There is a very nice gentleman I work with who really has an appreciation for handmade things. Before Christmas he commissioned me to make him a scarf, but before I could get going on it he commissioned me again to make a pair of fingerless mitts for another coworker for Christmas. After I finished those he asked for another pair for her daughter. It’s a great pattern…very simple and good for showing off hand dyed yarn. I’ve made them before for myself and my niece, and after I made the two pairs for the man I work with, I had enough yarn left over to knit up another pair for my friend Maiya, who has very cold hands at work. Here is Maiya’s pair:

If you’d like the pattern, you can find it here  on Ravelry. They’re called Easy Handspun Mitts. They use sock yarn. Great for knitting while watching TV.

Finally, when I was done knitting 4000 pairs of fingerless mitts (or three pairs in a row…which feels like 4000 pairs) I got started on the scarf. Click here for the pattern. I used my own Mustard Seed Yarn Lab yarn, a bulky weight I called Triton. I started this scarf over 4 times or more, trying to get the right size, the right density, using different needles and tweaking the pattern just a bit. Wanna see what I have so far?

Oooohhh…cables. I love cables, but I’m not crazy about knitting them. And I have to say I’m horribly nervous that this scarf is going to roll itself up into a tube when it’s done, even after I block it. I keep saying, “No no, once you block it, it will be fine. It will straighten out and lay flat. Don’t worry so much. You are amazing. And those dishes can sit in the sink awhile longer.” But that other voice in my head keeps saying, “If it’s rolling itself into a tube now, blocking will only help it for a little while…and then it will roll up on the poor man once he starts wearing it. What are you going to do, block it for him every week, like a dry cleaning service? And that kitchen is starting to look like a disaster.”

Not sure which voice to listen to, I decided to just keep going. I’ve simply got too much time invested into this scarf, and the thought of ripping it out (again) and trying to figure out a way to make it not curl….sigh….I just don’t want to. (whine) So we’ll see what happens after it’s blocked.

So would you like to see some other people’s creations made with my yarn? I sold my Robot Takeover yarn to my friend Amy a long time ago…in fact, she was one of my very first sales. She finally had a chance to knit it up and I wanted to share her creation:

And then we have Hallie in CT. Hallie bought my Fire Storm yarn and recently sent me this picture of some fingerless mitts she knitted up during Hurricane Sandy as a gift for a cousin.

Hallie doesn’t know this but that yarn was originally dyed by request for Julia Roberts. No really! I got a request one day from a Julia Roberts on Etsy to make some yarn that looked like my Inferno yarn, but with less pink. She wanted to make a poncho for her 7 year old son. There was no personal information about her on her profile, but I had a feeling it could very well be THE Julia Roberts. After all, Julia is a knitter and has a son that age…and a daughter. Twins. So I dyed up 3 skeins of it and thought it came out even better than the original yarn she had liked, but when I sent her the picture, alas, she said her son had changed his mind, and that sometimes he was even pickier than her daughter. So this Julia Roberts was a) a knitter  b) had a son the right age and c) had a daughter too! That’s all the convincing I needed. In my head, it was her. And it’s ok that she ended up not wanting it….I had told her I would dye it up and show her the picture and there was no pressure to take the yarn. And in the end, all worked out for the best, because Hallie bought Julia’s yarn and made something beautiful! So Hallie, if you’re reading this, you can tell your friends you snagged yarn made for Julia Roberts. And that’s not a lie…the person’s name really was Julia Roberts.   I guess we’ll never know for sure  

BTW, I just finished The Kitchen House, which I really liked. Next up : Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I’ve heard good things about it. Anyone else out there read it? Is it as good as all the hype?

It’s been way too long. I haven’t posted anything since October 7th. And now I don’t know where to start. Do I backtrack and tell you a whole bunch of stuff you missed? That is such an overwhelming thought… and that’s why I haven’t posted anything. And the longer I wait, the more I have to report on! It’s a mad cycle, and if I don’t post something soon, I might just give up altogether….and then my sister would KILL me!

Hmmm…so remember when I was going nuts trying to dye up enough yarn over the summer for the two fairs I was doing in the Fall? Well, I managed to dye up somewhere between 150-200 skeins. My booth was lovely….

….but I only sold a couple skeins. Between the cost of the booth fee and the money spent on everything I needed to beautify my booth, I lost money. The same thing happened with my second fair….

…that’s my yarn on the right, and my sister’s yarn on the left. She shared each booth with me. I only sold a couple of skeins during the second fair too, leading me to believe that fairs are just not the venue to sell hand-dyed yarn. Not these types of fairs anyways.

It was a lot of fun though. My mom was there hanging out with us and making friends left and right. My friend Vicki was there showing off her spinning skills and keeping the crowds entertained. And it was all a good experience…one that taught me that selling on Etsy makes way more sense for me than trying to sell in a fair.

So there’s a little catch-up for ya. I think I’ll stop here and just do a little bit each upcoming post so as not to drown myself. Plus, I’m reading a really good book I can barely put down, and I’m itching to get in my jammies and go to bed and read. I highly recommend The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.

Goodnight everyone. 

So much has been going on. Things have been getting done. Mustard Seed Yarn Lab has become a tiny bit more popular this month with 6 Etsy sales! (I typically have been averaging 2 to 3 Etsy sales a month.) I could spend this entire post catching you up on all the goings-on, but I won’t. That just feels too overwhelming to me and I already feel a little overwhelmed with life as it is, so I’ll just tell you a little bit.

I now have a Facebook page for my business! Please head over to www.facebook.com/mustardseedyarnlab to ‘like’ my page if you’d like to know a bit more about what goes on in the lab from day to day (or at least every few days). I’ve been posting all the new yarn creations there as they come into existence. Sometimes I need name ideas and I love getting feedback.

I have 1000 business cards coming my way. They were designed by my husband, as was my logo. And my blog will soon be undergoing some major changes as well. His graphic design talent never ceases to amaze me. And he’s cheap too! (Well, if you’re married to him.)  If anyone reading this needs something designed, (business cards, a logo, a website) let me know and I can direct you to him.

So last night my friend came over for dinner and for a little catch up time. I told her I could sit and talk with her but I had to dye yarn while she was here, because I’m still desperately trying to finish 200 skeins before September. She offered her help, and MAN, did she help!

The hardest part of dyeing yarn for me is reskeining the skeins that need to be reskeined. Some I leave as is, because I like the way they look the way they are, but most need to have the colors redistributed to really get a better idea of what they’ll look like knitted into something. This hurts my back. A LOT. To do this you use a niddy noddy and wind the yarn around it a million times. I typically won’t reskein more than one a day. Well, Wendy, my strong, volleyball playing friend, wound 10 SKEINS for me in one night!! And all I did was make her soup! Talk about cheap labor. If a bowl of homemade creamy chicken and rice soup gets me 10 skeins reskeined, next time I’m going to make her filet mignon and see what happens.

May has been the busiest month ever!! Where do I start?

My little man turned 5 years old on May 12th and we had a small party for him. Here he is the morning of his birthday. A brand new 5 year old! (He loves randomly wearing gardening gloves. He thinks they make him look extra cool.)

He got some really great presents, but one of his favorites is this:

The next day was Mother’s Day, and we had a great dinner at Nana and Grandpa’s house. It was a gorgeous weekend, weather-wise, and a perfect Mother’s Day.

The next day I started my new full time job. I really like it! It’s complicated and harder than I had thought it would be, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it and work with really nice people. PATIENT people. It’s a good atmosphere. But I’m still having a hard time getting used to having a job outside of the house again. The days feel so much shorter, and life feels so much busier. I was only there 4 days before we took off and went to FL to see my mom and go to Epcot for Emmet’s birthday. The best part was that my brother Ricky, his wife and grandkids all came too…from CALIFORNIA! Every day was nothing but fun.

Emmet with Grandma:

The little cousins together…it’s hard to believe my brother is a GRANDPA!

And here’s my brother and mom waiting in line with the kids at Epcot:

Hope and Emmet struck up a special friendship. Emmet says he’s going to marry her someday.

Ricky, Sheree, and Emily and Hope…in Morocco!

We got a wheelchair for my mom while at Epcot, because she was worried she wouldn’t be able to handle all the walking. The kids LOVED it. My mom got to use the wheelchair maybe 30% of the time, and the kids took it over the rest of the day. Here we are at the end of the day…notice who’s in the wheelchair?

And this is us on our last morning at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Emmet took this picture:

The next weekend was a long weekend. Do you know why? Are you guessing Memorial Day? Nope! It was my birthday weekend. Some people think they get Monday off because of the national holiday, but it’s really because of my birthday. You’re welcome.

I threw myself a small BBQ and was joined by a few of my favorite people.

Here are Cooper and Emmet riding Emmet’s Gator. Cooper and Emmet were born one day apart.

My second night in the hospital, Mike went into the hospital kitchen to get me something, and came back and told me that there was some dude in there looking for a corkscrew because he’d just had a baby and he and his wife had a bottle of wine to open. I was very jealous, and joked around with Mike about finding their room and asking them to share their wine with us.  We met them again a few days later at the pediatrician’s office, when we were taking the boys for their first checkups. After a few more chance meetings, I finally asked for their phone number and made a date to hang out. It was the boys’ first playdate ever! 5 years later, the boys are still great buddies and love playing together.

Here is Tim and Maiya, Cooper’s dad and mom:

They also had another baby 2 years ago, and he’s the happiest, cutest little man I know. His name is Bode:

Wendy, Melissa and Evan were also in attendance at my gathering. They are not only my friends, they are my family. I have the greatest friends in the world.

Tomorrow I celebrate 7 years of being married to the love of my life. I hope for many more years with this wonderful guy:

It’s kind of a weird looking picture of both of us, but I like this one anyway. In real life, we’re each much more super-model-ish. 

I will post again soon, as I have many yarny things to show you AND something yarny-exciting to tell you! You’ll have to wait though…this is like a cliff hanger.

So, I had last Friday off, and I promised some pictures of what I did all day. I started off by unwrapping a pound of Alpaca/Merino wool.

Then I weighed it……

….separating it into 4oz balls:

Then I soaked it in a water/citric acid mix for 30 minutes:

And layed it out over Saran Wrap over a tupperware top:

The above picture is both of those balls you saw. So it’s 8oz layed out evenly, waiting for dye.

I squirt the dye onto the roving with squirt bottles or a syringe. Here it is half done…..

This Aplaca roving is about a quarter of the thickness of the usual roving I dye, and it was sooo much easier to get the dye spread evenly throughout the fiber.

After I apply about 2 colors, I have to drain the excess water into the sink, hence putting everything on top of a movable tupperware cover. For the one above, I wanted a mixture of earthy colors. It easily takes me an hour or more just applying dye….this thin roving went quickly as I didn’t have to struggle so badly to get the dye soaked through.   When complete, I pull up the Saran Wrap from the edges and just wrap it into a tube-like shape, place in a colander and steam it for 30 minutes in a large pot. Below you can see it cooling off outside:

The roving is wrapped in the colander at the bottom of the picture. The pot at the top contains different roving I dyed that same day in a different way.

I have a sad story about the roving at the top. But first, would you like to see how the Alpaca turned out?

The two on the left are the ones you have been looking at pictures of. You may be thinking it looks quite different than you expected…..me too! I am always surprised to see how different roving looks when it dries. It’s so much darker when wet, and misleading. But this time, I’m happy with the final product. I dyed the blueish-gray one the next day and I love them both. The Alpaca is super soft and fluffy, and I’m itching to spin them into yarn myself.

So, remember how I said I had a sad story about the other roving? Well, it started out a beautiful mix of Merino and silk…like melted butter. So soft and slippery and wonderful I think it was more fun to rub against your face than to actually spin. I’ve dyed it many times before, always in the way I showed you….laying it out, squirting the dye onto it, steaming it…but this time I had a better idea. This time I decided I might get more even distribution of color if I kettle dyed it, like I do the yarn.

I soaked it:

And then I dyed it in the pot, making mostly 2 different colors for this one:

Then I took the pot outside to completely cool down before rinsing:

Same thing with the other, which I decided to dye 3 different colorways, first starting with red and yellow/beige:

Then adding green and letting cool down:

And when they were done, I was extremely happy with the results. Squeaky, jump up and down happy with the results. I must embarrassingly admit, there was some patting myself on the back when I saw how beautiful these came out. Strong color, evenly spread throughout the thick roving….I really thought I had this down.

Lovely, no?

Well, I’m not completely sure, and I’ll be sure to bring them to my knitting group tonight to have the spinning experts check them out, but I’m pretty sure I felted them. MAYBE not the blue/green one, but I’m fairly sure the red/green one is useless. How? I don’t know!! I was so careful. I handle them gently. I don’t let them touch water colder than they are. I wait for them to completely cool down in their dyebath before I even think about rinsing. What went wrong??  I’ve never had this happen when I steam the roving. My bright idea didn’t turn out to be such a good idea after all. For now, I will go back to painting the roving and steaming it. I might try kettle dyeing it again sometime, but maybe not with such expensive roving.

I have more yarn to show you, including a couple specially requested skeins I dyed for an old friend, but this post is pretty long, so I’ll save that for another time.