Shawls: latest of my obsessions

Actually, it's these crazy, colorful shawls full of whatever I pull out of my yarn stash

handspuns, novelties, you name it, that obsess me. I love knitting them. I go down to the studio and start pulling yarns that go with the colorway and throw them in a basket. Then I just start knitting. I have to make myself do other projects in between shawls.

A friend shared the simple pattern with me and I was off! I think I have knit about eight. Sold a few, gave away a couple and have one or so for sale just to keep me thinking I actually have a purpose when I knit them other than I delight in the colors, textures, and choices. And, I'm wild for the ruffles. Friends ask what I will do with them when I finished. I tell them, I have no idea, I just make them.

I feel like Madame La Farge in Dickens Tale of Two Cities. She just kept on knitting through the French Revolution. Ok, that's a stretch, but you get the idea. The bright red and purple one is the latest off the needles.

I wear the pink often right now with summer clothes. The Santa Fe one went to a dear friend I spend summer days with in Harbor Springs, Michigan.

Please check out Knits for Needs at http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com . They are doing good work.

MY Young Hero-SAM

Sam, my nephew, is spending his second week in Newtown, Sierra Leone doing good work. He graduated from Harvard three weeks ago with an engineering degree, was an All Ivy Lacrosse and Academic All Ivy his last two years, was a captain and was voted MVP by his teammates.., and is just a great guy. He received a big grant on his graduation and he decided to spend it doing goodwill work in Africa. As I understand it he will be doing malaria prevention and handing out computers under the program "A computer for every child".

But look at his own words from his blog:

I don't have much time to write, and I really don't like reading long things on the internet, so here is a pretty unbelievable and novel experience in a foreign country condensed to a few bullets:
- Sweating constantly
- Little to no lights/power or running water (showers are out of a bucket)
- pretty much every price here is negotiable
- a de learn krio small small
- Went through some of the city slums, which are the worst living conditions I have ever seen (have pictures that I might try to put up, but connection is very bad)
- We leave for the provinces (rural villages) on Monday or Tuesday, and we'll be bringing 100 XO laptops (www.laptop.org) + solar panels, 4,000 long lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets, 1,000 paracheck blood tests (malaria tests we will administer)
- We've met with a lot of high level public health officials here, which has been interesting
Those are just some things that come to mind.

He plans to spend six months to a year, I think. Follow him. Here is his blog address:

http://samslaughter.blogspot.com

Potpourri samplers

Sometimes it's fun to be able to sample fibers before jumping into quantities, so I have been plating up little potpourris of churro, and churro and little hanks of handspun. I loved the subtle churro colors in my tapestries and rugs when I was weaving full-time and now love to knit them and then felt them up into fab totes and bags. I am a quintessential bag lady for sure. I think I have bags for my bags.

the crazy colored handspuns from my Fiesta collection are both single and double ply and would be a fun science experiment knit into parts of a scarf perhaps.

Check them all out at my Etsy shop.

Also, will be posted upcoming handspuns at my flickr page

I am participating in Fiber Fridays. check out who else is at Alpaca Farmgirl Farm.

SHHH!!!!! ETC HAS SECRETS

--Find Tex & Get FREE Stuff with Purchase!!!!!!!!. "Secrets" are free gift with purchase items -- there are no more than 2 Secrets in any shop, and all have been tagged with TeamEtsyTx and ETCSecrets AND have Armadillo Tex in the pics. I have tagged TWO great items for this fun sale!

Go to http://cordovastudios.etsy.com

WWKIP at Sassy Spinster, and, of course, YART sale update

As promised, here are pics of  Lancaster, Texas's version of WWKIP  day.  Actually the day fell on the third Saturday, when the Over the Wheel gang meets at the shop to spin, KNIT, and chat.  It was breezy and pleasant in the arcade of shade trees even in the 90+ degree heat.  Evelyn played her dulcimer to add to the ambiance and the lady in the red hat brought her Auracana fresh eggs to sell.  I love this group. 

Photos:  Ann and Sherry each alone knitting, Susan holding court knitting, Ann and Maryann at their spinning wheels, Evelyn and her dulcimer and  the egg lady.

YART SALE:  Last day for free shipping!  Stop by and see new items in YART Sale section.

http://cordovastudios.etsy.com

A Man Named Pearl

Yesterday while I waited for the satellite guys to come and repair what the storm did to my equipment (turns out my house actually took a lightning hit) I switched on the DVD player and popped in this film someone, I can't remember who, recommended to me.  Pearl Fryar lives in small Bishopville, South Carolina.  Son of a sharecropper who worked all his life in a can factory, he is spending his retirement creating the most amazing topiary garden on his three-acre homesite.  Scavenging plants from the local nurseries' castoff pile, he nurtures, trains and pruned trees into unique abstract shapes.  His is a story of compulsive creativity turned art acclaimed by art museums.  Spotlights and ladders can be seen in his yard into the wee small hours as he practices his art.  He remains a thoughtful, warm individual interested in encouraging young people to follow their dreams and work hard.  

I came away inspired to keep following those "artistic rushes" that come when a new idea pops in my head.  Only a little over an hour long, treat yourself and put it in your Netflix queue.

Etsy YART sale June 10-14

ETSY YART SALE:  FREE SHIPPING  on orders over $15.  Check out my  YART SALE section for special bargains  June 10-14.

I will be posting additional items each day.  Here are a few that are available NOW.

The “2nd Annual Yart Sale” is being held from Wednesday June 10th-Sunday June 14th, 2009.  A “Yart Sale” is an artistic spin on the traditional Yard Sale: Art + Yard Sale = “Yart Sale”. There are many art museums, artists, and groups that have Yart sales annually 


I am recovering today from having an ancient wisdom tooth extracted yesterday and am a wee bit creatively impaired with pain killers.  More tomorrow when lucidity returns.  Meanwhile, go shopping!

Busy little dye person here

 Well, I got my dye pots set up last week, started grabbing rovings, handspuns, and loose locks from down in the studio and started experimenting. 

(Cleo and Trinket were chillin'.) The rovings will go up on Etsy as the Botanical Collection and the yarns as the Tuscany Group.  No inspirations on names for locks yet. 

The rovings are all Blue-faced Leiscester. 

Handspuns are a range of churro,lincoln, and corriedale wool. Each took dyes in a bit different way.  I would take them and use them all in a shawl 

much like the Toasty Browns Shawl at http://cordovastudios.etsy.com.  The textures would be delicious!

Who knew?

Well, my previous post on "My Favorite Place in Texas" gave Cordova Studios the big win in the blog contest of EtsyTexasCrafters.  We got a big feature in the blog and the display of my Etsy mini on the blog main page for a week.   Copy and paste link below to check it out.  (still don't know how to make it a hyperlink here).

http://etsytx.blogspot.com/2009/05/our-featured-team-member.html

BTW, Trinket is totally bored by all this hoopla.