Show notes for "some plans"

Year of the Garment KAL (Yarngasm)

• Slenip yoke chart on a hooded sweater with a zipper for Mouse
• Design a bunny and carrot sweater for Bunny
• Design a cat themed sweater for Badger
• Split Back Tank (Allison Griffith) for me
• Coogee Bay Dress (Jenny King) for me 

Shawls
Humbug & Hygge by Nordic Stitches
Celtic myths and Heartwood Cape (both free on Ravelry

Make nine in 2018
This bag as a knitting tote, without a bow, enlarging the side pouch to hold a water bottle and adding a camera pouch. Expect walks and photos!

 This skirt pattern. I really like the green one shown and will likely make a few in different lengths.

 The white bag on the bottom. to replace a book bag I had to toss.

 The green tunic length and the one with the curved hemline.

 Middle left one and bottom orange one.

 I love this dress! the center style.

 The dress and later in the year I want to weave fabric for the jacket.

 The long one!

 These are my hiking pants! I will be making several pairs. I realize as you have no doubt realized that this is more than nine. I can count! I think, I can anyway. Part of the reason I will be making so many things is I will be participating in the Ready to Wear Fast this year.

I will also be doing Anna Knitter's Treasure Chest KAL, Spin the Bin, and the Box of Sox KAL

~Julia

Monday Morning

One of the things I do on my personal blog is write on Monday about what is going on what I am thinking and intending for the week. I thought that might be fun here. Over there I use a framework and I think I will use something like it here, but not the same one.

Right now I am...
In my kitchen drinking coffee, from the mug my Mother-in-law gave me. I have a fresh lemon and rosemary infusion scenting the air.

In Video Production...
I have one more section - the results - to work on for the green skein video I mentioned in the chatty podcast and then some minor edits. I am hoping to have it live on Wednesday. Shooting will begin on the New Mystery Spin video this week! I am really curious to see what is in the box!

On the Wheel...
Actually, right at this moment nothing but I am working on some test skeins of Corriedale Wool for a friend who will be knitting an Aran sweater. We are working together on this as a gift for (not telling) and I have spun an oiled 2-ply Spun Z-S, next is an oiled three ply Spun Z-S, then both again but Spun S-Z, then one (whichever she is leaning towards liking best) un-oiled. I am making her one oz samples to swatch and compare. This project will be fit in around other things.

On the Loom...
Will be a blanket, I have decided to weave and waulk a wool blanket, partially as a get to know the ins and outs of this loom, partially as a demo piece for The Rare Breeds Show at Garfield Farm Museum.

In the Dyepot...
More self striping yarn!

Papers and Bolts...
This week I need to send in the application for another show and get in contact with the guy who runs my farmer's market.  I also really need to update the Etsy and Square Stores!

Who I am watching... 
Mina at Knitting Expat. Grace at Spin Weekly. Rachel at Wool N' Spinning. And Kate at Milk Thistle.

Wool prep - Southdown

 Welcome to my kitchen! Today I started (with some help, Thanks!) to process a Southdown Fleece. This was 7.5 pounds of wool I purchased at Sheep & Wool this year. The farmer was a young girl who sells her fleeces to save up from college, Yep this is a Junior's fleece. I am a 4H leader and always extra happy to help a Junior. This is spread out all over my kitchen table. Basically, you pick through it, remove as much barnyard and yuck as you can. Then you sort it into piles, by size, or stress in the coat. I only found a small amount of second cuttings - this is when the shearer doesn't cut all the way down and has to try again resulting in much short lengths of wool that are generally not desirable - and very little sunburn or rubbing in the coat.

 I sorted into four basic piles. One was it has lots of tiny bits of VM (plant matter) that will require extra work to get out but doesn't have much tagging (fancy, sanitized way of saying yuck - sweat, urine, and lanolin all kinda of rolled into one -  matted into the fur but that is not so bad - or full of manure - you toss.) I call this my extra picking pile.

 My compost bin pile. All the VM and manure, and the bits of wool it is not worth it to try to clean along with my second cuts. Gardeners don't worry, it take years for my compost to make it to my garden.

 This is the good condition pile, I don't think this will take any extra processing to get this ready. So wash, rinse, rinse, rinse, dry, pick, card or comb, dye and spin or spin and dye.

 This is the extra tagged pile. I will wash and rinse this. If I like how it comes out I will proceed, if not I will pick it then start over at the washing. If I had a dedicated dirty picker I would start there, but I don't.

Here is a close up of the fiber and stuff in it. I spent about three hours sorting through this wool, my daughter's both helped for a few minutes and a friend helped while her little one allowed it. Entirely by myself it would have been at least another hour if not two.

In the works.

Blended wool being removed from Carder.

Un-dyed single on the wheel.

Upcycled sweater project - really enjoying some clothes rescue this spring.

Things are cruising right along here in the studio! Getting items made, labelled, and soon post to the web-stores. Some of you may have noticed that I was accepted at Harbor Market this year and will be at Garfield Farm Museum's Rare Breed Show and at Westosha Market! Looking forward to seeing the new location there. My dates for these shows is to the the right.

Excited about the coming Season!~Julia

Tansy dyepot

I collected and dried some tansy from my yard this fall. Wednesday, I decided get moving on dyeing for the year. After some cleaning on the dye porch/studio - more on that later - I got the dyepot going. Yesterday, while waiting to pick the oldest up from work, I did the first bits of dyeing for the year.

 The first batch in the dyebath, I let the wool (Blue faced Leicester) sit over night.

 Dripping from the pot!

 Yes, I use a salad spinner to get the excess water out of my wool.

The dyed wool next to an equal amount of the same wool ready for the dyepot. This wool is mordanted in alum and rinsed before dying.

I reclaim all rinse water and reuse it in a dye season. This reduces the impact of the alum on the environment. At the end of the year I allow the water to evaporate off, so I am not adding alum - which is fairly safe anyway but care is always good - to my area's groundwater. The leftover plant material is composted for my gardens.

Those of you who read my personal blog will know that due to medical issues with my parents I have been very busy and stressed and I want to thank everyone for their patience, thoughts, and prayers. ~Julia

Hi there

I have been a slacker on here for a while now. I have been selling and creating but not posting. Bad Julia. A lot of my craft making time near the holidays goes towards making beautiful things for my family but I also made a few scarves and skeins. One of my big projects has been working with a friend to re-create my business card and we are working on a brochure. I think she did a wonderful job.

Thanks to Arian these are off at the printers.

I am also looking at setting my show season for the year, hopefully I will have a post about that soon.

~Julia

The connections you make

 One of the greatest treats for me as an artisan is to have someone show me how they took something I worked to create and used it for their own act of creation. I love chatting with people at the markets and shows, and of course hearing that people appreciate the work I do, but seeing the joy others get from working with my products to make something unique to them. So far I have only have two ladies show me their work, I have had people stop by to tell me how well recieved a gift purchased from me was.

Trust me, the craftspeople you see in the markets want you to not just buy our work we make, we want it to bring you joy, we want it to enrich your life. If it is a finished good we want you to love using it and remember why you brought it, who you were with, the beauty of the day and the experience of meeting the artist. If it is a supply, ingredient, or tool, we want you to use it, to touch it and have all those memories, to make with it or to make it into something that carries all those meanings with it.

So the next time you find yourself at a craft fair or farmer's market, stop by and tell them you liked the product or art work you bought, show us what you made, tell the farmer the tomatoes you bought at the end of the year made amazing tomato sauce your family enjoyed all winter, tell me your sister loved the shawl you bought her, or how much your baby enjoys crawling on the blanket. I won't be sitting there thinking "I hope she buys more" all though if you want more I won't stop you! I will be glad to know the energy, love, and work I sent out into the world is appreciated.

If you bought a skein or roving from me, I would LOVE to hear about what you made, how you liked the yarn, and what you learned while working on it! So a big thank you to this client for stopping by last week wearing the hat she made from the skein of grey scale yarn she bought two weeks before. You absolutely made my day and the hat looks great!

~Julia