Lady Purl Designs

Read on if you would like to know the newest 6 months of  Nerdy Knit Kit Subscription Box Theme Spoilers! . . . April: SHERLOCK May: Studio Ghibli! June: Lord of the Rings! July: The Avengers! August:  TAKING AUGUST OFF TO HAVE A BABY BUT COMING SOON: Disney Princesses  And Disney Villains!  YAY! I hope you're as excited about these upcoming themes as I am! Visit LadyPurl.etsy.com to purchase a 1, 3, or 6 month subscription. 

Nerdy Knit Kit fans and potential sweeties! I have promised a spoilers page for upcoming themes and here it is, I'll update this page as we go so there should be 6 months of spoilers at a time, so if you like all 6 you can get a 6 month subscription at a discounted rate! October: Tim Burton! November: J.K. Rowling! December: Christmas with Doctor Who! January: Star Trek! February: Steampunk! March: Wonder Woman! There's 6 months of spoilers for you! I hope you get to join me for the adventure that will be putting these boxes together for the next half year! 

Almost a FULL YEAR of Nerdy Knit Kits! Here are some pictures of  my fun, geeky, and crafty subscription box kits over the past year. If you want in on the geeky yarn action, you can purchase the boxes in 1 month , 3 month , or 6 month subscriptions! I plan to post a "spoiler page" for upcoming themes soon!

I t's con season again and I've been lucky enough to be invited to vend at a handful! The only one I could make work so far in my schedule is the Milwaukee Block Party (11am-4pm on June 21st 2015 at  818 S Water St.  Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53204).  https://www.facebook.com/events/1573563502932866/ I attended the May block party and was super impressed, so I'm really excited to sell my goodies there in a few weeks.  As a teaser for what I plan to sell, here's a few pictures of the things I've been working on to get ready: "Furiosa's Redemption" An array of geeky lotion bars.  A new knitted bow tie pattern (because bow ties are cool).  "Pocket Universe" and other styles of cute 1-project knitting bags.  Hope to see you there!

The new years is next week and that means new products! My most important resolution for the new year, like ever year for the past 4 years, is to grow my business. I realized recently that a great way to do that is to branch out into different areas in my niche market. I have yarn, yes, but what else can I do for my fellow geeky knitters? I have a few ideas but I'd love to hear from you too! Here are a few things I have come up with: Lotion Bars! Knitters get dry hands, especially the knitters I know that have to live through these harsh Wisconsin winters. Even when it's a nice 40 degrees out, like it is currently (which is unseasonably warm for this time of year, last year it was -20 degrees out and my car wouldn't start), if folks are like me their hands start to dry out to the point of cracking and bleeding at the knuckles. Just BECAUSE. Some winters it looks like I get in fist fights each night, and that level of dry skin makes knitting almost painful. So I pla...

I got the incredible opportunity to wholesale at an adorable new yarn shop in Greendale, WI, Wool & Cotton Co . (From my new house it's only a 10 minute drive!) I took this picture after I was finished labeling everything. I'm packaging my Mood Sock Yarn Kits in these handy dandy little plastic buttoned bags now, which makes them much easier to sell in the store, and I gave the owner 2 each of Firefly, Doctor Who, and a new kit that's Disney Princess themed and sparkly!  Now that I have a little more time on my hands I'm going to try to finish my next episode of "Electric Sheep" tomorrow. I'm going to ply my sparkly gold Rumpelstiltskin yarn, and show how to set the skein. And now I'm going to pass out because I stayed up until 1 AM finishing all this yarn, and then woke up early to get all the labels made, printed, and put on. PHEW, IT IS DONE!

I just bought and moved into a house of my very own! And you know what that means? A DEDICATED YARN ROOM. YEP. Dedicated to making yarn, spinning, winding, dyeing, and everything else yarn related I can fit into that 12x12 foot space! I just finished moving and will be unpacking all my stuff for a while now, but it's looking good so far. Pictures coming soon, when it doesn't look so much like a storage unit ^__^. Until then, you should mark your calendars for this awesome arts and craft fair: Visit http://www.rrrags.com to see what other vendors will be there. My friend Erin of Milwaukee Mitten Co ( https://www.etsy.com/shop/MilwaukeeMittenCo ) and I are sharing a table for this awesome event that helps support the arts in Milwaukee Schools. For more information and to RSVP, visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/366316283545201 for this event and get updates on all the super creative folks that are taking part! The Details: Where: The Falcon B...

I'm starting a new video podcast and I hope you join me over on my YouTube channel:  Lady Purl  to get tutorials, classes, updates, and share in my fiber journey. Please comment (here or on YouTube) to give me ideas of what you want to see from me and my shop!

I raised enough money for my spinning wheel and proceeded to spin an entire skein up in a 24 hour period. I was so excited I couldn't help myself. Here's a picture of the transition from bare roving, to dyed roving, to all spun up and plied. I've also been doing some super fun mood sock yarn kits by request. The customer gives me the character or just a show in general to be inspired by and I give them 4 mini skeins to knit 1 pair of socks with, knitting their mood as they go. Firefly themed, she gave me her 4 favorite characters, I gave her these babies! Gilmore Girls. This was made by request of a huge GG fan. I have to admit I've never seen the show, but I did a lot of research to make these 4 mini skeins happen! :D Also happening in my store right now that is blowing me away is that my "Grab Bag Sale" listing is flying off the metaphoric shelves! I guess knitters like the idea of being surprised by they yarn they get. I d...

Hey there my lovely yarnies! I'm trying to raise funds to buy a real spinning wheel (which will hopefully cut my spinning yarn time down by like 75%!). The PVC wonder that my boyfriend made me has finally spun it's last yard. One of the sides actually broke off and flew across the room at a great speed (a little scary, as we have 3 fish tanks in my living room >.> ) ANYWAY, I'm doing this promotional code (YAYSPIN) because I have a wheel lined up to buy, just need $200 to get it and ship it from Colorado. My Etsy store, as you may already know, is LadyPurl.Etsy.com - all yarn is geeky inspired and I do custom colorway orders all the time. Christmas is just like... 20 Saturdays away right? So even if you don't knit, maybe a friend or loved one of yours does? ^_____^ Also, for anyone interested in how the constellation shawl turned out, IT IS SO GORGEOUS. And it's new mommy has it and loves it dearly. I laid it out to take a nice picture of it, and ...

The epic shawl that shall not be named is FINISHED! Once I got to the last few stitches I almost couldn't contain myself. I had chores to do today and all I could think was, "I'M SO CLOSE, JUST NEED TO GET THIS DONE!" I finally graphed the first row of the edging with the final row and I was almost done. Due to the manner in which I had initially dyed the yarn, there were a few light areas that I wasn't fond of so I redyed the entire shawl when I was done knitting. I dipped it into a pot of darker blue and a little violet and dash of black. It deepened the blue and got rid of the lighter areas, and I really like the new shade of sapphire! This is how much yarn I had left of my 2 skeins after binding off. I was super lucky! I worried about the remaining yarn before I even started the edging, and had I done even 1 more row while knitting the 576 stitches in the round, I bet I would have run out. PHEW! I'll be sure to take and post more...

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...