happy new year!

2010... oh the possibilities!

we can do anything!!!!

sneak peek from the "boum" collection, coming in 2010

just look at all this crazy stuff i did in 2009!

in 2009, i: (in no order)
-got a strauch petite drum carder
-moved to brooklyn, new york
-broke 300 sales on etsy
-hosted a virtual labs LIVE at the etsy labs in dumbo
-went to camp pluckyfluff/loop joint workshop & rhinebeck in the same weekend of fiber bliss
-hosted a tour de fleece team! yay!
-met rachel-marie of knittydirtygirl, craig of cubistliterature, sabrina g. author of knitknit, lexi of pluckyfluff, steph of loop, laura of indigonightowl, julie of mysecretadmiral ...
-& i met a slew of you amazing fiberistas on ravelry, twitter, etsy, flickr & more!
-got my first solo apartment with my bf, jesse
-really bonded with sus & ed (jesse's parents) and now feel like a "ryan"
-realized that i adore french food, and cooking it too!
-knit my first sweater!!! & i dyed, carded and spun all the yarn for it too!
-sold a really insane freeform crochet hat!
-which prompted me to make a freeform purse that also sold.
-became a consigner for 2 yarn shops! downtown LYS (r.i.p.) & UFS (still going strong!)
-redesigned my website thanks to my new iMac thanks to my dad
-debated abandoning the name rawfish for woolsicle...
-started 3 mini collections which will offically launch in 2010.

wow! and i'm sure i'm forgetting some milestones... so if all that can be done in 1 year, imagine what will come!

well, i know at least one new thing that will be coming (aside from the collections!)...

a NEW KNIT-ALONG on ravelry!!! yay!

the picture in the lower right was what prompted my lust for these patterns!

my dad surprised me by purchasing "Hats, Mittens & Scarves- 25 Cool and Cozy Knitted Projects" off my amazon wishlist! the photography for the patterns is stunning!! i've picked out 4 projects that seem easy, fun and useful. also, it seems like it would be a cinch to swap in handpsun for any of these projects!

they are all rated a level 2 (1 being the easiest) so i feel like could actually make all of them! i think up first is that cable scarf (top left). it is essentially one long cable, so the pattern says it would be good for people who haven't done cables before (like me!!! eek). so i figured through the help of a KAL we got through knitting an entire sweater, we can definitely conquer one measly cable, right?!

anyway, i hope you all have a FANTASTIC new year!
xoxo, laila

p.s. i decided that i had left you all hanging for long enough on the website giveaway....

drum rolllllllllllllllll

yay! congrats to commenter #4! thanks to random number generator, madilyn, you are the winner!!! please email me with your mailing address & if you'd like yarn, fiber or a knit! & you will be surprised with incoming goodies! and thanks again to everyone for your valuable feedback! :D

happy holidays!! + new goodies for 2010

happy holidays everyone!!!
finally only THREE days til xmas!
have you finished all of your last minute gifts?

my winter wonderland :: it snowed here!!

i just closed up the rawfish shop for some quality holiday time with jesse!
i put up pictures of our decor & tree on flickr- just some quick ones i snapped.
our house is even more festive nowadays with all our handcut snowflakes everywhere!
i'll definitely have more pix after christmas when i can share the gifts i made/got everyone!

our tree! & the pile of presents!

the shop will reopen in 2010.
i'm kinda excited that it is closed right now though.
you know why? hehe, because then i can "steal" any of the inventory that had just been chillin'
and if i feel inspired, i can knit it up! spin those batts! card those rovings! anything!! haha, it's like a free day of shopping in my own shop! :D merry xmas to me, lol!

let's just say, this one has already been crocheted... haha! ;)

anyway, when the shop does reopen in january, i will have a slew of new goodness for you to eyeball & imagine cradling in your arms! and not just new yarns, there will be new batts, and new hats, and new watercolors and just new. fresh and new. and themed. because i will also be unveiling my top secret collection i have been working on. okay, well, collections. :) super small, limited edition, experimental collections.

sneak peek into the collection (s)

i'll leave you to ponder that! and i will see all you super lovely fiberistas in the new year!!!

YAYYY! & xo to the moon!
love, laila

poster sketch

postersketch2, originally uploaded by rawfishdesigns.

my wintery poster sketch! i can never nab a treasury, so i thought i would just play around in poster sketch instead....

things are getting really xmassy over here in laila+jesse palace!! we got a sweet tree this weekend + decorated it with awesome ornaments from sus & ed's (jesse's parents!) house and just in time, a box from my mom & gram with funny reindeer plushies and some fun treats too! crackers, dip & wine! mmm :)

garland, tinsel, and spinning xmas themed batts (the one currently on the bobbins looks like a PEPPERMINT MOCHA! yum!!) and listening to "edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros" ... which i guess will turn into a xmassy sounding album to us, b/c we listened to it in december. haha. like a few years ago, jes & i got really into john cale's solo and clap your hands say yeah... i guess b/c i had the cds in my car and we drove around chicago listening to those albums. and now, they're just like xmas tunes around here. haha.

jesse's parents have a tradition of listening to pet sounds by the beach boys & english settlement by xtc as their xmas music. do you have any musical traditions like that? or other fun things that just became xmassy b/c of the time of year? :)

anyway, hope you all are having a really wonderful winter so far!
i've been working on a secret project due out in 2010... :)
i might be telling the MAILING LIST before anyone else about what i'm up to, so if you're not a part of the list yet... sign up soooooon!

xoxoxoxo
& drink some cocoa!
love, laila

new color crush + holiday progress + technotrouble

geez. i thought this new computer was really going to help me stay on track with things like blogging and updating my shop. however, the old laptop has photoshop. this big imac doesn't yet. (i'm getting it on wednesday, i hope!) and i sorta despise my old laptop, the screen is all wonky, and it's just not gorgeous like sir imac the third (that's the new one's name)... also, my printer scanner is on the other side of the room. and no, it's not wireless. le sigh. i promise i'm going to get organized soon and then it should be much easier to scan/print/take pics/edit/update the site/list/etsy. i just need like a super computer station... also, we're talking about moving again. so it feels like, why waste time getting it set up juuuust right to move again? ah well.

update: i moved the scanner next to the computer with jesse's help and check out these awesome SCANNED KNITS! i had heard it was an amazing thing to try, really pulled the stitch definition to a new level. YAY!

soooooo i have a new color crush!!!!! the girl who loves brights is officially declaring her new love for muted. yes, muted. starting with forest green. maybe it's the holiday season that has pine branches and evergreens dancing through my head. but it started at camp pluckyfluff in october, when i spun a coreless corespun yarn called "coreupt"....


that yarn went on to be crocheted into my new "spirit beanie" a la pluckyfluff... so i made my new favorite style of hat. a TAM hat. but with a twist. a TAM hat with earflaps!! :D and i edged it with my new cone of mohair (perfect for making MORE corespun yarns!).

*

i also have been busy crocheting for the holidays!
i'm making two stockings, a throw blanket, and more!

we are getting our tree this weekend and then we will make ornaments together.
i'm going to spin a yarn to be the garland on our tree.

it will be kinda like this yarn i spun for the shop, but maybe more muted. ha. who would've ever thought that i would say something like that?

and if you thought my love affair with muted colors was just a fling...
have you seen these watercolors i've been working on?



hope you all are having a lovely december!
xoxo!
laila

surprisingly useful random household object

Wine Cork Graveyard, originally uploaded by Kathy~.

corks!

yes, they are neat to collect & remember fond wine sipping of night's past. but they are my "surprisingly useful random household object" of the week!

we all know they are fabulous for making trivets, and glued together to make a new corkboard. but have you considered that they are basically just tiny spools waiting to be used?

i have recently taken to keeping my cork collection near my studio, and when i notice a snippet of thread that would otherwise go to waste. i grab a cork, wind it around, and voila! mini bobbin of yarn!

it's also perfect for spinning art yarns: you want to keep multiple wraps/cores/threads going at once, or ready drop into a yarn a moments notice! corks= keep your threads/novelty yarn spin-ins organized so you have one less thing to keep your hands on! :)

you're welcome!
xo, laila

happy holidays from rawfish

happy holidays from rawfish, originally uploaded by rawfishdesigns.

if you haven't realized from my excess tweets, i am VERY VERY excited for christmas! it is mine & jesse's first xmas together in our own apartment, and let's just say we are ready to DECK THE HALLS!

i did a woolly digital collage to create a new etsy shop banner so i can shout it from the rooftops, "HAPPY HOLIDAYS!" :)

i'm also very excited about being able to continue my handmade pledge & shopping handmade this holiday season. if you remember my posts from last year, you saw that pretty much everyone on my list got something from an etsy artist!

i"m stocking my shop so that you too, can make your fibery dreams come true! new knit kits (felty crochet bowl + handspun yarn + handmade knit needles) will be put up in the shop this weekend, along with more delish dyed cormo/rambo cross fleece!

and thanks so much to everyone who has commented so far on my "new website" post!! the feedback has really given me food for thought. i was tempted to comment to reply to each one of you, but then i realized that would skew my random # draw, lol!! anyway, tweet about the giveaway, b/c once we hit 50 comments one of you will win!! yay!!

and speaking of giveaways, did you hear we have a winner for the 285-305 contest? lushmommy (sara) invented the contest as a great way to switch the tradition of having buyers waiting to pounce on the elusive hundredth sale! this way, everyone who buys something from sale number x85-x05 has a chance to win. smart, right?! anyway....
HEARTSTRINGSBYDEE was selected by the random # generator to win!! yay sale number 296! :D

also on twitter, we were discussing a holiday craft-along, where we would blog to show our progress on how our homemade holiday decor is coming along! are you interested in blogging-along? :D

hope you are staying warm!
tis very windy & maybe a snowflake or two in NY!
xo, laila

new website

hello!

remember when i said that i got a new computer?
well i have been putting that iMac to great use! starting with redoing my website!
i still need to figure out how to assign it to my base URL because it is now located at www.rawfishdesigns.com/rawfish_designs which seems unnecessarily long....
but since i've already hotlinked it for you- want to check it out?
i would adore some feedback on the layout and vibe.

since the holidays are right around the corner, i wanted to spiffy up my end of the internet a bit, starting with the new site! the new site has a blog built into it, but no forum for comments, and that's a bit sad. so i haven't decided yet if i want to move my blog over there, at least fully. maybe i'll keep both?

anyway, i realized that the yarns that make me the most happy are ONE OF A KIND. and that even though sometimes i really think about rawfish as a business, i'm most happy when i'm focused on it as an ART. some of you might have heard me blabbing about my interntal dialouge over on www.twitter.com/rawfish but i really want to take some time to start developing the yarn as art. really focus on teaching myself new techniques and becoming an inventor...

the new site should help with invention also, since i can now record videos on the new computer and immediately publish them live to the internet to a "tutorials" page (still in the works) or something like that. i was also considering that maybe the blog layout be entitled "experiments" and i could post specifically when i developing or playing with a facet of the yarn.
instead of here- where it's everyday life + recipes + etsy finds + spinning + biz talk...
that one will be more like a dedicated yarn journal??...

anyway, a lot of it is STILL UP IN THE AIR. which is why i would really really really love to hear from all of you out there about feedback for the site. what you would like to see happen in this new forum. and anything else that is on your mind.

in fact, LET'S DO A GIVEAWAY. please comment below (click on "love notes") about the new website or anything that i mentioned in this blog post and i will use a random # generator to pick a winner when the comments hit #50... okay? :) you can pick your prize- fiber or yarn or knit- and you'll get a surprise in the category of your choice!

so that's what i've been working on this past week.
can't wait to pick your brains via the comments!
much fibery love,
laila