mamalojo

knittery at the creamery

mamalojo — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:33:55 +0000

ive been working on some new designs for fall…scarves, cuffs and hats mostly. I have a few sketches and a few works in progress, should be posting in the next month or so. Ive been riding around town scouting a great spot to photograph them once they’re finished and im excited about the old creamery building. looks like a perfect place to photograph the new knits…anyone wanna volunteer to model? email me mamalojo(at)hotmail(dot)com

yarn for mary

mamalojo — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:51:16 +0000

so my sweet friend mary wanted a yarn with some sparkle, maybe a little pink…mostly natural and not a super huge gage. so i carded up some lambswool, polypay and merino silk blend…carded and spun in a shit-ton of sparkle and its finished. i used to make custom-ish yarns all the time, so it feels great to get back into it. i like it when people like something and then i can sort of make it however i feel about what they said. its like a challenge and i enjoy it. enjoy mary…i love you!

weeeee fabric dyes!!

mamalojo — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:02:06 +0000

yay…making retail agreements with various companies is fun! I am getting ready to order fabulous flavors of cushings dye…one of my favorites for color saturation, fastness, ease of use and price. i will have these dyes available for sale on my website as well as at the learning workshops for folks to experiment with some creative dying methods. they will probably be about $4 per envelope…but ill post soon, so check back in a week or so for that!

learnin’ circle

mamalojo — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:10:58 +0000

im getting ready to offer some fiber dying and carding workshops in my home. im getting supplies ordered and worksheets designed. it will be a night of fun, i tell ya! two nights to be exact…first night will be dying wool and carding, next night will be carding wool and learning to spin using a drop spindle. i still have to figure out how it will all work out, but with a glass of wine, good music and fiber everywhere, it should be a blast for anyone who joins! in the meantime, paperworks are being faxed and schematics drawn up, supplies ordered. eek! im excited!

mad carding

mamalojo — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:43:52 +0000

when i card batts, its usually at 2 am and its sheer madness. lovely really…were all doomed, were all doomed

i cant stop reading and rereading and cracking up at the sleep talking guy, check it out here. sewing some sweet little felt lined wallets for your phone, chopsticks or deck of playing cards. will list soon! xoxox keep it real

organ izing

mamalojo — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:46:00 +0000

yep…new shelves, lots of yarn and fiber…um…everywhere and keeping them out of tiny hands is like the major challenge. so its early spring cleaning around here…as always every winter as soon as there a handful of sunny days i jump at the chance to spring clean. what chaos…what fun!

whats coming

mamalojo — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:40:46 +0000

what i am, and what i am not…that is the statement of the day. I have a yarn midway on the wheel, waiting to be finished and plied. I have cute necklaces almost finished that i will post under the “other stuff” section. I am waiting for a load of fiber to come. waiting….waiting…cant wait! I am trying to figure out a way to feed Matilda’s facebook on this site…and making available some of her more striking photos for you to download (make cards, screen savers, framed art…whatever) I have been messing around with some of the illustrations and some other photographs to bring to you a fabulous coloring book…i am carding some beautiful batts using some processed natural cotton i scored at our local art and crafts warehouse…thats mostly the yarn news. And i wish i could spend all of my waking hours actually finishing these things…but alas we move on to what I am vs. what i am not. I am a full time mom…and so instead of making batts and coloring pages, i took my two sweet girls for a bike ride and we cruised all over town. ran errands, grocery shopped and tried with all our might to hang out with the firefighters. I will confess that i put having fun with my kids first on my list. What I am not is someone who will deny a bit of baby tossing and dress up tea parties in favor of some spinning. I do think about it often…how much i could really get done if I quit sharing tea and doing puzzles with the littles….but ill never stop being a kid at heart with them, thank goodness!!

On a lighter note…biking all over town today proved that Arcata is chock full of random beauty and a perfect place to photograph my next project: knitting in public weeeee!

line drawings and coloring books

mamalojo — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:44:02 +0000

line drawings. im so in love with them. i love contour and i love the flat simple style of a good line drawing. And so i also love coloring books. My friend showed me a coloring book he received as a gift and it was so amazing and perfect, that i feel inspired to create a yarn and craft coloring book…ya know, for all the kids and adults too, of course. i finally finished the line drawings for the website and im planning on using them, or versions of them in the coloring book. what fun!

tillys new dress

mamalojo — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:50:04 +0000

so i was freeform knitting this hat, which turned out to take on some odd twists and turns in respect to its…um…shape. I think that the engaging conversation i was having while casting on for this “hat” allowed for this beautiful disaster to take form. i know! Im always looking to blame…okay enough of that….i just didnt realize that i was actually knitting a dress for matilda. anyway, its perfect for her and she loves it…such a nice winter gown….now if i can just felt some matching hair it would be perfect…but the freshly showered look is cool i think.

spinning is worth it

mamalojo — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:41:45 +0000

ill admit, i have not been working very hard the last few months…well thats not entirely true. I have been working hard, but I sure havent been making yarn the way I could be…and instead I have been preoccupied with babies, ballet dancing 4 yr olds, listening to david sedaris, mastermindin’ my music collection….hey do you remember that peg board game, mastermind? I loved playing that game! Anyway, I have been enjoying the outdoors with my best friends, taking photographs of beautiful birds, and reading about a dozen books of which none I am even 1/3 of the way through. So your thinking…who cares? I know…its like…so talk to me when you post some new yarn already…because otherwise this is just boring! well Ha! I did spin two new yarns and i didnt even stop when my tiniest little found some orange paint (hrm, maybe she cant open it) and some purple paint (same thought) and then some brushes…and then she spilled it on the carpet (oops) and then some more…and im looking down at all this freaking awesomeness being spun from this kick ass rainbow batt…and I just let her go. the spinning is worth it. the yarn was sooo worth it. And if I dont nod off mid-sentence in the next few moments, i will post them. and its all for you

ummm. yeah.