Chickenlips Knitting
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Taking a spill

I also played around with veil dyeing, which is what "Salmon Dave" is before I knew about veil dyeing. Here's Salmon Dave, a colorway that's been around for about a year.

Then I tried to do a similar thing in green. I like the results, but may have been over-reaching or getting too cute with the name. Be that as it may, this is called "Tempest in a Dyepot".

I have always loved naming things, so my line of veil-dyed colorways is called "Shock Treatment". There will be a couple more for Sock Summit.
***
Feet Don't Fail Me Now!
Bobbie of Tiggywinkle Knits told me of this awesome place called Portland Store Fixtures where I could get mannequin feet to show off handknit socks in Stitchjones yarns. Went there last Tuesday with Mr. Stitchjones, and we got two mannequin feet for a very reasonable price. The only glitch is that they are men's sizes; that's all the store had in stock that day. This Vinnland sock from The Anticraft, which was sent to me by the lovely Andrea in New Mexico, is stretched out a little bit but I think it looks good, you can really see the pattern. I saw lots of cool stuff that I want to go back for, not only for the Stitchjones booth but also for me! If I'm going to design, I need a torso. They have zaftig ones, and I also learned that putting a bra on a man-torso will work great for displaying plus size fashions. So go crazy and cross-dress those mannequins!
Last Tuesday turned out to be a lovely day for me and the spousal unit. He took the day off, and after we went shopping for mannequin parts, we went to Chinatown for a dim sum lunch. Fong Chong Teahouse rocks! I could eat pork shumai and shrimp-spinach dumplings until they come out my ears.
That's about it, my doves. I'll be back when my Svale top is a shiny new FO.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Disappointed

Thursday, July 02, 2009
working vacation

This represents only part of what I'll be dyeing, because today 2 more kilos of Titanium Sock came in. No sign of Glam Sock yet, regrettably, although I'm still hoping it will be here in time to get it ready for Sock Summit.
Speaking of the Summit--you may have already seen this on Ravelry, but here is my entry in the "Dye for Glory" contest in the Painted category.
This colorway is "Magic Judy" in honor of Judy Becker, inventor of Judy's Magic Cast-on and one of the teachers at Sock Summit. It has several of Judy's favorite colors, and she seemed pleased with how it came out. I've already had a couple of requests for the yarn, so I'll be dyeing up at least a half dozen skeins of it over the weekend.I'm not sure if I was supposed to wait before unveiling my colorway. According to the Ravelry rules, the entries can be posted to Ravelry up until July 22nd or something like that, and then voting commences. You know me; I have poor impulse control and tend to shoot my wad no matter what's at stake. In this case, though, I think I'm OK; it's yarn after all, not state secrets.
Got Swag?
I now have a Zazzle panel, although it's hard to see because the blog layout put it waaaay down at the bottom. To save you from having to scroll, here is a linky to the Stitchjones Zazzle store. We've already sold a t-shirt and a couple of buttons, plus I just got 10 of the buttons in today's mail. I'll be wearing one at Sock Summit, and will have some for sale in the booth.
Yeah, "Accept No Substitutes". Don't read too much into it. Or do; whatever turns yer crank. I just thought it was funny.
Love Affair with Laceweight Continues

This is alpaca laceweight in Chartreuse, prior to reskeining. It's now for sale at The Naked Sheep Knit Shop, along with 6 other skeins of alpaca lace yarn in assorted colors. I seem to be alternating between whatever is easiest to get--sometimes the alpaca, and sometimes the 70% alpaca/20% silk/10% cashmere. Believe me, it's much yummier than the 100% alpaca, yet it's obviously much more expensive. I have just enough of it on hand--or will, as soon as my shipment gets here--to fill a wholesale order, and can't wait to get my hands on more. I think I should focus on sock yarn for the time being, and try to keep that urge at bay until after next month's big event.
WIPs will have to do.

Just as all the vendors were packing up at the close of Black Sheep Gathering, I went into the exhibition hall and purchased 2 lovely skeins of Cormo wool in neon green from Bellwether Wool Co. The softness of the fiber and the eyecatching color had me feeling sparkly, and I vowed to myself that if they hadn't sold the two 6 oz. skeins by show's end, they were going home with me. Score! I'm turning them into a quick and easy Diagonal Baby Blanket. I cast on a couple of days ago, and am already half finished.
(protective eyewear recommended for next photo.)

This is all I can show you of a painstaking design I'm cooking up, with Dale of Norway Svale in Chinese red. I am nearly half finished with this summer garment, which means that by summer's end it should be a FO. Even though it just looks like miles of unexplored knot stitch, I think it's gonna be pretty sweet if I can keep plugging at it.
That's it--have a happy, safe and cool Fourth, no matter how you spend it. It's a very hot day, so I think I'll head into the kitchen/family room for an iced beverage and some knitting.
Friday, June 26, 2009
musings of an old knitblogger...
A new online shop is coming soon: Stitch Culture. The website is still under construction, although a lot of progress has been made on it in the past week. The owner, a lady with the lovely name of Chantal, found me through Etsy and ordered 24 colorways! Working on this order, in addition to prepping for Sock Summit, will make for a busy July. I'm grateful to receive the business.
Speaking of Sock Summit...yes I'm excited about it, I look forward to it, but I sometimes wonder if the actual experience of it won't be somewhat anti-climactic. The buzz has reached absolute tsunami proportions; my base yarn suppliers are backordered due to the demand created by the event, which means some of my customers are still waiting for yarn they should've received by now. I can't dye it if I don't have it, and that's a bit frustrating for me. However, I know it will all get ironed out and we'll all have a great time at SS09. I found out today that I'm vendor #1119--still in the Oregon Convention Center, just barely! Put on yer roller skates, and come see me.
My Knitting, My Yarn, and other matters dear to my heart
Yesterday I chugged along on the back of a sleeveless baby-doll style top I've been making in this beautiful yarn.

I started with a pattern but am changing this and that on the fly. I was so proud of myself, having gotten to 16" but realized that I needed to do the decrease row about 3" lower than that, in order to make it pooch below the girls, then add a fetching inch of seed stitch, then continue for several inches before beginning armhole decreases! Rrrrip, rrrrip, is how I'll be spending my Friday evening. While I wait for my undyed yarn shipments to come in, I plan to try to catch up on some languishing knitting projects.
Yarn Updates: Remember the pretty chartreuse laceweight I mentioned before going to Black Sheep? It sold! Now I get to make more. I love it when that happens. And perhaps you may have heard of "Dye for Glory", the Sock Summit yarn colorway contest. I haven't heard if there are going to be prizes or what; rest assured that Stitchjones plans to enter at least one special Sock Summit colorway. Even if there are no prizes awarded, I'll be content with just the glory! ;)
A good friend of my daughter's who had to move away when his dad died is here visiting. It's been nice having him around. He also just graduated, and is going to Western Washington University in the fall. Michelle's diploma arrived in the mail yesterday--sigh. It's official; my girl who just yesterday was a tot, is a high school graduate and heading for community college in September. In order to help pay tuition and buy textbooks, Mama needs to sell a lotta yarn!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
BSG Report
Quite a bit of Titanium Sock sold, no doubt because of how pretty the skeins looked hanging on the peg board.
We also sold several copies of Judy's Mint Parfait Socks pattern, along with the Good Day Sunshine Tote (Ravelry links) and baby vest pattern from Katherine Vaughan Designs.

Kathleen's clever sample display generated lots of oohs and ahhs!

More sexy sock yarn.

I love this! It's made from 1 skein Glam Sock. It's Kathleen's design, and was knit by Melissa. Hopefully I can prevail upon Kathleen for a pattern.
This, knit in Stitchjones Dyepot Chunky, turned out to be the runaway hit of the booth. Like an ee-jit, I didn't take a photo of it all buttoned up into a shrug and hanging up for display, but it helped sell a lot of the Dyepot Chunky wool. Many thanks to Angela for knitting the sample!
Now that I've had the experience of my first big show, I can say I learned a lot. Being an outdoor vendor makes one completely powerless over the weather whims of Oregon. Up until Sunday afternoon, there was a negligible amount of rain, and we wrapped the booth in tarps at the close of each day so everything stayed dry. Sunday afternoon, however, brought enough rain showers that I couldn't keep my products from getting wet, so I felt there was no choice but to tear down early. I can deal with sun and wind, but rain is a different animal altogether. I will definitely apply to vend at Black Sheep Gathering again next year, but I don't think I'll want to be on the lawn!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
start your engines

I know that pleasant interaction with lots of fiber lovers over the next few days is going to help tremendously, though, and right now I'm doing OK. It just seems to take a while for my psyche to become clear of negativity and emotional upsets. Many friends are going to be there, including some that I haven't seen in a long time, and just thinking of that helps cheer me up.
I did the Facebook thing a couple of days ago and it's a blast! Don't know what took me so long. So many of my buddies are there, connecting with one another and chatting.
Not much else to say, except See ya! I'll be back next week with a full report.

Monday, June 15, 2009
I promised knitting

Karabella Merino Lace from Knit Knot Studio.
Besides projects using fancy LYS yarns, I've also been working on samples for the upcoming Black Sheep Gathering, Sock Summit and OFFF. The Earth Angel baby hat in garter rib now has a sweater to go with it--Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater. It's a bit "cropped" in length; I was running out of yarn. Kathleen's fine, 2-ply handspun from a small amount of Stitchjones merino roving in Earth Angel yielded enough for a baby set.
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