Swap Goodness!

I got my Yarnie swap package today from Sue at Good Yarns!

Let me tell you, kittens, she spoiled me. And she knew the perfect little goodies to send!

Gorgeous multi-colored bag - I just love those colors!

Gardening gloves (I needed a new pair!)

Three packets of window herbs - these will be fun!

Magnetic tablet and pencil set - as an avid listmaker, I'm a sucker for these things. Love them!

Pins for blocking - I needed more of these!

Two little soaps that smell so divine. When I was little I had a fancy soap collection - however did you know that would be perfect, Sue?



A book she's passing on from Netter that looks absolutely hilarious. Can't wait to read that!

Two hanks of bare yarn to dye - way cool!

The cutest little flip-flop card.

And the handmade goodies! There were three! An adorable pin cushion that was an original design. And beautifully crocheted, too! A water bottle holder crocheted from black thread. This will come in handy! (I seriously want to know where you get your thread, Sue, because it's SOO much softer than any I've ever seen.) And finally, the sweetest little clutch that she knitted, felted, and embroidered with a flower! Too cute!

Thanks so much for being such a wonderful swap partner, Sue! I absolutely love everything!

Yarn Garage, Up Close & Personal, Part 2

Sorry I'm a day late posting this part 2 - we went mattress shopping yesterday. That's a post for another day.

So on with the rest of the store!

This is the front aisle that leads to the "heart" of the store. Down this aisle there's ribbon yarn, tape yarn, some of the more luxurious novelty yarns, cotton, suede, and more.

As you can see, samples of garments, bags, and other items literally hang everywhere.


A curio cabinet off the main aisle displays some of the most current and in-demand knitting literature, yarn that is really "hot" right now, and a few of the newest samples to come into the store.

(It's hard to tell from the way it's draped in the photo, but that blue/grey sweater on the left is really adorable - it's on my list of things to knit later in the summer.)

Nestled in the back is the Baby area, and also where we have seating for knitters to sit and knit with us. This is where we have our knit nights and also where we give a few classes.

We have a new room in the back that we use for classes now, too, but when there's just a few knitters we sit in here, as it's more cozy and certainly wonderful for the inspiration.

Ahhh, the sock yarn. As an obsessed, er, enthusiastic sock knitter myself, I've spent a great deal of time in this part of the store.

I can look at those shelves and see future socks for myself and loved ones... now to just have the time to knit them!

I love when we get sock knitters in the store - they're so fun to talk to and I love trading secrets on the best ways to do things.

When you make your way back up to the front of the store and go through the door in this photo, you enter the Novelty Yarn section.

Here there's all kinds of fluffy, fun yarn with great textures and vivid colors. There's also some more elegant novelty with just the slightest hint of a sparkle - perfect for trim on a lovely shawl or wrap.

When I first started working here, the store looked quite a bit different. It was still winter and the yarn was in different spots. Steven and Bibi (with Monika's and my help) have been rearranging things to match the season and to make it easier to find what you're looking for.

It's a fun place to work and Steven's a blast.

Ok, back to my knitting!

Yarn Garage, Up Close & Personal, Part 1

I thought it was high time I showed you kittens some of the ins and outs of the store where I work.

Click on the pics - there's SO much to see in each of them!

The front of the store - I have a more head-on shot, but this one shows the new sign Steven just had made on the side of the building and the chalkboard out front.


When you walk in the door, you're greeted with our seasonal section. We tend to put yarns here that coincide with the changing weather. Right now we're featuring a variety of cottons in beautiful colors.












Our front window hosts the vast array of felting wools. Cascade, Nashua, Lamb's Pride, Noro, Lopi, and many more. Not to mention the many samples of felted purses and bags!

We've also got this wonderful Norwegian Wool that's one of our special sale yarns through the summer. You won't believe the price on this stuff!

Nestled in with all of these yarns is some roving. Merino, Corriedale, and Soy Silk - perfect for the spinning enthusiasts or even someone wanting to give it a whirl.

This is our newest redesign section of the store. We're taking down some of the shelving that was on the wall - Steven had this neat idea to hang the sides of old baby cribs on the wall and use them to loop the yarn over. It looks really neat and it's an easy way to make the yarn accessible.


As you can see, the old historic building the store is in has these great 12 foot high ceilings and Steven's stocked this place all the way up.

This photo shows the beginning of the classic knitting and luxury yarns aisle where we've got merino wools, alpaca, bamboo, cashmere, and silks.























My current favorite in this aisle is the Silk Rhapsody by Art Yarns.

Just look at those colors! This fiber is very very soft and it's wonderful to knit with. In fact, that green and taupe hank came home with me today.

Check back tomorrow to see part 2!! There were WAY too many photos to put in just one post!

Man...

We should all be so happy.

My girl, Sam.

Random Seven

I've been tagged!

It's been ages since I did a meme, so I thought I'd go ahead and do this one.

Rules and stuff:

List 7 random things about yourself on your blog. Tag 7 others. Leave a comment on their blog to direct them to your site to get the rules.

(Well, I'm not going to tag anyone, since I think I'm a little late to the party and everyone's already good and tagged, but if you feel like it, have at 'er.)

1. I have a lot of shoes. (I wasn't sure what to open with, so I thought I'd just throw this one out there.) I wouldn't say I have a shoe fetish, because I think of that in the sense of having like, a lot of cute and girly high heels. I have about 5 pairs of high heels. After that, it's several pairs of sandals and a lot of very comfortable urban and rugged shoes.


2. I live with three (count 'em, three) Star Wars geeks. Yep, my husband has corrupted my boys. (Now, the movies aren't that bad. I grew up with them just like everyone else from my generation. But if these boys had their choice, they'd watch them all. day. long.)

3. I love salt. I put it on almost everything. Recently I've begun a love affair with pepper, but it'll never replace my beloved salt. And ground sea salt? Even better.


4. I miss my cello. Desperately.

One of the main reasons I can't wait to buy a house of our own is to have the chance to play again without the worry of disturbing the neighbors on the other side of the wall. It was such a big part of my life for so long and I find myself lately wanting to hear the sound of the strings.

5. Music, whether it be classical, rock, whatever, is a part of every day for me. There are certain things that I have to do every day: Tell my husband and my sons that I love them and listen to music (among other obvious things). TV be damned - I don't really watch much. But I have to have my music. Currently streaming into my ears is the wonderful score from Anne of Green Gables.


6. A small collection of my photography used to hang in a gallery on consignment in Wisconsin. In this photo, my work is hanging on the black wall on the right side , and also that lone framed photo on the lower left hand side. There were more spread around, too, but these were the largest group clustered together.

7. I'm a very passionate person and tend to be all or nothing about things. I'm trying to work on this to see more grey areas.

(These are all my photos, dated from 2004.)

Edited because the original #7 was just a bit more personal than I wanted to put on here.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Er, well, it's not actually Old Lace, per se, as it's still in the knitting process.

And, there's no arsenic involved either.

Hey, it's my blog, I'll title it how I want!

This, kittens, is this yarn that I dyed a few weeks ago. I've been anxious to try lace with it, but wasn't sure of the pattern.

I'd ordered the Forest Path Stole pattern a month ago and some laceweight from Knitpicks, but I *HATE* how it's looking so far. Which is odd, because I about fell out of my chair when I first saw that stole and I knew I wanted to knit it someday.

Perhaps I still will, but obviously not with the yarn I chose for it. It's just ... ew.

I thought about trying it with my hand-dyed, but the pattern is busy enough without introducing a multi colored yarn in with it. So that idea was out.

Enter in a pattern I adapted from a stitch example I'd seen. This I like. It's pretty, it's elegant, and when blocked it's very airy. Yay!

On to other things... I found some things at the store today that I absolutely must have. Expect to see some really cool things popping up on my blog over the next month!

And maybe some more hand-dyed yarn. I'm getting the itch again.

PS. Please excuse the very crappy photo.

Cheeky Monkeys, The Sequel& A Little Volleyball Talk

They're done!

Details:

Pattern: Monkey, Knitty, Cookie A
Yarn: KnitPicks Bare Superwash Merino, hand-dyed by me
Needles: Addi Turbos US1 32" circular
Started: May 19, 2007
Finished: May 26, 2007

This is my second pair of Monkeys and they went much faster (and smoother) than the first pair did. It's a great pattern - I predict many more Monkeys in my sock drawer in the future.

And the way my hand-dyed yarn knitted up? I'm in love with that. Too. Friggin. Cool.

The Money Shot:













I would wear them to work tonight, but it's 80 degrees here, and that means the (semi) air-conditioned store will be wretchedly hot tonight. Sandals it is!

One other FO I've got to "show" you: this one is for Brandy. She's my partner for the Yarnie swap.


Oh you didn't think I was actually going to show you, did you?

It is in this photo. I will say that. But the photo's been very edited. Good luck figuring it out, Brandy!

Muwahahahaha.






__________

edited to add:

I've not mentioned on here yet that my husband plays Volleyball with some people from work on Tuesday nights. Last night was their first win (and a complete set, to boot!) in four weeks and they're all pretty proud and pumped up for next week's match up.

My husband wrote this recap earlier and asked if I could share it with you, dear kittens.

Cedarville Lanes, Eagan—Helped by a decisive 6-5 advantage, Kathryn & the Cygnus Bumpers defeated the Blockers in three straight games, claiming their first match win of the season.

“Getting this gorilla off our backs is a great feeling”, Matt said. The monkey had ballooned into a gorilla with a disappointing 0-3 start to the year. “If I had only gotten a beer before the game, it would have been perfect”.

The Bumpers got on a roll in the first game with improved serving leaving the other team unable to stop a long run of 12 points. After that, the Bumpers counted down the points till their first victory was achieved.

As usual the Bumpers performed better in the second game of the night, this time cruising to an easy victory and match win. Improved play all-around from serving, setting, and spiking to better on field communication assured the Bumpers of improving in the coming weeks.

A small setback occurred in the third game when a torrential rainfall interrupted play for a few minutes. Returning to the court, the Blockers took advantage and got a run of points to put the final game in question. A critical side-out got the Bumpers back on track, and they were soon celebrating the three-game sweep.

Next up for the Bumpers is an important 7:30 pm league game against that Cast Away lover, Wilson. Wilson hasn’t been scouted yet, but who worries about talking volleyballs?

Photo downloaded off the Internet.

-- J. Johnson

One Down, One To Go

Weee! I love the Monkey socks - they're really a quick knit.

I am absolutely thrilled like you wouldn't believe at how this yarn that I hand dyed knitted up.

Swirling rounds of turquoise and purples, of greens and lavenders.

I started these on Saturday night and finished them up this morning. My needles were flyin!

Here's a close up:


Fits like a dream and the yarn is very soft. Knitpicks, your sock yarn is great!

Now to go cast on for the other one!

Speaking of that...

I tried to get my Monkey to help me out with that. I'm a little bogged down with other projects here, but I really want these socks to get done.

Yea, that didn't go so well.

More Dye

As promised...

Here's my latest yarn dye. I love this one. Love. It.

It reminds me of a pale peacock.

As soon as I finish this post, I'm going to throw it on the swift and wind it up. I want to start socks with this like right. now.

I'm just dying to see how this will look knitted up.

Ew. That was a bad pun. Unintentional, but a bad pun nonetheless.

A close up:













I did things a little differently for this one. I mixed colors together this time and I am really happy with the colors. The purple was straight out of the Kool-Aid packet, but the turquoise and green were mixed by me. The more I do with dyeing the more I'm loving it. The freedom to be totally creative is great!

Oh, and I mentioned above that I have a swift - just brought it home from the store today! YAY! It will make winding yarn SO much easier.

Hubs and I are going to look at beds tomorrow. We need a new bedroom set, but especially a new bed/mattress combo. I hope we find something we like!

Have a great weekend!

Inspiration & Passion

Dyeing is consuming me. I mean all of me. It's all I can think about.

Well, when I'm not thinking about where I need to drive my boys next, or how much time I need to knit projects for the store.

After those things, I'm finding that I'm randomly putting different colors together in my head.

Trying to imagine them together on yarn.

Spending so much time on it, in fact, that I'm sure knitpicks.com will soon think of me as some kind of dyeing freak.

Take this one here. It's similar to one I posted last week. Similar, but not quite. This one has much stronger colors due to difference in fiber and more food coloring mixed in with the Kool-Aid.













I'm calling this one Rustic Rainbow.

I'm hoping this will make a very pretty pair of socks. The yarn feels heavenly and I can't wait to knit with it.


That is, if I ever knit anytime soon again. I've been so busy with yardwork, dyeing, and working that knitting time comes few and far between. I miss it.

But the one nice thing is, I'm making all of this pretty yarn to knit with once I do get the chance.

And to be able to knit with yarn that I dyed myself? Such a luxury I know I'll adore.













I can't wait to show you the one that's drying right now. It's probably my favorite one yet.

Tomorrow, I promise.

Memory Lane

Come stroll with me for a bit, ok?

I've got nothing, absolutely nothing, to blog about lately.

So I thought I'd dig up one of my favorite memories. I'd post pictures to go with it, but I still haven't found that box yet. (I know. And we've been here how long?)

When I was about 9 and my brother was 11, my mother and I were in the living room watching a movie. Suddenly my brother came in the room wearing a hooded sweatshirt and had a basketball for a head.

Seriously! It was the goofiest looking thing I'd ever seen - this big tall torso with waving arms flailing about and sticking out of the hood of the sweatshirt was an orange face with black curved stripes atop a strangely elongated neck.

My mother and I laughed so hard we almost peed our pants.

And then my brother started really hamming it up. There were noises, (noises!) to go along with this little charade of his.

At which I got to the point where you laugh so hard that there's no longer any noise coming from you; your body is just violently shaking.

I don't know why I chose to share this little tidbit today, other than every time I remember this, it brings back fresh giggles. I wish I could share the picture with you. It's freakin' hilarious.

Thanks, Babe

Not much to say lately, but I did want to show off the beautiful roses that my husband brought me on Mother's Day.

A question: anyone know what kind of rose these are? They're red on the inside and a delicate butter yellow on the outside of the petal. Very beautiful with a strong and enticing scent.

They were such a lovely surprise!

To Dye or Not to Dye - There Is No Question!

70% Merino/ 30% Silk, Kool-Aid:













Colors were Grape, Ice Berry Blue, Lemon-Lime, and Black Cherry.













I absolutely LOVE yarn dyeing. Love it.

OH. And one of the biggest perks of working in a yarn store? Steven got a free sample shipment of beautiful silk yarn from India the other day. There are about 12-15 hanks of beautiful white silk yarn of different weights and textures.

He sent them all home with me to pick a couple out and dye one of them for the store, and one of them for me.

100% silk! I can't WAIT!

He also asked if I could teach a class this fall on yarn dyeing. You bet! I think it will be fun.
___

To all of you Mothers out there - have a wonderful Mother's Day. Spoil yourself a little!

It's Game Time, Baby

Oh yea, we're going.

Gotta go see my boys! I hope Danks can bring it tonight.

Go White Sox!

edited to add:

THEY WON! 6-3, Danks got his first major league win tonight. Nice game, guys!

Look What I Did!

I hand-dyed yarn yesterday.

Oh it was awesome. So fun and easy.

And did I mention fun?

I've been wanting to try hand-dyeing yarn for quite some time, but only recently have I gotten up the nerve to actually do it.

I ordered some bare laceweight hanks (4!! of them) from Knitpicks last week. It was torture waiting until yesterday to actually try this process out.

This hank (all 880 yards of it - good lord, have you any idea how much yarn that is??) was done in a two-step process using Kool-Aid.

I dyed the first step with black cherry, grape, pink lemonade, and strawberry. While it was in the crock pot, I loved the colors - they looked so pretty mixing and blending together.













But after it had some time to dry I wasn't so crazy about the overall look. It was too ... I'm not sure. But I wasn't as thrilled as I wanted to be with it. I loved the black cherry and grape areas, but the strawberry completely took over the pink lemonade part (I thought it might - reds bleed a lot) and that whole area just didn't meld well with the more muted colors on the other end.

So back into the crock pot it went for session #2: Project Overdye. This time I used just grape and black cherry. The grape was poured liberally all over the yarn and the black cherry was put here and there in various places.

Rinse, hang to dry, and wait. This morning I went to take a look at it.


Immediately fell. in. love. The gorgeous muted purples, berries, and pinks I had originally wanted were there and so beautifully blended! Oh, happiness and joy!

I've got three more hanks of the bare laceweight to dye and one hank of a merino/silk blend that I'm really excited about. The wool and the silk will take the dye differently and I can't wait to see what they look like.

I went today and bought a virtual crapload of Kool-Aid.

Um, can you say new obsession?

A Little Yarn Pr0n

Oh. So. Yummy.













And some purples:













Enjoy!