Nerd Wars in ON!!!

Feb. 1 saw the kick-off of Nerd Wars on Ravelry, and as you all know by now, I'm on Team Browncoat, fans of the show Firefly.

Part of the fun is an optional 3-month long dissertation project, and I decided to jump in. I'm knitting the Pinwheel Sweater from Elann.com.

I'm using Noro's Cash Iroha, yum!!! I won over 2 pounds of it at a charity event quite a few years ago. Because Noro donated the yarn for the event, it was in giant hanks of mill ends, and all different colors.

The colors are beautiful (a bright purple isn't shown), but a little bright for me, and I didn't really like the flow. So I worked at over-dyeing them with a dark brown and here are my results:

I'm pleased as punch!!

I've cast-on and am making good progress, but shop, home and continued recovery are slowing me down just a bit.

And I did manage to get a skein of yarn spun. Here's the original batt:

And the finished yarn (it's going in the shop!)

It's Fiber Arts Friday over at Wonder Why Alpaca, so go check out all the other fun there!!

Nerd Wars! The Battle Plans are Being Drawn!

As mentioned before, Stone and String and I (Inspiration Fibers) are collaborating for Ravelry's Nerd Wars. We're on Team Browncoat; dedicated to keeping Firefly alive and the skies free. (For Bridget ;) and others: Firefly is a TV show by Joss Whedon that only was alive for 14 wonderful episodes and a terrific movie. Fans have kept up ferver for it for 8 years now. It's brilliant. It's a Western set in space. I know--but you should check it out on Netflix if you can!) Signups are taking place now, with the first battle starting on Feb. 1. Shelley and I are even official sponsors!

In preparation, Shelley and I are busy over our dye pots. Here's a sneak peak at "Kaylee" (very sneak peak--it's still dripping!). The yarn is my line called "Faith"; it's Bluefaced Leicester Superwash, worsted. Shelley will have similar colorways for Kaylee in her different yarn bases.

This is based on Kaylee at the market in the first episode of Firefly.

Stay tuned for Inara, River and Mal. They'll be batts in my shop, and will be ready to launch by Saturday!!

Celebrating New Fiber Friends

I have been so blessed in my life. And very richly by the friends I have made within the fiber community. My two best friends came from the local yarn shop where I use to work and teach, and this week I'd like to celebrate two new friendships that have recently blossomed through my Etsy shop and Ravelry.

Myra is a gifted fiber artist herself, and began purchasing my batts for her felted scarves.

From this batt:

Her favorite: "Harvest"

From my Harvest batt:

And the specially commissioned "Tutu" for her friend:

We've struck up a great friendship and have so much in common. Her fiber shop is Lucy Ate the Yarn--isn't that an adorable name for a fiber shop? Her dog, Lucy use to eat her yarn!

This week, we're so excited because Myra got her first spinning wheel and is wrestling yarn out of it as I type. I really wish we lived closer so I could encourage her in person!

Luckily, for me, Myra is also a very gifted jewelry maker. Her shop Calvin Says Merci is full of beautiful bracelets, and a portion of the proceeds go to her local animal shelter (Calvin is her other pup!).

I say "luckily for me" because look what arrived, unexpectedly, in the mail yesterday:

It's a faceted moonstone bracelet that I had been admiring in her shop!! I'm so spoiled! Can you see the flashes of blue from the stone? I keep twirling my wrist to see it flash! Thank you so much Myra!!! And good luck with the wheel!

Now, my second new friendship started as a collaboration between Stone and String Studio 's owner, Shelley and I for a very fun and silly event on Ravelry called Nerd Wars. We are both Phat Fiber contributors and joined Team Browncoat (dedicated to keeping the now-cancelled "Firefly" series alive and well, and the skies free). We wanted to do some studio work for the kick-off of the war, but didn't want to step on eachother's toes. So we're working together! We had the best phone conversation yesterday, and managed to get a little work in as well.

Be looking for "Firefly" inspired fiber and yarn in my shop and hers in a week or two. We've developed colorways based on the characters of the show and are each representing them in our shops. For instance: I'll have a Mal batt and she'll have a Mal yarn, but the colors will be the same (or similar--we are two different artists living hundreds of miles away from each other after all!).

I can't wait to get busy on it!

As a side note, I finally got my January Phat Fiber samples finished and they are in the mail today! Whew. The theme is Chinese New Year, and my inspiration were the fireworks. Here are Lincoln Longwool Locks and Firestar held together with Clun Forest roving and a cotton binder. It's called "Firecracker" and is a little core spinning kit. I'll have a tutorial on this technique up soon!

It's Fiber Arts Friday and you all need to head over to Wonder Why Alpaca Farm to continue reading fiber-rich blogs!