Extravayarnza

New Beginnings...
I came to realize recently that I really missed my blog.
I also realized that I missed having an etsy shop selling my yarns, and missed dyeing yarn in general.
So I have some new beginnings to make.
One of these beginning has already been made. Last year I started dyeing yarn again in large amounts and selling it locally (Rae's Yarn Boutique in Lansing, MI). I'm even getting an expanded dyeing space in the next month or two. I've been working on developing colorways that look good both in the skein and in the finished knitted piece. I've also been working on consistency and dyeing in larger quantities than I had before.

That leads to my next new beginning... my website.
I just spent several days photographing my colors and yarns to set up an online shop. In fact the new site just finished uploading. I'm really proud of the new look and I hope you'll take a few minutes to see what I've accomplished.

Finally, the blog, yes I'm making another attempt at blogging. It probably will be more along the lines of once a week, but I am excited to give it another go.

I have 2 apartments that I rent that I'm currently renovating, so I will definitely need a place to vent about the joys of painting, flooring, lighting, and redoing kitchens and bathrooms. Then finding a new renter...

Off to go back the grind stone.

Oh and by the way~

It's nice to see you all again!

Hi, so where have I been? Well I've been on Ravelry, on my shops newsletter, and on twitter.
But I'm trying to let everyone know that I need a bit of help. I purchased the building my business is in a year ago. The seller provided paperwork stating that the roof had been redone less than 2 year prior. Which was important because it's a flat roof and those need to be kept up on.
Then strange puddles were appearing on the floor occasionally, generally overnight... Then watermarks starting appearing on the walls and ceilings of my apartment above the shop... Then large puddles appeared... Then a big chunk of my apartment ceiling fell of last month.

A couple of roofing guys later and it seems that (unsurprisingly) the previous owner lied, big time. The roof is in horrible shape. It needs some TLC and patching/sealing now and in 2 years or so (when I can afford it) will need major structural help.

But with taxes and fall yarn bills even the temporary fixes are out of my budget.

So, I'm asking the loyal knitters of my shop to help out by having a sale to... I suppose... raise the roof.

When it Rains it Pours in the Shop Sale
Help Rae fix her roof and get some great deals to boot!

Fri July 10 - Sun July 12

20% off cotton yarns

40% off novelty yarns (ribbon, eyelash, ladder, etc...)

10% off all other yarns (sock, wool, alpaca and more)

10% off spinning and felting fibers

25% off Individual leaflet patterns

Plus there’s some great specials on spinning wheels that are available this weekend only, but the prices are too good to post… you have to come into the shop to see!

I really appreciate everyone who comes in this weekend and hopefully with your help the roof can be fixed and everyone can stay dry and warm this upcoming winter.

So, let it be known... My Mom Rocks!

I mentioned to her that Whiskey Tins made the best containers for drop spindles. She then looked though her boxes & found 2 for me.

The Jack Daniel's tin is now housing my Grafton Fiber Ship. I'm not sure what's going to live in the Chivas Regal tin. Maybe one of these?

I didn't keep one last time we got these in & I really regretted it. However it's just too hard to choose!

I also have further evidence of the rocking nature of my mom though. She also sent me this:

A Cinnamon Sugar Grinder. How cool is that?! I still love Cinnamon Sugar toast & am a sucker for any sort of seasoning grinder. I know what's for breakfast tomorrow (or maybe an afternoon snack?).

Oh, I even have managed to knit something. (well I've knit lots, but this actually got photographed). I knit 2 of these French Press Cozies from Knitalong in Silk Garden Sock Yarn.

One of them is on it's way to my mom to say Thanks!
They're totally fun to knit & help solve that problem of glass being an awful insulator.

Back to spinning~

I'm a little buzzed at the moment...
Rather than sleeping I'm playing with things like this...

(make your own wordle... they're addictive)

And creating a new logo for the shop (my very first Illustrator project)

and I'm even blogging!

Besides I have to brag about my new drop spindles. I'm totally in love.
First with my Grafton Fiber Ship

.7 oz
I've already spun half an ounce of lace weight on it. This is the spindle I wanted when I first learned to spin about 5 years ago. We now have them in the shop & I just had to snag this one when I saw it. It's Blue!!!

I also now have a lovely glass drop spindle.

We're getting these in the shop probably around September. I got one in early to try. It's pretty and spins well. What more can you ask for?!

Oh, and some of my first knitting to make it to the blog in a while. I knit the Angel Shawl out of Louet Mooi. Can I say Yum!

I guess I'm a bit to tired for too many words, but I'll leave you with one more photo. This is the first Morning Glory blossom from a few days ago. They only last one day! We've had about one bloom a day so far, but the vines are covered in buds so we should have quite a show soon.

Okay,
I've officially skipped bunches and bunches of knitting. I haven't even gotten most of my recent projects on Ravelry. Hopefully I'll do a big photo day and catch up on all that. It's mostly socks & baby things for the shop, so nothing really major missed.

My big love at the moment however is my annual Lace Knitting gorge and my spinning wheel.

Lace first...

Lacis recently released Herbert Niebling's Lyra Shawl. Since I could now get the pattern without taking out a small loan (those in the know remember this pattern selling for well over $100 on ebay) I immediately cast-on with some very yummy J Knits Alpaca Laceweight.
Lyra is a square shawl knit from the center out, so you probably won't see many photos of her until the big unveiling. She will pretty much look like this for the next month or two:

However I'm working on Wicked for the next 3 or so weeks, so I needed a shawl that I could easily memorize the chart. I had kismet when the Mooi laceweight showed up this week!

I found the Angel Shawl from Fiber Trends & cast-on

This shawl is a simple 10 row repeat that's easily memorized. The yarn is beyond description... Perfect, Brilliant, Luxurious, none of these are good enough!

We also got Louet Northern Lights Roving into the shop last week. Again, inspiration struck.
My hank of Violets quickly went from Roving:

to Singles:

and to the Final Yarn (a bit over plied, but still very nice):

and will soon be knit into mittens

I then decided to use some of my new found spinning skills to spin up some Interlacements Wool into a Worsted spun yarn.

I think I'm going to Navajo ply this to keep the stripes.

Next up for spinning will be this fluffy bit:

That's Robin's undercoat. Plus that's just from one brushing! I think I'm going to blend this with Merino on the drum carder. We'll see how it goes...

I took my very first spinning class last night. I've spun for about 3 years now, but was mostly self taught with pointers along the way.
Last night I headed down to The Spinning Loft in Howell to take Intermediate Spinning from Beth.
What a great class!
I knew we were learning about drafting techniques. I spin short draw, either woolen or worsted. Last night I got to add long draw & spinning from the fold to my list. I don't see myself spinning long draw too often, but spinning from the fold will defiantly get use!
The big surprise (other than all those great tidbits you get in a class) was that we got to try these techniques on a whole bunch of fibers so we could see how different techniques work on each fiber.

The fibers were vastly different & covered just about every catagory.
From Left to Right there is:
Soy Silk, BFL, Alpaca, Bombay Silk, Angora, Carbonized Bamboo, Masham, Linen, Optimum, Superwash Merino, Corriedale, and Seacell.
I actually liked spinning the angora top quite a bit. I think my favorite of the night based both on spinning ease and finished yarn was the Blue Faced. The Masham (a long wool breed) was great for spinning long draw & from the fold. Out of the "new" fibers I think the Seacell was the nicest to work with. (Which is great because we're getting some superwash merino & Seacell fiber in at the shop and I really want to spin sock yarn from it).

Next week we cover plying techniques and finishing yarns!

My dog Tosh has been very ill this weekend. Sunday I took her to supposedly the best vet clinic in town & often called one of the best in the Country (mainly because my vet is closed on Sundays). They did tests & through around big scary words like obstruction and cancer. Eventually they said they couldn't pin point the exact cause of her symptoms, gave her fluids, and some basic all purpose meds.
Fast forward to this afternoon. Tosh hasn't been able to eat or drink in 48 hours. I drive her down to my usual vet. He asks me 2 questions, takes her temperate, and tells me he knows exactly what's wrong. It's a bug that's been going around right now (which unfortunately also infects cats & humans) and he's seen 100s of cases lately.
Tosh now gets another shot, 2 new meds, and the best diet I've ever heard of for the next 2 days.
All the high end vanilla ice cream & cheddar cheese she can eat!

Sometimes the basic country vet just has a better beat on the bugs & flues of the common pet... I think I'll stick to him from now on!

Gosh, Life can be so full sometimes?

June is a busy month in the yarn world. The big TNNA trade show happens in Columbus, OH. Then Knit in Public Day. Plus we hosted Louisa Harding at the shop.
I did take a bunch of photos of WWKIP day. We just had an absolute blast!



You can click on any of those photos to see the whole set. I filled up my cameras memory card that day, so there are a whole lot of photos.

Tonight myself & Lynn are the guest speakers at Schuler Books in the Eastwood Towne Center. We've done this once before & had almost 70 knitters show up. I sure hope we get a good showing again. I love to see the employees scurrying around trying to find more chairs for all these crazy knitters (who knew there were so many!).

I'm also in the midst of planning a few events. Anyone in the Lansing who is looking for something to do on 4th of July (and who thinks nothing is better than celebrating with knitters) are invited to come to our 4th of July party at the shop.

Here’s the details:
Join us at Rae’s Yarn Boutique July 4th!
Knit-in All Day
Grill starts up at 5pm
Bring a dish to pass or a small donation towards the main dish
Remember your knitting & a folding chair.
We’ll head down to the riverfront for Fireworks in the evening!

I’m blocking off our couple of parking spots behind the store for the knit-in (plenty of room indoors too). Hopefully I’ll find one of those shade tents to borrow (any one have one they could lend us?). I’m providing BBQ chicken & hotdogs on the grill, please bring a side dish to pass.

I’m keeping a list of dishes. Please let me know what you plan to bring so we can have a nice variety on the 4th.

(should I also mention that this will be the first day of our 3 day summer clearance sale.)

(I could also use one or two volunteers to bring plates, utensils, etc…)

I have a list going on Ravelry of what people have told me they're bringing.

Okay,
One more big project to mention. I'm opening an online yarn shop. The goal is to open Sept 1st. Right now I'm in the beginning stages. I'm learning how to use Zen Cart. That totally feels like a college class. I'm actually going through the book page by page doing all the examples & setting up the test shop. I have never studied anything so carefully before!
There is defiantly a big learning curve there. Thank Goodness that I found a free template that looks just perfect. That will save some headaches & me having to find a programmer/designer.

The other thing I'm doing in tandem with learning Zen Cart is getting all the photographs ready. I have to photograph every single yarn in every single color. Then edit those photos into web viewable sizes while still keeping the color as close to true as possible. Here's a sample of how that's going...

1. grace08, 2. glisten17, 3. comfort9740, 4. comfort9722, 5. kangorapure06, 6. kangorapure07, 7. kimonoribbon06, 8. impression09, 9. kashmiraran16, 10. cadoro05, 11. purecashmere05, 12. puresilk08

I thought I should do a quick check in to say we made it back home safe & sound. The last day in Greenville was a blast. I'm so happy we decided to stay an extra day. We did one last short hike in Paris Mountain State Park.

Then went back downtown to the falls for a picnic and to see a bit of Shakespeare in the park. They did Pericles & I think it was quite alright. Plus we had a chance to check out the dog park there & I must say that although it's a little small they did a super nice job with it.
So now I'm home. I've already gone to the East Lansing Art Fair, to the dog park (twice), completely updated our store website, fixed the email & the internet at the shop, driven to the other side of town to do a bunch of errands, and even hung up the hooks & sweaters in the shop (which I had been avoiding doing since January). In short my vacation did just what it was supposed to & I feel completely refreshed & ready to face the world again.

I have been knitting a bunch over the last 2 weeks & check back in a day or two to read all about it~

Tuesday we went on a proper hike with Mum. We had water, snacks, sunscreen, maps, and all those sorts of things. Our goal was Raven Cliff Falls in Ceasars Head State Park. The weather was perfect & the full canopy shaded us from most of the sunlight.

On our way into the park we stopped at the visitors center & took in the view of Table Rock Mountain.

The trail we chose lead to a viewing platform and was about 4.5 miles round trip. Now, I walk that far most days in Lansing without too much ado. However Lansing is flat, very flat. This hike wasn't nearly as difficult as the one I had gone on the night before, but parts were still quite steep.

I ended up sleeping the whole way home & most of the evening... 2 days of mountain hiking is quite a lot for a flatlander!

Luckily this time I brought my camera. I've posted a few of my favorite shots from the day. More photos & captions can been seen on flickr by clicking any of the photos.