Sunday, April 29, 2012

Learning something new..

Like all fiber lovers, there is that drive to learn something new, to better our skills. So yesterday I went to a class at Yarntopia sponsored by Sky Loom Weavers. Penny and Peggy (who are Sky Loom Weavers) taught a dying class in the morning and a drop spindle class in the afternoon. Well after years of struggling with my drop spindle (yes, I put the DROP in drop spindle a lot), it all came together with Peggy's expert teaching. That morning, they taught us dying with acid dyes. OMG - what fun and the colors were outstanding. There was not a single skein of yarn that wasn't gorgeous. I fell in love with the process. Must be the painter coming out in me. Here are my three skeins that I dyed in sock yarn. One will be for the fall, one for wearing with jeans and one for a present.

TIP OF THE DAY (not that I'll have one every day but for today)... when I knit socks  I hate having a pair where the opening is too tight, doesn't stretch enough. Some people solve this with casting on with a bigger needle. Well, I  do something different. I do a simple small picot cast on. It leaves the top edgle a bit textured with little bumps, but gives so much stretch to the top opening of the socks. It's amazing!
Try it . For baby socks  or if I want it a little fancier, I increase the cast ons and bind offs in the picot to get it frillier.

Instructions for a picot cast on:
Cast on 6 using a knitted cast on.* Bind off two, slip the st on the right needle back to the left needle and  cast on 5, bind off two.* Repeat this until you have as many stitches as you need. If you increase the # of cast offs and bind offs, it changes the length and # of picots on the edge. So play with it. Makes a great edging for scarves that you don't plan to add fringe to or for blanket edgings.

Now to go throw some pots, spin some yarn and dream of colors to dye something.....

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Yellow Rose Fiber Fest

We are really excited to be vendors again at this years YELLOW ROSE FIBER PRODUCERS FIESTA!    We had a lot of fun at the DFW Fiber Fest a few weeks ago and have been busy replenishing our stock of yarn bowls and carousels, shawl pins and all of our other lagniappe products.   And if you are not familiar with our Yarn Carousels, they are featured in this months KNIT SIMPLE 
 Sony will also be teaching her KNITTING 911 class Saturday morning.  
For all of you who are attending come by our booth and say hi!   We have bookmarks for all those wearing a yellow rose and we have a free gift with purchase!!!
Hope to see you this weekend,
Sony & Misty
  

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Welcome

It has taken us long enough, but we FINALLY have started a blog to keep our friends, customers and family updated with all of our exciting adventures with KNITTING LAGNIAPPE.     We just got done the DFW FIBER FESTIVAL and are planning, preparing and looking forward to our next show at the YELLOW ROSE FIBER FESTIVAL.
Stay tuned as we continue to update, post pics, or just add some more "lagniappe"!