Waterloo Wools now open!

After months of talking about it, I finally got around to opening my etsy shop today! For right now I am just selling handspun yarns. I hope to add hand-dyed fiber, but given the limitations of the condo I think I'll wait until I'm in a space more conducive to the mess of dyeing.

I've just listed a few items right now, but within minutes of listing I had sold the first 2 yarns! I can't quite believe it...WHY did I wait this long?? Now I need to get spinning so I can restock the shop.

I've also realized I need to keep better notes when I spin. It took a long time to get some of these items listed because I hadn't written down all the details when I first spun the yarns. Hopefully the process will be faster if I list items as I spin them from now on.

I finished 2 other yarns recently that aren't in the shop:

Hello Yarn November club fiber in Buckland, Finn wool, n-plied, worsted weight, 150 yards. I like this a lot, but I also think it's sellable, so I might list it.


Spunky Eclectic Merino/Bamboo in Sangria. 2-ply, fingering weight, about 430 yards. I'm also debating about using this myself or listing it for sale. We shall see!

Found: 1 camera & the joy of weaving!

I think I know where the other missing items are, too--there's a Rubbermaid storage bin that didn't make the move, apparently! I'm curious about what all is in it, actually, since I've only noticed a few items missing. But I'll be back at the house tomorrow, so I guess I'll find out then.

In the meantime, my camera turned up. Which is good news, because I spent 4 days at my mother's house and we wove three scarves. I took photos of 2 of them, so I can share those now:


That one's from handspun, merino/tussah, dyed by me. Just plain weave, but I love the way the colours came out. CLose-up:



That scarf was finished much faster than I expected for a few reasons. One, my mother got me the stand for my loom as a Christmas present, and that makes SUCH a huge difference. Much easier and more comfortable to sit and weave! Second, my cousins' daughters (both 11 years old) came over for a sleepover at my mom's house, and they teamed up to weave at least 1/3 of the scarf! They developed a 4-handed system of passing the shuttle and raising/lowering the heddle, and they flew through it. They were pretty proud of themselves, as they should be!

Anyway, since the scarf was finished just halfway through my visit, we decided to scrounge through my mom's yarns and put something else on the loom. She had some yarn she'd picked up on sale and we played with that. I didn't get a picture of it, but it worked up really fast--pretty thick yarn, and a skinny scarf (really fast warp!). I did pretty much the whole thing while sitting beside my mother and helping her learn to use iTunes and her new ipod!

So we warped the loom one more time, this time with some Kidsilk Haze and a Louisa Harding yarn (Jasmine, I think?). And I decided to use my new pick-up sticks to try to create a pattern. I didn't have any books with me, but a bit of searching turned up this Waffle Weave pattern. So I wove mostly plan weave with panels of this. The final result:


The loom is now empty, and may actually stay that way for a few days--tomorrow I head back to London for my 2 days of work, so I'll probably wait to warp it until I return. I'll also be bringing my wheel back here with me Thursday night, which is exciting. I now have 3 spindles on the go, but I really want to get back to the wheel and churn out some new yarns.

Oh, and while at my mom's I got around to showing her Ravelry! We put her name on the waiting list--it said it was a 2 day wait, but it's been 2 days and they're still showing 950 people ahead of her, so I think they've slowed down the adding a bit. Anyway, she'll be there soon, so that will be interesting. I'll have to be a bit more sneaky with my gifty knitting and things now. :-)

Missing...

...one camera, 3 UFOs (most especially my half-finished February Lady Sweater), a box of oddment yarn, and one hat. I've pretty much finished going through the boxes and bags that made it to the apartment, and I believe those are the items I remember packing but can't find.

Last time I moved I was super-organized and made a list for each box of what was in it, numbered the boxes, etc. Of course, last time I moved I was moving the whole house at once, and we were using movers. This time it was us throwing stuff in the car and making multiple trips, so it was a rather different system!

So I don't know if there's a box/bag that got left at the house, or if there's something hiding here that hasn't been unpacked, or what. I'll go by the house sometime next week, so I guess we'll find out then! There's a chance most of the knitting items are in a box that might have stayed in the basement, but the camera is a mystery. Plus, it's annoying, as I've actually had time today that could have been used for taking pictures of projects, new fibers, etc. Oh well!

Oh, and in other news...I wasn't actually able to cut the cord with school after all! Starting next week I will be taking on a part-time position as "Acting Vice Principal." I'll be at the school 2 days/week (consecutive days, so I'll just make the round trip drive once a week), and then working from home occasionally beyond that. It's a bit of an experiment--first, if being part-time will allow me to keep up with the responsibilities; second, if someone with no training or qualifications should be a VP; and third, if some of the work of a VP can be done virtually! But the current VP (who is full time) is leaving at the end of January, and they really wanted me to take over. It's flattering to have earned that level of trust, and I had wanted to stay involved at the school somehow--so I'm going to give it a try.

Well, since I have no photos, I won't bore you by describing current projects or anything. Maybe the camera will turn up tonight and I'll get around to showing off some other goodies! Oh, that reminds me...the camera was packed up with its printer dock, which I also haven't found. But that's a clue, so it's time to start hunting. :-)

The "big" move

It's not really a big move, either in distance or in quantity of stuff that's going with me. After all, we have a furnished apartment, so most of the big stuff is staying in the house until it sells. We just fit one load into Stephen's car for him to take back tonight, and I'll pack the Jeep to the gills tomorrow or Tuesday, and then there will just be a few things left to come get, I think.

Of course, we still did most of those usual pre-move things...the purging of old stuff, the sorting and boxing, the cleaning. The house is officially on the market now, and there will probably be an agent's open house on Wednesday, so it needs to be left in good shape! Plus there was the insane amount of time spent on transferring all our telecom services to the new place. Stephen and I have collectively spent at least 6 hours on the phone dealing with that...and I'm not confident that it will be done right, despite all that.

Needless to say, this hasn't left much room for fiber arts! I did finish a sock this week, but I had dreamed of finishing the whole pair by Thursday and that's not looking likely now! However, at the beginning of break I took photos of a few fibery projects, so I can share those here now.


Plain-weave scarf from handspun. The warp is Spunky Eclectic BFL in "Thermograph" and the weft is Spunky Corriepaca in "Tahiti." There are some decorative floats every few inches, this photo has a close-up of one:



In-progress shot of a honeycomb scarf. Green sock yarn for warp, the weft is mostly Spunky Lame Duck Mallard with some KnitPicks Wool of the Andes as the contrast. This is finished now, but the camera is already packed up, and the scarf needs to be ironed, I think--wet finishing left it a bit raggedy.


Currently on my wheel: Spunky merino/bamboo in Sangria. Finished the first bobbin ages ago, and the wheel has been sitting idle since...umm, I don't want to think about how long. Maybe I'll take it out for an hour of relaxing tonight to prepare for the madness of tomorrow!

OK, next post may not be for a while...immediately after the move I'll go see my mother for a week, and then will begin putting together this new life! Wish me luck.