It's cold outside!

A task for soon is to go around my log home and find all the cracks in the logs. It's clearly getting colder and time to winter proof again!

And time to knit mitts. I found a ball of what I thought was Akapana by Mirasol in the little balls bin at Wool-tyme, and knit it into a wonderfully warm mitten.

The first clue that it was not Akapana should have been that it was too large given the needles and pattern, and likely not a worsted weight yarn!

Any ideas what yarn this is? It feels soft like llama, and has yellow tweedy bits in it...



In other news, spun up some of DaisyLady's wonderful corriedale. Yumm! What a nice way to spend a Saturday. I'm saying goodbye to a Rose today, but it is going to a wonderful home, I'm sure. I'm almost finished weaving in the ends of my orange scarf that appeared in an earlier post.

October's Canadian Fibre Box

I've been really good to myself and my health, and have been mindful to slow things down. I've been doing lots of knitting, spinning, weaving and reading for myself.

But, I'm so passionate about the Fibre Box...I haven't slowed down on that front at all. And I'm re-energized now that 10% of all OVFA sales are going to the Ottawa Food Bank. My business is helping the Canadian Fibre community, and the local community in need. This fits with my value system in a very good way.

This month's boxes are being dropped in the mail today. Above is the yarn in the box, from SweetGeorgia Yarns. It's delicious! Thanks Felicia! Other contributors are Canaan Mohair and Gulf Islands Spinning Mill. To be extra exciting, I added a mini niddy noddy from Houndesign, because Dave's work is really excellent (and Canadian)!

Here's a link to the full newsletter: October's Newsletter. Next month's fibre box contents are already on their way to me from the Prairies.

Have a great week, everyone.
(PS if you want to subscribe, you can order here.)

Weaving from my stash: A study in ORANGE!

As promised, I'm working from my stash right now. My loom is warped with some sock yarn, and the weft is three different yarns. The pink is handdyed wool singles I picked up in the $1.00 bin at a LYS over the summer, the bright orange is Lang Pearl Flash (kid mohair, acryl, poly) and the light orange is handspun ingeo/icicle/wool. Depending on how the finished product turns out, this will be a scarf to go with my purple dress, a table runner, or a wall hanging. I'm loving it! (Did I mention I love my Knitter's Loom? This is going to work with me today so I can weave over lunch...)

Knit Green, Spin Local, Weave for sanity!

This Canadian Thanksgiving weekend I am sticking my nose into Joanne Seif's new book "Knit Green". It's all about knitting with the environment in mind, and it really jives with my value system. Some of the patterns are even on Ravelry!

If you've read past entries, you'll now that I am spending less time on "business" and more time on creative endeavors. The next step of this change in orientation in make my creative time good for the environment and to contribute socially in some way.

So, a few "resolutions" for now until the new year.

I'm spinning, knitting, weaving from my stash or others'.

Many friends are on fiber diets, and it's actually neat what creative juices flow when you have to work within the confines of your current stash!

I'm donating 10% of my gross sales to the Ottawa Food Bank.

My kids are picky eaters, and it seems like every night I have to explain that some kids don't have enough to eat. A fellow knitter in Ottawa (hianja on Ravelry) donates her profits from cool market bags to Harmony House for women, so I'm following her lead. And the Food Bank helps make sure that no food goes to waste by sourcing food that otherwise may be thrown out. I also found out that for every dollar donated, $5 dollars worth of food is distributed to the community. They distribute 12 tons of food a day. That's a lot.

Postscript: Clearly running business is an organic evolving process. The way I want to move forward is sometimes inconsistent with the decisions I have made in the past. Case in point: Encouraging people to knit from their stash is not going to move the yarn in my stock room of the shelves!