Lady Purl Designs

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...

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.