Midnightsky Fibers Update and a coupon code

Sneak Peek of the November Sock yarn- natural dyes, of course. I made one more skein than intended, so it will be up in the shop in the next couple days, unless someone calls it first.

The indigo dye vats have been busy at Midnightsky Fibers, and we have a variety of new handspun yarns in mohair, coils, and soysilk to reflect the many different shades that indigo can give us.

Using the code “November2007” will give you 10% off any order over $10 (excluding wholesale orders) until December first. Haven’t stocked up on your Holiday gifts yet? Now is the time to order to ensure that gifts can arrive before the Holidays.

Sneak Peaks- You can check out the sneak peaks for this months sock yarn on the blog at http://blog.midnightskyfibers.com

Blue Moon and the Icicle Parade

Blue Moon and the Icicle Parade
Indigo is one of the only blue natural dyes. Being a very pH sensitive dye and rather time consuming to do, I usually only dye wool roving and sock yarn in my indigo vats. This time, however, I broke out the mohair locks, angora, and a coil-spun wool I had sitting on my wheel.

A set for your escapades on the winter wonderland (expect this to be a theme around here in the very near future).

Mohair- Super bulky spun from mohair locks around a cotton core in deep purple with angora (rabbit) locks also dyed in indigo spun in at random intervals. I dyed these in a variegated hue, then selected locks at random as I spun. This yarn has a super halo, with lots of shiny curls. 55 yards.

The matching coils yarn is wool on a cotton core and dyed at the same time. Coils yarns are time intensive to make, and take lots and lots of singles spun up. This yarn is super bulky,coils up to 1 INCH across. Yes, you read that right, coils are an inch wide. 40 yards.

These yarns are best paired together and/or with an additional yarn due to the weight and bulk of the coils yarn. Enough here for a lovely scarf knit up on big needles (at least a 15 to really show off the curls and coils).



Rapunzel in Snow Boots

All naturally dyed and core spun around a cotton core to make this super bulky yarn extra fluffy! Naturally colored cream soy silk, indigo dyed blue mohair locks and soy silk, and many carded colors of wool. 120 yards, super bulky.


And someone, please tell my cat that my hot chocolate- complete with vegetarian marshmallo fluff on it- is NOT for him. He seems to think it is!

Colorwork vest in progress

One of my favorite holiday crafts when I was a kid was covering tangerines or satsumas in cloves. Smells absolutely wonderful, and if you are lucky they dry well and you can store them to use again next year. I used to have several stuffed in to my yarn stash to deter moths, they are still up in the attic some where, guarding my forgotten yarn stash.


(Not nearly as covered as I would like, but getting there)

While I was waiting for my chestnuts to roast I decided to make a couple new oranges. These take quite a bit of cloves, at least several tablespoons of cloves for each for best results, though if you have enough cloves, the more the better. Monterey Bay is a good place to get cloves for this project- I have had good luck with them in the past, and they are reasonably fast too.


Swirls! Umm yea, I ran out of cloves, plus the chestnuts were done and ready to eat before they were cold.


The front of a vest I am working on using traditional designs in Spindthrift Shetland in six colors that all change at different times- yes, crazy person that I am, I have colors changing nearly every row. Minimal waist shaping, but some for the sake of amusment. Deep V neck. Lots of spit splicing.



The inside of the vest. Need I say more?

More tomten jackets...

Yet another Tomten jacket (Elizabeth Zimmerman). This time in Nature's Palette, in a bright sunny yellow.


Lemon and Lavender infused shortbread cookies with lemon filling.



Obviously, taking pictures of myself doesn't seem to work well, does it? I've been wearing this jacket around for the last week +, but never seem to have my camera in the same place. Want to take a wild guess what it is?


Roasting chestnuts. Not a good idea to let me cut them though, I can't really cut them with any sort of even pressure to make good crosses.

New knitting, food

Whew! Lots of pictures for these posts...


The socks are done! Now I have no excuse not to write up the pattern, huh? Made from my sock yarn, spun just for Midnightsky Fibers.



Fried bread, similar to naan, with cheese curds from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, in Pikes Place- though you can get it many more places now, some of their cheeses are at Ken's in Greenwood, Safeway in U district, and QFC in Wallingford. Pioneer Organics even has them, though it's hard to find the blank slate (a cheese spread) or the curds.



A tomtem baby jacket, and a baby surprise jacket, both EZ patterns. My flickr account died (ie it's full), so no posting them or other knitting to Raverly until I get a "real" one. Hopefully they will actually start using photobucket soon though, I prefer it. These were made for Rachel-Marie

Monthly Clubs at Midnightsky Fibers

Monthly Clubs at Midnightsky Fibers

November 20th is the last day to sign up for the monthly clubs at Midnightsky Fibers for November! We offer three monthly clubs at this time:

-A sock club, delivered fresh to you each month. Each month is enough for a pair of socks (400 yards), and naturally dyed.

-Fiber Club- roving, batts, locks, and more! Also naturally dyed, the emphasis is on roving and batts that are easy to spin and felt with occasional other fun other fibers thrown in. Use for felting, spinning, thrums for mittens or slippers, and more!

-Handspun yarn club- Each month you receive a new skein of handspun, naturally dyed yarn from Midnightsky Fibers.

For the upcoming holiday season, don’t forget our kits and sock yarns, both of which make great gifts (even to yourself!) for fellow knitters, spinners, crocheters, weavers, felters, and many more.

I wrote twenty pages last night for a midterm. Hooboy do I wish I was kidding (even leaving a space between each line of writing, that is a fair bit of my scrawl!). Don't mention the words torts or negligence near me for a couple days, k? Doing so will get you an evil look and no cookies of fresh bread. I couldn't knit for the rest of the night!



That midterm- and the slew of memos and related assignments due for night classes- were not the only reason things have been progressing slowly around here. Do you see that sleek body streaking through the picture above? Besides the fact that the picture makes him look suspiciously like a dinosaur, has been really helpful lately with the yarn prep.



Mostly by sitting in it.


I'm not going to be able to put together packages or dye anything until Tuesday, since I am working Monday, my usual putting-everything-in-the-mail day, and everything from Thursday was of course pushed back because I was not in town until my test (and was studying for it). I don't know how people can work full time and go to the post office- the real problem really, since packages over a pound can't just be dropped in a bin, and it would be weird to bring them to work, and can't leave them in the lobby and be sure they will actually make it to the post office worker.

Speaking of apartment- they removed the papers that had all the phone numbers to reach management if there was a problem. And the managers we had are now gone, which begs the question- how the heck do you reach them if you are locked out (trust me I have no plans of that!). Neal, you will love this. The guy that lasted six hours on the job? Well, the replacement to the replacement lives outside of Seattle and will not be living on site. Last I heard they had yet to find an assistant manager- who will hopefully be on site (2 buildings remember!), but I am not holding my breath.

Replate it

Replate it. A much cooler use for leftover foods, Replatesuggests putting food out by garbage cans or similar areas (on top of a newsstand thing or similar surface). In large cities this would be a great grassroots way to distribute small amounts of food.