Spring Flingy Thingy is No More

Happy Monday everyone! It's June (yikes!), and the Voie de Vie Spring Flingy Thingy is done. Tout fini. Completed. While I'm just a little sad to see it end (I've been enjoying working on designs for me from Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace), I've got some yarny prizewinners to announce!

My very own WASPs Cowl

Initially, here's how I ended the two months - I literally, finished this project yesterday, 5/31, in the late afternoon - my second WASPs cowl - this one not a book sample, but for me, me, me. I made mine larger in circumference by about 7" or so and not quite as high as the original. I am so thrilled with my final yarn choices as well as how the top stripes are (by design) just a little lighter in color than the bottom. I do love a great tunisian crochet project, and this certainly is one of them.

And now onto the prize draw. Over April and May, people had a plethora of ways to win an entry into this final prize draw (and I've written about the ways both here on the blog as well as in my Ravelry group). One could gain as many entries as one wanted, just as long as that person completed one of the social media/tasks on the list. I kept a running spreadsheet throughout the two months of every entry by date (as best as is humanly possible) and then today had numbers drawn from Random.org. I am so thrilled that the winners were chosen from 120 entries. I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the combined social media love you've shown Voie de Vie this spring. For a wee independent designer/artist such as myself, the new social media friends made this spring are amazingly wonderful. I'm interested in quality, not quantity, and everyone who is now a part of Voie de Vie is certainly quality in my book. So, the winners are (drumroll, please):

Laurie Baker (Rav id: laurbaker) (who started to follow me on Instagram) - 
you've won an electronic copy of Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace + 3 skeins of Drops Cotton Merino

Lisa Hodge (who started to follow my Pinterest art blogging board) -
you've won an electronic copy of Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace + 2 skeins of Berroco Abode and 1 skein of Berroco Blackstone Tweed

Ellen (for a comment on Wisdom Begins in Wonder's blog during the LLGG blog tour) -
you've won an electronic copy of Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace + 4 skeins of Neighborhood Fiber Co.'s Rustic DK + a nifty NFC carrying bag

Jenni (Rav id: JollyLamb) (for the completion of her purple Markham Headband) -
you've won a custom e-book of any five of my individual patterns + enough Lion Brand Yarn Company Wool-Ease Chunky to make the Flying Blanket

And the grand prize:

Denae (Rav id: denmoma) (for leaving a comment on the Dream in Color blog during the LLGG blog tour) -
you've won an electronic copy of Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace + enough Cascade Yarn's Highland Duo to make a Cochran Puffy V Shoulder Warmer + a rather impressive clear project bag + a scenic seaplane flight for two around the Puget Sound from Kenmore Air
 
Thank you to the wonderful yarn producers who so generously provided yarn (both for the book as well as the Spring Flingy Thingy) - Dream in Color Yarns, Lion Brand Yarn Company, Cascade Yarns, and Neighborhood Fiber Co. as well as Kenmore Air, who provided such a friendly, atmospherically awesome backdrop for most of Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace.

I'll contact the winners shortly - what a great way to start June.

A Little Color Adjustment

Hello everyone - I hope each of you had a great extended weekend! 

We are in the home stretch of my two-month-long Spring Flingy Thingy (it ends 5/31), so I am in the process of completing some projects and still working through others. 

As a result, I spent some of the long weekend doing some project color corrections. I am working on two cowls from Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace - a tri-color version of the Cracked Glass Cowl as well as a WASPs Cowl (which I blogged about here on Friday). Here were my original color choices for both cowls, respectively:

Greens for my tri-color
Cracked Glass Cowl

Initial blues and cream for
my WASPs Cowl

Looking good in theory, yes? So I tucked into the WASPs cowl yesterday and pretty quickly ran into a color snag. The mid blue-looking skein (it's really Teal shown here from the Wonder Why Alpaca Farm, LLC) in the middle was all wrong with the other blues. It was not playing so nicely; in fact, against the other blues it almost seemed to have a neon edge to it - definitely not what I had in mind for this cowl. Sooo, I ripped back and started to switch things around. I decided to break up all those cool blue tones and inject something with a warm undertone, as well as jettison (temporarily! this has a happy teal ending - just wait) the WWAF teal. Below is what I settled upon.

The cream skein in the background will remain for the cowl's edging. I swapped out the blue-green shire colorway (Madtosh Light) in the background of the before photo for the lighter gin blue Twisted Sisters yarn on the left in the after photo to the right, kept the Harrisville Design's deep blue and inserted a skein of Jamieson's of Shetland two-ply in the sand colorway which has just enough hint of peachy-pink to warm up the blues. As you'll see from the below photo, I think I made some excellent substitutions.

My WASPs Cowl - take two

I'm really liking how these three colorways are behaving together. That gin blue still has some pop to it, yet with the addition of the warm undertones of the Jamieson's the cowl will play nicely with my skintone. 

Now I still needed to deal with my small teal dilemma - I love the colorway and the yarn and wanted to use it in such a way to get the best out of it. I decided that if it didn't play nicely in the blue sandbox, maybe it would play better in the green one - and eureka! a greeny-blue star was born. Get a load of how I combined it in my tri-color Cracked Glass cowl.

My new, improved Cracked Glass palette

I swapped out the deeper green for the teal, and look how wonderfully it is getting along in its new home. I love, love, love this combination and cannot wait to complete a few other projects so I can resume working on it. There is nothing like a great (to me) color combination to get my project juices flowing.

Color only really comes to life when it's beside other color(s). I am so glad I adjusted the color palettes of both these projects. Now I need to hook like the wind so I can see how they turn out. 

Do take advantage of this last week in the Voie de Vie Spring Flingy Thingy and do something that will earn you an entry for the yarny prize draw at the end. Go here to check all the ways to play, including completing a project in our a-long. There's still time, everyone!

Hey, I Finished Something!

Happy Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday, everyone, on this day leading into the long holiday weekend here in the U.S.

I am thrilled to show off the first finished project from my Spring Flingy Thingy: it's the tester Summer Leaf version of my Autumn Leaf Shawl. I am absolutely thrilled with how this version turned out. 

Initially, I used two different fiber types from deep stash, so there's 1 1/2 skeins gone from stash. 

Secondly, don't you love how these two colorways worked together? The main colorway, weeping willow green from Huckleberry Knits is all about summer, and the Wollmeise green (which I currently cannot locate on the Wollmeise site) has an almost camo quality to it. Together, this is a summer leaf come to life in a shawl.
Additionally, I made this version larger than my original sample, and this larger size blocked really well. 

All in all, a really wonderful finished project, and I finally get on the finished project board in my own a-long. Geez. I was hoping to have my second finished project done today, but it didn't happen. Next week, after the holiday.

Original artwork from
Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace depicting WWII WASPs

My ode to WWII WASPs,
the WASP cowl.

I hope everyone has a relaxing, long weekend. Do take time to celebrate the reason for the weekend - remembering those who gave their lives during duty in the armed services. Given my Spring Flingy Thingy focus (mostly) on Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace, I'd like to take a moment and remember those Women Air Service Pilots (the WASPs) who gave their lives during WWII but have never formally been recognized by any branch of the U.S. armed forces. They provided an invaluable service during the second World War, and there are very few still alive today to keep their stories going. I'll be making a WASP Cowl for myself to commemorate their service - in various blues and cream, the color of sky and clouds.

And I expect my weekend will include lots of great food and fiber. Happy Memorial Day!

A Huge Thank You

Happy Monday, everyone! Since I was blogging all of last week for the 6th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, I did not get an opportunity to wrap up the Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace bloggy tour.

Motifs in process on my own
Nichols Cardigan

First and foremost, I want to thank each blog tour host individually for a great week of posts: the wonderful people over at Dream in Color Yarn, Gwen Blakley-Kinsler of Crochet Queen: Royal Ramblings fame, Sarah Anderson at January Yarns, Karida and Kristen over at Neighborhood Fiber Co., Andrea Morrison and the whole menagerie at Wonder Why Alpaca Farm, LLC, and (last but not least!) Stefanie at Wooly Cakes and Wooden Spoons. Each of these people/entities has provided wonderful support and exposure for the book and its designs. I am truly grateful.

Additionally, each person who commented throughout the entire blog tour has now been entered into my give-away at the end of May. I've also announced the winners of the e-books given away during the tour here in my Ravelry group, but in case you missed it, here they are again:

1. From the Dream in Color blog comments, Jenni (Rav id: Jollylamb);
2. From the Neighborhood Fiber Co. blog posts, Julie (Rav id: knitwit23);
3. From the January Yarns’ blog comments, Jennifer (Rav id: Ironicalknitter); and
4. From the Wisdom Begins in Wonder blog comments, (Rav id: jenlynheb).

There's still time to do any one of nine different things (!) to gain additional entries into the end-of-May giveaway (all of them described in the Rav group linky above or here on the blog). Anyone can have multiple entries, so get pinning or knitting or crocheting or joining while the getting is good. Do you know that the grand prize includes all the yarn needed to make your very own Cochran Puffy V Shoulder Warmer  as well as a scenic seaplane tour of the Puget Sound for two? (and of course, you'll have to get your awesome self to the Puget Sound to take advantage of the seaplane tour, but c'mon, you know if you do it'll be ahhh-mazing).

In the meantime, I'm going to continue finishing several projects I have in process as part of the Spring Flingy Thingy. I just might have a few finished things to show at week's end.

Have a great week, and I'll see you on Friday.

Well, It's a Fiber Arts Friday Post ...

... on Saturday. That's just the way yesterday went for me. 

Nevertheless, this is an update on Voie de Vie's Spring Flingy Thingy, in progress through the end of May (and OhMyBob, it's already May!!!!). I've definitely been elbow deep in fiber, and have many WIPs to show for it, although no additional finished projects just yet.

Progress on my Frosted Espresso Cardigan

In my two public tests, here's where I'm at with both projects:

(1) On my Frosted Espresso Cardigan, I'm almost half way through the shrug, but I now need to wait for additional LB Collection Silk Mohair to make its way to me, since I can only purchase it online through the Lion Brand website (since I'm not in Gotham City). I'm loving both the yarn choice and working up this lace cardi - the main lace pattern is easily memorized so it makes for great night time crocheting - at least until I get to the front portion, but that's a little way off.

(2) I am super thrilled with my progress on my test version of the Autumn Leaf Shawl. Not only am I enjoying seeing the post stitch "veins" of the leaf work up, but people in the test are using such wonderful yarn - so far, Fyberspates Gleem Lace and Madelinetosh Lace - both in yummy colorways. I'm also thrilled with the fact that I get to use up lovely yarn from stash. Oh yeah.

The summer leaf version of my Autumn Leaf shawl design - aren't
those leaf "veins" great?

Now on to the main event of the spring flingy thingy - the Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace a-long. Since I started on two cardigans (yikes!) from the book's collection it's going, but slow and steady. Initially, I am now on the back of my own Definitely in Africa Cardigan. This also is an easily memorized lace pattern, and since it's worked in pieces, this will now become my travel project. In fact, I took it with me to my eye exam last week. Do you know how difficult it is to work on a crochet project when one is waiting for the eye pupil dialating drops to kick in? Ask me how I know. :) Nevertheless, I am farther along on the back piece than is showing in this photograph. I also switched up my edging yarn to something that is far more subtle than the cream I originally had chosen. This is turning into a cardi with a distinctly fall feel.

My current version of the Definitely in Africa cardigan. I don't know if
you can read the notations, but the first front piece is on the bottom of
the pile (notated at top left), the first sleeve is front and center (notation
mid-left) and the beginning of the back piece is at top right.

See the two different cream yarns
playing together nicely

My Nichols Cardigan is working up creamy good. I've got more motifs done than in this photo, and the shrug is also about half done. Initially I thought this project would take longer than the Definitely In Africa cardigan, but nope. I am whipping right through these pieces. I'll be thrilled once I make the strips for the lower portion of it and start the final construction. I'm definitely aiming to wear this sooner rather than later.

Speaking of these cardigans and Leather, Lace Grit & Grace, don't forget that its bloggy tour is set to start this coming Monday, May 4th. (Go here to see all the stops.) Several bloggers on the tour have been spending time and energy on their respective reviews, and I really appreciate the effort. This book is a little (ok, well maybe a lot!) like my child - I have put so much effort and heart and soul into it. The fact that these bloggers are taking such a considered approach to its review is a gesture I appreciate far more than I can convey in mere words. I hope everyone will take the time to visit each blog stop and give these amazingly talented bloggers some time as well. I will also tell you that the first stop - Dream in Color's blog - got a little help from me, since they are in the midst of a major move. I hope you all enjoy the design anecdote I share, which you'll only read there. On Monday. 

And don't forget, everyone who leaves comments on along the bloggy tour route will be entered into my give-away at the end of the Spring Flingy Thingy for a chance to win yarn, books, and even a Scenic Tour Flight of the Puget Sound in a seaplane! How amazing is that? (And of course, disclaimer: you'll need to get your awesome self to the Puget Sound on your own if you're not local in order to take advantage of this prize so, like, what are you waiting for?)

Ok, is that enough update for one blog post?

A Spring Flingy Thingy Update + The Next Art Diary Installment

Hello everyone and happy Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday! This week, in addition to the second installment in my art blogged adventure from last year, I'm also showing some updates on my current projects being made in conjunction with the Voie de Vie Spring Flingy Thingy in my Ravelry group. I do hope you'll join us, because in addition to wonderfully book + yarny prizes you could win at the end of May, you just never know when a surprise yarnie present might be awarded.

While others have made or are working on the Wright Fur Collar + Pin, the Markham Headband, and the Bomber-Inspired Hoodie Vest in the Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace a-long, I've been working on two of the cardigans in the book - the Definitely in Africa Cardigan as well as the Nichols Cardigan. My own Definitely in Africa cardi is coming along nicely: I'm  

One of the front pieces of my very own
Definitely in Africa cardigan. I'm farther along
now, since this photo was taken mid-week.

just about done with one of the sleeves as well as completed the first front piece. I've worked the pieces of this cardi in this slightly out-of-turn manner (at least for me) just to ensure I have enough of the yarn I'm using up from stash - I do, so it's full steam ahead.

My Nichols Cardigan had a slight re-tooling after I swatched the motif using two different yarns in stash. As you'll see below, it will now be cream on cream, which will be quite lovely. The motifs for this cardi go really fast, so while there's only one in the WIP photo, I'm almost done with half of the amount I need. The shrug on this piece takes a little longer, so I'm working rows as I can here and there.

The first few pieces of my
Nichols Cardigan. I do love this
cream-on-cream treatment.

It's definitely a springtime cardi frenzy for me, because over in my first public test I'm working a version of my Frosted Espresso Cardigan alongside my two current testers (and if anyone would like to test this pattern along with us, you're cordially invited). I thought I was going to use Berroco's Andean Mist for my version, but in my attempt to spring clean the stash, I opted instead for a yarny cocktail of LB Collection Silk Mohair in the wisp colorway and Lion Brand Sock-Ease in marshmallow. While I still need to purchase additional amounts of both of these yarns, I will at least use up the amounts I already in the stash. I love this.

My Frosted Espresso Cardigan swatch. These
two Lion Brand yarns play nicely together.

Now on to the second installment of my art diary from last year's LYS tour. This is from Day 2, and as you'll see, things didn't quite go as planned. Oh well, that's the nature of the tour here in the Pacific Northwest, especially when one is attempting to use public transportation as much as possible.

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week.

Day 2:

Spend the morning reworking the crawl game plan because I didn’t make it to all the locations I wanted/planned on yesterday. I am bummed that I will not be able to reach all the rest of the stops via public transportation due to store locations + timing of visits (1 store from Day 1’s botched itinerary isn’t accessible by public transportation at all and 2 others not accessible via bus on Sat/Sun). I am also just a little crawled out from yesterday’s marathon session, so decide to take it easy and stay close to home. Keep finding great, sticky North American-sourced wool, so buy the Jamieson’s for comparison. Also pick up some Noro. I simply cannot resist Kureyon’s siren call, even though it’s not technically new to me. That’s just the way the yarn wound today. Also got some HiyaHiya circular knitting needles (40” cable, size 10.5) that I need for a project, at a store owner’s recommendation that the HiyaHiya cable is very flexible. The day ends on a good note, but was definitely bumpy at the outset.

It's a Bloggy Tour Announcement

Happy Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday, everyone! Where oh where did this week go? Where oh where can it be? It's lost and gone for certain, out there with the unmatched socks.

Nevertheless, I'm here to tell you that the Voie de Vie Spring Flingy Thingy is in its infancy here in my Ravelry group. People are starting to make their way to both the Frosted Espresso Cardigan test as well as the a-long for Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace. Do come and join us, won't you? We're having fun picking just the right yarns for our projects at the moment.

Speaking of the book, I'm thrilled to be able to announce the stops on its blog tour, which will take place between Monday, 5/4 and Sunday, 5/10 (Mother's Day). The wonderful participants include:

                  Monday, 5/4        Dream in Color
                  Tuesday, 5/5       Crochet Queen: Royal Ramblings
                  Wednesday, 5/6  January Yarns
                  Thursday, 5/7      Neighborhood Fiber Co.
                  Friday, 5/8           Wonder Why Alpaca Farm, LLC
                  Sunday, 5/10       Wooly Cakes and Wooden Spoons
                                          (Stefanie of Knitspiring Odyssey's brand spanking new home)

Remember that all the comments left each day will earn the author a chance at some yarny + book prizes in my give-away at the end of May, a chance at the grand prize package that includes a Scenic Seaplane Flight Tour donated by Kenmore Air (and of course you need to be in the greater Puget Sound for this prize, or get your awesome self here ... like ... pronto), and that's on top of those blog tour participants that give away a copy of Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace. I hope all the people will visit every tour stop and give each blog owner your time and attention. 

In the interim, I'm going to enjoy choosing more yarns for projects. I sooooooo need more time so I can make.all.the.things.