So, at Christmas, Randy (DH) surprised me with a share of a local fiber CSA. Willow Ridge Farm offers full and half shares of both yarn and roving. (He wanted to get me the roving share, too, but since I’ve yet to actually spin any yarn on my new wheel, I talked him out of it.)

Last week, my first delivery arrived. Six skeins of single-ply in a beautiful hand-painted purple and lavender color (which is what I chose). I also received a picture of Strawberry, the sheep who donated her fleece for my yarn. I’m looking forward to making socks and all manner of yummy things with this yarn!

Wally sitting at my computer in my office watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, drinking tea and eating fries from McDonald’s. I mean, how crunchy and wholesome can you get??

Most days, he plays with his legos or his plethorea of toys or he paints or draws. Often, he plays educational games on my computer, but now that we have the Wii, he’s totally on to the fact that Phonics games are just a sneaky way to learn phonics. Rarely, he uses the leappad his grandparents got him. Frequently, he runs around the basement making all manner of sound effects, lost in his own world. But some days, well… it’s TMNT, or Iron Man, or whatever. On my computer. Because that’s way more fun than on the small TV in the neighboring area of the basement (technically the exercise area, which is what the TV’s for).

We used to only watch educational movies (Muzzy or similar), but now it’s largely just entertainment. I think I’ll start throwing the Muzzy back on, though. The Guten Morgen song still sticks in my head sometimes.

So this is an odd perspective for this picture, but hey, that’s alright. This is the SECOND sock of a pair of socks for my husband, who has very large feet. So large, in fact, that I’m rather bored with the whole Knitting Him A Pair Of Socks thing. Plus, he has very large ankles and the first time he put on the first sock, he totally broke the bind off, even though I’d used the stretchiest bindoff I know. I ended up increasing a bunch around the top before binding off and it worked like a charm, though the sock appears ruffled when it’s not on. More pictures and pattern information when I finish them!!

It’s not altogether bad for my first attempt at discharge paste.

Discharge paste removes dye from items once they’ve been dyed. You paint (or stamp or whatever) the paste on to your item, then let it dry. Once it’s dry, you steam it with an iron, and the heat is what takes the color out.

Now, ignore that some of the lines weren’t great to start with (I was bouncing Genna while painting!). Notice the big smeary part in the middle and near the bottom of the design. The iron wasn’t entirely hot when I started steaming my hankie and it spit water all over the place.

So, lesson learned. Make sure your iron is good and hot before using it. Especially with discharge paste.

So a while back, I tie dyed some hankies. I kept some for my personal use, and set some others aside to list at Etsy or on Wallypop’s WP Living. I ultimately didn’t do either one, but instead sold several at local craft fairs.

I’ve made more and am listing them over at Etsy. They’re so fun!

At our house, they are used as hankies. Wally loves them because they’re so colorful. However, you could also use them as do-rags. Here are some pictures…

And more pictures here.

OK, we bought this button press a while back. It was a joint purchase between Swing Des Moines and Wallypop. I made up a bunch of super fun pin-up pins and cute little swing dance-related phrase pins and magnets (like “Lindy Babe” or “Fancy a Shag?”). We made lots of Swing Des Moines logo pins.

I’ve made Due Date pins that sell well at baby fairs.

When I go to craft fairs, I take along a little box of pins with astrological signs, sheet music, and a few other things.

But these have been fun. I bought a bunch of children’s books that were in really bad shape at a used book sale this fall. Goodnight Moon. Winnie the Pooh. Lilo and Stitch. Snow White. and this Scooby Doo comic book. And I made pins and magnets out of them. Wally was a little sad at cutting up the books.  We had to keep Frosty the Snowman for him.

But once the pins were all cut out, he went to town making the buttons. Wally LOVES the button maker. And he’s gotten stronger since the last time we got the maker out - he can actually do the handle all by himself now.

Anyway, these book ones are headed for Etsy over the course of the next week or so.

For a while, there has been an informal group of my friends who knit and they would get together every once in a while. I didn’t join them, as they met on a night I had to teach classes. Then, a few months ago, the group got much larger, took on a new name, and started meeting at a time I could go!

Natural Parenting Fiber Artists - largely a group of women who circulate in the same circles I do - Holistic Moms, Cloth Diapering, Babywearing, LLL, etc.

It’s super fun, gives us a chance to craft and talk birth, breasts, babies, husbands, and things completely unrelated. (As if we don’t all have plenty of opportunity to discuss said topics anyway…) Knitting Night is close up there to ICAN night in terms of Nights Away From My Family That I Really Look Forward To!

This is by far my favorite thing I’ve knit, ever.

You can read more about the pattern, yarn, etc. on this post.

I’m a little embarrassed at the quality of the workmanship on Genna’s stocking - it is far from my best needlepointing. But when I look at the other stockings, I realize that they are all also far from my best work, so at least they all go together. Most of them, I made under somewhat of a time crunch and needlepoint can be done properly, or it can be done quickly. And I apparently chose quickly on all of these! They look fine, really, it’s just that they’re not going to win any awards.

I finished these up a few days ago, but am just getting around to posting the picture. I could not be happier with my finished socks. Yarn and pattern info are here.