By Tara, on May 31st, 2008% Every Saturday, if the sun is shining, my husband and I (and sometimes the pup) visit a Farmer’s Market. We get most of our vegetables, bread and eggs from the local farmers. I also recieve something a little less tangible – inspiration, a sense of community and deep gratitude for this excellent resource. In the past, I’ve created yarns inspired by nature, but I wanted to work on something a bit more immediate, more grounded in the present.Thus, my Farmer’s Market Project: each week I’ll take one picture at the Farmer’s Market and will post it. During the next week I’ll dye and/or spin a yarn inspired by that picture and will list the yarn the very next weekend. This will force me to execute my plan quickly and spontaneously and I hope to photograph the yarn in it’s “natural habitat”, at the next week’s market!
This week’s picture was . . . → Read More: New Project – Farmer’s Market
By Tara, on May 23rd, 2008% At Maryland Sheep & Wool, strolling through the sheep barns, I came upon a table with some business cards, a skein of yarn and a bag of wool. As I plunged my hand into the wool (ecstasy!), the farmer approached and he and I my mom began chatting about his sheep. It took me about two seconds of admiring the sheep
and fondling the wool before I pounced on it! I was thrilled to learn that Wit’s End farm is just a few hours from my house, in rural Virginia. When I returned home, Jay had purchased the first of the season’s strawberries. Inspired, I pulled out the local wool, and dyed it in “local” colors.
Strawberry
I set aside 4 oz of fiber to sell and quickly spun up another 4 oz:
Strawberries, already sold!
A few days later, the leaves outside my office door inspired me to . . . → Read More: Fiber Friday: Wit’s End Fiber
By Tara, on May 19th, 2008%
As I’ve been spending most of my weekends with quilt in hand, making tiny, tiny handquilting stitches, I’m a little woozy with the quilting bug. Here’s a bit of the inspiration that led me down this rabbit hole: I’ve seen a lot of quilts made from blue jeans (in fact Crafting a Green World just posted about them), but this is my very favorite. Amanda makes excellent use of some old sheets. Jane is the reason I believed I could handquilt my very first quilt, and this post is the reason I wanted to. Alicia’s quilt is really the first that struck me as something I both wanted to make and wanted to own. The insight into Lisa’s quiltmaking (art making!) is remarkable. Malka’s post on quiltiness convinced me (before I even started) to make this quilt as “quilty” as possible.
I’m 7 out of 12 blocks, and then . . . → Read More: Inspiration Monday #10: Quilty Goodness
By Tara, on May 14th, 2008% Long have I admired Liz, of Hobbledehoy’s use of color. I remember reading her Featured Seller interview on Etsy and feeling so inspired! I long watched and drooled over her batts, but they usually sell out so soon after listing, it seemed I kept missing them. Imagine my delight and surprise when I finally did order a pair and she added a little extra batt! The wait was definately worth it, the batts were squishy and soft and spun up into the bounciest yarns. I was extra thrilled when, moments after finishing this yarn:
I went on a walk and snapped this picture:
Usually my pictures inspire my spinning, but this time my fresh yarn inspired to notice the beauty in these buds. Today I listed the yarn spun from the little extra batt. I added it in with some of my own handdyed purpley mill-ends wool/mohair. The results reminded . . . → Read More: Fiber I love: Hobbledhoy batts!
By Tara, on May 9th, 2008% My mom and I left Friday morning for Maryland, stopped at every coffeeshop, ice cream booth and bathroom between here and there, and arrived 6 hours later in Frederick.We failed to take a single picture in which we didn’t look like death, so you’ll just have to trust me – we had a great time! Frederick is such an adorable town, with a great range of shops. Our perennial favorite is Muse, where each got a little handmade book from YeeHaw Industries to use a trip journal. We enjoyed fantastic sandwiches at Cafe Nola, where the waitress was knitting and was also going to the Festival!
At the festival, we got down to goat picking: Mom & a sweet Pygoraand farmer meeting,
These lovely Rambouillets belonged to Wit’s End farm and produced this:
And shopping!
from the American Cormo Sheep Association, which had the nicest, most helpful . . . → Read More: Fiber Friday – At Maryland Sheep & Wool
By Tara, on May 8th, 2008%
By Tara, on May 5th, 2008% I admit it: I love TV. Not all of it, but the shows I watch…well, I can be a bit obsessive about them.Obsessive enough that I memorialize my love in the form of yarn.One of my favorite shows is LOST. I like the intrigue, the mysteries and the way a viewer is rewarded for paying attention. I also love the scenery. The lush greens and sinister black were the inspiration for my LOST yarn:I started with jungle green and ocean blue local wool and swirled organic, undyed cotton, local naturally brown alpaca and a shot of mill-ends black wool. The black (like the Black Cloud on the island), shows up very little, but when it does it surrounds the other color in an immediate hive of noir. In other words, I let it wrap around the other ply, making scary little clouds of black! Despite my best efforts of . . . → Read More: Inspiration Monday- Inspiration in a box
By Tara, on May 1st, 2008% I’ll be here all weekend. And on Saturday, at 11:30, I’ll be at the Ravelry meet-up, hoping to (finally) meet Lolly! Will YOU be there? If so, drop me a line so we can meet up!
PS. The shop will continue as usual, anything purchased Friday – Sunday will be shipped on Monday (which is the usual way it goes)
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