Progress on Juliet

I've been focused on Juliet so have not been able to start on the Waterfall yarn from the first shipment of the Woolgirl Sock Club. But I did manage to wind it and find an awesome Knitting Witch sock bag for it, from White Willow

I am loving Juliet and should finish it this weekend.

And, last but not least, I've wound my sport weight Thelma & Louise yarn and it also has its own White Willow sock bag!

I am really having knitting project fever this week; I've purchased several patterns and the yarn for them is on its way. More on those projects soon, but I'm also keeping ravelry up to date.

Knitting HAS and WILL happen!

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Originally uploaded by whiteoakstudiotvyarn

Da mail has arrived! I've been not-patiently awaiting several yarn packages this week. Found this on my porch from WEBS - first, on the right, Debbie Bliss Stella yarn to knit Sanpoku sweater from Berroco. I've been yearning for a warm-weather, silk blend and this looks amazing. Then, below, some luxury Lantern Moon circular needles for - ta da -

Juliet from ZephyrStyle in Plymouth Royal Silk Merino! A gorgeous shade of jewel red. I'm going to cast on RIGHT NOW! TGIF!!

Christmas Around the World Knitter's Swap Questionaire

1. Are you religious? I am a Christian.
2. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider yourself a Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced? I'd say I'm intermediate but I'll pretty much tackle any pattern and figure things out eventually.
3. Do you have any other hobbies besides knitting? Oh my, too many. I dye yarn. I make jewelry and love home design. I make art quilts with handdyed fabric. I play golf and am always reading lots of books. bike riding, walking my dog, hiking, travel
4. Favorite color(s)? Red, oranges, lime and avocado greens
5. Do you collect anything? No, not really.
6. Are you allergic to any fibers or animals? Nope.
7. Do you have any pets? Yes, my black lab Scout
8. Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate? Coffee
9. Cookies or Sweets? Both.
10. Do you knit socks? Yep.
11. If not socks then what? (tell us about your favorite knits)Tank tops, light sweaters
12. Do you put up a Christmas tree? If not then what do you do?Usually we do.
13. Favorite holiday treats? Cut out cookies with icing
14. Favorite holiday smells? Spice. Vanilla, pine too.
15. Do you celebrate Christmas in a traditional or unconventionalway? Please elaborate. Fairly traditional. We live far from family sowe usually fly to either Michigan or Iowa for Christmas. We do notspend a lot on gifts, just spend time together.
16. What are your favorite holiday traditions? At our home we have atree and a few presents. We make a gingerbread house. We walk aroundour neighborhood and sing Christmas Carols and my son plays the trumpet.I attend The Nutcracker ballet with a friend and usually attend TheMessiah concert at Duke University. I sang in The Messiah, as asoprano, for many years. 17. Finish the sentence: "For me Christmas is all about...."family
18. If you were a Christmas ornament you would be.......? A lightbulb
19. What was your favorite gift you've ever received? Or given? We spend a lot of money and time to travel to family for the Christmas holidays, so every year I'd say that's my favorite gift.
20. When do you start your Christmas? December 1
21. Do you send Christmas cards? Do you make them or buy them? Formany years I made them. Now I write a note and put photos of our yearin it.
22. What is your favorite Christmas dish? Red jello with creamcheese
23. Carolers are at your door. What do you do? Walk outside, smile,listen and maybe sing along. And always applaud afterwards!
24. When do you open presents? Christmas eve or Christmas morning? Eve. We attend church on Christmas morning.
25. Do you celebrate with family or friends or both? both

Sock Knitting bags in store

Well after much research and several experiments I have finally figured out how to make Sock Pouches! Last month I bought one from H. L. Miller's etsy store and I just loved it. I tried to buy more in a fabric that I loved and search everywhere on the internet but could not find one to purchase. So I decided to try to make some myself. Let me tell you these are not easy to make but after many late nights I figured out how to make some that please me.

So now I am making some for my etsy store and some to sell at the Southeast Animal Fiber Festival (SAFF) in Asheville in October.

And, on another note, the over-90-degree weather that we've had here in NC for the month of August finally eased a bit so we went for a long bike ride today after church service. It was wonderful to be able to breathe outside again! Jana

Southeast Animal Fiber Festival in Asheville, NC

My son returned to school this week so for me it's officially almost Autumn. I'm still adjusting to leaving the lazy days of summer behind. But Autumn is my favorite time of year and this year it will be even more exciting. I'm going to have a booth at the Southeast Animal Fiber Festival in Asheville, NC in October! I really need to start loading up on inventory and planning my booth. No, I have no idea what I'm going to do for a booth other than have tables with lots of baskets full of yarn! So I need to get thinkin' on this. Here's the SAFF website.

There will be a bunch of bloggers and ravelry-ers at SAFF and I'm excited to meet everyone. Here's a link to someone who doc'ed SAFF from last year.

One Word

ravelry

Christmas/Holiday Movie tvyarn contest results

Meet "The Polar Express"!

I really loved all your entries but the colors and the amazing emotional appeal of "The Polar Express" intrigued me. It's not one that I would have picked on my own, so I loved the idea of it. After 3 tries and 2 failures, I came close to what I was trying to capture. Midnight blue, shades of violet moonlight on snow, hot chocolate and shades of golden yellow for the beaming light. Ah.

So, both "emicat" and "vegasangelbrat" contributed to the idea and colors - so BOTH of you win 2 skeins of "The Polar Express". And then for the other 41 of you I did a random number generation and "kimncocoa" won. So will the three of you please send me your name and address? To whiteoakstudio at yahoo dot com

thanks! this was great fun! Jana

Chick Flick Movies Tvyarn Club

Hang on to your hats! It's time for a road trip in the convertible! I've decided to do a tvyarn club and for our first series we'll be doing Chick Flick Movies Tvyarn!

Details are in my etsy store - you can purchase month by month or for the entire series at once.

Come on and join the fun, Jana

You guys are awesome!

WOW! I LOVE all the answers to my tvyarn contest! There are so many interesting answers and so thoughtful too. What I love is that they are such great ideas and many I would NEVER have thought of on my own.

So.... I'll post the winners and a photo of the new yarn ASAP :-)

thanks so much, Jana

Christmas/Holiday Movie TVYARN CONTEST!!

Well, yes, it's August but just this week I started to get Christmas fever and I'm ready to create some Christmas/Holiday-themed sock yarn! I need help with ideas so let's have a contest. The prize will be 2 skeins of the yarn that you will help to create by participating in the contest.

So leave a comment and tell me
1) the title of your favorite Christmas/Holiday movie
2) what colors you would put in yarn inspired by the movie and WHY you would choose those colors for the movie. So give me an eloquent and passionate rationale. Or just a funny one.

I'll pick the winner based on what I think is the best Christmas/Holiday movie/colors inspiration and reasoning. Remember you can pick the same movie that someone else chose and give your own colors/reason. Then I'll dye the yarn and let y'all take a look. Make sense? (And do not choose Elf because I dyed that one yesterday :-) )

So leave a comment by 5pm Wednesday August 8, 2007. If I get more than 30 entries I'll give 2 prizes - one for best entry and one random winner. So tell your friends! Jana

sockapalooza sock #1

One down, one to go. Two days to send off. I think I can make it. These are Crusoe sock pattern using tvyarn in CSI Miami colorway from my etsy store.

I really like this pattern - it's a fast knit and easy stranded stitch. It works wonderfully with variegated yarn.

Next week I am on vacation. Again. This is for our family reunion in Michigan. We're staying at a cottage on Lake Michigan near Saugatuck. It's not exactly a carefree vacation for me, since I'm the "middle" generation and it's sort of my job to be "cruise director", as we like to call it. I plan activities and meals and "take the emotional temperature" every once in awhile to keep relationships running smoothly. Sometimes it's a challenge since we have folks from 2 weeks old to 85 years old! Mostly it's wonderful and this year we even have air conditioning so that will feel like a luxury.

My goal is to finish my sockapalooza socks while I am there! I am actually feeling too tired to get ready to go on vacation again, but somehow I'll pull it off and I know it will be worth it. See you in a week, Jana

My backyard

As promised here's some photos of my yard, which I really enjoyed this weekend. These freshly-painted, chartreuse shelves are going in my dye studio. My studio is in the basement on the far right. And I love my adirondack chairs, in hot pink. We washed our windows last week - a big once-a-year job where the whole family helps!

thanks Lora!

Lora did a great job "gifting" me for the June BLUE knitting swap. Gorgeous blue sportweight yarn from Sereknity. A beaded bracelet, did you make it Lora? And lots of other blue goodies. And a photo of Starsky!! yay!

slow, lazy, kick-back summer

It's almost the middle of July. I'm trying to truly savor each day of the middle-of-the-summer. We finally had some rain here and I loved the dark evening of rain. And the garden enjoyed it even more.

I had made a bunch of stitch markers so I decided to take some photos and sell them on etsy. To sweeten the purchase and provide more functionality (I'm always misplacing stitch markers myself) I ordered some summery beach-safe screw-top containers and they will sell as a package along with the stitch markers.

I'm really enjoying making my socks for my sockapalooza pal. I had a rocky start and some panic-y moments with the first pattern I tried but now I've got yarn and pattern that I love. I'll post pictures soon. The pattern is from Knitty and has some bad errors and since no one has posted the solutions (only lots of posts about the problems) I am hoping to post the pattern WITH the solution so others can benefit.

So I need to take and post photos of
- my garden which is now refreshed - today there were two goldfinches and a cardinal at the birdbath (really a bird fountain with water I keep fresh for them) at the same time! I loved the color!
- my sockapalooza socks and pattern
- my studio which will have new shelves that my son and I painted today in LIME GREEN :-)
- my lab Scout who has a fancy-shmancy hairdo after a bath and brush this week, she is gorgeous

I am also having a wonderful time getting in a lot of reading time this month. I'll update my reading list on my sidebar this week. Our library has a wonderful webpage where I can just "order" the books I want and they send me email when they have transfered them from another county library to my local library. Then I just stop by and pick them up. Same for renewal, automatic email that a book needs to be renewed and the 'click' I renew it! The libraries in the U.S. are just wonderful.

A new addition to the family

About a month ago, my husband phoned me at worked and said excitedly "a friend of mine will sell me a 1965 Mustang for 3K below blue book. Can I buy it?".
I replied "Uhh, no.".
A week later he asked "I really want to buy that car. ok?".
I said "no".
Two weeks later same thing.
Last week it made its grand entrance into our garage. Sigh. I did get a car stall full of hubbie's junk cleaned out, at least. Or did I?!

thank you secret pal!

thanks for the great package of goodies, secret pal! I'll post a photo soon. Hmm... I know you gave me a hint but so far I haven't figured out who you are. But I will keep trying :-)

Vacation in Grand Tetons NP and Yellowstone NP

This is where I'll be in a couple of days! We're off for a vacation of hiking, rafting, driving, reading, eating, relaxing, and sightseeing. And I'll be taking several knitting projects along, so I can get back to knitting again and away from the dye studio (which is always calling my name when I'm at home).


I shipped off my order to woolgirl so Jen should be putting it up on her shop next week sometime.


I plan to knit Cookie A's Hedera socks in the Gunsmoke colorway! Hey, I guess it's fitting to knit with this while I'm out west. I'll be casting on while we're waiting for our flight to board. Can't wait!


And I'll be taking several books to read too. I think I'll start with The Outlander. Hmmm... haven't decided what other books to take along.

a fun weekend dyeing new colorways

Hi everyone, I had a fun weekend dreaming up new colorways. I love greens and have been working to get a rich, deep avocado plus I decided to pair it up with an awesome, mixed violet! I am so happy with how it turned out. Meet "Casablanca"!

The colors kept reminding me of North Africa, Moroccan colors so I decided to name it "Casablanca". Yum!

a tour of my dye studio

I thought you might be interested in a small tour of my dye studio which is in the basement of our home. This photo shows the dye area where I presoak the yarn, mix the dyes, and and dye the yarn. I have a view of a 80 foot white oak directly out my windows, thus the name White Oak Studio.



This photo shows how I dye the yarn in small batches.


I'll post more info and pictures about my dyeing soon!