Tilt-a-whirl

Bippersnapper

I don't know, I just felt like typing it...I must be high on ice cream. Nah, I am high on a glorious day here in the Foothills of the Sierra. Tank went for a walk with Rod, up the hill and to the gate of our neighbor's access road, which had been left open by the phone guys the other day. Needless to say, that dog, who is over the moon in love with his life up here, found a ball in one of his secret stash spots and got Rod to toss it...let's just say that that dog hauled ASS down the hill and I thought for certain that he was going to crash face first into  one of the little hills. DORK. DOUBLE DORK. Sasha just barked at them through the bedroom door. Hah.

Ummm...there are new colorways. Holly is away for the day and I bombarded her inbox but you can have a sneak peek. The first one is called Da Bluez, pictured here in Sock! Merino

The second one is all about what is going on outside in the Northern Hemisphere...Aww-tum, also shown in Sock! Merino. I dyed these in Sock!, Sock! Merino and Hardtwist Petite. Yummmmmmmm.

Rod is building the boxes today and so I will begin dyeing to order again, simply because the current stock is going bye bye to Baltimore!

Oh yes, one other bit of news...if you are coming to Stitches East on Saturday, you will have a chance to meet the lovely and delicate Miz Alison Jeppson Hyde, the author of Wrapped in Comfort. She is taking very good care of herself so that she can get on a plane and do the double duty of visiting her native land AND sign books like a big celebrity in the booth of Yours Truly. Yup, I bought a box of those puppies and will have some there for you to have signed. If I had had copies of the book beyond MY OWN copy in the booth in Santa Monica, there would have been a lot less disappointed people. Who knew? I have these yummy shawls in the booth and people say...hey, Lisa, where's the pattern?  Duh, sez I...And on it goes. 

New Sock Kits!

Well, I warned you...they are super yummy and delicious, these new socks   by Judy Sumner. She took on the challenge of being the first to design socks for Hardtwist Petite (I am waiting with baited breath to show you the totally adorable baby sweater from Northern Palm Designs!) and man, did she deliver!

This is Floral Bands, shown in Foxglove.

Next is Perfect Harmony, a design great for the dye technique that is found in the pictured Petroglyph and other short shot dyes. It is great for men or women.

Number three is the timeless and beautiful Vintage Quilt. This pattern is great for men or women and although it is pictured in the Foxglove, it will be equally handsome in myriad solid colors.

Last, but not least is Pacific Highway, shown in the handpainted colorway called Pacific. Judy futzed and tinkered and came up with a masterful design to show off the changing colors as well as her beautiful stitch work.

All that I can say is that I am more than THRILLED! with what Judy has come up with and it pleased me to the core to know that she had such a great time knitting with this yarn. It shows and Thank You, Judy!

They were all knitted on size one US needles.

The sun is coming out

There, I heard it...the rapping and rapping and tapping. Thank you for checking on me and yes, I am getting better. It is a strange transition for me and a funny position to be in all at once. Here I am in the place that I have always dreamed of, the sun dappled or rain sprinkled woods at the base of the Sierra but to get here I had to accept the enormous challenge of caring for my mother and the big adjustment that happens when your spouse retires from corporate life. We are slowly figuring it out and I think that the best adjustment has happened with Rod coming on board as a full fledged part of this business that I have built for the past couple of decades. (Imagine our bed covered in skeins of yarn and a man with one eye on the football game and the other on the writing of yarn tags!) We are still settling in but my current dye studio is running better than ever, now that I have the luxury of the space and when we begin the design of the NEW studio across the driveway (the 2 1/2 car garage part of the cottage) it will get everything that I need into one place.

I do have a lot to share because honestly, I am starting to feel like my old self. My mother is getting weaker and in a weird way, this is making me stronger. We were locked into some kind of a psychological battle that went back to my childhood and it has been like there was a monster living in the other half of our home. We found that she had not been taking her meds and finally had to confront her about this. She could not argue and still has the right to do with her body as she sees fit but we have taken over the pill situation, giving her day and night meds caddies. She is complying. I can't be sure if she is using her glaucoma drops (those luxurious eyelashes that are a side effect have disappeared) and so her blindness from one thing or another will be complete if she keeps up these shenanigans. I caught hell when I called her on not using them. So be it. So be it.

On to more yummy things. My pal Vicki Stieffel has a masterful new book out. I devoured the last one and told her that I was going to be like the character in Misery...you know, Kathy Bates capturing the novelist. Vicki...you had better get busy with the next one because I am hooked. Seriously. The Bone Man is SO good and I am trying my best not to roar through it because I don't want it to end. Here is my sunny day after a weekend of rain.

One way that I know that I am coming back to myself is that I have been spinning again. Life was just off kilter without being able to spin and so I am pleased to have completed a few projects. The first one is a combination of some leftover bronze angora that I plied with some BFL top that was dyed in Mardi Gras. I love the combination and look forward to seeing it bloom.

The next one is going to be shared with VICKI  because she has been asking and asking and asking for me to do some more Flying Fish. This one is using BFL top and it is yummy.

Ok...what next? Well, I DID actually knit something. I know, ???. I used to knit for my supper and have had time to do less and less of it until if finally came to a screeching halt with my constant companions. I took back my needles and fired some Fat Bunny onto the needles for a chubby wubby cap. I am calling this a Flower Cap in honor of the most fabuloso flower button made by my Sister By Another Mother, Miz Sheila . Isn't it kewt and doesn't it go perfectly with that wacky combo of JOSEPH'S COAT and Periwinkle? This is simply a couple of those itty bitty skeins of Fat Bunny.It can be an homage to Tom whose caps have come out of my drawer for the morning jaunts to the road for the paper.

I am going to show you the four new sock designs tomorrow. Judy Sumner has designed some more than fabulous sock patterns for Hard Twist Petite. They are simply beautiful and I know that I am teasing but I want to get the info to Holly so that the patterns will be available.

Stitches East is fast approaching and so Rod and I will have a NEW train station agent to hand our boxes to this year. No more Oakland...it is now Sacramento and a LOT further drive to drop them off. No worries, it is all worth it. I have been working like a crazy woman (wonder WHY?) and will have a fabulous array of yarn for the show. I hope that YOU are coming.

Until tomorrow.
 

Oh, and another thing

Some patterns that DID get to us before we left for Los Angeles were from Kerry Palm, the only natural strawberry blonde in my life. Ms Kerry is from Minneapolis, dontcha know and the woman who came to visit us in Lafayette a while ago. A fun time was had by all, to be sure. Kerry has begun a wonderful line of children's garments patterns and I had the first two with me in the booth in Santa Monica. Let me tell you, the hat pattern blew out of there. It is just too cute and it gave ME a chance to see how Spumoni knits up in Sock! The patterns will be going up soon, too. Kerry did a version of the hat/bootie in a couple of weights of yarn and so you can imagine them in teensy yarn or NOT so teensy yarn. If anything was a hit in LA it was that hat!

Kerry's first sweater pattern is also published and it is a sweet one. She calls it Mallory, which is knitted in a sport weight like Supersport  or Hardtwist Petite . There are others in the works and I can't wait for them to be available. In the meantime, the patterns are HERE .

Mother Nature knows it...

The calendar may say that Autumn appears later this month but Mother Nature told us that the seasons are going to change, today. What a lovely break from the summer heat.

We spent the weekend doing all sorts of things but my favorite part was venturing up into an area that I did not realize was just on the other side of the highway from our Newtown Rd exit. Yeah, up there...just up there...Apple Hill . Ohhhhhhh...now I see why people come from all over. We went up there exploring on day one of the season. Uh huh...apples and veggies and pies and cider and all kinds of what-nots, right up there. Who knew? Not us...we have had our heads down in the clay soil over HERE. We thought better of stumbling through the rasberry patch at a berry farm up on Carson in Camino but as we drove down toward home, we went...ohhhhhhhh. Slam on the brakes, baby...Mama needs some apples. So, we visited Boa Vista and came home with delicious Ginger Gold apples, apple cider, fresh blackberry turnovers and a very H O T apple pie, to bring home to YOU KNOW WHO, The Woman Who Does Not Go Outside. The mountain and her goodness came to Mohammed. We just scratched the surface and now that I know that we are THIS CLOSE, it is a lot easier to visit than I had any idea. Let's just say that when the studio gets built, even you Bay Area folks will have several reasons to come up for a visit...as someone said Drink and Tink and Pie.

I have been asking The Muse to come back to me but she said that I couldn't have a visit until I was nicer to myself. She finally came today. There is a view that I have from my dye room window that looks like this.
Newtown...the new colorway.

Now then, when Arlene came with the mail today (and to haul away the pile that was finally ready to go) she brought a box that had certainly seen a lot of miles on it. This box was supposed to meet me in Santa Monica but somehow got waylaid on the way to the show. I would have loved to have had this box with me but I think that the debut of this piece, in person will be lovely in Maryland. The two wacky redheads, The Queenie Sisters, have come up with something marvelous for Hardtwist and I for one, am very pleased to introduce you to Loretta.

   I say...let out your inner Art Girl and knit yourself a Loretta . It is made side to side and has no sewing. Look ma, a puzzle!