Blonde Chicken Boutique » Eco-Friendly

Inspiration: a photo collection

Tara — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:03:30 +0000

The rain is quite insistently gray today, so I thought I’d brighten up this Monday with a reminder of the gorgeous colors of late summer.
This month’s line of handspun yarn (don’t forget, shop closes Thursday!) was inspired by the last few weeks of summer and the beginning of fall.

I found inspiration at the farmer’s market:
(inspired Peachy)

(inspired Watermelon)

(inspired pumpkin patch)

I found inspiration at Dollywood:

(inspired Sky)

(inspired Rainbow Stripe)

I’ve got lots more inspiration photos to share, but I’d love to know:
what inspires you?

PS. Don’t forget to share your favorite handspun patterns to win 15% off your entire order!

Sheep Shearing – Fall 2010

Tara — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:26:59 +0000

Have you ever seen a sheep being sheared?
No matter how many times I watch it, I’m amazed every time.

Earlier this month I helped my mom plan a Shearing Day for her farm. We sold some tickets, had coffee, cinnamon rolls and yarn. But the main event was the shearing, which my little brother captured in these videos.

(If you’re reading this in a reader or via email, you may need to click through to the blog to see the videos)

Everyone wants to know: what will we do with the wool?
Well, I’d love to tell you that you can find it in the shop, but you can’t! This year we’re keeping both fleeces to wash, card, spin and knit into sweaters for us.
But don’t worry, there’s plenty of woolly things in the Boutique.

If you have any questions, please ask in the comments!
And don’t forget! The Yarn Party is on! I’ll have yarny, wooly goodness for you here at the blog and handspun yarn in the shop until Thursday.

Shades of Hemp

Tara — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:52:02 +0000

This week has been all about the hemp.

I got a ginormous wholesale order from a fiber artist, so I have been winding + dyeing for days.

(This is actually a giant pile of yarn I sold to someone at Starbucks last month. If you’re ever in town, shoot me an email and you get your own pile of yarn + coffee!)

This color (pumpkin) seems to be the most popular:

Emily is making a gorgeous Waves of Grain scarf:

(the free pattern is here, on Knitty). Emily is @emilyroots on Twitter is a new spinning convert, so go welcome her to the club!

And @fracksmom is making a cowl out of it.
(I’m pretty sure it’s not for her dog, he’s just modeling it!)

If you’re wondering what you might make with hemp laceweight, I’ve compiled a whole list of patterns and you’ll probably love the projects other knitters are making on Ravelry.

Oh, and if you want a little skein for yourself (it’s actually a huge skein: 625 yards/2 oz), you can get it right here.

Farmer’s Market Inspiration

Tara — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:08:29 +0000

A photo tour of this week’s inspiration, all of it from the local farmers.

Green beans

Carrots and peaches

Watermelon

The result of the inspiration, which you can use to inspire your summer.

New Goats!

Tara — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:02:13 +0000

Ok, it has nothing to do with National Craft Month, but I just had to share.

Yesterday, the very first day of spring, my mom’s dairy goat, Emily, gave birth to two sweet little babies:

We all went in to check on Emily in the midst of celebrating my little brother’s 11th birthday. We had no idea that she had just given birth, until we saw sweet little brown kid standing there shivering:

Next to him was laying his little white brother, still, uh, shall we say, freshly born?

Within 30 minutes they were both trying out their new legs, mumbling to their mama and searching for their first meal.

Undyed Hemp

Tara — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:33:37 +0000

I am loving all the entries to the Name-A-Color contest. But now that I read them, I realize I didn’t give ALL the information in that first hemp post.

You can’t come up with good colors, if you don’t know what you’re working with.

And what I’m working with is a naturally colored hemp.

Which is NOT white.

And that means that I can NOT get bright, crystal clear colors.
What I can get are really deep and muted colors like this

(sneak peek of what’s coming Friday!)

If you have an idea for a muted, not-quite-bright color that I should dye, be sure to leave your suggestion in the comments of this post (and hey, you might just win a skein in that color!)

Fiber Friday – Hemp Laceweight Edition

Tara — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:04:14 +0000

Last month I posted a few colors of Hemp Laceweight and they sold out almost immediately. Today I have 2 skeins each of 5 different colors, and they will be in the Boutique at 10 am.

Here’s a little sneak peek of what’s coming:

Grape

Leaf

Pumpkin

Catch all the colors of Hemp Laceweight here!

Sheep! My Sheep!

Tara — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:34:14 +0000

Friday afternoon, I went with my mom to pick up our first sheep from Hobby Knob Farm.

Since we don’t have a trailer, we used my mom’s minivan to bring them home.

This is no easy task, as sheep don’t understand the whole “hop in” concept.

(if these pictures are shaky, it’s because I am laughing SO hard)

Once in the van, they calmed right down and gave one look back to their former farm.

I was intimately involved in getting them OUT of the van, so there aren’t any pictures of that. (Imagine me holding onto the leash, trying to talk the sheep into jumping down).

Once they were out and into the yard, the youngest one (we haven’t decided on a name yet – I call her Shera (Princess of Power) and the brothers call her Baby) started munching:

The older one, formerly named Itsy Bitsy, is decidedly UN-itsy. My 8 year old brother promptly renamed her Fatty Maddy.

At her age, she deserves more respect, her official name is Madeleine.

Shera/Baby is still a lamb (born this spring) and is 3/4 Cotswold, 1/4 Border Leceister with a super curly fleece. Maddy is 4 years old, always twins and is a Shetland/Romney cross. Her fleece is the first I ever worked with (last fall!) and it is just lovely and fine and squooshy.

The girls were sheared (shorn?) last week and I’m going to get started on their fleeces this week. If you want some of their fiber, let me know in the comments!

The ladies will be living at my mom’s house, a short drive my place. I go over there a few times of week to babysit my little brothers, so I’ll be taking care of them a few times a week. I just came in from wrangling them, right before writing this!

If you’d like to weigh in on the Shera/Baby debate, let me know in the comments! What do YOU think we should call her?

How I came to be a Blonde Chicken

Tara — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:02:01 +0000

Usually, on Thursdays, I post manifestos, love-letters to the season, but today, my Jay’s birthday, I want to post a little manifesto for him.

I’m often asked “What’s a Blonde Chicken? Where’d that name come from?“. It’s an adorable little story, so be forewarned: Cuteness lies ahead.

Jay has a huge family. Over 15 aunts and uncles (not counting their spouses, their children and their spouses). Huge. One day they all came to our college campus for a big family thing for Poppa, the family patriarch.

Jay and I had been dating…maybe 2 months? And he wanted me to meet the family.

When it came time to meet Poppa, I leaned down (he was in a wheelchair), gave him a “kiss on the jaw” and moved on. I might have said “Hi, Nice to meet you”. Maybe.

Jay was behind me and Poppa grabbed him and said:

“Don’t let go of that blonde chicken!”

As a proper young feminist, I was appropriately disgusted with the nickname.

Of course, Jay used it to relentlessly tease me.

Months passed, Poppa passed away and Jay kept calling me his Blonde Chicken.

We fell deeper in love, graduated, got married, got jobs and when I started to think about maybe, sorta opening a business, Jay insisted that I should do it.

When I faultered for a name, Jay offered up “Blonde Chicken”.

When I doubted that I could really, truly put all the parts of a business together, Jay insisted.

When I considered quitting my day job, Jay insisted.

At every step, at every opportunity for me to turn back, Jay’s had my back, insisting I could do the Thing.

And for him, it isn’t even a big deal. It’s just the Thing, Tara’s Thing She Needs To Do.

He’s just quietly certain I can do it. No big pep rallies (even when I thought I wanted one), no big deal. I can do it. Period.

Today, on his 27th birthday, here, in this space he’s helped to create, I just wanted to acknowledge his insistence, and to thank him for not letting go of this blonde chicken.

(PS. The real tragedy – Jay’s red/green colorblind. I work with color all day and he can’t even enjoy my current favorite color, an enchantingly juicy Cherry)

Handspun Organic Cotton Yarn – Free Patterns & Tips

Tara — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:18:10 +0000

As the summer heat (and humidity!) gets more oppressive, I find myself working more and more with organic cotton. It’s soft, it’s lightweight and it doesn’t make me all sticky when I spin on the porch. (Wondering why organic cotton? Read this.)

But as I stock the shop with a rainbow of handspun organic cotton yarns, I’ve been getting asked: “What can I make with it?”

The short answer: Anything.

What? You want more than that?

Ok, the long answer.

First, the details:

You can get Handspun Organic Cotton right here.

This yarn is handspun into a smooth worsted to heavy worsted weight. I suggest using needles that are US 8-11. But of course, everyone’s knitting is different, so you may need a different size!

A few things to remember when working with cotton:
-It’s not as elastic as wool, so your fabric won’t “bounce back”. This means you’ll probably want to avoid knitting things that might sag (like skirts or shirts).
-Cotton is heavier than wool, which contributes to the “sag factor” if you make something big.
-Because of it’s inelasticity, it may be harder on your wrists. I combat this by using circular needles, so there’s not so much weight on one wrist at a time.
-Cotton can be machine washed! But if it gets caught up in your washing machine, it’ll be pulled out of shape, so I always handwash (if you have a front-loader that won’t happen).

Pattern Ideas:
I’m making a shawl with the cotton and banana yarn. I’ll be releasing the pattern next week (but here’s a sneak peek).

Until then, here are a few other ideas:

Le Slouch, a beret (on Ravelry)

Bubby, a bear (on Ravelry)

Simple Baby Bib (on Ravelry)

knitCOWL (a cowl!), a Free Ravelry Download

What are you making?

See what everyone else is making by checking out the Handspun Organic Cotton Ravelry page here.

You can also share ideas, thoughts and your projects in the Blonde Chicken group on Ravelry.

What would you make with Handspun Organic Cotton?