Just like that, several months of bloggy neglect have passed.
I returned from Maryland Sheep and Wool thinking about taking a month off to work on developing new batty ideas and tinker with some of my non-wooly hobbies, but I'm really anxious to get back to my carders and routines. I did build a wooden playhouse, plant a small veggie garden, and help my toddler plant her very own flower garden. I also bought hiking boots for section-hiking the PA portion of the Appalachian trail with my dad. But today I'm craving some studio time, so down I go into my cozy basement studio to drum up some whimsies and listen to podcasts.
5.16.2013
2.12.2013
sari
I recently ran out of loose recycled sari silk, a staple in my textured batt-making, so I ordered more from my favorite wholesaler and was surprised that it arrived in a new form - carded roving!
The staple is super-short and a bit challenging, but it's spinnable as-is. I've been using it to add sari-silk stripes in core-spun yarn, though I also tried spinning a thin single approximately dk weight, and that was really interesting too. Of course, the BEST use for this gorgeousness is carding. Add a sprinkle here or there sandwiched between two layers of fine wool for a confetti-batt, or feed directly onto the drum and "paint" the sari silk wherever you'd like it. I also finally ordered lovely sari silk threads, which my Louet Classic accepts hungrily without damaged teeth.
The staple is super-short and a bit challenging, but it's spinnable as-is. I've been using it to add sari-silk stripes in core-spun yarn, though I also tried spinning a thin single approximately dk weight, and that was really interesting too. Of course, the BEST use for this gorgeousness is carding. Add a sprinkle here or there sandwiched between two layers of fine wool for a confetti-batt, or feed directly onto the drum and "paint" the sari silk wherever you'd like it. I also finally ordered lovely sari silk threads, which my Louet Classic accepts hungrily without damaged teeth.
I've been adding globs and tangles of this beautiful mess into my ArtBatts and am now tempted to spin a chunky black alpaca yarn with giant globs of rainbow sari-silk and silver angelina sparkle. Or maybe a white sparkle-batt with giant chunks of random colors.. I just want to spin this madness, but I've got a pile-up of rainbowish bagged fiber to card, and three seasons of Downton Abbey in my queue. I can't lose, it's going to be a great night in the studio after the littles are tucked in!
2.11.2013
carder-love
What a blur.
My little bear is nearly 3 months old and I'm having trouble remembering anything. Some mornings, I pull him out of bed and wonder where he came from.
Living this double-life of making and mothering is is both exhilarating and exhausting, and I'm going to make a goal out of spinning around my children sometimes in order to blend the two roles. Other women seem to manage it. I'm sure it will become easier once the little guy is mobile and can interact more with his doting sister, and I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to this wiggly little fellow getting around on his own.
Since my last post, I've spent hours and hours with my new Louet Classic carder. We've got a serious relationship developing - the batts I'm pulling off that beast are inspiring me to spin more, and I'm finally making the yarns I dreamed of making when I began spinning in the first place. Like this:
And check out how sweet it is to my itty bitty curly BFL locks:
All of the texture and spontaneity I'm able to preserve with the LC has inspired me to whip up Battlings with texture, and I've been whipping those little bubs out in mass quantities for both my Etsy shop and Maryland Sheep & Wool.
Thanks to my mom watching the little guy 2x a week, I'm making some serious progress on Maryland Sheep and Wool preparations. I'll even have more this year than last year - about 200 ArtBatts and dozens and dozens of exciting packages of pretty fibers and batts in varying quantities. I haven't unleashed a huge shop update in a few weeks partially due to my MDSW prep, but I'll get there.. eventually.
1.16.2013
Year of the Bear // BlogTalk interview
Happy belated New Year! I made a loose list of resolutions, but everything boiled down to one over-arching goal/theme : this is my last year mothering an infant.
With our tiny family complete, I want to be sure I enjoy every little pinch of time with my sweet baby boy. I'm still planning on full-time woolywork, as I've posted before, my family uses my little business's income for our everyday living expenses like groceries, medical care, etc. We're still digging out of the financial hole left by years of my husband's unemployment, but I'm starting to see the other side of this ditch and am optimistic that by the end of 2013, we'll be closer to our family's financial goals. Miles away still, yes, but closer is good enough for now, and I have to be content with the speed of this process.
So, in my year of soaking up Little Bear's infancy, I've decided on the following tiny changes for Hobbledehoy that will probably end after 2013, but are necessary for time management this year. There will be no subscription clubs, special/custom orders, collaborations, or vending events other than Maryland Sheep and Wool. There will be trades (I LOVE trading on a small scale with fellow fiber artists!), the opportunity for customers to reserve or hold items - or notification if I make something similar to what they were hoping for, and there will be an amazing display of fibery goodness available at Maryland Sheep and Wool. I'm sure that fellow parents will understand, and if you are a fiber artist who does take custom order or creates spectacular subscription clubs, please let me know if you'd like to be on a list that I provide to my customers seeking those items. I've always referred customers to other fiber artists when I'm unable to fill a request, and will continue to do so this year.
Whew.
It feels so heavy to type out what I'm unable to do this year, and who knows, things may change towards the end of this year, but I'm happily consumed with keeping batty production flowing for MDS&W, my shop, and spending time with my family. Also, Bear has a classic case of colic - 3 hours of nightly screaming. Three. hours. I've read Happiest Baby on the Block and have tried everything. He'll outgrow it, I'm sure, but it's pretty rough right now.
On an exciting note, I am honored to have been asked by Natalie Redding of Namaste Farms to participate in one of her BlogTalk interviews! Please tune in tomorrow (Thursday) at 9pm EST to hear me chat with her and Kimberly McAlindin. I'm a tiny pinch nervous as I've never been interviewed live before, but I'm anxious to gush about batts, one of my favorite topics in the whole world. Plus, it's exciting to speak with the purveyor of such luxury fleeces! I seriously need to get my hands on some of her lovely fiber, soon! I'm a long-time admirer of her beautiful fiber, sadly from afar.
Eeep, one last piece of news, I invested in a Louet Classic Drumcarder! I'm in LOVE with it's appetite for textured fibers and it's output of high-contrast fluffnormous batts. Update scheduled for Friday, my indoor photography equipment hasn't arrived yet and my outdoor photoshoot is covered in ice and snow. Brrr! This update will be 100% ArtBatt.
With our tiny family complete, I want to be sure I enjoy every little pinch of time with my sweet baby boy. I'm still planning on full-time woolywork, as I've posted before, my family uses my little business's income for our everyday living expenses like groceries, medical care, etc. We're still digging out of the financial hole left by years of my husband's unemployment, but I'm starting to see the other side of this ditch and am optimistic that by the end of 2013, we'll be closer to our family's financial goals. Miles away still, yes, but closer is good enough for now, and I have to be content with the speed of this process.
So, in my year of soaking up Little Bear's infancy, I've decided on the following tiny changes for Hobbledehoy that will probably end after 2013, but are necessary for time management this year. There will be no subscription clubs, special/custom orders, collaborations, or vending events other than Maryland Sheep and Wool. There will be trades (I LOVE trading on a small scale with fellow fiber artists!), the opportunity for customers to reserve or hold items - or notification if I make something similar to what they were hoping for, and there will be an amazing display of fibery goodness available at Maryland Sheep and Wool. I'm sure that fellow parents will understand, and if you are a fiber artist who does take custom order or creates spectacular subscription clubs, please let me know if you'd like to be on a list that I provide to my customers seeking those items. I've always referred customers to other fiber artists when I'm unable to fill a request, and will continue to do so this year.
Whew.
It feels so heavy to type out what I'm unable to do this year, and who knows, things may change towards the end of this year, but I'm happily consumed with keeping batty production flowing for MDS&W, my shop, and spending time with my family. Also, Bear has a classic case of colic - 3 hours of nightly screaming. Three. hours. I've read Happiest Baby on the Block and have tried everything. He'll outgrow it, I'm sure, but it's pretty rough right now.
On an exciting note, I am honored to have been asked by Natalie Redding of Namaste Farms to participate in one of her BlogTalk interviews! Please tune in tomorrow (Thursday) at 9pm EST to hear me chat with her and Kimberly McAlindin. I'm a tiny pinch nervous as I've never been interviewed live before, but I'm anxious to gush about batts, one of my favorite topics in the whole world. Plus, it's exciting to speak with the purveyor of such luxury fleeces! I seriously need to get my hands on some of her lovely fiber, soon! I'm a long-time admirer of her beautiful fiber, sadly from afar.
Eeep, one last piece of news, I invested in a Louet Classic Drumcarder! I'm in LOVE with it's appetite for textured fibers and it's output of high-contrast fluffnormous batts. Update scheduled for Friday, my indoor photography equipment hasn't arrived yet and my outdoor photoshoot is covered in ice and snow. Brrr! This update will be 100% ArtBatt.
12.11.2012
dusting off the dye pots!
I haven't dyed in months. It's too awkward to dye when large and pregnant, so I avoided it for the bulk of my 3rd trimester, but today, I had a hankering for some color and a brand new bump of wool arrived a week ago. My mom came over to snuggle the baby and I used every burner on the stove + 3 electric burners and blazed through a full 22 lb. bump of Merino and about 5 lbs. of BFL in four hours.
Just last week, we celebrated my toddler's 3rd birthday, and I'm sure her gift has nudged me back into feeling artsy. We bought her an easel, and I could wallpaper the house with a weekend's worth of toddler art. Love love love.
Even though my little babe sleeps a lot, he's started to wake more during the night, so I'm imagining an hour of carding each day will be just enough to give me some me-time with my favorite wooly activity without making me go loopier than I already am. I haven't knit a single stitch, and my wheel has been inactive. All I want to do is cuddle the baby, play with my dinosaur-princess-toddler, and keep the house from spiraling into chaos.. and now, card! I can't believe how anxious I am to get into a new routine, and how easy it is to manage sleep deprivation the second time around.
Just last week, we celebrated my toddler's 3rd birthday, and I'm sure her gift has nudged me back into feeling artsy. We bought her an easel, and I could wallpaper the house with a weekend's worth of toddler art. Love love love.
Even though my little babe sleeps a lot, he's started to wake more during the night, so I'm imagining an hour of carding each day will be just enough to give me some me-time with my favorite wooly activity without making me go loopier than I already am. I haven't knit a single stitch, and my wheel has been inactive. All I want to do is cuddle the baby, play with my dinosaur-princess-toddler, and keep the house from spiraling into chaos.. and now, card! I can't believe how anxious I am to get into a new routine, and how easy it is to manage sleep deprivation the second time around.
12.01.2012
my new little one
I'm so happy to share that my son Ira was born on 11/14 at 4:46am. He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz. and was 21.5" long at birth. It was a wild and fast labor with no gory details that I can remember, though I was in a hazy fog of pain and can't remember much other than I barely made it to the hospital in time - he was out and nursing about 40 minutes after we arrived.
I was discharged from the hospital the very next day, and though I didn't feel quite ready, we packed up and arrived home in time to pick Ingrid up from preschool. I'm still not feeling quite ready (emotionally/mentally) to juggle it all, but I'm fortunate to have both my parents and in-laws nearby for help!
Ira is a sweet and content little fellow. He's perpetually hungry, but other than that - not too fussy yet. He's even started sleeping a 5 hour stretch each night, which is absolutely luxurious for me if I can get into bed early when he starts the stretch around 10pm. Ira seems so strong and hardy compared to his preemie sister - he can already hold his head up for a while, is acing tummy time with plenty of kicking and head rolling and even pushing himself a couple of inches forward on the carpet, and he follows movement and sounds with his eyes - some of these milestones took my little Ingrid months. I'm also convinced he's gained at least 1 lb. since birth! Our only issue was a pinch of jaundice (like everyone else in our family), but he never had high enough levels to need the lights, so we won't be seeing the pediatrician for a full month after his initial "new patient" office visit. He has a full head of short chocolate brown hair, dark navy blue eyes, and an adorable little button nose. I think he's a handsome fella, but I'm clearly biased.
Ingrid is madly in love with her new brother, though I'm seeing the green-eyed monster more frequently, especially when he's cluster-feeding in the mornings and evenings. I'm sure this jealousy phase will pass, but for now, one on one time is still very important to her and we're desperately trying to carve out little niches of time for make-believe play and crafts when the little bear is snoozing.
I'll be adding one hour of MDS&W prep each day starting next week, especially if little Ira continues his current napping schedule, though in all honesty - I'm just not ready to even think about jumping back into fiber just yet. I tried spinning the other day but it didn't work out so well, and I ended up taking an extra-long bubble bath instead. The enthusiasm will return, but until then, I don't want to fret away my little one's sweet babyhood with a strict production schedule. Our family is complete now, so these are my last "newborn days" until grandparenthood, and I plan on savoring them as much as possible. My booth at Maryland might have the same amount of product as last year instead of the extra I had planned, but that will be good enough!
I was discharged from the hospital the very next day, and though I didn't feel quite ready, we packed up and arrived home in time to pick Ingrid up from preschool. I'm still not feeling quite ready (emotionally/mentally) to juggle it all, but I'm fortunate to have both my parents and in-laws nearby for help!
Ira is a sweet and content little fellow. He's perpetually hungry, but other than that - not too fussy yet. He's even started sleeping a 5 hour stretch each night, which is absolutely luxurious for me if I can get into bed early when he starts the stretch around 10pm. Ira seems so strong and hardy compared to his preemie sister - he can already hold his head up for a while, is acing tummy time with plenty of kicking and head rolling and even pushing himself a couple of inches forward on the carpet, and he follows movement and sounds with his eyes - some of these milestones took my little Ingrid months. I'm also convinced he's gained at least 1 lb. since birth! Our only issue was a pinch of jaundice (like everyone else in our family), but he never had high enough levels to need the lights, so we won't be seeing the pediatrician for a full month after his initial "new patient" office visit. He has a full head of short chocolate brown hair, dark navy blue eyes, and an adorable little button nose. I think he's a handsome fella, but I'm clearly biased.
I'll be adding one hour of MDS&W prep each day starting next week, especially if little Ira continues his current napping schedule, though in all honesty - I'm just not ready to even think about jumping back into fiber just yet. I tried spinning the other day but it didn't work out so well, and I ended up taking an extra-long bubble bath instead. The enthusiasm will return, but until then, I don't want to fret away my little one's sweet babyhood with a strict production schedule. Our family is complete now, so these are my last "newborn days" until grandparenthood, and I plan on savoring them as much as possible. My booth at Maryland might have the same amount of product as last year instead of the extra I had planned, but that will be good enough!
10.25.2012
one last batty blast
Ok, here it goes! One final blast of batts from my studio, and then .. well, shipping it all out and making sure I don't have any loose ends hanging, but then - maternity leave! I'm really looking forward to spending the next two weeks puttering around and finishing laundry and figuring out storage solutions for all of this baby gear that I've been digging out.
Here's a collage of the whole shebang that's going up tonight.
I had hopes of finishing up a couple of new RollyBatt colorways, but after a driving band failure on one of my carders (and way too much time spent obsessing over fixing it!), I ended up storing those projects for later. Who knows, I might get the itch to delve into the studio within a few weeks, but I think a break from the studio is just the thing I need to start bonding with my new bub.
Here's a collage of the whole shebang that's going up tonight.
I had hopes of finishing up a couple of new RollyBatt colorways, but after a driving band failure on one of my carders (and way too much time spent obsessing over fixing it!), I ended up storing those projects for later. Who knows, I might get the itch to delve into the studio within a few weeks, but I think a break from the studio is just the thing I need to start bonding with my new bub.
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