So this weekend was..interesting.

Saturday Cody didn't have to work because he had to work an extra day at a different time so we went to the knitting group at Napoli for a while. I brought my wheel and had posted a note in the Tuesday group's yahoo mail that I was going to be there with my wheel.

Then I worried that I sounded all egotistic because I was assuming people would care that me and my wheel were doing anything ever. But people actually showed up because my wheel and I were there! Whee! So I showed some spin-curious people a few tricks on the wheel. Beth was there with her wheel and a woolee winder which is a neato bobbin gadget that I haven't been able to buy yet. And I got to see Adam who I hadn't seen Ms. Harlot had been in town!

I also got to see Erin whom I haven't seen since, geez I don't even know. I've been mentally calling this "the baby knitting group" because there have been three pregnancies in the last year. Erin's alleged girl (they're not positive it's a girl) is due next! And I got to meet a sweet little baby boy who's just two months old I think? He was very cute.

Then Cody and I went to Village Wools to buy gifts for my knitflix swap partner (No worries it's not a secret swap). And I spent too much. Again. THEN we went down to Los Lunas to see the in-laws and get haircuts. My mother-in-law is our hairdresser but it's ok she's a retired professional. It's nice to have short hair that doesn't tangle again. We also ate at a local favorite called Benny's whose burritos Cody's been eating since before he was born. Then we drove home and went to bed.

I woke up Sunday morning with a HORRIBLE stomachache. Blah! Benny's tried to poison me!

So I was in bed asleep or awake and wishing I were dead for about 24 hours until Monday morning. I was better but woozy Monday but we did get a few errands run that we do on Cody's "weekend" days (for those who don't know he works a totally freakish schedule so our "weekends" are different than most people's).

Tuesday I went back to the chiropractor who's really surprised with how quickly I've been improving! Seriously, my neck is so much better. You wouldn't believe the difference.

Then we mailed out my knitflix swap box, I hope she likes it!! I've been calling it an unashamedly girly. I don't want to give too much away though so I'll wait until it gets to Gwen to give the details. We also mailed out the vesper sock yarn that was snagged within hours of my putting it up for sale, which wasn't a surprise at all. That stuff is like jade or somethin.

Tuesday night we went to the Stitch n Bitch at Flying Star where I felt well enough to have the Late Autumn Harvest again - although I had to send it back and have them cook it more the patties were a bit raw in the middle and I'm not gonna get sick again!

I had a great time hanging out with Ramona, Beth, Morgen, Cari (who gave me a present from Village and looked lovely in her new Clapotis!!) and our blogless friends who are on the verge of converting any day now. Hope I didn't forget anyone I usually get a little slap happy at these things. Morgen, who had a really cool reconstructed sweater on, is our latest peer pressure victim! Welcome aboard!

We discussed blogs, the big Tilli Tomas pricing scandal, the upcoming Taos festival, Village's new digs, a group trip to Good Fibrations in Edgewood, the Sheep to Shawl store at the state fair, creative export businesses, and someone talked about knitting underpants out of lavender-scented yarn. Oh yeah, that was me.

So today I've been finishing up the knit portion of my funky scarf. I'm being awfully vague about this scarf aren't I? Well, it's kind of weird and hard to describe. And I'm still not absolutely sure it's going to work out. But don't worry! I'll write all about it when I finish it.

Then I put some handspun for sale in the etsy shop.

I put Sugar Plum Fairy back up for sale

Carnival Flirt

Schmoop

and last but absolutely not least,

Bernadette

It reminded me of the Seurat painting which made me think of Sunday in the Park with George so I named it after Bernadette Peters. But right now I want to dance around the house with it and sing that Four Tops song instead. Is it odd for one to fall in love with one's own yarn? Is that some kind of weird fiber Pygmalion thing?

Bernadette!
You're the soul of me!

Bernadette!
You mean more to me than a skein of yarn was ever meant to be!

I love that song. Ok you all think I'm really weird now.

If you're going to run away why don't you go look at the scarf Holly made using the Jackpot yarn! Isn't it pretty?

I stayed up late last night finishing a custom spinning job for one of my best friend's neilgaiman.com board buddies. This yarn is for the same lady that bought my drag queen grover shawl. So I know she has good taste, but is willing to go pretty far out there with the weird. I love people with those kind of qualifications.

This one's a little more reigned in. She wanted a similar beaded yarn with neutral colors, which I'll be knitting up into a rectangular shawl/scarf for her.

Does everyone else always look at their latest yarn and think to themselves: This is the best one I've done yet? I do this every time. I think it's a good sign that I keep pushing myself, keep myself excited.

So this is 4 oz of handpainted Blue Faced Leister (Banff from Spunky Eclectic) spun thick and thin then plied with clear nylon thread that I had strung with wooden beads. I'm not sure if I want to dunk it in water with the beads so right now I'm setting the twist on my Goko Swift.

Purty.

I'm messing around with my site off and on this weekend. I'm probably going to remove the skinning option since I can't keep up with which ones are and aren't working with the latest version of Movable Type. I know the comment cookies are all whacked out (and have been whacked out for a long time, cobbler's kids' shoes kind of thing) and I want to fix that. So this site might suddenly shift to a new design without notice, it might go to a dull design for a while. If it's totally crazy-looking, just hold the ctrl key and click reload on your browser at the same time.

**funky scarf swap partner! I've emailed you back again! Please check your spam filter if you don't hear from me today :) **

So I've been working on some custom orders the last few days. Some specifically asked for green so I decided to play with variations on that color with roving and sock yarn. It was fun. They're all still drying and they're in the bathroom so they're badly lit with the flash but here are a few photos I just took.

I have some other spinning jobs to do today. Doing some neutral toned beaded yarn today. I'm very excited about all the work I've been getting lately and really hopeful that I'll be able to pay for a good chunk of the cruise with my own fiber earnings.

But before I go do some work there's something I have to get off my chest. Project Runway is starting to piss me off. (Get it? Piss and Vinegar?)

Now I've been a loyal viewer since the first season. I don't blog about it much because other people write things that are far more interesting about the show than what I could come up with. But I'm a lifelong expert on the recent issues of weight that have come up on the show lately and I have to admit that I'm getting pretty disappointed in what I'm seeing.

Last week there was the whole size four being called "Zaftig", Heidi intimating she'd rather be dead than thought a plus size, the "aufed" designer blaming having a "fat" model on being kicked off the show in an interview. And I don't think she was *that* far off of the mark, either. I got the impression that she was tossed off the show because she designed something that made her model look fat and GODS FORBID someone looked fat.

But I wasn't that surprised. This is an industry that is designed to screw with women's heads and their concepts of self, and finding new things to sell to convince them that they won't look old or fat if they use or wear this or that. It's the first time it was really out in the open on this particular show but since Project Runway is about the fashion industry I've always sensed a little of that attitude floating underneath.

As a matter of fact I wrote about this issue during Season One: Wendy Pepper may have been a jerk, or someone whose footage was manipulated, probably somewhere in between, but whoever designed her clothes usually had various body types in mind and I thought that was commendable.

This week's episode really bothered me on a lot of levels. When the moms and sisters first came out I was delighted. FINALLY the designers were going to be designing for normal sized people. Then the whining started. "Waaah I have to design for fat people!" Boo freakin hoo guys who do you think is going to buy the clothes when you work at International Concepts?

They're supposed to be such impressive designers and they can only design for human coat hangers? Not very impressive to me. Allow me to quote myself from February 2005:

I probably wouldn't wear any of the clothes that came down that runway. If I had to choose one or go out naked I would put on Uli's. At least she took the body into consideration with modern design. It's sad really because these are supposed to be the top designers and only one could come up with a good design? Shame on you all. Back to remedial body concept for you! Get ye to figure drawing classes! Do they even require those for fashion majors? If they don't they really should.

I don't know much about fashion trends. But I frequently get compliments on what I'm wearing because I usually wear something that is fun, reflects my personality, and usually deals well with my short and stout body. I'm not going to kid myself that I'll wear a magic shirt and suddenly lose 100 pounds but one can still be big and look good. Seriously. And it's not really that friggin hard to do. Anyone could learn tips like these from watching a few episodes of What Not to Wear (at least the English one) or, hell, pick up the "Big Girl Knits" book there are some great tips in there!

So here are a few alternative suggestions for the designs that I can remember. I'm not going to get into colors, I'm just interested in the shapes here. If you click on the photos you'll be taken to the store where you can buy them.

Kayne's model would've looked gorgeous with an empire waist with a V neck. They usually flatter any body type. Especially ones with good boobs and pretty skin like Michael's mom. Rather than cropped tapered pants (a worrying trend which I'm going to just ignore like I'm ignoring the return of the gauchos), a boot-legged, flat-fronted pant. How cute would she have looked in this?

Robert could've done kimono sleeves without making a tent. I think his model could've looked lovely and floaty but still had a waist with a crossover design like this top but with some kimono sleeves added and some good shaping in lieu of the belt. And to balance out the top, a straight skirt to a floaty decorated hem with lots of fabric scraps (geometric as opposed to Santino-y) at the bottom.


I think that would have presented the interesting avant-garde kind of floaty shape Vincent's sister seemed to want without having it be so top-heavy and tentlike

Now, the inevitable Jeffrey. I think the major mistake he's made on this show (aside from being mean to someone's mom and a lot of other people on camera) is losing sight of his punk rock roots. He's supposed to be "Mr. Rockstar designer" but I have yet to see anything that lives up to that kind of title really, aside from the really obvious neck tattoos and bad attitude. Angela's mom, having nothing to lose but not looking like a good sport, would probably have enjoyed if he wanted to play "Dress mommy in punk rock clothes" if he'd been nice about it. And wouldn't that have been fun? This was supposed to be his unique perspective that got him on the show right? Adding some punk spice to high fashion? What a wasted opportunity to make it fun and look like a classy guy with a good sense of humor. What a shame. And don't give me any bullshit former addict alcoholic excuses, that should make you have even more regard for human frailties. Anyway, this is what I would've put on Angela's Mom.

I do think that he was on the right track with the neckline, even if he had said that ugly thing about her body issues. She was wearing a more demure neck than the other moms and I don't think she would've been comfortable for it to be too low cut. But there are ways around that. I keep thinking of the new Glampyre Stitch Diva sweater design - a very low cut worn over a higher cut. With the right waist shaping it could look really nice on a plus size body. I came up with two options there. Of course, he couldn't have knit a sweater or sewn a button down and vest in that time, but the basic idea of low cut worn over high cut with good shaping is what I'm after. I think the pants were where the color compromise could have come in. A sheer layer over a solid layer (like the pants on the right) but in wide legged pants (like the pants on the left) kind of thing. She would've looked longer and leaner with them, and not have to show any skin.

They're just my suggestions. But I think they're pretty good ones. I don't have twelve hours to sew them and know absolutely nothing about construction so they could be impossible ideas. I doubt it though. My point really is that there are ways to dress larger women that aren't mumus or boring. And I think it's really sad that these designers don't know that. If they don't know that, how are people who don't know anything about clothing supposed to know that?

So, of course, the designer that had the thinner model won and the one with the fatter model lost. Ho hum. Talk about baaaauuuring, Heidi.

Here are some good plus size clothing stores:
Avenue - I get my pants from here. I love their bootcut jeans and yoga pants.
Torrid - love their tops. I'm young and still have my punkish roots to really enjoy their stuff. They have a half-off clearance sale every month that keeps me in some fun shirts. I have to be careful to not go too young here. I don't have the boobs for halter tops and probably never did to be honest. They also have some great bras.
Kiyonna- Not quite as well-known but really great, simple designs that are pretty current. I have some of their older designs that have held up really well too.
Junonia - plus sized active wear. Some great yoga and swimming stuff.
Silhouettes - some older stuff (read: boring preppy crap) but there are some slick designs and affordable prices.
Nordstrom - is probably the most popular plus size shop for designer names. If I needed a formal dress I'd go here.
I personally don't like Lane Bryant because I found their clothes fall apart sooner than the others. So those were my resources for dressing the ladies.

I finally got my real camera out and took photos of some yarn today. I'll be putting the ones that are for sale up in the shop tomorrow so let me know today if you want it first!

Here are the yarns that are for sale:

Strawberries and Cream with Marmalade

It's hard to photograph this yarn properly but I'm going to get some more photos later. It's a really nice, evenly spun and strong sport weight with shades of orange, red, with lighter bits in between with little spirals that I like so much. Very soft Finn wool that I dyed with food-safe dyes.
144.48 yards
20.00 + 4.30 shipping (9.00 international shipping)
first to comment or email gets the sale

Lemonade with Blueberries

This is also handpainted Finn but this one has been spun in a thick and thin style with lots of soft tufts and tightly spun thin bits to hold it together. Lots of yellow and white with blues and a bit of green. I'm working on a thinner companion yarn using roving from the same dye pot that will be sold separately.
120 yards
20.00 + 4.30 shipping (9.00 international shipping)
back on sale but I sold its skinny sister

Old School Necktie

Handdyed solid silver plied with handdyed solid crimson. Reminds me of an old school kind of men's necktie. I keep thinking of Salinger prep school boys.
135.88 yards worsted weight
$ 15.00 + 4.30 shipping (9.00 international shipping)
first to comment or email gets the sale

There are more photos of these yarns in the new For Sale flickr set

This is some 2-ply I spun for another sort of charitable thing that I'm going to mail out Friday. It's spun from some handpainted BFL, my July installment from Amy Boogie's Spunky Fiber of the Month Club. The yarn is just under 300 yards and will make some gorgeous socks for its recipient. I'm very proud of this and I have to admit I'm kind of sad to see it go.

And these are the two rovings that I painted for the people who won my prize donations to the Dyeorama prize drawing. I gave each the option for roving or handspun and they both chose roving. Yay! That's easy to do!

These are also going into the mail on Friday. (I have two tons of things to mail and can't really afford to spend that much on postage until after Thursday night's paycheck)

Snb tonight! Ms Harlot on Thursday!

Now that the dyeorama stuff is calming down (no new emails in the inbox for almost 24 hours now! wahoo!) I've found a lot of spare time. So I've been spinning again and dyeing roving to spin. I finally finished that superfine (for me anyway) green silk blend 2ply too!

I'll put this yarn up in the shop in a day or so. Unless you'd like to buy it directly?

Here are the details

Green Tea Frappuccino.

70/30 Merino Silk handblend - mossy greens with white silk, shots of red and yellow for interest.

Would make gorgeously soft bedsocks.

mostly dk weight 2-ply

252.84 yds - 5 ounces

$36.00 + 4.30 domestic shipping or 9.00 international shipping.

This yarn is so soft, it makes you wanna slap your mama.

Um. Happy Mother's Day by the way!

I'm having a small Katherine Hepburn film festival in my den today. I watched The Rainmaker earlier and I'm midway through Without Love. I'll probably watch Little Women later on.

Hello!

Just a quick post because I want to go work on my second cabled sock. But I was planning on adding this to my Etsy shop and wanted to give you guys a chance to reserve it.

This is probably the last of my March pink/red project spectrum items. Oddly, I never got my planned project spectrum projects going. But I made a bunch I hadn't planned. So this is a pink superwash merino spun randomly with white tencel. Meaning it's washable and will not felt. And shiny

notice: zee yarn has now been sold!

With a complete lack of creativity I'm calling it Frosted Pink Lipstick. Cody wanted to call it Earthworm Primavera. Don't worry he got the geeeeroooooss look.

It's bulky to superbulky in weight
330.24 yards
30.00 US Dollars plus 4.00 shipping (shipping only if you're not in my knitting group, of course)
Leave a comment if you want to grab it first! I'll wait until Friday to put it in the shop.

Speaking of my knitting group, we had a great surprise party for Jamie's birthday at Seasons last night. She loved the super secret yarn I made in her favorite colors :) Ramona took some great photos that really capture the fun and overall bawdy mood (even without any dancing nekkid men). You still have a little time to go wish her a happy birthday. She's a great, smart, hyper, hilarious, friendly woman who could get the earth to turn backwards if she thought it should. I'm very, very glad to have met her and so thankful she started the Stitch n Bitch here last year. Without her I never would've met all these amazing women that are good at prying me out of the house even when I feel grumpy and hermitlike. Which can be pretty often.

Ok, off to knit on the cabled sock.

I'm really proud of this stuff. It's the craziest yarn I've ever spun ever. Clearly I've been taking a stab at the freestyle spinning in the style of Pluckyfluff, Material Whirled, Insubordiknit to name just a few.

It's called Drag Queen Grover. I was talking about it the other day and the photos really don't do it justice. I spun some Merino that was dyed varying shades of blue thick and thin style, spun randomly (using my hell's angel hair method) with some locks of fluffy mohair that was also in varying shades of blue. Then I strung a bunch of iridescent acrylic beads onto clear nylon thread and plied the thick and thin yarn with the thread. It created a sort of boucle looking effect. With occasional beads. And sometimes I twisted several beads together creating a little necklace hanging off. Crazy stuff. Looks like a muppet in drag. And it's blue like Grover so...Grover in drag.

I hope I don't get sued by the Sesame Street people. There's an extrordinary amount of this yarn considering it's a novelty freestyle type yarn: 160 yards. More than twice what you usually see for sale. Beverly thinks it would make a HELL of a One Skein Wonder :)

This stuff is just nutty. The mohair is really soft and fluffy as is the merino. The beads make cool clicky sounds. It's not nearly as tangled as it seems in the photos. The sun was at a very odd angle when I took these.

Anyway, I'm planning on selling this for seventy bucks. But wait! If you buy in the next ten minutes (ok not really I'll be offering this the whole time) I'll throw in these two matching sample skeins!

The one on the left is a fifteen yard skein is a single ply spun from just the blue mohair locks. The one on the right fifteen yards and is the mohair spun with random locks THEN plied with the singly ply of the mohair locks. So that's 30 yards of matching yarn IN ADDITION to the 160 yards of the beaded stuff. Possible material for the cuffs of the OSW? You decide!

All that for the low low price of 70 US dollars plus four dollars shipping! I'll be posting it on the Etsy site on Monday so let me know in the comments if you want to buy it first!

I seem to have been in a blue mood lately because I also took four commercial yarns in varying shades of blue and plied them together to create a really cool super super bulky yarn.

This yarn has one strand each of: imported electric blue brushed mohair, slatey prussian blue brushed merino, teal brushed suri alpaca, and baby blue plied cotton (leftover from my ballet t). It will continue to fluff out over time creating a really interesting depth of colors as they all fluff and blend together. It's just under 50 (49.88 to be exact) yards. Using much larger needles, like 35s and 50s, this would create a great scarf.

I'm calling it Extreeeeeeme Blue. Yes, that's a Harold and Kumar reference. I'm a dork. I'll be putting that up in the Etsy shop as well selling it for 25 US dollars plus 4 dollars shipping. So let me know if you want to snag it first!

So, with my silly sales pitches overwith I'll show off the Marilyn sweater that Scout got from Anna for me. Thank you Anna!

It's really nice isn't it? And I got Cody to take a photo of both my hands at the same time wearing the armwarmer things!

Before

(That shirt says Leeroy Jenkins Whelp Training Academy - as in Leeeeroy Jeeeeenkins. I stole it from Cody. Well, he wears my free to stitch free to bitch and craft pirate shirts)

After

Think there are enough photos in this post? I'm not sure. Oh, and I finished the first sock of what I'm calling the "Ironic Cabled Socks" and I'm well into the second one. And I've finished spinning a good amount of some pink superwash and white tencel blend. Not quite as funky as Drag Queen Grover up there but pretty nice.

Ok I feel all caught up now I'm going to go do some sock knitting.

Hmm well I was hoping to post some lovely photos of Cody's frankenstein fuzzyfeet all fulled and shaped. But, er, it didn't work out. I overfelted them and now neither of us can get the tighter manos heel around our ankles. So if anyone with tiny feet, like a women's size 6 or so, wants some very unique wool slippers let me know. Or I'm just going to cut them into strips and do something else with them.

The good part is I have something else to post about. And it even falls into the Project Spectrum category! It's yarn! Yay! I'm getting back into the spinning! And let me say, I'm really glad. Spinning is so calming and I'm always really proud of what I come up with. This time it was some great 50% merino 50% tencel that I'd picked up from Winderwood farms last fall. I spun it thin enough to feel comfortable plying it.

So I borrowed Beverly's giganto plying head from her lendrum wheel while she's out of town and made a pretty big batch of two ply. 294.12 yards to be exact. Although I have some more on one bobbin that I'm going to try Andean plying or maybe just wind half of it into a ball and ply it that way. So there'll probably be about 315 - 325 yards altogether. Not bad.

edited (again) -

I ended up winding the remaining single ply into a center pull ball and plied from the center and outer edge of the ball. That's a nifty little process I'd heard about from the people at sheep to shawl last year. I learned so much that day. Much more than just how to spin with a wheel.

Anyway, there was more than I estimated for that second skein - 39.56 yards! So the total yardage is 333.68.

I wound the plied yarn into a skein using my trusty Goko swift this morning.

What I love about my Goko is it's so unique. It makes just winding or unwinding a skein a pretty little sculpture. Those Japanese really know from the aethetic don't they?

The tencel really made the shades of pink and orange shine. They're like silk. But softer. And shinier. And silkworm friendly. The colors and the shine made me think of fabrics from India. So I'm calling it Bombay Dreams.

The bad news is Beverly has first dibs on this yarn. The good news is if she doesn't want it I'll be happy to sell it to you.

edit: Now if Miss Beverly doesn't want it Miss Pamela will buy it. Yay!

Send me an email or leave a comment if you're interested. I'll let you know when she decides and we can work out a bill on paypal or a special listing on etsy or something. I'll be selling it for 60 US dollars. That will include the yarn I'm going to be plying today so that will be 333.68 yards for 60 dollars - that's less than 20 cents (17 cents to be exact) per yard. It winds out at about 10 wraps per inch - worsted to heavy worsted weight.

This stuff is so pretty. And shiny. Did I say how happy I am to be spinning again?

Also, I've been knitting the little ugg baby booties for a pregnant cousin-in-law. Ramona gave me the yarn that was leftover from knitting hers. And I did go ahead and buy some more so I could be sure I had enough for the hat too. I finished one bootie last night and these things are huge. If I do it again I'm going down a needle size or two.

I'm glad Chloe won. Not only because she was "anyone but Santino" but because I really like her model. She has such a unique look I've been rooting for her all season. I think it's fun to see untraditional looking people model. Makes me think that even normal people might be able to wear those clothes too. Which is why I really like the models from the Interweave magazines. Some are pear-shaped or have big shoulders. Some even have *gasp* bellies! Models with bellies not modelling fat girl clothes! Whoda thunk it?

So after Cody's birthday dinner with his parents we made it over for the last hour at the Flying Star Stitch n Bitch. I was meeting Carole there to sell her the Yarn Noir Superwash. But I thought I'd bring the rest of my yarn because I thought the others might get jealous that I hadn't brought any for them. Oh, ok, I'll admit I was being mean. I knew that once they had the skeins in hand there would be a few who couldn't resist. Especially after smelling the tantalizing combination of wool and lavender baby shampoo. It was like a big fibery tupperware party.

So I've sold the Melting Grape Popsicle to Scout and the Bosque Sunset to Ramona. I never got a photo of the Bosque Sunset yarn but that's the roving I was spinning in this photo. It is very reminiscent of Manos - but shinier. One of my favorites so far. I know I say that about all of them don't I? And a lady from a different table approached me and wants to buy the calico canine yarn for some friends of hers. Apparently she sells high-end knit items at a gallery and wants to have me sell wholesale to a yarn shop in Arroyo Seco. Wouldn't that be cool?

So I've officially sold enough yarn to make up for the cost of the wheel. Plus some. Yaaay! I'm incredibly proud of this. I'm finally selling artwork. Definitely not the kind of work I would've expected to be producing ten years ago but it's much less messy and sells waaaay easier. And is far less pretentious. After the holidays my big plan is to save up for a drum carder. And then! We'll raise us a mess a' Alpacas! Ok kidding. Or am I?

Giftmas update: I'm going to finish father-in-law fuzzyfeet tonight and probably start on Mom's scarf. And pull out the holiday dvds. We're putting up the tree Thursday. We had our first snow the other night. Not a lot and it didn't stick for long but it's been pretty chilly all week. And the smell of pinon burning in fireplaces is floating around. Winter in New Mexico.

It's overcast and misty this afternoon which is weird. It was a busy week and I didn't get much crafting or sleeping done. I did a little unexpected Thanksgiving cooking though.

This,

this,

and this

became these.

After getting that comment about rotting sausage I guess I should clarify that this is wool roving for spinning :) To clarify even further it's wool from a Romney named Madison.

I also dyed this mohair yarn (overdyed over a failed previous experiment actually),

this small skein of mystery blend yarn,

and used the leftovers on this handspun I picked up at a guild exchange in July.

I haven't taken photos of those finished yarns yet.

I have discovered a few things from all this: I prefer using the oven method (cooks faster), I need to use a lighter hand if I'm going to be using liquid dyes or it all become a gross puddle of brown, it pays to be very very generous with the vinegar and use a whole lot of kool aid, and no matter how many packets of different flavors I buy I will end up with just grape and lime in the end.

In other news I've put this up in the shop. We're calling it Yarn Noir. It's superwash.

And got a photo of my big state-of-the-art workroom (also known as the den) and spinning support staff. And my wonderful Lendrum.

The grey fluff beside Winter is not roving.

And this is what I'm spinning now.

The knitting group was fun today. It was so great to see Erin again after all the working weekends she had to endure the last few months. And it's always fun to mellow out with Emma (always a very calming presence) and Corrine. I miss Jeannie and hope things are ok with her. And my thoughts are with Beverly (and her sister and niece and nephew) and my sister (and her husband) in Roma. Hope they get to meet for coffee while they're both there. I love the photos from Scout and Carole's Thanksgiving. I'm doing my best to wrangle a way to go to the SnB on Tuesday even if we have dinner plans with the in-laws. I want to show off my cables! But it's Mr. Man's birthday and I'm not sure if I'll make it :(

I'm in the final stretch on the first sock in the Fuzzyfeet pair number 3 for the father-in-law. It's in a Crystal Palace yarn called Labrador and it looks really homespun so it'll felt in an interesting way. I'm trying to get the gifts for the people here finished first since I've found out I'm going to be flying to Bham on Xmas day. The good news is we got the house cleaned up for this week's guests but won't have the Xmas guests we were expecting so we can just relax and enjoy having a clean (but not obsessively cleaned for the parents) house! And I get to be with everyone on Christmas. It's a good way to work it.

And I've finished my first skein on the cable scarf so that's plugging along.

In health news all that dental work is paying off my teeth feel great! No pain or weird food traps or anything! I woke up with a cat hair or something stuck way up my nose that's proving impossible to sneeze out so I've been sniffly all day. But even though it's a grey day outside there's yummy tea to drink, holiday knitting to do, netflix movies to watch, and cuddly pets to snuggle so I'm a pretty happy lady. Just a little sniffly.

Wonder where the yarn for my sister's poncho is. It was a bargain (for Noro Silk Garden) but it is shipping from Canada and now I'm wondering how good an idea that really was. Oh well. I think I might have a skein or two of yarn around here somewhere...yeah one or two.

Oh and I made Hedgehog Reindeer the default skin for the site so click here if you're still seeing a punk rock fairy or mocha hedgehog. You really don't want to miss the hedgehog reindeer.

I'm not feeling too chatty today. I'm a busybusy little knitting spinning cleaning laundering bee. Eeep! Giftmas coming! Houseguests coming too! Panic!

So no time for too much typing but, as they (the ad execs working for kodak) say, pictures are worth a thousand words. So here goes.

Finished (but unfelted) Fuzzy Feet 2: Flashing Boogaloo.

Added some Sparkly Snow Princess yarn to the shop

Edited: which has sold in less than two hours after listing it. Ok, I'm starting to get a big head about this ;)

And some Melting Grape Popsicle yarn too

And, oh yeah, did some CABLES!!! WOOOOO

Cables with my own handspun. I think I'm officially a cool knitter now :)

I haven't been very talkative lately have I? Well, I've been a bit busy. I was completely (and happily) surprised when most of my yarn sold in the Etsy Shop. Then I was worried that I should spin up some more as soon as I could. Which doesn't really jibe with the whole oh my god there are only thirty-seven knitting days until giftmas panic. But I set down the knitting long enough to spin some very interesting noodles.

I won't say that I hope they don't sell as quickly as the Harvest Spice did. Because realizing that my yarn sold in less than 24 hours of being listed (by a repeat customer no less!) made me squeal with such glee that the cats ran and hid, the dog started barking, and I'm sure the hedgehog gave a good huff inside her little plastic pigloo.

So here are my latest two yarns.

Sweet Potato Casserole

that's Corriedale in shades of Creamed Sweet Potato, dark Kid Mohair sprinkled in like brown sugar, topped with Tussah Silk for the melted marshmallows. I didn't card this myself (oh I wish I had) but I've found myself a hell of a custom roving source in Michigan. This was on a drop spindle. And my first time spinning silk. So it's slubby and odd. But it's grown on me as I set the twist and watched it dry. This stuff is soooo soft.

Calico Canine

While this has a similar color scheme to the Sweet Potato this yarn is an entirely different proposition. This is a blend of brown coopworth, black border leister wool, and golden retriever down. Yes. Golden Retriever. There's dog hair in this here yarn! And the wools are much stiffer and more rustic. It was spun on the lendrum and is a much more consistent worsted to bulky weight. And there's enough for a decent sweater for a small person.

Today I'm spinning another silk blend but I'm doing it on the wheel. It's purple merino with white silk. Mmmm.

I've been knitting a bit though. Although I haven't gotten as much work on the Dad scarf as I'd like.

This is all I have so far

That's actually a washcloth pattern called flying geese but it translates well into a scarf. Although I'm thinking that I might frog (rip it, rip it) and try a different pattern since I'm not all that far along (only two pattern repeats) and I received great encouragement by Jamie and Carole at the Flying Star Stitch n Bitch on Tuesday to try cables. It really is a lot less complicated than I thought it was, I hadn't even bothered to look into it assuming it was big and scary. And since I have just under 400 yards of this yarn I might be making this or this instead. Hmmmm. I just thought of this so I need to let that idea marinate a bit.

In the meantime I can finish my second pair of fuzzy feet. You know, the ones made from Mmmmmmmanos? Aww yeah.

The varigated part is Manos del Uruguay Stellar 110, with solid Steel 10 color on the cuffs and toes. There's some color pooling / flashing going on. But it's ok. There was a whole lotta pooling and flashing with the tote and it turned out nicely after it was felted. I will probably alternate skeins for the next pair to avoid this happening again though.

I cast the first sock on at the SNB Tuesday night. I got a lot of work done on it that night. It was so neat to get to go there even though Cody had to work! ManymanymanymanyMANY thanks to Beverly for driving my panic attacked driver's butt around when Mr. Man is working :) These knit groups make me so happy and they've been really important to me, especially since Jocelyn moved to San Fran.

So I finished the first sock of pair number two last night. Got a lot done waiting in the line at the drive thru for the new Popeyes chicken place. It's funny how these cheesy fast food restaurants that were all over the place where I grew up open here in Albuquerque and get mobbed. First the Krispy Kreme, then the Chic fil A, now the Popeyes. Of course, I've been just as excited as every other transplant and happily waited in line for the good stuff. We've driven by a few times and just weren't up for the wait. But last night was Cody's night off so we got some hot beverages, a book for him and the socks for me, put the dog in the back of the CR-V and we waited it out. It was worth it. YEAH it was worth it.

I cast on for the second sock last night. Turned the heel in the waiting room at the dentist's office while Cody got some cavities filled, picked up the instep stitches in the chair between getting my new permanent crown and getting a cavity filled, and I'm in the home stretch on the foot now.

So I finished the hat for Mr. Tong. Since it's his birthday tomorrow it definitely won't make it to San Francisco in time. I thought I'd post it here and Jocelyn could choose to show it to him tomorrow, or wait until they're visiting in a little over a week. Anyway, I took some nice photos of it today.

So about the hat. This is from some obscure short-lived Sci Fi show called Firefly (which I've never seen) and apparently there's a spin off movie or movie based on it or something that's recently come out called Serenity. Don't ask me I've never seen either. I'm not a big science fiction fan. But a lot of people in my life are, including my best friend and her boyfriend, whose birthday is tomorrow. Between being a warm-natured guy (according to his girlfriend) and my not knowing him very well I didn't have a lot of knitted present options. So when I mentioned the big thread on craftster about this hat we agreed this was what I'd make.

According to this thread and Jocelyn, there's this cranky guy on the tv show named Jayne Cobb who wears a big silly hat knit by his mom. According to some it should be irregular and very homespun-lookin'. Well, far be it for me to not take advantage of an opportunity to spin my own yarn. So I did.

I knit one hat on Sunday, pretty much following the directions on craftster. But in the end I didn't feel like I'd made it tall enough so today I frogged it and tried again while watching a great biography on Lucrezia Borgia and a history's mystery show about the man in the iron mask. I made a few alterations to suit the yarn a bit better - namely, doing a k2 p2 ribbing instead of a k1 p1. It just looked better with this yarn.

It might be a bit tall now. But the earflaps were easy and the pom pom pretty much makes the hat.

This hat is very, very funny.

It's hard to not make silly faces while wearing it. Even for the dog

Now onto the holiday knitting panic.

First up: a Fulled Lopi Tote for the mil made with Fiesta Yarns' Watermark and Kokopelli in (repectively) Amazon and Peony. This was bought during my first trip to a non-chain yarn store, their factory outlet store, and it's been sitting around waiting for me to use ever since.

root canal. Yeah. So I'm taking prescription drugs, finishing my smoothie drink, and going to bed now.

Here's some yarn porn to keep you busy. Let's just pretend it's Saturday.

That's the muscadine wine yarn I was talking about. Best I've spun yet. And if you reallyreally like it, it's for sale!

So I finished the other sock this morning. Have to say I'm very proud that I got the stripes to match. Yeah I manipulated the self-striping yarn a little.

Then felted it in the washing machine for a bit. I've been wearing them over a pair of socks today so they've really molded to my feet.

A few notes: the cuffs were knit several inches taller than the pattern called for so they're definitely more like booties. They'll be perfect for spinning on cold nights. Also, I knit completely on dpns because the circs were stretching the yarn more than I was comfortable with.

This pattern is brilliant. Simply brilliant. Now I'm thinking of making some for a few people for giftmas.

*My very first night on AOL waaaay back in 1995 I was wandering around the chat rooms and on a whim went into a room called "Foot Fun". I used to draw my feet a lot because they were always there to stay still for me. Not sure what I was thinking about entering a room called "Foot Fun" but I soon found out it was a chatroom full of foot fetishists. Welcome to the internets.

We had a lot of trick or treaters last night. Well, I should say I had a lot of trick or treaters because Cody was at work. Gave away most of our candy. Mental note: do not tell cheeky nine year old boys to "just grab what they want" because they will. In my defense all the children in the years before him had been so intimidated by the possibilities that they actually did just grab a few treats. Not this kid. Someone always has to ruin the party for the others. Now I do the doling out dammit.

In other news I washed and set some yarn today.

And I'm trying to knit this hat in the October Song yarn but I'm not sure if I have enough yarn for it. We'll see.

Because I'm tired.

Here's some merino I spun and set a few weeks ago. I'm already running out of creative names for yarn so Cody has dubbed it "Romantic Bruise" for me.

This stuff is gorgeous and super soft.

This is some pink, yellow, and purple alpaca that I spun last weekend. Without Cody here to name it I'ved been calling it Pepto Party.

Spinning alpaca is a very different proposition than spinning wool. It spins sooo fine though. I'd say this is almost sportweight but is mostly dk.

I also finished the ornaments for the aunts' party.

And I'm thinking about printing this photo for holiday cards

I also knit two very silly novelty yarn scarves.

This was last week's. It's a silly glittery fishnet pink fuzzy boo boo kitty kind of scarf that Dr. Frank N Furter would kill to have.

And I knit this one yesterday. It's another dropped stitch crossover scarf on bigger needles with this supersuper soft novelty two ply from the Hobby Lobby store brand called Yarn Bee.

So that's what I've been up to. Oh, and Winter has been getting cold (she's a very shorthaired dog) and they just don't make very many sweaters and things in her size. I have plans to knit one and she has a great polar fleece coat from Orvis. But she just needed a little extra, it's not quite cold enough for polar fleece yet. So she's been wearing some of our old t shirts.

I got that t shirt free when I bought a pair of docs in some weird downtown Sydney shoe store sometime in 92. It's shrunk significanty since then but it fits Winter nicely. I just have to tie the shirt at her waist a bit but she seems to like it. And she looks so cute. My little punk rock mohawk sporting dog. She calmly puts up with all kinds of silly humiliations at the hands of her mom.

Ok, naptime.

Because for some reason I love to spin on Saturdays. I think it's because I learned to spin on a Saturday.

This is some stuff I made by predrafting small pillows of roving from piles of Merino top in three different colors: peach, tan, and pink. Then putting them in a paper bag and grabbing them at random to spin in. Then I plied it all together. Neat huh?

I have officially dubbed this yarn "Peach Kelli Pop" after a very silly 80s Red Kross song that goes sort of like this:

She still needs her twist "washed and set" in my favorite lavender baby shampoo then she'll be up in the shop. Must remember to put things up in the shop.

Finally caught up on taking photos of finished objects. I've uploaded 42 images today. All knitting related. Yarr. So to avoid killing your browser (which I'll be risking anyway) I'll try to only post the highlights. There are still a bunch though.

Click on the photos to go to the set page and see a bunch of other stuff.

Handspun Mohair Scarf

La Boheme Nouveau Poncho

Rayon Boucle Shoulder Scarf

knit mini socks and mitten xmas ornaments

a stuffed chenille pumpkin toy for the nephew

a bunch of dishcloths

Many Handspun Yarn Photos

People think I'm kidding about the magical New Mexico sun. Oh no. Everything I knit and spin looks 78% better in the sun here. It really makes colors pop.

I've been going back and forth on this for weeks now and we finally decided not to go to the Taos Wool Festival. I've spent entirely too much on fiber related stuff this year anyway (oh and um this) and we have visiting niece and nephew obligations. And I want to see my Saturday knitting group ladies. With the way Cody's work schedule has been the last few weeks I haven't been able to get to knitting groups nearly as often as I'd like. So we weighed the pros and cons and decided not to go. Maybe next year.

I'll try to get balloon fiesta photos this weekend. But I usually forget.

Speaking of fiestas, I don't quite understand the attitude of people who move here then get indignant about the Hispanic influences of a state called New Mexico. Yes, festivals will be called fiestas here. Because fiesta means festival. I don't see people complaining about the overuse of the word festival. I just don't get why people would want to complain about that. It just seems like going to Boston and complaining about having clam chowder on the menu in every restaurant. Awfully silly.

Since I haven't gotten the mt blogrolling plugin working properly since the upgrade (because I'd much rather spend my leisure time reading weblogs or knitting or spinning not futzing around with code) this is what I'm working on atm.

We went to the fair yesterday and Cody took lots of photos while I spent hours on end at Sheep to Shawl. On the way home I rented a spinning wheel from Village Wools.

These are my favorites from the batch

here in the us we fry whatever will stay still long enough to be dipped in batter

the incredibly patient sheep to shawl spinning demonstrators

The spinning wheel I've rented for the next two weeks (at a very reasonable ten dollars a week!) is the exact same one the lady in the middle is working on. It's a Lendrum Double Treadle Foldup. This is pretty much the wheel we've decided to buy someday.

Damn that ebay. Damn its eyes for selling such cool yarn. Like this gorgeous handspun merino plied with beaded string that I bought and made a quickie scarf with this week.

It's sort of a miniature version of the crossover scarf from knitty gritty. And sort of influenced by a summer scarf in this summer's Vogue Knits.

It's hard to see the beads. There aren't a whole lot, just a sprinkling of them.

This yarn is so soft and the variations from being handspun really add a nice varied texture. As do the little sparkly beads. But this is just the beginning of the handspun yarn thing.

I've crossed my "crazy line" where knitting is concerned. I tend to get obsessive about things: my dog, hedgehogs, knitting, germs, asparagus, to name just a few. But I try to keep myself in check by creating a "crazy line," or some sort of action or behavior I think is going too far.

In the case of my dog it's the BARF diet. Yeah, barf. It's an acronym for Bones and Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, depending on who you're talking to. I have Winter's food shipped in from Wisconsin and add all kinds of supplements to it. She usually gets yogurt and a greenie about once a day and lately she's been getting a little less food and a little more canned unsalted green beans for some diet filler lately. I've looked into the barf diet and decided that grinding chicken necks and eggs and raw bones up and serving them to my dog were beyond my crazy line. You don't even want to know what all I do to guarantee the hedgehog has a high protein low fat diet. I'll throw a few mealworms into food and serve Melon her nastyass tinned smoked kipper snack but I will brook no raw chicken necks and backs in my kitchen.

I had a knitting crazy line. Had. But I just wasn't strong enough to stay away from it. There've been just too many beautiful handspun yarns to buy on ebay and I was finally tempted. I blame winning this auction and receiving such beautiful and brightly colored yarn. And Jeannie for letting me borrow her drop spindle and showing me spinning basics. And helping me pick out such beautiful purple mohair to spin.

It sure isn't perfect but it's pretty damned cool.

Now I'm working with this beautiful orange and cream merino top. Don't ask me what my thing for purples and oranges is about these days because I honestly have no idea.

Oh and want to know my new knitting "crazy line"? Spinning my pets' fur.