Phat Fiber has arrived!

I got my Phat Fiber box yesterday and it is full of all kinds of fun stuff! I was really excited when I opened it to see that I had the small tote bag sample. I had seen the tote sample on the video (I have a weakness for tote bags) and I was really really hoping that I would get it. I have so many ideas for what I am going to do with all my samples and I can't wait to get started. After purchasing the box on Sunday I decided I would go ahead and send some samples for the next shipment. I made up about 85 samples and shipped them off yesterday. If you send in at least 50 samples you get your of sample box for free so I made sure I had at least 50. Here's a photo of what I received in my shipment:

I'm in shock! Phat Fiber!

I bought a Phat Fiber sampler box this morning. I knew they were going to be listed at 10:00 A.M. so I waited at my computer hitting refresh about 100 times until they were listed. I had decided before hand that I wanted the fiber only box because I felt I could get more use out of the spinning fiber than the samples of yarn. SO I quickly put the box in my cart, go through and pay, and then I decided to go back to the shop to see how many boxes they had left just out of curiosity. OH MY G-D! They were completely sold out! How long had it been like 1 minute?! I probably sound like an idiot to those of you who are familiar with Phat Fiber, and you're thinking, "Duh, what did you expect." But I just don't usually buy a lot of stuff from others since if I want something specific I can dye it/spin it up myself. Anyway if you want to get a box of your own you can sign up to be on the secret email list at the Phat Fiber website. You have to be quick though. I think that if I like the stuff in there I might go ahead and contribute to the box next time because if you give them a certain amount of stuff you can get a box of your own for free. I'm so glad I decided to get a box this time and I can't wait to see what's in it!!

I Bought the Wheel

I did end up buying the Ashford Country Spinner spinning wheel I was thinking about purchasing. I used it to ply some yarn the other day and it draws the yarn is so easily that it was great to ply with. One of the reasons I got the wheel was I want to start spinning art yarns for myself and my etsy shop. I ordered a copy of Plucky Fluff's book Handspun Revolution from her website to get some ideas of fun art yarns to spin. It's out of print but she still has copies at regular price instead of the out of print price you find them for on Amazon. She has another book out called Intertwined that I might purchase if I like Handspun Revolution. Pictures of the end results will be posted eventually.

I Must Be Crazy!

I'm thinking about buying my third spinning wheel. What is wrong with me? I don't know. I currently own an Ashford Traditional from the 1980's, a Kromski Minstrel that I bought new, and I'm considering buying an Ashford Country Spinner. I want the Country Spinner because it has a huge bobbin so you can load lots of yarn onto it. I've never spun on one before so I have to try it out before I make my final decision but the amount of yarn I can spin on there can't be matched. It's Irish tension which I've never worked with before so it might take some work to get the hang of it. The one I'm looking at is used so it's a decent price, not a bargain but a decent price. I'd been thinking I might want to get one someday but someday came sooner than I expected. Oh well, I'm going to look at it in a couple weeks so an update will follow.

Migraines and Knitting Don't Go Together.

I went to the doctor about my headaches today and she told me I have classic migraines. Since I'm getting them so often she gave me a prescription to try and then I go back in 3 weeks to tell her how it's working. The worst part of this has been how hard it is for me to knit or crochet. I can knit as long as I don't have to look at the work, but, I can't read a pattern while I have the headaches because it makes them worse. I'm really good at knitting by feel but if I'm working on lace I need to look at the pattern a lot so I can't work on any of those projects whilst in pain. I'm looking for a headache friendly pattern to work on while I'm in pain and I think I may have found one. In the Knitting Pattern a Day calendar for this year there is a felted watermelon bag pattern that I love. It's knit in the round so it would be easy to do mostly by feel. I've been putting off starting it because I seem to constantly have projects for others I want to work on so I never end up making anything for myself unless I'm designing a pattern. So next time I have one of my headaches I'm going to start the bag pattern, G-d forbid I go more than a day without knitting/crocheting on something, what would I do with myself?

Teaching with a headache is not fun!

For the past few months I've been getting these horrible headaches that last for days. Yesterday I had the worst one of my life and I had a class to teach that night. I spent the entire day taking pain pills and trying not to look at anything in order to get it to go away, it didn't work. By the time I had to go to class I was in the worst pain of my life. After the class was over I felt like my eyes were going to fall out of my head, then I had to drive home. The light from headlights and streetlamps had me in so much pain that I could barely open my eyes by the time I got out of the car. I had intended to pick up the mail from the mail center on my way home but I couldn't stand to look at anything anymore so I made my husband go get it. I came in the house and made him turn off all the lights then I took some more pain pills and went to bed. This morning the pain is less but it's still there, I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to see what kind of prescription pills I can get. At first I was getting these like once a month now I'm getting them almost every week. I can't read books anymore because focusing that long makes the headaches start. I can still read patterns without getting one (thanks goodness) but I do worry that eventually even that might make me start to get a headache. We'll see what the doctor says tomorrow I really hope I can get something to take that works.

On a lighter note I got the new Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. the other day and I LOVE IT! I'm planning to make every pair in there, I'll post photos as I get them finished. All of her designs are absolute genius, there is no other way to put it. After I looked through the whole book I told my husband I was planning to make every pattern and that I thought that I had enough yarn in my stash to make them all, he looked at me and said, "Ya think?" Typical.

New Yarn Listed

The new bases that I ordered from my supplier came in the mail today. I love the alpaca sock yarn that I ordered it is so wonderful and soft. I also got in some cotton in a lace weight and a slubby DK weight. I can't wait to try out dying cotton I bought the dye for it last time i placed an order with my dye supplier but I haven't actually tried using it yet. Hopefully it goes well I've heard cotton is difficult to dye.

I did end up dying yarn yesterday and it was dry enough to post up for sale today. I really like the new 75% 25% sock yarn that I got in, if it's popular I'll go ahead and carry it regulary. I tried out a couple new colorways that are BSG based, Apollo and Starbuck and Gaius Baltar and Caprica 6. I LOVE the Apollo Starbuck, the colors are so pretty. Photos:

New Yarn

I'm out of my regular sock yarn and have been at a loss for stuff to dye up this week. I dyed up that last of my undyed stash on Sunday and have been waiting for my new yarn shipment to arrive. I ordered a bunch of new stuff that I don't normally carry this time so I can't wait to get this order. I did receive one cone of yarn from a company I don't normally order from today. It's sock yarn (big surprise) and it's some of the 75% Superwash Wool 25% Nylon blend that's really common. I have a few skeins of my Princess Sophia base that I dyed up the other day to post up this Friday and I'm debating as to whether I want to try to dye up some of this new stuff tomorrow. We'll see.

www.christinamariepotter.com

www.christinamariepotter.etsy.com

Reavers Socks

I finished the PDF for Reavers sock pattern that I started last week. The socks turned out so cute but I had so much trouble photographing my feet! Taking a picture of your own feet and getting the pattern in focus is a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. I think I got a few good photos finally.

I need to get my website updated and get the pattern on Ravelry for download. I'm going to charge $4 even though I should probably charge more since it was so time consuming to get together. Next I'm planning on a Cylon themed sock pattern. Here's where you can find the pattern: http://www.christinamariepotter.com/reaverssocks.html

Trying this again.

I promised myself months ago that I would not abandon my blog again but that's exactly what I ended up doing. So here is yet another attempt to keep this blog current. My etsy shop has been keeping so super busy that's part of the reason I haven't found the time to blog anything. Lately I've been on a Firefly inspired sock yarn binge and yesterday I added some Firefly themed spinning fiber. If you're not aware of Firefly it's an old TV show that was canceled before it finished it's run and then they made a movie. You can find episodes on Hulu if you're interested. Because I love my Firefly sock yarn so much I'm working on a Reavers sock pattern. I don't normally design sock patterns since there about a bajillion trillion million patterns out there but I have been on the search for a perfect pattern for the reavers sock yarn I dyed up and couldn't find it. The first sock is almost finished and as soon as it is I'm going to post the pattern up for sale. Also I recently moved all the patterns I have for sale to ravelry.com so they will be much easier to access now. I had a few people complain that the other PDF download site was difficult to use so I decided to switch to ravelry. Here are some photos of yarn that I have for sale http://www.christinamariepotter.etsy.com/ :

Mr Oogie Boogie

My daughter is obsessed with the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. We bought a copy of the collectors edition that was just released and have watched everyday since. I put the movie on the watch the first time and wasn't sure if she would be scared or not. I thought I would see how she did and if she seemed bothered by it I would turn it off. Well, she is in love with it! Her favorite character, Mr. Oogie Boogie, yes, the bad guy! This morning I went in to get her dressed and she was drawing on her chalk board. I asked what she was drawing and she said, "Mr. Oogie Boogie." It just so happens that a few days ago I bought some of that new Bernat glow in the dark yarn to make her a toy out of. I have been looking at patterns trying to come up with something that I thought she would like. I had something like a butterfly or a bunny in mind but this morning I realized that I should crochet her a Mr. Oogie Boogie. What could be more perfect, Oogi Boogie glows in the dark, I have glow in the dark yarn. So I spent my morning making up a crocheted Oogie Boogie, I didn't have a pattern of course because it's a licensed character. So the photos are of what I came up with, and yes, she LOVES HIM! I tried to get a photo of him glowing but my camera wouldn't focus on him in the dark even though he was glowing really well.

New Sock Yarn

I've been playing around with some new sock yarn I purchased and did a couple halloween colorways

Spinning Fiber Crazy!

Yesterday we started to pull out the Halloween decorations and for some reason that made me decide that I HAD to dye some fall colored spinning fiber. I had the best time coming up with color combos to dye. I dyed the last of my merino and about 2/3rds of the corriedale I've had in my stash for ages. Next I'll break into the 5 pounds of undyed superwash merino that I have in waiting. I am excited to dye the superwash it is THE softest spinning fiber I have ever purchased. I have some of it undyed up for sale on etsy.com but I am planning to dye some too. the thing I love about dying fiber is if it doesn't sell then I get to spin it up for myself. So here's the colorways I came up with, 2 of them (fall leaves and halloween) sold in the first few hours I had them posted:

Here's my etsy shop link if you are interested in purchasing:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5941743

My New Spinning Wheel is Here!

My new wheel arrived today and I just finished putting it together. I absolutely love the way it looks! My husband told me he will finish it for me but it sure is lovely just the way it is. It's just the right size for my house especially considering I already have one wheel taking up space. Thee wheel got here hours before I expected it to, when I opened the box I laughed when I discovered magazine pages in polish used as stuffing.

Then I found the wheel wraped up and ready to assemble.

So I spent about an hour putting it together I am not really that handy so I was really happy with how easily it went together. All the pieces fit so nicely and the craftsmanship is so nicely done. I know my husband will be impressed with it when he sees it after he gets home from work.

I bought a second spinning wheel!

So after thinking about it for a month I decided to get myself a new unfinished Kromski Minstrel. My husband is going to finish it for me after it gets here. I'm so excited to get it! It comes in the mail tomorrow so the UPS truck will probably get it here around 4:00 in the afternoon. It's getting here in the nick of time too because I broke one of the pieces on my Ashford traditional yesterday and had to order a repalcement. One of the little plastic pieces that holds the flyer cracked and my husband can't fix it. I called my local spinning wheel/weaving/yarn/roving shop the myers house today and ordered the piece. My wheel is an older model so I'm not surprised that it broke since plastic gets brittle as it ages. I remembered after it broke how all the information about the Kromski's made a point to mention that they don't use plastic parts. When I read that I was like "Okay, so, I don't care if they use plastic or not," now that statement makes more sense. But at the same time I'm not upset that the plastic piece broke, like I said it was old. SO tomorrow is the day my new baby arrives! I'll post photos after she gets here!

I've decided to pick this up again after abandoning it for over a year. I have had more designs come out in Interweave Crochet. The next one being published is in the Winter issue. I also now own a spinning wheel! Something I've wanted for many many years and I finally broke down and purchased one 3 months ago. I absolutely love it and am already thinking about getting another one. I love spinning almost as much as I love knitting and crochet.

I have started hand dyeing and selling yarn on Etsy. It's fun to try new things and put them up to see if they sell. I've been specializing in hand dyed Watermelon stripe for awhile. I even did a watermelon sock yarn club that is about to finish up.

Just getting started.

I noticed that a lot of other published pattern designers are on blogspot in addition to their website. So I decided to set one up myself. Like my heading says my name is Christina, and I love knitting and crochet. I didn't realize how much until a few years ago. I have a pattern coming out in the Spring issue of Interweave Crochet Magazine (on newstands April 10th) make sure you look for it.