Author: achickthatknitz

Fades

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I’ve finally finished an official “Fade” type pattern!  Yay me!  I’ve made a fade type shawl with my previous shawl “Dotted Rays”  by Stephen West.   I was creative and made the Fade on my own.   This is “Free Your Fade” by Andrea Mowry.   It’s an easy knit.  Guess what?   I made it with my own hand dyed yarn!  Yay me again!

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This takes 3 skeins of yarn in different color combinations.  I made this in my Fingering Singles yarn in Pink, Circus, and Lake House.  I’m going to make a moody, dark one next.

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I’m working every day on my new hand dyed yarn business.  Currently, I’m stocking my “store” on Etsy.  You are sure to find me under “A chick that knitz.”   I’ve got 27 different color ways listed.  I have about 50 total to load.  Once I have all my colors listed, I’m going to have a grand opening sale and everything will be 30% off for the opening.  So go look around if you would like, but remember to wait for the official opening for 30% off everything!  I love a good sale!  (It’s taken me a week to photograph and load 27 colors, it may take another week to load the rest).

I will also have my own “shop” on the web.  I will get that up and running once I’ve loaded up Etsy.  Since I’m brand spanking new with my yarn business, I figured that would help introduce my yarn to people.

It Spring Y’all!  Yay!  My nose sure knows!  I’m allergic to cedar and every other kind of tree known to mankind.  I’m basically allergic to March.  I don’t know how they work, but I have a Himalayan Salt Lamp near my bed and it helps with my allergies.  It doesn’t cure them, but it helps.  I notice a difference when I don’t have it on anyway.

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Max enjoying the long grass before Len gets the mower out for the first time this season.

I’m in-between projects right now.  My fingers are itching to work on something!  I’m looking for a particular project.  When I officially open my store and have the grand opening, I’m going to do a “KAL. Knit-a-Long” and I’m looking for that project.  I want to showcase my yarns and showcase a Fade type pattern.

Happy Sunday!

 

Tammy – A Chick That Knitz

 

Dotted Rays Shawl

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Hello!   Happy Birthday to me!  Happy Valentine’s to everybody!

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This is the Dotted Rays Shawl by Stephen West. I love it!  It’s one of my favorites.  It’s an easy and relaxing knit.  The first three stitches are a provisional cast on and that’s the hardest part of the pattern.   Once you pass that, you are in easy breezy land!  It’s garter stitch the rest of the way with a few yarn overs for the “dots”.

I used my own yarn from A Chick That Knitz in the color-way Romantic Robin.  I made it a fade.  There are many ways you can use yarn color to make it your own.  Browse all the beautiful shawls here on Ravelry

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I’ve started a YouTube channel for A Chick That Knitz and a friend and follower sent me a huge box of presents to celebrate my new studio.  I made this for her.  It’s some of the first yarn I’ve dyed and it’s made of Worsted weight Superwash Merino Wool.  I will have my shop open this Spring.  That’s another plus, you can use worsted weight yarn instead of the fine fingering yarn (you can use that also) so the shawl knits up relatively fast.

I also want to show off some of Amanda’s cookies.  Amanda is Lauren’s mother that lives in Texas.

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They are so cute!

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Look at those on the right with the coconut!  Beautiful!

I highly recommend taking some cookie decorating classes on Blueprint (formerly Craftsy).  Neither of us could have done this without it.  I bet there are some free tutorials on YouTube regarding “Flood icing” .   They will teach you how to get this beautiful icing for cookies.  It’s powdered sugar, water, and a secret ingredient called meringue powder.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I think I will make some cookies myself.  I had to stop making them so much because I was eating them all!  They are so good, you can’t have just one cookie.

Have a fantastic week and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tammy

 

Nightshift in Noro

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My latest creation is the Nightshift shawl by Andrea Mowry.  I made it with Noro Silk Garden that I had on hand in my stash.

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I”m really pleased with it.  It may look complicated, but it’s not.  The color changes happen with the yarn.  The yarn does all the work.   I did not use her recommended yarn.  I wore it out today for a pedicure date with my daughter, Lindy, followed by Sushi for lunch.

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This is what is looks like from behind.

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Max.  Look how big he’s gotten!  He’s all adult now.  He wants to hunt at night and sleep all day.  He is potty trained to potty outside.   He doesn’t use a litter box.  He trained himself.  It’s nothing I did.  The problem with that is he wakes me up in the middle of the night by pouncing and running up my body when I’m in bed asleep.  Sometimes, I just lay there after the initial “pounce” at my feet, hoping and praying he will go away.  If I don’t respond, then the running/pouncing up my body until he reaches my head begins.  If he really needs to go outside, I get the full body pounce immediately.   What can I say?  I love him.

 

 

 

Welcome to the Dye Studio

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Hello!  I’ve been working hard at starting my own hand-dyed yarn business.  My studio is complete!  I’ve taken over the garage!  I have to have a comfortable space for my family to hang out with me in the studio.  My “family” consists of my husband, grown children, grandchildren, 5 dogs and one cat, Max!  The dog beds are coming.  We’re buying another carpet to fill in the other half of the garage.  We want a clean spot for our grand baby to sit down on the floor and play.  The garage floor is dirty, hence, the carpets.  The color of the carpet is perfect!  It hides all the dye spots I spill on it and it cleans nicely with a carpet cleaner.

 

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I’m having so much fun!  I have wanted to have a yarn store for many years now.  The reality of it was just not something we honestly wanted, myself or my husband.  I’m what’s called an extroverted introvert.  I know!  Crazy!  How can you be both?  You can be!  My introvert side doesn’t want to actually go to a yarn store every day and hang out there.  I’ve never “hung out” at the yarn store.  I prefer to be at home, in comfort, with a fridge full of food and snacks, and lots of movies at my fingertips.  Although, I think it’s a great idea and a great place to meet fiber friends.  I love hospitality and am pretty good at it.  I would be a great yarn store owner.   I realized it was just a fantasy and nothing would ever come out of it.

Then I lost my job.  I left of my own free will, but I was pushed out.  I was a little heartbroken to be honest.  It was a blessing!  I’m very loyal.  I had to be pushed out to leave, or I would still be there today.  Sometimes, disasters are blessings in disguise!!!

It’s taken me almost a year since I left the work force to figure this out, but I’ve figured it out!  I CAN own a yarn store!  I LOVE YARN!  Have you seen my stash? ( It’s on an article here on my blog, search “stash” and it will come up. ) I’ve started up my own hand-dyed yarn business!  I create and color the yarn and will sell it on-line and at various trade shows.  I LOVE the trade shows!  My husband and I take vacations with a plan to visit yarn stores and fiber mills.  They are the spots along the way to our destination.  Now, we can go to trade shows, set up my little trade show store, sell yarn, and travel!  Hot diggity dog!!

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I looove it!  Isn’t there a song “I’m in love with my car!” by Queen?  I haven’t heard it but hey… “I’m in love with my yarn!”

You’ve met my daughters.  They will be there to help along the way!  What a great family business!  I can also include my husband.  He loves to socialize!  He and my son are currently planning, designing, and building me an electric skein winder/swift.  That might become a thing in itself for my son.  We can sell those too!

I’m the type that needs a plan and a goal.  I’m still young for “retirement”.  Now, I have a direction for my energy and it’s the best direction!

I’m making a cropped little cardigan in this beautiful sunshine yellow to wear with my sundresses this summer.

I’ve also started a YouTube channel to journal about starting this business, connect with other dyers and fiber lovers,  and promote my yarns.  I’m new at this and learning from scratch so they aren’t great yet, but, they are entertaining!

I’m in the research and development phase of the business.  I’m gathering base yarns from various sources to find out which I like best and want to represent “A Chick That Knitz”.  I’ve heard several indie dyers say they don’t know or care what the yarn looks like knitted up.  It’s the artistic process they like and how it looks in a skein.  Well, I’ve bought a $32.00 skein of hand-dyed yarn and it’s pretty in the skein but ugly knit up.  I am a chick that knits after all , so it is important to me, that the yarn looks pretty in all its forms; skein, to ball, to knit project.

Take care and I will be back soon with an on-line store  grand opening!

One more thing!  Knitters, Crocheters, Yarn lovers, please feel free to give me any input on what you like and don’t like about hand-dyed yarns.  I’m here to please and would really like to know your thoughts.

Take care and don’t forget, Valentine’s Day is close!

Tammy

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Aussiedoodle puppy hanging out with me in the studio.

Girl’s Night in the Yarn Studio

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We had a spontaneous girl’s night in my new yarn studio.  Lauren and Lindy came over to hang out and we painted our first skeins of yarn in the studio!    Lauren knits and crochets and has a love for yarn.  Lindy now has an appreciation for the art of hand-dyed yarn!     (She is an amazing artist!  I hope this reawakens a spark of creativity for her!). Lindy was pretty surprised at how much fun she had.  She is really good with watercolors, so I can see why she loved this so much.

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Look how proud she is!

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We were playing.

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We can’t forget Max!  He is still helping me pose my yarn!

We ended our night eating Mexican bowls at Fuzzy’s along with a margarita.  It was a great spontaneous night with my girls.  We all had a great time.  The girls were tickled pink with their own creations and are eager to cast-on.

On a side note – this would be a great craft to do with your kids.  The math you use is ratio and proportion and would be a great lesson to teach the kids.   They can see math used in a fun creative way.  You need to figure how much dye to use per weight of yarn.  You can also teach fractions with diluting  colors.     Just an idea 🙂

Happy Knitting Friends!

 

Tammy

 

Christmas Cookies

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Merry Christmas!

Look how pretty!

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You all know my daughter–in-law, Lauren.  This is her pretty momma, Amanda.  Amanda hosted a cookie decorating Christmas party for her daughter’s band mates.

Isn’t this a wonderful idea!  I told Amanda about the Craftsy/Blueprint cookie decorating classes and she learned how to do all this from those classes.  Before I took the classes, all I knew was to slab some store bought icing on top of the sugar cookies.  This is so much better and so fun to do.  She said they all had a super fun time!

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Anytime I have the cookies and icing out, everybody that comes over dives right in and has a blast decorating them.   It’s worth the time to watch the classes.

Thank you Amanda for letting me share pictures of your beautiful cookies!

Happy Knitting and Merry Christmas!

 

Tammy

 

Crack me up.

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I love this guy!  He’s very much like my inner child, mine is just not so colorful.

I discovered Stephen West from KnitStars.  I had seen him around Ravelry but he is so “loud” with his colors, I just passed right on by his patterns.  Nothing at all wrong with being “loud”, it just didn’t speak to me at the time.

Then I signed up for KnitStars.  I fell in love with this guy!  He is so charming and such a handsome man.  My husband calls me a 9 year-old all the time.  That’s my child like personality he is talking about.  Stephen West has his “child” out on full display and I LOVE it!  Mine is safely hidden away here at home where it’s safe.

I admire people that can be themselves.  I don’t care how different or unusual you may be.   That just makes you a rare jewel instead of a commonly found one.  The rarest jewels are the most valuable.

I’ve been working in my dye studio.  I ordered some equipment that arrived broken and had to be returned and replaced, so here I wait.  I’ve been playing with some yarn and have actually dyed some.  I’ve also been trying to come up with a label design for my yarn.  Don’t laugh.  Well, okay, laugh if you must.

I’m trying to draw an Alpaca with a daisy on its head and a daisy garland around its neck.  I have the drawing skills of an 8 year old.  My high school art teacher told me I had great ideas but I could not draw worth a darn.  She was right.

All three of my children are amazing artists.  My daughter had to do some community service at the Art Institute in town and the instructor begged her to stay and offered her a scholarship.  She wasn’t interested at all.    Both of my boys can draw anything.

My dad was a hippy.  Big time hippy.  I have  a very unique upbringing.   I’ll have to tell you the story of the time he came over to babysit my kids with his friend the “Contract Killer” in tow.  I ended up taking my kids, my dad, and the contract killer friend to the OBGYN with me. (I’m not making this up.)  At my Dad’s funeral, he came up and was super nice and friendly and told me to call him anytime I needed someone “taken care-of. ” 19225222_10208904777800047_5592424525265611726_n

This is my dad.  He was the most unique person I’ve ever met.  I loved him so!  We used to color Mandala’s together.  He had a big collection of gel pens and we would lay on the floor together and color.    We would color for hours and talk and talk.   I may not be able to draw, but I love color.  I think that’s why I love the 70’s so much.    I love that Bo-ho style that is so popular now.  It’s my style.  Mandala’s, macrame, knitting, flowers, animals….I’m so happy that this stuff is cool again.

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One more thing!

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It’s my current knitting project!

Happy Knitting Friends!

Tammy

Cowls for Christmas

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Happy holidays!  Are you ready for Christmas?  I’m getting there.  I finished these cowls for my girls.

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I made them with two strands of Cascade 128 yarn held together to make a super-bulky weight yarn.

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They turned out super cute.  I’m happy with them.  I know the girls will be.  I made 3 of these with only 2 skeins of the Cascade 128 yarn.  One in each color, then the remainder used 1 skein of each color for the multicolor effect.  I was able to make 2 of them in one day!  An entire day of binge watching Netflix helped.

You can find the pattern Drop Stitch Cowl link on my Ravelry page.

Screen Shot 2018-12-12 at 10.47.12 AMHere is a picture of the first one I made several years ago.  Lindy loves this, she wears it still and gets tons of compliments on it.  It’s made from a more bulky weight yarn.

Two of my girls have already seen these so they know what’s coming.

I’m working on something new that I will share with you soon. Oh.  It’s a good day to block my new blanket I just finished!  It turned out beautiful.

Just found out that the yarn store, L & B Yarn Store, in Norman, OK is closing its doors.  They are having 50% off everything in the store.   I went yesterday, but they don’t open until noon, so I missed out.

Happy Knitting!

Tammy

 

What’s up?

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This is a family from Texas that has adopted one of our Goldendoodles.  This is my favorite part.  I love being a part of creating a happy family.  Of course, there are lots of things that go into making a happy family, but the family dog is important!  This little pup is so cute!  Looks like he made it to a great home.  What a lucky little pup.

I’ve been working on a rather large blanket for my bedroom.  I’ve got three balls of yarn left to finish, so hopefully that means it will be done this week.  Pics soon.

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Welcome to my yarn dying studio!  I know, it’s my garage.  I like to see it as my Yarn Studio!  I’ve got the yarn ordered, the colors, and the equipment.   Merry Christmas to me!

Any Outlander fans out here?  This weeks show had plenty of knitting!  The hunky hero, Jamie, knows how to knit!  He knit his nephew a pair of socks.  It also shows the beautiful heroine, Clair, knitting!  The knits in this show have a following all themselves.

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Luke came over yesterday and we worked together to get my yarn studio up and going.  My husband accidentally shrunk his new little “Gramps Cardigan” top.  His hat is also too small.   I need to make a new cardigan and hat and some little gloves.  It was a very pretty day, but as it started getting dark, got pretty cold.  I improvised to make him a little hat with one of my scarfs. Hey, whatever works, right.

Tell me what you think about hand painted yarns.  I like them, but they are so expensive.  That’s why I’m starting this new adventure of painting yarn.   Let me know what you think about them.  Yes.   No.  What do you think would be better about them?  I would like to know your opinions.

Thanks!

 

Tammy

Brian and Buttercup

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We have Goldendoodle puppies!  I want to share some cute pictures.  This little boy is my favorite!  They are all adorable cute puppies, but Brian has formed an attachment to me. I was trying to take some pictures to list them for sale and he would not leave my side long enough for me to get a snapshot.   I turned the lens around to get pics of him with me.

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Look how sweet he is!  He is giving me a cuddle!  Unfortunately, it makes no sense for me to keep any of our pups.  My pets are his parents.  Here are a few more pics.,

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This is Buttercup.  She is stunning!  She is so beautiful.

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fullsizeoutput_343eLook at her coat.  It is so thick and curly.  Her mother, Sandy, could have been a show dog.  She is really pretty.  Our vet tells us so :-).  Our vet gets down on the floor and cuddles Sandy and pours out compliments to her.  Buttercup takes after her mother.

We also have a few black Goldendoodles, but they are hard to photograph at times.

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The black Goldendoodles have such silky curls.  The creams ones are more like cotton fluff and the black pups have silky curly coats.

If you’ve stuck with me thru the adorable puppy pictures, I have one more thing to show you.   My step-daughter, Bailey, is super creative and talented.  She made me a logo for “Achickthatknitz”.     What do you think?   It’s me.

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She actually started custom making these.  She will work with you to make a logo.  I’m so impressed with her talent.

Happy Thanksgiving !