WIP Wed Thurs Friday

Neckerchiefs!

I love 'em.

Here are the finished ones from the last WIP blog posts. These will go on to OOAK tomorrow morning.

Heres another in progress knit up in Noro Silk Garden. Yum!

Old paper has been torn up to be made into another recycled journal and buttons have been sewn onto hair snaps for myself.

   

In other news, OOAK are looking to interview UK crafters for their blog so do get in contact if you fancy a bit of free exposure.

WIP Wednesday

Seeing as I have a huge collection of buttons, i thought it best to use them for something! Although not entirely original, I've been making button hair slides which is actually quite addictive and good fun.

I was given a spark of inspiration from a friend of mine. She sewed buttons on to canvases in the shape of a heart in her friends favourite colours. Being a button maniac, i thought, why not cover a whole canvas in buttons?

I've been making neckerchiefs ready for this winter. I've got so much hand dyed yarn laying around, I thought i'd knit up a ball to see what it looks like. This yarn is called Hot Treacle :D

In other news, i've been beavering away working on www.ooakhandmade.co.uk with a friend of mine. Its a small collective of UK artisans selling their work in one place. It opens up for business this Saturday, so if you have time, i'd really appreciate you guys having look and giving any feedback!

Poll: Which Picture Makes The Best Listing Image?

I'm in need of your assistance everyone!

I can't decide which picture to use as the main listing image when listing my yarns on Etsy and Coriandr. It's hard to decide which is more likely to draw a potential customer in to have a closer look. I tend to photograph all my yarns in 5 set ways but choosing one as the main image is difficult! Any comments are appreciated too :) Thanks for voting!

1. End of Skein 2. Whole Skein 3. Perspective Skein 4. Loose Skein 5. Yarn Cake
Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Can't Find The Yarn? Dye Your Own!

Or more correctly, if you can't find the right yarn in your stash, dye some of your stock instead.

Recently inspired by Monty Knits who reminded me of the awesomeness of Double Knitting, I wanted to attempt to make my own scarf design and I wanted some grey or cream yarn and some blue, plus they needed to be long enough to make a scarf. However most of my stash consists of one ball of this and one ball of that or a packet of that colour but not of another... etc.

Anyway, in the end I remembered I stocked up on some undyed Blue Faced Leicester which fit the bill with one colour and so I dyed another ball in the blue I was after.... I may start doing this more often. Its definitely cheaper and this BFL feels really lovely too. So look out for future photos of that project!

In spinning news, Three more skeins up for grabs in the shape of two full skeins and one sampler, spun up from the dyed fibre I posted a few days ago. Still working through that stash!

"Garden Zest" - English 56's Wool


"Peaches and Cream" - British Massam Wool


"Peaches and Cream Sampler" - British Massam Wool

These will be up on Coriandr in the next few days!

A Tale of Andean Plying...

It sounds really sad, but i have only just got over this:

This is some plying that went horribly, horribly wrong about 2 weeks ago. I've tried this technique of Andean plying before and although it was a little tricky, I did manage with tangles and things and made Violent Violet. I tried to be clever and made a makeshift Andean plying tool similar to this by using a book and a lolly stick. It's fine when its on the book, all tensioned nicely but when you slip it onto your wrist, all that tension disappears and so tangles and snarls appear.
Lesson learnt. Don't do it. Its more hassle than spinning two singles. And, the worst part of it is I hand carded all of the fibre. Merino, Soya bean and Angelina. And wasted it. Not only that, it seriously killed my crafting mojo for a few weeks. I was afraid of bodging something up again.

However there is a small happy ending to this story.

I did manage to ply 25 meters of it. Its available in my shop as a sampler.

I also bit the bullet and got back into spinning a couple of days ago.

I'm so glad I did. This has to be the BEST yarn I have spun yet. It is super squooshy and soft and pretty damn even too. 133 meters of worsted yumminess. Its up for grabs in my shop along with a 13m sampler.

And The Winner Of The August Giveaway Is...

...the author of comment number 7, Pickled Weasel! I'll contact you shortly for your address!

For those who weren't as lucky this time, don't worry! There's still more skeins to give away, so check back again in September for the next one :) Thanks for taking part!

August Giveaway

Its the first of the month again, so you know what that means!


More hand dyed yarn is up for grabs and this months yarn has been naturally dyed... with stinging nettles! This particular skein was used to exhaust the stinging nettle dye bath and it came up in this very subtle pale yellow and brown combo, reminds me of a milky caramel colour. The much brighter yellow will be up for grabs in a future giveaway :D


Anyhoo, as usual, there is approximately 72 meters of this 50% wool, 50% nylon blend yarn and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to comment on this post. Be sure to comment before Friday 14th August, and as usual, please only comment once! I'll use the random number generator on Random.org to determine the winner on the 15th.

What could you do with this yarn? Well, you could make a hat or a scarfette, a purse, a brooch or use it within another project. There is so much you can do with one skein! Last months winner, Kelly made this cute kids gnome hat with hers. What would you make?

July Giveaway: Follow Up

I have another exciting giveaway project to show everyone! July's winner, Kelly knit up this super cute Gnomey Hat, from Hello Yarn.




What would you do with next months yarn if you won? :D

July Giveaway

Its a new month, so its time for another yarn giveaway! Lynne of PiratePixieCrew won the first month, and made this awesome hat to auction off for charity! Keep an eye on the Autonomous Artisans Blog for updates regarding the auction.


This months yarn is in contrast to this crazy hot weather we're having (down here in Dorset, at least!). Blues and purples are the theme this month - what will you make? :D


This particular skein is 1 of 2 I called "Ocean Purple"... no cool story behind this name, its just random! There's over 72 meters of this 50% wool, 50% nylon blend which will knit up nicely on 4.5mm to 5.5 mm needles or alternatively a 5-6mm hook!

All you need to do is comment on this post for a chance to win :) On the 8th July, i'll use the random number generator on Random.org to pick a comment and the author of the comment will win! Huzzah! :D And please, only comment once!

June Giveaway: Follow Up

I just wanted to share this awesome hat Lynne made with the yarn she won from this months giveaway:

Lynne wants to sell the hat and donate the money to the Macmillan Fund :)

I'll keep you posted on where this hat will be sold, sounds like it could be in for a bidding war on eBay! Lets hope this raises loads of pennies for Macmillan!!

June Giveaway

Now that June has arrived I wanted to get some monthly giveaways going! This month will be this totally shocking hand dyed yarn!



The yarn was from a batch which was rescued from being thrown away about a year ago. Using the yarns in that batch I dyed to my hearts content, playing with all kinds of dyes and colours :D I wanted to share this with you guys so i am now going to be giving away one skein a month!

This particular skein is 1 of 2 I called "Pear Drop", as it reminded me of the sweets of the same name! Theres over 72 meters of this 50% wool, 50% nylon blend which will knit up nicely on 4.5mm to 5.5 mm needles or alternatively a 5-6mm hook!

All you need to do is comment on this post for a chance to win :) On the 8th June, i'll use a random number generator to pick a comment and the author of the comment will win! Huzzah! :D And please, only comment once!

ACK.

Lack of updating again. But a lot has been going on!

I started my second part time job on 22nd September and i have very little time for things now. Particularly Mon-Wed as i start my morning job at 07.30, finish at 11.30, rush home for lunch and start at my afternoon job at 13.00, for another 4 hours of working minimum wage. Its not bad but its not ideal either. But as i announced over on dA im off to New Zealand for 5 weeks in January so i have something to work towards and it really helps me get through those 3 hard days. Thursday and Friday are okay, as i only have the afternoon job to go to, so my mornings are free. And of course, weekends but as we all know, those get eaten up very quickly.

I was also ill last Thursday for 4 days... so i've lost 8 hours pay but im hoping to make that up somewhere along the line when things get busier at Christmas. But my gosh i never want to feel that ill again, ever. I have never felt that sick. I'll spare you the details though ;)

On some positive notes, i was asked at my morning job to do a "photo shoot" tomorrow morning for advertising. Its a craft store so i'll be doing some knitting and i think there's some sort of 'story' or something that the marketing lady is going to write for it.
Uh, as you can see, i have no idea what its all about really. But im getting paid to do it and its a big help :)

Also, my sister-in-law had a 'Yummy Mummy' event and asked for me to show some of my stuff. Unfortunately, it was day i fell ill but luckily i had already printed some leaflets and got my stuff together ready for it so a friend picked it up and took it over for me. Good thing too, as a very nice lady is very interested in knitted toys for her shop! So wish me luck!

...and thats basically whats been going on. Theres loads of other things ive been up to, like making my own Niddy Noddy out of PVC piping and i spun and plied my first yarn...and i started dying yarn again, but this time using natural ingredents, such as tea, grapes and stinging nettles. But i think i will talk about that another time.

Well done and thank you if you read this far :)
I'll leave it there for now, i really hope everyone is doing well.

Oh, two more things. The awesome and sweet Sally bought me a 3 month subscription for dA and i will be making use of it this weekend and catch up with a lot of my friends over there :)
And finally the blog on tomatotea.net is now going to purely be for 'documenting' new products i add on the internet. Having a mirrored blog is silly i guess. And extra work.
Blah.

Phew! Thanks for listening reading!

Happy April Fools

I hope no one has been caught out today ;)

It may be April Fools day but no more fooling around.

April will be a better month of blogging than March. That is a promise to myself.

I am now a part of the Ravelry community. Anyone wanting to sign up really should. I think it only took a week for me to get an account. They're not being an exclusive community, they're just taking their time to let things grow as Ravelry is still fairly new :) But wow. If you are a knitter or crocheter (or both ;) ) sign up now. It helps you keep track of your finished projects, WIP's, your stash, things you would like to make (no more bookmarking thousands of patterns and not getting back to them :) )

In other news, I am now co-admin to the most excellent Artisan Crafts Club on deviantArt. I'm the one who posts the new submissions. It may not sound a lot, but it sure means a lot to me. Its a nice little 'job' and I love it. I get to see all the new submissions first! Hehe. Its wonderful to see so many people create things, and it really spurs me one to keep up what I do. If you're part of dA and a knitter etc then you should join. Its a lovely community. Go take a lookie :)

Chinchilla Hood with Round Ears
Originally uploaded by tomatotea

There seems to be a fair amount of interest in the Furry Hoods. So, I decided to write up a pattern for them. Its available at:
Etsy
Pinkdoodle
BigCartel

Socks.

They are coming along nicely. As stupid as its sounds, as soon as this sock is done (yes, just the one), its being photographed and going straight in the washing machine. REALLY need to test this yarn. Oh, the pattern for the socks is over here.

And as far as I know thats all I have to update on. Now, to enjoy this spring sunshine ... :)

New Item Added Today and Happy Easter :)

First up:

Seafoam has been added to my Etsy shop today. Its slightly chunkier than what is already on offer, but is still classed as aran/worsted weight.

In other news, i'm slowly working on some projects. Hand dying has kind of taken over, but i cant help it. Its definitely a labour of love.
As you can see two projects have been scrapped in the sidebar.
The Crochet Me shrug was scrapped, as I figured i could knit or crochet my own design and not have to buy expensive yarn to make it ( heck, i could use my own hand dyed yarn if i wanted).

And the Sirdar cardigan has been 'secretly' scrapped. I love Click and cabling is fun but i dont think i picked the right shade for the cardigan...its too dark to show off the cabling and seems a waste. Thats my own fault and i now have 10 balls of Click to play with... luckily Click is such a standard DK weight that im sure i can find something.... I need to find something! Just a standard knit cardi would be good.

The Roxy wrap needs attention. And photographs. The sleeves are done, and half a front XD. I think i will make this top priority .... right after a couple of things...

I have half a Bigga shoulder bag done. I think i will get the other half done tonight. Bigga is fantastic. It knits up so incredibly quickly. I think i did the first half in a matter of 2 or 3 hours!

Lastly.
I have hand dyed some sock yarn for myself.

This is more of a test than anything else. I want to know how colourfast my dye method is and whether or not the 75% Pure New Wool, 25% Polyamide blend will survive a 30 degree gentle wash cycle in the old washing machine.... i will be absolutely GUTTED if they felt but it is something that must be found out.

Dying, Baking and Tagged

Busy busy again.

I've dyed some more yarn today, expect to see photos of those soon :) In the meantime, heres yesterdays fun:

Grapevine will be available on Etsy 2008/03/08

And todays fun, aside from dying yarn, involved baking:

The kitchen smells wonderful at the moment!

In other news I have been tagged by fellow UK Etsy-ian spiralsun65!

The rules are:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, 7 facts:

1. For about a year, i tried on and off to learn knitting. In the end, it was a pair of 20mm needles that saved the day and of course, my mum ;)
2. I love polaroids
3. I believe college was the best time of my life
4. I bite my nails constantly
5. I can roll my tongue and also touch the tip of my nose with it. How i found that out is beyond me >.>;
6. I drink too much tea
7. I prefer to get up early as i find i feel more motivated to accomplish things

I tag...

alexandrahull
charlotte-narunsky
huntersdesigns
pouchbags
machi54
tiinateaspoon
aishawood

Hope you guys havent been tagged with this meme before!

Hand Dyed Yarns

....are so much fun to make.
I love the process.

Tropical will be available on Etsy 2008/03/06

Globe is now available on Etsy

I think i'll be taking pictures of my yarn dying process tomorrow :3