The Wonders of Connecting Over The Internet

One of my most recent passions has been fiber arts. I started with crocheting and now I'm on to knitting. If I don't have at least 2 projects going at a time, I feel lost and idle.

A couple of months ago I stumbled across Yahoo Groups and out of curiosity searched for "knitting". I got a couple of hits and one of them was Knitting For Cheap. This is an international group that serves as sort of a newsgroup about thrifty ways to get our hands on fun fibery things. Sometimes its another member destashing, sometimes its an announcement of a good sale or new coupon, and other times its something entirely more interesting.

As part of the Knitting For Cheap group, I started periodically getting emails from Phat Fiber announcing giveaways on their blog. For the first several I thought to myself, "That's cool of them, I'll have to check that out some time." Eventually I did go look, but then thought to myself "That's awesome, but I don't have an account and I don't know if I really want another one...." Until just the other day. Finally, I was at work, my students were watching a video, and after the 2nd or 3rd showing I was starting to go out of my mind. So I went and checked my email for the umpteenth time...Lo and behold there's a message from Phat Fiber. So I thought to myself, "Heck, I'm bored, I've got nothing better to do, and hey, this may even result in getting some new goodies..." So, I went to the current giveaway and clicked the "Post a Comment" button thinking that this would prompt me to make a new account. I was wrong. It turns out that as a Gmail user, I already had one...

This week was a particularly good week for giveaways. The first (and the one that led me to realize that I missed out on so many awesome giveaways for absolutely no reason!) was the Kitty Grrlz giveaway. I went and looked at their shop and while I was struck by the absolute brilliance of their jewel-toned bamboo single ply yarns, there was one that just grabbed me. Called "Manly, Yes" it is the color of the dawn at the beach just before the sun rises. That cool, misty pale steely color with hints of the water and sunrise mixed in. I have never been transported that way before. I instantly could see myself at a beach house standing in front of a wall of floor to ceiling windows with bare feet, a slight chill creeping over them, a soft blanket wrapped around me, and a steaming cup of coffee in hand. Heavenly.

The second giveaway this week was from Sheeps of Egyptian Cotton. This miracle shop makes what looks to be mass produced super soft cotton yarns--that are all handspun! Cotton is one of the things that I've just never gotten around to working with, but I am dying to get my hands of some of Sheeps of Egyptian Cotton's Gray Alpaca handspun...yummy!

The third giveaway this week is from Extreme Spinning. Oh. My. God. Seriously. As if it weren't bad enough that I obsess over yarn, now they hand me fiber and I could feasibly spin it myself?! I think I might die! We also apparently have some of the same taste in folklore because as a classical musician and Celtic music buff, the melody of "Greesleeves" popped into my head just glancing at the fiber of the same name. And they're right too, the colors fit perfectly to that song! I also about died over "It Went Bump" and "Rumpelstiltskin" . One especially awesome one for sheer comic value (or for goth minded knitters) is "The Adams Family" black, neon orange, and neon greens, good times!

My deepest and most sincere thanks go out to Phat Fiber for showing me the cool independent fiber artisans out there! You can expect to hear from me at every giveaway, monthly box sale, and probably just in general too! After all, I created this blog for the sheer purpose of needing an outlet to express the sheer awesomness that exudes from yours!

Cheers!

Oxymoron

I am an oxymoron. No, really I am. I have two "jobs", I am a biologist and a custom cake designer. I am an employee and a business owner. I love to knit and to get outside and get dirty. You'll find though that my oxymoronic nature just makes me that much more interesting...