kettles.

they make the best popcorn & dye pots.  i’m certain of it.

sunlight

living room light

sneak peak!!! yes, i’ve been spinning and i DID get the dye pot out today.  this is one of the colors mae and i cooked up.  peacock?  i think so.  we dyed three hanks in this colorway and three of another (to be revealed soon)  mae made sure to take very careful notes about how much of each color we added to so many parts water/vinegar, but most her “homework” as she called it looked something like this: ^lAMei/Z.  luckily, mama took notes of her own!  i love the way both colors turned out & it feels good to have a finished product hanging on the rung to dry!

for the yarnies out there: 100% merino, ~125 yards, 5sts/inch on US7 needles, prepared and spun worsted

yarn is great, but this is the best.

sweet little snoozer! xo

next round of special orders

now that the stockings are completed i had planned on getting some smaller orders buttoned up.  i’m about half way through my last strip for the opera scarf, 90% done with the opera bonnet, and SO close to finishing chaz’s hat!!!!  i still need to start robin’s bonnet… i need to find a nice corresponding color to go with the variegated stuff…. hmmmm

so, i have two more special orders that just came in.  i LOVE alchemy, btw… it’s fun to choose which projects to take on - PLUS, when i feel like i haven’t had many sales, i hop on there and place bids.  what a great way to drum up some business.

the most recent alchemy i won requires custom dyed yarn (of course!)  it’s really far easier to just dye it than scour the surface of the globe finding exactly what they have in mind.

in the dye pot!

mae was a great help to me on this one.  she helped me make hanks on the niddy noddy, then she put all the wool in the water to soak (making sure she got all the bubbles out!)  then kept mama company for a while during the dyeing.  once it’s in the kettle, it’s pretty boring (and stinky!)  she asked alizah if she’d like to lend a hand, but alizah is almost ten and she was far more concerned with ten year old things….

speaking of which!!!! here’s her elf hat!

she’s such a NUT!

see how sad and dark it is in these pics?????!!???? i bet it was 7pm when we took these.  i just want to roll around on the ground kicking and squealing like a tot when it’s pitch dark at 6pm.  it’s the PITS!

what’s not the pits?  my new etsy shop, of course!  i realize i’m making a ton more work for myself in doing this, but i thought the timing was right so… i went for it.  i’m going to be separating  all of my kid knits out to the new shop, keeping adult knits and maybe adding patterns to the birdylicious shop.  it’s empty right now, but if you’re interested in checking out the new one… click here!

good morning, saturday!

good morning!  it’s one of the (two???) saturdays a year i know i’m not going into work and i stayed in bed til 10.  there.  i said it.  mae doesn’t mind wasting away the morning with mama!  we both had birthdays recently… do we look older?

NAH!  not really.  alizah came in to crash our mid morning snuggle session, but she wasn’t too keen on getting in on the photo fun

oh well!  i finally made my way downstairs to get back to work.  mae and the hubs went birthday present shopping for her little friend colton’s 4th birthday party today and picked up some starbucks on the way back mmmmmmm yum which let mama get back on the needles - at least for a little while without interruptions.  i DID get two stockings completed yesterday - YAY

and only got this far on the 4th (and final) stocking

meh.  i need to dye a bit more red to button it up.  THAT will have to wait until tomorrow night.

of course, i can’t just tidy up the house, wrap birthday gifts, and pack for our crazy trip to chicago tonight, i had to start another project.

our dear friend trevor is expecting a little girl so i thought i’d knit them an elf-ish hat from the brown and blue yarn i dyed and spun this week.  so far so good!

i don’t think they’re the pink and purple types… i hope they LOVE it!

i can’t believe it’s almost time for me to go back to work.  BOO!  at least i’ve gotten nearly everything checked off my list for the week.  i’ll bring the opera bonnet with me to chicago and get some needle time in while the hubs is at the wheel.

back to packing….

success!

i spun, blocked and wound the green roving i dyed a little while back.  it is soooo pretty.  it ended up being closer to lace weight than i anticipated, but i’m learning learning learning.  i guess that’s part of the fun of self-teaching!  it’s single ply right now so i may double it up and see how it looks.  

of course, i still need to work on consistency.  just like hubs pin striping something…. even lines are happy lines!

i just started on the caramel roving i dyed.  i’m hoping to do a little better with the consistency.  i’m really getting the hang of the turkish drop spindle though.  i’m able to spin more quickly without having to catch it between my knees.  WHHOOOOT

i’m calling it a success so far.  i’m having so much fun spinning i haven’t been knitting!  LOL  i’ve got to get back on the needles!