Monthly Archives: February 2013

RAWR! Take Two

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The Second installment of RAWR! is available for sale at Tiny Dino Studios on etsy!

For the inaugural installment, I offered a 6-month subscription. I didn’t have any takers. I understand why, the fee was just a little steep. That’s why this time, I am only offering a 3-month club. However, I now offer two ways to pay. I am offering the good old simple one-time payment option here. But if $92 is just a little bit too much for you plunk down in one go, beacuse I know it is for me sometimes, I am now offering a month-to-month payment plan, which averages to just about $30 a month. You purchase the month-to month option on etsy, paying for your first month and the shipping charges, then I will bill you via paypal for the two consecutive months the same day I ship your order. You can find the month-to-month option right here.

Join in on the fun! You won’t regret it! Here’s a look at what you get!

What is RAWR?

RAWR is a brand new sock yarn club from Tiny Dino Studios!

Purchasing this product entitles you to a 3-month subscription of Tiny Dino Studios sock yarn dyed in an exclusive color way each month. That means will you receive three unique skeins of sock yarn in your very own mail box over three months. This club begins in April 2013 and runs through June 2013. Your subscription will ship on the 15th of each month.

Bases may vary in any variation of the following throughout the three months:
Protoceratops: 100% Merino 3-ply sock yarn
T-Rex: 80% Merino 20% Nylon super-tight 2-ply sock yarn
Apatosaurus: 100% BFL 4-ply sock yarn
Velociraptor MCN 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon sock yarn

Yarns will be dyed using my signature, bright, saturated style, but you don’t just get yarn with this yarn club. Each shipment will also include 1 skein of hand dyed yarn, 2 hand-made stitch markers, two links to sock pattern suggestions–1 free, 1 paid– that I think will coordinate with your yarn. And two links to non-sock patterns if socks don’t float your boat.

And this after the most pleasant twos

Lately it's often about food choices. Sometimes about clothing choices. Last night it was, briefly, because it was getting dark. 46 Reasons My Three Year Old Might be Freaking Out. Funny because it's true. (thanks, jjg!)

Surprise!!!!

And just like that, Lambing/Kidding season 2013 has begun.

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I had suspected we were pretty close to Milkshakes’ and Adelaide’s due dates based on how large and ungainly they were becoming, so yesterday Neve and I confined them to their own pen with some shelter and went to check on them every 4 hours or so.  It was a long night, and my cold seems to have made a bit of a comeback after not getting enough sleep.

Around lunchtime I peeked out and saw Adelaide on her side with her legs stuck out – not a normal position for a goat.  I rushed down with some towels and my phone (Neve bringing up the rear) just in time to see her push out a tiny brown blob of adorable.  I didn’t even have time to call for backup.

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Meet Caramel.  She’s just a little peanut, isn’t she?  Her daddy is Susan’s little LaMancha, Camembert.

Addy’s a bit reluctant in the nursing department, but she’ll at least not fight if we hold her to allow Caramel to nurse.

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Tiny little ears!!!!

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Both mama and baby are doing fine.  Unfortunately my camera battery died just as Cara was finding her feet and starting to hop about.

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Now begins a month of crazy waiting.  I’ll be bouncing back and forth between home and helping Susan with her lambs, so be prepared for more adorable than you can handle!


Tagged: Farm, Pets

Spinach Salad

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Julie’s Spinach Salad

4 cups fresh baby spinach

2 oranges cut into supremes (squeeze the membranes over the spinach for a “dressing”)

honey roasted pecans (a little cayenne mixed in the honey is delicious)

bacon torn into bits

grated gruyere cheese

 

My Tulip Obsession …

I love tulips but never have I enjoyed them more than the past two weeks.  On my birthday my daughter Deb bought these ‘grow your own tulips’ for me and I set about not only watching them grow, but taking pictures of them from all sorts of angles.

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Slowly they began to open…

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…and the photo shoots began.

To see more of them CLICK HERE  to visit my photography blog Through Jersey Eyes.  Go ahead I’ll wait ………… in the meantime here are a few pictures to whet your appetite.

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Two weeks later… their last picture.

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-by Joan-

(Click here to visit my other blog ‘Through Jersey Eyes’…thank you)

******** UPDATE *******

When cutting back the tulips this morning they had a surprise for me… nestled down amongst the leaves was this tiny squooshed bud.

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I moved the leaves back a bit and look at that, another tulip and the enjoyment continues.

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- by Joan -


I Love These Tulips …

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- by Joan -

(Please CLICK HERE
to visit my MV Obsession blog and read more about
the tulips.. thank you).


Kelbourne Woolens Blog Tour: Selbu Modern

kelwoolensvol1I’ve always loved Kate & Courtney’s yarns and designs, so I’m excited to be a part of their blog tour celebrating their new collection, Kelbourne Woolens Volume 1.

This is a compilation of their older patterns, including several that are available as free downloads on Ravelry (such as my favorite, Selbu Modern).  However, in this collection, per the book notes on Ravelry, all of the patterns have been “re-edited, rehashed and improved upon your knitting enjoyment”.

They’re doing something a bit different with the blog tour:  we’re supposed to create an outfit around our favorite pattern.  Fun!  I’ve not really played with Polyvore, but here goes an outfit that you could wear with your Selbu Modern hat.  I’m going for a comfy, classic feel, which is what I think the hat is all about.

Selbu modern hat compilation

Here’s a full pic of the hat, in a different colorway:

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What is your favorite pattern from the book?  Leave your comment on this post, by midnight PST March 7 2013, for a chance to win a signed hardcopy of the book!  Make sure you leave me a way to contact you.  US addresses only, thanks!

Visit the other blogs on the tour:

Current Events

One of those quick, easy questions that I ask periodically because the answer is always changing:

What are you reading right now? (And, is it good? Would you recommend it? How did you choose it?)

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!


Pre-order BY HAND’s Spring Issue RIGHT NOW!

Can you believe it’s already time for another issue of BY HAND? We can’t! This issue is a doozy, with amazing Spring recipes by Lisa Richey and Marisa McClellan, an original knitting pattern by Marie Grace Smith, an interview with Sonya Philip about her exhibit, 100 Acts of Sewing, a guide to using and preserving vintage sewing patterns by Rebecca Blood Garrett and, believe it or not, even more!

We are only selling this issue by pre-order so get yours before they are gone right here.

Review: Medieval-Inspired Knits

Post image for Review: Medieval-Inspired Knits

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First, the facts:

Title: Medieval-Inspired Knits: Stunning Brocade and Swirling Vine Patterns with Embellished Borders

Author: Anna-Karin Lundberg

Published by: Trafalgar Square Books, 2012

Pages: 128

Type: Patterns

Chapters:

Introduction
Albertus Pictor
The Malar Valley School
Tierp Group
Knitting Techniques

KS: Medieval Inspired Knits

The In-Depth Look:

In its own way, this book is a masterpiece.

The author spent years studying medieval churches in Sweden. She says, “Many of the churches are richly decorated with frescos utterly overflowing with luxuriant swirling vines, majestic stenciled patterns, graceful borders, and exciting color combinations. Besides embellishing and framing biblical scenes, painted decorations of various types were employed to emphasize the church interior’s architecture, for example on the vault ribs, around the portals, and bowed windows. In the old Swedish peasant society, for centuries, a person could draw inspiration from these interiors to apply to various types of decorative handwork: furniture making, wood carving and many textile techniques. In my case the inspiration from these fantastic decorative paintings led to … a collection of knitting patterns fur unique hand knitted garments where the painted embellishments have been transformed to contemporary knitting pleasure. A little bit of the Middle Ages to use for everyday–or more festive occasions–in our times.”

The source photographs are beautiful, and the details given–when a specific motif from a doorway or an arch is highlighted and then recreated in knitting–well, it’s gorgeous. The colors, the details, the designs … all uniformly impressive. (Not only for the original, ancient artwork, but for the transposition into yarn.)

The actual sweater designs themselves, though? (Because almost every pattern in this book is for a sweater, mostly for women, but also for men and children.) The sweaters are almost entirely basic, drop-shouldered, color-work rectangles, reminiscent of the Alice Starmore designs from the 80s.

Now, considering much of the point is to recreate the gorgeous colorwork, I understand that the designer would want to keep the “canvas” as simple as possible. Except for some basic shaping at the necklines, there is almost no shaping to any of these designs. The classic, drop-shouldered style (and it IS a classic) is easy to knit–especially when doing colorwork. The problem, though, is that this makes just about every design here … bulky. Square, thick with color, busy with pattern and … bulky. I can’t imagine wearing any of them as anything other than outerwear, and considering how even the models look rather heavy, I can’t imagine these would be, um, flattering to wear.

This is the hard thing, you see. Classic, drop-shouldered pullovers have been around forever … but they predate things like central heating. Most people I know who wear sweaters, wear them around the house, inside their heated offices, or under a heavy coat when they need to go out, and the sweaters here are all a little too warm, too busy, to do that comfortably. (And I remember trying to squeeze my lovely, handknit drop-shouldered sweaters into my coat during the 90s. It wasn’t easy.)

It makes me sad to say that my general inclination with the designs in this book, therefore, would be to turn most of them into things like pillows so that I could enjoy the beauty of the patterns and colors (because they are beautiful), but wouldn’t have to try wearing them. I’m torn, you see, between loving (truly loving) the masterwork of converting the art in those amazing Swedish churches into something modern and knitted and the realization that the finished product looks so, well, dated for modern eyes. Sweaters these days tend to be fitted, shaped, and meant for layering, and these designs, well … aren’t. They’d make admirable outerwear, but if you’re looking for a sweater to wear around the house or out shopping, these patterns probably aren’t for you–no matter how impressively gorgeous the colorwork is.

This book can be found at Amazon.com.

Want to see bigger pictures? Click here.

My Gush: