Monday, November 26, 2012

Shopping at Your Computer Today?

A lot of the Etsy shop owners from Portland, Oregon, have gotten together to offer Cyber Monday specials today and during the week. All of us are using the same Etsy coupon code, "PDXETSY2012".

It's a great way to take advantage of some timely discounts from Portland makers, including my shop, which is offering 10% off anything in the store through November 29.

The complete list of participating shops and their discount offers can be found at the Cozy Project Blog. So grab your coffee cup and check it out!

CYBER MONDAY: Mustache coffee cup cozy Gray made by The Cozy Project on Etsy

Monday, November 19, 2012

Yearning to Spin

My fingers have been itching to do some spinning, but there is that big production schedule on my desk of accessories to finish knitting, crocheting, and beading for this fall and winter season on Etsy.

To compensate for having no time to spin, I sometimes just pet the handspun yarn that I already have made this year. Fondling yarn is very relaxing. Just go into any yarn store and observe the shoppers. You'll possibly get hooked on it, too.

On an stop in Moab, Utah, on that great summer vacation, I visited a wonderful yarn shop called Desert Thread. Imagine that there are people in the desert who knit, crochet, and spin! That's just about the coolest thing. Or the hottest, perhaps.

It was apparent just from the color palette of the selection of rovings that we were no longer in the Pacific Northwest. Up here there is a huge range of hand-dyed rovings in greens, browns, blues, and violets. In the heart of the desert there were glorious hues from the surrounding landscape. Deep ochres, brilliant oranges and brick reds. It was hard to choose only a few.

These are the three that came along home:


Here is what they became. Mostly worsted to heavy-worsted weight two ply color-twist yarn:


In a tropical palette earlier in the year, these two super bulky skeins were made:


The skein on the right is 100% Blue-faced Leiceister and the right one is baby llama fiber.

Heaven to touch, all of them! Can't wait to power up the spinning wheel again.