So what have I been up to?
Some Bruce:
Some BodyJam:
Some dyeing:
Some fundraising:
**This colorway: Fade Out Ovarian Cancer is available in the shop as a pre-order. There will be yarn too.
Some more Bruce:
Apologies for the crappy photo – Madison Square Garden is not as forgiving as the Wells Fargo Center. In other news, our next Bruce show is 9/2/2012 
Some kitty belly:
And some knitting:
How about you?
Elphaba on Polworth in our etsy shop. Mmm. Going to be hard to let that one go.
Welcome to the third stop of the blog tour for the fantastic Crafty Detour CSI sock book! I have been fortunate to be involved with this project on more than one level – as a test knitter, as a tech editor for the patterns, and for the last sock in the book, yarn dyer! I was more than thrilled to host my dear friend Heather on a blog tour 
So without further ado, let’s get to the interview!
What are your future hopes and dreams for your designing career?
Pie in the sky: I would love to author a book published by someone other than myself, go on a book signing tour, and be invited to teach at all the major fiber arts events. Realistically: I would like to become a designer that people remember. For example, a knitter wants to start a shawl pattern and says something like, “Hey, I have this awesome pattern in my queue by Heather Zoppetti, maybe I should cast on for that…” Maybe they do and maybe they don’t, but at least I wasn’t forgotten. Is that selfish?
You used a variety of yarns in these patterns, which was your favorite to work with?
It came out exactly as I wanted and knit up fabulously.Thank you for hosting me!
Thanks for allowing me to host a spot on the tour! Something to keep in mind everyone, is that the e-book is currently priced at $20 with each pattern being available individually for $3. However, in June the prices will increase to $28 for the e-book and $4 for an individual pattern.
© Heather Zoppetti
Now for the give-away! Heather has graciously given me a copy of the e-book to give away to a lucky commenter. But I’m going to sweeten the deal. Since Stitches ‘n Rows was able to supply yarn for one of the designs (Bobbie Strow) I’m going to throw in a skein of the “I Can’t believe it’s not…” colorway that Heather requested and named! All you need to do is leave a comment by midnight EST on Monday May 23, 2011 – tell me your favorite pattern in the e-book – and I’ll draw a winner at random. Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you!
Okay I am going to have my first ever blog contest. So go tell your friends
The person who comes closest in guessing how long it’ll take me to reskein 5lbs of sock yarn from these cones:
will get either a skein of yarn dyed in the colorway of their choosing, or 4 oz of spinning fiber in the colorway of their choosing.
If NO ONE comes close, I will add an amount of time to everyone’s guesses to get them in the ballpark.
Yes, clearly the need for a skein winder is evident now
Leave your guesses as a comment on this post. There will be a second post to announce the winner on Monday!
superwash meirno @ stitches 'n rows
After a marathon plying session – much like the one at WOOL this year (“still plying”), I have two new skeins of lovelyness to share!
two new skeins of handspun!
PRS July club shipment - Squall
First up, approx 540 yards of superwash merino from Pigeonroof Studios:
This was the July shipment of Krista’s regular fiber club, the colorway is “squall”.
540 yards of fingering weight Squall
Krista’s superwash merino is such a pleasure to spin – I always like to have some in my fiber stash!
Gale's Art BFL in Grape Vine
Second up is some BFL form Gale’s Art that I purchased at MD Sheep & Wool this past May:
156 yards of navajo plied Gale's Art BFL in Grape Vine
I spun this across the braid in order to get the longer swaths of color so that I could navajo ply it – I ended up with 158 yards of lurvely stripey goodness:
I am currently spinning some of the superwash BFL that Sharon and I dyed – it is glorious. I’m thinking of doing a coupon code for this weekend on etsy. Stay tuned here and at the etsy shop!
Hopefully my current spinning will be finished up over the weekend, I just need to remember to pack my niddy noddy and the ball winder!
Happy Thanksgiving for all of those that celebrate it!
Whew. I know it’s the end of October but here’s a glimpse into the blur that was September/October for me:
Sharon and I completed our initial instructor training class for the Les Mills Body Jam program. We drove to Kittanning, PA and spent the weekend learning everything about the ways of being an Les Mills instructor. Our instructor, Åsa, was wonderful, and you can see her blog entry about us (“the chicas from New jersey”) here. It was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun!
The next weekend was our Jessica‘s wedding weekend! Here is are the newlyweds during the binding of the hands portion of the ceremony:
It was a lovely day and a lovely ceremony and a lovely reception with pumpkin wedding cake! Thanks for letting us spend your wedding day with you!
The next weekend Sharon and I went back home to Pottstown, PA to run a booth at the 4th annual Schuylkill River Arts Festival. We were vending some of our hand dyed sock yarn and spinning fiber, and also had along, a few of those box bags from our JessaLu!
We took Sharon’s CPW, my ladybug and had Cheeky there spinning on a drop spindle. We had beautiful weather, lots of foot traffic, and it went okay sales wise. I think we’re looking forward to seeing if we can vend at the NJ show, Garden State Sheep Breeders. But if you see something in any of those pics, it’s at Stitches ‘n Rows.
Another visitor from the Schuylkill River Fest:
And that brings us to Rhinebeck weekend which I’ll leave for a separate post – I need to take photos of my haul!
Yes yes yes. I finished the shawl test knit. I have successfully not killed my tomato plant. I spun more floof for the tour de fleece. Now for the details!
The shawl is designed by Heather, a.k.a. digitalnabi on ravelry and plurk, and I just love it. I used wollmeise in the Granatapfel colorway (translates to pomegranate). Here are some blocking shots:
lace detail:
Which I believe I blocked wrong so that will have to be re-blocked!
And of course my blocking assistant:
Heather says she hopes to have this pattern available in August. I think it may just be the new ishbel! If you are jonesing for a new pattern, I recommend checking out the criminal sock series over at CraftyDetour – Heather is designing a series of sock patterns and I’ve been test knitting for her and they are just amazing.
In other news…
The tomato plant my dad got me has yielded its first tomato:
And let me tell you, it was delicious on my cracked black pepper burger tonight.
The next one should be ready to go in a day or so:
And there are more waiting to ripen:
JC has been sending me photos of the rabbits at the train station – there are more than 5 that live on the to trenton side of the tracks so on our way to see Inception last night we stopped by so I could see them. Only two were out and they will let you get rather close to them and they do not flinch at all when the high speed amtrak trains fly by a few feet away:
Just look at that little cotton fluff!
Speaking of animals, we have had an issue with birds trying to build a nest above our front door and our crazy neighbor upstairs having animal control on speed dial. But that’s neither here nor there, so here’s a photo of baby birds!
I’ve been keeping busy with dyeing fiber in the evenings. Here’s the latest from the dyepot, all Falkland roving :
Gallery on High colorway-
Kiwi -
Contusion -
And as far as spinning goes, I finished plying up 4.3 oz of superwash merino in the Forest colorway from Pigeonroof Studios today:
But now I best get back to my lime vodka tonic and my other test knitting project!