HatDiva

Photo editing awesomeness!!

2012-01-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

I take alot of photos. Photos of wool, family...photos of my cat...and so much more! It's a digital life. I love taking photos. I resisted digital cameras at first, can you believe it? Now I can't live without my Canon 450D! So with lots of photos comes with the hassle of editing.

Surprise! Even I'm not a photo wizard. With editing software I am. Crop, lighten,contrast and clone. I got settled in with a great little program called Picnik. I was there for good. So you can imagine my shock, when I logged in and read what?! That they were going out of business. Picnik: finis! Boo hoo.

I searched, I looked. I downloaded. Gimp wasn't for me. Too complicated, so many commands. Aviary wasn't advanced enough. Photoshop? It costs money. Something I have little of these days...anyhoo. I discovered Photoscape! Even better, I like it. I can crop, lighten, brighten and fluff my photos with elan. I am much happier, and secure knowing I have a great little program that I downloaded for free. Awesome!

Look at my before & after shots using Photoscape. Love!

P.S. After I wrote this I discovered Ipiccy. It's the designer copy of Picnik! I absolutely adore it. With Photoscape combined, I win!

It's official

2012-01-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Some fabu merino locks dyed up in inspired shades! I'm using up my pre-mixed color stock. There's some surprising beauties I just created ;)

I may as well admit to it.

I am obsessed with wool. Even before it's washed I sniff it. The natural rich lanolin-wooly smell is like a drug. Once I wash it, I want to make biscuits the way a cat does with a afghan. if you've followed my blog over time...you've seen the transformation. I was once fabric obsessed (still somewhat) wool has pretty much taken over!

It's the perfect medium for color.

I love the way the wool locks dye up, sometimes like sea urchin tendrils.

I have been dyeing fibers for a long time...nothing is as rewarding as wool. I thought I had a love affair with silk fabric.

I was wrong!

Eye Candy!

2012-01-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

Strobe Light

Golden Lotus

Magic Mountain

Big Creek Falls

Disco Ball

Magic Star

(above, Glitter Collection 2.0)

When people ask what I do, I sometimes say "I make batts" (batts above). What I should say is I'm an indie fiber artist :D

Bling Bash!

2011-12-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

Let's howl in the new year with a whole new awesome....glittter!

Introducing The Glitter Collection!!

I will be listing a select mini-collection of eight awesome bling-tastic batts starting at 4pm pacific time. The party will continue through next week, with Glitter-liscious yummies randomly listed in my Etsy shop. Hope to see you there!

xoxo Sayra :) :)

Year In Review

2011-12-30T12:49:00.000-08:00

The garden was incredible. The flowers were amazing. I discovered eggplant was easy to grow. The sunflowers won the kid a blue ribbon at the fair. The hot pink zinnias won best of show! In between I made great goodies from the kitchen. We enjoyed everything!

My man of awesome. He always knows the right thing to do, and does it without question. Love x1000

Knitting, wool, all the things that make me happy. We carved amazing pumpkins for Halloween. My favorite holiday!

Little snippets of what 2011 was about. It went too fast. The beginning of the year got off to a rocky start. There was a serious event in February, that caused ripples until October. I see things in a different light, and hope to grow from it. Overall I achieved alot. It's hard to look back memory-wise without selecting a few snapshots...the collage photos remind me of alot.

We had a fantastic garden.
I became a better knitter.
I worked really hard on my fiber business.
I was an awesome Mommy.

Last but least I would have done none of those things as well without an amazing husband. He doesn't like the spotlight, it's enough for him to be who he is. He's my compass, the one who's there to make me see things through the right prism. Together life is more awesome.

In 2012 I will do more of the same, only better. I will listen more, and become more focused. I will give myself more time, perhaps be less hard on myself.....And yes....I will be an even better knitter. As I head into 2012, I only have 2 ufo's! After knitting so much for others, one is a shawl for myself. It's all good.

Holiday Overload antidote: Get silly!

2011-12-21T15:57:00.000-08:00

Just saying, that sometimes you need to look at the bright side...watch nonsense like Banana Joe juking about. Just watch, you'll start clapping along....

Christmas brings out the best and worst. It's really not my favorite holiday. Halloween is. Blinders on! Paying attention to my four walls, and all that. Yep, saying it like it is.

2012 is a brand new year. I have plans major plans.....like turning over a leaf or two or three ;)

Christmas old school

2011-12-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

I never really loved Christmas Cactuses. Since mine bloomed, I've changed my mind. Why did I buy it? It was on sale, and looked like it needed love. perfect color for the season!

I bought a little something for myself. I love weird little geegaws. This one fit the bill, so cute! Plus, who could resist at a mere $1.00

You might see a theme here....old stuff. Yes I do most of my Christmas shopping at antique malls, and junk shops. It's the thrill of the hunt. This dresser said "real wood" I laughed since the finish on it is a faux wood burl look. Real-wood, but not sure queality wood? Go figure.

Another good reason to go to thrift stores, and junk malls is you never know when you'll find the perfect mid century desk. Too bad this one wasn't solid maple!

I have to admit it. I'm not a real fan of Christmas. I'm not a grinch of Bah Humbug sort. I feel that Christmas has been commercially hijacked. Since when do the Christmas ads start before Halloween? There you are. Maybe it's paranoid retailers run amok? As antidote to it, we decorate our house with nature, and home made paper snowflakes. It's christmas-old school....and I wouldn't have it any other way. Gifts are hand crafted, or carefully chosen. I love shopping at the antique store, and junk mall. It's the best place to find the perfect one of a kind thing. Plus, I avoid the mall, which I never really go to in the first place ;)

Merry Christmas!

Debunking The Mondo Angelina Myth

2011-12-13T09:58:00.001-08:00

I made another video. They're fun to do! I am still mastering my new computer...the video editor was tricky. I didn't add the right transitions between clips. It's view-able anyway!

The video is about how I love to card longer length Angelina fibers. There was a comment yesterday that the longer strands might be harder to card. Not the case at all. What better way to show how great they are, by doing a short video. I get my longer Angelina from Blue Mountain Handcrafts ;)

Frankly said, if you haven't tried it, then you just don't know ;)

I do alot really...I do!

2011-12-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

What I did today. Best shown with photos, right?

New bling

Carding

Dyeing

Sewing

Tutorial writing

I even made pizza :)

I rock!

Look for the happy gnome!

2011-11-26T16:19:00.000-08:00

It's truly the season of giving! Look for the happy gnome (photo above) in my Etsy shop listings. Starting Cyber Monday.....there's going to be awesome FREEBIES! Since it's against the Etsy rules to say FREE in my titles, just look for the gnome!

Let him be your little guide that tells you there's a bundle of joy (two-fer bogo yarns!), a little extra roving, or more! Get familiar with his mischievous little face...because he's a major part of my Joyful Collection ;)

xoxo Sayra

Joy To The World.....Sneak peek!

2011-11-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok...it's not quite Thanksgiving yet. But I thought I would reveal something super important. Joy to the World! That's my theme for my next batch of updates. It's going to be chock full of extra goodies....to show my thanks and gratitude to all my amazing fans & customers!

Two-fer handspun skeins, and more! Updates start in my Atomicblue Etsy shop after Thanksgiving, and will continue until the New Year. My business has grown this year, this is my way of giving back ;)

Nesting...getting ready for the big snow.

2011-11-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

What I wore today. My husband asked "where are you going" I laughed...I just dropped off the kid at school. Maybe it was the skirt? I love skirts.

Handknitted hat & handwarmers made by.....me!

Skirt from Sarah Clemens

Studded bag from Cha Cha Samples

Boots from Land's End

Just another beautiful day in North Idaho....all the trees will be bare soon. It will be a colorless monochrome-ish look for awhile then.

I found the right chair! I stopped by a fave furniture re-seller in Lewiston, the other day. Perfect chair for the kids desk! The best price too, you can't beat $9.99 I love a piece of furniture, that I don't need to gussy up or change.

The chair also works fab for a spinning chair. Just the right height!

Other crafty doings...I finished my long awaited duvet. Fabric.com goofed on my order twice before they sent the correct yardage. The new Tina Givens fabric looks swell with the green dot one I bought at Joann Fabrics. My new thrifted afghan looks great too. I'm a sucker for anything afghan.

It's cold out, and we're enjoying the heat by the wood stove. Things the family and I have been enjoying: hot chocolate...and wool blankets. I brought my knits out last week, and stowed my Summer sandals at the same time. Living in a small house, storage is everything. I scored a great chair for my daughter! I also finished my duvet. I had been procrastinating making the button holes for the closure. It had been a few years since I had done a button hole. I rocked it out on my Grandma's vintage slant needle Singer. It has a great attachment that makes military precision style button holes. I don't know what I was afraid of.

They are were buttonholes of awesome! The 55+ year old machine is still whirring along. I adore having a machine in the house. As much as I love my little studio, stitching while everyone else is doing their own thing.

Now all I need to do, is get that quilt done!

Step inside, and share a moment with me in my studio!

2011-11-04T09:33:00.001-07:00

After many requests....here you are! My studio forever captured on film. I thought about tidying it up, adding a few nice touches. But you know how that goes! This is a real studio that gets used everyday. It's not a shrine dedicated to stuff you can't touch. I have to laugh, because I look tired. I've been staying up past midnight spinning yarn, or knitting these past few days!

Enjoy, and realize my studio started with a dilapidated little shed. If I can do it, so can you!

xoxo Sayra

Who doesn't want free patterns and knitting/crochet help??

2011-11-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Ravelry! HD from Ravelry on Vimeo.

I'm talking Ravelry! It's an amazing social knitting-crochet-needlework site. If you knit, crochet or just love yarn this is the site for you! There are bazillions of free knitting and crochet patterns. Forums galore...so many neat niche groups (even I have one). The feature I love, is being able to search for patterns, and bookmark them with the internal heart-ing system. I have oodles of faves! I love that I can connect with local knitters, you can search for groups by using the location setting. Overall the site is amazing, it keeps me in touch with what's new...and what I might want to knit next!

Most of my webby friends know about Ravelry....I am constantly surprised how many folks around where I live haven't heard of it. So I thought I would give props to it. Listed above is a fun tour of what Ravelry is about.

Go and join! It's free, you'll be glad you did. Click here: Join Ravelry!

(my ravelry ID is atomicblue) xoxo Sayra

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T13:58:00.000-07:00

Ye olde broom has a little life left after all. Might come in handy when I don my witch hat this evening! I'm always poking a little fun at myself...life is dull if you're serious all the time :D

My favorite holiday ever...surpasses Christmas 10-1. From fun pumpkin carving to the joy of dressing up...and the piles of candy! Halloween is the best time ever.

I hope our pumpkins and crazy costumes scare off plenty this year!

2011-10-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

I can bake bread. It's hard to beat my neighbor Barby's bread! She has a mini baking empire, selling some 80 loaves at the farmer's market every week.

We got a few good apples off the trees. I think the deer have wings, how else do the apples disappear so fast?

I took a little extra time to organize my built in bookcase. Like everyone else out there....I have more books in storage.

Fall is here! No denying it now. The garden is just about done. Sad to see the tomatoes go.

It's here, crisp days....overcast skies. Rain, and soon snow. I got my 3 loaves of awesome today. Once a week, I have to stock up on bread, from a neighbor. I can't bake a amazing loaf of bread for $3.50 it's such a good deal! No clean up, it's brilliant.

The leaves are turning, and we're busy doing outside chores. The best recent bounty from the garden was some amazing butternut squash. We decided roasting it was the best way to enjoy it. I could eat that stuff by the spoonful! Happy Fall to you.....

Spin-sperations

2011-10-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

Spun in raw undyed off white, and then handpainted in deep Autumn shaded <3

Fall is in full forece. The trees are turning torch red, gold, and orange. Very pretty along the river, which is dotted with folks flyfishing. My favorite time of year (well, really that's not the truth, I also adore Spring!).

Listing these skeins this week in my Etsy shop (link to the right). xoxo

Fall is most definately here

2011-09-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

And you know what that means! Time to get knitting. Before we know it we'll be raking leaves and wearing knitted wool hats. I thought I would share a few of the yarns I spun recently.

I love spinning!

I love making anything, spinning has captured me in a way I can't describe. It's not easier than making hats. The only change, is it takes less time. And as you know...time is money! Speaking of money, it makes me think of the economy. I was in denial for a long time. The honest truth is, I stopped doing craft shows with my hats because of the economy. I came upon that conclusion last night! Fewer people have the cash to buy a amazing $150.00 hat these days. Who knows though, I haven't fully shut the door on hat making. I will make a few felted pieces here and there...and I have some brand new ideas.

Just wait!

My vintage apron....well sort of ;)

2011-09-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

I sewed the vintage apron pattern. I used some vintage fabric I bought at an estate sale.

I love the big pockets on the side. It's truly a great workroom apron, since I use alot of fabric and wool dyes.

Love those pockets. They are about 12 inches deep!

Since the fabric, and the pattern were vintage. What's better than using a vintage button for the closure?

The 1967 apron pattern worked great! A little bit of fiddling and I had it right. Next time, I will make the front panel wider. The apron was originally designed for a rail thin fashionista. So far, I am loving the extra deep pockets! They are really handy, since I'm prone to setting things down and forgetting them.

The thick vintage fabric helps keep dyes and fabric paints off my good clothes. I plan to make several more fun aprons soon....I already have my next one cut out.

I won!!

2011-09-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

Best Of Show!! Handspun, and knitted hat...which I made for myself. Not many Best OF Show ribbons were handed out. Love x1000

All hats I entered won ribbons! I am so thrilled.

My yarn won too!! (mine are the ones marked with a big yellow dot) so awesome!!

I entered several things in the local county fair. Guess what? I made out pretty well. I was kind of surprised, since I didn't expect much. Thrilled beyond belief about the best of show hat! I'm not the only big winner in the house. The rug rat won Best Of Show for her arrangement of magenta zinnias. Wooo!

The best part about winning best of show? It garners a little respect possibly. I'm comfortable with who I am and how creative I can be...some folks around here don't know about/or get art yarn. It's ok, since I know what it is (irascible,uneven, wonky and fabulous). My hat was created from a bulky thick and thin style single yarn. The irony is one yarn didn't place at all. It was a super bulky thick and thin corespun. I thought the category called for a constructed different technique other than a single, two, or three ply.

The comments on the back of the entry tag?

"Wrong category, not a construction. Should be a finished product. Spinning is irregular"

LOL, the heart of artsy textured yarns is that yes, they are irregular.

Lace!

2011-09-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

"Parfum Papaye"

3.5 OZ 781 yards

"Lotus"

2.8 OZ 374.5 yards

Amazing yarn! I have seen art batts spun thin before, yet none like these. Maybe I'm biased since they are spun from my batts ;) Christie a super talented spinner from France has spun the most amazing yarns. What makes them unique is they are very thin, and have many, many yards! Who knew you could take a 3.5 ounce batt and turn it into 781 yards. Astonishing!

In Christie's own words, her thoughts on creating the yarn.

Well, spinning lace yarn with a textured batts is so.....exciting!!! Very different from another yarn, but is an extremely long ... I need a little twenty hours to stretch the
fibers up to their breaking point, patiently but so incredible. I feel every fiber slide under my fingers and the differences between a silk, a combed wool or just washed fibers...the rendering of colors is different also a set of small fine stripes all running all along plied on a very fine lurex give the bulking as an airy chocolate mousse that melts in your mouth.
I like to work the lace textured handspun, they are amazing to knit or crochet.

Awesome!

P.S. Clearly there's a html issue. I have no idea why the text is white. Sorry!

What's next?

2011-09-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

Roads to success are sometimes a bit wonky. Um....let's call this one a snag. Went into my personal spinning stash.

The oopsie roving worked out after all. I used it to test my new packaging. Much better than a plain tag? Much.

Um nom nom.....insanely awesome roving. There's twice this amount, some was camera shy ;)

The label has a use!! Gorgeous colors, amazing 18-19 micron merino top/roving. Whatever it's roving. It's called top in the UK. Theoretically it's in the form of roving, yet actually is combed top. Combed top roving! Lordy, glad we got that sorted.

Photos + then listing on Etsy!!

P.S. I sewed a awesome apron from the vintage pattern (see last entry). I'll show it off once I have the binding sewn (by hand!).

What's new?

2011-08-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Just like the sticker says! There's going to be some awesome new dyed roving to show off soon.

I was looking at apron patterns for a friend, and discovered this one for myself. View C is so awesome! I can't wait to sew with it.

New stickers for my roving line. New (old) pattern for myself!

August is blooming awesome

2011-08-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

I adore my pink Echinacea's. They will need far more room next year.

I want a field of Black Eyed Susan's. Really, I do!! Amazing flower.....

Autumn Beauty sunflowers <3

I am astonished, and amused that we are growing a few watermelons.

Weeds, and all here's a glimpse of my garden. A real oasis while being surrounded my water starved cracked earth....and scrubby weeds. The flowers have soldiered on, despite super hot temperatures. 101-109 at least! In comparison it makes today's 90 degrees feel downright amazing. Not pictured is the tasty Ichiban eggplant. I'd like to think I could fry it in olive oil and greedily eat it all myself. Next year I want a row of them, one is not enough! The cucumbers are growing by leaps and bounds. Sadly, the tomatoes have much to catch up on.

Over all, the garden has attracted many bees, butterflies, birds.....and a few hummingbird moths! Very exciting, as this was the plan. Next year, we will expand. I want a field of flowers.

Hatdiva Hat Clearance!

2011-08-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

My Hatdiva Shop on Etsy is having a little sale.....everything is 40% off! Use the promo code 'HEATWAVE' on checkout to take advantage of this crazy deal! No limit, get as many hats as you want.

I honestly am not sure when I will make more. I made the recent collection, and realized my heart is with dyeing fibers, carding artisan batts and spinning yarn. There may be more wool based designs in the future, I can't say when I will do more straw styles. So this might be it!

Click this link to visit my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Hatdiva

It's all about the Shawls

2011-08-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

I was so excited, I had our daughter snap this picture of me dancing about with my amazing new gift/trade shawl. How awesome is it??

Shawls aren't granny anymore. I knitted this one from Lion Amazing yarn...from the Lala's Simple Shawl pattern on Ravelry. Love it!

I finished a shawl! My second one. It's pretty good, I followed the pattern! It's about 70 inches across, and wraps really well. Our daughter went nuts for it, so it's hers! I love knitting, and gifting things.

I also got a shawl in a trade from my web friend Sharon! It's so amazing. Really, really amazing. She's an an amazing extraordinarily awesome knitter. I can't wait for cool weather to wear it!

A little on chasing the rainbow....

2011-07-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

I love color! It's a completely tactile thing for me. I think in colors, really I do! Moods are colors, right?

There are many ways to get the shades of the rainbow! I love that the acid dyes I use only need a dab to get the bright shades I love.

A secret inside photo of my next tutorial! I can't wait to share.....it turns the way I normally use dyes on it's ear.

I'm so thrilled......I have to mention again how good Jacquard Products have been to me. They featured my yarn, and fiber batts in a national ad campaign. Then they did the amazing gallery!

Love it. I have many people ask me what dyes I use. I use several, the only ones I can swear by for color stability, and repeat success is Jacquard Acid Dye! It's thrifty, and exhausts extremely well. The best hidden feature? I have mixed their dyes, and let them sit pre-mixed in airtight jars up to 5-6 months! How amazing is that? Totally genius, as I like to expose myself to the dye powders as little as possible.

A note about photo editing

2011-07-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

My photo before. Dark, bluish cast......poor white balance. Not a picture that would grab your attention.

After cropping, lightening, adjusting the color levels....cloning an area that over exposed, and hello! Night and day right?

It's hard work! I use what I call Photoshop light. It's Picnik! For about $24.99 a year I can crop, adjust levels, burn out & clone. It's a multi step process for some pictures. There's alot of competition these days, and you need a edge. I look at editing, as peeling back the layers and exposing the pictures true beauty. 12 products to list on Etsy adds up to 60 photos! It's work, but I think it's worth it.

I take alot of pride in my photos. Not all are spectacular, it's a learning process! I sometimes go back to look at much older photos and shudder. They're so grainy! The new Canon definately has made my work easier. I'm hoping the new Tamron lens I'm saving for will help even more ;)

TGIF!!

2011-07-08T15:33:00.001-07:00

Guilty Pleasure mini's! 1 ounce fiber packs filled with squishy fluffy nylon fibers. I'm editing pictures & will be listing these on Etsy over the weekend ;)

I actually had time to whip out the dyes and do some amazing merino locks. Super soft. So awesome! 10 new colorways soon ;)

Yay! The weekend is here, more time for family & fun. I spent the last part of the week dyeing a bit of fibers. I checked my blog counter, holy toledo! I had 367 views last week. Normally, they are around 90-150. I assume the feature in the Mother Earth News blog helped (see my last entry to read the story).

I also cast on for a neat new shawl. Guess what? I'm actually following a pattern. Photos soon!

This is so cool!

2011-06-28T15:19:00.001-07:00

Our house before we started working on it. The lady who owned it had died (in a car crash, not in the house!). It was in bad shape, to say the least.

The interior, shot from standing in the front doorway. Yes, it really is that small!

Here's a nice after shot, once we installed the vertical grain bamboo floors. Only changes are, I got a better rug....a flat screen TV, and put a bold print over the open sink area.

My husband tells me Facebook is a waste of time.....well maybe he's right. Maybe not? One thing is for sure, it keeps me connected with other yarn spinners, and artists. Something that's few and far between in rural North Idaho! Facebook, yep. Love it, or hate it it's a good thing.

I responded to one of my newly favorite magazines, Mother Earth News. There was a query about living in small houses. For those that don't know, our wee house is 550 sq ft. Very small by regular standards! It's a cute place, very run down when we got it. Multiple contractors told us to "tear it down". We didn't listen. Instead we did most of the work ourselves. We contracted flooring, siding, and exterior painting. The result? Well, there's a little before & after above.

The big awesome write up, is over here: Click this link to read it!

I got blogged by Mother Earth News!!!

(thank you Robyn)

Demo Derby & Summer Stuff....

2011-06-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

Firemen at the ready. There was a fire! It got put out super fast.

Crazy mash-up. The crowd roared when they went over! Nobody was hurt, awesome.

Who knew frozen steelhead from Costco could be so good? I defrosted it overnight & marinated it in Soy Vay marinade & grilled on a wood fire. So good!

And guess what? I finished the baby quilt. What do you think? I think it's pretty good for my second quilt.

We kicked off the Summer by going to a local demolition derby. There were lawnmower races, and crazy car figure 8's. Later in the evening, there was a major car smashup. It was fun! I went to a few in the past, this one was no different. Crowd screaming, bleacher stomping. All out fun! Anyone would have fun at one, even kids. It was a total family event with kids all over. I'm glad we sat higher up since some of the cars threw up huge dirt clods. We are going next year, with seat cushions! Those bleacher seats got hard after a couple of hours.

The other fun part about summer is grilling. I love it! Forget charcoal, sometimes you need a good fruit wood char. We cleared several scrubby cherry trees when we moved here. They have been great for seasoned wood BBQ fires. If you've never tasted wood fired cooked food, then you haven't lived yet!

Oh! And I also finished the baby quilt. Like? I love it.....so much I'm having a hard time parting with it.

Crazy weather...and how about some hats?

2011-06-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Ping pong balls were falling from the sky (half melted in this photo!)

A dazzling super-wide brimmed hat, isn't it wonderful? This is the hat the tutorial rose ended up on. (see my Flickr on sidebar, then click millinery studio for tutes)

People always asked me to make a "simple" ball cap. It so happens I don't really do simple.....well maybe. Here's some new ball caps I whipped up! I am a little partial to the dark one below.

Yesterday was a little bizarre. We were out on the back patio, when a thunderstorm blew in. I was spinning yarn, mentioning the odd roar I was hearing. I thought, geez we'd better go in. We did just after that! Huge ping pong sized hail came falling down. It was crazy, it lasted for about 10 minutes. The kitties were outside, and showed up after none the worse for wear. Savvy cats, they probably hid under the studio or in the woodshed.

Can you believe the size of the hail? It was like round ice cubes. So crazy, since it was about 80 degrees out when it happened! I looked up hail + roar, and it was just that a hail roar. Like hearing a mini tornado approaching. I'll never forget it, I've never seen hail this big!

Moving along, it's finally Summer! Rain or whatever, it's finally heated up. I made up some new classic ball-style caps. I've loosely named them What Bad Hair Day caps. They're pretty cool!

Awesome weekend

2011-06-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

We barbecued.....we worked in the garden. Darn it, we earned those tasty burgers.

We enjoyed amazing weather. No thunderstorms, as predicted!

And I finished my friends baby quilt. photos to come.....soon. This is my little crafting nook in the house. Wall will be painted white, enough color in the shelves.

Are you enjoying Summer yet?

Watch me multitask!

2011-06-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

A cloche that I made from the early 1990's. It had been displayed behind glass since it was made. I will list it this weekend.

After getting many compliments on this hat (it's the one in my avatar!) I made a couple just like it. Sewn silk crown, stitched hemp brim.

Mixing fabric with straw is such fun. You get the sun protection with the fabric, and the lightness of the straw.

Another floppy brim hat, with fabric crown. Simple, and easy to wear.

I blocked a simple hat, and piled on the trimmings. These vintage cotton roses worked with the old glitter birds!

After a year on hiatus with hats.....I'm back! Training wheels on. I'm debuting a new straw hat collection. We'll see how my wooly pastimes mesh with the hat thing.

I gave up hats, simply because I needed a break. After almost 20 year making them I needed a breather. They take a great deal of time to craft, vs. knocking out a fiber batt or yarn. So it seemed logical! Yesterday I was dyeing wool, and snapping photos. The studio has amazing light! It made photography easy, and fun.

So here I go, doing both businesses. I plan on making smaller hat collections. Nothing like the 50 hat collections of the past! It will be interesting to see how each mediums play off each other.

I did an awesome update with new batts Wednesday here.

Favorites!

2011-05-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

1. Sprinkling, 2. thank you for the music, 3. new my handspun yarn, 4. Dramatic Jump, 5. Rose's On The Fence Rag Rug, 6. sneak peek : shop update, 7. Hildegard's peacock, 8. i really need to..., 9. x-long polworth locks, 10. Carrie loving Jazzturtle Yarns, 11. Me and my Besty, 12. summer bag
Here's credit/individual links to track back to the owners photo!

1. lo and beholdness..., 2. some days..., 3. Untitled, 4. Brewski, 5. Finished Little Shells, 6. Update!, 7. garter yoke, 8. 全身1, 9. Stopped By @craftyiscool 's booth at Renegade Craft Fair and she had these cute monsters made w/ Sheep(ish)!, 10. newspaper shopgirls, 11. IM002394, 12. windchime

There are so many creative people out there! I love photo sharing on Flickr. It's a online virtual photo sharing site. I've favorited a bunch of pictures....they save in a fun file in my Flickr account. Anytime I'm out of inspiration, I glance at the colors in the pictures & am refreshed. They tell a wonderful story. I just love them!

I made a few mosaics to show off my faves!

Life imitates art

2011-05-21T11:47:00.001-07:00

And there you are....

2011-05-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

Spring cleaning paid off. I was a little uneasy how everything would go back together. I had nothing to worry about! The new carding station is awesome! (I card wool to felt & spin with)

The best part about cleaning & organizing, is I freed up space in the "clubhouse" (aka as the new studio addition). Yes, that's a sink you see.....it means no more dyeing wool & fibers in my house! It will also be great for dyeing straw hat bodies (blanks) to make hats with.

My view from my studio window. Love it! So relaxing and quiet here (save for a few mad barking dogs). LOL

My studio is almost all clean & reorganized. I did a major purge. Sold/donated two sewing machines. I moved alot of wool! I wish I had a mini storage area for the wool, yet I decided, screw it, I'm going to make it work. That's just what I'm doing!

It's super nice. In the next coming weeks I'm adding trim to the windows, and some curtains. Eventually I'll get the computer moved in, and I'll have a bonifide office. Yay!

Farm Day

2011-05-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

So I got a little wool.....you know how it goes with the seriously addicted. There's no hope!

The local farm day & sale was awesome! I was worried I would have to fight my way to the fleece. Must remind myself, this is not Oregon Flock & Fiber!

Look at all those happy little sheepies! Cute lambs too. See how the shepherdess Margo keeps their coats fresh & clean with those jackets? It's a joy to spin yarn, and felt with a clean fleece.

The pond by the farmhouse was super gorgeous. The sun & blue sky was a nice change from the torrents of rain. This is the Pacific Northwest after all!

This gorgeous flower, I'm told is Pasque flower. Feathery foliage, I want a whole flowerbed of these!

The ride home was enjoyable....what with the smell of fresh wool + lanolin in the car. I paused to stick the camera out the window & captured this shot. It was such a nice day! There was yummy treats to eat, nice folks etc. Even the kid had a ball.

Up next, a tutorial on making a DIY mesh frame for drying just washed fleece.

Hats + Yarn meet!

2011-05-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

See how cute the hat is? It's a play on the Soft Serve Hat from Lexi Boeger's Intertwined book.

Some of the fun things my customers/friends make up are really cool! Kat belongs to my Batt Club. She spun up some creative, fun chunky yarn & made this cute alien-gnome style hat. I love the earflaps! She's on Ravelry (Rav link) as Thorhammer. You can make the hat too, here's the errata sheet for how to make one!

(you gotta be a member of Ravelry to get to these links.....c'mon if you're a knitter, crocheter, spinner, felter why haven't you joined?? http://ravelry.com )

P.S. I dusted off my Hatdiva hat shop, fluffed things up & reopened it! I'm put existing listings in the clearance bin. I'm working hard on getting new stuff photographed & ready to stock!

That's some cute stuff!

2011-04-28T19:52:00.001-07:00

I bought these awesome potholders. Well made, and super useful!

The adorable little ornaments.....I could see them hanging off my doorknobs all over the house.

Not to mention the rugs! How awesome is this? (also <3 the shoes)

Everyone needs more butterflies in their life! Love that turquoise.

I just love the work of Rose Beerhost. It's useful, and cute! I used the great woven potholders all day on Easter. They brighten up my kitchen even more. Rose is so talented and at 19, I expect more greatness from her! Check out her Etsy shop called Sockmonster!

Easter eats & crafty fun.

2011-04-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

I baked a tasty whole chicken. So simple, stuff it with cut up lemons and a handful of fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil, and seasoning....bake at 375 degrees for about an hour and a half. Everyone will love it!

We had a quiet Easter. The weather was gorgeous! After weeks and weeks of rain the sun came out. Amazing, the temperature soared to 80 degrees. Sadly it didn't last, we're back to the low 50's and overcast wet rains. I remind myself that before too long it will be a scorching 100 degrees! I really don't mind the rain, although some variety is good.

I also made a cake....carrot! I did it with my lemony cream cheese frosting. Both recipes are in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (my copy is from 1989). It was really good despite the fact my vanilla seemed to smell more than alcohol, than vanilla. I've since decided to replace it. Everyone enjoyed the cake anyway.

I managed to fit some time in for spinning. Such a relaxing thing to do after standing in the kitchen for a time.

I wanted to show off the t-shirt rug. It's finished! It looks real nice in the bathroom. Soft and cushy underfoot. (for safety I cut out some anti-skid shelf liner to put underneath).

Here's a bigger photo. I love our tub, it's original to our little house.

Last but least is the quilt! I'm half finished with it. Lots of little triangles....I hope to have it done in the next few weeks. I need to start a baby quilt for a friend who's expecting her baby to arrive in May.

That's all for now. I'll post more photos of the progress on the quilt. It's super pretty, I'm sure my daughter will love it when it's done. I have not decided whether to send it out to be machine quilter with the long arm. I also could just simply tie it off with embroidery thread. I haven't decided yet. More soon on planting my garden. For the time being early nursery splurges (tomatoes) are hanging out in my husband, Dominic's radiant heated shop. Let's hope for no more frost soon.

Vintage Etsy favorites!

2011-04-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

You can't go wrong with a classic Vera scarf. In a fave shade, orange! From theluckyfish on Etsy.

I just love vintage turquoise with silver! Ring from curiositiesonmain.

Dala horses, love them! I had one when I was a child, the paint eventually fell off. From Mazuli83on Etsy.

Vintage Pyrex Fridge storage containers! Get them from mooiebloem on Etsy. Love the bright colors!

Wonderful Kilim pillow! Just love those colors. From Lykianway.

I love this classic zigzag pattern. Wonderful blues. By shopgoodgrace

Can't go wrong with some Danish Modern lamps. I even like the new bohemian shades! From fabulousmess.

One of my favorite things to do is crawl through a huge antique collective. Since I'm such a workaholic, I tend to shop a bit online. I love Etsy for anything vintage! I have eclectic tastes. Sort of vintage-traditional with a bit of modern thrown in.

I spent may weekends as a teenager at the sprawling Marin City flea market. It was below the projects near Sausalito. My favorite vendors were the Levi's and cowboy boot vendor....as well as the people who made the spring rolls & lemonade. Sadly, the location is now a huge shopping mall. Good to remember it as a dusty lot filled with treasures waiting to be discovered.

I have a new wheel!

2011-04-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

You can see a theme here, pretty blond wood, just like my light bamboo floors.

Big capacity bobbin vs. smaller "bulky" Lendrum bobbin (holds 8 oz)

The handy bobbin holders make the wheel look a bit Shrek-like. Not that I'm into naming inanimate objects....this wheel is totally Shrek!

Spinolution. Why would I want more than one wheel? Well.....sometimes there's not enough space on the bulky Lendrum bobbin. This is where size does matter! Now I can fill up the Lendrum bobbins & ply onto my gi-normous new bobbin! How much does it hold? 32 oz. Will it? Can I possibly fill it all the way? Probably not.

Scored refurbished for $550. compared to the new price ($729), it was a deal!

P.S. Quilt progress, I have the first 4 rows stitched together! I predict it'll take a month at the rate I'm going.

The thread that binds.

2011-04-05T10:08:00.001-07:00

Full circle....I've made a few quilts before. Just plain squares, sewn together. The corners didn't match up, but they were awesome anyway. I bought a bunch of fabrics two years ago (you know how this goes) and they made my shelves in my studio pretty. I didn't cut them up, and sew. Then I discovered a awesome free quilt pattern! It's a zig zag pattern called Folk Dance by Anna Maria Horner, colorista extraordinaire & Mom of six. Our here in the boonies it's great to read her blog & feel connected on a creative level.

I finally bought a mat & rotary cutter, and darn it, finally got the courage to start cutting. I cut the many triangles (actually about 221 to be exact!) in a afternoon. Thanks to the great plexiglass templates my husband made, it went pretty quick. I made a few mistakes, and cut again. Then I dug out my Grandma's Singer from storage! I have industrial Singer in my studio...which weighs a ton. This machine is portable & fits great in the house. With a bit of handy hubby oiling, it sounds like it's brand new! It's fitting that the old Singer sews the quilt. My grandma would approve.

I just decided the color order.....that took a bit of fuss. I wound a bunch of bobbins I'm nervous as heck, but I'm starting!

Plan is to have it finished in a couple of week. Hold me to it!

Spring Cleaning!

2011-03-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

Clearing out wool that I've been picking at for awhile. These are HUGE batts! Leftover for the days when I felted more. They're great for spinning, wet or needle felting. I listed them for a song....go grab one before they're gone! Click this handy link to go & see.

Is it a medieval torture device?

2011-03-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

Maybe. I got a swing picker! It's a chunky-substantial brute. Made of pure oak, this bad boy means business! It does super great on slightly coarser fibers. I might try it on some merino, stay tuned!

I got it to pick out vegetable matter aka "VM" in the fiber biz. Also to fluff up stubborn locks that I want to blend. Normally I toss dyed wool right onto the carder with not much pre-fluffing. We'll see what kinds of puffy clouds this tool kicks out!

P.S. I'm thinking about my fans & customers in Japan. I can't help but wait & hope that loss of life isn't as high as everyone is saying. I'm very concerned about the nuclear power plants that are in trouble. I can only sit and hope.....as everyone else is who is far away.

It's amazing!

2011-03-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

There's nothing more exciting, than being recognized by an industry giant. Jacquard Products loves me! I'm their poster girl at the moment. My yarns were featured in a few of their recent national ads (yes, national...think FiberARTS magazine).

They recently added my gallery pictures & profile to their list of accomplished artists. It's such an incredible honor! Click here to see the feature!

So awesome!

Snowmageddon

2011-02-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

And just like that. I'm living in a snow-globe, again! Studio is covered.

Spring is on hold. Pretty little snowdrops were popping up all over the neighborhood. New birds were arriving day by day. Then yesterday it snowed a foot! Overnight drifts formed.....we were groaning. The kid was celebrating! It's excellent sledding weather. Again.

In the meantime I'm consumed by Spring fever! Our tiny 550 sq ft house seems even smaller on snow days. Cabin fever/aka Spring fever has translated into a sort of creative slump. I've had oodles of them over the years. I just need to weather it out. Haha, weather ;)

In the meantime, it's true there's been talk about moving South. Closer to culture & Boise. Love being in a small town....though at times living amongst 189 souls is a bit much. Bad hairs and good, everyone seems to know about them! So a bit of romancing, dreaming of building has been going on. I found a beautiful house on Family Home Plans by Larry W. Garnett. It's an adorable bungalow-cottage, with a one level floor plan. I'm smitten!

Conceptual cottage design # 30502 from Family Home Plans. The only thing I would change is the dark colored tin roof. (absorbs heat)

House dreaming, and snow. That's about it. Maybe I should dye some wool, work on a collection or something. I'm not going to worry about it and everything will naturally sort it'self out. Until then, wool hearts for you!

xoxo Sayra ;)

Put on your red shoes and......

2011-02-19T20:29:00.000-08:00

Wearing red shoes makes your day that much brighter! Today was a fun filled thrift store-yard sale bonanza. Vintage afghans, fun clothes for the kid....the thrill of the hunt. All while wearing shiny red shoes!

Speaking of bright and fun, I'm off on another crafting jaunt. Tarn! T-shirt yarn. I've turned a bunch of thrifted t-shirts (the ones with no seams on the sides are best) into several yards of yarn. A XXL shirt can yield 30 yards! What am I making with my tarn? A bathmat!

It's going to be thick and cushy. I can't wait!

What are you doing that's new and crafty??

xoxo Sayra

Tiffen rocks, aka adventures with my fancy Canon.

2011-02-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

BEFORE: Royal purple....with a ton of photo manipulating!

AFTER: Nice! Zero color manipulation, just a tad exposure lightening. Far more accurate pinkish cast to the batt.

BEFORE: Canon 450D, colors are flat, blah. I had to manipulate the photo a tiny bit to get the closest greenish shade of this batt.

AFTER using Canon EOS 450D : Accurate color!! Only edits were for exposure, and burning out a slight shadow.

Color accuracy with my new Canon EOS 450D (aka digital rebel Xsi) is tricky. So many settings! It's a decent SLR, although there's places it could not go. Enter the Tiffen hot mirror filter, and pow! Instant color correction. It takes a bit of fanangling, so far I'm super happy! So, if colors are eluding you...and you have a lens capable of a screw on lens, you should check out a hot mirror filter! Less time cleaning up pictures with photo software=happy camera owner.

I know I can take excellent photos with this camera. The Flickr share group has amazing photos taken with the same camera. This is a group you should check out!

Blast from the past

2011-01-31T13:52:00.000-08:00

It's 1988! That seems like years away. I'm still the same person, just a bit older. That's me with short hair, third from the right.

A fun photo surfaced of me & some friends from 1988 (thanks Facebook!). Talk about a time capsule! I still have the button embellished jeans jacket....somethings from the past are too good to let go of. Fun to see way old photos from The Pretty in Pink era!

Hanging out at the old train depot in Mill Valley, Ca. I wonder if it's still a book store?

New knitting video!

2011-01-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

The scarf, nearly done! Using drop stitches really shows off the style of the yarn.

I made another little low-tech video! They're fun to do. It shows how I do the 'drop stitch' knitting method. Really, all it is is a double yarn over. I spun up a favorite colorway called Over the Rainbow. I ended up with 127 yards, pretty cool! It's not a super bulky yarn, as I wanted to make good use of what I had.

Using #15 jumbo needles I cast on 16 stitches. I did basic garter stitches (knit every row) and thew in the drop stitches every few rows. I love the way the scarf looks, this stitch really shows off the yarn! The scarf is about 60" long, I'm super pleased how it turned out! Try a drop stitch today, it's simple!

Painted Lady!!

2011-01-25T18:43:00.000-08:00

Colors from Bottom left: Palladian Red, Rococo Sunburst, Gingerbread Dandelion, Gothic Green, Baroque Blue, King's Purple, Queen Anne Pink. (not pictured, Eastlake Brown)

My super wicked dyed merino millspun is here! The shop will be fully stocked tomorrow. Each skein is 200 yards. Eight colors, three skeins each (600m yards!). Mix a few colors & knit an awesome afghan. The yarn is sportweight, and super sproingy. It's a joy to knit!

Wonderful dark saturated shades inspired by Victorian Architecture!

It's big!

2011-01-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

I'm working on something totally big! An awesome collection, with a great theme. It's all secrets & subterfuge at the moment. I'll be revealing more details soon!

Hey look, a new banner!

2011-01-13T19:06:00.000-08:00

Something new! Have you noticed the blog's new look? From new tabs, to banner it's awesome!

My awesome web designer Kristin made me a new banner. Look up, isn't it fabulous? She combined what I'm about.....crafts, hats, and wool! I'd love to hear what you think of my new blog makeover!

Things are taking shape in the studio. I'm excited about a new line of millspun inspired by architecture. I'll post photos here as soon as I snap them.....as I type the yarn is drying on my folding racks. Can't wait! xoxo

Rainbow Basket

2011-01-08T16:12:00.000-08:00

The yarn was spun from a batt similar to this one called Rainbow Chaser

It's fun to see what's made from batts I make. A member my Batt Addict Club spun up one of her batts.......and made a wicked bowl from it! I love the mix of uncommon brights with the homespun look of the bowl.

Interested in my batt club? Click here.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-05T13:10:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T14:01:00.001-08:00

Plans for the new year aka resolutions are to: speak my mind & not be trod upon. To enjoy life more.....much like my cat above. To be a bit more organized and do better. To not be as hard on myself. Because, really when I think about it, I accomplish quite a bit.

This is the time to finish half started projects.

Upholster the Victorian chairs (4)

Paint the chest with the final coat of yellow.

Find lampshades for the ridiculously big lamps.

Sew the curtains for the Living room.

Finish the trim staining & alcove in the living room.

It's really about the house :D

And yes, finish the sweater made of lovely Noro yarn that's been lingering on the needles for (gasp) a year.

Dreaming of Spring

2010-12-30T17:21:00.000-08:00

As snowflakes dance in the sky......I dream of warmer days. I love Winter, snuggling in flannel sheets, wearing hand knit wool socks. I find myself thinking of seedlings. Starting the garden again. The first little hint of green coming up.

I'll be excited to see the 80+ daffodils I planted last Fall. There's at least 3 1/2 (that's being optimistic!) more months of Winter. Spring arrives here in North Idaho around the end of May. I made an Etsy Treasury to show off my thoughts. See the original Treasury here.

It's all about the doll

2010-12-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

Really it is! It’s all I heard the weeks leading up to Christmas. “What do you want for Christmas?” ummmm“an American Girl Doll”. She had to have the dark brown hair & blue eyes. Of course! Who doesn't want a little twin?

Now for the fun stuff. I knitted a little hat, and sweater for the doll! Never mind that I ran out of the Lion Landscapes yarn. The Noro I used to pinch hit & finished it off worked great! In fact, it looks almost like I planned it that way! The hat was supposed to be more rounded....oh well. I don't think the doll notices, do you? I didn't use a pattern, just winged it. I guess that might make me an intermediate knitter. Maybe.

It was a great day.

2010-12-26T09:16:00.001-08:00

Quiet before the unwrapping mayhem began.

My awesome husband got me a blender! My old one smelled weird when I used it, and the pitcher was cracked.

My MIL gave me an awesome heirloom quilt! It's from the 1930's, 4 generations worked on it. I need to add batting, back bind & quilt it up.

A little gift for myself! My Cha Cha bag arrived on Christmas eve. Love it!!

It was a fabulous Christmas. We opened a myriad of gifts. I gave my husband a rechargeable drill, and a banjo playing manual. He gave me some awesome stuff, most notably a silver ring made from a old piece of silverware. Love it!

The kid is a happy owner of a brown haired blue eyed American Girl doll. She named her Melody Star. It was a super fun & quiet Christmas all around. We finished it off with a turkey dinner.

xoxo!

p.s. I need to figure out how to get out of this small font. Sorry if it's hard to read. I'll fix it soon.

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

May yours be bright and filled with joy.

Guess what we got?

2010-12-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree! How happy am I we got one? Very.

"Medieval" merino Millspun, that I hand painted.

Patchwork handspun yarn. A lovely yarn, that I nearly kept!

Combine the two, and this is what you get! Love the colors.

We got our tree! A local family has a little tree farm 5 blocks from our house. Fun to go and cut a little tree so close by! Check out a sweater a customer made from my yarn! Eclectic and fun. I love it.

I've been busy!

2010-12-07T11:09:00.000-08:00

After several years, I cut my hair short again! Loving the look.

A felted afghan (on purpose) sewn into pillows! My local thrift store has the best stuff.

A bright happy update.....my other pillows were fading. Fading won't do, I love color!

From awesome dyed fiber......to handspun yumminess.

I knit a shawl!! It turned out, yet a little small. I'm learning more about knitting, it's so fun.

I cut my hair.

Spun a few skeins of yarn.

Did some Christmas shopping (at a local craft show, where else!).

Bought some gifts on Etsy.

Am enjoying life......how are you doing?

P.S. My blog is being refurbished for a new easier read format with lots of fun stuff to come! xoxo Sayra

Gobble Gobble Gobble!!

2010-11-25T10:22:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving + Mythbusters marathon & Punkin' Chunkin' whooooo!

xoxo Sayra

Old Man Winter....

2010-11-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

Just a little snow.....enough to envelope the studio and everything surrounding it.

Wearing my favorite sweater! It's from Land's End, and very warm.

Winter is here! It was ten degrees overnight. I didn't get my snow tires put on in time.......After no snow last year I was in a little denial over it returning. So as you could imagine, a bit of a scramble to get the snow tires installed. It's all good now, and we can drive with confidence!

A foot of snow, the day before Thanksgiving. The turkey is thawing out in the fridge. It feels like the weekend, the whole town is hushed and quiet. Mr. Sun has come out for a visit. We're going to bundle up & brave the elements! Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours. Make it special!

xoxo Sayra

More cool stuff!!

2010-11-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

It's nice to get online after 2 days of no internet. Our area had a severe wind storm! Snapped trees, downed power lines. Some lost their homes. Roofs blew off. Kinda crazy.....nice to look downtown and see the glow of the old style street lights. It was odd to look out and see pure darkness when the power was out. I'm shopping for Thanksgiving festivities, and stocking up my Etsy shop.

I've sorted though my vast wool stash. Dyed up several pounds of awesome and will be listing soon! I'm thinking Sunday on Etsy. Though some might trickle in as early as Saturday. We'll see!

I'm also working on dyeing up several skeins in solid colorways. Wanna get on my mailing list? Look for the newsletter link on the left sidebar. You'll get special alerts & news when I update my shop!

Later :D

Angora! Goats that is.....

2010-11-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

Aren't they adorable? Fuzzy and oh so cute. It makes me want a few.....

Look at the kids! These guys are the sweetest chocolate shade. I assume they'll be cinnamon shaded as they grow like their mama.

All angora, except that dark wool to the center left! The crimp & luster are awesome.

Super soft kid angora. Kid? It's from a baby angora goats first shearing. Super fine, and luxuriously soft. Like satin!

The precious goats have some awesome fiber. It's not wool....it's angora! Love this stuff. I've made friends with a great gal in Montana who produces some amazing stuff! Her goats are super cute. I spent the weekend steaming up my windows from simmering dye pots. I have some amazing new colors on the way.

I made two discoveries. Angora smells a little when dyeing....though is fine once dry! My husband evacuated the drying racks to his shop. Our house is a smallish 650 square feet, so you can imagine! The good thing about the shop, it has radiant heated floors. My fiber will dry faster! Everything is up high on racks, and will be dry soon! Can't wait to card it all.

The Most Amazing Sweater Ever!

2010-11-08T14:02:00.000-08:00

I kid you not, the sweater was spun using Turkish drop spindles! How amazing.

Knitted from the top down, really!! It's such a neat concept, I'm going to try as soon as I get braver with knitting!

Here's the sweater all done! Isn't it awesome? When I first saw a snapshot of it on Flickr, I thought it was maybe Noro yarn.

Shot at the Bearpaw spinning retreat......such a dreamy awesome photo!

Why is the sweater amazing? Because....it's hand knit. And handspun.......and has some of my fiber in it!! (it's said to be on the upper arm next to the pink stripe) Even more amazing? It was spun all on drop spindles! Jana used some gorgeous turkish drop spindles. Can you tell I'm having sweater envy? The sweater was knitted using an adaption of Knitting Pure & Simple's Women's Cardigan #225 which is knitted top down.

The most fun part of the sweater story? It's entirely knit from samples that were spun from from the Phat Fiber Boxes! Read more about fibers used on the original blog post here.

Love it!

Cropping: It's hip to be square!

2010-10-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

Springtree Road's Pumpkin Spice roving. Square happens to read better on Etsy!

Maya's Sprung yarn. I love the happy little accent of the little daisies.

Maya's Harvest at Dusk roving. She styles her photos so well!

Etsy has finally gone wide format. It means bigger and better.....right? Maybe. I normally shoot all my photos vertical to give the viewer the biggest image. Now they're huge, 6x9 inches to be exact. My 17 inch monitor says "no way" when you scroll up & down to see what you're looking at, it's a tad tiring.

I wish I had shot everything horizontal. Then I wouldn't be thinking of re-shooting 144+ images! There's a solution. Crop it square! Maya of Springree Road has it down. Square is cool, it's amazing actually. She's a superlative photographer and fiber artist. Her photos are simple, yet say so much.

So discovering square is better, has a serendipitous twist. It's also a fabulous way to make your photos look amazing without losing a ton of resolution (well, unless you crop too much!) . I've been shooting 4MB or so photos, and doing some slight cropping, using Picnik. I'm learning! It's going to take some time before my photos really resonate. I'm getting there.

The Camera

2010-10-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

Crochet thread up close & personal! I use this stuff to tie off my yarn skeins. Look how the camera was able to get the crisp definition of each wrap of the thread.

Fall color in the main street park. Fall is always so pretty in North Idaho.

It's all about the details. Crisper shots, better read of colors. How I would sometimes fight my Powershot to get the accurate shade!

Love the gorgeous detail of the cactus on my windowsill! I took this before I realized that a lesser quality setting was fine.

It's finally here! I compared, obsessed......researched. Canon or Nikon. Nikon! Now, wait, Canon. I went with a Canon. Why? It was lighter, and had better shutter button placement. I have smallish hands, so anything that's easier to operate wins.

I scored a fab refurbished model from Adorama. The camera model is Canon EOS Rebel XSi, aka a EOS 450D. It by chance happens to be the top rated SLR Canon on Flickr. How cool is it? It's awesome!! Initial concerns were the macro mode. I quickly learned it's pointless. Better to work in AV mode, and crop my pictures in edit mode. I kind of miss the selective contrast/saturation features from my Canon Powershot. Although I can tweak those in edit mode easy enough. The other learning curve was realizing file size was far too big. I adjusted the quality size to be middle of the road. Files about 800kb or so upload fast & have great resolution. I'd love to use the mackdaddy huge-ola files......but my 250kbps wireless thinks otherwise.

I'm excited to see how my Etsy shop will look with the new camera in use! The Powershot was great, but had too much noise/graininess. I want that crisp super clear look the better cameras have, and I think I got it!!

I'm national!!

2010-10-02T14:04:00.001-07:00

Click on this photo to see a bigger version! "wool dyed with acid dyes and handspun by Sayra Adams/Atomicblue"

So freaking cool! Jacquard Products (makes of excellent acid dyes et al) used my yarn in their ad! The ad will be featured in a couple of national crafts magazine ads. I also wrote a fun techy dye article for them.....and wowsers I am being compensated! I am so thrilled, I'll let the ad speak for itself!

How cool is that? I am enormously proud of this development. *grin*

Knitting!

2010-09-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

A little knitting with the roving I spun & plied from Lushmommy. It's wool/silk really nice! Edging is some fun yarn I got in a trade. The hat will be gathered at the top with a fuzzy fun tassel.

Oh hello. A pretty sorbet colored studio. Painted up to match our humble little home. next year I'll have even more colorful zinnias, some sunflowers and more!

I'm knitting a little hat from my friend Maia's new baby. We're travelling up soon to visit, I can't wait! Plans are to visit the weekend knitting/spinning extravaganza otherwise known as Bearpaw!

Oh....and I realized I forgot to show off photos of my freshly painted studio. Here ya go!

A little nip in the air.....

2010-09-27T09:38:00.001-07:00

I'm saving the Black Eyed Susan's that my neighbor Sara gave me. I've dried them in order to save & plant their seeds next year.

Our apple tree out front hasn't quite lost it's leaves yet.....although there's a few apples on it. The bees were thankfully very plentiful this spring. Next year we will plant more of a bee & butterfly flower garden.

I love the way this tree looks. I look at it quite alot from the living room. It gets quite pretty as it loses it's leaves, and the apples remain.

More hand spinning.....I'm using up the dyed colors I have, and will be dyeing more soon.

Fall is here. Crisp leaves are slowly falling! Some of the overnight lows are 38 degrees or so. I wonder how much longer our garden can hold on. Frost is definitely around the corner. I made the first pot of beef stew the other night. I love how it tastes right from my antique Griswold iron stock pot. Usually we'd head out to Oregon Flock & Fiber this time of year. Not so this time! Budget worries grounded us. After shelling out $3k for painting the house & studio, no wonder! The good news is everything looks great, and being broke is (hopefully) temporary.

My spinning wheel is cranking up a storm. I have many new colorways and colors I want to spin. Instead of doing willy nilly color everything I may focus on something specific. Here's to looking forward to sweater wearing days, and a fire in the wood stove.

Treasuries

2010-09-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

What I love about Etsy......let me count the ways. The freedom it gives me. The community it fosters.....the awesome handmade stuff! The Treasuries. It's a record, really! My green shaded yarn, Karma was featured not once, but four times this week in various treasuries!

This one by Alica's Beads is of real note, it hits all the right octaves with a major dose of color!

(Treasury? Yep, a member created mosaic of fun things on Etsy. These are the wonderful collections we sometimes see when we log into Etsy.)

P.S. I have some major awesome news! Of course I'll make you wait.....it's worth it ;)

xoxo Sayra

I adore this fabric!

2010-09-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Flower Power/ Large Floral Medallion

Poodle Tanya Paisley

Flower Power/Loopy Vintage Floral, Brown colorway

Bell Bottoms/Mary Trellis

Floral Bouquets Damask /Mod Girls Green

Elizabeth Rose/Ivory

I get all kinds of emailed newsletters. In one of them was a feature on this amazing fabric. I had to know where it came from! I clicked about and discovered that the pretty fabric was by Jennifer Paganelli. Her designs remind me of days gone by....yet are modern. Like vintage wallpaper, or fabulous vintage linoleum. Somehow I am totally drawn to them. Fresh, bright and pretty. Gorgeous colors, I may just use some for some sewn hats, or pillows........or gosh my imagination is running wild!

Introducing....My Totally Rabid Halloween Batt Collection!!

2010-09-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

From the top, clockwise: Witch Lake, Voodoo Doll, Vampire Dreams, Swamp Gas, and Crazy Corn.

WhoooOooOoooooo......totally rabid! A completely wicked & fun batt collection spun around a Halloween theme. Halloween is my number one super fave holiday! I've been dreaming up this collection for some time. I carded some amazing stuff for it. I channeled haunted houses, spooky moon filled nights......and of course vampires. Love them!

I'll be kicking off the weekend by listing 11 of these wicked beauties tomorrow morning, pacific time (Sept. 4th) in my Atomicblue Etsy shop! Then I'll list a few more possibly Sunday, and Monday!! Come by & check it out.

Can you hear that?

2010-08-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

Styling ideas, and more. Dani of Pumpkinhaus in a way inspired me to get some better backgrounds going.

Silvery leaves.....spare branching forms. A simple mood to convey.

Patina, with a few modern accents. Rustic, yet now. A sneak peek of a few things I'm playing around with.

It's happening! After a major hiatus.......I have ideas. Lots of them. So many I forgot to turn into the five & dime parking lot yesterday. I laughed and then turned around. It's been awhile since I've been that engrossed in hats. Well rather, how I'm going to present them. If I am to present a hat at $149. the photo had better read "worth it". I don't know if my ideas will play out, though I have a good feeling they will!

Coming soon, the grand reopening of my Hatdiva Etsy shop!

I love August!

2010-08-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

Why do I love August? Because it means September is just around the corner. I have loved the days that have that hint of Autumn in the air forever. That little nip that says the trees will start turning. In the meantime my vegetable garden is going full tilt boogie! My cucumbers? Massive producers.

I am convinced if you stood still long enough that the cucumber feelers would twine around you.

We've decided that Petunias are the start of the garden. What color, what easy care......I just love them. Next year, I'm planting more, along with Zinnias, they have the best color!

The so called bush beans are really pole beans......boy am I glad I added some support to them early on! My tomatoes despite the blight are taller than I am. That means they're over 5 feet. They are covered with fruit. Some are ripening a little bit everyday, the one I love so far is Mexico Midget. So good!

Then there's the pumpkin. Um, they lied. The label said spread of 5 feet. Think 15, I've had to cut it back twice. There are several basketball sized pumpkins on it. By the time it ripens, I'm sure they will be coach sized. My garden has tought me two important things: To do your best, and stand back. Discovery! Everyday there's something new, and it's a delight to see what's new. I could swear the cucumbers and pumpkins are growing right before my eyes!

The garden is incredibly rewarding, next year sunflowers, and watermelons. Next time I'll give plenty of room for them to sprawl.

SUMMER!

2010-07-16T17:03:00.000-07:00

A bit of fun with vintage colorful lanterns. I bought these to hang from my daughters ceiling, fun! All bought from Etsy: vintage.

When I brought in the new (used, for a mere $179.00!) sofa into the studio....I had to move a few things around! Still settling in, I know, blocking the other door I rarely use. It's only temporary!

The comfiest sofa! It's got nice details, and is ever so comfy. Who knew leather could be so great?

Doesn't it just say sit down & knit a little? Or read a bit while I work? The sofa is kid & daddy approved!

And yes......finally after a year of the boring gray primed Hardie Plank being up, we're getting the house painted!! Pale lime green +white + deep dark brown + a dark pruple door, yay!

I admit it........blogging has not been on my mind. Having fun has been. I've dialed it back a bit, kicked up the fun factor. I'm spending more time with my family and loving it. I'd agonized far too long about juggling Hatdiva side of things + Atomicblue Fiber. Forget it, I'm letting to go feral. I'll see where it leads me rather than me leading it!

So I temporarily shut down my Hatdiva shop on Etsy. I decided, I was going to have to clone myself, or go out of my mind. So I took the easy way out. Yep. So for the time being you'll only be able to buy hats at craft shows. I do have one coming up in Sandpoint, Idaho in August! So yippie-ki-yo I'll be there with a fully stocked millinery display. Summer easy going styles, with a few fancy numbers mixed in. But that's it, until school kicks in for the kid.

Summer so far: we're getting a cukes off the cucumber every few days, my house got painted(!!), and I bought a new-used leather sofa. Another amazing breakthrough- I am able to listen to audio books again! The kid is into it and listening along, hooray.

It's been, what only a 4 year audio book drought? I work a bit, and listen. Though I admitm mostly I hit the pause button. Most importantly I am listening, and it's lots of fun! At the moment we're having a super time listening to Motormouth by Janet Evanovich. CJ Critt is the best at reading, I swear, it's a hoot! It's popcorn audio "reading" at it's best!

My batts cause a stir!

2010-06-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

The amazing, super awesome Lushmommy. She has a fabulous style that's unmistakable.

Ishirlz is another fab spinner! Her corespun yarns are flawless, this skein is quite awesome!

My dyed cormo was a major part of this incredible colorific skein by Jazzturtle. I love how the chunkiness works with the other mix-in's.

My batts & fibers are super fun.......word has got out. I'm thrilled as my Atomicblue Etsy shop is growing by leaps and bounds. My style has totally grown since I opened it a few short years ago. I've become a better dyer, and carder since then! I am also getting the occasional fan mail. People are including my work in Etsy Treasuries. It's really a trip! I admit, it's really awesome. Although, I have a little twinge of guilt as I let my Hatdiva skills atrophy. Though, eventually the two will combine & meet somewhere in the middle.

Batts & fibers! Above are some amazing examples of what some great spinners are making with my wool. How cool is that?

June!

2010-06-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

We're doing a bit of this..........and.................

.................Enjoying a bit of this:

Are you enjoying your summer? We are. Shake off the worries of the day. Have fun where you are, enjoy the moment.

Carder refurbishing!

2010-05-31T10:05:00.000-07:00

See how the cruddy find above turns into the shiny pretty one below!

Night & day, huh? Great tools are so important to a fiber studio!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Go to page 2, and view the pictures backwards to see the picture progression on how he did it!

I turned a fabulous Ebay score ($280.) into a fab new carder with finer carding cloth! Well, really my husband did most of it. He rocks, really. My neighbor asked if he knew how to use air tools (LMAO!). Um.....just a little. Just a wee adjustment on the drum handle, and a gear replacement & we'll be ready rock & roll some finer batts!

Obsession or?

2010-05-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

Some of my dyed ready to card & felt wool fiber. I've recently become enamored with the darker natural shades.

My living room alcove.....need I say more? Us wool obsessed folks totally get it ;)

My studio stash from last year. I've upgraded to mostly pop-up hampers. Space savers, plus they allow the fleece to "breathe". Since this photo was taken, most of the white fleece on the left was dyed up & used!

And now the big kahuna! My latest stash, bags & bags......and growing (still more to wash). Most of this is to make into batts & yarn to sell. Though I admit, I do keep a bunch for myself! I also use the wool fro felting hats. Just not as much as I used to.

As an extreme reaction to one of my fave sources for wool downsized her herd.....I went on a wool gathering treasure hunt! Boy did I score! I found some great sources on Etsy, and plain old searching the web. Specific breed sites have lists of breeders marked regionally! I found some local small owned farms for Border Leicester that way. http://www.ablasheep.org/membership-directory/#ID

Local is good as you pay far less for shipping, or can find someone within driving distance! That said, I'm totally unveiling my stash. This is *part* of it. There's a little more in the house....and about 10 more fleeces to wash. I had a pile like this before! I used most of it up. Amazing! My Etsy shop is really taking off, I just made my 600th sale since Nov 2008, I am so thrilled!

How I've changed.....a big retrospective!

2010-05-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

My display from the late 90's to early 2000, pre Hatdiva. Remember Shabby Chic? Oh my.....how I embraced that theme! It worked good with the style of hats I was designing at the time. This booth photo was taken just before I started making my own flowers for the hats.

Yes, it was alot to set up, but genius display! The lattice......oh my gosh. A good idea at the time. Look! I even have a wood cabinet between the chairs. LOL!

My style then was the overblown, huge flower look. Looks a bit overdone looking back.....the whole Victorian more is better concept!

It looked great.......as seen here on one of my casual models. This rose is almost too big for the hat! Though somehow it works (maybe).

My more recent pink + toile booth. I dyed the table coverings in my bathtub! It was a great display. Although, the wood panels were heavy, and hard to move about. The wood hat stands took up alot of space in the storage boxes. I've since gone with some pop together wire stands that store flat. The canopy is a Trimline from Flourish Co.

This is my current display! Bright & fun. Merging the hats + the yarns and fibers has been interesting. Not all of my die hard hat fans have "gotten it." Though, that's ok. I had to grow as an artist!

Looking at the gray corduroy table skirts, I am wondering if I should lighten up? The gray shade is neutral, and wears well. Here I go again, thinking about another look. You have to keep it interesting!

Above is my display for the Winter season. Warm, inviting. This is the season where I feel the yarn + the felted/felt hats works best.

It's funny, how you don't really notice change, unless you look at a photo. My craft show display has changed as my work has changed over the years. Thus brings this post about changing displays. A great deal of you loved the pink and toile booth....as did I. I wanted to bring in a more fun bright colored display when my interests shifted to yarns & wool. That's when I brought in the brightly colored drapes from Ikea.

I've struggled a bit trying to merge the two. The two blend well when I am displaying my winter felt styles. That's when wool makes the most sense! I have thought to bring the toile + pink look back to the hat half of the booth......though am not sure yet. I'm sure eventually I'll find a happy medium, as literally I wear two hats with the two businesses! Who knew buying that wool carder, to make wool batts for felting hats would lead to this! Have fun with the photos from memory lane.......

So I decided to dye my hair

2010-04-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Deep rich super dark red. Pretty! Though red is one of the most high maintinence of all colors. I'll probably tone it down a bit from here on out......though I couldn't resist!

Red hair + pink? Why not. Hot pink is one of my favorite colors followed by bright blue.

Yep, dye it. After a year of plain old natural brown, I went unnatural. Crazy red! To match my personality energy. Fire.....it's an air sign thing. I'll have to think up how I'm going to deal with roots later. This was a home DIY job, saved money and time! Sorry salon, I just didn't want to wait 2 hours, and shell out $100. Instead, just $8.00 and thanks to super easy L'Oreal I have it going on. Buh-bye grays!

Little birds

2010-04-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

I've had these little vintage birds forever. They're some kind of paper with sparkly glass glitter. I've had them, with the vintage cotton roses in a bag for over a year. I finally put everything together! What do you think?

YETI!!!

2010-04-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

The Yeti is free& flying......I've sold 3-4 of the batts already. Another is on reserve in my Etsy shop. Phat Fiber is awesome (indie sampler box meant for promotional purposes). They said some fun things about my mini batt in the above Youtube vid! Yeti Wears a party Hat is one of my most fun textured batts. It's a base of multi textured fibers, with shots of zingy neon shades + uber doses of bling! It's way fun.

P.S. I'm also making some super great hats. My next post will feature something amazing! Come back soon ;)

Roving isn't boring!

2010-04-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

New roving is listed in my shop! Roving from the top:
1. Acid Test, 2. Tune In, Drop Out., 3. 1969, 4. Karma, 5. Love Child, 6. Love In, 7. Hippie Smile, 8. Magic Bus, 9. Patchouli

Spin Off magazine recently featured rock star spinner Jacey Boggs uber coils on it's cover. That night I tried the style of yarn! I did it again last night with some new dyed roving of mine. Love them greens!

Look how gorgeous the space dyed merino roving looks like when spun? I stripped 2" sections off the 4 oz section of roving, and spun it thick & thin. Then I respun it, plying it with a deep blue fingering weight yarn.

Roving is not boring. Yes, I know me.....the queen of art batts. I do love the simplicity of roving. I'd been interested in it in the past. Though mainly I thought of it as filler for some of the batts I make. It's totally more than filler! A recent cover of Spin Off magazine reminded me of this. It featured spinner extraordinaire Jacey Boggs's fabulous uber coil yarn. It was fun to see it on the cover of Spin Off. Spin Off is becoming artsier! I thought it was a nice feature, especially after the magazine kinda trashed her Sit & Spin DVD review. The article was fun, normally my eyes glaze over when it comes to specs, twist per inch etc. I'm just not that kind of spinner! I take instructions as a suggestion. My yarn turned out thick thin plied plus uber coils! Pretty good considering I cringe when it comes to instructions!

I have to say this is a fun, but labor intensive yarn to spin. The 4 oz roving I used took me 2 hours wrangle into yarn. Keep in mind I was interrupted by a sick little girl that should have been sleeping! Anyway it was a fun application for something new in my Etsy shop. I have to sample my own wares, right? I just launched a fun line called "Totally Groovy" a nod to the subculture revolution in the 60's.

P.S. I spun this style yarn asap I got the issue of Spin Off it was featured in. Then I ruined it. My washer was on "extra rinse". Unknowing, I went to spin water out of 5 skeins of freshly set yarn. Minutes later I realized they were washing! Yep, tangled mess.....I rescued 4 of the skeins. The Uber-coil one? Hopelessly toast. I made it into a necklace, and sold it at the next show I did!