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 :)...

I created a bunch of new color ways for the Sheep In The City Getaway, some sold immediately, some might not have been common enough references for this particular event (Dr. Girlfriend, for instance, might have gone over a few heads, lol) but I have posted all of these new geeky color ways on my etsy page: LadyPurl.etsy.com. Also posted a lot of pictures on my Facebook page. If you haven't already liked my Lady Purl Designs Facebook page you should log on and LIKE it :}. My next vending event will be here in Milwaukee, a sci-fi con called Concinity at MSOE (Milwaukee School of Engineering) held or sponsored by the Milwaukee Timelords and Milwaukee Steampunk Society. We'll see if this goes as well, but I have a feeling if I bump up the Doctor Who themes a lot I should be able to at least talk a bunch of nerdy boys into buying yarn for their knitty girlfriends, hehe.

http://just4ewe.com/Sheep_in_the_City/Sheep_in_the_City/Welcome.html SHEEP IN THE CITY! ONE WEEK AWAY! I AM FREAKING OUT! A little more info on the conference: It'll be located at  Comfort Suites at  6362 S. 13th St.  Oak Creek,WI 53154. Goes from Friday Feb. 22nd to Sunday Feb. 24th. I will be there the whole time selling my yarn (pretty sure in the front lobby where people register and pay to get in).  EEEEEEEeeeee! This is the first con that Lady Purl Designs will be vending at. A real milestone. I've spend a lot of time preparing for this moment, literally a year of work in preparation. I may not have a lot in comparison to the other vendors with huge booths, but the little I have packs a punch. I was able to get a lot of the great vending accessories like stamped bags, labels, cards, and (my personal favorite) beautiful hand-built yarn trees to display my yarn! I feel like I will at least look professional even if my table is tiny and I don't have 700 ske...

Hey all! So 2012 was a busy year! I made Lady Purl Designs into a real business, one I am very proud of. I'm going to dedicate this post to some of the yarns I have dyed that I'm particularly proud of. Big Damn Heroes: 221B Baker Street The Shire Special Self-Stripping Yarn, Custom Order Beauty's Curse Vincent's Sky Sparkle Yarn Pandorica So I hope you enjoyed looking at these beauties. I'm going to try to recreate all of them for my table at "Sheep in the City" a yarn fair in Milwaukee that I get to be a vendor at. My inventory is a 3rd of the way there, and with just a month and a half to go I'm dyeing like a fiend!

Dyed up this yarn (whilst drinking a bunch of margaritas ^_^) tonight for a giveaway. It's through The Hat Factory on Facebook. You can visit it here . Hopefully this will draw lots of yarnistas to my FB page, and motivate me to dye up some new yarn! I'm calling it Wildflower.