Crafting update!

I've still been beading quite a bit, but haven't kept the shop fully stocked for a while now. I just lose money when there's more than eight to ten items in there. Here's some of what I've been doing!







Sensing a THEME? I love rainbows and have been making lots of them. :)

In knitting news, just before Little Hawk had his heart attack, I was working on a sweater pattern called Gex. Actually, I was test knitting it for the designer, and it was a crazy fun pattern and I was loving it.







Actually, I was knitting it when Hawk had his heart attack. And I haven't been able to pick it up since. There's just too much going on in my head. But it's so pretty! I really want to finish it! Someday, after I come to grips with what happened.

I've also been spinning!



That's a new flyer for my wheel, I got a jumbo flyer and bobbins so now the flyer doesn't match.


Some lovely Criolla wool my friend Peacock gave me.



An AMAZINGLY SOFT alpaca batt my mom gave me.



Camel-silk roving that I won in a raffle.

Anyway, that's the main crafting wrap-up! I'll post current projects tomorrow!

Meeting Goals

As you can see, I haven't exactly been posting regularly. There's a number of reasons for that, and most of you know them already.
Hawk is still sick, still has early onset dementia, and is still a lot of work. I'm running Little Bird Studios, and am working hard at making beautiful things. It's really fulfilling, but takes up all of the time that Hawk doesn't.
I honestly don't know how often I'll be able to post, but I'll try a couple of times a week. I plan to do some demos of what I'm working on, post links to cool Etsy shops, post some inspiration pictures, and talk about myself.
I also have a spinning wheel now! It's delightful I got it from Bluebonnet Spinning Wheels in Texas, and if you're in the US and need an affordable wheel, I'd highly recommend them. I love my baby. My mother stained and finished it for me in a custom color, and made and stained a matching niddy noddy. She's pretty awesome. :)

 

It's so pretty. I love it forever. I've been busy making yarn with it, too! My handspun all gets hung on the wall, because even though it's beginner's stuff, it's still ART.

And that's it for tonight! Hawk has pneumonia, so I might have to run him in to Urgent Care for oxygen if he suddenly gets worse. I also have beadwork to do!

Sneak Peek Saturday

I'm posting this a bit early, because I plan to sleep late. (lol) Later than usual, anyway. Here's something I'm working on as a fun needlefelting project.

And, of course, here's Coraline wishing you all a wonderful weekend! See you on Monday! 

Wild Card Wednesday

   Today, I'm going to talk about felt. I loooove felt. It's a fabulous media for crafting, because it's soft, relatively non-messy, colorful, and you can cut whatever shapes you want without worrying about it unraveling like other fabrics. It's also affordable and easy to find, as it's available in every craft store as well as online. I purchase my felt exclusively from an amazing Etsy seller called sweetemmajean, who has wonderful colors, high-quality material, and a very good deal.
     Felt is a fabric unlike anything that has been woven, because it isn't woven. It is created by taking advantage of a natural property of wool. Wool, you see, is covered in microscopic hooks, and when jostled together, they grab onto each other and pull tighter and tighter together, especially if they get wet and are agitated, which means they swished or scrubbed with a lot of force. This is how wool sweaters shrink in the wash- the fibers have essentially pulled much tighter together, making a dense, warm fabric. If treated properly, wool felt can even be waterproof, and the Mongols who still live a nomadic lifestyle on the steppe often use the traditional wool yurt as their home.
      Now, most of the felt that you see in the craft store isn't wool, or doesn't have much wool in it. Its a blend, usually spun polyester or rayon that has been treated with heat and chemicals and pressed into sheets.  That's why I buy the felt that I do- because sweetemmajean's felt is merino wool blended with rayon, and merino wool is very, very soft.
        There are a lot of talented Etsy sellers out there who are making fun things with felt. This adorable Sherlock doll caught my eye, as well as these amazing dala horses. I really want to own a pair of these amazing slippers, and these coasters are on my list of things to make.
       I set up a fun Pinterest board with some fun ideas of what can be made with felt. Currently, I'm making some fun teacups, cupcakes, and birds. Here's a few pictures of what I have right now.

      So, what are all of you crafting with felt? Show me your projects! Please comment and join the conversation! 

In The Saddle

Well, I'm working on getting my Etsy shop's inventory built up before our big move. We are only moving across town, but as luck would have it, the only day we can move is ALSO the ONLY day that the doctor and his surgical team can meet to do the pre-surgery checklist. Augh. My life.

Anyway, I'm hard at work. My workspace currently looks like this:

But in the new house, I'll get a whole room for my studio and office. Yay! I have a billionty other things I have to do as well, its overwhelming. For right now, however, I'm going to focus on having a cup of tea, and doing a bit of beading, and take control of an itty bitty corner of the world while Hawk is asleep. 

See you soon! *waves*

BACK!

OMG GUYS I"M BAAACK

Whew. Its been two years, hasn't it? I apologize about that. It's been a hell of a year, with Little Hawk getting really, really really sick, me having a mental breakdown and dealing with depression, us moving, and now moving again, and a lot of shit. Let me catch you up.

After I last posted, I had to quit school to take care of Little Hawk, who is known as Husbandface to my Ravelry friends. *waves* His Post Concussive Disorder never actually got better. It got so, so much worse.
It got so bad that we moved to Olympia, in order to be closer to his doctors. The doc we got, ended up managing to control the spasms, (thank you, whichever deity cares) but the mental stuff got worse. Now, he has Amnestic episodes. He will just randomly shut off, and be, mentally, in another time period in his life. Sometimes he is a child, or even a baby. Sometimes he's a few years ago. Sometimes he knows me, sometimes he thinks I'm his mom, and sometimes, he doesn't know me, and he thinks I've kidnapped him. That can be dangerous.

While this was going on, I was working full time, graveyard shift. Which meant he was alone at night, and, as I was sleeping during the day, also kind of alone. And bad things would happen. He would suddenly not recognize our house and go rolling off into the street, or have a panic attack, (which would trigger a spasm attack) or decide he was dreaming, and go to extreme lengths to wake himself up, like trying to cut off a finger with scissors or something. Awesome, I know.

So we went through a series of part-time caregivers, who would come in for a few hours to keep an eye on him so I wouldn't have to sleep on a folded blanket in front of the door. They were..less than stellar. There was the guy who wore so much Axe that it set off Hawk's asthma, and called in sick three days out of four. There was the girl who would nap on the couch and text. There was the older man, who was very nice, but always reeked of cigarette smoke, which I am severely allergic to, and he let Hawk run off in a panic while he was folding laundry with headphones on. Finally, we appealed to Manbear, who has not only had lots of experience with caregiving, but has a para-education degree AND a psych degree, AND is one of Hawk's oldest and dearest friend. Perfect. He has been a LIFESAVER.

In the meantime, Hawk has had lots more trouble with falling, in one case nearly fracturing his hip and ending up in the hospital for 30 days. During that time, I had to quit working, partially because I needed to spend more time with Hawk, and partially because my employer was being a dick about me spending more time with Hawk. This bird doesn't lie down and let employers walk over her.

I got another, awesomer job, and we sort of stayed in stasis, with Hawk not getting better or worse, Manbear, his awesome wife Foxy, and our other friend Bean, tried to hold down the fort at home, since I was working twelves. BECAUSE I'M CRAZY.

I know what you guys are thinking. First a year of working full time and going to school full time, then a year of working part time, taking care of Hawk, and going to school full time, then a year and a half of working full time and taking care of Hawk full time (with help). Youre thinking, "This bird is CRAZY. She's going to have a mental breakdown. The only question is WHEN."

And you're absolutely right. I started struggling with depression this summer, started seeing a therapist in November, and despite that, had a complete breakdown, complete with suicide attempt, in early December. It sucked. Don't try to kill yourself, guys. People take away your knitting and won't let you make your own sandwiches.

Anyway, I got better medicated, and started feeling better, and then Hawk had a bad fall, and two weeks later ended up BACK in the hospital with pneumonia  (Glorious. Just what we needed for Christmas) They had said Hawk needed to see a neurosurgeon after the fall, because they had seen something weird on his MRI, (lovely) and so we trekked off to Harborview, two weeks ago.

And holy shit. He has a TUMOR. In his SPINE.

It's a bone tumor that is pressing against his spinal cord, just a hair from cutting it completely. They have to operate right away. They also have to extend the spinal fusion he already has, which means MAJOR surgery, and at least a year's recovery. Hawk is postponing it until after the Super Bowl, and in the meantime we have to move closer to the hospital, in case he has complications, and I have to quit my job, because there is no way I will be able to work and take care of him. I'd been thinking about quitting anyway, because I had come to the realization that I can't work and take care of Hawk at the same time. Because I'll have a mental breakdown. And that's not good.

So what I'm saying, if I'm saying anything at all, is that I MISSED YOU. And my life is INSANE. And I am quitting my job to take care of my husband, and plan to turn my beading and stuff into a full time business.

Pottery, Perfect Sunshine, and Personal Issues

I have been putting up a little more pottery on Etsy this week, after spending a little bit of my spending money on pretty blue dyed merino roving. It was dirt cheap, though...and I can't get a deep blue with my own dyes.

A small sample of the stuff I have up now. 

The money I make in my Etsy store is all I can spend on myself. Our budget is so tight that I can't even take the twenty out of every paycheck for "me" money, but since my Etsy money goes into a special PayPal account, we can't really use it for grocery shopping or paying hospital bills. That's the money I use to keep my sanity at least marginally intact, buying aromatherapy candles, audiobooks to knit to, wool and ect online. Just knowing I have my own little money stash helps so much. 

I'm supposed to be saving up for a spinning wheel, and I am. In fact, to encourage people, I am having a Spring Special. If you spend more than $30 in my Etsy store, (link is on my sidebar) I will knit you a free kerchief from my hand-dyed yarn. Here's one I made from my own handspun.  

If you have time, please take a look at the shop. 

Blech

I'm sorry that I haven't posted a lot. I always mean to, but usually the times I think of good posts are the times I am out of reach of my computer. I really, really need an Ipad.

I've been ill for the last few weeks, and it got really bad over the weekend, infected kidneys, most likely. Anyone who asks me how I am is regretting it. : D

Anyway, I have been carding wool into roving and dying it merrily. Yesterday, since it was raining and I wanted to cheer myself up,  I took a break from the wool (and my homework) and dyed up eight skeins if the Fisherman's Wool that can be found in Fred Meyers. Since the yarn store in town is closing, that's the only local source of yarn I'm going to have, so I had better learn to cope. I got some really pretty colors.

As you can see, the dandelions are welcoming the wonderful sunshine that we have been enjoying today. Coraline has been enjoying it too. 

She's curled up on my favorite wool sweater. Luckily it's the same color that she is. 

My peat pots full of sprouts are really going to town. I planted the spring peas and the beans outside, and so far they are doing alright, but I don't trust the squash and ect for another week. The peppers aren't big enough to transplant, and I have had to replant tomato seeds because the cats pulled up all the starts and ate them. I may just buy starts at the Farmer's Market that starts in two weeks. 

My happy little carrots. 

Watermelons. 

Most cheering, though, is this bunch of volunteer tulips that popped up by the corner of the house. Surprise flowers are such a lovely bonus! 

Kitteh

Picspam Time Again

I have been working happily (in my free time) on Kitten and Bunny's workbaskets. I made them cute measuring tapes based on the super cute ones from Tiny Apartment. Here is Bunny's measuring tape. 

Kitten's was really fun, after I figured the pattern out. 

It has been snowing here like CRAZY, which really bewildered our weatherman. Little Hawk has had his nose glued to the window, trying to measure it on the fence. Our kitties have been busy keeping cozy. 

Coraline loves to watch the snow too. 

Also, I was over at the Purl Bee when I realized that their store, Purl Soho, was having a massive yarn sale. IT"S STILL ON! RUN! GO! 

Anyway, I bought a beautiful ball of five-ply merino, which is reserved for a pair of thick socks for mwah. 

I was so excited when I opened my package this morning that I almost overlooked the extra bag at the bottom. What is this? 

Free goodies!! Purl Soho threw in some beautiful hanks of crewel embroidery yarn! Perfect for a little Fair Isle work. 

 Last, but not least, I thought I'd let you peek into my sewing tin and take a look at some more stuff for workbaskets. 

I love this tin so much I sepia-d the picture! It keeps all of my thread safe and sound. Anyway, here is a knitting needle case for Kitten! It has strawberries on it. 

Interior, with some old needles trying to be models. 

I love the texture of this old cashmere sweater. It provides the perfect accent.