Monday, November 22, 2010

Shop update - 11/23 at 2PM CST!


11.23 update preview!, originally uploaded by cloudlover69.

All of this and more is being added to my BigCartel shop on Tuesday, November 23 at 2PM CST. AND, for a full week starting today, get 15% your order by entering code THANKGIVING15 at checkout! Happy Turkey Day!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Shop update 10/18 at 2PM CST

It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm adding these and MANY more lovely fibers to the BigCartel shop at 2PM CST on Monday, October 18.

There will be two NEW base fiber blends available, both are superwash: one is 70% merino, 20% cashmere and 10% silk and the other is 50% silk, 30% merino and 20% sea cell. They are both amazingly soft and a real treat to spin!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool this weekend!

This is a super-duper quick last-minute post letting you all know that we'll be at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool festival this weekend, September 10-12. Our booth is in Country Store West- come visit if you're in the area! It's seriously my favorite sheep festival of them all, there is so much to see and learn.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

9/2 Shop update preview!

These are some of the pretties that will be going up in the shop Thursday, September 2 at 2PM CST!

9/2 shop update preview - 2PM CST

Friday, August 20, 2010

Shop update - 8/21 at 1PM CST

The next Cloudlover update is scheduled for Saturday, August 21 at 1PM CST, here! I'll be adding some handpainted yarn with this update, as well as 4 new colorways on various spinning fiber bases!

8.21 update - fiber preview

8.21 update - yarn preview

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Friday the 13th update preview

8/13 shop update preview

A sneak peak of what will be available at 7PM CST over at www.cloudlover.com!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Shop updates and spinning class!

Two quick things I want to announce:

As part of Chicagoland's first ever Yarn Crawl, I'll be teaching a drop spindle class at My Sister's Knits on Saturday, August 21 at 12 PM. If you've ever wanted to learn to spin your own yarn, this class will be a great introduction to the fun, easy, and portable art of drop spindling! Please contact the yarn shop direclty to sign up for this class.

Also, this Friday, August 13, I will be doing a shop update at www.cloudlover.com. This update will be pre-loaded, meaning everything will go live and available for purchase at 7PM CST. I'll continue to do Etsy updates, but I want to make a gradual move to my BigCartel shop as the listing process is much faster and easier, which in turn makes buying faster and easier. As always, I will combine shipping across both shops. :)

One last thing- as a follow up to my last blog post about donating a portion of shop sales to the International Bird Rescue Research Center, a total of $265 was raised and donated from all your purchases during July. Thank you SO much!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Four Seasons

This is really two blog posts smashed into one, because I have a few things I want to share but not enough time to blog about each. I'm super busy getting ready for the Hoosier Hills Fiber Art Festival in Franklin, Indiana this weekend- in fact, we leave tomorrow afternoon- yikes! But before I go, I wanted to share a few new colorways I've whipped up in the past couple of weeks. They are inspired by the colors of an orchard during the four seasons of the year- spring, summer, autumn and winter:

Four Seasons

From top left: Spring Orchard, Summer Orchard, Autumn Orchard, and Winter Orchard, available in my Etsy shop!

The second thing I want to say, and I'll put it bluntly- this oil spill is really pissing me off. An area that was already shaken down and damaged not 5 years ago by a natural disaster is getting slapped by an environmental disaster that makes my stomach turn.


(Picture ganked from NY Daily News)

I'm torn between wanting to help and wanting to stand by, shaking my fist, waiting for the multi-billion dollar corporation clean up the mess. But I think it's bigger than them, and us. So I've decided that for the entire month of June, 15% of all sales from my Etsy shop will be donated to the International Bird Rescue Research Center. Maybe we can raise enough money to adopt a pelican. In July, I'll find another organization to support. A small difference made is better than no difference at all.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Saturday night spinning

I've been on a 2-ply kick lately, probably because they're easy to churn out while watching TV- which I've been doing a lot of lately! Last night I was catching up on Lost. I took this picture after I finished plying some Falkland Maerchengarten and Decay together. It turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

UFO to WIP to FP

Let's ignore the fact that I've neglected this blog for about as long as I've neglected knitting and focus on two major accomplishments- the first being that I'm blogging, and the second being that I KNIT SOMETHING!

And it is NOT a scarf. Or a cowl. Or a hat. Or fingerless mitts. It actually has SLEEVES!

Anthropologie inspired capelet

Anthropologie inspired capelet

It's the Anthropologie-inspired capelet by Julia Allen, and it was so flipping easy even I could do it (even though it took two tries and over half a year.) When I first cast on, I did everything right- measurements, gauge swatch, etc- but the neckline was gimongous, so I frogged it and started over with a much smaller neckline and more yarn so I could make it long enough. I used handspun from Hobbledehoy and then carded and spun some of my own batts to make extra yarn, which is mostly down on the ribbing. It's chunky, soft, purple and pink, and I MADE IT. I love it.