Post 37: Winter is Coming

 Hello everyone! Popping in for a late night blog post. The clock reads 12am and the weekday 9 to 5 (er..8-4..) career sneaks up quickly and early in the morning. A few updates:

Recently posted two new reclaimed yarns in the shop, go on and check them out at salubriousstudios.etsy.com

Also made adorable dog sweaters (resized one), for a friend's fur babies. They turned out awesome, just waiting on the pics!

Bought Lindsay Newns book! She's been an inspiration since reopening on etsy, and I've been a big fan-so excited to own her patterns! It is really neat to see how folks across the world crochet with such passion and variety. Her designs speak to me so vividly as a fiber artist and crocheter.

I also am beginning my gift making for the season. I firmly believe in celebrating Autumn, final harvests and Thanksgiving..but the realist in me is frantic about time management :) check out this reversible simple hunting beanie (green yarn reclaimed from a sweater), and the beginning to a beanie that is much more dramatic in 100% wool (teaser pic on the colorful yarn, will share on IG when completed)

I love how Valkyrie is looking up as if waiting for a yarn ball to drop, or a new sitting spot. Little does she know neither will be happening. ❤ 

If you take away anything from reading this post, please take the time to practice gratitude, love your family and friends AND LET THEM KNOW that you love them. Until next time, keep creating!

Post 36: Reframing time. Fall arrives.

 I'm not sure why I always kick things into high gear when the fall season arrives. I seem to take it really easy in the summer months, and maybe it's because the idea of warm cozy yarn on warmer days doesn't sound too appealing. Maybe I spent too much time in the pool and garden. This year though, I spent most of the summer working on the Orchidelirium shawl, designed by Julme of mysquarehat which I posted quite a bit on social media-– primarily Instagram and it is one of the nine projects for the pattern listed on ravelry. It's lacework and construction are absolutely beautiful. 

Now that fall weather is here, I am doing a little bit more crochet work and yarn work. Went to the fiber festival in Marble Hill, Missouri and met greatly skilled fiber artists. Came home with lots of goodies!

I've unraveled some new yarn, but have not gotten them into the shop. I'm working on scrap yarn acrylic scarves for a charity project, and clearing out some older hoarded yarn. 

Every day is a battle between needing calm and relaxation after my day job, and finding time to work on the business. While there were sporadic sales last year and early 2021, sales have tapered without new yarn listings. Projects and PDF patterns were a bust. Forever a struggle, forever never giving up ❤

Post 35: Summertime Catch up

 I've been away from this blog for too long. Let's clear the cobwebs, remove the dust, and do a catch up shall we?

I ambitiously registered Salubrious Studios back in June to make things more legit. I was ready to speed forward, and then things picked up at my full-time career as a QIDP. We began working on a reopening plan for our community day service, and began with a plan to reopen the doors to those we serve. After nearly a year and a half away from CDS, you can imagine the hurdles involved with this. It is still a bumpy road as we are on our third week in, but I am hopeful and so proud to be a part of it all.

Back at home, things have also been busy. Yardwork, gardening, and spending days in the pool leaves very little time for working in the studio. The garden is flourishing though! Up to my neck in tomatoes and peppers! The tomatoes are being left to turn indoors due to the birds..totally homegrown, pesticide free, organic.

I question why I've become so lax in the fiber arts and etsy shop when I am so passionate about yarn and reclaiming. We even took a trip to "the bins" at a Goodwill outlet for some supplies by the pound, which was fun. I prefer donated and damaged sweaters to repurpose, but the reality is that they are hard to come by without thrift shopping for materials..i.e. sweaters to deconstruct for yarn.

I've also made efforts to reduce waste. In addition to reclaimed yarn, it is my intent to sell creations made with the off-cuts of the reclaimed yarn. This is similar to scrap yarn crochet, which lends to great results. Pictured here is a reusable shopping bag to go to the etsy shop once I add a tag.

What do you think of the new tags?

Lots in store for the future, just need to prioritize. Thank you for your support and time. I'll do better :)

Post 34: Prepping for Spring

 With warmer weather, we find ourselves prepping for Spring. Yard clearing, limb cutting, saw cutting...buying, sawing and placing plywood in the attic....deck repairing, seedling starting...the list could go on. It's been a busy month already. While I have been working on orders, I've also taken some time for myself to crochet an unwind. 

Today I started a pair of socks out of reclaimed remnants. It was made of yarn that I reclaimed a few years ago. As I said in an IG post, it was long before I mastered sweater deconstruction so there are little knots all over the place from faulty seams. It's still durable yarn and I hate waste. Since I won't put it in the shop, I figured I would put it to good use :) Here's the pics!

Not too shabby if I do say so myself! I will likely finish the other tomorrow. It's odd how I transition in phases of creativity. One month decor is my only focus. Now I find myself making very traditionally crocheted socks! Maybe it's the stability in life or maybe it's the cold floors, but I'm thankful for these warm house socks.

Other than the socks and working on orders, the rest of my week is filled with work, Netflix and Discovery Plus in the evenings and babysitting on the weekends. I've mentioned my struggles to get pregnant before so I'll withhold the long negative and frustrated feelings that I have on the subject, but will say that babysitting helps fill the void of not having children of my own. Plus it leads to fun art projects like this sponge painting that is now in my kitchen, or painting birdhouses, or my personal favorite lately--going on outdoor adventures in the backyard to find treasure using a treasure map drawn by a 5 year old! We keep finding buried kid toys, dog toys and random objects in the backyard from the previous owners. I'm sure to a child it does feel like finding treasure! Anyhow, here is the sponge paint art. Please enjoy and please take the time to use your imagination this week. Remember that even simple crafting can be fun, and rewarding!

Happy crafting!

Post 33: Quick Updates, Need Sleep :)

 After a considerably long weekend, I wanted to go ahead and add an update to this blog. I have two new yarn listings on my Etsy shop. One is a beautiful wool alpaca blend...

 ...and the other is a merino blend, with some other fibers included. 

It has taken me a while to get these posted, but I'm really proud of getting them in the shop. Working through the blues of winter weather is the worst.  But I've finally got a set pricing routine down. 7 cents per yard, then a 9.5% sales tax. $3 shipping for the first item, $1 each additional item. My "new" formula 👍

Through some crazy weather that has gone from snow to now rain, there hasn't been much time to do anything outdoors. I've mostly been working my usual 8 to 4 job and continuing the babysit on the weekends.  I am thankful that through my career, I am one of the people who have been fully vaccinated for covid 19 now. 

Anyhow, thanks for stopping by and here's to another great week ahead :)

Post 32: Same old song. Might as well dance.

 I didn't really do too much in the form of crafting, reclaiming yarn, or crocheting this week. I had great plans to get inside the craft studio / craft room and get some projects going and some yarn posted or at least photographed. Life didn't really leave a lot of time for that. 

On a whim, the other day I did try to dye some yarn and it pretty much failed. I had some of the most beautiful purple-pink roses,  that my fiance had given me for Valentine's Day .

 I was able to get the water to of course take the dye but the yarn never did take the pigment beyond darkening slightly. At the time, of course, it was like I said on a whim, so I had to use salt and had very little research completed before I took this on, so maybe next time it will be more successful. I'm hoping there's more of an update post next week. If I can get motivated, I will get the yarn that has been reclaimed into pretty Hanks, get them photographed, and get them posted. It's amazing how much time goes into the preparation of the yarn after it's unwound.

Post 31: Winter is Here

 Take a vacation they said. Well...it snowed. Then iced over. Then snowed again. And...yes, it is snowing now. We are expecting 10 inches overnight and another 6 to 10 inches Wednesday. As for the vacation, I spent a great deal of time staring at walls, staring at the XBOX and working on projects. Most of the projects were finished this weekend. 

First of all, I finished a lovely cushion for one of my dining room chairs. This was a project I have been wanting to begin since the purple (ok..maroon...) paint went on the walls. It was a desert Rose Motif (modified after round 27) from a kirstenhollowaydesigns pattern that can be found Here:

My version is modified after the petal rounds. It gives me great pleasure to show it off and you can see more photos on my IG.

This weekend also brought the making of two beanies for family members:

And three upcycles--three tee shirts turned into throw pillows.

These were fairly easy projects (minus the chair cushion..), but share worthy nonetheless.  Thanks for checking in with me again here at my crafty little blog. Please let me know what you think! Stay warm everyone!