Making progress......

It feels good to get to spend some time in the studio again. There will be disruptions throughout the year with some house renovations but for the most part I'm getting back to spending more time being creative........hope I didn't jinx it by making that statement........

Today I did some photography work - here are the latest towels to come off the loom, they are now listed in my etsy shop for sale. I hope buyers like them because I sure do, so much so I may end up keeping a few for myself.

I also took photos of these scarves, they've been waiting in the wings since spring but when we started packing up the other house getting it ready to put on the market they got packed away. Now they are up for sale in my etsy shop. Making headway here and there in the studio and it feels great.....

Next up is to pull out some 6/2 cottons for towels, I don't often weave with this thicker cotton but it does make a nice thick and thirsty towel. Would love to use it all up and empty that section of the shelf to make room for the cones of chenille I brought back home from the beach cottage. So, new project planning coming up next.

Last February I joined in on a quilt project from Sew Cute quilt shop in Dillard, it's between here and the coast. Each month for 9 months I religiously picked up my packet, the first month also included the booklet and some templates. Did I start any of these, heck no, I didn't have time..........I was getting a house ready to put on the market and packing up much of my studio so it showed better. So, a year late I will be starting it - whoo hoo.  I'm not going to get obsessed with working on it all the time, will just do it here and there because I want to have plenty of time to weave, spin, knit, sew, etc.

Stash Sale - Yarn

New updates in my fiber etsy shop with a yarn stash sale - they can be found in the stash sale section of my shop. See the details there or on the other stuff for sale page of this blog.

Etsy Shop Update

Two new scarves for sale in my etsy shop - handwoven in a manifold twill pattern

Both hand-dyed rayon flake - this one with a light teal tencel weft....

....this one woven with a royal blue tencel weft

Etsy shop update

New embroidered towels added to my etsy shop.

Check out the shop section titled embroidered towels to purchase them and others.

Notecards listed in shop

I just listed 7 different styles of handwoven blank notecards (with envelope) in my etsy shop for sale - they can be found in the Notecard/Greeting Card section of my shop. Many of these will work for holiday cards in addition to everyday all occasion cards. And what a deal - buy 3 cards and I'll throw in a free card of my choice. So much nicer than a plain old mass produced printed paper card for the same amount of money.

Etsy shop update

New handwoven towels and table runners available in my etsy shop

A good part of my day was spent with the camera and these handwovens, lots of editing to get some decent photos to use in my etsy shop. This is the part of the job I struggle with but no one else is going to do it so I've just got to suck it up and do the best I can.

Bunnies!

New bunny towels in my etsy shop just in time for Easter and Spring.........or really anytime of the year as they're not pigeon-holed to Easter with having eggs or Easter greetings on them. Perfect for those who love bunnies or have bunnies.  I'm thinking I need a set but which design - I love the cute little bunny with the flowers but then also love the leaping bunny with the vines........decisions, decisions.

As I posted recently I rarely get time to put out any holiday décor anymore so I'm going to stock up on holiday towels for my own house, woven and embroidered, as they're easy to pull out of the linen closet and put out for the holidays/seasons. I always use woven towels in the kitchen and bathrooms but usually they match the décor, not the holidays so that will vary in the future.  So, which will it be.......maybe the bunny with the vines..........or maybe the cute little bunny with the flowers.......or maybe both..........guess I better get back to the embroidery machine........

New roving in shop

I've spent the past two days fondling roving..........only it's not as fun as it sounds. I've been weighing, bagging, tagging, updating inventory and listing in my etsy shop - too much administrivia. Thank goodness for Sam's help since working together makes the job 3 times faster than me working alone.

I've got some new items like the green bamboo (above left) and these 5 new colors of merino.  The rest was just restocking sold out fibers in my shop.  Check out what I've got to offer here.  Of course I couldn't resist setting aside a couple colors for a future project - Mink & Plum - I need to decide what else to mix with them.......that will come when I'm ready to start playing with the blending board or drum carder......too much else on the to-do list at the moment........

Mohair roving

Just got some new Young Adult Mohair listed in my etsy shop (in the natural color fibers section of my shop). I don't usually carry it, not sure why but someone here locally requested it so I bought a bit to test it out, if it sells ok I'll order a larger quantity and stock it on a regular basis. It's lovely, very silky and shiny, long 5" staple length. I'll get a sample spun up soon.

I got this weighed, bagged and labeled this morning but the rest of the huge roving order will be sitting there until some time next week when I have time, or make time to deal with it. There are 14 new colors of Superfine Merino Roving that I can't wait to unearth and spin samples of - those will be listed in the shop as soon as I take photos and get it weighed out.

New scarves........

I finally finished twisting fringe on newly woven scarves....photos taken of 4 of them and they're now listed in my etsy shop for sale.

Sand Castles Buttercream

 

Sand Castles Taupe

 

Raspberry Cream - Lavender

Raspberry Cream - Fuchsia

 

 

Incredible bamboo

Yesterday after coming home from my spinning group I got around finishing weighing, bagging, labeling a big fiber order - it's been sitting for weeks waiting for me to get around to it. It's not one of my favorite jobs so I chose to ignore it but the roving won't sell if it's not listed in my shop. Out of this order there are 5 colors of bamboo roving/top (in addition to the natural and black) - it is incredible. It's a special offering by Ashland Bay which means it won't be around forever - I'm not quite sure why I hadn't already ordered it. I've set aside some for myself to blend in with other fibers on my blending board or on the drum carder. The colors are so intense and beautiful.

Today, after I put away all the roving weighed out yesterday that is covering the floor of the studio, is my day to be at home to weave. So far this morning I've spent time packing up orders and relisting roving in my shop. As soon as Bailey and I go for our walk I'll be heading to the loom - whoo hoo.

Scarves

I've been selling so many scarves in my etsy shop and locally it was time to work on a little more photography so more can be listed......one of my dreaded jobs.  It's done, 7 more scarves listed in the shop for sale.......now back to work on gifts......then I need to get back to the loom......

New roving in etsy shop

I finally listed some newly dyed rovings in the etsy shop. Last night while we watched tv I spun up small sample skeins of each roving.  Not sure when I'll get back to the dyepots with the 100+ degree temps. This week will definitely be a week of inside projects.

More scarves.......

Just got more scarves listed in my etsy shop

 

 

Back in stock

I've been playing catch-up today since I had been away.......boxing up and mailing orders, weighing out alpaca/merino/tussah roving so I could restock my etsy shop and also putting together more Felting Landscapes kits for my etsy shop in the Purple Mountains Majesty colorway - I sold out of both of these recently.

I labeled cones from a recent UKI order - the order arrived right before I left on my trip and cones were laying all over the studio floor. I put a label on the inside of each cone with the type of fiber, yards per pounds, price per pound including shipping cost per pound, where the fiber came from (in this case UKI) and the date. This is valuable information when I'm planning projects for cost of materials sold information. I weigh my cones before I start a project and weigh them at the end to see how much yarn I've used........I'm very used to using the metric system for this so it's always on the gram scale. I've got some wonderful new colors to use on the next towel warp that goes on the loom.

A bit of sparkle.......

I just got some hand-dyed Firestar listed in my etsy shop (in the hand-dyed section) - this is incredible roving for adding sparkle to batts, spinning or felting. A little of it goes a long way. I love adding to batts on the drum carder or to just pick up bits and let it twist in with already prepared roving I may be spinning.  I also got some hand-dyed sock yarn listed in the shop and some inkle woven bookmarks in the other etsy shop.  I'm making progress at getting things listed that have been sitting for months waiting for their photography session........now on to scarves.........or better yet a a bit of weaving.........after we clean house..........

Celtic Knot Table Runners

I can't even begin to tell you how long these table runners have been sitting in a stack waiting for the photography work so I could list them in my etsy shop. I sold several locally, donated one to a benefit auction. Finally decided I needed to buckle down and do the photography work, which I'm terrible at, but I can't list them if it's not done........and no camera angel is going to come do it for me.

All the runners are woven out of perle cotton, the celtic knot design in a bit heavier cotton. These have a nice deep hem and are hand hemmed.

I have two of each colorway in stock.

The top one has a natural background with a forest green celtic knot design on each end.

The middle one has a soft light teal green body with a bit darker soft teal green celtic knot border.

And the bottom one has a tan background with black celtic knot borders.

All are now listed in my etsy shop in the towels & linens section.

Hopefully I'll get to some more photography work soon - have scarves waiting in the wings.

Hand Woven Scarves for sale........

Finally did some photography work for the etsy shop - I needed 4-5 shots for each scarf listing, took many more than that to get 4-5 decent ones.  Here are the latest listings in the etsy shop - an off-white merino/seacell scarf, a painted warp ginkgo scarf in autumn colors, a sage/rust gingko scarf and a teal/fuschia dragonfly scarf - the last 3 scarves are all tencel.  More scarves to take photos of in the near future........

Still treading water here, gulping for air at times. I have been able to cross a few things off the long to-do list. Huge Ashland Bay order placed for roving for my other etsy shop - I will be spending several days weighing, bagging, labeling, putting into inventory and updating the shop when it comes in. I placed a bigger than normal order as to take advantage of the prices before they increase in the next month.

Many scarves, 9 to be exact, left the studio this week for new homes - I know 7 of them are destined to become holiday gifts - I hope the recipients love them.  I really need to get back to weaving - life keeps interfering........sometimes for fun stuff, sometimes for administrivia. I've got more holiday gifts to knit and other requiring assembly of handwoven/handmade parts, holiday gift sewing to do...... perhaps some work on those will start happening later today.

New listings in my etsy shop

Oh, how I struggle with the photography part of having etsy shops. I still haven't mastered this new camera, I loved my old one........which I dropped several times and finally did in. It's a crap shoot getting good pictures but I do my best. One of these days it would probably help to take a photography class............or maybe that could be something Sam does when he retires so he can be in charge of photography and shipping, handling and inventory control. Anyhow, these are now up for sale in my etsy shop........I have set a red one aside for myself but I haven't tried it on with my red tank & jacket yet to see if the color is right. The copper one calls me but I'm always drawn to colors like that, as well as the sage, I need to branch out and get more variation in my personal scarf collection so I'm not wearing the same colors all the time.

Sale in my Etsy shop

It's spring cleaning time in my etsy shop. Just thought I'd mention in case anyone was interested - I'm having a sale in one of my etsy shops on hand-dyed roving. Each day this week I'm adding new roving to the Sale Section of the shop - these are colorways where there's only one braid (approx 7-8oz) left. I'm making room for new colorways to come soon.......and old colorways that have been very popular and sold out. So, if you're interested check it out - eweniquely ewe. Here are a few examples of what's on sale.  And as always my other etsy shop carries Ashland Bay Trading Co roving - it's eweniquely ewe fibers.

On another note I don't seem to have gotten much weaving done. I did get the recycled bag fabric off the loom - it's awaiting washing, sewing, lining and weaving inkle loom bands for the handles. Monday I did get a warp wound for a special order for 2 chenille throws - hope to get started weaving today, will post a picture when there's something to see.

This Saturday is my guild presentation on woven devore - still trying to figure out how to present it without sounding too negative about the process. And next week is a 3 day workshop on Summer & Winter - table loom is warped and ready to go.