Ok! So I finished the funky scarf over the weekend and now I get to share the big secret.

First, the swap person I got

So I’ve been going through all my yarn and putting these gypsy yarn kits together. I decided to guarantee the randomness (since this seems to be a challenge for some) by tying the yarn in at random times and skeining them up myself.

These will all come with my pattern for a “gypsy scarf” but, really, the way they’re designed you can just cast on and knit and you’ll get a helluva funky scarf. Each skein has a certain kind of color scheme but has a surprise or two to keep things interesting.

I have four so far but I’ll put some more together if there’s any interest. I brought them to stitch n bitch tonight and my friends there are predicting that there will be plenty of interest. They’ve also suggested the retail price of 35 dollars. What do ya’ll think?

Jackpot- 130 yds
this is jackpot yarn, it’s all handspun. Some by me, some by others, and even a bit of Manos de Uruguay
Mostly blues and browns

Teaches of Peaches ~150 yds
Vintage cotton linen yarn, a bit of chenille, debbie bliss cotton, some berroco suede, weird ladder yarn, and omg there’s some koigu in there too
Teracotta, green, blue

Blue with Suede Too ~196
There’s probably enough here for two scarves or one shawl. Lots of cotton in different forms - chenille, plied, mercerized, there’s also some ladder yarn, Berroco suede, and a great silk ribbon yarn from Artfibers
Mostly blues with creams and some greens too

Double Tall Vanilla Latte ~187 yds
Funky plied brown cotton (some of the first yarn I ever bought), burgundy wool, pink tufty rowan big wool stuff, lots of interesting textures in this one, I like this one a lot
Browns, cream, burgundy, pink

I’ll put all these up in the etsy shop tonight. I’m also putting together some kits with full skeins, leaving the randomness up to the knitter. This is the first one of those

Mrs. Slocombe
Suri Alpaca (knitpicks), Nylon Novelty (Takhi Stacy Charles), Kid Mohair w/ Silk (Plymouth Kid Seta)

I want to thank everyone for their input about which yarn to choose for that sweater!! I think the main consensus was the darker brown. I agree that the darker color would be better and more slimming on the sides, reminds me of an old stage makeup trick actually. Chris brought up a great point about the weight and ply! What I spun is a single ply midrange worsted so I think the Lamb’s Pride is probably the way to go. Thanks everyone!!

On with the funk.

As I’ve said (several times) before, I don’t usually join swaps. I enjoy volunteering to be an angel for swaps (and in the end I really did enjoy running the back end of Dyeorama) but I don’t usually do the main swap part. Scout caught me in a weak moment last week and talked me into joining the Funky Scarf Swap she and Beverly are running.

Ok that’s not entirely true I was just in a joiney mood last week because I also joined the Knitflix swap. Movies and knitting? I’m so there.

To be honest the funky scarf swap is perfect for me. I’m all about the funky scarves. And shawls, and music, and clothes, and kitty cats. Yes! I even have a cat named “Funk” although I spell it a little phunqy.

But the term “funky” seems to be pretty subjective and for some funky could mean knitting in *gasp* the color red while others would go so far as to knit with yarn that has little plastic African animal toys tied to it.

I have a vague plan for what I’m going to do for my swap partner. Hopefully she’s willing to go pretty funky as I’m already collecting bottle caps to do some shibori resistance felting with some yarn I’ll spin up for her. Ooooh won’t that be fun? I’ve been wanting to play with Shibori since that article in Interweave last fall!

So I’m supposed to answer these questions for my secret swap person that’s sending me stuff. Hello secret swap person! Everyone else can choose to ignore the answers but scroll down a bit to see photos of my latest FOs as they’re part of my answers
Lets get the allergy part out of the way. Are you allergic to any fibers?

Angora makes me sneeze a bit.

Do you prefer any fibers over others?

I like very soft fibers. I’m not big into the fiber snobbery but I’ve found that some novelty fun fur stuff can be very scratchy. I think that Icelandic wool can be very scratchy too. I’m good with felted stuff as long as it won’t leave red marks. Whatever it is, please just make sure it’s something that could be rubbed on your face without leaving welts.

Speaking of soft, this is a scarf I knit last night using Finn pencil roving that I kettle dyed and felted a bit. It’s vera vera soft

It’s also very short so I’m holding it closed here with a Brittany DPN

back to the questions…

Thinking back to Scouts post about what funky means to you, post an image of something that you think is funky!

Well, um, I guess I have to brag here because that was my Drag Queen Grover yarn that she posted about Here are a few photos of the finished product.

I love crazy insane insane crazy funky, funky stuff.

On the other hand, I’d be happy with simple yarn and a unique construction as well. For example, I love that new Swiss Cheese scarf from Morehouse Merino! I think that’s pretty funky too!

To me the key part of funky is fun. Just something that’s enjoyable to make and wear. Something that’s different than what you see all the time. Really, it’s just that simple.

Would you prefer funky yarn or a funky pattern?

Either really. I think it should be one or the other though, not both at the same time. Big funky yarn tends to speak for itself and looks great with a simple pattern while a funky pattern would get lost in a funky yarn and usually needs a simple yarn to show the funk in the pattern.

What are your favorite colors?

I love good color combinations. As long as there are no fluorescents. I like bright colors but not like day-glo. You’d probably get a good idea of what kind of colors I like from looking at my stash photos!

My color tastes are usually very seasonal so since this will be in October I’ll probably be in a real Harvesty Autumny color mood.

What is your favorite piece of art?

Van Gogh’s 1889 Irises

What colors would you never have up close to your pretty face?

Day glo fluorescents. Really. Hate them. No matter what season it is.

Would you prefer an actual scarf or a cowl?

A scarf

When you wear a scarf do you prefer a wider/shorter scarf or a thin/long scarf?

Either but I am a plus size so please consider the “Big Girl Knits” rules that I would need a larger proportion for it to look right and not like a tiny handkerchief.

Speaking of plus size proportions, Cody helped me take some photos of my big Artyarns souvenir shawl today to show how big it is

What is the climate like where you live?

It can change from super hot to super cold here in the high desert. I believe in wearing layers that can be easily removed.

Would you prefer a functional scarf (to keep you warm) or one just to funk-up your wardrobe?

Probably one that’s more funky than functional but it can still be warm it does snow here!

What else would you like your partner to know about you?

Please just have fun with whatever you choose to make. I think that if you enjoy making it, that will show in the work, no matter what yours or my definition of funky is. Just try something new for you and have fun!!

that peer pressure can sometimes be good. Behold.

Do you also like the hedgehog stitchmarkers Triplelle made for me? She’s selling them now!

I’m also now officially a member of the koigu cult. I’ve joked about it. I’ve owned some for almost a year. But I’d never knit with it until now. I can’t get over how shiny it is, the richness of the colors. It seems like at the end of every row I’ll just stop and marvel and the colors and the magic of this pattern.

See? Sometimes peer pressure is ok.

And am I the last person who found out they can subscribe to yahoo group feeds in bloglines now?

Had a bit of a busy weekend. Heh. Busy weekend. Just a bit. Hehehehehahahahahahaheeeheeeheeheelmmfao

Yeah. Ok. So. Right now we’re looking at roughly 272 people for the dyeorama swap when I’m all done confirming a few entries and getting some info I need from a few others. Call me a softhearted woman but yeah I’m giving people about eleven more hours to confirm or ask nicely if they can join.

Let me say that again. Two hundred seventy two people. And the server didn’t go down. And it won’t show up as overage on the bill either. So hooray for Dreamhost! It shows a little having that many people signing up for WordPress but the swap registration form was great. All things considered there were very few problems to fix. Especially once we got the Internet Explorer issue resolved. When there were problems (primarily people entering wrong information and a RTFM moment or two) they were incredibly easy to fix thanks to Cody’s programming and Dreamhost running PHPmyadmin so I could maintain the database.

Now on to the programming a way to randomly match people and email them by May 1.

We were approached by a store for sponsorship and decided to give out some prizes in a random drawing from the list of people who completed the swap. I’m really pleased with the sponsor’s yarn and I think her dyeing kits are great! We’re accumulating several good gifts (I love the idea of having an incentive to be a good buddy) and trying to come up with a way to confirm when people have received their yarn. Cody has some great ideas.

It’s kind of hard to get across how much work programming something like this from scratch really is, or making things run as smoothly as possible with all the possible variables. I pretty much haven’t done much else this weekend but check emails, change database info, fix the website, and figure out how to fix bouncing emails. It’s not sexy or exciting but I’m proud of the work. And I think it’s going to be a fun swap.

The great part of this is knowing that between Cody and I we can pull off a project for almost 300 people. That’s something to put on a resume. Which is very cool.

So after all the work I’ve been shopping online for a prize for myself. Between this work and resolving a serious problem we were having wth PNM misreading our gas gauge and overcharging us by several hundred dollars, *and* selling some yarn this weekend (to a dyeorama member no less!) I feel like I should buy myself a present.

In a state of sleep-induced delirium yesterday I wandered around online looking at my favorite places. My favorites list at Etsy, Kpixie’s one of a kind yarn, the new Fiber-of-the-month club at Spunky…I couldn’t decide on anything.

After running to Trader Joe’s for groceries (we still can’t get over the prices there) and to Smith’s for the less glamorous groceries like toilet paper and kitty litter (I know TJ’s has hippie pine pellet kitty litter but that isn’t going to work for my cats’ industrial grade asses - we need crystals), I ended up going to Borders to get the brand new “Big Girl Knits” book. They couldn’t find it for me so the nice guy called Barnes and Noble (which was maybe a football field away anyway) and had them hold it at the desk for me.

It’s a great book - the models are actually plus sized not the like “oh she’s a little hippy but otherwise railass thin” kind of models. The advice is good, the patterns cover a wide variety of materials and shapes. I’m very pleased to hear that ribbon yarn is the novelty yarn for the big girl since that’s what my big tunic project is - also pleased to find out that they recommend tunics. And I love the boobs, butt, belly category. I found the bottoms section a little - well, kind of weird. But I’m not much for knitted skirts. And there weren’t any bottoms for belly people which annoys me a little. I might try the yoga pants pattern someday. Yoga pants are my favorite kind of pants. The accessories was an interesing section - mostly because of the advice to carry larger accessories. I can attest to that - there’s nothing that will make you look bigger than a tiny purse. Or make your neck and chin look larger than a mini necklace. So overall, I’m pretty pleased with the book. It’s a nice sized hardcover that will take a lot of abuse. I beat up on my books ya know.

So I was feeling pretty plus-sized friendly. And still looking around in my wishlists and things for something else fun to buy, maybe. And I’ve been going back to this one little weird thing on etsy the last few weeks. It’s by the same woman who made my incredibly cool purse. And I kept going back to this weird thing and last night I’d just pointed at this little chubby guy and made too many cute boopy “poking in the belly with my cursor” sounds for Cody - he decided that Barry had to come live with us. I’m very excited about this. He’s definitely a belly guy. No boobs and a flatter ass than mine which I wasn’t sure was possible. Aww but I love Barry. Can’t wait to have him here.

So click on the photo and give him some clicky belly boops with your cursor for luck and safe travels for Barry.

And now, photos of my ironically cabled socks (ironic of course because the cable was out when I started them) that I finished last week sometime.

a silly photo I took of myself in my rock n roll cowgirl t shirt

And a few birds have been building their nests under our porch roof again. This one had used a little strand of pink yarn. Isn’t it sweet?

Is this post long enough or what?

So. We’re three hours into signups and already have 80 (81, 82) DYE-O-RAMA Swap signups. Not all have been confirmed but we’re working on it.

For the most part it’s going well and I’m incredibly proud of Cody’s ability to teach himself a programming language while he creates a usable form and database and pretty proud of my ability to work with him, create and make a fairly usable group weblog, and figure out how to go into my php admin and edit database entries.

The internet explorer issue is, well an issue. And we’re hoping to get that resolved soon. But my man is tired and we’ve got it working for the most part. Absolute worst case is we have people email and we’ll enter the data by hand. But that’s absolute worst case. Here’s hoping this is the impetus for folks to switch to a really good browser like, say, oh, this one. But browser snobishness aside, we’re working on it for the IE people too.

Good news! Monica has resolved the IE issue! We think! We hope?

We hit 100 forms submitted right before 11 pm tonight
14 people haven’t confirmed their email links
the form page shows 86 so it’s correct in showing confirmed registrations for the swap

I’m showing 64 registered users on the group weblog (including the admins)

There’s 43 hours to go.

So this is one of the projects I’ve been working my butt off on. Kind of explains why I haven’t been posting very much hasn’t it?

If officially ended Saturday around 1:30 pm my time. We justified this by saying that it was Easter sunday in Australia and the yarn store wouldn’t be open on Sunday anyway. Considering that I had bought no fiber in any form since Ash Wednesday I have to say, I did well. Particularly for someone who doesn’t really observe Lent anyway. And to my complete surprise I didn’t go crazy buying everything I saw or had on my wish list. I hadn’t been to Village wools since the large koigu shipment had come in so I was happy to sift though the shelves.

So I bought four skeins of a pretty color of koigu to make myself some kneesocks

And, social dork that I am, I did succumb to peer pressure and purchase the yarn to make a shadow shawl with my abq snb girlies. Hey, without them I never would’ve tried the Jaywalkers pattern especially as my first sock and to my utter surprise I’ve become quite the joiner. The pattern calls for three skeins of koigu kppm and three skeins of E Lavold Silky Wool (which I’ve eyed several of the last times I’d been in the store) in contrasting colors. Several people have been getting dark silky wool and bright koigu. I kind of went the other way.

So those and I paid Mama-E for her project spectrum sock yarn subscription and that was pretty much my discretionary portion of our tax return. But I’m very happy and really looking forward to those kneesocks and casting on for another project with my snb buddies.

All the purchases (including my April mama e sock yarn) involves yellow orange so I suppose it qualifies as Project Spectrum. I’m way WAY behind on my PJ project but I’ve finished the ugg booties and ironically cabled socks.

In Dye-O-Rama News, which i’m sure you read at Scout’s anyway Cody and I are putting the finishing touches on the signup forms and the Swap website tonight. SIGNUPS WILL BE TOMORROW NIGHT AT 6PM MDT - THEY WILL END SATURDAY NIGHT AT 6PM MDT. Number of participants is unlimited but only one swap per person. There is a group blog and you’ll be sent to the group blog signup form after you finish filling out the swap form. It’s all very complicated and stuff for us but (hopefully) easier for you.

My Albuquerque-related project is on hold until the signups are done but I’ve pretty much paid for and finished part one of the big indescribible project. I really wish I could go into it more but that one’s seriously top secret.

Back to the salt mines with me. Where the hell are my glasses.

I’m just working working away on my little projects. Scout cracks the whip and I jump. Ok just kidding but damn that girl can really light a fire under your ass if you mention you were thinking about maybe doing something sometime.

The big news at the moment is we have a set time for signups for the Dye-o-Rama swap. It will be this Thursday at 6 pm Mountain. That’s 8 eastern, 7 central, and 5 Pacific for you math is hard Barbies out there. We will be running countown scripts (which I need to go work on right now) on our sites and I’m working on a group blog for all members (which is pretty close to done). Rather than limiting the number of people who can sign up we’re going to have the sign up forms only available for 48 hours.

Cody is working on the form and database for the signups - which will include the ability to set a password so you can go back in and change info. There’s also the ability to volunteer as an angel to cover for anyone who flakes out on their swapee. Of course we’re hoping that won’t be the case. Please, please don’t sign up if there’s a good chance you won’t get to do it. Really. I’ve been in exchange things where people have flaked out and it just sucks to be that recipient. We all understand bad circumstances but there’s also just the flake factor. There’s also the great threat of public humiliation. And I know I’m not above threatening that. So seriously. If odds are good you’re not going to get around to dyeing that yarn and mailing it to your person, just don’t sign up. Mkay?

The special Albuquerque project (which several of you already know about) should be ready to post in the next few days.

Ok so here’s the offical thing I’m supposed to post but accidently just paraphrased.

We’re looking at sign-ups taking place this Thursday, April 20th starting at 6:00pm MST. We have decided we will not have a number cut-off this time but we will only have sign ups for 48 hours. If you won’t be around please have someone sign you up okay?

We are lucky enough that Noelle’s husband Cody is our techy guru and is creating an online registrationg form that will go into a database for us. He rocks and we all should thank him big time for helping us.

A few things about the sawp. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP IF YOU ARE GOING TO FLAKE! There’s nothing like having to hunt down flakey participants. Please don’t make us do this okay? If there is any chance you can’t dye one single skein of yarn in 6 weeks then don’t hit that sign up button. You hear? Remember that picture of me with the hammer and drill? Don’t go there.

There will be a choice on the registration form to sign up to be an Angel. This means you are willing to dye a second skein of yarn to replace a Swapper who had the nerve to flake out on us. It’s nice to know we can contact someone to help us out if we need it. I’m hoping we don’t need Angels but it’s nice to have that as a back up plan.

We also have a website in the works for the swap. Everyone involved will be able to register there and post. This way people who don’t have blogs can post questions, updates, post photos, etc. We already have a few guests who are dyeing pros who are going to share some tips with everyone and be available to help answer questions.

Later on today we will have a countdown timer for y’all so you know exactly when the sign up will start. Let us know if you have any other questions. We’re really excited about the swap and already have over 100 people ready to play. Pretty cool!

So just keep checking back to know exactly when the sign up will be.

Yep, so that’s one of my projects revealed I’ve joined the ranks of the Dye-O-Rama Mamas doing some web design and nerdy tech organization stuff and we’ve even got Cody working on a database form for the signups. I think we’ve found the downside to my feeling better - I’m more active and social that means he’ll have to be more active and social haha.

So this is the project involving yarn I hinted about in my previous post.

————-

A few pieces of information about the swap:

-We will give plenty of notice about when the offical sign up will be. Just keep an eye on one of our blogs and we will give you a 36 & 24 hour notice.

-You will need to register to be a part of the swap. Just leaving your comment in the previous post does not ensure that you will be in the swap. We will need all of your information and that will be your committment to join the swap.

-Beginners will be welcome. We will have two official groups. One will be the WTF am I doing group and the other will be for people who feel pretty confident in their dyeing skillz. We’ll be giving tips and information on the official Dyeorama site so the newbs can find out how to dye their yarn.

-You may use any dyes as long as they are permanent and lightfast.

-We will do international swaps. We will specifically ask whether you mind having an international pal or not.

-We have had a lot of interest already and we may have a 100 person limit for this first round. We will let you know about this.

-Finally, please do not sign up for this swap if there is even the slightest chance that are going to flake-out on us. We recruited (Me!) to help with the organization of this swap and the 4 of us will not be very nice DYE-O-RAMistras if you don’t follow through with your committment. Most of you have probably been a part of a swap before and know that nothing sucks more than having a pal who doesn’t do what they are supposed to. Ya know?

So stay tuned for more details

I had a blast at Crafty Friday. Yay!
Cody found my digital camera in one of my project bags. Yay!
He found it when it fell out onto the garage floor when he was bringing my project bag in from the car. Boo!
The camera’s still ok. Yay!

I was ubergirly last night. Yay!
I dyed my own hair dark strawberry blondish. Yay!
I used that cool depilitory Veet squeegee stuff on my legs and underarms. Yay!
I missed a spot and found a “soul patch” smack in the front middle of my ankle. Boo!
I also got a chemical burn on the underside of my left upper arm. Boo!
I found some neosporin for the healing and found some monistat topical cream (the stuff that comes in a little tube for numbing your hooha before the internal medicine works) for numbing the pain. Yay?
We got some real medicine and bandages today. Yay!
I don’t make much of a girly girl do I? Yay.

We finally made it to Trader Joe’s today! Yay!
It was unbelievably crowded. Boo!
They have good pet food. Yay!
It was comparatively cheap with higher quality than Smiths. Yay!
We didn’t buy a whole lot else. Boo!
We did get a pot of daisies…Yay!

To bring to my mother-in-law when we went for a visit this afternoon. Boo?
We got free haircuts from the mom-in-law! Yay!
The father-in-law and I did not argue about politics once. Yay!
He made a compliment (I think) about Cody looking like “the president” after his haircut. Boo
I joked “Ok Cody now you have to make a face that’s simultaneously dumb and smug!” Yay!
My mother-in-law gave me free Tupperware! Yay!
Alas, we did not get a free meal. Boo!
But I did finish the second ugg baby bootie. Yay!

My Tivo DVR thingie is acting up. Boo!
But it taped the new episode of Huff. Yay!
I’m going to go watch it now so this post is ending soon. Boo!
And eat some hummus and Pitas from Trader Joe’s. Yay!
But first I’m going to show you all these photos. Boo? Yay?

Here are the long-awaited Noro Stash photos.

All the Noro
with bonus puppy lying in the dirt!

Silk Garden

Kureyon

Iro

Cash Iroha

Transitions

With bonus Fiesta Yarns porn!

La Boheme and Gelato in “African Violet”

Kokopelli in Turqoise Trail and Watermark in Taos

La Boheme and Chamisa in Arizona

This is a neat handpainted yarn from a local artist in the East Mountains, Robin Pascal. I used her yarn to make the craaaaazy scarf.

And this is my current Project Spectrum project yarn. I’m in the second repeat on the front of my Sprout tunic with this Giotto yarn. I’m going to use this pretty gold Fiesta La Luz silk for something this month as well.

And this is the puppy wearing the glam punk rock neckwarmer