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.