March 29, 2015

Obsessed with Spinning...

About 2 weeks ago I went on a day trip with my friend Marlene to Pam's Woolly Shoppe. I love that shop. The whole feel is warm and welcoming. She has all these wonderful sheepy decorating items, a large selection of quality needles and hooks and I love the fiber selection. All of which I didn't take pictures of :-( How can you tell I was a little too excited to be there! I purchased 2 bundles of roving. I originally had just one but Marlene twisted my rubber arm and I bought both ;-)



I fell in love with these bundles of roving :-) I started spinning them the next day!



There was a total of 241 grams of this fiber all together so it took me 8 days total to spin both bundles.



Above is the first bobbin completed.



Dividing the second bundle while I was preparing to spin :-)



Then after a day of plying I was left with 552 yards of a sport weight skein of awesome :-) This is the best skein of yarn I have ever spin so far! The only thing that I didn't like was that the silk in the roving wasn't blended well. So some plies are going to be more silk and other plies are just BFL but I'm sure once knitted it won't be too noticable.

Now I jut have to find the perfect project for this perfect skein :-)

Happy Knitting :-)

March 24, 2015

Making it Legit...

Yesterday I took a big step! I went and registered my business name and registered for a GST number. So now I am officially a business. It's a bit unnerving but also liberating. I find I'm having a little bit of a mini freak out ;-) I love the creative aspect of the business but I'm wavering at the "BUSINESS" portion of it. You know the paper & accounting portion. The boring portion. Which is funny because before I had my daughter I worked in an office setting doing payroll, A/P, Safety, Fleet ect. So this should make me feel right at home. I'm sure it will sink in with time but for now I'm keeping busy with updating my business name on Ravelry, Facebook, Etsy, Twitter, Instagram... ect. 

It was a hard decision but I decided to change my business name from Prairie Knitting Yarns to Prairie Dye Studio. Initially when I decided to dye yarn for sale I wanted to keep it linked to my blog and I had a hard time deciding on a business name. So it's fair so say that I didn't put much thought into the original business name ;-) I've been tossing around a couple names but when I went to register the business name yesterday this name just popped into my head and I loved it :-) I'm not a religious person but I can't help but wonder if it was Divinely inspired ;-)

Anyways, because of these changes I have a few skeins of yarn and some stitch markers with the old name of Prairie Knitting Yarns packaging on them. They will continue to have them until the new stamps and packaging arrive. Thanks so much for your patience and understanding :-)

Happy Knitting :-)


March 12, 2015

And there were 3 left...

Wholly Cow!! It hasn't taken long for most of the SECONDS sets to sell!! I'm left with 3 lone sets of SECONDS. 


Top: 6 White Onyx, 6 Chrysocolla
Middle: 6 Ocean Jasper, 2 Black Onyx, 4 White Onyx
Bottom: 6 White Onyx, 6 Ocean Jasper

Each set is $6 and they are selling quickly. So if you like a set and don't mind imperfections check out my Etsy Shop and pick a set :-)

Happy Knitting :-)

March 10, 2015

SECONDS and Mix&Match Sets...

When I'm making Snagless Stitch Markers for my Etsy Shop I always have extra after. There are the odd number of  stitch markers where the beads made the cut. Then there are the beads that didn't make the cut. I decided to introduce Mix&Match sets and SECONDS! What are SECONDS? SECONDS are the beads that didn't make the cut because of imperfections. So all SECONDS sets are discounted at 50% off :-) The sets are still function able and are still beautiful! 

There are even 2 full sets of SECONDS in:



Ocean Jasper


Then there's Mix&Match SECONDS sets :




Then there's the standard Mix&Match Sets :-)



6 White Onyx & 6 Chrysocolla 


Check out the Etsy Shop to see what's left :-)

Happy Knitting :-)

March 07, 2015

8hrs Left :-)

Just a quick reminder that all Snagless Stitch Marker sets have FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING until Midnight Tonight :-) 



Check out my Etsy Store to see what's left!!

Happy Knitting :-)

March 02, 2015

Free Shipping Worldwide on Snagless Stitch Markers :-)

I am so humbled by the positive response I got from my Snagless Stitch Marker Giveaway on Instagram. So much so that I decided to offer Free Shipping on all the Snagless Stitch Markers in My Etsy Shop until March 9th :-) Below is what I currently have in stock.

Black Onyx  is clean and simple :-)

Chevron Amethyst is a mix of white quartz and Amethyst and because of this mix 
there is some subtle variegation from set to set. They are beyond beautiful! 

Chrysocolla is a mix of greens and blues :-)

Ocean Jasper is a high variegated mineral and I love the eclectic feel of the set :-)

Orbicular Jasper is a variegated mineral which consists mostly of grey, blues, browns and creams. 
I had a hard time photographing these but this is an accurate representation of them :-) 

White Onyx is my go to set :-) I use these for almost every project I have on the go. 
I love the simplicity of this set!

Each Snagless Stitch Marker Set comes with 12 stitch markers and are made with genuine semi precious gemstones. My inspiration for making these snagless stitch markers is my love of all minerals and a need to keep things simple. I was always irritated while using other snagless stitch markers because either  I had a hard time seeing the stitch marker or they were over sized or completely not functional for me. I love the idea of jewelry for your knitting via stitch markers but with the added weight or the possibility of snagging it just wasn't working for me unfortunately. So while creating my ideal stitch markers I chose to go with white wire. It's easily seen on your needles while knitting and they glide effortlessly during transferring. I also wanted to stay with a clean and simple design. I'm happy with what I came up with and I use them regularly for my projects :-)

Happy Knitting :-)