Wow. I can’t believe this is TOMORROW. I’m giddy, nervous, skeered, excited… And do I have everything ready? Gee, of course not. Not yet. So close, yet SO far away. Thankfully it’s a four day event, whatever I forget/don’t complete for tomorrow’s set up and preview, I’ll make darn sure I have ready for Thursday morning.

Dahara Dreaming’s FaceBook Events has this all set up, but here are the awesome details:

Columbus Convention Center
400 N. High Street
Columbus, Ohio

Hours:
Wednesday: 4 - 6pm
Thursday: 11am - 6pm
Friday: 11am - 6pm
Saturday: 10am - 4pm

And since you’ll be looking for us (hehe), here’s what to look for - COLOR.  Sort of like this (our setup from last Saturday at Yellow Springs Street Fair) - main difference here is that there will be yarn. Lots. Of. Delicious. Yarn. It’ll be everywhere. All the products of Dahara Dreaming, Wildflower Skin Care, I Dye Yarn, KaeBrook Kreations and Angel Squares will also be there - Knitters Connection said to just bring everything. Gotta love that!

Shout out to the hubster too, our tent braces snapped. On three sides. With duct tape and extra bags of sand that poor baby stayed up the entire time. Thanks too, to Yellow Springs who told us just to leave the busted equipment for street cleanup.

So, Knitters Connection 2009 starts tomoorrow, yo!  I so hope to see y’all there, whether you knit, crochet, spin, or just want to see something new.

Oh - and side note, my harvest bag that I previewed in my prior post debuted at Yellow Springs — sold three of them. I am one proud pattern creator. Since each one is unique, here they are.

I must  be crazy because I’m seriously trying to churn out 4 more by Thursday. Crazy. Yep. And lovin it.

Keep dreaming, friends. It’s like hope, it’s eternal, it’s strength, and it’s beautiful.

Wow, that is tomorrow morning! I’m so excited! Sad thing is that my brother, who I believe reads this blog, asked me if I was going to be there tomorrow. I just thought, well, suck. I didn’t get the word out.  I’m lagging in my blog - though I do have it on FaceBook.  You can find me on Corey Street, next to the general store.  I’m the booth with tons and tons and tons of color.

There’ll be lots of new stuff - but as I’m inventorying right now, I can’t even photo to sneak peak ya. I know, I’d be bummed too.

Hmmm - I do have a photo or two of some things I’ve been working on. One sec…

Here’s first ever pattern design all by yours truly - the Harvest Bag. This is just the mock up, and is unpressed. Be gentle with her. She was through a lot.  Her progeny, though there are only five, will be at Yellow Springs with me.

I will have Wildflower Skin Care’s new Body/Rescue Balm - oh man is it ever amazing. The beeswax makes those awful dry/scaly spots feel all normal again.

My hand dyed ruanas (aka wraps) in cotton / bamboo velour - some with shibori stitching. Here’s one that I still have yet to finish the edges. Still cute as hella!  Like that picnic table in the background dontcha.

Bunches of other things, but more importantly, I need to get it all together to take with me. See ya there — and keep dreaming.

This has been one of those great weeks. With the exception of Sunday through Wednesday night having giant golf balls covered in shards of glass going at breakneck speed through my head, it was fan-tas-tic.  Even days of migraines can’t mitigate the goodness that was this week.

Why? Well, figured out I am super-duper sensitive to the sun and heat. Got myself some excellent electrolyte supplements to put in my water so I don’t have the whole hellish headache gig going on again  - thanks to Chuck from Raisin Rack.  Why else? I finished re-skeining all my currently dyed yarn.  I wrote a pattern for baby/toddler booties out of bulky yarn (it will be free here - I’ll post it either tomorrow or Monday).

The daughter and I went to JoAnn’s and she had so much fun looking through the pattern books. Sigh.  A girl after my own heart.

I went to Creekside with daughter and hubster (which is incredible considering his work schedule of late).

Went to the Franklin Conservatory Butterfly Exhibit with my daughter.

We played the final chapter in Changeling last night with our friends (Julia of the Goblin Toybox was the GM, Jenise from Happy Squash Toys was a terrific brain-eating Redcap).  I just got all the laundry folded (six loads, no less).  My father’s trip to the emergency room was manageable and he’s doing fine.  We planted our flower and strawberry plants Thursday evening.

And today, today, is good. Finishing up some jewelry, getting some yarn in the soak for dyeing, writing this blog, working on a custom order form for my shows, drinking a cup of tea, the hubs and daughter are napping, and I’m about to start cutting into tons of fabric. What have y’all been up to lately? For good or bad, it’s worth a telling.

Keep dreamin’, I’ll be back in twenty-four or forty-eight. With or without sleep remains to be seen.  I leave you with a photo taken by the daughter:

Well, in my blog post about my “fabric diet” (yeah right), I mistakenly mentioned Tula Pink as having contract issues, when in fact, it was Heather Ross.  Both designers I love dearly. Well, Jen (the mastermind behind Tula Pink) contacted me to let me know about the error, which I quickly fixed. Funny thing was, she thought she freaked me out. What she might not have known is that I was thrilled that someone caught my mistake and that she! of all folks, took a personable, what the hay, approach.

Then, oddities of all oddities, she apologized and offered to send me fabric.  Though I asked her to comment on my blog, in lieu of fabric (mom, don’t have a heart attack reading that!), I didn’t turn her down either (I’m not completely crazy).  And, in what was a mere three days, I was sent 5 fat quarters from her Neptune line. Which I adore. And makes me very glad for the eight Neptune charm packs I’d ordered a week ago.

Though I blithely await the ability to purchase Hushabye, I have a very special dress for my daughter planned out from this. Thanks Jen, for just being awesome.  For realz. I have something special in the works and soon to be on its way to you as well for the Pay It Forward gift giving.  There are four colorways in Hushabye, Grass just happens to be one of four of my favorites.

In other fabric news - Patty Young’s Mezzanine.  Ya know, at first I didn’t jive with it.  Bold colors sometimes jar me the wrong way after dyeing yarn - which I don’t really do in bright bold colors. But after I took another look at it after making jewelry for a few hours - which I do do (heh) in bold stones and colors, I really admired it. Especially the stained glass and gothic flower prints. Can’t wait to get some of that either. I have a fabric problem. It’s medicated by purchasing more and making things that make me smile out of it.

Then, while perusing the latest posts in my Google Reader; I saw that Patricia, owner and designer of Art Gallery Fabrics had a new line up, Color Splash.  I love the asian / chinoiserie feel to this, and yes, feel the need to have may of these prints. In many yards.

And in my own tiny corner of the world, I have six new colorways! One isn’t pictured below since my good friend Val took her ball home, and left it there. Gawd, what is she, the underslept mother of two kids under four?  Anyway, here are the other five, and I gotta say, I love ‘em.

From left to right:
Top row: oranges are unnamed, the other is Storm Sky.
Bottom row: purples are unnamed, Leaf Sky Sun, Petals

That’s all for today folks. I have tons of stitching to do for shibori dyed goodies this week in time for Oddmall.

Keep dreaming y’all, it’s the stuff of life.

Most often, I just have an attitude - whether it be grumpy, smarmy, happy, excited, angry, disappointed, thrilled, cheery. I bring it all with ‘tude.  Just ask my loved ones [insert mocking grimace and slight eye roll]. Anyway, I’m sitting here making jewelry and thinking, wow, I’m really, really grateful. For A Lot.

The past couple of days have been hard, with looming deadlines, migraine warning signals, a delicious child who won’t.stop.asking.questions. (I know, I know), and just not enough time in the day to finish all the things that need to be done. So I shall take some time to just be grateful. For stuff. And list it. Here. Randomly. (you’ll see).

My husband. Has begun to really start giving me the time to work on this business. He’s always been for it, but just these past two weekends has given me time to work, in a steady stream. Which has done wonders for me, my mothering, and my wifeing.

These measuring cups by Preserve. Brand new from Drugstore.com - I was missing the 1/4 cup in my old set… can’t fathom how that might of happened (hey little girl, why are you cooking crayons in my measuring cups?). Anywho… I’m grateful because they’re made from recycled plastic and are 100% recyclable. That’s the way to do it. And adding those to my cart got me a free goodie bag from Seventh Generation. And now I have a 1/4 cup measuring cup. Even though it’s not pictured. It was just used in tandem with the next item. Good thing.

This waffle maker from Eliza. I was borrowing my friend Julia’s, so I’m twofold grateful to Eliza. We have good waffles, I don’t have to bug Julia, and well, Eliza is just awesome.

My eight new colorways went from looking like tangled skeins to pretty wound balls.  And yes the photos are full of suck, I just wanted to show them off a bit.  When they’re all skeined up and in the shops, they’ll look tons better!

Moonlit Dusk    ////    Fiery Fall

Herb Garden    ////    Sunrise

Forest Moss    ////    Giggling Gnome (no photo of the wound ball I gave away for sample knitting)

Spring Breeze    ////    Pixie Dance

My friends Val, Heidi, Kim, Brandy, and Ez (who dyes her own amazing yarn!) who are knitting samples for me in trade for the remainder of the skein of yarn.  Because I am so thoroughly neurotic about knitting my own colorways. Perhaps terrified is more apt?! That what I envision in my head is not as beautiful as *I* think, you know!  I’ve got four samples in my hands that I’m staring lovingly at. I have 16 coming and I’m all itchy antsy about it.

I have my first show of the year this May 9th, Oddmall ~ Emporium of the Weird. Won’t be taking the oodles of yarn I’ve been dying - but will be able to take lots of the funky other things I’ve been working on. Y’all will see come next week!

These shoes from Land’s End. My first new shoes in years. They’re so freaking comfortable. And the green ones are like tennis shoe comfortable, but pretty. Which is something I haven’t had in a long while.

My daughter. Who even while this past week I have had to tell her I needed 5 minutes of No Questions Being Asked, and the resulting meltdown of not being able to ask said questions for five minutes, I love wholly.

My nephew E had his tonsils taken out today, and is doing well. I’m grateful that it was an “easy” operation and that he’s going to be the better for it.

My jewelry is looking awesome.

I have tons of fabric cut and ready for the serger and sewing machine.

Last but not least, thankfulness, for being grumpy. Because when ya come out of the funk, your perspective is just that much brighter and full.

Keep on dreaming y’all, it’s what keeps us alive.

Yep, got all the blank silk hankies, scarves, long underwear, as well as some silk/rayon velvet scarves and silk/wool scarves I had left over dyed yesterday and today.  I can’t stand waste so I use all the left over dye from the yarn. Well, not all the dye, but all that I could and not mix any new dye. It can be a challenge, but it’s fun and the outcome is beautiful.

Anyway, the purpose of today’s post - I’ve been reading tons on shibori - wrapping, tying, folding, rubber banding, stitching - there are endless ways of doing each that create infinite and gorgeous results.  Here are five I finished today - each one either had marbles tied into it, was folded in a specific way, or both.  I. love. this. stuff.

I got over my fear of trying new stuff and just went for it. I folded in ways that looked interesting. I rubber banded plastic spoons into some pieces (none here), I tied marbles in 1’s, 2’s, 3’s and 4’s - all with different effects. I shadow dyed, over dyed, over wrapped. And I can’t wait to do more. Oh Dharma Trading Co., how I love thee.

And, dh totally helped me out - I couldn’t stand the thought of throwing away saran wrap after dying a single skein of yarn, or a few silks, wrapping it up in the saran wrap, microwaving (to set the dye), and then tossing it.   So, he thought of a pretty neat re-usable solution - visqueen. 1mil and 2mil plastic sheeting. I’ve been able to reuse one package of the 1mil thus far to dye 40+ silks and 40 skeins of yarn.  Shout out to the dh.  I rinse, hang to dry, and reuse. Until there are too many holes to use it.

Until later, remember to wear gloves while dyeing and rinsing, or be prepared to be asked what you did to bruise the hell out of your hands. Tsk tsk tsk. I can’t fathom anyone forgetting to wear gloves.

Got some nice dm’s on twitter and FB letting me know that, hey, some folks couldn’t enter. Nice to know that I’m a complete idiot when it comes to the internets Anyway, one more week on the contest - making that a new end date of Thursday, April 9th. Okay, technically, that’s only 4 days from now.

And, so this isn’t some boring update on how I don’t know anything about how my own blog works, here’s what I’ve been working on:

Skeining (and gods my arms and shoulders hurt). Pictured below is approximately 90 skeins of yarn. With more on the way. But I totally need a break. Everything dyeable is now skeined for dyeing. Should have been ready over a week ago. But, whatevs. Thank goodness for roving/top. You weigh it and cut it. Done.

By the way, after my trifecta of June Shows (a post coming later in the week), I’m buying an electric skeiner. My body deserves it. Here’s my current low-tech, high-energy setup:

And currently, prepping craft and wool felt. Yep, I wash even that stuff. And iron it. Because I’m OCD.

(This is also why it’s 2:25am and I haven’t updated until 3 days after the original end of the contest. Ugh. Oh, besides totally rearranging the house <again> and a sick child [which will forever trump all].)  Enter the contest. Win something for yourself or to give. Until then, keep dreaming, and keep creating.

ps: welcome back home, Dad!

Welcome to week two of the relaunch! The site is getting cleaned up, product is being listed at a phenomenal rate - and many, many more surprises are on the way!

Mondays are becoming magical days for me - the things I can make progress on or get finished/started in the space of a week amaze me.  And as I typed that - a thought occurred to me to do something to start of the wonder of each week… next week I’ll be starting a little something something for Mondays. No longer the dreary day of ‘back to work’… let’s give Monday a new perpsective, and thus, give us power over what many think of a sucky day!

But I digress.  Last week, one product I noted in my last post did not get listed - it’s being done tonight! I remind myself that I do this so I can be flexible in hours and spend time raising my daughter - which is far more important than anything I do here.

So tonight - the hand dyed silk handkerchiefs are being listed. They’re gorgeous and I cannot wait to do more to present to all of you!

Coming up this week, the week of September 1st:

* Brandywine Designs has two new products coming

• Fabulous Tulle Fairy Skirts for your little ones. They’re absolutely stinking adorable.  I can’t wait for her to make me one for Halloween… (Brandy, consider this your formal request).
• Ribbon Hair clippies - to keep even the wispiest of hairs at bay. Or, in my case, some of the thickest hair in the cosmos.
• Many of Brandywine Designs products from HyenaCart will also be transferred to Etsy and DaharaDreaming.com.

* Dahara Dreaming will have five items for the mama fairy and her little one

• Cute fairy-inspired handbags (yes, you read that right).  They’re not sensible, but sheesh are they fun.
• Pixie wrap tulle skirts - it’s an apron! No, it’s a skirt! No, it’s a cape! No…. it’s whatever your little one wishes it to be… and they’ll be in adult sizes soon, too.
• Hand dyed cotton scarves, wait, it’s a belt, wait, it’s a head wrap. Whatever the hell it is, they’re cute and wearable. Oh! And washable.
• Hand dye silk scarves… see the hand-dyed cotton scarf bit (I could only type that once without feeling absolutely ridiculous).
• Hand dyed play silks - 3 different sizes, all colors and in the shibori and watercolor style. All are magical and delightful. Yes, I’m biased. But only a bit.

* The Goblin Toybox has some new goodies

• Two cute little stuffed critters (you’re going to have to wait and see bwahahahaa)
• Two amazing felt hand puppets (again, I’m such a tease!).

So there it is. The enchanting products coming up for the week. And next week brings even more wonderful goodies!  It’s like Christmas in July. Wait, the Equinox in September.  Or a September Solstice just for the heck of it! Okay. Going to maybe drink some chamomile tea to calm the excited jitters down. But just a bit.

Dahara Dreaming’s site relaunch began today in full force. The relaunch will continue until September 30th, with brand new products available each Monday. You’ll notice a lot of category and visual changes both to the blog and website.

So what’s with the relaunch?

As noted before, Dahara Dreaming was all over the place. There was no cohesive vision. Now there is. “Handcrafted goods with a touch of magic and mischief”.  Think of fairies, elves, pixies, trolls, goblins (friendly, if grumpy, of course!), quiet woods, bubbling brooks, wearable everyday “fantasy” clothes and accessories, exploring magical ideas, nooks, and crannies. That be the idea.   That’s also why there are a ton of products in the Sale! section - with plenty more to come.

What’s coming up for this week, then?

Week of Monday, August 25th:
* Dahara Dreaming showcases 10 new yarn colorways on four skeins each.

• 3 fibers will be on www.DaharaDreaming.Com
• 1 fiber will be on www.DaharaDreaming.Etsy.com

* Crafts by Angela is a new artist!

• Hand carved candles
• Custom orders will be available

* Dahara Dreaming’s dyed silks

• Watercolor and shibori dyed handkerchiefs and gift bags

I am so passionate about bringing a touch of magic into the every day I can hardly contain myself!  All the ideas and reasons behind making things makes sense in my head and heart now.

Before I get to the yarn induced fever I’ve been in over the past 72 hours, I have been accepted into one of the seven shows I’ve applied for! I know two others are fair game to say I’m a shoe in, but until I get the emails, phone calls, or letters, I try not to count ‘em - but I got the acceptance email for this one last week:

Dahara Dreaming will be exhibiting at
Old Worthington Market Day, Saturday September 13th, 2008
It’s here in Columbus, 9am - 4:30pm, rain or shine!

Woot!

In other news, I have 10 pounds of yarn fiber dyed. They are gorgeous! I am, however, a tad bit biased. Here’s a rundown of the lowdown:

My favorite swift ever. Captain even thinks so.

10 pounds wound and bagged - 4 different fibers in each bag. I really wanted folks to see how these new colorways took, and how differently each yarn takes dye. There were some serious surprises.

Here are four pounds of the loveliness waiting to be reskeined. I adore these colorways! Bright and vibrant and a bit in your face. Sort of like me at times.

Representatives of four out of the ten pounds (6 colorways are still going to be a suprise!) reskeined and waiting for tags. This terrible photo was taken in due haste for this post, but I likey. Proper photos will be taken next week and luscious detail will be available.

The yarn portion of the relaunch is done. Phew. That was some serious labor. Previews will be available in a few days in the shop - for all ten colorways. I know I said 8. I just tend to overdo… well, almost everything!