It’s been more shop news than anything else on the blog as of late – the plan was to chatter on and on about knitting, crochet, spinning, bits of life and random happenings but where does those interesting bits stop and whining and overshare start? Since that question has been on my mind, it has stifled many a post. Life is complicated and messy at even the best of times. I could post about my last 30 days of crafting, if only I actually had project photos. I have managed to take photos of my most recent spins so on with the yarnie picspam!

Yarn for the NGY Swap:

And new handspuns that have debuted in the Chaos Theory Goods Etsy shop:

Which reminds me, I haven’t really announced the Etsy shop since it was awaiting inventory. I have started Chaos Theory Goods to house the stuff that doesn’t really fit into the norms of the NGY shop including handspun, hand crafted goods, the soaps I like to make a couple times a year, and test bases that while may have been absolutely wonderful, didn’t fit with the plans of the NGY lines. Why Etsy? Because it is an experiment and I am feeling entirely too lazy to build another open source e-commerce site just for this experiment. See, here I go talking shop again and falling on my geek. Ok, to make it up to you, here is a picture of our horse Ellie. Isn’t she pretty?

I have turned off my blackout as of 8pm EST but the risk has not passed nor is it of interest only to Americans. Get educated, share the knowledge, and take action!

How PIPA and SOPA Violate White House Principles Supporting Free Speech and Innovation [EFF]

What’s On the Blacklist? Three Sites That SOPA Could Put at Risk [EFF] (Etsy is on this this list)

Think this doesn’t affect you as a maker or a crafter? Think again. Read this message at Etsy.

How Canada Would Feel Effect of SOPA [CBCNews Canada]

What Does SOPA Mean to Us Foreigners? [Ars Technica]

How SOPA Affects Students, Educators, and Libraries [EFF]

Take Action!

Stop the Wall

End Piracy Not Liberty [Google]

Americancensorship.org

But wait, there’s more!

There are still a few spots available in the Fringe Event sock club for the first three months and the full five month run. The signups for the last three months will start on March 1st. If you are signed up for the first three don’t fret, you will have the option to renew for the last two in April. I will begin sending out welcome emails with all the details tomorrow.

Mark your calendars for Friday, January 13th at 2pm CST – I will be posting a shop update full of OOAKs as well as new colorways inspired by Grimm and Once Upon a Time as well as loads of fiber.

I hope your holidays were full of happiness!

This is my favorite way to moisturize after having my hands in water all day with the yarn and dyes. I can resume spinning, knitting and crocheting without any greasy residue left over. I adore the Citrus Petroglyph Spiral bar!

It’s not too late to order for a stocking stuffer – it also makes a great gift for the non-fiber people in your life!

Shop update Monday, Nov. 28 at 11am CST

Over 80 items being added!

Use coupon code shopindie at checkout 11/28 through 12/15 and get 15% off all in stock & Dyed on Demand yarns, kits, stitch markers, spinning batts and top.

Sale excludes gift certificates and club memberships.

Having tested it and being more than pleased I am placing an order for some to stock the shop with – the only thing missing is the name! I posted for a name over on Rav so leave your two cents here in the comments or there in the chatter thread and help me name that yarn!

Hey look! It’s the side/back of my head! I love slouchy squishy hats!

Say hello to my (we thought it was but not so sure now) Lincoln with silk noil roving. There was 8 ounces of this. I spun it ALL. I chain plyed it ALL. I ended up with XXXX bulky yards. It was terrible, seriously. It felt like hair. Not good hair, the gunk you clean out of your shower trap kinda hair. Ick. But I pressed on and spun it all. Waste not want not.

Fiber of Doom

It was ugly so I dyed it a lovely shade of red but I still hated touching it so I decided to crochet potholders and felt them.

Looks pretty but...

Crocheting it was like crafting with a rough rope but you can never have too many potholders, right? I finished two, one a square and one to be used to slide over the handle of frying pans, and tossed them in a hot washer with a pair of jeans. I washed them over and over. I put them in the dryer. They refused to felt but are oddly mishapen. I don’t know what this stuff is but it’s evil. I am yet undecided if I will just set them on fire and be done with the memories.

They just won't felt

Experiment Two: Use up 30 year old stashed white cotton by making kitchen towels and cloths and dye them.

Crocheting went great. One was a little crooked, I refused to count. I have never dyed cotton before but soon discovered I used too much water.

Dyeing cotton towels

I did a little green then decided on adding a black stripe. There was too much water for the black stripe and I ended up with what looks like grease stains when ironically, I was dyeing them to avoid grease stains from being visible on a kitchen towel.

They will have to do

Experiment Three: Tie-Dye some T-Shirts

This went pretty darned well. Colors blended less than I thought they would, final results are lovely, and I have a bunch of happy kids. I plan on making more as Boy Genius thought he was too cool for a shirt until he saw them finished now he wants one.

Experiment Four: Spin a lovely worsted two ply for Little E’s mitts

Pretty merino tencel handspun

I let the girls pick out anything they wanted from Treasure Goddess’ booth at Maker Faire KC in June and Little E chose 2 ounces of pretty lavender and white superwash merino/tencel roving. She asked me to spin and make fingerless mitts out from it so I got to spinning. I am not a big merino fan when it comes to spinning but anything for Little E. I failed at taking a photo of the braid before I spun it which is a shame because it was absolutely beautiful. The resulting yarn is shiny and soft and delicious, I think she will be very happy with the mitts when I get them made for her birthday.

We have swaps! We have a make something out of NGY and send it to a random partner swap happening right now. It’s good times and I am working frantically at meeting my spoilees expectations of awesome. I adore swaps! Plans are to have another swap in the future so if you missed out on this one, don’t fret!

We have a miniskein swap for making hexathings. The hot trend right now seems to be hexapuffs – adorable three dimensional hexagon puffs that are knitted or crocheted then assembled into a blanket. The knitted ones are part of the Beekeeper’s Quilt and or if you are a crochet crafter you can make them from the Crochet Hexagon Puff pattern then use the Beekeeper’s Quilt pattern to assemble. I don’t normally make blankets that require lots of assembly but this one is just too cool.

We are still practicing our techniques in the Spin a Long thread. Even if you aren’t a spinner make sure you browse through all the photos of the fantastic handspun yarns!

We have full on plotting for the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup going on. The next term for the House Cup starts on September 1 and we are all planning projects and Order Brooms and OWLS.

My favorite thread of all right now is the Random Thread of Randomness. Since I adore word association games I have started a thread and it has caught on like wildfire – everyone is having so much fun posting! Also, there are random drawings for random prizes in the random thread! That’s so random!

Merlin Crochet Neckscarf Free Pattern

OH! And lest I forget, I have published a new crochet pattern you can get free on Ravelry for a triangle neck scarf. It’s inspired by the neckscarf Merlin wears in the television show also named Merlin. One skein of sock yarn is all you need and it is unisex for men or women. If you get crazy with your blocking you will have a full sized shawl out of it. Download it free on Ravelry here! Much thanks to my fabulous tester, coribug!