All things fiber............

Sometimes I feel very overwhelmed when it comes to my hobbies.  It feels like there will never be enough hours in the day to do all the things I love.
When my children were small, I was sewing them clothes, knitting them sweaters, and we were always crafting something.
We didn't have a lot of money, I was a stay at home mom, so with one income we stretched that dollar as far as we could.  I sometimes felt bad because they didn't always have everything, but we did have fun learning different crafts.  We always made new ornaments for the Christmas tree every year, and they entered their wares in the local fair every fall.

I now see how those talents get passed down from generation to generation.  I remember sweaters my grandmother made me and baby sets knit by both my mother and her mother.  I learned to knit when my children came along and I knit for my grandchildren now.   My love of all things fiber,  whether it be knitting or spinning or dyeing yarn were taught to my children and are now being taught to their children.

It's nice to know that my passion for all things fiber will live on through them and they'll be making memories of their own one day.

Pink and yellow...

  When I dyed up our Spring yarns, I had all kinds of ideas flowing through my head.   I knew I wanted socks, but I also wanted to knit something to showcase our new House Cat yarn.
Gerbera kept taunting me.  I'm so enamored with pink and yellow together, but I needed a project that wasn't too busy as not to distract from either the yarn or the pattern.

Rondelay was perfect.  I find garter stitch is perfect for variegated yarns and this design had me intrigued by it's construction.  And besides mindless knitting is what I need right now.

There are more pictures and details on my Rav page.
This will be perfect for those cooler days when I want something light around my neck.  I still want socks but I'll want some nylon in them, so I'll be dyeing up some more real soon.
I have a small batch of Barn Cat and Stray Cat almost ready for the shop so stay tuned.

Inspiration..............

can be a funny thing, you never know where it will come from.   When BossCat and I hit the dye pots we either have a specific idea in mind or we just throw caution to the wind and start playing with colour.

All I seem to be interested in lately is knitting and cranking out socks.  I have a few ideas rolling around in the back of mind but  I seem to have stalled out for a little while.

So Valerie took over the studio last week and we have a few new yarns in the shop today.

We haven't done very much Solo Cat, so it was time.  It's a lovely 100% single ply merino and it takes the dye beautifully.
These colours would be perfect in light weight shawls or even mitts or socks.

Introducing Lady Violet, Pebble Beach, Steel Town, and Fern.

Valerie's Autumn Orchard Shawl is gorgeous.

I started some fingerless mitts a while ago with Solo Cat, but they too went in the time out corner I really need to get them done.
The yarn works up well with beads too.

Being at home....

for an extended time does have it's advantages.  Although I miss my job (just a little bit) I am getting lots of time to do the things I love.
Daenerys is done, blocked and ready for her debut.  This was a pretty easy knit and the Twisted Slinky Cat with that touch of silk made it shine.  Also with it's generous 600 yards it's not difficult to get a good size shawl out of it.  The KAL is still on and there is still plenty of time to knit something up before June 8th.

Next up is the long ignored baby blanket.  I know this should not have taken so long, but like I said before, sometimes when I put a project down it takes some time to get back to.  Nothing like more babies on the way to motive me and it was already half done.
My version of the Nursery Blocks Baby Blanket.  There are more picture on my Rav project page.

I dyed up some Wandering Cat Fat Cat DK and really didn't plan out how I was going to knit this up, other than the picture I saw.  I was thinking of a square blanket, but the blocks were so addicting I just kept knitting.  Next thing I knew I had a rectangle.  I also incorporated the side triangles from another pattern on ravelry, and I used all four colours for a garter stitch border knit in the round.  I am so pleased with the way it turned out I may just make another one.