Reset

April 23, 2016mulchandmorecrafts Leave a comment

Today we started to do a reset on our trailer! We’ve only done one small show so far this year, so had just pulled out the necessary things that weren’t already in the house for the winter. That left the trailer disorganized and messy when I finally was able to move it to the driveway.

left in from last year

We were lucky enough to purchase some used grid-wall and additional shelving this Spring, so that had to come out of the garage. Of course we had to decide how many and what to take. Next Saturday is a one day show, with my husband having one booth to display his art (the reason we really needed the grid wall 🙂 He will be across the aisle from us to have electric to show his black-light paintings. And our son and I will share the second booth in our regular spot.

new grid and old candle shelves

Working out the things we need, we started loading. I’m excited to see how everything will look when it’s fully merchandised. Yes I am claiming some of the grid and the wooden shelves! The grid will be attached to the two heavy shelves and have about 4′ between! Did I mention we also bought some hat stands that clip to the grid 🙂 And the shelving should work well to display my yarn. Yes I will take pictures.

one of two new shelves

We still have at least 4 or 5 more totes to finish re-packing and load, as well as the boxes of candles to be loaded last minute. Canvases and easels will go in the vehicle as well as my spinning wheel and an ice chest for snacks.

trailer partially filled

I’ve more things that will need to fit for the next shows on our list since those will involve craft tents, sleeping bags etc. Will need to pack a lot tighter and more efficiently, or not carry such a large selection? I like having back-up even when I can’t display it all, especially for the multi-day shows.

Finally!

April 16, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 8 Comments

Finally the crocus are in bloom!

crocus, a true sign of Spring

And soon it will be time to take a walk in our woods 🙂

Snow is leaving fast!

Have a nice week-end everyone! I need to do some yard work. What are your plans?

FO’s and New Beginnings!

April 15, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 4 Comments

Four finished hats, the beginning of two new projects, plus the proof that I did manage a little picture editing on my new ~~tool~~ toy. Thank you for all the encouraging comments on my last post. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in this over-wired world 🙂

bend me…

…shape me

The first hat, finally felted, is the one shown unfelted in a post last month. As I was taking the picture, that old song with the lyrics “bend me, shape me” popped into my mind (and is still floating there 🙂 and these are only two of several shapings I tried. Felted hats can be worn in many different ways.

green felted bucket hat

The other finally finished felted hat, is shown unfinished here.

hand spun ribbing and thick and thin crown.

The next two hats are from the spun and dyed yarns shown here. Both knit from the same basic Ravelry pattern, but varying how/where each yarn was used and throwing in some random purl stitches. (Plus with editing I was able to white out half of the background 🙂

hand spun ribbing with both yarns alternated in the crown.

The new beginnings include a cowl from hand dyed yarn, some more snow dyeing(yellow,orange,and blue), and lots of computer work! The dyeing is now hanging to dry (a softly shaded pastel), the cowl is finished (I tend to knit a lot when frustrated!), another hat has been started, (no pictures yet) and learning the computer is going to be a long work in progress 🙂

snow dyeing

beginning of cowl

More Challenges

April 14, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 9 Comments

Today is a day of no pictures. I am facing the challenge today of setting up and learning to use a new computer.

No, my other one hasn’t crashed, but I have been using it for about 10 years, with only one major crash in that time. Luckily I was able to have it fixed and save my pictures etc. So we decided that it was time to update.

You may have realized by now that to say I am technically challenged is a huge understatement. I’m sure the very patient Dell tech support person who spent hours walking me through things and doing some of the downloads and connections remotely knows just how much I don’t know!

Now my challenge is to learn how to move all of my pictures from my old computer, plus learn how to use the new picture editor program that I now have. I did move some pictures from my camera, but the dates are wrong on them and I haven’t learned how to put them in proper folders. Also have found the crop function but not how to resize them…..it’s been a long day, maybe things will be clearer tomorrow! or I may switch my monitor back to the old computer and fix some pictures to load 🙂

Wish me luck! With two keyboards set up right now, I keep trying to type on the wrong one!

Spinning vs Other Chores

April 12, 2016April 12, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 4 Comments

I’d rather be spinning, but some other necessary things were competing for attention this week. As tax day looms closer I had to prepare the things for our accountant. As a business owner, I trust a second opinion when dealing with red tape! And it’s a relief to have that finished.

To motivate myself, I gave myself rewards of spinning time, and then knitting time, between organizing receipts and totaling columns of numbers.

on my wheel

First I spun the merino top that I snow dyed last week. I planned a heavy yarn that would match the gauge of the commercial thick and thin that was dyed at the same time. It pleasantly surprised me to see how the colors arranged themselves to mimic the first yarn.

colors aren’t quite true but you can see the pooling

Of course I needed more breaks (and chocolate) so I also cast on a hat to see how the yarns worked together! That finished I had just enough yarn to make a second slightly different one 🙂 Pictures of those tomorrow if the light is better.

wound into balls ready to knit

Lesson of this post, ~~work a little and play more~~, don’t be a last minute person 🙂 To add to this years goals…Keep current on paperwork! So today we dropped my car to the garage for a little fixing, did some shopping, and tonight I finished 4 batches of magnets for the shows. Tomorrow maybe some more snow dyeing…it’s supposed to be gone by this weekend!

When Life Gives You Lemons….

April 5, 2016April 10, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 15 Comments

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” is something we have all heard I think. But I prefer lemon pie!

That’s new snow!

this was necessary in April!

So when life gave us snow yesterday (about 8 new inches after having almost all bare ground), I decided to try some snow dyeing! I’ve done it at guild meetings on silk and cotton(using cool temp dyes), but decided to try it with my wool dyes on wool yarn and top.

I pre-soaked my wool in warm water with vinegar added, then lifted on a mesh to drain in my colander.

yarn on wool top

Meanwhile I gathered a bucket of snow, then froze my hands carefully packing it around and on top of the wool, to a depth of about 3 inches, then sprinkled a little more snow on top.

snow

dye on snow

I sprinkled powdered dye carefully on top of the snow, using magenta, teal, and yellow.

They looked so pretty as they started to melt into the snow.

dyes beginning to migrate

The science behind snow dyeing is that as the snow melts, the different components of each dye dissolves and spreads at a different rate,remixing and being carried into the material below it. (Of course there is a pan underneath to catch the run-off.)

After the melt and before hot water bath.

The results; The snow (in the house) melted 🙂 The resulting wool didn’t look anything like I had envisioned (I had gotten carried away and sprinkled way too much dye for the amount of wool I was using.) Since this dye is heat set I placed my lump of wool into a pan of hot water and heated it for about an hour. Lifted carefully by my trusty mesh I then put it into two rinse waters.

Actual yarn colors are deep red/burgundy, dark purple, and high-lights of blue

Looking at the dyed snow water drippings, I added those to my heating pan and placed more wool top in to heat. I always try to exhaust all of the dye from the water and sometimes get some interesting shades.

dye exhaust is a soft purple/mauve

Snow dyeing is fun, but I have more predictable results with my rainbow dyeing and kettle dyeing (unless I’m in the mood to play “mad chemist”, then any unexpected color may appear 🙂

Three in 3 Days!

April 1, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 4 Comments

Three knit hats

One each day for the past three days, I started knitting and completed a hat! No I’m not going to keep up that pace as I have other projects to work on too. But it was a nice challenge to myself and a way to see how the new yarn that I dyed last week would look in a project. I’ll be dyeing some more before too long!

Thick and thin yarn plus sock yarn

For Wednesday’s hat I used a pattern found on Ravelry written by Carol Tyler. Instead of using the thick and thin wool by itself, I combined it with some of the leftover (shawl) sock yarn that had been the inspiration for the dyes I had used for this skein of lumpy. It was a quick fun knit on large needles, so to keep the fun going I finished by adding a tassel of sorts!

brown hand spun hat

Thursday’s hat was another sample of a pattern that a friend designed to go with my hand spun. The pattern will be given free with the purchase of 100yds. or more my yarn this summer. Plus I wanted to make a hat that wasn’t specifically for a woman. (The brown color is more realistic in the first picture than this one)

lumpy, slightly slouchy hat

Today’s hat was another of the skeins I had dyed, using the same pattern as Wednesday’s, but making some modifications to the straight stockinette stitch by throwing in some random purls and using a solid hand spun for a more stable band than the thick and thin gave on the first one.

Fighting to Edit Pictures

March 29, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 2 Comments

I’ve been finishing some of my WIP’s so it is time to contribute to my husband’s art…I have the “job” of taking pictures of his finished art and editing them to make prints and smaller magnet sized prints. So I have been doing my best to transform pictures of canvases into a likeness that will fit a 3.5″x2″ magnet!

Ahhh! Frustration! And I’m the one that came up with this idea! Several of the canvases are 24″x8″….not the right ratio to easily reduce to the size I need. So I am fighting to get the best reproduction that I can, to have a more inexpensive way to offer samples of his work to people that may want to collect it, but don’t have either the means or the space for a full-sized original. I’ll show you a low-pixel example of what I’ve managed to achieve so far.

magnets from original paintings

Any editing wizards reading that can offer me suggestions??? Please? (I’ve been editing in frames to fill the white space that was left around the painting, but not sure I’m happy with that effect either)

I will return before too long with more of my regularly scheduled projects to share 🙂 Thanks for reading my self-caused rant!

Playing Catch-up

March 20, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 10 Comments

Yes, this week was as busy as the last one, so I’m going to attempt to catch you up on things I’ve been doing.

Finished projects; knitting

The green hat is finished and ready to felt!

ready to felt!

The white mohair cowl is also finished, doesn’t seem to need blocking, is fuzzy and light but very comfortable and warm. Have been debating adding some dye to it, in hopes that the pattern would show up better. What do you think? I’m leaning toward leaving it white, to go with anything?

You can still see my table through two layers! That’s airy.

I also discovered a new shawl pattern, Maluka. Decided to try it, since sorting through some of my stash I had found some lovely sock yarn that I know I will never turn into socks. And one skein should be enough, so another choice to make! Of course I chose the one that had red in it. Wound into a ball it looked even prettier. On the third start on the pattern, it’s beginning to take shape. Not the fault of the pattern, but the user! This is my first time knitting from a chart for anything but color changes, so 12-14 rows in each time I realized my mistake and had to frog! At least it was a different mistake each time 🙂

which to pick?

wish I had dyed this!

colorful ball

Need 33 repeats of those points!

Yesterday was a family day, involving a lot of driving, time outside (in 30 degree weather) to watch a parade, some shopping, some visiting, another long drive home with some more shopping on the way (my husband found the perfect easel for his summer sketching and our son added to his collection of charms for wire wrapping) Last night I was too tired to even partake of Jacqueline’s wonderful Brunch Party, but that is still going on today so be sure to pop by and meet some interesting bloggers and enjoy her great food and music!

Last night my eyes were too tired, from driving with the bright sun in my eyes, to read blogs or even knit so I pulled out some roving that I’d obtained from a friend last summer and started spinning. Once started it went so quickly that I finished the first ball of roving and decided to ply it with some of the mohair that I’d used for the cowl. I wound that skein off this morning (130yds) and should soon have another the same size. The mohair added a nice bloom and softness to the colors. Now to decide, is it to keep, to sell, or to knit into something to sell ?

red, white, and blue roving

one ball spun

Thinking I was tired enough to spin a lumpy type art yarn, training kicked in and it is an almost balanced knitting worsted size 🙂 I guess I have to work harder on making lumpy yarn!

Plied yarn on nitty-noddy.

130yds of soft.

I’ve been making magnet prints of some of husband’s canvases and still have the regular sized prints to make (in my spare time)

Stay productive everyone and if you have a moment leave a comment about what has been keeping you busy.

A Busy Week!

March 11, 2016March 11, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 11 Comments

A week ago tonight we were setting up for our first craft show of 2016! It was a garden seminar and the vendors were mainly busy during the student’s breaks. It was a well organized show, but it seemed strange not to have the full assortment that we usually set up. We were limited to needle felting, soy candles, and wood burning, to avoid having content similar to that of other vendors. Please excuse the darkness of the pictures. It wasn’t quite that dark in reality.

key chains and art doll

needle felting

art dolls and ornaments in silhouette.

felted bracelets and art doll in progress

earrings

soy candles

more wood burning

wood burning

Saturday, after the show, I finished the magenta hat from last week’s start. It’s now waiting for another one to be finished so both can be felted.

knitting finished, felting next.

Last week a vendor friend and I were lucky enough to make it to an estate sale of a talented fiber artist who passed away last year. With lots of equipment, beautiful finished product, roving, yarns and even a loom, there was lots to look at and still plenty left. The sale will be continuing on Sat’s and by appointment for a while yet. Of course my vehicle was partially loaded for the show, but we squeezed in her purchases and some of mine. HE HAD GRID WALL! So I had to buy it and make arrangements to pick it up this week. With the pegs and hat hooks I can hardly wait to see the displays we will be able to do this year! Took my husband and son for the man power to load it all on the second (hour plus) trip, but it was worth it. My husband has been painting more canvases so he will now have a wall to display them on, instead of just easels. And we each found a few more goodies as well. And I picked up the sewing machine and another display for my friend (she forgot to get the machine when we were there before) Big cones of yarn for weaving followed me home. One is mohair so I started a knitted cowl, just to see how it would work up, it’s so soft! Can’t wait to do some weaving next!

fluffy mohair, almost invisible, but warm.

The rest of the week has been busy with family stuff, getting a leak fixed by my gas tank, printing some prints of finished paintings, and of course more knitting 🙂

start of next hat

Have a great week-end everyone. And please let me know what your next projects are? Are you like me and have more than one going at a time?

Mulch and More Crafts

Arts, Crafts, Custom Works, From primarily sustainable resources.

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