Good Morning Kitty!

good morning kitty by luciana on WeGIF

This is sooo dang cute I can't stop watching!! Thanks Caitlin- totally made my day!

VOTE FOR MOONROVER ON ETSY!!!

'Murmur' one of my corespun yarns is in Etsy’s “Voter”
in the category for “Which Handspun Yarn Makes You Feel Crafty?”
The winner will be featured in the Storque. So cool!!
Please vote for my yarn!!


Here’s the link: Go Vote!
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!

Melon Seeds Handspun..

I've been totally out of it this summer. It's been a whirlwind of mundane crazyness and on top of that I haven't really felt like interacting in any way.. Hope to get out of this funk (one step at a time- haha) so I'm saying it right here- I'm going to start posting once a week. Yes, thats right! Once a week, boring or not :D
And to start out, a post that should have gone up a month ago:

Will-O-The-Wisp - Corespun Bulky with Twists, Beehives and Knitted Bits

This yarn was handcarded and handspun with a mix of merino, silk cocoons, tussah silk noil and firestar. A core spun yarn in shades of the darkest night and chock full of beehives, twists, knitted bits and cocoons!!
4.73 ounces
110 yards
SOLD

Mopsa the Fairy- Chapter Thirteen ‘Melon Seeds'

For info on this fairy tale spin-along, check out Chapter One!

At the end of the last chapter Jack’s boat had gone missing, floating down the river out of reach. Now, at the beginning of this chapter he stares out at a tiny little speck of a boat- too far for him to call it back. Mopsa had followed behind and now said that it didn’t matter either way because the only place for her is over the mountains to the little country beyond- she can’t be happy unless she goes there.

So Jack leaves his little boat behind and walks back hand-in-hand with Mopsa to the stone people. They meet up with the apple woman who's crying and must soon cross back over the little stream. There's some discussion about how the apple woman could go back to her own country. Jack doesn’t understand why she doesn’t, but she tells him that she is too old and can’t go back now, she says that she has no heart for work and couldn’t bear either cold or poverty. The stone people are with Jack on this one- they can’t believe that the apple woman would choose to stay in Fairyland. They tell Jack and Mopsa that they are stone people for all but the two hours of twilight everyday as a punishment and that they used to be cruel and powerful people. Jack is sorry that they are being punished and tells them that they seem very nice and kind to him. They say ‘perhaps we are only kind now because we have no time, and no chance of being otherwise.’

The apple woman departs and the stone woman with the baby tells Jack and Mopsa they need to leave now if they want to outrun the Queen. They agree and promise to follow all of her directions; as they turn to leave she is already turning to stone. Before, with her instructions she gave them a little red pot with handles and a slice of melon inside. She said ‘When you are tired, eat the seeds, and they will enable you to go running on.’ They were warned never to let the pot touch the ground, because the melon would turn to stone.

Off they went, hand in hand, running towards the purple mountains, their shadows leading the way over the sand. Eventually their shadows lead them into a thick forest of trees. Under the trees they had no shadows and without their shadows they were directionless and lost a deal of time looking for the right direction. Mopsa began to cry, she was too tired to go any farther. They ate some melon seeds and gained the strength to keep going and eventually found their way out of the forest. They ate more melon seeds and began to climb up the mountain, they climbed and climbed till the forest was as small as a little patch of moss, and when they climbed even higher they saw a river and snow covered mountain peaks. All three moons began to set at once but Mopsa found some glowworms just in time, for they would have been left in complete darkness. She tied a dozen around Jacks ankles so he could see where he was going, he found a little sheep path to follow.

They had been seeing shooting stars from a distance all night, but one suddenly shot right by them and fell into a soft patch of moss. Although Jack was exhausted, he ran over to see it up close- it was not what he was expecting. It was soft and round and covered in fur, it had rolled itself up into a protective ball. Mopsa started to question it ‘Who are you? What is your name?’ Quietly it said something they took to be ‘Wisp.’ Mopsa told it to uncurl itself so she could look at it. Wisp unfolded and spread out two long filmy wings looking like a glowing beautiful bat. Mopsa said ‘It is only one of the air fairies’ and asked Wisp to go and tell his friends that they wanted to cross the mountains and needed their help. Wisp shot away and Jack sat down to remove a stone from his shoe, he set the red jar on the ground forgetting what would happen. Mopsa asked for more melon seeds, for she was too tired to go any farther. Jack reached into the jar and found that the melon had turned to stone. Devastated and too tired to move, they sat silently for a few minutes. But, all of a sudden, shooting stars appeared in every direction- the little fairy bat had gathered all of his friends and they were surrounded.

The little glowing fairies joined together and carried Jack and Mopsa over the mountains. They flew very slowly because Jack and Mopsa were very heavy and they flew very low, close to the ground to they could rest every once in a wile. They made it through the mountain pass and half way down the other side before the sun came up. The moment the sun rose, the fairies lost their glow and looked just like common bats; they set down Jack and Mopsa, folded up their long wings and hung their heads. Mopsa thanked them but they still looked ashamed and slunk away to hide in little cracks and crevices in the rocks to hide.


Check back for Chapter Fourteen ‘Reeds and Rushes’

Necessity, the mother of invention

I just came up with the greatest idea and then . . . I did it!
Ok, I can see how you might not think that it's the greatest idea ever, but it solves quite a few problems for me.

At this moment I am down to TWO (count them), two gocco printed yarn tags. TWO- how did I let this happen you ask? Well, to start with, I've been procrastinating mainly because I don't want to have to cut up hundreds of pieces of cardstock with just a ruler and a utility knife. For the last 2 batches I made, this wasn't a problem. I used to work at a picture framing shop- they have guided mat cutters which can cut through many layers of cardstock at once with a guide stop that automatically places the paper at the exact depth necessary. But, even at the frame shop, using all the proper tools, my hands would still get really sore. Just the thought of cutting each one by hand with a utility knife makes me cringe...














So, how to get around all that cutting? Find something that is already the size and shape that I need. .....ENVELOPES! Sweetness!! I'm guessing that I'm not the first person ever to come up with this idea, but it sure has made my life easier!

















It took me two days to screen print these puppies- 500 in all! I was trying to save money (the envelopes cost ~$20) so I used last years screens, they didn't have the best burn to begin with and they were clogged up in spots, but I'm trying to be less of a perfectionist and just went with it.


This might just be a lifetimes worth of yarn tags!

IF - Cracked

I've posted this on Illustration Friday - what a great place!

I couldn't help it- I've had nests and eggs on my mind for the past few weeks. A robins nest showed up on my bedroom windowsil and I got to see brand new baby birds squalking for food (>'_')> ..it was so cute I almost couldn't even handle it.

Paper Dolls

I found this photo on my sisters flickr stream:

IMG_4800
Originally uploaded by millipedebead

I'm knitting a sweater with my own handspun. ..it will be my first sweater ever. Yay!
As of today, I only have a few short rows, the neck ribbing and a few stitches to graft on the underarms. It would probably only take about 2 hours.

So, what's the holdup? It might be that I'm afraid to finish it because then I would have to try it on and what if the fit isn't right? Ack! The size is right (I've swatched and measured all along) but what if it is too ______? This stupid worrying is preventing me from finishing and I keep telling myself that the photos alone will be worth all the work.
I rarely knit for myself and almost never with my own handspun, so I really want a sweater that I can wear over and over all the time 'till it's worn out.

I'll post photos of it whenever I do get around to finishing it :D


'Paper Dolls by Kate Davies (ravelry link)

..If you are wondering why the yarn looks like it's in the wrong place, it's because I'm a lefty knitter- knitting from left to right.