Ok first, the SALE! Part. There’s a holiday sale in the Gnomespun shop. Yarns and the new scarves are discounted! Also, any order will receive a free upgrade to priority shipping in order to get it to you before the holiday.

The Gnomespun Shop

Ok. Yarn and fiber…

In Phouka: Swampland, Sun and Sand
Falkland: Rosy Finch, The Princess’ Petticoats, Forest Shadows
Exmoor Mule: Dark Spanish Shawl, Scarlet O’Hara, Waterfall, Moose

And a new addition to the Gnomespun family, light silk and silk/wool scarves. These are discounted right now because they are new, and because I thought they’d make extra nice gift-exchange or stocking stuffer gifts. They are, however, hard to get good photos. If they’re popular I may need to get myself something to hang them on.

These come in two sizes and two varieties.

Small: 8″x54″ these are small ascot style scarves, very nice. They come in both 100% silk and the 63%/37% Silk/Wool blend.

Large: 11″60″ these are just a little longer and wider. They can be worn either as light shawls or as scarves. Long enough to double over and still have a bit left hanging down. These only come in the Silk/Wool blend right now.

Colorways: Thistle, Sunflowers, Dark Nebula, War for the Oaks, Oil Slick, Among the Roses, Islands in the Rain, Heart of the Fire, The Rising Flame, Smoke and Fire, Blood in the Water, Pollen, Earth and Sky, Windowpanes, Sea and Sunset.

That’s all for now. More blog posts coming soon, and hopefully another shop update before xmas (we’ll see, stuff keeps being… stufflike).

~The Gnome

Another update to the shop!

Knitting and crochet stitch markers, and one pair of sock/lace markers! The crochet stitch markers are made on surgical steel kidney earring clasps, so they are perfectly functional as actual earrings. If people are interested in sterling silver hooks, I can also make earrings with those. I haven’t because there’s lots of people who make them, but if people want, I can.

That’s all for now. More blogging blog updates to come.

~The Gnome

Shop update!

Two fibers this round, wensleydale and jacob. Next update will have border leicester, finn, and cotswold (at least). Many of the wensleydale was done in double batches, so for once some colorways have more than one braid.

A note that this is the last of my jacob. I don’t know when I’ll get more. Soon hopefully.

Jacob: Garnet Shadows, Emerald Shadows, Amethyst Shadows, Midnight Magic, and Heather and Gorse

Wensleydale: Soft Bismuth, Haying Time, Slate, Across the Sea, Midnight Iris, Rhubarb Cobbler, Heart of the Fire, Soft Heart of the Fire, Redwood, Calapogon

Also made these, considering putting them up…

That’s all for now, back to dyeing!

~The Gnome

Yes, I’m spammy today, but I’m way behind, and I didn’t want to combine them all.

The shop has been reopened and updated. It still needs restocking, but there’s quite a few new stitch markers, including binary and sock/lace markers.

There is also, Ramboulliet, Jacob, Wensleydale, Romney, SW Merino, Dorset, and Cotswold.

I’ll be putting up some new yarns shortly.

In other news:

I turned in my thesis to my boss for final edits on Monday. I’m applying to jobs this week. I’ve applied two one, am working on the cover letter for a second and third, and formatting my resume for a fourth. I’m also trying to get a handle on my apartment which has been escaping while my dissertation ate my brain. I’ve reclaimed ah… one room.

After much fighting with stupid fashion industry standards, I found two business/government interview appropriate dress shirts that aren’t ridiculously too long. Apparently the “fitted” shifts the shoulders enough to shorten the 32″ sleeves to 31″ effectively, making them only 1″ too long. Tomorrow I take in my pants to be taken in. Next up, another shirt or two, and comfortable dress shoes.

One week from Monday I hand in my thesis. Two weeks from that, I defend it all to the community and my committee. Wheeeeee. Scary.

OH! I totally forgot. I actually finished a hat. I started it on the plane down to MD, so I misremembered how many stitches to cast on. Ended up 10 short. Which is ok, it will go to a deserving young man I know of. It was mostly a conceptual exercise for me anyway. I have a concept in my head I wanna test out. I’ll get photos soon.

~The Gnome

One of the reasons I’ve been on such radio silence, getting ready and then recovering from this massive thing!

Well. I brought 80+ pieces to Rhinebeck. Which is nothing for “real” vendors, but for me, it was massive, especially since I’ve been working on my dissertation at the same time.

I was a TINY bit less poleaxed than last year.

I thought enough in advance to get a photo of the booth when it was just set up…

and even more importantly, since I FAILED last year of me, Tsockstsarina and Jennifer who run the booth with the additional help of Patrick (who I don’t seem to have a photo of, bugger).

Getting a photo of these people is insane.

I did manage to get one photo of Thegeorg unlike last year. Though I admit it’s not a very good photo.

Had a delicious dinner with excellent people at a diner place.

In the morning, they let people in FIFTY minutes early. Which made for… a rush. Just before they hit, I got some photos of my stuff up, though only the first batch. Obviously with 80 things, I couldn’t have it all out at once.

The fiber and some yarn

the rest of the yarn

and my stitch markers

Then came…

the seething hoards!

I failed, again, to see everything (apparently the genuine AFLAC duck was there, who knew?) but I did wander around more than last year.

I met a bunch of people for a group shot (not my camera)

And yes, I was wearing my kilt and a double layer wool “ranger” jacket. It was lovely, comfy, and I wasn’t cold at all.

Lots of good people there. My good friends ZaftigWendy (of Yarnivore) and HoneyChild (of HotterFasterBetter art)

Honeychild and I wandered around quite a bit (mostly having horribly inappropriate conversations, which was excellent). We met these adorable little goats.

And the Serta Sheep

And a wensleydale that just begged for love

At the end of the day, for going to dinner and such, I needed to change. Luckily, it’s easy in a kilt. So I changed in the middle of the booth.

Then it was back to the diner for dinner with a different set of friends!

The second day, I aspinnerated the two Cyds, Cyd-Squared?

Don’t they look happy? “OMG, I’m making yarnz!”

Hrm… that’s about it. Oh, we took down the booth and I drove back home (2.5 hours, not bad, yay GPS!) in an ice storm (icky).

Oh, right, phat lootz. I didn’t buy much, I was very restrained. I got a couple pounds of dorset for dyeing, two abbybatts from Carolina Homespun where I was also viciously and mercilessly ASSAULTED by this evil thing.

It’s a Spindlewood, top whorl, laceweight spindle. I don’t know what wood it’s from, as the label had fallen off. I’m told it’s something from the Rosewood family. I also know that it’s a little under 0.5oz. Which for some would be ideal, but it’s totally not the sport of spindle I buy. I really love my 0.8-1.2 range spindles.

But… well… it hummed. Those who know what I mean will understand, and to the rest, lets just say it didn’t give me much choice in the matter. It was sitting next to a *gorgeous* piece made of amboyna burl and birds eye, and yet this one was clearly the one. And I’m loving it. It’s currently working on one of the abbybatts (Merino, Silk, Cashmere).

People often ask if the square whorls cause a problem. The answer is no. It’s basically like having 4 notches, and rim weighting. It spins amazingly long for such a tiny spindle. I love it.

So that’s Rhinebeck.

I’m currently working on reopening and updating the shop. It’ll be a bit. I’ll post when that’s done.

~The Gnome