Thursday, June 30, 2011

Cat Bordhi Classes Here In November!

It's always a pleasure to be offered the opportunity to take a class with a well known knitter.  In this case the class will be with Cat Bordhi.  She will be leaving her lovely island home in the Pacific Northwest and coming to visit us here in the deserts of Phoenix this November.  I've signed up to take a class that teaches her new method of knitting a sock heel called the "tomato heel".  I am really looking forward to this class and to meeting Cat in person at Tempe Yarn.

Regards,
Karen
OPYF


Friday, June 24, 2011

One Planet Yarn and Fiber/Tour de Fleece Event!



Hello Fellow Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and other Fiber Artists,

The Tour de Fleece starts next weekend.  It runs from July 2nd to July 24th.  What the heck is the Tour de Fleece one might ask?  It is an event that takes place in the fiber world every year during the Tour de France.  Crafters from all over the world participate and there are prizes to be won!  You can spin, knit, weave or crochet.  You can participate at home or join in with an LYS who is sopnsering a team.  You can participate every day or once a week.  The point of all this?  Test your endurance with other fiber enthusiasts and enjoy the thought of what you will create with miles of spinning, knitting or crochet.  It's a great time to use up some of our stash, create some new yarns or work on a pattern that has been calling to you.
How can you join up? I am one of the captains for Team Fiber Factory Planeteers.  This will be hosted by both The Fiber Factory in Mesa, Arizona and One Planet Yarn and Fiber.  I am also a member of Team Superfleece and Team Fred's Fiber Fiends of Tempe Yarn 2011 on Ravelry.  There is a thread on Ravelry at the One Planet Knitters forum for Tour de Fleece.
If you want more information, just head on over to Ravelry.  All the teams are listed there as well as prizes that are all be donated to the cause.
What is One Planet Yarn and Fiber doing about this?  Why offering special pricing to all of the fiber addicts that spin out there.
We all need more fiber, right? So One Planet Yarn and Fiber is offering 25% off all undyed fiber in the shop for the duration of the Tour de Fleece. I am also offering 15% off all dyed fiber as well.
Here are the codes: 
TSF25 - for undyed fiber 
TSF15 - for dyed fiber
I have added some exotic fibers to the site and these are also included in the coupon offer.  They are all undyed fibers- Tussah silk roving, banana roving, ramie roving, Tencel roving, Mulberry silk, cashmere and camel fiber. Yum!   I am also dyeing up some new fibers which will appear under Sharptalk Handcrafts.
This is not an exclusive offer. Feel free to share the coupon codes with anyone you would like.
**Important-This coupon cannot be combined with ad coupons you might see. Discounts are not retroactive.  If you placed an order last week or the week before, we are sorry, we can't credit you now.  Discounts must be taken at the time of order.  Please do not write us after you placed an order and ask us to apply a discount.  We are sorry, but we just can't do it.  If you need help, please email us before you place your order.  In addition, these special offers are only valid for in-stock items.  They are not valid for special orders for new colors or yarns that we might not have in stock yet.  Excludes spinning wheels, OPYF Clubs and items already listed on the sale page.  Orders placed for unqualified merchandise will be refunded back to you.
Please sign up for the One Planet Yarn and Fiber Blog to receive news more than a few times a month.  I post there several times a week.

Blogs you may have missed-


Other Important Things-

Join the Facebook Fan Club and be able to chat with other OPYF fans.  Read The Blog about all of the new items that are being added to One Planet all the time -I have many new yarns, fibers, patterns and more from around the world.  Please join the Ravelry group!  If you haven't joined yet, please do and then post an introduction on the thread titled  "Introduce Your Self!".And please join the mailing list for monthly special offers and news!  I send out at least one monthly newsletter with different offers each month. I never share your name or private information. I use it only for the newsletter.

Best Regards,
Karen
OPYF

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Airstream Back In The Driveway

A couple of years ago I bought this 1987 Airstream 345 motor home.  We have not used it yet!  I recently took it in for service and now it is ready to roll.  We're hoping to try it out this summer.  As you can see, it barely fits in the driveway, but now there are no storage fees!  

Hoping to be on the road knitting in this thing soon.

Pictures of the house mascots at the bottom of the thread.

Regards,
Karen
OPYF



















Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Thought You Might Like This - East Coast Trip

I saw some happy things and sad things on my trip last week.  Below is a photo of the Wallow fire in Northern Arizona.  I took this from the airplane, about 100 miles away.  It is Arizona's largest fire ever and has burned over 700 square miles of forest.  It is now 28% contained.

On to happier things- I purchased these Vera Bradley bags at the Abington Pharmacy near my dad's house in Pennsylvania.  Each now contains a single knitting project!
My sister showed me this on her computer.  For one day only, in tribute to a guitarist that passed away, google had a playable set of strings on their search page.
These were signs outside the Barnes and Noble store in downtown Bethesda, MD.



This was the ceiling light in the bedroom I was using at my sister's house.  The fixture is just brushed glass, but the bulb was painted in rainbow colors.
My sister's furry companion, Bouchie.
This is the ceiling of a yogurt shop in downtown Bethesda.  Yes, I like colored lights.
There were a few birthdays to celebrate while we were all together, including mine!
Bouchie likes the bathtub and drinks from the spigot.
Ah, alien cat?
Smile!
Regards,
Karen
OPYF

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Update On My Weaving Class Project

A few weeks back I took a class to learn how to weave on a four harness loom.  I wrote a blog about it at the time.  But, it turns out, once you get your project off the loom you have to wash it.  The problem with washing any new project in the laundry is that it might bleed all over your other laundry.  My weaving teacher had a solution to that.  

Before we left the class she told us about this product called Color Catcher.  I had, unfortunately, never heard of this product before.   Oh, the clothing I could have saved!  this product looks like a dryer sheet.  You put it in with your laundry and it "grabs" the excess dye floating around in the water, preventing it from adding colors you don't want on other items of your wardrobe.  

I searched high and low and finally found it at Walmart.
I took out a sheet and dutifully threw it in with a load of towels and my precious new weaving project of mercerized cotton.

Here is what it looked like after the wasing was done.
Compared side by side with a fresh sheet.  Now you can see how well this product worked!

My next step will be to press the weaving with an iron and then sew the edges up to make a hem.

Happy Weaving!
Regards,
Karen
OPYF

Monday, June 20, 2011

What's on my Spinning Wheel?

I've been longing to spin silk without problems for months.  When I first started spinning and attempted silk roving, it just kept falling apart as I was spinning.  What was I to do?  It was while I was a a meeting of the Arizona Spinners Group that I finally figured it out.  

One of the other spinners was spinning hand painted silk hankies.  A light bulb went on in my head.  The next time I was at Tempe Yarn, I spotted hand painted silk hankies by my friend Barbara, who also taught my dye class there.  I quickly purchased the color of my choice, and then set it aside.  I was being a coward.

Last month I was sitting at the monthly meeting of the Daytime Spinners of the Arizona Desert Weavers and Spinners Guild.  I had just snapped the head of a bobbin off of one of my Ashford Joy's bobbins.  I spent most of the meeting hand winding my ply into a ball.  When I was done, I took out the silk hankie.  I carefully figured out how to separate one out and began to spin.  It worked!

Lovely green and gold colors
When I got home from the guild meeting I decided to spin some more.  I took out this lovely BFL roving that I had purchased at The Fiber Factory.  It is gorgeous!  I spun up some of that too!  Blues and greens and purples!

Looking back and forth between the 2 different bobbins, I think a marriage is in order once I am finished spinning both of these lovely fibers.

Here is the yarn that I broke the bobbin with.  I had forgotten to loosen the scotch tension before removing the bobbin.  My son came to the rescue that night and the bobbin is all healed up.  I chain played the yarn.  The fiber used is a 50/50 blend of Cormo/Mohair from Juniper Moon that I hand dyed and then drum carded in some Firestar for glitter.

Happy Spinning!
Regards,
Karen
OPYF

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Update on WIP's

I wanted to give you a progress report on my WIP's.  I finished my Forbidden City Lace Shawl just before I left for my trip.  Boy, was I glad to have it with me!  The airport was freezing and then the plane's ac was too cold in our section.

Here are some photos I wanted to share with you.
My ever familiar stitch markers
Almost finished
Dubious end results before blocking
I had no clue if this was ever going to look like the pattern I knitted
Thank you to The Fiber Factory for lending me their supplies to block this.
Washed and rolled in a towel to absorb water
My footprints all over the towel
Blocking Board
Starting to pin down the shawl


Done with the blocking process.
While I waited over the weekend for my shawl to dry I cast on my Shipwreck Shawl, which is the June KAL.  The pattern is lovely, however, my attempts to start this project were not.  I posted numerous times on Facebook and Ravelry about how many times I frogged this and started over again.
I also cast on Never Not Knitting's Cedar Leaf Shawlette using Handmaiden's Lady Godiva in the Hemlock colorway.  I started this once I reached my dad's in Philadelphia.  I needed a project that was not as intricate as doing lacework.  There is starting to be a color theme for June!
I started back to work on the Shipwreck Shawl as soon as I was on the plane headed back home.  I made a mistake in round 10 of the Madeira section and tinked for a bit, but soon figured out that I had totally messed things up.  I put it aside until I was home, marked the problem spots and waited for my knitting buddy to come by the house.
She took one look at my work, said my size 4 needles were too small and the pattern was too tight.  Solution?  Rippit! back to the first stitch on size 6 needles.  Sigh.  I am at row ten, again.  

Oops!  I just dropped a stitch!  Darn, starting over again!

Happy Knitting!
Regards,
Karen
OPYF