Days....

Lots of things take days, some several days, some things takes a few years.

My friend Jessica dreaded most of my hair for me the other day and cut me some cute bangs. It took pretty much ALL day! Totally worth it though and I never could have done them on my own. :D
I crocheted a dread wrap for myself today from various different yarns. Some of them were my own handspun, some were from fellow spinners.

 My dreads are nearly done but will take probably about a year to look really good. I'm looking forward to that. It took me nearly two years to grow my hair to the lengthy that I felt they would look good to make and a whole lot of debating to decide to do them finally.

You know what takes a few years though? Making 300 sales in my etsy shop. I'm just a few away now and it feels really good. Of course, the lucky person who is my 300th sale is going to get a free gift but for everyone else, in celebration, there will be a sale! FREE SHIPPING ON EVERYTHING for anyone within the lower 48 states! No exclusions on this one so it would be a great time to order a batt club. :D Free shipping runs through Sunday! Coupon code: 300freeship

Oh and by the way, there just might be another brichaus update this Friday. ;D 

the yarn that had direction and didn't quite know what to do with it

I'm not one to shoot photos of myself. My profile picture on facebook has changed a total of maybe 3 times in 6 years. I just don't typically like pictures of me. Today, however, I finished a freeform crochet hat. That always deserves a photo shoot. Have you ever noticed how something looks different on you in a mirror compared to in a picture? Well, at least for me it is a good indicator of whether this hat is meant for me or not. I think it just might be. :D

Looking silly modeling my newly made hat

View from the crown

Poor hat.... it had been sitting, neglected, for almost a year in a project bag and my fingers had been itching to do something that did not involve technology for at least a little while. I remembered why it had been sitting too... I felt like I was ruining some absolutely fabulous yarn that I'd made from some lushmommy fiber nearly two years ago I'd say... Other tidbits include some of my own fibers in yarn form, some handsandnotions fiber made to yarn, and a little bit of yarn from long ago closed shop evonnewee.  I am strong believer in handspun yarn that has a lot of character telling YOU what it wants to do so I just kinda went with it. I began to doubt it's direction and had put it into hibernation (I saw that as someone's description of giving a knitting project a break and found it a rather apt term!) Now that it's all done I don't know as I ruined anything... just made it super funky, which I suppose is not such a bad thing at all.... just different.

today I made a....

Treasury! Lots of pretty things that embodied the way I am feeling about the transition between the seasons that I am already feeling so strongly more and more each day.

I just noticed the first few leaves changing the other day, and could smell the last dregs of summer wafting across the fields as I drove to Allegan this weekend to meet some friends at the Fiber Festival.

Speaking of fiber, I got some.  :D

Cormo - Winterhaven Fiber Farm

CVM Polypay x - Sheepy Thyme Farms

BFL Romney Suffolk x - Lamb Lane Farm

Shetland Lamb - Windswept Farms

 It will definitely be a good week of picking, washing, and dying. Check the shop often for new items!

SALE SALE SALE

Yup, you saw that right, I'm having a sale. 10% off of your purchase in the shop until 7 PM tomorrow. Sale excludes SAL's (spin along's) and Clubs.

One of many new items added to the shop this week!

Speaking of SAL's, there is just over a week to snag a spot in the Audrey Hepburn SAL!

Sneak Peeks for the update!

Just some peeks and previews of what is going into the update tomorrow, Wednesday August 17, 2011!

I picked through lots of alpaca, wool, and wool locks today and am working on washing and dying them as I type. Teeswater lamb, teeswater ewe, CVM cloud, and huacaya alpaca are all pictured here.

Joining them in the shop will be the return of Neps n' noils (of the wool and silk variety!) Some new lock and fleece mixes, and some mixed up variety packs.

Also going into the shop are some brand new bricobatts! Here are some peek of the batts that are fresh off the carder from today!

Laguna Peek - makes me think of the she-ra lagoon my sister had when we were kids. :D

English Breakfast Tea - This batt just seemed so prim and proper, like a wee little teacup and saucer just waiting for tea time.

Vintage Kitchen - yea... I really love this colorway and remake it often. :D I'm apparently not the only one who likes it though!

Mail Pouch - Reminiscent of faded barn ads, hay bales, and overalls.

Bedknobs - This magenta just popped on top of the mustardy gold, like Miss Price's worn afghan on the travelling bed with it's magical knob!

Update will start at approximately 9 PM EST. Hope to see you there!

PUBLISHED!!!!

Do you ever hesitate to share good news until you know it is FOR SURE? I have been holding off blogging some particularly good news because I wanted to wait until the book was in my hot little hands. Some close friends and family already knew this but, I've been published.

Did I submit to a magazine? Nope, I went ahead and took the jump forward right into a book. Lark Books are one of my two favorite publishers and they have been putting out books for the past few years that are part of what they call their 500 Series. I'm constantly stalking their get published page and happened upon the submissions for 500 Felted Objects over a year ago and I FINALLY have the exciting satisfaction of holding that book in my hands. I am seriously bubbling with joy because it still seems so unreal to be published in a book with such a multitude of talented artists, especially when they are people whose work I have admired for some time now (Andrea Graham and Lisa Klakulak to name a few...)

The book comes out for purchase September 6, 2011 but you can preorder it on amazon! I'm on page 322 if you are wondering. :D yay! 

wow.... so excited! :D

and ANOTHER thing!

You thought jewelry and fiber were it for the update tomorrow? Well, you would be wrong! Tomorrow's update will also have a new offering to the shop: ready to ship AND custom diz offerings! Here are some custom diz I have already made for some super amazing fiber pals!

 above: Custom diz for Drucilla Pettibone. Photos courtesy of and taken by Drucilla Pettibone.
Check out her handspun yarns and gorgeous photographs here, or for some vintage beauties check out her other shop here.

above: Custom diz created for Laila of laigrai & friends. You can find her shop with all of it's gorgeous hand dyed delicious fiber goods, vintage fare, "& friends" here. (I took these photos quickly prior to shipping this one out, laila's pictures are way more lovely!)

What else will be in the update Monday?

Jewelry! I keep holding off in hopes I'll have the monies to pay a photographer to get some killer pictures of my jewelries but that is pretty unrealistic. Timing keeps not working out for the alternative of using my sister's camera so, I'm gonna improvise and try a new setup. In the meantime, here are some teaser pictures that Faun kindly took for me when we were sharing a booth at Midwest.

Amazing Wednesday and Update August 8, 2011

A few days ago I had a most exciting day of work. Every job I have had since college I have worked alone. Behind the register at the store I was the only one there, teaching by myself at the college and the art center, and of course working alone in my studio. Wednesday I was able to work with two amazing women whose talents and excitement for color, yarn, and fiber I quite admire. Joe and I had a huge BBQ at our house last weekend for my birthday and while we were chowing on some excellent foodage and all of our respective kiddos were playing, Dani, Gloria, and I hatched a plan to get together on Wednesday at Dani's and do some serious carding.

Adele and I met up with Gloria and the boys in kzoo and off we went to Dani's. A backseat full of kids and the back back of the roo (subaru that is :D) stuffed with our woolies and my drumcarder (oh and snacks, can't forget snacks!)

Gloria was a machine on that carder! She took to it with such fervor! Look out everyone because she made some of the most gorgeous batts I have ever seen and it was only her second time using a carder! While we're speaking of Gloria, she is the mastermind behind not one but two lovely etsy shops. Purplecitrus is filled with lovely pins from fibery goodness and hopefully some fabulous supplies like these babies she made me for my birthday from some of my accidentally felted locks. Her other shop gets me in trouble with the gorgeous scarves and bags she makes! (check it out here at Gloriakirk!)

Dani and I have been joking for about a year now about sharing a booth and calling ourselves brichaus (if you don't know already, Dani is the amazingly talented fiberista behind pumpkinhaus.) We met by chance while I was vending at a fiber show and have been buds ever since. We had gotten together at her place at the end of June and played a little dueling carders that day (I tried out her vintage coarse louet and she tried out my strauch 205.)  There was definitely a little bit of brichaus born that day. This time around I had my fiber with me too though and we both carded a mess of batts using bits and pieces from both (plus a wee bit of Gloria's stash) as we passed our goods between each other. I carded to the point where I lost track of time and the amount of batts I made! I couldn't even believe it and was terribly excited that we'd finally been able to fully collaborate sharing fibers and our carders. So this coming Monday, August 8, 2011, I will finally be releasing the first of hopefully many in the future in the brichaus line of batts.

So nice to finally have some coworkers. :D