When You Slam One Door Closed.....

Hello All,

I have finally done it.  I am following my dream.  No. More. Day. Job.  After a few harrowing months with the "Troll" aka the micro-managing office manager.  I decided to cut down my stress and walk away.  Phew do I feel great.  I thought there would be a lot more worry.  But no, I am very comfortable with my decision.  The niggling idea that my eldest is about to leave for college and I need to make money to help with those expenses IS hanging about.  But I think that will assist me in working harder and longer to make this work.  

Being the A-type personality that I am, have already set up a schedule for my work week.  

Every Morning:  Exercise.  Gotta do it, I have been growing this secretaries butt for a while now, and sitting at the desk makes me stiff.  So my Hubby and I walk the dog for 3 miles every morning while it is still cool and then when we get back to the house I usually do stretching, sun salutations, to keep limber.  This is done while my loving husband makes breakfast.  Yup, I am spoiled rotten.

Monday:  Computer work.  I even DRESS for going to the office.  I can't let all of those pretty work clothes go to waste because I'm working from home now can I?  Today is gray heels, a gray pencil skirt and a pink button down shirt with pearl necklace and earrings.  On these days I blog, check.  I post on ravelry, check.  I research more shows, check (very productive morning so far)! Then update etsy, post to Indie Untangled, update my spreadsheets, print lables, pay bills, order and update our banking software.  There will be more but for now that seems to fill most of my day.  I also upload and post new products that I dyed the week prior, but because I did NOT dye last week (nephews were up to swim) so I did not take photos on Friday.  I forgive myself, it IS the first week working from home, and there will be some projects that got missed.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday:  Studio work.  Again I dress the part.  It is messy, hot work so I wear stuff I don't care about getting splattered.  Black or gray sweats (even in the summer, the studio is in the basement and stays cool) and then a tee-shirt or sweatshirt.  Jenn gave me this cute apron when I first started and that keeps me from getting soaked.  On really cold or messy days I use my old Chefs coats.  On these days I clean the studio, skein off projects or custom orders, make new dyes, dye and dry pieces, and spin on my wheel.

Friday: Photos. Now this sounds deceptively  easy, but it is not.  Remember I have been productive over the last three days.  There is a MOUND of dyed things.  These items need to be fluffed, folded, braided, packaged and readied for their photo shoot.  Every items gets at least 10 photos done, all angles and situations.  And, Yes, before you ask, I DO dress the part.  It is usually very flamboyant.  Crazy colored clothing and jewelry, a hat or mabie some ears and a tail.  Those were leftover from Halloween, bunny ears and a fluffy white tail.  :) It is good to let go a bit or you will grow OLD.  

Saturday and Sunday:  Show days or FAMILY TIME!  I can not tell you how long it has been since I have had a weekend to spend with my guys.  A picnic or a walk on the beach.  Just floating in the pool reading a book.  Hunt thru antique/junk shops.  Cook glorious creative meals WITHOUT feeling like I should be doing something else.  Yea!!

I should tell you as I type this my youngest, Colin 16, has been in and out of the dining room where I must work this morning because of guests, chatting with my father and my husband, goofing around and making a nuisance of himself and making it VERY difficult to finish this blog.  

I can not wait until school starts.

Have a productive day!
DD

Whoops, almost forgot a pretty picture to help you thru your day.

This is Morning Coffee, a spin to knit scarf kit.  Espresso to Latte is the brown and the yellow to red is YOP.  You spin one as its own skein and then then other then knit them together as a scarf.  Soooooo pretty.  Time to think about christmas gifts. 

;)

Mama Wanna Mawata?

Hello all,

We have some new fiber in the studio,  Mawata or silk "hankies".  These are silk cocoons that have been de-gummed, their glue has been removed, and then stretched out to a gossamer thin square on a form and set to dry.  Each layer of the mawata square is one cocoon.  Layers and layers of them make up the hankie.  I've been playing with the color and how much dyes are needed to get a nice rich final product.  Now that the little amounts (12-16 grams) have come out well, I'll move on to a larger batch.  This stuff is super fun, you can knit straight from the hankie, a God send for those of you who don't spin, and it felts easily also.

Here is what I do......  this is the beautiful pile of silk hankies as they come from Ashland Bay.  Ohhh pretty.

You can see all the light and airy layers.  Be sure to use hand lotion, any little scratchy piece on your hands/fingers will catch on the silk.  What a pain in the butt!

 I soak them in pans with water and a wee bit of vinegar.  Gotta make sure the pretty dyes strike like they are supposed to.
 

Adding the dye is the fun part.  I pour it into the pan and gently lean the whole thing to get the dyes to spread out and mix together. 

Here is what it looks like when I'm done.  I'll let it sit for a few hours to soak up the dyes and begin to set. 

 
Then the sections of hankies (16 grams ususally) are wrapped in plastic, rolled into a big cigar and put into the steamer to finish setting the dyes.  No one wants silk that bleeds into their knitting or felting or paper or what have you. 

 

Here is what they look like after the dyeing and the drying so pretty!
 

 

 Hope this has inspired you to either, dye your own, or use a mawata to knit!

Happy creating!

 

DD

 

Live and Learn

Hello All!

Long time no blog......

As many of you know we are now Phat Fiber contributors.  Very cool, Jessica Booth is a genius! 

That being said, each month you have a theme to "help" guide your muse.  This months seemed to be easy, "Ice Cream Social" Yum!  Sprinkles and chocolate and gummy bears!!

So I decided to dye this GLORIOUS  Merino Tussah mix to look like vanilla soft serve with multi color sprinkles.  I did and it does!  But along the way I loose my faith in how this would look SPUN UP, would it become mud?? 

I couldn't risk it......all those people waiting, hoping to snag a box only to find, UUGH???.  So I decided,just to be safe, to keep the samples and NOT send them.  What was I thinking?  Darn knee jerk reaction.

The rovings are quite "bright" sprinkles and the underside was left white for the vanilla.  Multi color sprinkles were squirted on in layers.  When it came out I was devastated!! Too Bright!!  What was I going to do?

When it came down to it and I spun some (to get my self more depressed about what a loss this was) I found I was given a lovely muted heathery single. Soooooo soft and the silk gave a killer sheen.

Long story.....short: I should have sent the samples and I'm going to finish off one of the 4 ounce hanks.  Then for funnsies I navajo ply it.  Trying to keep the like colors together and make up for any spinning gaffs. 

Then I'll put it up on the shop along with other unspun rovings. You'll be able to spin this cloud yourself.

Learn something new everyday.

Happy Spinning
Feed that PHIBER PHETISH

DD