Lately, when I haven’t been washing, dyeing or spinning wool, I’ve been busily creating a collection of cradle/play purses just for you!  Here is first group, in the 1st edition.  They’re luscious chocolate (other flavors to come!) with various types of icing.  One even has sprinkles!

They are all hand knit with my hand spun and dyed wool.  The chocolate wool came from a sweet, dark Merino ewe named Diva.  The cream & white are both all natural as well.  The large cupcake white icing trim was naturally bleached with hydrogen peroxide.  The only ingredient not lovingly spun by me is the cotton floss I used for the sprinkles & a few other little bits of trim.

Check out more pictures on my Facebook page.  Purse details, from left to right:

• White with Sprinkles – 5.5 in tall & 3.25 in “cake” circumference – $65 + $3 shipping (contact me here or via FB for availability)
• Blue with White Icing – 7.5 in tall & 4 in “cake” circumference – $75 – $3 shipping  (contact me here or via FB or availability)
• Tiny Pink Icing – 5 in tall & 3.5 in “cake” circumference – $65 + $3 shipping  (contact me for availability)  SOLD

Lit’l Sweet-pea lives with me, as she’s my lovely model.  She stands 3 inches tall from the tip of her ears to the tips of her toes. 

An intriguing Facebook post by the lovely Donna Druchunas, fabulous knit designer, led me here, to write this post.    She shared her thoughts on the creative process and the myth of originality.  Her words are succinct & mirrored much of my own thoughts on the subject over years…

As a child & teen, I would get miffed if I thought anyone was “copying” me in any fashion.  I wanted to be unique and wanted my own “things” to be my “own”.  Goodness, it’s embarrassing to think back to that time, much less admit it to you & the world.  LOL  Over the years, as I’ve aged & watched my 4 children grow into young adults (gulp!) & teens, the truth of “nothing new under the sun” continues to echo in my consciousness.

Donna also shared a link to a blog post .  It related part of a letter written my Mark Twain to Helen Keller in 1903.  It fascinated it me so much, I had to read the letter in its’ entirety.  (I love gutenberg.org, don’t you?)  Apparently, Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism & Twain had a few thoughts on the subject… (The emphasis is mine..)

“Oh, dear me, how unspeakably funny and owlishly idiotic and grotesque was that “plagiarism” farce! As if there was much of anything in any human utterance, oral or written, except plagiarism! The kernel, the soul—let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances—is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral calibre and his temperament, and which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing. When a great orator makes a great speech you are listening to ten centuries and ten thousand men—but we call it his speech, and really some exceedingly small portion of it is his. But not enough to signify. It is merely a Waterloo. It is Wellington’s battle, in some degree, and we call it his; but there are others that contributed. It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing—and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite—that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that. “

This is so true!  We are, who we are, because of billions of other influences, history, genetics, etc…to think we have complete original thought or intent is plain silly…Are there great minds of science who deserve credit for their work?  Or artists?  Yes!  Absolutely!  But, we do not create, invent or live in a bubble…our minds are easily influenced, whether we like it or not.    While we create, we cannot create out of nothing.  We must have “something” as a starting point, a pencil to sketch with, clay to shape into pots or writing utensils to write something down, mathmatical equations to decipher or understand complex science.  We cannot sing without our voice & we certainly can do nothing without our mind – which of course, something we all must begin with. 

It reminds me of Derren Brown, a man with very interesting talents.  Several years ago, I stumbled upon some clips of his show, “Mind Control” on YouTube.  While these particular episodes are about advertising & subliminal persuasion, it rings true in all of life.  We are persuaded by lots of things & never realize it.  Ooh, that’s kinda scary!  But, it also explains other parts of life that make it so interesting!    Such as:

How birds of a feather, flock together

Meeting someone new, but they are familiar & it seems you’ve known them forever

Serendipitously arriving upon the perfect solution OR the perfect house – The perfect fill-in-the-blank

Designing the perfect “thing”, only to flip a page in a magazine or surf the web & find your perfect thing already done by some else

I’ve posted both clips below…watch’em!!

Click here to see another episode Derren Brown did in the US.

So, what do you think?  Have you gotten upset when it seemed someone copied or stole your work?

I’ve been hard at work, washing, dyeing & prepping fleece to spin into new yarns for my shop.  I’m in love with creating special & unique yarns designed for you to create something beautiful!  These yarns are perfect for doll hair, plushies and other toys, as well as clothing and accessories.

Also, if you’re a Matilda Jane fan, you will definitely want to check out my upcoming line of coordinating yarns for their new Serendipity line for Spring 2012.  Beautiful colors!  Beautiful fabrics!  It has been so fun to work with the colors in this line.  I love how Matilda Jane melds amazing color palettes, an array of prints & unique designs together into beautiful clothing. 

I finished the first sample with the Wensleydale locks I dyed for my new color palette.  I also dyed silk fiber with the same palette and spun a single to ply with the Wensleydale.  The picture shows the silk a bit lighter than in real life.  I’ll continue to tweak, as usual, but plan to do a repeat of this very soon.    This is yummy yarn…soft and bouncy with the beautiful sheen of Wensleydale wool.  The silk then adds a wonderful drape with additional softness that I just love.

I took some photos of the skein I spun from one of the rovings from the 1st Greener Shades experiment.  I think the colors look a tad darker in person, but the photo on my screen looks pretty accurate.
The single was Navajo plied so I could see the colors without too much barber pole effect.  While spinning the orangy color, I noticed it looked a bit more golden, but still not quite right.  I love the challenge of dyeing fibers that will ultimately create just the right colors in my yarns…it can be deceiving, though.  What you see in the dye pot, hand painted onto the fiber or even in the freshly dried locks are not necessarily what you’ll see in the finished product…

The other roving, dyed blue & pink did not turn out right at all.  *sigh*  Can I blame that on my zombie brain at 1 a.m.?  So, I’ll take pics before I over dye it…I can’t stand to even look at it.    Then, I’ll show you the before & after, k?

Well, I dyed some Wensleydale lamb fleece with some of the same colors I used on the roving.  They turned out very well, compared the pictures I was drawing colors from.  The only exception is the orange on the upper right.  It is not supposed to be orange!  It was intended to be a golden, buttery yellow.  It was orangy on the roving, but I decided to repeat the same color for this kettle dying, as I thought it might just be a DOS problem.  I was wrong.    I do like the shade, though…

UPDATE:  I’ve begun to spin a sample of the locks & letting their beautiful texture show…I am happy so far with colors…even the orange has really grown on me.

Thanks to SpinnyBuns over at Ravelry, I’m using a new technique to combine my Greener Shades dyes to put together specific colorways I want for this year & the coming year.  I love this little tutorial, downloadable on Ravelry.

So, I used some pics that inspired me with color,  as a starting point for some of the first color experiments.  I love the fabrics in the Matilda Jane children’s clothing line.  Their new Serendipity Collection has some great colors.  (They have great women’s clothes too!)

Since red is my favorite color, I wanted to start off with a few lovely reds.  Tomato reds, different shades and slightly different hues – some warmer & some cooler to begin with.  Also, I wanted some celery greens, robin egg blues, pinks and golden yellows…

Here’s the Matilda Jane Fruit Punch Dress & Tween Celery 2 Tank -

Well, I should NOT have chosen to do my first experiment by hand painting roving…it was difficult to calculate proper DOS.

Here are my results:

I think it will be easier next time.  I took copious notes.    I got totally caught up in the math, then mixing them, then off to paint them on…I’m finishing up the 2nd roving at 2 a.m. & realize I forgot citric acid!  I was so concerned in getting my formulas right, that I threw the fundamentals out the window.  Lesson learned.  So, I just left them til morning…well, later morning, that is.  I made a fairly strong citric acid water that I carefully applied before steaming.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with my first try!  However, my next experiment will be in the dye pot, not hand painting, at least for now.    I’ll post more pictures when I get this spun.  I’m suspending my final opinion until then, don’t you think?  The finished product is what matters, so we’ll see…

So, if you’re interested in using digital images to create color palettes, you’ll want to check out Alanna’s, a.k.a. SpinnyBuns,  guide on Ravelry.  Go on…get to it & tell Alanna I sent you.  Her sample shown here is amazingly close to the original image colors…

Ok, here’s an update!  I’m still spinning these rovings, but here’s a progress photo.  I have to say, I’m MUCH happier after spinning this wool…colors are actually closer than I first thought…the golden yellow went too orange, though.  :-)  What do you think?

What a great video!  For those wool & sheep lovers ( like me), you’ll like seeing Betty the Lamb being sheared.  I really should be working on something else, instead of watching this.    I’ve got lots of fiber to dye & spin before I re-launch my shop in February.  Yippee!

Battenkill Fibers: Shearing and Skirting from Kate Ziehm on Vimeo.

]]> http://www.sockadoodledoo.com/watch-lamb-being-sheared-skirting-a-fleece/feed 0 http://www.sockadoodledoo.com/worlds-smallest-knitting-project http://www.sockadoodledoo.com/worlds-smallest-knitting-project#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:24:20 +0000 Faydra http://www.sockadoodledoo.com/?p=324

I’m not sure, but this might be the smallest or one of the smallest knitting projects ever.  What do you think?  I ♥ teeny, tiny things…

Here’s the making of this film, in case you’re interested. 

Yea! I’m excited to announce my Etsy shop is open. I’m still uploading new items, almost daily. So, come over & check it out.

Some examples below… bouclé, merino & silk blend & other yarns on the way too…

All items have FREE shipping to US addresses!