Newest Obsession

I have a new obsession!!  Corespinning!

Sorry about the pic :(, I'll take better photos when I'm done with the yarn.

This corespun is spun out of a "Blizzard of '77" batt I made.  It includes merino, falkland, bamboo, firestar, faux cashmere and tinsel.

My obsession came from Pluckyfluff's video on how to make a coil boil (I can't link directly to it, but the link is on this Spin Artiste page).  OMG, I'm in L-O-V-E with coil boils!  They are made by first spinning a corespun yarn (Pluckyfluff spun a coreless corespun), then coiling that corespun onto another core yarn.  After that, the last step is to navajo ply.  The resulting yarn is a super thick, dense yarn which is more like a rope!  It is awesome! 

Have you ever spun art yarn?  If so, are you completely addicted?! 

Small Business Saturday

Today is Small Business Saturday in New York.  It's New York's attempt to make buyers more aware of shopping at small businesses instead of the big box stores during the holiday season.  For Small Business Saturday, I've decided to offer free shipping at my etsy store, just use the code FREESHIP at checkout.  The free shipping code is good now through the end of Cyber Monday!

~Mary

Turkey Trot

Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the US, and one of our family traditions is to participate in Buffalo's annual Turkey Trot.  The Turkey Trot is the countries oldest 5 mile road race and this year there were 14,000 participants!  Of those participants about half dress up in costumes and run the full 5 miles.  Every year you can count on some hilarious costumes...a gingerbread man, Indiana Jones, a bunch of bananas, Santa, his elf's, and his reindeer, and of course turkey.  Oh, I can't forget the gang of people that dress up as flamingos and push a shopping cart of beer the whole run!  And the guys that carry full size canoes on their backs the whole time!

So this year, my sister (the other blog contributor) and I decided to get a little festive and make a couple of turkey hats.  Of course we decided on the hats the night before the Turkey Trot and had to whip these babies up in record time!  I finally started crocheting the first hat at 7pm on Wednesday night.  We worked together and got BOTH hats done by 11pm!  Without further ado...my hat...

We used the Turkey Hat pattern by Kristin Hankins. 

~Mary

Shop Update

I've just updated my etsy shop, Lammie Pie!  Here are a few of the new handpainted tops...

Later today I'll be updating the shop with new stitch markers too, Yay!  The new ones are oh so cute...new sheep designs, more paw prints, and some ferret designs too!  In the future, keep an eye out for bunny stitch markers :).  Also, don't forget stitch markers make great stocking stuffers!

~Mary

Fiber Fiesta Weekend

Instead of enjoying the unseasonably warm weather this weekend like I should have been, I was hunkered down in my basement playing with fiber.

Handpainted fiber drying:

I've also been working on a few sweaters.  The first is for my friends 3 month old baby girl. Of course my dog, Sidney, had to get in the picture.

I used the Little Coffee Bean Cardigan pattern.  Instead of changing colors every 2 rows, like the pattern calls for, I made my stripes 4 rows each. 

The second sweater is for my husband...his first hand knit sweater:

 It looks like a huge oversized hat! 

I'm using the raglan sweater pattern from the book Knitting without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  I obviously have only knit the body and haven't gotten to any of the hard parts, so we will see if it really is indeed knitting without tears!

~Mary

New Add in's

I'm so excited!  Last night a wonderful package of what else but fiber arrived!! Yay!  I ordered some fiber add in's for my batts in my etsy shop...I got some recycled sari silk - black and multi color, firestar, faux cashmere, and some glitz.  I'm especially excited about the recycled sari silk since buying it supports women in India. Isn't that awesome?

I'm planning on dedicating my weekend to fiber arts...dying, washing, carding, and making batts.  So hopefully I should have a shop update by the end of Sunday.  I will also be using some newly washed black shetland in the batts this weekend!  The fleece is from a sheep named Olivia...

On another note, please wish my sweet bunny, Rutherford, luck today.  I dropped him off at the exotic specialist vet this morning for surgery on his eyes and teeth.  :(

~Mary

Loving Fall

Well, I don't have a fiber related post for you today, so I thought I would share cute pics of my ADORABLE pup.  I mean, who doesn't like dog pictures?!

Shop Update!

My etsy shop, Lammie Pie, has been updated!  Here are some of the new items...