The Business Plan.....

So I have the wholesale catologue..................
I have a calculator, I settle down and try to make an order. $600 minimum, no prob. yeah right. in my single parent, sole wage earner, budget queen mind, that equals one mortgage payment, or one months grocery bill, or power, phone and cable combined, thirty friday evenngs at the pub, or fifteen dinners out with the kids including dessert and a beer for mom. I have never spent that much on yarn. I mean it's just yarn, ya can't eat it. technically you can wear it and live in it if you know how to felt a yurt. but given our climate and propensity for privacy it is not bloody likely that the kids and I are gonna start living in a yurt. Oh did I mention that it wasn't even my $600??? no that would be Trish the yarn Store owner, Trish has faith in me. she and kate are under the impression that i know what I am doing. ssshhh don't tell them. I never studied Chemistry in high school cause the chart freaked me out. Periodic table blah blah blah....... I did have a relationship with a chemist once, excuse me that would be a doctor of chemistry
Went to The New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, studied Glaze`chemistry, just add fire and stir........ Now they hand me yarn and fibre like a couple of five year olds clutching a bouquet of dandelions, full of hope love and naaive faith that I can do it all. Oh the pressure!!!!

I know. suck it up princess.
so should I show you all the labels now or should I let you wait till there is some yarn involved? depends on my ability to post photos at this point. I may have to call in the experts....

hand dyed hand spun wool merino

the process

felted bag project

Big Girl Dye Beer, Kate and the felted bag saga

Had a 4:oo oclock meeting yesterday, thank the Gods it involved wine and food. Tourism industry blah blah blah, hell it pays the bills and usually I enjoy it (actually I love it) but the damned felted bag was calling me from four blocks away. Gotta get it done.
Kate so kindly pointed out that I might want to rethink my description of the "Ocean Colours" because apparently she has never seen water that colour... was I referring to another planet maybe???? she is right. amazing the difference lightbulbs in the ceiling fixture make. Who Knew?
The colours are actually more of a concord grape still on the vine The knitting is done and I am ready to tackle the sewing and felting this evening, while Kate and I dye her cottons to be used in her next masterpiece shawl. Kate is making a felted bag as well. Of course hers is Fancy and involved, celtic knotwork spirals AND she is swatching it first. Pauncy Bitch. Hers will probably turn out too. that's okay though. I will just add bells and whistles and beads and baubles and out shine the bitch with my persian finish when the time comes. It'll work trust me, people love shiny.
Gotta hand it to Kate, she came over last night and learned the fine art of dying from the pro. Oh did I mention I f****ed it up? she thinks it is beautiful, and it is- it just isn't the colour it was supposed to be. oops!
ssshh don't tell her!!!!
Gotta fly time to save the heritage world.

Kate's scarf

I made this scarf 2 years ago. the slubby yarn began as a dull not quite white, might be grey, could be green depending on the light and your frame of mind. I painted the yarn using procion dyes and Knit it on large needles for the lacey effect. The scarf now belongs to my friend Kate, you can't really tell from this image but there is a fine carrier yarn of turquoise mercerized cotton stung with it must be a zillion seed beads. It really is a great scarf. Perfect for Kate really, looks like hell on me. I am a brownie, orangey, greeeny girl. sigh....

The felted bag project

Well I did make it home last night to begin the felted bag project. Obsession reigned. Size ten mm needles, some gorgeous roving and cheesey TV shows makes for a great evening. I got a lot of the knitting part done, approximately 2/3 of the way there. I should be ready to felt tomorrow. If I had been smart I would have thrown that damned protestant work ethic out the window and stayed home today to get the thing done, but then who would save the heritage world??????
I think it is going to be a great beginner project and maybe I should be writing down the steps hmmm. what a concept !!! keeping track of the steps as I go along so that I don't have to try and remember them when the kits are being made.... I should really look into that.;-). oh well maybe next time.
Kate is currently dying with kool aid and I think she needs to stop that and move on up to big girl dye. She makes me too hungry with all that fruity yarn. I have put the pounds on lately and lets face it knitting is not the most aerobic of activities at the best of times, add a little tease of candy smelling yarns and the eating begins with a passion.
I have been trying to post photos of the newest project but am technologically challenged, sigh.
I need to become more savvy. I am going to give it the old college try one more time before I heave the puter. Wish me luck
liz

new equipment

It is a sunny Sunday here in freddy beach, and I have been totally resentful of all I am obliged to do today. Here I sit at the council office working away while I could be out living the high life with a cute boy and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. Oh wait, where does one find a cute boy on a sunday afternoon in fredericton??????? sigh, guess it is back to my yarns at home. I spent the morning talking crafts council stuff with consultants and other board members, all the while lamenting my lack of skein winder, it really is hard to talk business on the phone while attempting to make a ball out of a skein of roving and still maintain your dignity/sanity and professionalism. Good thing I was dealing with other crazy knitters while doing so.
I did succeed in the end and then lo and belhold, Barb the knitter on the other end of the phone found a spare winder at her place. Only a twenty five minute drive away, and the damn ball was finished by then.
sigh.
Later today the best friend Kate and her daughter arrived at the council office with ....lo and behold a skein winder. She had been out to her dad's place and stumbled across it among her mom's weaving supplies. It will be a fantastic help to me, and it was great of her to loan it to me. Kate's mom passed away last week after a long and courageous battle with Parkinson's disease. I will think of her often while I make my skeins and package them for sale. I only hope my product will be up to her standards. She was a great lady and did nothing in half measures.
I am so thankful for all of the help my friends are giving me to get my business up and running. Trish my yarn dealer who is taking a gamble on my product.
Jason who God love him is the saint who delivers my equipment,and never asks why I need it or what the hell it is for, never complains about how heavy a kiln and or pottery wheel is, even put it in his brand new SUV and never uttered a word of complaint about the clay bits, hands me beer, and offers to entertain my kids.
Tim the accountant guy who is trying hard to understand craft, and his wife Dale who gave me a dye pot to start me off. Thanks guys
Jackie who is always honest, and helpful in discussions about my work and often adds my two children to her four when I need the time to get things done. Shares the beer with me and talks fiber stuff with lots of enthusiasm and knowledge. She is AWSOME.
Kate MacKay who puts up with all my craziness, makes a damn fine caesar/martini/G&T/.........
and kicks my ass when I need it. loans me equipment, makes me dinner, listens to me rant and rave and even only slightly glazes over when I talk pottery, I know she goes to her happy place and all but she nods appropriately and grunts occasionally, then pours me a drink and says so about that SHAWL we saw, what guage ....... Love you all guys I couldn't do it without you.

Now about that ball of roving from this morning, I have dyed it ocean colours everything from deep cerulean blue to teal turquoise and royal. I am going to go home and knit it into a handbag and then felt and bead it, if it turns out and isn't too difficult it may become my first Kit for market. I have the vision but we shall see if the reality resembles it at all. I will post pictures of the process if I can.
Cheers and happy knitting.
Liz

Warp painted scarf

The lesson for today is to get the damn photos on the blog. I am not the most computer savvy individual, Kate is very patient. I would have killed me ages ago. The scarf shown here is a project from several years ago, hand painted warp in several cottons, the weft is a lovely linen/silk blend. This is one of my favourite scarves EVER, mostly because time has mellowed the memory of attempting to paint squiggles of cotton on a too small table with the help of two toddlers. My dyeing skills have improved considerably,directly proportionate to the aging of my children and the length of sleep acquired each night.

Museological Musings

So here we sit, two crazy fibre artists locked in a building on a sunny and warm Saturday afternoon in Fredericton with nothing but some knitting needles, a computer and quart of vodka to keep us company. You knew that under these special circumstances a blog was inevitable. But seriously, my dear friend Kate started this blogging thing a few weeks ago , and yes I developed a raging case of blog envy. She got Friends, I want some too. So here we sit typing madly and drinking the breakfast of champions - extra spicy caesars actually, Kate is being somewhat productive by knitting a stunning shawl in between her stints as a bartender.