I blame Hobbledehoy

During the holiday season of 2007, I noticed a shop on Etsy selling the most BEAUTIFUL bits of wool. That was the first time I laid eyes on the batts that Hobbledehoy creates. I didn't spin yet but wanted to learn, so I asked for a drop spindle for Christmas.

In January I purchased Drunken Sailor - my first Hobbledehoy batt. It was the beginning of a fiber addiction. I held on to that batt for days, weeks months and then a year. That batt was my first fiber love - I had to hold on to it for something special. I had to wait until I knew EXACTLY what it wanted to be.

Last night, it spoke to me. It wanted to be a super chunky, way funky, plied yarn. So out it came, I spun it up pretty thick (for my standards) and plied the heck out of it. I fell in love with it all over again. I don't know what it is going to be yet, but that will come to me... in time.

Makeover

I'm feeling the need for a makeover. No, no, not on my face or in my closet (however, Stacy and Clinton - if you are reading this, What Not to Wear can come to Fayetteville whisk me way whenever it wants to), but with one of my Etsy shops.

Woolyhands is where my main focus is right now. I've got Idyllhands looking like I want and just need to get some new things photographed - but other than that, it's good to go. But Woolyhands is my problem child. I see some yarn/wool shops on Etsy that I can identify just by seeing a picture of their item. I need to come up with a style of photography for my yarn and my roving. I think I might try and work on that this weekend - perhaps I just need to design a super cool label to use for everything and incorporate it into my pictures somehow? I'm not sure... I'll have to think on it.

I also need to get some more roving dyed up PRONTO. I'm running a bit of a sale (let me know if you want to know what it is) in my shop through this weekend to clear out some old stuff and make room for the loads of new stuff I'm going to dye up tomorrow. Some old colorways that do well and some new ones I have up in my head. I haven't dyed in weeks and I'm really looking forward to pulling all of my dyes out.

And for those who wished me luck at the boutique sale - thank you! It went very well and I sold quite a bit of jewelry and even sold a yarn. I take my yarn to these things not really expecting to sell it since it requires a specific market (unlike jewelry). It's always excited to sell a yarn to someone who doesn't go "ooooh, kind of pricey".

Well, Friday is upon us - it's beautiful outside, and I'm not sure why I'm sitting here blogging. I'm heading out!

Ladies Night

Hey Everyone - your fave jewelry and fiber artist will be participating in a boutique... or should I say beaut-ique sale on Thursday, May 28 in Rogers, AR. I will be selling my goods along with a few other local artists and there will be some wine, non-alcoholic drinks, snacks, and massages as well.

So come on out to Balanced Body at 816 B West Poplar in Rogers on Thursday evening between 5:30 PM and 9:00 PM.

Oh - did I mention, there will be door prizes? So come on out, meet some awesome artists, do some shopping, get a drink and a bite to eat and just enjoy.

We Feast

*pats belly*

I'm going to be completely honest with all of you tonight - I ate 4 chicken legs. Yes, 4. That means I'm far too full to even begin to think about something clever to type. In fact, I'm far to full to even feel like sitting up for too long. I'm not sure why I ate 4, they were just so stinkin' good.

Oh, and I figure I needed that much food to balance out the 3.5 glasses of this delicious sangria that you see above that were consumed prior to the chicken. It was a Memorial day feast that will go down in history.

I did manage to finish up a lovely two-ply yarn prior to the gorging of myself. It's deliciously colorful. See....

I'm down...

But I'm not out. After a whirlwind trip to Minneapolis this past weekend to watch my fabulous brother graduate from Law School, I decided to get sick.

Yup. It seemed like the most logical thing to do. Hey, I was already exhausted and far behind on life because I had been on the road for 4 days, why not add to it with the cold from hell? It wouldn't be so bad, getting over this cold, if someone hadn't slipped roofies into my Robitussin. WHO DID IT - was it you? You? You over there? Someone did it. I took some last night before getting 10 hours of sleep and here it is almost 24 hours later and I'm still feeling it. That's some crazy, strong medicine.

Anywho, I didn't let this cold get me down completely. I managed to spin up 4 yarns yesterday to restock my shop this weekend. You see, one of my yarns was featured as an Etsy find this week which led to a plethora of sales (yay - money dance) and my shop is bare. So, these yarns should help bulk it up. You can drool over them in the picture above, I know you want to... it's okay, I did.

I'm hoping to have beat the sick by this weekend since it's a lovely three day weekend. It might rain all weekend, but that doesn't mean I have to be sick and watch the rain, I can feel better and spin, dye, cook, bake bread... the options are endless.

But for now, for now I go rest with a box of Kleenex beside me.

Heading North

First, I was preoccupied with me new spinning wheel, second, I'll be out of town. This week has obviously not been my star blogger week! I'm heading north to Minneapolis on Thursday with my mom to support my brother as he graduates from Law School - yeah, it's kind of a big deal.

To be honest, I'm not really ready to leave town. It's a busy week at work as we have our best selling show this year taking place starting tonight - Sunday night. There is a private reception that I've been helping plan on Thursday night and I'm not even going to be in town for it - so I'm scrambling to make sure that is good to go. Last night I helped my mom get some shopping done and I had plans locked in place that I couldn't cancel on, tomorrow night I'll be helping my mom pack and get her house ready to leave, and I still need to wash clothes for the trip. That leaves tonight. A little, tiny Tuesday evening.

Don't get me wrong, I'm completely looking forward to a road trip with my mom, but it's just crept up on me. I'll probably be fine once we hit the road around 6AM on Thursday.

So - in the mean time, I won't be spinning yarn, making jewelry or dying wool, but I'm sure you will all survive without me.

A New Toy

If I seem preoccupied for the next few days, it's because I brought home a new baby yesterday. While browsing through Craigslist, I found a spinning wheel for sale. After some research and lots of help from people on Ravelry, I found it was a Mathieson wheel from New Zealand. It came over to NWArkansas by way of Ebay a few years ago, and lucky me, the owner just never got into spinning.

So now it's mine.

I did some work on it last night, spun some yarn, gave it lots of hugs, and I absolutely love it. It spins VERY well and although it won't hold as much yarn as my other wheel, I'll still get a lot of use out of it. I already have this skein of yarn to show off - spun up from some luscious fiber from Hobbledehoy.

I remember now...

Dear Life,

Just in case you think you distracted me with thoughts of gardening and trips to Minneapolis for my brother's Law School graduation, think again. I remembered last night that it wasn't too long ago that I used to spin at least every other day. You almost got me this time, Life, but I remembered... oh yes, I remembered.

Love,

Erin

All it took to remember was a glimpse of a sample batt created by MaraJane over at Etsy. Some conversation between a few people on Twitter about corespinning had me collecting up the sample batt and some core yarn in no time. I spun this lovely sample up and it's so soft and the texture is really fabulous. There is just a bit of sparkle in there for some extra fun. I've also spun up some roving from this shop and I love it all and it comes highly recommended by me. I have a few other mini batts that I've collected over the past year or so and I think they are all going to get spun up this way. It's a great way to show off just a bit of fiber.

And oh yeah, that trip to Minneapolis I mentioned above comes one week too late to visit a fiber festival that both MaraJane and Cloudlover (two of my fave fiberistas) will be selling at. Curse you travel Gods, curse you! I suppose I'll find other things to do while up in the Twin Cities... like maybe visit my brother? :)

Not the Big Stink

Is it possible to think that washing wool could be my next fiber addiction? I started out last night with foul smelling, bland looking wool and this evening, fabulous, gorgeous wool that smells quite nice (I pick out the good soaps). I keep fondling it - it's so smooth... so soft... so wonderful!

Oh, and this comes from Icelandic Sheep raised locally at Bloomin' Acres Farm.

In case you don't already know, unwashed wool/fleece smells like poop. Yup, like poop. Unfortunately, sheep are not animals who pay close attention to their bathing habits and hopefully good things will come from having to put up with the big stink while washing this stuff.

Okay, perhaps I'm being a bit unfair. It's not like I walk into the room it's sitting in right now and I smell it. I have to get right up to it to catch a sniff of that unfortunate smell, but it's still bad.

Last night I was reminded of the fact that I have 1 pound of fleece sitting in a bag just waiting to be washed up and then spun. It's a lovely brownish/grayish mix from a local farm (Bloomin' Acres Farm) and I'm not sure what has taken me so long to finally get around to doing something with it. Perhaps washing sounded so daunting. It really sounds like a bit of task - wash it twice, rinse it twice, wash it some more if needed... it didn't really sound like something I wanted to start until I was good and ready. Well, I was never going to be ready - so I chose tonight.

It's currently hanging out in its second bath and so far, so good.

Oh, and the above picture is the before the bath picture. Hopefully you could tell by looking at it.

you will find me out in the garden... but only occasionally. I go through bursts of gardening energy where I'll spend all week outside and then I'm back indoors for a few weeks. Not sure why it comes and goes like that, but at least it comes. The past couple of weeks have found me with a good deal of gardening energy, but unfortunately, the weather has not cooperated. For the past 6 days it has been rainy and for the past 3 days, cold and rainy. Thankfully I managed to get my veggies into pots before the rain came, but my herbs still are living in seed packages. I do have my mint growing in full force where I planted it last year, but a cook can not live on mint alone. I just wish for one sunny and dry day this week.

Is that so much to ask?

I've also found myself with a burst of spinning energy. I joined a group on Ravelry for people going along with the book Intertwined and spinning the projects presented there. I'm really looking forward to what I come up with and hopefully it will leave me with many new projects to show off here and hopefully sell over in my shop.

Well - I seemed to have just run out of energy blogging about just that! I'm off to find something a bit more energy boosting to do.

May is here

Last year I was at a show right now. It was one of those shows that I had many, many high hopes for and it was a HUGE busy. That is kind of how those work. It's the sneaker shows that do well (you know, the ones that you don't think are going to). I remember that the night before the show opened, there were all kinds of tornado warnings in the town I had my little tent and all of my inventory set up at. Yes, needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night. But you can tell by the above picture, it was all well and good come the next morning. A few tents bit the dust, but our trusty one did not.

This year, I'm not doing any HUGE spring shows. I might go to a few tomorrow, to do some shopping, but I kind of doubt it. I think I'll stick around the house, work on some new designs for summer, dye some wool, bake some bread, head over to the farmers market (if the weather isn't scary) and just enjoy my time at home. It's been a bit of a crazy week, so time at home is welcome.

I am having a bit of a sale over at Idyll Hands - I've added some more items to my sale section here. If you prefer some yarn, I'm having a sale over at Wooly Hands as well - you can see that if you click here. Mention that you saw the sale announced in my blog and I'll refund your shipping via paypal.

For those of you keeping up with my mom - we had her 6 month follow up with the surgeon down at UAMS on Wednesday. The MRI scan was great! I was very happy about that. Sometimes I feel like we're all living three months at a time right now, but as long as those three months come and go with a good MRI, then I'm happy. Now, if only my mom would keep getting better and better and walking would come easier to her.

Well, I'm off to do interesting Friday type things - not sure what those are yet, but I'm sure they will come to me.