I wanted to give her exactly the skein she pictured, so after several trial skeins I came up with these (ignore the sock yarn next to them, that was not finished at the time and is now overdyed with deep turquoise):

The one on the far left is actually more dyed than it looks, the bulk of the plain field just happened to be in the front. The on the right was overdyed with a very pale mint green (similar to the wall color, actually) and the yellow and green on the skein is in stronger dilutions, but it is hard to tell. They are different and will work up differently, but once I reskeined the hanks they looked remarkably similar. This is what I sent to the customer for her to choose from. The one she does not pick will end up in my store, or she may buy them both - it's her choice but I wanted to give her some options so she is happy with her order in case one skein was not to her tastes.

The softer, more pale skein:

The stronger color scheme with the mint overdye:

I am quite happy with them, and I cannot wait to see a cute little newborn bum covered in the longies made from this!

"You're going to bring the death of her with your egotisticic blatantly!"

I cringe as I laugh. Especially since this is an adult born and raised in the USA. Perhaps that was the problem...?

Sometimes the simple concepts are the best. Come and waste time with me - my highest score is 388.2

You know you always wanted to smack the crap out of a penguin!

100 truths

LAST:

1. last beverage→ Water

2. last phone call→ Lilah's pediatrician

3. last instant message→ Misty

4. last song you listened to → Summer Rain by Hayley Westenra

5. last time you cried → Last night

6. last text message→ Several years ago

SIX HAVE YOU EVER:

1. dated someone twice→ Yes

2. been cheated on?→ Yes

3. kissed someone & regretted it→ Yes

4. lost someone special?→ Yes

5. been depressed? → Yes

6. been drunk and threw up? → No

LIST THREE FAVORITE COLOURS:

1. Rose Pink

2. Jade Green

3. Periwinkle

THIS MONTH HAVE YOU:

1. Made a new friend → Yes

2. Fallen out of love → No

3. Laughed until you cried → Yes

4. Met someone who changed your life → No

5. Found out who your true friends were → Yes

6. Found out someone was talking about you→ Yes

7. Have you kissed anyone on your friend's list→ No

8. How many people on your friends list do you know in real life→ Depends which friends list.

9. How many kids do you want to have→ At least four more, but I'll take it one baby at a time

10. Do you have any pets → Two guinea pigs

11. Do you want to change your name → I used to, but nothing fits like my name despite how icky it is

12. What did you do for your last birthday? → Had dinner and a movie with no baby around

13. what time did you wake up today → Every hour from 5 am on, thanks to Lilah

14. What were you doing at midnight last night → Writing an invoice

15. Name something you CANNOT wait for → My hair to reach my thighs!

16. Last time you saw your father → Around Christmas

17. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life → My weight, hands down.

18. What are you listening to now? → The buzz of several computers

19. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom → Yes

23. What's getting on your nerves right now → My hormones

24. Most visited webpage → Preg.org

01. Whats your real name → Taryl

002. Nicknames → Shortie, TJ, T-Rex, Teej, T, Giggles

003. Status → Married

004. Zodiac sign → Taurus

005. Male or female → Female

006. Elementary? → Orange Glen

007. Middle School → Hidden Valley

008. Highschool → Orange Glen

010. Hair colour → Ashy Dark Blond/Light Brown... literally indiscernibly in the middle.

011. Long or short → Armpit length

015. Are you health freak → More so than much of the general population, but my laziness gets in the way.

016. Height → 5' 1.5"

017. Do you have a crush on someone → Other than my husband? No. However my little happy place is filled with animated cuties....

018: What do you like about yourself → I like that I am intelligent and friendly.

019. Piercings → That I am still maintaining? Just my four in my ears.

020. Tattoos → Nope.

021. Righty or lefty → Righty for writing, ambidextrous for many other things.

FIRSTS :

022. First surgery → I cracked my head open when I was three and had to have it stitched back up

023. First piercing → Ears

024. First best friend → Hmm... Probably Ashley

026. First sport you joined → Soccer

027. First pet → A hamster named Punkin

028. First vacation → Wow, I can't remember. Maybe a road trip through the national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite when I was five?

029. First concert → Azusa Pacific Choir and Orchestra (I think...)

030. First crush → David Bowie, from Labyrinth (the awesomeness of the music came later!)

CURRENTLY :

049. Eating --> Nothing

050. Drinking → Water

052. I'm about to → Go to bed... theoretically speaking.

053. Listening to → Computer buzzing, still

055. Waiting for → Sufficient motivation to sleep

YOUR FUTURE :

058. Want kids? More, yes. I love the two I have but I am nowhere near done.

059. Want to get married? Checked off the list already

060. Careers in mind? Loving what I am currently doing. I'd love to teach fiber arts at a college or do workshops someday, though, and truly work at it full time.

WHICH IS BETTER WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX? :

068. Lips or eyes → Eyes

069. Hugs or kisses → Kisses

070. Short or Tall → Tall

071. Older or Younger→ Older

072. Romantic or spontaneous → Romantic

073. Nice stomach or nice arms → Neither, I'd rather have a nice ass

074. Sensitive or loud → Sensitive

075. Hook-up or relationship → Relationship

077. Trouble maker or hesitant → Hesitant to a point. The older I get the more I like stability and caution, honestly. Troublemaking and unpredictability are over-rated.

HAVE YOU EVER :

078. Kissed a stranger → Yes

079. Drank hard liquor → Yes

080. Lost glasses/contacts → Not unless you count cheap Target sunglasses in my car

081. Ran away from home → Yes, briefly

084. Broken someone's heart → Yes

085. Been arrested → Yes

086. Turned someone down → Yes

087. Cried when someone died - Yes

088. Liked a girl friend → No, not beyond visceral appraisal... I am more girl than I can handle already!

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

089. Yourself → When the occasion calls for it

090. Miracles → Yes

091. Love at first sight → Not deep, lasting love... that has to be cultivated and comes from familiarity. But strong attraction? Of course.

092. Heaven → Absolutely

093. Santa Claus → I don't think I ever did. If I did, I can't remember back that far.

095. Kiss on the first date → Nope, too cheap.

096. Angels → Yes, in the Biblical sense

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY

097. Is there one person you want to be with right now? Right this moment, no. I am enjoying my (rare) alone time

098. Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time? No

099. Do you believe in God? Absolutely

100. Posting this as 100 Truths? Yes

It's been a very busy week for my dyepots! Three custom orders, continuing to bulk up and replenish store stock, and trying out some new color combos to see if they should make it to the final product. The custom orders, in particular, have been difficult but LOTS of fun. Highly magnified versions of all the images are available in the galleries.




I am doing one that is based on this skein, Berry Berry:

The problem was that the results of that particular skein are impossible to reproduce accurately, because it was overdyed from a dye job that didn't take. There was a customer who loved that colorway, but needed closer to 1300 yards of it. So the only thing to do was make a dye lot from scratch using the dyes from the overdye job, and see what came of it. Upon inquiry I discovered she wanted a more purple-toned skein, so I adjusted the percentages of each shade. it was a very labor intensive process to get tones that rich and involved several dye baths.

The first was the Strawberry/Ruby shade, which was a strong red with high acid twice over. Each skein had to be done individually in the pot because there simply wasn't enough room to double them up or do them all at once and still have the dye take evenly - that requires a pot with about 20 gallons of volume! I was meticulous in the grams of dye used, the heat, and the set time, and so even though these were technically different lots they came up visually identical, which I am pleased with. The colors took very well, but I purposely left them a little mottled in spots to retain the hand-dyed look and feel.

The second color take (third dye bath) was a bluish violet that I knew would overdye to plum. The skeins were suspended so all three could take dye at once, and only a portion of the skin was affected. The dye wicked up the yarn giving it a nice fading effect, and the dye bath was increased halfway through and the dye quantity increased so that the bottom half of that bath was a much deeper shade than the top portion.

After this was completed the skeins were handpainted on the end with the deepest grape purple, so deep it looks nearly black when not in sunlight, and it turned out brilliantly. The pictures don't do it justice.

Here are the skeins laid out awaiting the final steaming, with the un-set deep purple on the ends, in just a strong enough quantity to highlight. This is under fluorescent light so the colors aren't entirely true:

The skeins were then steamed together and left overnight to naturally cool, before being rinsed in Synthrapol to prevent bleeding and then Eucalan to restore the hand of the yarn.

The finished product in light closer to natural. The red is a bit less orange in person, but this is as close as a photograph not taken in the midday sun can get. One hank was reskeined to show color distribution:

It's in the mail and off to the customer, I certainly hope she likes it as much as I liked making it! Complex - but very fun.

Here is another custom order I was working on for an acquaintance from a parenting site I am on. This one is probably one of my all time favorites, it is just stunning in person:

It was also an extremely involved, complex colorway. First, the skein was dyed a pale, toned blue that resembled that great blue you see on old T-Birds. Then the skein was handpainted with no less than seven different blue dilutions - including teal, cornflower, indigo, royal blue, sky blue, and greyish blue in stripes. It was steamed and set, rinsed for any excess dye, and then I sat down and tried to figure out if I wanted to do more for it.

I decided I wanted to blues to be more subtle, as the skein was quite distinct and stripy by this point. I overdyed with a beautiful turquoise just slightly shaded with orange to take off the technicolor edge and make it more sophisticated and subtle. The acid and heat of the dye bath leveled some of the previous dyes, making their lines less distinct, as well as imparting a uniform overtone to unite all the shades. I treated the skein in such a way that the last dye layer took on a heathered effect, further blending and easing the strong shades in the skein. The end product was gorgeous and truly subtle, I am extremely proud of it!

The customer requested it be ballwound (I don't blame her!) and so here is the final product, with some of the shade variation more visible:

Not bad for a week's work, I'd say!

I have new roving to list that is just gorgeous, but I am waiting on a light tent so I can properly illuminate the items for photographs and give the customers the best possible representation of the colorway they're buying. I hate not being able to list my newest creations, but I know they will be better for the wait.

I'll likely retake pictures of the things already in my shop as well, just to showcase them better.

Sales are doing very well, I am loving all the custom order requests as they really challenge my creativity and I must say it feels darn good to be in business!

In kidlet news, Lilah managed to roll over yesterday for the first time! And she did it twice, so it wasn't a fluke. I will add that to her site's updates soon, I promise. Callie's latest obsession is holding up her plate and asking for 'moe' and pointing to every light and lightswitch and saying 'uight' or some permutation on that general theme. It is super cute and so much fun to hear her communicating and putting concepts together. WOW!

Get it before it's gone, and if you love it and want it in a yarn or a bigger quantity I LOVE custom orders!

Nectarine Roving on Etsy

And in other news, first sale party in the house! I just finished processing a custom order and another one is in the queue to be completed as well. This is the first official business in over two years, and it's SUCH a rewarding feeling. I just love knowing someone has my creations and is appreciating them, and custom orders are so much fun! It's a good challenge to really try and capture someone's idea and make something that will exceed their expectations. I am still dyeing away and will have another roving dried and uploaded tomorrow, with any luck. It's Wensleydale, and it felts super easily, so it takes slower and more gentle handling than many other wools.

I am also several other places now, for networking, marketing, and some fun. Want to join me?

My Indiepublic Space Twitterings

Peter dug his out for me because taking crisp images for my fiber was extraordinarily tough. Using no flash and closeups the shutter speed and exposure were both quite long and my hand, no matter how still it was, shook far too much for the quality of image I was looking for.

The tripod with a self-timer helped immensely, and now the last item on my list to making my pictures how I would like them is a light box, either constructed from this tutorial or one premade from here. Especially with it being winter here and overcast most days, with those days being dreadfully short, I am finding it VERY difficult to take a shot with the proper lighting I need. Even my brightest shots look dim unless the fiber is glaringly bright, and I don't want to yse direct flash because it distorts the colors.

Speaking of 'dreadfully bright' items, I have two new rovings listed in my shop, with one more drying that is a real stunner. I am happy with how both these turned out, though the Daffodil roving didn't dye up to the strength I wanted and I needed to do an overdye on the yellow sections, but I am actually very pleased with the results, if not the predictability of them. The pictures don't do it justice, it is so lovely and springy and bright, it will make a softly colored, fluffy yarn when its all said and done... perfect for a baby hat and socks combo or even a wool diaper cover.

The second yarn is a total stunner named Nightfall, and it's just lusciously vivid. Jewel toned, rich, and yet not blaring or overstated, I am almost sad to see it go but I know someone else's wheel will appreciate it much sooner than mine would! It is mainly turquoise and midnight blue with pops of fuschia and violet... just gorgeous, and remind me very much of these crisp, shockingly bold sunsets we've been getting of late.

The third yarn will be revealed, but it is an Indian Summer or Nectarine to me at this point, though the colorway name has yet to be irrevocably assigned. It also got overdyed in sections to reduce the white field and give it a bit more richness in shade, but it was fabulous either way. I will try to remember to post some images of these in my permanent gallery at a later date.

In kidlet news... Callie has been AWFUL lately. She's been sniffly and stuffy for days, but she's tantrumy to boot. Her eating has been terrible and her bottom's unhappy, too. This makes for a very crabby toddler. She just went down for a nap and after three hours of straight whining I confess I am quite thankful. I hope she is back to her normal, cheerful self again soon. Lilah's been a peach, as always. She's really turning into a character and we're having wonderful 'conversations' now. She'll cheese away for a smile or a laugh, and I just adore those gooey, toothless grins (even with the spitup dribbles). She's almost four months old already, I can hardly believe it. I am in no hurry for another one but part of me wishes she could stay in these baby days forever. Each new age brings new joy, but I am particularly fond of this cuddly, babbling phase she is in. I can hardly wrestle her sister into a two second cuddle while reading nowadays, so I am really missing my snuggly babies and Lilah is happy to oblige.

More to come soon, I have to get ready for bell choir now. YAY!

This would be the official relaunching of Aurora Fiber Arts. Wow. I feel so official (though Peter informs me I will be more so when I apply for a business license. Party pooper.) and I am so excited to set out for this chapter in my life. Yay business. Yay!

http://aurorafiberarts.etsy.com

It's empty right now but the dyepot is steaming away. Currently I am just dyeing roving and yarn, spinning will have to wait for more time and children who don't insist on catching their fingers in the wheel or being held all the time!

I have edited the FAQs to reflect shop policy. Watch this space for some of the products offered.

Also, enjoy the spiffy new appearance of the site!