Tag Archive for 'craft fairs'

Entropy Strikes Again 18Aug06


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Trash. This would happen to me. Only 3 days left until I start Grad School, and my (cough) trusty (cough) iBook has croaked again. You may remember this sad post from a few months ago, in which my iBook died just 2 weeks before I finished school at NMT. Well I was able to fix it that time, as the power button had simply come disconnected…but this time I’m not so sure it’s fixable :( Now when you turn it on the fan comes on full blast and that’s it. No startup sound (very bad thing), nothing on the screen (again, not so good), just the fan. I’ve had enough experience fixing Macs to know that this is bad. And a few internet searches later I’m pretty sure that the logic board is toast. This means a pricey repair, and the warranty’s been up for a year now, so I’m better off getting a new computer. I may attempt surgery to see if I can fix it again, but I don’t have too much hope. Although, this does mean that I would need to replace it…which means I could get that shiny MacBook that I’ve had my eye on for a while now…

Anyway, I’m saddened by the loss of my computer since it has served me well for 2 years now. And I definitely got my money’s worth (based on my average usage patterns I estimate the cost of ownership over the past 2 years to have been 0.5 cents / minute of usage). So I’m not sad to see my trusty iBook go, I just wish I had a little more time with him. He will be missed.

And in a money raising note, send me money!!! Haha, got you didn’t I? Don’t worry, I’m not going to beg for money on my blog, I earn my living just like everyone else. However, I do have 6 skeins of lovely hand-dyed yarn that may be in need of a good home and some feet. I’m going to try and sell it at the craft fair this weekend, but I’m not sure if they’ll sell considering that this is a non-knitting event. So if they don’t sell, is anyone interesting in buying one? After everything is all said and done this weekend, I’ll post pictures of any remaining skeins and offer them up to the first commenter. And to coincide with the Village Wools Inventory Blowout these babies will be priced to move at $18 / skein. Good deal eh? I’m not going to make any promises about what will be available at this point, but just wanted to give you a heads up in case you’re interested.

Have a good weekend! Peace Out.

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Dyed and Gone to Heaven 16Aug06


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So I finally got my act together and took pictures of my newly dyed yarn, but before getting to see those, you have to sit through my diatribe on my dyeing methods :-P

So far when dyeing yarn, I like to do immersion dyeing on the stovetop because it’s easy to control the color and not very messy. But the problem I seem to run into is the tradeoff between tieing the yarn after it’s been wrapped on the warping board, and achieving even dyeing results. After a few incidents involving tangling (which we will not speak of), I became ultra paranoid and started wrapping each subskein with about 85 ties to make sure they stayed in place. Well this leads to the dye not absorbing evenly because the yarn isn’t left to flow freely in the dye solution, so sometimes the areas under the ties even stay white. I have yet to come up with the perfect solution, but I have a few ideas and have reached somewhat of a compromise.

nm sunset getting all hot and bothered
cooking up some yarn

I got the best results when I tied the yarn in less places and very loosely. Then after it’s rinsed, I straightened out each subskein and tied the crap out of it. This helped with getting the dry yarn arranged on the warping board for winding. That’s my solution so far…but do you have any experience or advice that you’d like to pass along? Leave a comment and let me know.

So without further ado, I present my latest colorways!

First up is Tie-Dyed, which is literally named because this is the first skein I dyed, and the ties were way too tight. I dyed it in a deep purple, green and blue, but the sections where the cotton ties were didn’t really dye at all. I was somewhat saddened about this, until I realized that it actually looked pretty cool. Mom said that it reminded her of a Tie-Dye T-Shirt, so the name stuck!

tie dye yarn + ace cider = good evening
tie-dyed, with a wonderful frosty perry cider, ahhh.
Then we have **New Mexico Sunset**, which is my absolute favorite of this dyeing session. I used Burnt Orange, Aztec Gold and Fire Red together to create a very brilliant skein that reminds me of our gorgeous sunsets here in NM. It wasn’t until later that I realized that I subconsciously dyed the skein of yarn that I hinted Scout about a few months ago. I had said I’d love a skein that looked like the NM flag with yellow and red, and well here it is! I especially love how the white sections that weren’t immersed and just soaked up dye turned a slight pink, which is what the sunset does too.
nm sunset - look at it glow!
new mexico sunset

Lastly, we have a skein colored by my Mom. She picked her favorite colors and I set off to work. The resulting skein is very pretty and subdued, with light pink, lilac and spring green. It’s called Easter Eggs, and I think it came out great :)

easter eggs
easter eggs

I’m going to have a hard time selling these yarns at the craft fair, because I’m so attached to them! And I’m planning to have another dye session tonight to dye one more skein of Kona Superwash and 2 skeins of Licorice Twist. Wish me luck!

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Craft Fair Lowdown 15Aug06


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So for all you Albu-crazy peeps on the blog, here’s the details on the craft fair this weekend if you want to crash the party and see some cool knitted goods, and lots of other cool art! Plus you get to enjoy a lovely drive in the Sandias and see all the greenery that’s sprouted from all the rain!

What: Mountain Gardens 2006 Artisan Fair
Where: Mountain Gardens Nursery - 12216 State Highway 14, Cedar Crest
When: Saturday 8/19 and Sunday 8/20 from 9 am - 4 pm

We’d love to see you there!

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