Do you know about FiberShare?  I just finished up my second time doing FiberShare- it is an international yarn and fiber swap- in a nutshell.  The folks that organize it do a great job matching you up with 2 partners- one that you will send to, and one that sends you a box o' goodies.  They do a wonderful job of matching you up in your medium and interests.  The only requirement is that you send at a minimum 200 grams of fiber or yarn.  There is no spending limits high or low.  You can pull from your stash, shop, make- it is up to you.  Of course a few fun goodies is up to the sender!

And did I mention the trolling?  You get to troll (in a good way) your partner's social media spots; Instagram, Revelry, etc. . . to get a feel of what they like in fiber and colors.

So this was my second round and so far both of my partners that mailed to me spoiled me rotten!  In fact the yarn that I just dyed with came from my first partner swap.



I thought I would share a glimpse of what I received in this round.  Some tantalizing Rowan warm, cozy, natural British wool- be still my "I want to go to the UK" heart!  She also included some lovely Valley Yarn and a Madelintosh I adore.  Sprinkled with some sweet little mini Yarn-Rehab skeins that I think will back some awesome weavings or accent pieces to the Valley Yarn.  To top it all off there were some sweet buttons, tea, and dark chocolate in just the right dark chocolate percentage for me to enjoy all neatly tucked in a canvas bag that just so happens to match my bike.  How sweet!



Thank you to my partner and to the fantastic gals making all the match making magic happen behind the scenes!

I will share my Fiber Share Anatomy Part 2 next time after I am sure my partner has received her box- no spoilers here!

Well maybe not "dyeing" to try but natural dyeing has definitely been in my interest box.  In a previous Fiber Share swap my partner got me some un-dyed natural fiber yarns.  I had this in my stash and I combined that with that plethora of walnuts from our tree that pounds our house and deck and I decided to give some natural dyeing a shot this weekend.


I referred to this book and also I found this website helpful.  The first thing I decided to do was spread it out among both days of the weekend.  I have a tendency to rush projects like this so I tried to take my time.  I stopped by the local thrift store for an enamel ware pot I could dedicate to dye.  I found the perfect pot and some vintage cloth napkins while I was at it (score)!



Yesterday I gathered about a dozen of fallen walnuts and broke them up with a rock and placed the husks and nuts in some cheesecloth.  I covered this in water and cooked this down for about an hour.  I then turned off the flame and let it cool down and sit for another hour.



I then pulled the bundle out strained the dye bath through a coffee filter to remove any other particles.  I saved this till today.  I brought it up to just below simmering and soaked the two skeins of yarn that I had in some warm water.  I added this to the dye bath and kept it just below simmer for an hour then turned it off the heat and let it sit for an additional hour.





After lots of soaking in a similar water temp till it ran clear I set it out to dry in the sun and breeze.  I did not mordant the yarn prior to the dye bath since most of what I read is that when using fresh walnuts,  mordant is not necessary.  I think it is gorgeous!  Such a lovely brown.  I just may have caught a little bit of a dye bug as I definitely lean heavily towards these colors and naturally dyed natural fiber yarns are not always readily available in the local yarn shops.





Bonus is that I get to utilize this nut that drops all over my deck each fall!  Wouldn't this be fun to do to some muslin cotton also?  My mind is spinning with ideas!
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"I can't, I am going to Winfield"  was a common saying the third weekend of September for a nice little chunk of time when the boys were younger.  This meant we were packing up and heading to Winfield, Kansas for the Walnut Valley Music Fest with local friends.  It is a a really unique music fest worth the 5 hour drive mostly because of the music that is in the campgrounds more so than the main stage music.  It has been harder as the boys got older to take them out of school so until the time when my DH, myself and Scamp Coleen make our way back sans boys we have been hosting a little gathering at our house we call "Little Walnut Valley".





DH sets up a stage on the lower deck, we make a pot of soup, gather the friends and create a knit pickers paradise.  Choose your passion- a little knitting, maybe some picking, or just hanging out with a beer and some friends.




The weather cooperated nicely, the tunes were flowing, and I was able to get in a few rows on the linen shirt.  Our own walnut trees seemed to know that they were being honored as they kept dropping walnuts on the upper deck as part of the ambiance!

I really should try and figure out how to do some natural dyeing with all those dang walnuts!  I enjoyed being surrounded by my community, especially as my eldest ventured out on his own in my car for the first time!  You can bet I needed a beer after watching him drive down the road!

Cheers to knitting, picking, and journeying forth with my fellas!

Calendars, ghosts, and squirrels oh my!  And some other fun fall goodies coming the shop update this week!

Well- it is finally done!  My contribution towards the Welcome Blanket project- an alternative narrative this agenda to build a wall.  It was a craftivism project that took me just about 2 months to complete.



Why did I spend money and countless hours stitching away at a blanket?  Because at the core of my being I believe in the power of making and crafting to connect us.  In this case it allowed me to connect with other knitters across the country and globe to make something to symbolize welcoming- not building walls.  Much like the Pussyhat movement- I felt connected and inspired in my making to contribute to a cause.


My blanket is headed to the Smart Museum in Chicago next week to be displayed with others until they are then distributed to refugee resettlement organizations to place with families as a welcoming symbol.


Trying to stay true to my desire to be very conscious of my choice of yarns I decided to go with cotton.  I did read several review of the Billow cotton by Knit Picks of it's tendency to shed but I will tell ya- it did shed.  I am hoping that calms down after the first wash.  Another complaint I read about with this yarn was the thick thin element that often people did not like.  I actually really adore this element to the yarn.  I thought it added a rustic element to the blanket that really appealed to me.

I choose a pattern and color pallet that resembled "wheat" to reflect on both my heritage of being in the midwest and coming from a farming family on my mother's side and also of my Volga German ancestors that lived in the Saratov region of Russian in which has wheat in their flag.  You will have to let me know if I nailed it or not!

It was a thoughtful project I was happy to take on and I look forward to hopefully taking a trip up to Chicago to see it on display.

Wish my blanket luck as it makes its smart journey to Chicago and then onto a family!

Wow- I don't really know how else to explain how amazing the experience of the eclipse was.  All the build up around it and suddenly it all went quiet and nature just put on the show of a life time.  Nature and science knocked it out of the park this week!

I took some advise and just absorbed the moment and did not take any photos of the sun and moon during the eclipse but had fun documenting all around it and thought I would share ummm just a few, okay more than a few here!



Because the town where I live was in the path of totality it really was front and center in our community.  The weekend before you could have tossed a stone in either direction and found a fun thing to do.  My crew ended up in one of our big parks that day before the eclipse for a 9 mile bike ride and music festival.  My husband made some fun sun/moon photo props, we grabbed some starburst to hand out and hit the trail for some shenanigans!  Little did we know my youngest would have the opportunity to entertain as a larger than life minion!


The bike riders were treated to some local favorites Shakespeare's pizza and tunes by Pat K before heading back to the main park for more music.  Our evening ended with music, beer, and relaxing with our community.



Originally on the day of the eclipse my boys were going to head into school which all had plans to watch and view.  I had tossed around several options for myself and decided to stay in my own backyard.  A friend of mine said it best- it was a moment to just be still.  As it turned out both the boys requested to stay home with me.  I was not going to refuse if they chose to hang with me instead of friends at school- these are my teenagers after all!  I will ignore that maybe they just wanted a day away from school and pretend it was all about hanging out with their mama- who happened to also have a stash of moon pies, sun chips, and starbursts for them!



I started my day off with some delish peaches, french-style yogurt that I could not resist- dang you marketers that know how to get me and some walnuts. I then proceeded to go out in the morning sun and wind my yarn for the special knitting during eclipse day.  I got one of the "Great American Eclipse" yarn kits from Darlin Dixie Knits.  Gorgeous yarn and bag!  When the eclipse started I just sat out on my deck and knit and kept checking out the progress.  We were a little nervous as some hazy clouds started to move in but it never obscured the sun from us.


About 15 minutes before totality I joined my boys on the roof of our house (it is a pretty low pitch) and laid on a blanket and prepared for it.  It was stunning- we had about 2 minutes and 30 some seconds of totality.  A blanket of dark came, the night time insects started singing and I could not take my eyes off the corona- it truly is something I will always remember.  And I cried- I have no idea why, I just did!  When it started to come out of totality and back into partial eclipsing is when I caught some of the crescent shadows on the deck.


After making some yummy simple lunch and eating during the remaining partial eclipse I knit some more and just absorbed the experience.  The rest of the day fell into our normal patterns.  Some homework, some knitting, and soccer practice.


Ironically this is one knitting project that is giving me fits!  I messed up the pattern twice, did a poor job of winding my yarn on an uneven table which created a knotted mess that I did not realize was in the center of the ball till I pulled it out.  So after frogging back the rim of the hat twice and splitting the ball into two and winding by hand I am starting it over today with a different pattern.  So wish me luck on starting it over again- just a sweet simple slouchy hat in this sun infused beautiful wool yarn. It is a long weekend of soccer games between the boys so I should hopefully be able to make lots of progress!

I hope you all had some simple quite moments with the eclipse as well.  We just heard that a portion of our state will be in the next total eclipse in April of 2024.  We will have to travel a couple hours to get to that one but I am pretty sure we will load up the scamp and not miss it!

Last week my family was able to sneak in a kayak trip with my husband's brother and his family on a stunning river in the southern part of our state.  We loaded up the boys, our Scamp Coleen, some kayaks, some yarn and headed that way.






We floated 12 miles and enjoyed family, cool water, and lots of sunshine! The Eleven Point river is spring fed in several spots but we floated near Greer Spring which happens to be the second largest spring in our state.  The next day the boys and I hiked down to the beginning of the spring and I truly understand why it is called a jewel.  It is so spiritual to me to be in places like this in nature.  I feel grounded and in awe in places like this!








We journeyed back home and made an obligatory stop by a local dairy for some ice-cream for the boys and I was able to knit in a couple rows.

A fun state side adventure that was much appreciated!