Sunday, November 25, 2012

Cold Weather = Warm Woolies!

I love winter. There, I said it. Boo and hiss all you want, but as a fibre artist, I love using all my lovely woolies to keep me warm. They look sad in their baskets and drawers all summer, and I'm happy to wear them again.

My place is covered in fibre, as I'm once again preparing for the Halifax Crafters market, the 2012 Beary Merry Market! I'm dyeing up lots of merino top, will have plenty of carded batts and novelty fibres, and I've got some new things on my table: hand knit slouchy hats made from hand spun yarn, blanket felt mittens in many colours, French press cozies, tea cozies, and more! I'm very excited and have been having fun prototyping new designs this fall.

 I call this colour-way Alien Bees. It's dry now and put up in braids, and looks spectacular!

I'm also planning to card some batts based on the colours of my favourite gemstones. So far I've dreamed up Labradorite, Rainbow Moonstone, Carnelian, and Amethyst. What are your favourites?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Fibre Everywhere!

There is a new batch of kettle-dyed merino at The Loop, and also at Gaspereau Valley Fibres. The Loop also got some handspun yarn and some kettle-dyed commercial yarns, so if you're looking for something bright and cheery, or luxurious, you know where to go.

I guess Tulasi Zimmer of The Joy of Handspinning dropped in to The Loop today while visiting town, and picked up some of my merino top! It's so exciting! I'm looking forward to more dyeing in the future.

If anyone has leads on a sparkly sock yarn base, let me know. I like glitter a lot, and apparently so do Halifax sock knitters!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Librarian For Realz!

Whoa! I'm finally done--I have a Master of Library and Information Studies. I will now hopefully have more time to update the blog with all my fibre-y doings, and also to get a proper website up to show off everything I've been doing. I've been Instagramming a bit on my iPhone, which goes to my Tumblr and then to Twitter and Facebook, but haven't had much time for longer posts.

For example: The month after I finished school I prepped for Halfiax Crafters, did Halifax Crafters, worked a few jobs, taught bellydance, and just tonight I taught my first class of four down at NSCCD, the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design.

Convocation is next week, and I'm hoping things calm down a bit for me. Perhaps my spinning students will let me post pictures of their yarns!

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Halifax Crafters Production Schedule

The next Halifax Crafters market is on May 5th and 6th, and I've been accepted to vend again. Yay! What that means is that I need to get my butt in gear and make some stuff! On the production list:

Kettle-dyed merino top
Sparkly batts
Tea cozies
French press cozies
Handspun yarn
Hand-dyed commercial sock yarn (with glitter in it!)

So, for the next month I will be busy dyeing a new batch of nylon Firestar, some sari silk ribbon yarn that I got, and doing some carding and spinning. I also need to spin up samples for the class I am teaching at the NSCCD in May on spinning novelty & art yarns. In April I will dye the commercial yarn and the merino top, continue with the spinning and possibly doing some knitting. That will also be cozy-making time!

I'll be finishing grad school as well, somewhere in amongst all that. Also applying for jobs. Eek!