stocking at wonderful world for my first time on the 2nd at 8pm. woohoo! here's a peek at a few things that are ready to go, and there's still 1-2 more things in the works. ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS to those celebrating in a few days! our holiday is going to be filled with food, presents, and family. and a little batik wax i'm sure, while i have the opportunity when dh is home to help wrangle the kids. :) everyone have a great week and be safe!

working on now:
spotted box samples
andrea - car (or treeforg or lizard) shirt and coordinating yarn
-- car design chosen, yarn tbd, need to work out size, style, colors this week
kayleigh's shirt - working on extras
sarah - 2 blue/black jolly roger shirts, first color dyed
-- batiking tomorrow! dyeing this week

and after that:
terra - contacted to work out details
alison - contacted to work out details
jennifer - fairy or butterfly shirt (tbd) - contacted to work out details
steph - yarn tbd
janet
carina
julia
kim
heather
sophie
debi - postponing till spring/summer
melanie - custom shirt(s) - passing?

after this it's onto spotted box goodies, some instock, and still a few more customs to at least start on before the new year. but here's the eye candy -- pretty pictures of what was wrapped up and shipped off this week. i love how everything turned out and hope the recipients are thrilled with them!

"last leaves" on BFL -- around 11oz of yarn for this custom!


"just a pear" set -- batiked, dyed and painted shirt, plus coordinating BFL

it's been a rough week of working on customs, with multiple do-overs when things didn't come out quite as planned. i think i'm over the hump now and everything is finally coming together.

stuff for carm... a redux of one of my favorite sets -- just a pear. here's the yarn hanging to dry (no i still haven't setup a good wintertime drying arrangement, so it's hanging on a few plant hooks in front of the patio doors right now, lol) and below it is the batiked shirt awaiting a swim in the dyebath



and this is a failed attempt at recreating my "last leaves" colorway. funny thing is i actually took notes when dyeing this colorway the first time (one of the few i had)... but they apparently sucked! so i've been playing and tweaking and redoing this yarn. this round lacked some saturation and contrast, and i handpainted it while the kids were hovering so i rushed too much and the colors are not nearly as smooth as i like them. alas, i'm sure i'll be selling it at one of the congos before long at a reduced price -- no sense letting it sit unused!


and finally, here are the previous versions of the pear shirt meant for carm. the first was too dark, the second was just a stupid dyeing error by me (note to self: pay closer attention to whether i grabbed the acid or procion green dye next time). both shirts are lovely, just not a good match for the original set. more stuff to stock at some future date... or keep for dd to wear! i haven't decided yet. ;)

hmm, those pics will have to come later, the upload tool has not been working for me so i'm giving up. and my wax might actually be fully melted now so it's time to get back to the saltmine!

super-quickie jic anyone is looking for updates. i've fallen behind on emails for those next on the list but WILL be contacting you this week to see if you'd like to proceed with your custom(s) or wait till after the holiday craziness (or at least i know it's a little crazy here). carm, your yarn is dyed and steaming right now, your do-over shirt is batiked and will be dyed tomorrow. gen, we've already touched base today but the yarn feels like it will be dry tomorrow -- i'll reskein and send a photo probably in the morning. can ship in the afternoon if we connect in time, otherwise the yarn will go out in tuesday's mail (so long as it looks good to you!). up next is batiking andrea's shirt and dyeing the yarn (i should have plenty of corrie!). also batiking sarah shirts and working on my super-secret (okay, not really) spotted box samples. and kayleigh's poor babydoll dress still needs to get painted, omigosh! you've been SO patient waiting for this custom, i owe you like 3 more shirts in thanks. i might post a few pics tomorrow of a few in-the-works things.

okay, i think that's it for tonight, time to hit the hay and cross my fingers the kids sleep till at least 7:30am so i'm not walking into walls from the get-go tomorrow. anything less than 6 hours of sleep and i just want to crawl into a hole these days.

here's the list starting after the new year, so i don't forget. because if i don't write it down that is exactly what i'll manage to do i'm sure. sleep deprivation has not made me a smarter person, that's for sure.

janet
carina
julia
kim
heather
sophie

okay, phew... i feel better now. :)

gosh i feel like a train that's been derailed over here. i managed to get little done this past week unfortunately so now i need to catch up. it's amazing what preparing for hosting a birthday party can do to my schedule (jasper's party was saturday, his actual birthday is tomorrow -- my goofy boy is 4 years old!). problem being i do most of my work in the kitchen and dining room and those are pretty important areas to have clean and usable for a party! ...and then dh's side of the family didn't end up making the trek up due to potentially bad weather for the drive back, so it was just my parents who ended up coming. all that prep, stress, money on cake and enough food to feed at least 15 people, and so on... such a waste of effort!

anyway, enough ranting about that sore topic, onto custom updates:

working on now:
kayleigh's shirt - dyeing done, painting jolly roger in flag on babydoll top
-- painting tonight or tomorrow, shipping next week
carmela - pear shirt and matching yarn
-- re-batiking shirt tomorrow (next size up, smaller pear, lighter green), then need to dye shirt and yarn, paint shirt
sarah - 2 blue/black jolly roger shirts, first color dyed
-- batiking tomorrow! dyeing this week
andrea - car (or treeforg or lizard) shirt and coordinating yarn
-- car design chosen, yarn tbd, need to work out size, style, colors this week

and also working on some goodies for the january spotted box ;)

and after that:
terra - contacting this week to work out details
alison - contacting this week to work out details
jennifer - fairy or butterfly shirt (tbd) - contacting this week to work out details
steph - yarn tbd
debi - swap yarn tbd
melanie - custom shirt(s) - passing?

just a little spam for a sad cause -- there are a bunch of charity auctions taking place beginning december 7th at 8pm eastern at http://hyenacart.com/something/ to benefit a family that just lost their 3 young children to a tragic fire in their home. i batiked a shirt, and then decided i wanted to do more so also dyed 7oz of yarn to coordinate, and am offering the set up with the 100% of the proceeds being donated. there are tons of other custom and semi-custom slots for just about everything... woolies, toys, diapers, soaps, bags, banners, and so on... please c'mon out and help us give the family one less thing to worry about in their time of mourning this gutwrenching loss.

pretty pictures, as promised. :) they always look very washed out to me in the blog, but if you click on the photos you can view larger, more true-to-color/saturation versions.

"beach pebbles" on peace fleece worsted (for michelle)


"berry blast with a slice of lemon" on BFL aran (for leanne)


"neapolitan" on peruvian fingering (for liz)

a custom update! (i know you're so thrilled you can hardly contain your excitement)
pretty pictures coming tomorrow if the yarn all dries :)

in progress:
michelle's custom yarn - beach pebbles on peace fleece
-- drying! shipping this coming week
dye leanne's yarn - berry blast with a slice of lemon, 7-8oz bfl
-- drying! shipping this coming week
liz - neopolitan sock yarn
-- drying! will bring to mmg wednesday evening
kayleigh's shirt - dyeing done, painting jolly roger in flag on babydoll top
-- painting this weekend, shipping next week
carmela - pear shirt and matching yarn
-- shirt is batiked, need to dye shirt and yarn, paint shirt
andrea - shirt (car? otherwise lizard or treefrog) and yarn tbd
-- sent design ideas for shirt!

and after that:
melanie - custom shirt(s) - passing?
sarah - 2 blue/black jolly roger shirts, first color dyed
terra - contacting this week to work out details
alison - contacting this week to work out details
jennifer - fairy or butterfly shirt (tbd) - contacting this week to work out details
steph - yarn tbd
debi - swap yarn tbd

just because i'm so proud of the selection of stuff we're stocking today at the leaf shoppe, here's a pretty preview of about half the goodies. :) not all of them are mine (obviously).

okay yarnies, anyone else out there have this one colorway they made that was a happy accident, and ever since that time have been unable to recreate the perfect vision like that first one? i'm dealing with one of those right now and GAAAAH! it is so frustrating. i know what my problem is... i'm too attached to creating it the same way as the first time. if i just would mix the dyes to match the end product and handpaint it, there would probaby be no problem. but of course i take the hard way (that is true to the process i followed the first time), and handpaint it first, look at it in horror and say "ack, that looks like butt!"... then overdye it, and magic happens and makes it into something gorgeous -- except there's been no magic lately, oh no. the overdye is where things seem to go horribly wrong -- too dark, too yellow, too red, too dark *and* too red... on and on. at least i can sell the rejected skeins, but i'd rather be creating new intentional colorways, not "oops, what happened here" skeins, yannow?

so, for about the 3rd or 4th time now, i'm setting aside this custom for another day when i feel i can handle trying it get again (thank goodness the customer is a friend and exceedingly patient with me... not like she's hurting for yarn *cough* but that's beside the point -- hi, m! :) ).

well i said i would be putting previews up this past weekend and had intended to, but i really only got a bit done and didn't bother taking pictures till yesterday. so instead i'll just say go check out the leaf shoppe tomorrow late morning for all my previews and then everything stocks at 2pm eastern. for right now, it's back to one yarn waiting for the dye to exhaust on the stove, 2 shirts i just boiled getting washed in the laundry room, a shirt in the dining room waiting for me to iron and heat set the paint, and several descriptions that need writing on the cart. hmm, and it's midnight so i'm guessing some of the descriptions are going to wait till morning. i have the wax heated and ready to go as well, but neglected to sketch anything up in advance, so that will have to wait as well.

custom updates and all that coming (probably) tomorrow, once this stocking is out of the way and i can breathe again (at least for a few hours).

lots of countdowns starting right now... countdown to christmas, countdown till the end of the year, countdown till my stuff is due for january's spotted box, countdown till my first stocking with my new congo... and of course counting down as i wrap up each custom and hopefully have a clear list by the holidays. the custom list as it stands today:

just wrapped up:
the newborn set for little ava, painting now complete as well -- shipped today and can't wait till she gets it!


in progress:
michelle's custom yarn - beach pebbles on peace fleece
-- dyeing this weekend, shipping next week
kayleigh's shirt - dyeing done, painting jolly roger in flag on babydoll top
-- painting this weekend, shipping next week
dye leanne's yarn - berry blast with a slice of lemon, 7-8oz bfl
-- dyeing this weekend, shipping next week
liz - neopolitan sock yarn
-- dyeing this weekend, bringing to borders meetup first week of december
carmela - pear shirt and matching yarn
-- might dye yarn this weekend, start batiking shirt

and after that:
melanie - custom shirt(s) - passing?
sarah - 2 blue/black jolly roger shirts, first color dyed
andrea - shirt (car? otherwise lizard or treefrog) and yarn tbd - working on design
terra - contacting this weekend to work out details
alison - contacting this weekend to work out details
jennifer - fairy or butterfly shirt (tbd) - contacting this weekend to work out details
steph - yarn tbd
debi - swap yarn tbd

i'm also going to be working on a few things to stock this coming wednesday at the leaf shoppe... i'll probably post some work in progress or preview pics over the weekend, depending how things are going!

got those 3 shirts done! i love productive weekends... am hoping to knock out some yarn today too, if the current queasies (leftover stomach bug???) subside by this evening.

here's both of kim's shirts, finished and ready to ship out in the next few days! hope you love them!


here's a quickie shirt to coordinate with an adorable woolie set from Quintessential Baby on hyenacart. i might still paint a little button in the center of the flower, i haven't decided yet. this is for a friends sweet little newborn named ava. i can't wait to meet her!


and finally, the second shirt headed to debi in a few days for our trade! i love how the tone-on-tone looks on this one, i think millie needs one when i have the chance to make another like it.

custom updates as of nov 15
i've been trying to work on waxing things up in the evenings and waiting on the yarn because yarn is something i can theoretically work on when the kids are home/hovering... there's no way i can do this with hot wax around, so the order of things might be a little bit goofy while i'm playing catchup from my bout without water in the house and a mysterious stomach bug yesterday and today (kids, not me. oh wait, i take that back, it's apparently now my turn, blegh). i apologize to those just waiting on yarn, but i will be trying to wrap those orders up this weekend when dh can do some kid-wrangling and i can hopefully do some work in the mornings or afternoon for a change!

in progress & up next:
kim's little birdie shirt - 2nd round batik done, dyeing tomorrow

debi's 2nd shirt - 1st round batik done, 1st round dyeing tomorrow

carrie - congrats it's a girlie!!! batiking done, dyeing tomorrow

michelle's custom yarn - beach pebbles on peace fleece
kayleigh's shirt - dyeing done, painting jolly roger in flag on babydoll top
dye leanne's yarn - berry blast with a slice of lemon, 7-8oz bfl

and after that:
melanie - custom shirt(s) - passing?
liz - neopolitan sock yarn (yarn is here!)
sarah - 2 blue/black jolly roger shirts, first color dyed
andrea - shirt (car? otherwise lizard or treefrog) and yarn tbd
carmela - pear shirt and matching yarn
terra -
alison -
jennifer - fairy or butterfly shirt (tbd)
steph - yarn tbd
debi - swap yarn tbd

we have it again, thank goodness. $2400 to replace a burnt out well pump, omigosh. that hurt a ton, but oh for the joy of being able to turn on a faucet and flush a toilet again.

i'm ready to get back to dyeing!!!

customs status as of november 6th... and 9th

just wrapped up:
diane's 2nd shirt - shipped nov. 6

kim's pink/orange funny little birdie shirt -- waiting to hear on colors/contrast

debi's first shirt (crummy picture but here it is), shipped nov. 9


*** right this second we don't have water in the house because our well pump or pressure tank is toast. hopefully this will be fixed this weekend or early next week... but till then i can't do any dyeing so yarns and shirts are unfortunately on hold a few days. ***

in progress & up next:
michelle's custom yarn - beach pebbles on peace fleece
kayleigh's shirt - dyeing done, painting jolly roger in flag on babydoll top
dye leanne's yarn - berry blast with a slice of lemon, 7-8oz bfl
debi's 2nd shirt and yarns for swap

and after that:
melanie - custom shirt(s)
steph - yarn tbd
liz - neopolitan sock yarn (pending yarn arrival)
sarah - 2 blue/black jolly roger shirts, first color dyed
andrea - shirt and yarn tbd
terra -
alison -
jennifer - fairy or butterfly shirt (tbd)
carmela - pear shirt and matching yarn

i just restocked the ::: funny little birdie ::: shirt and matching peace fleece yarn as 2 separate items on the leaf shoppe today. they don't seem to be getting any action as a set and i'm anxious to clear things out and make a fresh start of sorts, since we're officially disbanding the congo by end of year and i think this last one was pretty much the last stocking anyone is going to do there. moving on is a good thing and i know it's giving me some renewed energy for alfabette zoope!

in my new push to get organized in a little more official fashion, welcome to my brand spankin' new, so far very boring blog for alfabette zoope. this will be the spot to check out progress on customs and see where you are on the list. i'll also hopefully be showing sneak peeks for upcoming stockings when i can, or sharing any other announcements i think anyone might want to hear about. :) so the list as it stands right now...

just wrapped up:
jennifer's custom owl remix - shipped nov 1

steph's yarn - victorian pink-ish peace fleece, 8oz - shipped nov 2

in progress & up next:
diane's 2nd shirt - large jolly roger on blue, batiking done, dyeing done -- overdyeing to get a nicer blue :)
kayleigh's shirt - dyeing done, painting jolly roger in flag on babydoll top
michelle's custom yarn - beach pebbles on peace fleece
finish debi's 1st shirt drying, start on second, dye yarn for swap
dye leanne's yarn - berry blast with a slice of lemon, 7-8oz bfl

and after that:
melanie - custom shirt(s)
steph - yarn tbd
liz - neopolitan sock yarn (pending yarn arrival)
sarah - 2 blue/black jolly roger shirts
andrea - shirt and yarn tbd
terra -
alison -
jennifer - fairy or butterfly shirt (tbd)
carmela - pear shirt and matching yarn