luxe

molly ringwald and her proginy
Originally uploaded by natashafialkov.

soooo…i spun 3 skeins today in my molly ringwald series. why molly ringwald? well, it reminds me of her outback red outfit in the breakfast club. remember outback red? it used to be carried by express, and i remember thinking it was very posh. anyway, these yarns are gorgeous, and are for sugar’s fancy shmancy scarves…they have tons of sparkle, silk, baby alpaca, kid mohair, and sequins…but i couldn’t get a photo that showed the sequins. drives me nuts. anyone with advice, please let me know. i am open. i want to get a digital slr when i can afford it. i always have loved old school slr cameras, but it just isn’t really an option.

i got a package together for jenny dowde, along with the other pile i need to send out, and want to send some molly ringwald to her, as well, because i lurve it! i wish it photographed better. i said that already.

i finished a freeform scarf and forgot to take a photo. argh! there are new photos on flickr for those of you interested.

xo,
n.

jake and i went to get groceries today. i also went to joann’s to get some thread for plying and some sequins for the scarves i am doing for sugar. for you spinners out there, all the spooled thread is half off…so…go!

i developed a really bad migraine, i think because i have been a bit stressy and upset as of late, and just woke up around 9p. suck! jesus. i never get anything done. and sugar wants that stuff earlier if i can. i can. right? i can.

oh, also, whilst i was out, i got tinsel, for plying and little star garland, for plying. no photos. nothing to say.

sigh.

n.

so. yesterday i dyed some stuff, spun some stuff, worked on my freeform crocheting, emailed back and forth to jenny, the coolest woman in the world, who i hope might adopt me and then i can move to australia and explain to everyone that my artistic genius is simply my heritage. you know?

jasonx2 came over last night. jason h and i worked on my website for a bit. he got to experience my ADD. i am not sure how i ordinarily get so much done with that problem. but that is why i am so single minded. i have realized, the older i get, that i can’t take a break and go to dinner or go to the store, i need to do what i am doing until i am done for the day. i focus intensely and generally don’t even like to talk on the phone when i am working. anyway, i bragged about talking to jenny, because, i will keep bragging about it until someone threatens me to shut it. and then i might still keep doing it.

so we ate dinner at home, and then me and jasons went to gabe’sopening at dv8, which was really amazing. and there were tons of people there. and he had sold almost everything in the week that the work went up. and after i congratulated him, i gave him a huge raspberry on his cheek and he was probably covered in spit. and left. i was in and out really fast because it was super crowded, and due to my hermit ways, when i go out, everyone makes a fuss over me and i hate it. it makes me want to run away screaming. i hate it.

ok. i need to get moving and do some fiber. my deadline got moved up by more than a week for sugar, so i need to try to crank it in time for black friday.

photos soon. i swear it. my word is worth nothing. i don’t even know what day it is. sunday. i think.

smooooooooch…raspberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry…..hahahahah…..
i only do it cause i love you.
xo,
n.

beaded1-m
Originally uploaded by natashafialkov.

so…last night i was doing my best to brush up on my minimal crochet skills, regina would be pleased to hear…and searched for jenny dowde who wrotefreefrom crochet which is a really inspirational book, as many of you fibermaniacs know. anyway, i decided to email her, because i was making up my new stitches with my handspun into this really unusual scarf i was working on…i checked my email first thing in the morning, as usual, and she had sent me an email! she said that she loved my yarns and i had offered to send her some to try out and she said that she would love that. and…she is almost done with a new book and she would like to do a project with it and post my info. are you kidding, you ask? nooooooo!! i am not!!! oh. my. god. oh. my. screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech. faint! swoon! oh. my. god. anyway. so that is my day. and it makes me feel good that i don’t think about much other than fiber and art these days. it makes me realize that that is ok. even if people think i am crazy. even if i get excited that i found a source for stainless steel yarn. and sculpture. and have blue or purple or red hands all the time from dyeing so much. and moreover, she was having a stressful night, worrying about her book and checked email and it must have been right after i sent it. so i was so pleased to have cheered her up a bit. because i know what it is like.

anyway, i will shut it. and over yonder is some of the really crazy “scrumbling” i found, which is freeform whatever…doing stuff without a pattern. so i guess i am a scrumbler indeed. in every sense of the word. ok, must. do. work. and shower.

oh, also, gabe’s opening is tonite at dv8. so be there if you are local and buy stuff. or just check out his blog. he makes gorgeous things. constantly.

excited smoochies.
n.

so, at long last, i changed fishy’s smelly disgusting water last night. this morning, dead. poor guy. he was more than a year old, so there is that. but still, i feel bad. poor guy. i hope the water didn’t shock him. who knows?

i have loads of stuff to get done today and remembered that i have veggie fibres that are done stewing and i can rinse em in a couple of hours…so yay! fuschia and brown! yayayayayay! i need to order fiber…yay! and take photos, due to the bit of sunlight and so, with that, i need to have a coffee and get going…and list stuff on etsy and mail out orders…gosh, i need to get up. get coffee.

i will miss you, fishy. you were very handsome.

oh, and other than mourning fishy, i feel mentally better today. i have issues with insincerity and i dunno that that is something i want to deal with.

xo,
n.

flowers and ponies
Originally uploaded by natashafialkov.

i dyed all day, with good success and spun a couple of skeins and carded some stuff, as well. i am having trouble getting a brown that i like, and need to make a fiber order…i hope to find a dye that works for me. i think i may get a book on color schemes to-morrow from the bookstore. the ones i have are a little willy nilly.

i keep typing and re-typing this entry, and i don’t know what is the right thing to say…the day took a nosedive, and i feel really sad. i feel like i had a hard look at the truth and it is like finding out someone is cheating on you…you can’t unknow it. you just know that you have been either believing what you want to believe or fed a line of bullshit. now i know. and i am not sure how i even feel.

anyway, i have so much to do to-morrow, and i didn’t have my tripod until a bit later in the day, so no photos, but i swear, to-morrow. unless it is super dark again to-morrow by 2. sucks. ass.

i have so much to show you, too. ok..gotta make some orders and take a chill pill. literally.

gimme hugs and kisses. i need em.
xo,
n.

yarns 11.06
Originally uploaded by natashafialkov.

after all the action on tuesday…i woke up wednesday and was exhausted. i showered and talked to jake and told him i was tired and he told me to take a nap. i fell asleep until he called at 4, woke up for a few minutes when he got home an hour later and then woke up after 8pm. 8. pm. insane. and i was up until about 2 and then slept the whole night until about 8 this morning. i woke up with a headache, but i feel ok now, so i plan to do some dyeing.

i got some llama from ebay for pretty cheap that was supposed to be a 4-6 in staple length. it is actually a less than 2 inch staple length so it is not very easy to spin a sturdy yarn with. i contacted the seller who said she would give me my money back, but after i pay shipping plus the shipping i already paid for, i may as well have kept it. i can use it for something. i guess i can blend it.

i got a package from my secret pal…and i was so tired that i didn’t open it until late last night…she rocks! she sent me habu yarn, as well as a bunch of other rockin stuff, and i wonder how everyone knows that i would love habu? awesome. i will post photos. i swear it.

i happened to see dr.phil which has info about all the girls that were probably abducted from cruise ships or on vacation and put into the sex trade. awful. even if they ever get back…how damaged do you think they would be? it is unthinkable, not only to be a woman in that situation, going from being a middle class pretty white girl in college on a cruise with your family, or on spring break, to being forced into prostitution. and i imagine that it isn’t like being a prostitute in america, as glamorous as that is…third world prostitution….woah.

and on that happy note…pavel is doing better, he seems to feel pretty good. i am thinking that i will add my funny cat toys to the website, and will post some photos of them. my cats really dig them. and i will embroider your baby’s name on them if you like. i would like to make dog toys, but i want to make sure they are sturdy enough to not be destroyed in 30 seconds flat. you know how that goes. the things i make are really strange looking. i am not sure if i mean that in a good way.

i hope to update the yarn on my etsy store today, because it all sold and there is no yarn on there at all. none. so…i will post when it is updated. i have loads of yarn!

ok, must return calls and get up and going…
missed you!
n.

sugar!
Originally uploaded by natashafialkov.

what did i do today, you ask? well, after a good night of zero sleep, although i did wash a fleece, spin a bit of it, for shits and giggles, and clean up my studio to the point that you can walk through it…i woke up and made a couple of phone calls. the first was to a boutique that heidi had told me about. she told me that she wanted to make an order today and could i come out? um. i guess? i had all sorts of stuff to do and thought i should ask her if i could come out later in the week when i could go to the other yarn stores and jake told me to move my hot ass. not in those words. anyway, i called another shop, a yarn store in squirrel hill, who seemed really excited to see my stuff…so i got a shower and thankfully my stuff was still packed from saturday. i almost unpacked it last night. and off i went. the directions i had were wonky, so i ended up in cranberry, so in the end, i went about 40 miles off course. my sense of direction? well, those of you who were at camp with me know that it is not so good. anyway, i finally got to sugar, which is pictured here, and it is GORGEOUS! i cannot afford to shop there, but i wish i could. not only is the stuff beautiful, but the shop is so posh. the owner, jamie, was very excited and commission some stuff, all of it high end, super soft and unusual and luxe. she said such nice things and really liked the same stuff that i really like. she gave me free reign on what i make for her and that made me feel much more like an artist than the commissions i have had in the past. a few people came into the shop wanting to show her their stuff and she turned them away, so that made me feel good too. i could tell that she was a straightshooter, and wasn’t afraid to say no. she is my kind of badass! yeah!

next stop, pittsburgh bead and yarn, who took think 15 or 16 yarns. and said that she would set up my own section and would mention it in their ad in the city paper and told me to make whatever i wanted to bring in. and she said loads of nice things, also. there are a few other yarn stores i want to talk to that are on the other side of pittsburgh, far enough away that i don’t thing it would infringe on her business. i need to get my shop set up and some stuff on etsy and start on the order for sugar, she is having a trunk show in a couple of weeks with designers from all over the place coming, and wants the stuff for that show, so i want to get stuff dyed and ordered asap. i am too tired to be excited. i just feel a bit stressy. but i think it is the headache and the tiredness.

oh! also, the owner of the yarn store has a friend who has alpacas and doesn’t know what to do with the fiber, so i am hoping i can get a good deal. also, he has baby alpaca and first cut, etc, so i am excited that i may be able to get a good dealio. yeah! fiber. mmm. keeps me regular. as much as is possible.

i toddled up to a thai place up the street and amy took the bus from school and met me there and we drove together to her car, and then i drove home. i am sure she was ready to barf out the window at my excited blabber. but she faked it well, if she did. she also talked to me about something that had been bothering her that i had said and i was really impressed. she didn’t freak out, or get overly emotional, just let me know that it hurt her feelings, and i apologized. so yay amy.

i made her a birthday thing, which i will post once i have given it to her. i also made cat toys for each of the cats out of a recycled sweater, which the cats seem to really like. and they seem to play with their own toys, respectively, although pavel’s is MIA.

i think that is it for now. i will be doing dyeing to-morrow and i swear i will post yarns on etsy…i swear it. oh…does anyone know how i can put a button on my blog for my etsy site? also, i want a skein winder that is also swift, any advice from anyone? i have a ballwinder, but it is not much good without a swift. also, all the plying threads i won on ebay finally arrived, and came in skeins, rather than balls and they are…THREADS, so until i get my winder, they are not terribly useful. unless i want to wind 480 yards of thread by hand. and i don’t. ok, i want to catch up on blogs, but i am tired, i may try to knock myself out early.

i have a bunch of fairly soft brown, gray and cream llama washed…anyone interested in trading for other stuff? it is very easy to spin and would be great for beginners…email me if you are interested in a trade of some sort…it has a really nice texture…and i will be dyeing some soon, i think…

also, i have two big bags of stuff to send to my sp pgh and my sp, and i think they will be jazzed about it. i think i said that at 5 am. who knows. i better go read that post. i don’t even remember it.

thanks to all of you for your awesome comments and support. even my husband, who is a skeptic commented that he is amazed at how wonderful my blog and spinning friends are. and i agree. you are a real source of strength…i feel like a lot of the good things that have been happening to me are due to the good vibes that you all ooze…

cannot sleep. i was super tired. i was. i had gotten a llama fleece in the mail. really late, so i really wanted to work on it. see what it would be like. so after jake went to sleep, i decided to wash it. i did it in the washing machine, and waited around for it to get clean after picking through it and separating it for color and cross parts, although it was much cleaner than i imagine sheepy ones are. for one thing, they are tall and for another, not as filthy as sheep, i think. but really dusty and have lots of twigs and stuff in them, including 2 lady bugs, one that i freed, with a smile, the other that went through the washer and did not live to tell about it. i hope that isn’t a bad sign.

so after it is washed and picked through, some of it is cream, some gray, some dark brown, reddish brown, etc, it is laid out to dry, with a heater blowing on it. some of it was dry, so i had to spin it, although i had taken my nighttime meds already….so, i am not sure if i overwashed, or should have conditioned or…not sure, but i was told it was a long staple and it wasn’t and it seemed very dry. not super coarse, not sweater material or anything, but maybe good for outerwear, like the bike gloves i am supposed to make for someone from the handmade arcade, might be really good for that….but anyway it seemed a bit fried, so i guess i will see what the rest of it is like. i guess that washing sheep wool is a much bigger hassle, because llama has no lanolin, so you just wash the dirt and dust out instead of having to melt the lanolin out, 6 buckets later. any info anyone has, feel free. i guess the lack of lanolin, is probably what makes it feel dry, really. i wonder if those of you who are allergic could use llama and alpaca without problem. just a thought. no lanolin. right fran? worth a try.

i am getting sleepy! yay!

pavel is getting better, but is not supposed to lick his wound too much and is licking it a lot. when i try to distract him with a toy or something, he has this funny meow that is….”seriously…i am trying to lick the place that my nuts used to be….can a dude have some privacy? what do you think?” and when peeps hears him make that sound, she stares him down. and smacks him down. but he seems ok. he has been hanging around and eating and will play a bit. i made each of the cats a sewn toy out of recycled sweater so, at least he seems to dig that. the one i made for kahlo has a hairless belly with the nipples and arms and legs today. really cute. ok.

i am officially sleepy. i am going to give it a shot. wish me luck!

xo….
n.