Moving day!

Hi all!

I've moved! I'm blogging now at mycolourwheelhouse.com, so go on over and follow me there :)

I'm going to be doing my usual posting, but there is going to be a heavier emphasis on dying and my Etsy shop, so I hope you'll join me on this journey.

Yarn Shop is Open!

Bonus night off! Knitting by the fire instead of working :)

Tonight is a very special night because although I'm scheduled to work a night shift, I am instead home drinking hot chocolate by the fire. It's still unbelievably quiet at work, so I'm using some vacation time and taking the night off, which feels like a great indulgence right now. Unfortunately I'm still on call, otherwise my cocoa would have a bit of a "kick". It's still divine :)

So, my big news is that I've opened an Etsy shop. mycolourwheelhouse.etsy.com (notice that colour has a "u" in it as that's the Canadian spelling - we put "u"s euverywhere). As some close friends may be aware, I've been dabbling with dyes over the past year or so. I started by playing with Indigo and dyed some roving that I then spun and gifted to Moira. I tried out some other botanical dyes too and had lots of fun playing with mordants and cutch and adding iron to see what would happen. I did some Kool-Aid dyeing for my friend Janelle's baby, then I bought an acid-dye starter kit at the Belfast Mini Mills and things spiraled from there. I had so much fun playing with the colours in the kit and LOVE all my colour-babies, but it was once I broke it down to the primaries that my heart really started to sing (hence my logo). There is no going back. I'm a dyer.

I have incredibly strong memories of creativity from my childhood. I took so much joy in crafting and making. My mom kept what she called my "paper box", which was a huge box (about the size of a suitcase you would need to put in checked baggage) filled with all of my crafts and papers and markers and scissors and all kinds of other things for making. The box lived under my bed and always came with us on family road trips. I would entertain myself for hours with no need for TV or even company. Every gift-giving occasion brought more craft supplies, ranging from glue sticks and paper when I was wee to real pastels and beautiful water colours when I was older. I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but at some point in my life I bought into a lie that I was not a creative person. Maybe it was because I can't draw a straight line to save my life, or because my lack of spacial awareness makes it impossible for me to create an accurate representation of the human form on canvas or in any other medium (or to go to the washroom at night without bumping into the wall). Colour, though... That's for me. I wish I had known it sooner, but better late than never. I want to tell everyone I meet! I am a creative person! I want to spend every second of every day playing with colour and I want to share my joy with everyone! So here goes :)

Weeks in Review

Obviously, I've been spending a lot of time dyeing. Since I'm working in the kitchen we also use to prepare food, there is a fair amount of prep, set-up, and de-contamination involved, so I really need to have a day when Jeff is not around wanting to do crazy things like prepare or eat food.  I have to make my plan the night before and get all my supplies ready, make sure I have all the primary I will need mixed up, have my yarns ready to soak, etc. Then in the morning, I set up after coffee and breakfast. I've found it's best not to start opening any dye solutions until Jeff has gone for the day, because I get really stressed about food or drink being consumed in the same area I'm using to dye (even though I'm primarily using Greener Shades dyes, which are supposedly much less toxic). Then I have the whole day to dye and heat set and soak to my hearts content. Then I let my yarns dry on the clothes rack by the fire and re-skein them a couple of days later! I figure I'm only going to have time to do this a couple of times a month, especially since getting the yarn labeled and sent out is quite time-consuming as well, so I'm trying to work out some ways to make my dyeing days more efficient. 

I also started my statistics course last week, which is really stressing me out, so I'm not going to talk about it right now :) More on that another time... Maybe.

I've also been picking away at my last little bit of Christmas shopping, and besides a bottle of wine for my parents and something to go with Jeff's sweater, I'm finished shopping! I still have a few little handmade things, like Jeff's sweater, my mom's bag, and mitts for Janelle's wee bairn, but those will be done in good time.

Swapetition is wrapping up too! I got a beautiful parcel from my partner and I LOVE it! The swapetition theme was "keeping it local", and my partner is from Texas, so I got a bunch of things that I would never find here. I ate pralines for the first time in my life and now I really need to find a source of them around here. Aside from incredibly delicious Texan treats, she also sent some really thoughtful gifts and a note that made me really glad there are such nice people in the world. I nominated her for a prize and I really hope she wins :).

I've been able to go to knitting group the last couple of weeks, which has been nice. Coffee Guy LOVES his mug cozy and the next week after I gave it to him, he came over to our table to show me photos of the cozy on his mug at home! He was so pleased that it really made me want to make him another one! But I won't do that. No time.

Acquisitions

I bought yarn. I got a skein of Squoosh Fiberarts in their Merino Cashmere Sock (Imperial colourway); a skein of Socks That Rock Heavyweight in the Tomatillo colourway; a Miss Babbs Cosmic in Ruby Spinel; a skein of Handmaiden Casbah in Topaz; and a skein of Sweet Georgia's Tough Love Sock in the Terra Firma colourway. Phew! OH MY GOD, I LOVE THEM! I bought them all on the net and they were worth every extra penny.

I also got some fabric from The Loopy Ewe that I'm going to use to make my mom's Christmas tote. I'm so excited... I think she's going to love it :)

F.O.s

The only thing I've finished is a pair of mittens I made for myself! After making mittens for most of my family this year, I finally took pity on my own cold hands and made myself a pair of beautiful mittens from the merino/possum yarn that Jeff's parents brought me from New Zealand a couple of years ago. It's so lovely and soft and it made some very warm mitts. 

W.I.P.s

The only thing I'm working on right now is a pair of thumbless mittens for my friend Janelle's 8 month old babe. No pattern necessary for this little ditty, and I'm using some leftover Tosh Chunky from the sweaters I made for my niece and nephew last year.

I did make a swatch for a pair of sport weight socks that I'm going to make for myself out of my own hand-dyed yarn. It's a 75/25 blend of superwash merino and nylon and it's my favourite colourway. I called this one Fruit Salad since it makes me think of a bowl full of cantaloupe with pineapple and purple grapes and arctic kiwis. Oh my God, my mouth is actually watering. I wish I could get my hands on some arctic kiwis, but alas, 9 months to go. Anyway, I really like this colour and I plan to make it a staple in my Etsy shop.

On my Screen/In my Ears

I finished Outlander last night, so I'm onto A Dragonfly in Amber again. I enjoyed it thoroughly (as usual!), but I had kind of forgotten how x-rated the early books are. They're all a bit graphic, but the first few books really make me blush! I could not listen in a crowded room!

I've been watching all my usual podcasts, and over the last few days there were new episodes of Knitting in Stitches (which is my fave and everyone ever should watch), Minerva Turkey Knits, The Fat Squirrel Speaks, and We are Yarn. Oh my goodness, they're all so good this week... Who am I kidding, they always are. I've also recently discovered a new audio podcast I really like! It's the Knitting Pretty Podcast and it's fantastic! It's relatively new and the host is Canadian. She's well-spoken and knowledgeable and she has a lot of content about how fashion trends relate to knitting. A really great listen, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Show and Tell

My logo!!!

Here is what I started with - the three primaries and black

And here is what I got! I love all my squishy babies :)

Here is my swapetition package in its entirety (minus several pieces of jerky)
Thank you Savvy Girls for hosting such a fun swap!

Pocket Jamie loves pralines!

Yup... I'm definitely a wool pig.

For my Mom's gift.The main fabric is the blue squares with the yellow for the base and straps,
and the bag will be lined with chevrons. I'm not 100% sure yet whether I'll put in a zipper or not.

My mittens! They're so cute!

My swatch with Fruit Salad. I'll cast these on as soon as I finish the mitts for
Janelle's little one :)

That's all for now!