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.