Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Building Momentum

Let's hope I can keep this up....

Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring

What beautiful weather we're having. I know it will temporarily come to an end next week but for now we will enjoy it. Olivia just loves being outside and since I'm just working nights this week we will take advantage. Yesterday we went for a walk and stopped at a park with Toffee. We watched the ducks in the little stream and threw rocks in the water. Everything is a joy to an 18 month old.




Today we'll walk over to Olivia's new daycare to get her registered, then maybe surprise the boys at school. They're having a sugar shack day today, and what a great day for it!

Also on today's list of things to do is to get some mohair dyed. I ordered some from Dyeing for Colour on etsy to make a few more skeins of stoney pink for a special order. I Might also get a start on another skein of pistachio ice. A little more dyeing today? All this plus some tech hours at the studio tonight. I think days should be 30 hours instead of 24.


Thursday, March 18, 2010

Organic Cotton

The winter edition of Wild Fibers had a really interesting article about an organic cotton farm in Northern California. I was so inspired that I had to give it a try. The fibre is sold as both yarn and sliver, it was definitely the sliver I wanted. Spinning it was interesting; with a very short staple length it required some practice before I got it down. I ended up splitting the fibre in half three times to get a good spinning thickness, then plying it together to make sure it would all stay together.

But the coolest thing is when you set the twist. It has to be boiled, as opposed to wool which has to be treated so gently to prevent it from felting. The hot water causes the colour of the fibre to deepen so this beautiful soft green colour in the boiling water is much darker, and still so lovely!

At the moment I'm knitting it up into a sweater for a soon-to-arrive baby, it is so so soft and will be perfect.

The next skein might make it into the shop if I can keep myself from knitting that up for Olivia...

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

a studio downstairs

My poor neglected blog. So many months have passed and I haven't even attempted to keep it going.

Well, with a bit of a lull happening this week and Olivia starting daycare next week things could change. Here in Quebec we have subsidized daycare and so for just $35 per week life will be a little more organized. I was hoping to be able to manage her early years with her staying with me but with 20 hours of teaching and teching things just never seem to get done around here.

First and foremost I will be making more work. My studio, which since the move is now downstairs as opposed to out back, has been sorted out and is tidy. It is finally truly workable.



So I figure I might work a little more on clay pieces. I've been making these little cars, something I always wanted to do when my sons were younger, though I think they still might enjoy them. I have to look into the regulations for selling things on etsy intended for children. The other question would be if I start making more clay items do I have to open a clay shop or can I keep adding them to a shop intended for fibre items? We will see.


Otherwise, there are more buttons in the works since they seem like they could be a good seller in the shop.

I wonder if I can make blog entries a daily thing? every second day?