Lady Purl Designs

After seeing this post   about the Celestarium shawl, I fell in love. Then I quickly put it in the back of my brain so I wouldn't have to drool over it anymore and went about my day. Later, multiple friends saw the Reddit post that made the shawl famous, posted it on Facebook, and some even sent the link specifically to me, telling me I should make it. I was tempted yet again. My Goddess was I tempted, but my problem with shawls, as much as I love knitting them, is that I never -- yep never -- wear them. I wish I did. I wish I was the type to, but I just don't. I'm more of a geeky t-shirt and cardigan if I'm cold wear-er, not the fancy shawl type. So investing this much of my time and money into a shawl as complex as this one (it's actually not complex at all, I just assumed because… beads) didn't seem in my starts (hehe, see what I did there?) BUT then came the Facebook friend that decided she needed one for herself and would pay me for my time and supp...

I started spinning my own yarn a while ago after learning over 2 years ago. When I started back then, it hurt my wrist and my yarn was super uneven. I would use the drop spindle that I got from my local yarn store, a simple wooden Ashford, for hours, trying to practice. I started with a gorgeous silk roving that was way out of my league. The best thing to start spinning with is 100% wool. It's the easiest to work with by far. Silk is slippery and doesn't want to spin up nicely. It was completely frustrating, so after a few hours of trying and horrible wrist pain, I packed the spindle and roving up and didn't look at it again for years.  After Sheep in the City this year I saw all the beautiful spinning wheels, all the gorgeous hand-spun yarn, and tons of reasonably priced hand-dyed roving, and all I wanted to do is start back up again. On the second day of SITC I brought that bag out, bought some roving from one of the local sellers, and started up a new skein. My firs...

I've been up to a LOT. Here are a few snapshots of the new things I've been doing. First up, I've been dying up mini-skeins for "Mood Sock Kits." The basic premise of these kits is that you knit a basic sock pattern and change skeins depending on your mood at the time of knitting. I made them geeky, of course, and I've been putting them up on my Etsy store in themed "editions." I have done Doctor Who, Firefly, and the Avengers so far, and all have been very successful.   "Doctor Who Edition" I've also begun spinning my own yarn! This is super exciting for me because I (of course) need another hobby like I need a hole in the head XD. These 2 skeins were spun using a drop spindle, but I recently acquired an electric spinning wheel as well, and I'm super excited about the results I'm getting with that (it's also about 10 times faster!). Every skein I spin gets better, so I'm sure I'll be a pro in no time :)...