ask tara « Blonde Chicken Boutique

5 ways to celebrate Earth Day

By Tara, on April 22nd, 2009%

Celebrate Earth Day with these 5 easy tips! . . . → Read More: 5 ways to celebrate Earth Day

Ask a Spinner – When do you Spin?

By Tara, on March 5th, 2009%

In which some spinners share their Spin-Life with us. . . . → Read More: Ask a Spinner – When do you Spin?

Ask Tara – Are bamboo and soy eco-friendly fibers?

By Tara, on February 19th, 2009%

Today, I was going to write about my new line of Vegan yarn and roving. But I started Twittering with fellow yarnies about vegan fiber and why I don’t love bamboo and soy. The conversation turned to why I don’t stock those two fibers and I wanted to share my musings about it with you.

As I explored and researched bamboo and soy, I realized something deeper about my business ethics. The Boutique and my own personal life is fuled by two concurrent passions:

Support the community (both local and far-flung community of independent yarnies) Do my best to choose the most eco-friendly option

Those two passions converge nicely in nearly everything I dye and spin – local fleeces, mill-end fiber, recycled banana yarn (handspun by a fair-trade women’s co-op) but sometimes they get a bit tricky, like bamboo and soy.

Why not Bamboo and Soy?

Both are touted . . . → Read More: Ask Tara – Are bamboo and soy eco-friendly fibers?

Ask Tara – Getting the yarn to the bobbin

By Tara, on January 29th, 2009%

Ask Tara is a weekly-ish feature in which I attempt to answer your questions about spinning, dyeing or confusing knitting acronyms. If you have a question, ask it in the comments and I’ll answer it here with either a post or a video!

Sodalimegirl, a YouTube viewer, asks:

Could you show how you initially get your wool onto the wheel and how it gets all set up to spin. In your videos you already have spun wool on the wheel when you do your demos.

Excellent question! This is something so innate, I barely think about it. In preparing for this video, I realized I might do it completely different from someone else. How do you do it?

Here’s how I start each skein of yarn:

What do you think?

Is this how you get started? If not, how?

Have a spinning or . . . → Read More: Ask Tara – Getting the yarn to the bobbin

Ask Tara – Understanding WPI

By Tara, on January 22nd, 2009%

In which we discuss yarn measurement, what it all means and what we should do about supercrazybulky yarn. . . . → Read More: Ask Tara – Understanding WPI