…hair, ears…

Ellie knows what she likes: cats and pink.

Ellie’s doll is named Kitty Girl Ivey. I am sure you are not at all surprised.

Ellie LOVES HER! Aren’t her toes cute?

Thank you, Melissa!

I’d also like to thank Kathy for the valuable tip about using distilled water instead of tap water on my little bamboo plant. She has saved it from unintentional annihilation.

Many thanks to all who participated in the giveaway! Stick around for May!

…everybody knows what April Showers bring…

A Mud Pie Kitchen! Purple is what happens when Ellie gets to pick.

My Dad cut out the top piece and the burners, Ellie and I painted, Ellie and her Dad made the first mud.

See the cookies in the oven?

It was a complex process.

The perfect consistency is somewhat elusive.

The back porch and the shower floor are somewhat gritty.

But absolutely worth it. I hope your Sunday was as gorgeous.

P.S. Tomorrow (Monday) is the last day to enter the drawing for April’s Mindful Fiber from Quo Vadis Handspun!

But it’s really not that green.

I tried it one more time – since I had the camera anyway. This one is closer.

But still not quite right.

You’ll just have to see it for yourself. For a truly unique and surprising bamboo yarn, enter to win April’s Mindful Fiber Drawing.

As the positive trend of sustainability spreads, I suspect we’ll see more and more plant-based fibers in knitting yarn. Modal, rayon, and soy silk are already well known as ‘alternative’ yarns, but it’s bamboo that makes me believe that people can make yarn out of anything.

Bamboo might be the most sustainable plant on the planet. It is fast-growing (it’s considered an ‘invasive species’ down here), doesn’t require pesticides or fertilizers, replants itself, you don’t have to kill it to harvest it and it’s ready to be harvested again in months. This grass is deceptively strong for its weight and has been used to make flooring, furniture, kitchenware and bicycles (I am not kidding). Bamboo products are unique in that they are both durable and biodegradable.

This is Lucky Bamboo (not the fiber kind or the kind Pandas eat),
but you get the idea.

Most bamboo clothing is produced as “regenerated cellulose fiber” (like rayon). This basically means that the bamboo is shredded, separated, filtered and put back together in fiber form. Like making paper from trees, this requires lots and lots of water and chemicals, so most bamboo fabrics are not considered organic and the process is not sustainable. Several companies are exploring ways to make refining process as environmentally friendly as the growing process. Various oxides and alcohols can be used (and, for extra greenness points, re-used) to dissolve the bamboo and then the resulting liquid is hardened into cellulose fiber threads that can be spun into yarn.

And what yarn. Bamboo yarn is strong, incredibly soft (unbelievably soft when you consider the source), shimmery, biodegradable and has a fabulous drape. It’s no wonder that bamboo fiber is so appealing to knitters.

A great place to find bamboo yarns (and more!) in unique and engaging colors is Quo Vadis Handspun.

Quo Vadis Handspun

Heidi opened shop shortly after she began producing artisan yarns to satisfy her own fiber cravings. As a vegan (someone who doesn’t use animal products of any kind), Heidi’s focus is on providing exciting and unique plant-based, environmentally friendly and creature-free yarns to her customers. To that end, she has amassed an enormous collection of fiber types!

Heidi and her stock at Fibers West.

Tencel, microfiber, organic cotton, color grown cotton, corn silk, viscose are all listed for sale as spinning fiber, hand spun yarn or hand dyed yarn. All the yarns and dyes are vegan and 100% cruelty-free, but Heidi says: “Not vegan? Thats ok! My yarns are a fun way to get some veggies in your knitting diet.”

Pandemonium – 295 yards of fun!

My personal favorites are the yarns that are dyed with natural materials: indigo straight from the plant, madder, marigold, logwood, wood resins, saffron (pink not yellow!). Each yarn’s description contains the dye notes. It’s a little like reading a life story and a little like reading a recipe. Some yarns stay in their dye baths for days to achieve a marvelous intensity of color.

Organic cotton dyed with indigo.

Heidi uses two commercially spun bamboo yarns as a base for her hand dyed sock yarns: Crystal Palace’s Panda Cotton, a bamboo and cotton blend with elastic, and Kertzer’s On Your Toes Bamboo, bamboo with nylon for structure. Since many people have Strong Feelings about elastic in knitting yarn, I chose the Kertzer for April’s Mindful Fiber giveaway.

Because of the shimmer, I had a terrible time getting a picture of this yarn! It’s actually darker than shown – like a storm cloud.

Heidi calls this colorway Anuvittasana, or “standing backbend” (it’s yoga). But to me, it looks like a summer storm where everything suddenly goes dark blue-green and the rain shimmers down. Maybe it’s a Gulf Coast thing, but I’ve picked a sock pattern that matches my April Showers inclinations:

It’s Raining Cats & Dogs Socks

I’ve got a crush on these socks by KellyK! Is there anything better than paw prints all over your socks? I think not! Except maybe cables all over your socks, but this pattern has those too. Yay!

**This Giveaway is closed! Please check back in May for more Mindful Fiber!**

To win April’s Mindful Fiber Giveaway, just leave a comment on this post. The random number generator knows what to do. For more chances to win, refer your friends and have them mention your name in their comment (this is to raise awareness after all). April’s Mindful Fiber Giveaway will be open for almost two weeks (until Monday, April 30).

You can find Quo Vadis Handspun and Heidi on her blog, on Facebook, and, of course, on Etsy.

The bamboo picture and the pictures of the featured yarn are mine, Heidi Hizsa holds the copyright on all of the other yarn pictures. The illustration for the “It’s Raining Cats & Dogs Socks” belongs to KellyK (that’s what it says on the pattern page, so that’s what I’m going with). The pictures that aren’t mine are used with permission.

But tomorrow we’ll have a new Mindful Fiber! See you then.

My leftovers. I fly close to the wire.

I ordered the yarn for my next pattern this morning (hint: I got purple). I hope I move a little faster on this one. The Elephant in the pattern will be available in the shop sometime this weekend.

The egg hunt was exhausting.

There’s still one egg out in Great Gran’s yard somewhere. I hope we find it before the lawn mower does.

Big hit.

Speaking of boxes, I’ve put together three destash boxes.

Just like that, my table is cluttered again.

At first I thought I’d send them off for the price of shipping to whoever wanted them, but this morning I found out that my town’s no-kill shelter is full to the brim. I’m going to use the de-stash as a little bit of a fundraiser. Each box has around $100 worth of yarn in it. So. I’m selling each box for $30: $15 for shipping (large flat rate boxes) and $15 for the North Baldwin Animal Shelter. I’ll match each of the $15 Shelter Donations. When all the boxes are sold, that’ll be $90 for the critters.

I’m not going to tell you specifically what is in each box, where’s the fun in that? Not everything has its label and a few skeins are wound into balls. Everything has been stored in my smoke-free but cat friendly home (the yarn was not stored with or near any cats).

Sock Box: has enough yarn for at least 13 pairs of socks. All the yarn is wool or wool blend. There is self-striping, nearly solid, some well-known brands, some fancy brands, most (if not all) is superwash. SOLD

Wool and Company Box: there is all kinds of fun stuff including some Noro, baby alpaca, handspun and a skein or two of hand dyed worsted. It’s a fun mix if you’d like to try something new. There is no sock yarn in this box. SOLD

Creature-Free Box: There are some unusual fibers, well-known brands, sock yarn and enough Euroflax Linen to make the hand towels in Mason-Dixon Knitting. SOLD

Well, that was fast! Thank you all SO MUCH, I’ll get the boxes on their way tomorrow.

I very much sincerely hope that I made those buttons correctly. If I didn’t, I know all about how to issue a refund. **Edited to Add: I did NOT make those buttons correctly, but I was lucky enough to realize it before I had to make more than one refund. I’ll figure that out better before I try it again.**

And she said, “Ninety!”

So I used technology for this one.

Random.org has selected Carla and Michelle as the winners for March! Their Angora Bunny Kits will soon be on the way.

Many thanks to the Bloomingdale Farm angora bunnies and Jeanette for creating such a luscious yarn!

Mindful Fiber will be back in mid-April. Think spring. Think socks.