shall see. Allegedly, I do not need a mordant to dye yarn with this stuff. It will be interesting to see what color I end up with. It will be brown for sure, but -- dark? Light? Somewhere in between?

It will be an adventure, for sure.

Earth & Sky Shawls in Maine

Earth & Sky # 2, size large, in Mad Angel Creations

Kettle Dyed DK weight yarn.

Colors are: Rory's Blues, Olivine, and Wild Grapes

 Earth & Sky # 1, size large, in 2 ply New Zealand Sport weight yarn.

Colors: Juniper, Mocha Java, and Terra Cotta

 And here they are, side by each, on the deck
outside the room we stayed in at the
Inn on the Harbor in Stonington, Maine.

I have spent many happy hours knitting at the Inn on the Harbor, and have gotten a lot of inspiration for my own designs while staying there and exploring the general area. It is one of my favorite places on earth -- a place where I can really and truly relax and forget all about anything that troubles me.

Umm...

Long time no blog, I know. I've been a little preoccupied with the yarn and fiber biz, and in fact there are two dye kettles on my stove as I type, filled with silk noil top. I'm no fool. Christmas is coming, and the dyed silk noil top is one of my best sellers. Today's run will yield purple and teal. I'll bundle it in 1 ounce packages when it's dry, then take pictures and make more listings.

For fun, I've been playing around with some new spindles. Anyone at all who likes to spindle and reads this blog, you can find these absolutely terrific and beautiful Turkish spindles at Threads Thru Time on Etsy.

I always liked the idea of Turkish spindles, but never really met one I enjoyed using until I discovered these.

The listing said "tiny," and they weren't kidding!

 This is my hand holding the spindle, and I do not have large hands.

 

My favorite colors in the wood, too -- 

purple and green -- what's not to love?

This is the yarn I made from the sample
included with my spindle.

Exactly 1/4 ounce of wool yielded 51 yards!

 Using an Amercian quarter as my "scale model."
Can't quite believe how fine-gauge the yarn is!

Now, this is the "medium" spindle. Significantly larger than the "tiny" one, and I'm spinning one of my own hand dyed and blended wool batts. "Magus" did not sell after 6 months in my shop, and I was wanting to keep it, anyway, as the colorway reminds me of a friend who passed away in June. I have four ounces to do, and then I will find exactly the right thing to make from the yarn. Something really nice that will always remind me of my friend.

I've spun 0.7 ounces so far, and plied it into a heavy fingering weight 2 ply yarn. I got 86 yards done so far! 

I'll post pictures of the yarn when I have more of it done. So far, I am REALLY pleased with how it's coming out!

Oops -- timer's going off -- that means my silk is done!