Friday, December 05, 2008


*shameless crosspost*

So, I'm starting something new on my work blog - "Freebie Friday" - your chance to win free stuff from Prairieland Herbs. This week's freebie - a whole pound of handmade soap, to use to make your own laundry detergent. (I am so in love with homemade laundry detergent. Cheap, natural, and smells amazing. Oh, and it REALLy works).

Check out the details on the prairieland herbs blog.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008


A few weeks ago, some friends and I got together for a dyeing day, and I took advantage of that time to dye up 2 mohair fleeces I had, in assorted rainbow colors. I'm rather pleased with how the gorgeous mohair locks turned out! I'll be putting these in my etsy site pretty soon....for now, i'm just enjoying looking at the pretty colors.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Yesterday, I sat on my butt and knit all day. It was fan-freaking-tastic. Here is my "manly hat, take 2". I think it's more manly - hope Ric agrees!



I started another of the Yarn Harlot's one row handspun scarf - with some AMAZING 100% alpaca yarn from Larkspur Funny Farm. Her fiber, and yarn, are TO. DIE. FOR, and I seriously recommend checking out her etsy site and her cool farm blog. I prefer to work with handspun, and when I can't, amazing millspun from small family farms is nearly as luscious!!!



My sister requested a "neutral colored" scarf for her niece. I'm not sure if this fits the bill, but it was fun, and turned out really well. I went through my stash and found yarn in colors that i thought went well together - in this case, it was a combo of tans, browns, greens and blues. It doesn't mater the size of yarn - this is in all gauges, including several sock yarns, and some thick silk noil. I cast on 100 stitches on a size 13 circular needle, leaving long "tails" at each end. At the end of each row, I broke the yarn, again leaving long "tails" - these become the fringe. Next row, I chose a different combination of yarns, and knit all the way to the end. I doubled or even tripled the yarns, sometimes - I was just going for a variety of colors, textures, and thicknesses in each row. I knit about 20 rows, tying the ends in knots every 4-5 rows or so. Cast off loosely, and you're done. it took me under 2 hours, I used up some funky little bits of leftover yarn, and am really pleased with the results.

So much so, that I did it again! This is a much brighter and wilder version, and is destined as a gift for a very "colorful" friend of mine! This one is a blend of ribbon yarn, eyelash yarn, some chenille from a recycled sweater, some sari silk yarn, a bit of handspun, some silk...you name it, it's in there. Texture and color!!!