Happy Sleeping Artie In His Handmade Stuff

Hat knit by Grandma (me!)

Brownish blanket knit by Ahna
Flannel blanket sewn by Lucy B.

Yeah, nobody loves this kid at all.

Finished Pots!

I was going to wait until I had some better pictures, but these pots are already in use and scattered around so I'll probably never take better ones than this. haha

They were all hand thrown on the wheel then glazed and fired to cone 10 in a soda kiln, which I did not get to watch because I was busy waiting around for the birth of my awesome grandbaby. (That's him on the right) His name is Arthur James. They are calling him AJ, and I am calling him Artie most of the time.


Here are the pots. I love them all, but some turned out a little better than others so I have some good ideas for next time. I also have about 75lbs of cone 5 and 6 clay here at the house just waiting to become stuff as soon as we get the outlet installed for the kiln in the garage. Meanwhile, I'm trying to focus on getting that back room cleaned up so that I can move some of the garage things in there and start getting ready for the yard sale I want to have in the spring. The big loom at the house will also live there along with all the other craft related stuff. It's gonna be a fun room.

Changes Around Here

I'm changing up the look of the blog. I think most of you who read it do so through a feed, but just in case you actually come here to the page I figured I'd make an announcement.

Like I said in the last post, this has become more of a general crafty type blog than a strictly knitting/spinning/weaving blog, and what with me getting into the pottery now I figured I needed a place to document that too so here we are since I don't want to maintain a different site for each crafty thing I do. From here on out things will get tagged for easy searching, but I'm not going to go back and tag the old stuff so you're on your own there.

I'm paying my friend Michelle at Mockingbird Creative to redesign the yarn store's website so that I can have a shopping section with which to expand my yarn pushing empire. It's pretty ugly right now, but Michelle is great at adding polish to wordpress templates and making things super search-friendly, so I'm sure she'll have it looking dandy in no time. I'll let you know when it's finished so you can check it out.

That's about all the news I have right this minute. Happy Halloween!

Freeform Mobius

Freeform Mobius
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

Look, I finished something not for the store! This thing was started at TNNA back in June in a class I took from Cat Bhordi. Pretty much you cast on like you're gonna do a regular Mobius then start doing random short rows all over the place till it's however big you want it. This one is hella long cause I wanted it to loop around twice and be floofy, but you can do the same thing with something smaller if you want. I'm thinking it'd look great with a long color change yarn like Mini Mochi or something. I may try that theory out soon. I gave this one to my Mom. She likes it :)

I've been thinking about changing the name of this blog since it started as a knitting blog but has turned into a multi-crafting type crazy thing. I need a name for it because just listing out all the crafty goings on would be too long. We have knitting, crochet, spinning, felting, weaving, and now pottery stuff going on here. Eventually there may even be some quilting, painting, screen printing, and jewelry making going on here so it has to be something general. Let me know if you can think up something appropriate :)

Two Cups And A Bowl

Two Cups And A Bowl
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

I finally remembered to snap a picture of freshly thrown pottery stuff last night after class. 3 out of my 4 attempts survived, and the 1 bowl I did last week got trimmed without incident. Whoo!

The thing that failed was going to be a vase. It got tall enough in about 4 "throws" (pulling up type passes) but then I kept messing around with the shape and as usual I don't know when to quit so it fell over. I think if I could just learn to stop fucking with things that would be a big improvement, but that has been my problem with all the art I've ever done and is sort of a theme with my life so that is probably not happening any time soon.

I'm still really enjoying the class mostly because it is so not organized and class-like. I just go in, do my thing, and the teacher girl is there if I have any questions or need her to show me how to do something or other. I like that.

On the knitting side of things, I'm working on finishing some sweaters I've started over the last year or so that have never been completed because they got boring and finishing up the recently started sweaters and some hats I've promised to various people. The sweaters in no particular order are:
- Neck Down Pullover Tunic (Knitting Pure & Simple #9726) in Cascade Yarns Lana D'oro Tweed that I started last year.
- Zephyr Style 28Thirty in Noro Kureyon that I started this year after listening to Lime & Violet go on and on about the pattern.
- A boring raglan I started as a shop sample in Classic Elite Sprout. That thing is a snoozefest, but it'll be nice to have next spring.
- Kertzer's Weekend Jacket in Marble Chunky that I started when I got the yarn at the shop. All I have left are the sleeves. zzzzzz

I'm also sort of halfway working on a baby blanket because I'm gonna be a Grandma in November (surprise!) but it's still small and easy to flip around. We'll see if I keep that up once it gets bigger and more annoying to work on. You know how I am.

I Mixed Clay Tonight...

I Mixed Clay Tonight...
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

& these are my shoes. They'll never be the same.

I now have about 100 pounds of clay to play with, but I'm telling you I will NOT be doing that again. No thanks, I'll just buy pre-mixed from now on.

Here's how it goes:
-Put on your heavy duty dust mask
-Drag out five or six super heavy sacks of dust
-Measure 20lbs of this one, 25 of that one, 25 of another one, etc. and put it in the mixer with 26lbs of water.
-Turn on the mixer and wait for it all to be wet
-NOW, slowly pour a whole bag of another dust into the mixture like if you're making bread adding the flour. This takes a while so your arm is going to hurt before you're done.
- Let it mix for 10 minutes
- Take the fresh clay out of the mixer in 10-15lb chunks and roll it up in plastic bags
- Scrape the insides of the mixer forfuckingever, then scrub it with a brush, rinse it with water, and sponge the water out of there because the UofA never heard of buying a damn shopvac. Repeat this step 5 times.
- When your arm falls off you're almost done!
- Wipe it out again and tell the kids in the other room they can use it to make their clay now.

Miss Kitty Is Not Amused

Miss Kitty Is Not Amused
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

She totally got under that throw herself. I guess she was cold. That box in the background is from Ian's new goldfish aquarium. He put a blanket in it for the cats and they LOVE it so it has to stay in the living room until they lose interest. haha

My ceramics class started up this week. So far, I'm the only one showing up on Monday/Wednesday who is a total noob. The first class I didn't get to do anything because we didn't have any clay, but last night I got to make some buttons and learn how to use the wheel to throw pots. My buttons are gonna be OK, but I will need some more practice on the wheel unless I only want bowls with super short walls and espresso cups or shot glasses.

I did a good job on getting the clay centered, making the volcano shape thing, then smushing it into a hamburger patty shape and opening up the center, but when I try to drag the walls up it all goes to hell as soon as it gets taller than about 3 inches.

I figure this is like when I learned to spin yarn and made all that lumpy bumpy crap that wouldn't hold together. At least the clay is re-usable so I can practice on the same blob a bunch of times without wasting too much. That's a good thing.

There's a Loom In My Living Room

There's a Loom In My Living Room
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.
I spent all day Sunday cleaning up this used Leclerc Artisat. It needs new heddles and a part that attaches the treadles to the front bottom beam, then it'll be ready to rock. Right now it's all folded up there behind the loveseat waiting....like Chuck Norris.

Oh, and I finished the table runner/scarf thing that has been on the loom down at the yarn store for a whole dang YEAR. Here it is in action:

Here is a closer look

I'm pretty proud of it since it is the same width the whole way down. It was totally worth all those rows I ripped out and re-did a million times.

TNNA, Summer Stuff, & A New Crafty Thing

TNNA was crazy, fun, and exhausting. I placed a bunch of orders for the store (maybe too much) and had fun meeting people and seeing things. I didn't really end up taking many pictures so I never made a big post about it. The classes were the best part for me. I got to get new display ideas from other store owners, see how other people do things, etc. Everything was pretty much great till I tried to get home and ended up stuck in airport hell. Oh well. I'll for sure be going back next year.

July and so far August have been full of a whole lot of not much. There was the Fiber Xmas In July event in Kellyville, OK. That was one fun thing. I taught a novelty yarn spinning class, but only ended up having two students so it was nice and relaxed. I've been spinning a lot and have actually finished some yarn so I guess I'll take pics of that for you guys to stare at tonight :) The weaving is still slow going, but I scored a huge haul of rayon chenille and cottons and some cones of metalic goodness that are great for plying handspun with at Fiber Xmas.

I have a new to me used Leclerc Artisat loom at the house that needs cleaning up, and then I'm going to warp it for a baby blanket or something to try it out. That has to wait for the rest of the patio room cleaning to take place though because for some reason the cats think that thing is a jungle gym if I drag it out into their part of the house and it's too big to drag in and out so meh.

I seem to never finish a knitting project that isn't store related, but I've been working on two store sweaters and two non-store sweaters so hopefully one of them will eventually get finished and I won't freeze this winter. haha

Oh, and I'm starting a new crafty thing. (like I need another one) I signed up for a beginning ceramics class at U of A in Fayetteville starting August 24th. I'm really excited because I've always wanted to learn to make those hand thrown kind of bowls and mugs and things, and I have all this basement space down at the yarn store that isn't being used. If I like it and get good at it I might get a kiln and a wheel for the basement. There is already the wiring down there for it because the salon that used to be here had tanning beds in that space. We'll see.

I promise pictures next time and more frequent posting. I know you don't believe me. haha

TNNA Blogging

I'm headed to Columbus tomorrow for the TNNA market. I'll be there Thursday - Monday, and I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get ready. I need to pack, pay the store bills, straighten up around here so Kristen doesn't trip over anything or run out of change while she's watching the store for me, print some shirts for Steve's company, and go get my hair dyed.

I'll be updating my twitter through ping.fm all weekend so if you're interested in knowing how that goes down before I get back and post about it you can follow me there. http://twitter.com/Elabeth They don't allow pictures on the show floor or in the fashion show, but I can be pretty descriptive in 140 characters & I'll be posting pics from elsewhere.

LOL

may 2009 050
Originally uploaded by willy0426.

This is a pic of me taken at the sheep to shawl thing last weekend. HAHAHAHAHA! I love it.

Sheep To Shawl 2009!

Yesterday I went to the local spinning guild's Sheep To Shawl competition in Prairie Grove at the battlefield park. This is my team. We were the first to finish our shawl/scarf, but ours was just plain tabby weave and everyone else did at least some kind of pickup stick pattern and used smaller warp yarn. Ours was worsted weight at 8dpi.

Left to right that's me, Dominique, Lynnell, Kate, Dominique's friend who's name I can't remember, and Jane. The picture is one that I stole from Kathleen's flickr cause I forgot my camera and only have a few crappy iphone pics of the day.

Each team showed up with a pre-warped loom. Each team got 8oz of pre-washed fleece, and got to work carding, spinning, and weaving our shawls/scarves. They had to be at least 10in wide and I thought 60in long but some of them didn't make it to the length. We didn't care cause it was mostly just for fun.

Here are pics of the other teams:

that's Kathleen there in the middle. I can't remember the names of the other ladies. I suck with names.


That's Cecelia in the middle. Again, I can't remember the other ladies' names.


This team was made up of people who just showed up hoping to be placed on a team who didn't really know eachother before then. 2nd from the left is Melly and 4th from the left is Anne. Those are the only two I know the names of. haha

Here is a pic of all 4 shawls at the end of the day

Hey, remember the sparkle handspun lincoln/merino/glitz shawl I started in October of 2006 on the triloom? Sure you do! That sucker is thisclose to finally being finished. I put it off for a long time because it got down to the pain in the butt last 20 or so nails there in the center of the tri-loom. I've got ten to go, then fringe to add before May 7th when I take the loom to it's new owner at Yarn School. I'm hoping the fiber will get back some of it's sproing in the wash. At least I know it's strong being stretched out like that for dang near 3 years. ugh.

Weaving Loom Madness!

Well, here are the scarves I made on my Cricket loom:


I really like how they turned out. The blue one is my handspun for the weft with a commercial yarn for the warp. The pink one is Wisdom Sonnet for both the warp and the weft. I like how the self striping yarn used as both warp and weft makes such a cool pattern just in plain old tabby weave. I'm going to have to mess with that some more :)

OK, so last week I got a call at the shop from a local lady with a 25in 4-shaft Schacht table loom to sell. The loom had been boxed up in her Mom's garage since shortly after it was purchased back in the 80's. It was in perfect condition and came with a giant bag of yarn, a couple of books, and some stick shuttles all for $300. Was I interested? I jumped on that!

Once I got finished gloating over my new baby I realized I now owned 6 looms. (!!!) LOL How did that happen?? Somebody would have to go, so I decided to sell my big triangle loom, the 15in Schacht Table Loom, and the 32in Kromski Rigid Heddle as soon as I finish the big shawl, the little birdseye twill scarf, and the Sheep To Shawl competition on May 16th. The triloom is going to a girl at Yarn School, the rigid heddle is going home with a friend of one of my sheep to shawl team members, and the table loom is going in the mail to a livejournal friend. I should be down to three looms (45in floor loom, 10in rigid heddle, & 25in table loom) by the end of May.

One good thing about buying fiber equipment is that it holds it's value really well and there are always people out there in market for used equipment so it's pretty easy to move it when you decide you don't need it anymore or you upgrade :)

Springtime!

Happy Easter!
What am I doing??

Weaving
I've been doing some scarf weaving (sorry, no pics of that yet) and planning of other weaving projects mostly.

Knitting
Mostly store sample things. I'm a little over half done with a leaf lace shawl in Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton, a little over half done with a no-pattern triangle shawl in Plymouth Kudo, and just started a Claudia Handpainted French Scarf Kit. It's all about the shawls lately. haha I'll post pictures when those are finished.

Crochet
Still sometimes working on that Babette Blanket. That thing is so boring...

Other Crafty Things
I just ordered a Yudu Screen Printing Machine. I've got all the supplies for traditional screen printing, but this thing is sort of a combination light table/exposure unit/dryer and the emulsion already on peel-away sheets looks super fast/easy/non-messy and very attractive to me since getting that stuff on there evenly without making a HUGE mess is the hard part of screen printing for me.
Here is a video showing how it works:



I'll post a review once mine gets here and I'll show you what I make with it :)

Camp Pluckyfluff!

Last month I went to Harveyville, KS for Camp Pluckyfluff taught by Lexi Boeger her own self.  I can't believe I didn't run home and instantly blog about it here. I'm totally slipping on my craft blogging. Ravelry has pretty much sucked all the project documentation motivation out of me somehow. There is a big Yarn Room reorganization/move coming up at my house so I'll be sure to document that here for your viewing pleasure. I'm sure there will be some half done something or others that turn up for us to laugh at. 

So anyway, Camp was great! There were only about a dozen students so it wasn't all crowded. We made lots of awesome yarn, ate a lot of really great food, and invented a drinking game that involves the word orifice. That's all you need to know. haha 

Lexi is really nice and she's a great teacher, so if she ever does one of these workshops near where you are and you have ANY interest at all in learning to spin novelty stuff you should sign up.

Here is my little pile of yarns. Just click on it to see the whole set on flickr.