woolgirl will be carrying my yarn!

I'm very excited to announce that woolgirl www.woolgirl.com will be carrying my yarn! Jen is running a contest related to my tvyarn on her blog http://woolgirl.typepad.com/woolgirl/2007/06/woolgirl_wants_.html so be sure to go over there and place your entry in the contest.

www.woolgirl.com has an amazing selection of hand-dyed yarn by indie dyers and I am flattered to be part of this gang. woolgirl also has a monthly newsletter - here is the newsletter for may http://www.woolgirl.net/Wooly%20Woolgirl%20Newsletter2.pdf

thanks secret pal!

My secret pal from sp10 sent me another awesome package! Look at all the goodies! thanks pal!

knitters coffee swap

I'm running my first contest for the Knitter's Coffee Swap. I have a name in mind for the tvyarn above and whoever guesses the name (and reason for the name) will win the contest. Should be fun; I expect several correct entries so we'll have to pick a name out of a hat to decide.

knitting in the dark

My purple swap package arrived.. from Sonya. She really got into the purple theme! I loved it all - take a look at the purple knitting needles that glow in the dark for all the times that I really need to knit in the dark! And she knitted an adorable coin purse too.
THANK YOU, SONYA

Golfing to support Breast Cancer research

This week I took a day off work to support a great cause - to support research for a cure for breast cancer. My husband and I played as a foursome with some dear friends. None of us are particularly good golfers since we don't have time to play often. Luckily for each shot we only had to use one shot of our four shots! So we'd have 3 balls in the woods and one in the fairway. Then 3 balls in the lake and 1 on the green! We ended up playing very well and everyone contributed. A wonderful day.

Knitters Coffee Swap

Sunne sent me a great coffee swap package! There were 4 skeins of a yummy cotton/cashmere Noro yarn, some of her coffee-themed stitchmarkers from her etsy store, fresh roasted coffee beans, chocolate cookies, a an awesome "protector" dog-angel charm for my dog Scout! thanks Sunne!

7 things

Sonya tagged me with 7 Things
List 7 random things about yourself.
Tag 7 others.
Leave a comment on their blog to direct them to your site to get the rules.

1. I am purebred Dutch even though I am 3rd generation to live in the U.S. My maiden name is De Vries and my married name is Van Wyk. And my son will be the 4th generation "purebred", rather unusual.

2. I skipped kindergarten and went straight into first grade, so I was always the youngest in my class by almost a year.

3. My husband and I lived in Germany for a year.

4. I hate answering or talking on the phone.

5. My husband does all the grocery shopping and cooking for our family.

6. I put myself through college and grad school by cleaning homes and waitressing. It was hard.

7. As I was growing up, during the school year we lived in Michigan, and during the summers we lived in Washington, which I loved. My Dad was a school teacher. We always drove between the two states and camped. With three kids, how did my Mom ever manage that?

My "Mary's Garden" crazy quilt is on tour

In the spring of 2006 my art quilt "Mary's Garden" was juried into the ARTQUILTimages show sponsored by Profession Art Quilt Alliance-South. This show has been traveling ever since - after visiting 5venues in 5 states the final show is at CK Media Gallery in Golden, Colorado. My crazy quilt "Mary's Garden" is featured on their website.
This quilt is dedicated to Mary Dozeman, my maternal grandmother, and features several photographs of her, my mother June De Vries, and one photo with the three of us - taken in Montana in 1960. I transfered the photos to fabric and then used the fabric in the crazy quilt motif.

flash your stash

Here's part of my yarn stash in my big, old, white stoneware bowl - flashing this stash for the secret pal 10 contest!

Artists' Retreat in New Mexico

Last week I was in southern New Mexico at a week long painting retreat. The workshop, led by Kim English, focused on painting figures in the landscape and we worked primarily outside - en plein air.

It was very challenging and since it was my first opportunity to paint figures... I don't think you'll see any of my workshop paintings displayed here!

I do know, though, that in the future I will definitely be confident enough to add figures to my paintings. Small ones.

The photo is of my good painting friends and I. We meet only once a year or less but drop right back into our good friendships whenever we are together. We talk about our art work for HOURS on end! I'm the one on the far left.

look at what my friend knitted!

Look at the amazing sock that my friend Cheryl knitted! Isn't it amazing? She is SO talented. She knitted this sock out of my hand painted yarn in the colorway named "Sex and the City". I have been so busy dyeing yarn and updating my etsy shop that I have not had time for any knitting lately. Hopefully that will change in a few weeks.

The pattern is Metropolis from Wildhorse Farm Designs.

Thank you, Cheryl!

thank you secret pal!

On Saturday I got an awesome package of goodies from my secret pal. I love everything in it! There were 2 skeins and 2 balls of alpaca yarn - can you believe this is my FIRST alpaca yarn??!! I didn't know what I was missing; it is soooo soft. The blue is hand painted. And there's a cute travel-theme tape measure - in honor of my upcoming trip, right? very nice! Plus some air freshener, lip aid, and hand creme. thank you SP!!

My baby - Scout

Here's my gorgeous girl, Scout! She is our second black lab. She was supposed to be a fancy-shmancy show dog (she has quite the pedigree) but because she has some white hair on her legs and muzzle (called brindle), she became available for us! She is very loving, has the run of the house all the time, and sleeps in her own twin bed in my son's bedroom :-)

Guess who she's named after.

coffee swap 2 questions

1. Whole bean or ground? either is fine but prefer whole bean so I can grind it
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? extremely fully loaded
3. Regular or flavored? regular, love roasts
4. How do you drink your coffee? hot and black
5. Favorite coffee ever? I love it all as long as it's good coffee and not weak or watery
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? any good coffee, i.e. not maxwells
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? pastries!!! donuts!! sweet breads, muffins, YUM
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? for a treat I do occasionally get a latte preferably NOT from starbucks. We have 2 Java Jive indies near us that have drivethrough. Oh and in the winter a friend and I will get peppermint mochas during a girls night out of shopping.
9. Yarn/fiber you love? pretty much anything. love cotton or cotton blends. prefer weight lt. worsted or below (hot in NC)
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? acrylic, not too crazy about hairy mohair
11. What's on your needles? socks, cardigan for arwen
12. Favorite colors? love red, browns, greens, love any non-kelly green, denim color, I like lots of colors
13. Allergies? nope
14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? I cannot wait to go on vacation. I need a break! I'm off to an artists workshop with Kim English instructor in Ruiodoso NM - meeting a good friend there and we're staying at the artist retreat which is a cool adobe house next to a mountain stream. It'll be the first time I've painted from live models - oil painting. I'm actually kind of nervous since I haven't done much figurative work at all. I might just set up my own still life and paint that! I can paint a bowl and a pear!!

joining knitters' coffee swap

round 2 of the knitters' coffee swap has begun!

New Mexico here I come (again)

For the past three years I've attended an artists' workshop at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. The workshop is with Ann Templeton and we paint outside all day long. It's an amazing experience. The retreat is rather remote and very rustic - it's almost like camping. I've met some great friends there. Here's a picture of some of us (I'm on the far right).

I'm on may way there for a fourth time in May07.

Also, on the knitting front, I've joined the sockapalooza4 sock swap. Can't wait for it to begin!

ideas for new tvyarn colorways?

This weekend I think I'll try out some new colorways for the tvyarn line in whiteoakstudio. Maybe some oranges/reds, yellows, and violet/purple. And there's a new navy bluish color that I've been wanting to try out.

If YOU have any ideas for colorways for your favorite tv show or movie, leave me a comment and I may just try it out!!

Jana @ whiteoakstudio

whew!!

Well I've opened my etsy shop. I wasn't quite ready but decided to just jump in and figure things out as I went along. It's going pretty smoothly. I'm offering special freebies to SecretPal10 members and the 52PairPlunge KAL. Should be lots of fun! I have one more colorway to post, hopefully tomorrow. From then on I will send an announcement to my http://groups.google.com/group/whiteoakstudio whenever I post new items and colorways. Come join the fun!

STEP AWAY FROM THE YARN

step away from the yarn
Originally uploaded by whiteoakstudio.

Do you ever get so enamoured of yarn that you think someone should force you to leave it alone? I do. I hear someone using a bullhorn shouting "STEP AWAY FROM THE YARN."

I have mountains of yarn almost ready to sell. Just have to neaten the skeins and take photos. What fun!

Color Swap March - from Sonya

Look at the goodies I got from Sonya in the March Color Swap. My Mom is modeling the goods, along with her dog Charlie. Aren't they cute? Sonya spoiled me with:
- an awesome felted vase, which I will use to hold my knitting needles. See her blog for the whole story.
- the book "Socks, Socks, Socks", has gorgeous pictures and patterns
- 2 balls wildfoote sock yarn
- neat ball of bamboo yarn
- green tote
- beautiful, reversible green knit-tote. Just the right size for sock knitting.
THANK YOU SONYA!