Holiday Sale in the ArtFire store - and Store closing for the holiday season

I will be closing the Artfire store on November 24th and will reopen some time in January 2015. I will be spending December recovering from surgery and enjoying time with family and friends.

So, if there is something in the store that you've had your eye on, now is the time to snap it up! And, to sweeten the deal, I'm offering a 20% discount off everything in the store if you use coupon code HAPPY HOLIDAY20off!!!

Visit SplitRockRanch's Studio

SAVE 20% Off All Items

Use Coupon Code:

HAPPYHOLIDAY20OFF

during checkout.

Childrens Products

Some of the recently added items are:

Deep Sea Hand Crocheted Cardigan Sweater Vest

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/10588923

A Fabulous Fall Fiber Combo

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/10589187

Pastel Rainbow Hand Knitted Capelet in uber soft Optim Merino

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/10547011

And a matching cowl in the same uber soft Optim Merino yarn

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/10547004

How about an Outlander inspired cowl? Hand knitted

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/10429858

Or, for spinning, felting or other fiber art, how about some incredibly luxurious fiber?

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/10489515

All sales will help to pay for my upcoming medical bills.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season!

Catching Up

I haven't done much blogging lately, mainly because I have been so busy with so many other things I just haven't had time!

Update on our latest foster kittens - Mack and Mickey - Mack went to the vet for his neuter surgery last Thursday and was adopted on Friday! GO Mack! Mickey was schedule to go to the vet for his surgery on the same day but a few days before the surgery was scheduled he started vomiting at night, had loose stools, was sneezing and his left eye was watering. We made the decision to hold off on his surgery to allow him to get better first. On Monday the shelter called and asked if he was good to go and wanted a current weight on him. I weighed him and discovered he had lost 1.5 ounces in a week! I know that doesn't seem like much but when we're talking about a kitten under 3 pounds, that's a lot of weight - it worked out to over 3% of his body weight. I thought back to any changes we had made recently and remembered that I had started to add the kitten food that they feed at the shelter and thought that perhaps he was allergic to it. So, we removed that food from his diet and he hasn't vomited since then, his stool has firmed up and he is no longer sneezing. His eye is still runny but we're treating it now with eye drops. He also gained back all the weight he had lost and is far more active than he was when he wasn't feeling well.

I have been very busy crocheting new creations. I revised my Mermaid extreme fringe scarf and added additional tailspun yarn fringe on the ends to "beef" it up a bit. It then sold right away.

I also sold the Wild Flowers scarf that I recently created - this scarf was a variation of the basic extreme fringe scarf that I've been making. I was able to get two skeins of the tailspun yarn and was able to make a long (over 6 feet) scarf and put the fringe on all of both sides, creating a very full and very vibrant look! This scarf sold immediately.

I had yarn left over after making the Wild Flowers extreme fringe scarf so I decided to make a cowl out of these same yarns. Here is Wild Flowers Cowl - available in my ArtFire store.

And, I also finished a work in progress - Cottage Rose - a hand knitted triangle shawl/scarf made from hand painted wool yarns. Cottage Rose is also available in the ArtFire store.

So, you can see that I really haven't been slacking off, I truly have been extremely busy lately! Now it is time to take a break from creating and start working on getting all my paperwork organized to prepare our taxes. I always dread this time of year because I am usually so disorganized but this past year I did a much better job of sorting, logging and filing my paperwork so it shouldn't take me nearly as long to get it all done this year. I might even actually have our taxes prepared before April 15th for a change!

Start the new year right with a holiday sale!

One of the things I started doing more in 2010 was knitting and crocheting. I bought numerous skeins of handspun art yarn from other fiber artists for my yarn stash and the designed scarves, etc. to showcase those yarns. I've posted most of the already in this blog but I'm going to share a few photos of my favorite pieces from this year.

I found a skein of handspun tailspun yarn from JazzTurtle on Etsy and immediately envisioned a long skinny boa type scarf using that yarn as fringe. I handspun merino wool roving into yarn to create the "canvas" for the fringe and created "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". This scarf sold immediately.

I created several more scarves similar to this one. Two have sold and two are still available in my ArtFire store. Still available are "Spiced Curry" if you like warm colors.

And if you prefer cool colors, there's "Mermaid" - also in the ArtFire Store.

I bought a fabulous skein of handspun art yarn called "Chinese Lantern" from Cool Climates on Etsy, then designed and created this gorgeous long scarf called "Chinese Lantern". This scarf is available in the ArtFire store.

And another hand knitted scarf designed and created using handspun art yarn from Cool Climates - "Mums The Word" - also available in the ArtFire Store.

So, to start the new year out right, I'm offering a 10% discount to the first 5 purchases from my ArtFire store of any of these scarves or any other scarve or handmade accessories in the "Handmade Accessories" section of the ArtFire store. Use coupon code HOLIDAY10OFF at checkout.

Visit SplitRockRanch's Studio

SAVE 10.00 % On Select Studio Categories

Use Coupon Code:

HOLIDAY10OFF

during checkout.

Steampunk

Happy New Year everyone!

Herb Garden Shawl is DONE!

I finished the Herb Garden shawl yesterday. It was snowy off and on all day yesterday so I didn't get good photos taken until this morning. The photos still aren't that great but they'll work. It was windy out this morning so I took the photos on the back deck where it is a little better protected from the wind. I didn't want those lovely locks getting blown around! I'm so happy with how this shawl turned out.

While waiting for the tailspun yarns to arrive, I found a batt in my stash that I thought would coordinate perfectly with the Herb Garden tailspun yarn so I started spinning it. I ended up with enough yardage to make the shawl, with some left over. I hand knitted the shawl using a pattern from Namaste Farms on yarnmarket.com. I had envisioned a triangle shawl/scarf to use as a "canvas" to showcase the tailspun yarns and was so thrilled when Natalie posted the pattern on Yarnmarket. I then crocheted the tailspun yarn along two sides of the shawl and along the back of the shawl, just below the neckline. I had just enough yarn left over to do a small tassel in the center back of the shawl.

This shawl is now available for sale in my ArtFire store! I will also take payments or do a layaway plan if you want the scarf but don't have the funds right now.

I need to get some nice shawl pins or picks. The bamboo chopstick doesn't quite cut it!

On the needles - Herb Garden scarf/shawl

I'm working on a shawl/scarf made from handspun wool yarn. I bought the fiber from Hanks in the Hood and spun it up into a slightly thick and thin navajo plied yarn. I'm knitting until I run out of yarn; I have 126 yards to work with. After I'm done knitting the shawl/scarf I will wash it, block it and then will crochet the tailspun yarn on the side edges. I hope it turns out as well as I envision! Here are the yarns I'm working with.

Today I completed the first triangle shawl/scarf using this pattern. On this scarf I used ribbon and yarn to create tassels and attached them along the sides. This scarf is going to be a gift.

This scarf is made from handspun wool/mohair yarn and hand knitted.

The photos didn't come out the way I had hoped they would. The wind was blowing pretty hard and it kept blowing the fringe all over the place. But, you get the idea.

Chinese Lantern Hand Knit Scarf from Handspun Art Yarn

Remember the scarf I made a few weeks ago called "Mum's The Word"? Well, I bought another skein of handspun art yarn from the same fiber artist/seller, Rachel at Coolclimates on Etsy. This one is called "Chinese Lantern" and oh my gosh is it gorgeous! Rachel posted photos of Chinese Lantern on her Ravelry page and I immediately sent her a message telling her I wanted this yarn. I knew right away I wanted to make another scarf but I wanted this one to be different from Mum's The Word. I wanted something wider with more of a "canvas" to show off those fabulous Chinese Lantern flowers!

Again, I had another project on the needles and was going to finish it up before starting on Chinese Lantern but I made the mistake of setting that gorgeous skein of yarn on my work table next to the computer and it kept calling to me. So, I grabbed a pair of #13 knitting needles and started a scarf. I made the pattern up as I went along, letting the yarn tell me how many stitches to make and how wide to make the scarf.

And here is "Chinese Lantern" the scarf!

Materials: wool, mohair, firestar, tencel, bamboo, recycled sari silk, fabric flowers, silk and alpaca yarn

Lush fall colors of pumpkin, spruce, cedar, rust, pine, saffron, copper, tangerine, jade and celadon.

Scarf measures over 7 feet in length and 5 inches wide.

Stunning texture and color to this yarn.

Pattern is my own design.

There are so many ways to wear this scarf. Drape it around your neck and wear it straight and long. Its long enough to wrap around your neck a couple of times and still have some to drape down the front. Fold in half, drape over your shoulders and pull the ends through the loop. Your imagination is the only limit to the number of ways you could wear this scarf!

Sure to garner loads of compliments and looks!

Chinese Lantern is available for sale in my ArtFire store. If you are interested in this scarf but don't have the funds right now, I can hold it for you or do a layaway plan. Just contact me or leave a comment here and I'll respond. 

Mum's The Word

Last week I did a trade with another fiber artist - Rachel at Coolclimates on Etsy. Actually she bought some of my batts and I bought a skein of her yarn. The yarn is called Hyakkaryouran Hana - after a Japanese textile.

Here is the Hyakkaryouran Hana fabric

She strung fabric chrysanthemum flowers and leaves on pink cotton thread and plied with a chunky spun yarn consisting of wool, mohair, tencel, bamboo and recycled sari silk in a spring-summery mix of pink, peony, fuchsia, coral, apricot, mint, lime and salmon.

Here is the yarn before spinning

I immediately fell in love with this yarn and was so glad that Rachel had asked me if I was interested in trading some items. I got the yarn several days ago and it has been sitting here at my work station in a zip lock bag, calling my name. I already had a silver/gray long skinny scarf on the crochet hook and was going to finish it first but this gorgeous yarn was calling to me over and over and over...so yesterday I caved. I knit it up on size 13 needles making the pattern up as I went along. I managed to get all the flowers and leaves on the right side of the scarf and allowed it to roll to the center to create a tube.

Here is the finished scarf - Mum's The Word

As promised, here is the link to the Mum's the Word scarf. You can find it in my ArtFire store.