Day Dreaming about Sheep

So as I toil away day in and day out in the lab to finish my PhD studies, I often find myself day dreaming about sheep.

Image Source.

And how could I not? They are practically clouds.

So maybe I shouldn't be encouraging these day dreams, but I certainly am.

How?

Buy it here.

Well I've just finished reading One Woman Farm by Jenna Woginrich. An adorable, and beautifully illustrated diary in which Jenna shares her first year, by herself I might add, on a 6.5 acre farm in upstate New York. Although I guess she's not really by herself, she does have her flock of sheep, an assortment of chickens, geese and rabbits, her ponies Merlin and Jasper, her goat and her dogs.....and I think there might have been a cat..... also some bees. This little book draws the reader in to Jenna's love affair with her farm, and if you want to read more, she's written a number of other books (Barnheart, Chick Days, Made From Scratch, Cold Antler Farm), or you can head on over to her daily blog, barnheart.com . Don't feel like reading? she's got a vlog on YouTube, which I have dutifully watched in full and subscribed too.

And as soon as I put down Jenna's book, I picked up another one.

Find it here.

Adventures in Yarn Farming, by Barbara Parry, takes us to the other end of the spectrum, rather than 6.5 acres, she has over 200, and rather than just one woman going it along, so far (I haven't finished reading it) it seems that Barbara has a number of farm assistants and some serious start up funds (her husband was the CEO of Yankee Candle). However, what is clear from the start is like Woginrich, both woman have a deep bond with their animals and an affection for farm life. Throw in the beautiful full colour photography on just about every page of this book, and a few beautiful knitting patterns to boot, and this is a book I will dream over for years to come. Barbara has the fibres from her flocks available through FoxFire Fiber and Designs and also runs a blog, SheepGal.com (it hasn't been updated in over a year, but there are tonnes of posts for back reading).

Finally one last thing. If everything above sounds like too much reading, or if you're just looking for a quick sheep dream fix. Watch this youtube video produced by Etsy, featuring Susan Gibbs on her farm in Martha's Vineyard. And yep, she's another gal like Jenna and Barbara, who left the 'real world' behind to go chasing Sheep Dreams.

And for my Mother, who I know is reading this and shaking her head at her strange daughter's crazy ideas.... don't worry, Kevin knows all about my Sheep Dreams. (I love you mom!)

Tour De Fleece and Vlogging!

Hey Ya'll! (for some reason I want to say Ya'll lately, please forgive me for that).

It's July, which means a few things.

1) Knitting in the heat makes me sweat.
2) Crochet in the heat makes me sweat.
3) The Calgary Stampede is in full force.
4) The Tour de France is in full force (which I of course care so very much about).
5) The Tour de Fleece is in full force! (which, you know, not sarcasm!)

For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a sister event to the tour de France made by spinners for spinners. Essentially, you join up with a team of Ravelry and spin every day that the tour rides.

And spinning I have been!

Every single day, in fact I've gone through 300g of fibre already. 

But even more exciting, I've been vlogging the process.

What's vlogging you say? Video-blogging.

That's right, I've been putting short, 3-10 minute, videos up, detailing my daily spinning. Some of the videos even include how tos for the techniques I've been using.

So here's the first video:

And if you like that video, please click on over to my YouTube channel, and subscribe for more great content.

The full Tour de Fleece playlist can be found here.

Thanks for watching! and happy spinning.....ya'll!

(it must be because it's stampede, I swear they put something in the water).

Celebrate Jurassic World with 10 free Dino Inspired Patterns

This Sunday Kevin and I went and saw Jurassic World. And it was Amazing! How amazing? Why don't you go read this post over on my personal blog to find out? (My Favourite 10 things from Jurassic World - No Spoilers)

Now to celebrate over here, I thought I'd share with you the 10 free Knit and Crochet patterns, inspired by dinosaurs, that I wish I had enough time to make.

If you don't mind doing some serious colourwork, this knitted in blocks Dinosaur blanket by Pattons is great.

For a simple but fun crochetted hat, why no try these Dinosaur Spikes by Danyel Pink?

Want to knit a set instead? This Dinosaur Hood was originally designed for toddlers by Julia Farwell-Clay, but some knitters have adapted it for those adult children out there.

Maybe just a hat isn't enough for you? Why not crochet this hat, diaper cover and booties set for a new born. Designed by Amy B Stitched.

Speaking of newborns, how adorable is this little Dino cape? Designed by Kayla Anderson, its the perfect prop for a newborn photo shoot.

Ok, enough with the babies, how about knitting up a Stegosaurus plushie? This Dino Jr. by Katie Boyette is pretty great.

Rather not knit your stuffed toys? This crocheted Stegosaurus is pretty great as well. Designed by the Button Ship, he looks at home in the grass.

Now on to sweaters. This wrap around dinos cardigan is adorable, and with all those textured stitches and colour changes, it would be a challenging little knit. Stephan's Dinosaurs is designed by Pat McDermott.

Here's another design by Julia Farwell-Clay, and I have to admit, I kind of want this dino hoodie in my size.

Finally, here's a great Velociraptor motif (by Kjersti) that can be incorporated into any sweater or hat or whatever you can dream up. Perfect to celebrate the new Jurassic World movie, and if you start knitting it now, you should be able to finish it before the sequel.

May Etsy Update: all the yarns!

Yesterday I did a major Etsy shop update, with tonnes of beautiful hand dyed, recycled yarns. Here are some of my favourites.

These beauties are from the same sweater, love that pop of sparkle in this great wool acrylic blend.

All three of these colourways were dyed on the same %100 lambs wool sweater base. They're sport weight and would make a great pop of colour in a shawl (especially a West Knit).

Check out my shop for more great yarns at great prices! 

Dyeing combination fibers - Swatches!

A friend of mine had this giant cone of yarn that I think she picked up at a garage sale a while back. Just yards and yards of it,and all in a boring nude colour, so I offered to dye it up for her. The problem? It's about a 50/50 linen/silk blend. which means half of the fiber will want an acid dye, and the other half a reactive dye. So that means experiments!

So I skeined off 1000 yards to set aside for the final dyeing, and then wrapped up a couple mini-skeins to do some tests.

Here's the results, from top to bottom: original colour, Acid dye teal, Acid dye peach, Reactive dye Violet, Reactive Dye Black, and the last one I cooked the yarn with some saskatoon berry preserve, which came out a nice purple, but faded out in the wash.

In the close up of the teal, you can see that the acid dye, which will dye only the silk mainly dyed the white flecks in the yarn. Which means the base yarn is the linen, and the white flecked single it's plied with is the silk.

The peach, also an acid dye hit the flecks as well, but being a red based dye, hit the linnign a bit as well. The fiber reactive violet dyed a bit more uniformly. But since I used almost no salt, it didn't have full penetrance in the linen.

Same goes with the black. The berry dyed yarn faded after washing, and the effect achieved was mainly just to tone down the yellow of the original colour.

May the Fourth Be With You : Star Wars Pattern Round Up

Today is Star Wars Day. And with Episode 7 on its way to theaters this Christmas, it's the perfect time to start knitting or crocheting some awesome Star Wars themed projects.

I managed to finish one that I had been working with since Christmas just last night, and framed it in time to celebrate.

OK so it's cross stitch not knitting or crochet, but it's still a fiber art, so who cares? The Pattern for this X-stitch is available from Wee Little Stitches on Etsy.

If Cross Stitch isn't for you, here are my favourites of what Ravelry has to offer.

Fairisle beanies by Sarah Bradberry. 

Sheila Toy Stromberg reworks one of Sarah's charts for this storm troopers beanie.

This double knit scarf by notanicedragon perfectly showcases the light and dark side of the force.

And who wouldn't love a Death Star cushion, like this one by Patricia Castillo?

Planning on dressing up for the Episode 7 Premier? You might need this knitted wig by Ansley Bleu.

Feeling like a more technical project? This R2D2 by Ana Amelia lights up.

And last but not least, this Chewy made from the perfect fuzy brown yarn, designed by Melissa Mall.

Summertime Crochet: Shorts!

I've always wanted a cute little pair of crocheted shorts, so in the made rush of crocheting I did before my trip to Hawaii, I whipped up a pair. (Literally, I worked on these like a mad woman and finished them in 3 days, including an extra trip to walmart when I ran out of yarn).

The after seeing a few great shorts patterns in the nominees for the 2015 First Quarter Flamies in the best pants/shorts category, I went to ravelry and found the Pineapple Lace Bikini Shorts by Heritage Heartcrafts. I forked out $5.99 for the pattern but it was well written and worth it.

I worked these shorts up in Red Heart Luster Sheen, a fine weight acrylic yarn made to feel like cotton, in the violet colourway. I worked with my F crochet hook and used about one an a half skeins of yarn.

To make these shorts you crochet a series of circle motifs and connect them to form the waist, then crochet the pineapple motifs downwards, and shape the legs of the shorts. I think I deviated a tiny bit from the pattern here, omitting one or two rows at the end. The great thing about crochet is you can try your garment on as you're working on it and make adjustments on the fly. Once the bottoms are done, you add some extra circle motifs in the back to make sure you're assets are going to be fully covered. Finally, add a waistband and draw string and you're ready to rock a super cute pair of beach shorts.