shop update for the weekend!

Since March was such a crazy month, not too many updates in the shop. But last week I put together another shop update and I love the yarns and fiber that got listed. Handspun loveliness with yak, sari silk, and American Finn wool, as well as some hand-carded batts! If you have been thinking about trying your hand at spinning and want to know where to start, I highly recommend batts. They look beautiful thin or chunky, and draft beautifully. I love 'em. 

I've started weaving this month as a way to distract my mind from some stressful life circumstances...let's just say the housing market in our area is a bit insane! It makes me even more excited to start spinning yarns for weaving and using these batts in chunky tapestries this spring and summer. I've never liked spinning or knitting with much other than wool or alpaca, so weaving with these yarns might be my answer for using these warm materials in the summer months! 

Weaver's Packs and a new logo

As warmer months are approaching and I'm thinking about my fiber practices as I try to keep wool off of my lap, I have put together some natural weaving packs for Goodstitch Fibers! These were so fun to put together. Each one has three mini skeins included, a natural gradient pack, natural texture pack, and a love & chocolate pack. They contain handspun, naturally colored or naturally dyed yarns and come ready to gift tied with a ribbon. 

The raspberry-dyed yarn is beautiful and variegated, and no two yarns are alike. I can't wait to do more solar dyes this summer and experiment with different fruits and dye plants, and am creating a list of the dye plants I'd love to grow in my garden. In the natural texture pack are a few mini skeins of some Corriedale wool that has been raised and processed all within a 50 mile radius of my studio! They're the first products from the fleece that I am working with from Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, NC, and are crazy textured, variegated grey. I love them. 

I have also been working recently with Julia of WoodFolk Knits to design a new logo for the shop. Her artwork is incredible, organic and expressive, and when I found her I knew I wanted her to work with me on this project. You should absolutely check out her work on Instagram and her online shop. Even her sketches seem like gorgeous works of art. 

Have a wonderful week!

handspun & naturally dyed: blackberry love

I want to start out this post by saying that this might be one of my favorite yarns I've ever made, and the pictures truly do not do it justice. A couple of weeks ago I started experimenting with solar dyes. I wanted to keep my fiber soft, and removing heat from the equation seemed like a good way to achieve that. Once again, I was surprised and delighted. Natural dyes are the best! 

This particular batch of dyes were made with local blackberries interspersed with the Rambouillet wool in a jar for about 3 days. The water turned this crazy, vibrant purple, but the fiber itself turned pale lavender, with pops of grey and bright purple and even a bit of pink. So wild! I love the patterning in this wool, the areas where the blackberries rested created this beautiful painterly effect in what would have taken many colors to dye chemically. After the fiber had time to dry, I spun it and plied it with a heathered grey eco wool blend. The subtle shifting shades of the blackberry dyed yarn pop out so beautifully against it, and I couldn't be more happy with how it turned out. 

The resulting yarn is drapey and smooth, you'd guess that it was a wool/silk blend, and not the 100% wool that it is! I'm so tempted to keep this skein for myself, but instead I'll hopefully have it listed in the shop sometime tomorrow. 

More solar dyeing is definitely in my future, and gives me a hope for spring during the freezing rain that is hitting North Carolina right now; the last bitter storms of winter that we'll likely see as March quickly approaches. 

a birthday sale!

On Friday I'm turning 25! All jokes about a quarter-life crisis aside, I'm so grateful to be where I am in life right now, even in the midst of a lot of transitions, and am excited for what is ahead this year. 

My poor Mr. has been sick with pneumonia the past two weeks and we are finally getting to the end of it (hooray!) so I haven't updated the shop this week like I had planned (including these two bulky beauties!) but for my blog readers I wanted to give an extra day's heads up about a birthday sale I'm having this weekend! Starting today, take 15% off your order at Goodstitch with code 'BIRTHDAYGIRL' and get an upgraded free priority shipping for your normal shipping rate (US only for the shipping upgrade). The sale is good through Sunday, 2/14, so I hope that you show yourself or a crafty person in your life some love with sustainable yarns this weekend! 

Wishing you lots of love, today and all year round <3

happy friday!

Hey friends!

Just wanted to pop in for a quick second and wish you a happy, crafty weekend. I finished plying this beautiful Shetland that I washed and carded from a lovely woman in Missouri today, and I think this weekend it's headed for the dye pot. Valentine's being just two weeks away, I'd love to get this into your hands so soon. And hopefully next time you see it - it will be pink. :)

What are you working on this weekend? :)

natural beauty

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my post this morning on a shop update coming up this evening at 6 PM EST. I'm excited to share these with the world and get them into your hands, and on your needles. 

The yarn on the left is a worsted weight, this lovely black, grey and white marl I carded and spun from 75% Rambouillet wool and 25% soft soft llama fiber. It's so gorgeous I almost didn't want to list it so I could keep it for myself! 

The middle yarn is really special because it comes from a farm in Pennsylvania that I purchased when I went to Rhinebeck, The Ross Farm. It's called their "Herd Blend", and is a gorgeous blend of cream and light brown fibers. It's a single ply, but it created a beautiful barberpole effect when it spun, as the core was light brown and the outside of the roving was cream. It's one of a kind and wonderful. 

The yarn on the right is so squishy and soft, a super bulky 100% Rambouillet which is both soft and strong. I loved it so much just off of the wheel, but it completely transformed and bloomed when I soaked it last week. I can't wait to see what it makes. It's a crazy thick and thin yarn but will hold up super well in knitting projects.

Right now I have a couple of other yarns in the shop as well that I love and would love to see make it into your hands, they'd be great for knitting, weaving or crochet. Go check them out and check out these new skeins this evening!

Happy shopping and happy knitting!

the year in yarn

All of these images can be found on my Instagram!

It seems like the MOST cliche thing you could possibly say in a year end wrap up post, but I can't believe 2015 is over. It went by SO fast, and yet at the same time I can't believe that I made some of these things this year, not last year. One of the most special things about all of the things that I've created this year, they fit so seamlessly into my life, so comfortably into my wardrobe, it feels like I've had them forever.

More than ever, I've fallen in love with fiber arts this year. I knit my first sweater, started spinning my own yarn, started my handmade business, and really engaged in my local and virtual fiber friends. I finally found a knitting group that I love! I travelled to Asheville (twice!), returned to Rhinebeck, and knit so many beautiful pieces. I checked off all of the things on my Knit Years Resolutions for this year, which feels so good!

I get a little teary with gratefulness writing all of this out. I can definitely be hard on myself, choosing to see all the ways that I need to improve and grow, and don't spend too much time celebrating all the wonderful things that happen. And these were just the fiber-related things! This year the hubs and I also moved to a house, celebrated our first year of marriage, took trips all over the Southeast & Mexico, started the last year of medical school, passed the final part of medical board exams, and adopted our two sweet kitties who we can't imagine life without. 

This week is still a vacation week for me (hallelujah), and I'm really focusing and challenging myself with some big goals for 2016. So check back for that before the week is through. My family were so incredibly generous with me this Christmas, and I can't wait to get back to our house and set up all of the improvements to my studio/guest room! 

I hope everyone who reads this little blog of mine has had a wonderful holiday, full of love and family and hope. I'm blessed that you choose to spend some of your time here. 

two new yarns

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Florida playing too many board games, drinking too much tea, sitting on the porch too long and eating too many turkey green bean sandwiches. And While there, I was able to finish two yarns that will be in the shop very soon, I hope! 

The first is a 2-ply yarn spun from a pencil roving I purchased at Rhinebeck, a great heathery brown that would be wonderful for an outerwear, something warm and hearty for the cold months ahead. The pencil roving was the first I've spun with, and was very fast to draft, though perhaps not my favorite fiber I have spun. The large skein I got from this 4oz was so worth it!

This grey yarn was exactly what I wanted to be spinning over a break from my regular routine. Thick and thin and altogether an artful, freeform experience. It's a wonderful blend of several wools, including a beautiful merino. 

I love these handspun yarns and the process of creating them, I hope to list quite a few new skeins headed into this new year. 

Lots of blessings from Chapel Hill this season!