a first time for everything

This etsy thing is definitely going slow right now since I've been so busy with other obligations (moving to New York is kind of distracting me) but I'm still plugging away and doing what I can in my down time. This week I made my first sale! It was a cowl neck scarf that I made this winter, one of my favorite pieces and I was really happy to make the sale.


I also got some Falkland wool top in the mail and spun it into some yarn. It was very fun to spin and I probably got at least 100 yards out of it, which is enough to make one of these great cowls that I love so much. I also got a niddy noddy in the mail so that I can make skeins out of my yarn in order to hold the twist from spinning. The result was a beautiful skein of soft white wool yarn that I spun myself.But this wasn't enough for me and my experimenting. I decided that I would dye the yarn and since wool takes dye so well I thought I'd try out using kool aid. I found some instructions online, bought some packets and went to town on this skein. I used three colors, pink, a darker pinkish red and yellow. I was trying to get a "strawberry lemonade" effect but I think it looks more like a peppermint ribbon, but I still like it.



So that's the skein, and this is what it looked like when I rolled it into a ball to start knitting.

I think it turned out very nicely for an experiment. I'm going to make another thick cowl neck scarf with it, unless part way through I'm inspired to make a hat. Somtimes that happens too.

Here it goes!

I decided a few months ago that I would start up my own etsy shop, that once school was over I would dedicate more of my time to maintaining the shop and a companion blog. Well, school is not over yet and I still have to grade a hundred papers, write my own 12 page term paper and study for finals, but I couldn't wait another day to start up my blog and put a few more items on my etsy shop (which sadly has been neglected for the last couple of months).

So, in this first post of my etsy shop blog I'm going to bare my soul to you.

Yarn speaks to me. It tells me what it wants to become. I have to feel inspired by the fiber I'm using to knit, or nothing will happen. Recently the most inspiring yarn I find is a natural wool. Nothing compares.

A wonderful thing happened to me a few weeks ago. I discovered alpaca wool. Alpaca is sumptuous and soft and supple, a dream to knit. I also discovered the drop spindle and some instructions on how to use it to spin my own yarn. And then I did, and it was incredibly fun and I made a lovely hat from my freshly spun yarn. It's difficult to express how wonderful it felt to handle such gorgeous fibers and then to make a beautiful hat for someone to wear from them.

This is what I want my etsy shop, and this blog, to be about. I love beautiful things, and I love making beautiful things. I want other people to enjoy the beautiful things I make. I want others to enjoy the enthusiasm I have for gorgeous, sumptuous fibers.

Not only do I love fibers I love knitting needles, and I love to knit. I love the way the needles slip so effortlessly from stitch to stitch, as eager as I am to finish the hat or scarf or blanket. Sometimes my needles and I struggle together when we are trying out a new complicated stitch, and it feels like a true triumph when those needles begin to feel comfortable with the stitch and fly across the row.

Right now I'm working with some really nice alpaca/merino wool yarn that is quite a mix of colors. I didn't think I'd like how they all looked together, but I'm actually really loving the mix.


This yarn will turn into a hat in the next few days and I'm excited to see just how it turns out. Might be really beautiful.

So, welcome to my blog! I hope it proves fun and interesting as I blabber on about yarns and projects and what inspires me and what doesn't. Please check out my etsy shop, knitonebelow.etsy.com! I just put up a few brooches and I'll be adding lots more soon!