What is This?

Looks like a little sweater. For someone special. My cousin, Jake, in fact. This summer he saw me knitting and wanted to learn. As soon as he had proven to himself that he could do it, he was off to something else. But not before he asked me to make him 15 sweaters in various colors. And 15 for his younger brother, Harrison, as well. I probably would have just dismissed it but a few months ago he asked me how his sweater was coming along. Hmmm...guess I should get started on that. So, 2 weeks ago I cast on for the Sailor's Rib Sweater from weekend knits. It's the perfect pattern and a fairly quick knit, as you can see. Hopefully I will finish it up by the end of the weekend. Then I need to start on Harrison's. If there's time, I might try and work the sizing for a wee little one for my newest cousin, Britt, who's only 3 months old.

I've also got a few things to throw in the shop once I get some better pictures taken.
Superwash BFL sock yarn in Hawaiian Hibiscus and
a new Aran weight BFL in Day at the Beach (multi) and Buttercup (solid).

A note about the shop: this weekend will be the last time that you can get my rovings for only $10! No coupon or codes needed. After Sunday afternoon (as long as remember to change the prices back) this sale will end.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Angoras and Alpacas and Llamas

Oh my!

On Friday I took a little "mental health" day from work and headed up to Fletcher, NC with my friend Stephanie for SAFF, the Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival. I'd never been before but we had a great time.

The vending floor
The fleece sale
Steph and I sat and watched people examining the fleeces while we ate lunch. I don't know a whole lot about fleece but I am learning more from reading other people's blogs (check out Sock PrØn for some really good information on fleeces).

The food
I think there is an unspoken rule that when you go to any fair type venue you have to eat the most nutritionally lacking food you can find. The chilli dog might have been so good that I ate a second one.

There were lots of animals:
Alpacas
I really liked this guy. He had this cute little quivering lip and the softest looking ear tufts.
Steph and I both got a handful of hay to try and feed them but they were more interested in eating out of the big feed bag.

Llamas
Say "cheese"!
This guy was really interested in me. He came up and stuck his nose right by my hand and inhaled for a good 20 seconds. He kind of scared me and I pulled away which made him a little put off. He retreated to a corner and sulked the rest of the time Steph and I were visiting him.

And angora bunnies
I loved the seeing the rabbits. When I was a little girl my parents got me a rabbit, a brown and white Holland Lop that I named Benjamin. He had this awesome run in our backyard that my grandfather had built and I used to feed him clover through the bars of his cage. One year we entered him in the state fair and he won second place. Unfortunately, one day when I was at school Benjamin kicked out one of the sides of his hutch and escaped (at least this is what I have always been told). Seeing these little puff balls made me want to get another bunny. I liked the orangy brown ones best because they look like Penelope, just in rabbit form. Plus, angora fur is the softest thing I've ever touched! I have a super sensitive neck but I think I might actually be able to make a scarf with angora yarn (which I just happened to pick up :) ) and wear it.

Speaking of yarn....
I did make a few purchases. Mostly sock yarn and all unique dyers. I didn't want to buy anything I could get at my LYS. I haven't taken pictures yet but I will soon and I promise to post.

Going to SAFF was a whole lot of fun and it also energized me to get working on my store more diligently. I have some new yarns to post and I need to get the next batch of yarn ready to dye (it's still in a great big box in my living room). This week I will hopefully get some of that tackled, all while getting ready for a Halloween party on Saturday night. Wish me luck!

Time

Time is a funny thing. Suddenly you find that one week has turned into two weeks and then it turns into three and before you know it a whole month is past. And then one day suddenly turns into two...and then three...And a whole day turns into just a few hours.

I wanted to break my blog silence exactly one month after I had last posted. I hadn't originally planned to be gone for so long but then, after thinking on it, it seemed like something I needed to do. So I took a month. And then I had planned to come back on Friday with a little catch up article of the (few) things I have been doing while I was away. I was out with a friend but managed to make it home with moments to spare to tell you I was making a comeback. The comeback has been slow in coming though. I've thought of great posts all weekend but the time to actually put them down has skillfully eluded me. No longer! Where to begin...

Socially:
I've been hanging out with my friends a lot this past month. One of my best friends, Brittany, got married a few weeks ago which was pretty awesome.
Hope for single girls everywhere.

There were a few movie nights and an '80's themed game night in there too. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of those things.

Knitting:
I finished the secret project I've been working on for awhile. All that needs to be done is to sew in the ends and give it a little washing but I still consider it "finished" for all intents and purposes.

I finally have gotten around to starting the arm on my final item for Warm Woolies.
Notice I have started but not gotten a lot done on it. I did a count of items and this is my 10th piece. I just have to finish it!

I started (and finished) a sock.
This is some of my own hand-dyed yarn! My first sock from my own hand-dyed. I loved working with this yarn. It's BFL and it is super soft and silky and has a great sheen to it. The colorway is Raspberry and it's available from my shop. The pattern is the Japanese Feather Socks (free Rav download). Knit on US size 2 DPNs.

Dyeing:
There's been a lot going on with my dyeing. I just finished skeining some yarn I dyed last month.
I dyed more this weekend (since I had Friday *and* Monday off from work). My friend Stephanie even came over to get a crash course in yarn dyeing.
From left to right: Hayride, Hawaiian Hibiscus, First Buds, Edelweiss, and Unmasked

More from this weekend: Day at the Beach and Buttercup

I still have more colors to skein. Of course I have to label and post all these in the shop. The Unmasked roving are 4 oz. portions of some samples I sent into the Phat Fiber box this month.
I'm excited to be a contributor for October!

So there has been quite a bit going on for the past month but I'm going to (try) and set aside time at least 2-3 times a week to post. If nothing else than to help me remember everything I've been up to.

Penelope helping Stephanie by keeping watch over her bag of yarn labels.

One More Day

It has official been one month since I last blogged. I'm breaking the silence tonight but tomorrow I will have a more detailed post.

I'm back. You know you've missed me :)

A Glimer of Motivation

Last night at around 9:30 or so I had a small moment where I actually got motivated to do something other than sit on my couch knitting a stealth project and watching non-cable television. I actually thought about working on stuff for the store. And I read some blogs and got a little inspired with upcoming projects. So, I'm hopeful that I will break out of this shell soon and get things actually moving.

There are so many things I want to say about where my life is right now. Things have shifted really dramatically from one end of the spectrum to the other in the past month. So much so that other people have started to notice it. Which bothers me because I'm a rather private (at least emotionally private) person. I'm not sure how to fix things which is compounding my problems. I'm a terribly impatient person but I feel like now I must wait on soooooo many things before I can move forward! It's a lesson I don't want to learn right now but I'm trying to find some positive things to hold on to. Like knitting mundane things and dyeing yarn :)

Blah, Blah, Blah

Ready for your weekly update?

Well...I've found something that I like knitting again. And it's totally mindless. And I totally cannot show you because it's secret gift knitting. But it's looking good and I guess I needed mindless. No, I know I needed mindless knitting. Why...?

Work is crazy. Some days things go really well, not like a well oiled machine but at least we're headed in that direction. Then there are the "other days". The days where my pulsing headache starts around 11:00 and continues until 4:30. The days were nothing seems to go like it should and every child seems to have ADD. Today was the latter. I wanted to put my key through my eye and I was snapping at everyone about anything and everything. So mindless knitting is good to keep the crazy eye twitches away.

I've also been really busy after work. Lessons to teach, random meetings, run here, do that, fetch this...Maybe a little too busy. I'm learning that the word "no" is ok, that I will not be fired if I don't go to the uptenth billionth staff development, and that I don't have to go to every single standing weekly function. If something better comes up I can do that instead.

Another thing I've been partaking in (which, coincidentally adds to the busy-ness, but in a way I'm enjoying) is social time. I'll admit I haven't taken much time to hang out with some of my friends outside of the places I would normally see them (church, work, etc.) so I'm trying to get out with them more. And I'm liking it. So I think I will keep doing more of that for now.

Speaking of social time...I'm having a bunch of friends over on Sunday to hang out since I have Monday off for Labor Day. This is both simultaneously debilitatingly stressful and incredibly motivating. Today I was stressed but hopefully by tomorrow I will be motivated again so I can get this apartment cleaned.

All's Quiet on the Western Front

I have finished the large green and multi socks.
I used Cascade 220 Heathers in a light green held double for the cuffs, heels, and toes. Then I held one strand of the Cascade with a strand of Di'Ve Butterfly in a green and orange colorway for the leg and foot if the sock. Knit on US size 8 DPNs. A very quick and satisfying knit (only 2-3 days of real knitting time) and I love the colors. I bought three balls of the Di'Ve and 2 skeins of the 220 so I should have enough for another pair. We shall see.

I have finished the collar on the Mystery Sweater #3 for Warm Woolies.
Not really a huge feat considering I only had about 10 more rows to do before I knitchenered the sides together. It's an interesting construction though where you knit up the side then around the back and graft to the other side. I couldn't work it out in my head but it came out just as it should have. I haven't picked up stitches for the arms yet because I'm not in the mood. My knitting mojo has taken a brief hiatus so I'm waiting for it to return.

With the knitting mojo out to lunch the Rivulets socks looks pretty much the same. I feel as though I've been knitting on them forever. Really any time I pick them up I may do a row or two and then have to put them down again. Not terribly exciting but I am ready for them to be done. Nevermind that after I finish the first sock I have to make a matching one.

So the knitting frontier is pretty quiet. Watch out for tumbleweeds.

I am dyeing though. In fact, I've been trying to get my store looking a little nicer and my products listed a little differently (tell me what you think, please :)).

Last night I needed to do some dyeing for a function at Rare Purls on Sunday. I had a volunteer appreciation dinner at my church to go to first but when I came home I jumped right in.
What's that I spy with my little eye? Could it be...?
It is! Black, superwash roving! For free! I've been wanting to try mixing in some long lengths of black with some punchy colors but I figured it would be awhile before I got around to it. Then my roving supplier sent 5 oz. of it to me for free. I've got two colors that I dyed last night that I'll be mixing it with.

It was a late night when I got started working
so I fortified myself with a tasty beverage
which kept me going all night and into the wee hours of the morning until I finally crashed at 2:30 (a.m.). It was worth it though.
(Sorry for the poor lighting. It is a bathroom after all.) This is my first time dyeing a large quantity of superwash roving and I know I still have a lot to learn: 1. Superwash falls apart if you soak it for too long. So I didn't soak it for more than 2 minutes before applying dye. But since I soak my pre-dyed fibers in vinegar I must remember to add adequate amounts of vinegar to the dye before I apply it or the color won't take (because a dunk in sythropol and vinegar isn't the same as a half hour bath in the stuff). 2. Brown is a very splitty color. I'm going to try and heat the dye before I apply it, especially if I hand paint (it doesn't split hardly at all if it's kettle/immersion dyed). Since my hot water comes out scalding from the tap (ask me how I know) I'm hoping that will be enough of a boost to get the colors to all take at the same rate (on a side note: Did you know in England that hot water out of the tap is supposed to be hot enough to steep a cup of tea? And the hot and cold water comes out of separate taps? So if you are in an English hotel, and you need to wash your hands, turning on the hot faucet full blast isn't a good idea. Ask me how I know.). 3. Superwash will take colors very vividly but in order to get full saturation from one side of the roving to the next I really have to turn and paint both sides. But not too much or the colors bleed together.

This is all experimental right now and I'm hoping that at least some of my stuff is ok. This is all a learning process so it will only get better (and hopefully easier) as time goes by.

The dyeing frontier is a flurry of activity and it would be great if I could keep it that way.

Other than no knitting and lots of dyeing today I took a little trip out to the local Barnes and Noble to see my friend Amy.
Amy is kind of a big deal because she wrote this book called As You Wish (P.S. Jackson Pearce is her pen name). Back when I taught drumline at the local high school (and I was still teaching middle school band), Amy worked with the color guard. In fact, she still does. But she also wrote a book.
Which is pretty awesome. And she signed one for me.
And I didn't even have to print my name on a little post-it because she knows my name (and even how to spell it, not that it's really hard. But you'd be surprised...). Because, dudes, we're that close.
And I feel pretty confident that when (not if, but when) this book sells a billion copies and becomes a movie and Amy becomes a big, big star, as big as J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer or Michael Crichton (different genres, I know, so sue me), she will still grab a pint with me at the Loafing Leprechaun. Because she's pretty cool like that.

And now I have something on the reading frontier as well.