Tilt-a-whirl

Tom Clark

Hey! Dya know what? If you read the comments in the last two entries, you will see something wonderful and terrific...go ahead, you know you wanna.

Mars rocks

I saw it this morning, just as I was hurtling myself out of bed...over in the eastern sky, just before the sun crept high enough to blot it out. He was winking and blinking so brightly that I thought it was a plane coming in on a direct trajectory. I put on my glasses...still there. I put on my shoes, threw on my robe, let Tank out of his crate...still there. Hmmm, let me just go outside and check this out. Nope, too many trees in the way so I scoof back into the bedroom and peer out the weird 50's rancher window (wide and shallow) and it was still there but higher in the sky. Mars. Someone told me that it was really close now and that it was kicking my ass and making me really pissed off. (who, me?) No wonder my mornings have been so weird lately...Mars in the morning sky was sitting on my chest. Now I understand, simply because I could see the darned thing. Guh.

I'll blame the beautiful new colorway on Mars and in his honor I named it Mars Quake. Yup, I had just finished a run of Earth Birth and with this dye left over...hmmm, what will happen when I do this and that and try something different. Let's just say that I am going to make lightening strike three times because I really really love this colorway. It has the look of a late harvest time in the Napa Valley...deep dark burgundy grapes and leaves beginning to turn.

Sadie is telling me that I should just get into the dye room and quit all of this photography crapola.

Oh yeah...one more thing. I just took a picture of Alpaca Lace in Mars Quake.

By Popular Demand...

Were you guys talking to each other behind my back? Why did the BFL fiber colorway suddenly become important for you to see in Sock!? Carol asked for it a couple of years er...weeks ago and then we had a couple more of you piping in a little while later. It has been on the white board out in the dye room but I have to be good and handle some standard things in order of their appearance, before playing with new stuff. Yes, it was bouncing around in my brain, I admit it. Here you go, Carol.

Thank you Caroline for bugging me with the fiber
request. It has been an interesting ride. Good for my brain.

The new hat kit is close to being ready for you. It is going to be wonderful and affordable and a quick project for you or for gifts. I took pictures of a couple of the colors that I have done with the Fat Bunny, just to tease you. :o)

Oh yes and here is the new red on the block...Ruby, as seen in kid mohair. That's all of your fiber eye candy for the day. :o)

Whatta Saturday!

It was one of those days where a bunch of things line up and tell you...sit down, hug a baby and just let happen what is supposed to happen. I did just that.Schnicklefritz and his parents arrived yesterday morning to help The Husband with brush clearing from the embarrassing lower part of the property. It has become so noisy with the roar of SUV's on the 24 that my joy of taking care of the back half of the land has fallen to nothing. Imagine how Mother nature filled in the gaps with small trees and blackberries and climbing roses! Gulp. The Husband is building a Serious Fence to keep Bambi and Dambi and their cousins out of the yard (they have been just stepping High for a few years) but to put in these posts, one needs to clear away a lot of...wait for it, you Python People...SHRUBBERY.  So, amazingly, The Daughter got TBD (The Baby Daddy) to soil his attorney hands and help Big Daddy with this job. While the work began I realized that it was time to go get my mother, who has seen SF only once before (she is a big hermit). She was able to come over for only an hour, with just enough time to wipe her out physically and then take her home. See? Go with the flow. It was a lovely day.

Schnicklefritz and I hung out in the front garden listening to hummingbirds when the mailman drove up. Hmmm, sez I...let's go see what he left us in the big black mailbox. We shuffled down there to find some cool stuff in side. There was a small box from Lisa Keating from Idaho Falls. Hmmm, wassat? I know that she just sent some yarn to Tom, so what's this? SF and I sat and got the box open and while he drooled and banged around with the bag, I pulled out THIS!

She made this beautiful version of Evelyn Clark's Swallowtail (IK Fall '06) with Sock! in Denim. You could have knocked me over with a feather...beads on the pointy bits and everything...for ME for no good reason other than, well, because Lisa Keating is awesome! Thank you out loud, Lisa. I mean it! (You may all pet it at Stitches East)

So I have to preface this next thing. Tink is always bringing stuff to me, info, cards, podcasts, you name it. One thing that intrigued me was the card for Sol Mate socks. No, they are not sock kits, they are ready made socks for people like me...sock freaks from the days that the dinosaurs walked, but NOT sock knitters. (I need more car trips to have time for this, people...quit yelling.) I have a collection of wild socks and when I saw these things, I just flipped. So I went toMarianne's site and fell out. The resulting purchase yielded these treasures. These are cotton, nylon & Lycra and other than my treasured hand knitted socks, these are my new favorites. I think that I am going to have to go back there and order a whole bunch more...I feel giddy just thinking about it. :o)

Now then. I leave you with a picture of my biggest treasure. Shnickle J Fritz and his daddy. He was giving The Husband "The Eye". 8 months of cuteness. Seeing him helps me cope with the deterioration of our mothers...life certainly DOES go on. The proof is right here.

Oh what knitters...

Well you know what MY dogs look like...the little one weighs in at about 100 pounds...little Tankie Wankerson. Well, there is a REALLY little doggie that lives with one of my favorite sock knitters. Her name is Sofeesu and she lives with Kathie in Iowa . I try hard to keep a bit of DNA from a couple of big black dogs off of the tape that holds down the mailing labels but once in awhile one might get through...I guess that it doesn't matter...it is a salute from Sasha and Tank. Check out the socks that Kathie has made with Can't Elope and the really snakey Mombassa. Awesome.

Now then, another continent was heard from tonight. Sue Grandfield in Oz went wild and created what she calls The Devil Went Down, using Earth Birth and Black Sock! Sue...they are just fabulous. Thanks for letting me share them with the world.

Katrina

Alright...how many of you spent the last two nights immersed in Spike Lee's documentary about Hurricane Katrina called When The Levee's Broke  Ooh...me, ME! HBO, people. Look for it, TIVO it,  watch it. You and all of your friends and well, every American needs to see this. I think that they should make the networks pre-empt mind numbing sit-coms to get this information out to everybody. If this was a middle class Florida town, would there still be such a mess and diaspora? I think NOT. Check it out. Please.

Alright, Tinkerbelle got her daughter to the airport last night (I am sure that I will hear the details today) but before she got her off to the study abroad adventure to Italy, she made Danielle a great cap out of Fat Bunny in the Little Devil colorway. She calls it The Italian Job. Yes, she is publishing the pattern and we are going to kit this for about $20. (!) :o) See the bloom? It has just begun... Have a wonderful time in Italy, kiddo. We know that your head will be warm.

You know...my ears have been burning lately. There is some sort of murmuring coming from smack dab in the middle of the country, in the city on the river where they display Gigantamundo locomotives high on a hill over the freeway, "just because". There are a couple of young wimmen hunched over a hot computer microphone, going on and on about knitting. I KNOW how much fun are THEY having and when I hear the dog woofing in the background, it cracks me up. You see at Lunchtime today, Tink fires up her Ipod into my speaker thingie and puts on Lime&Violet to see if she can blow my mind with somebody waxing poetic about my sock yarn. What a hoot, is all that I can say. :o) They have links on their blog to their podcasts. Check 'em out. Today has been very productive. Tink came back to work and was buzzing around with all sorts of ideas! I dyed more of the Fat Bunny (Tink thinks that I should call it something like Dreeeeeeeeamy, to get across just how dreeeeeeeeeeamy it feels...we'll see.) There's this. Julie can finally have her wish fulfilled. Milk & Honey.

How to tell that a friend is going to live...

Well, the answer to that question is that after one two phonecalls with Tom the conversation got around to what kind of new yarn I was going to send him and how he was going to market his caps and yatta yatta yatta. I feel 10 pounds lighter, I swear to dog. So here is how it started...I hear the call to arms, the buzzing in my ear about calling Tom. Before he got sick, I would just stuff that down and try to ignore it. No more, no more. I called and talked to his mom, who tells me that Dad Clark has been "down" for 10 days with a fever...they have had an outbreak of West Nile up in that part of Utah. Yes, they are treating him as though he has it and if he does not get better (drink your fluids, Dad Clark) he will have to go to the hospital. So this means that mom has had Tom to care for and now that Tom is mending, she now is looking after her husband. She is a little dynamo and this is how she is doing it. Amazing. (send some white light up to Dad Clark, will ya?) She goes on and on with me about all of this stuff and then tells me that Tom is at The Cousin's house, selling corn by the side of the road. Yes, picture my curly haired friend on a chaise lounge, under an umbrella selling farm stand corn and cukes in Idaho while talking to ME about yarn and where he is going to go when he gets better. I love it. We had a great chat and I came to the conclusion that because he is crocheting and thinking about yarn and the future and life in general, we have a successful re-entry into that life. To ME, it is a really big deal. The most delicious part of the picture was that the farm where he was doing the Produce Party belonged to his grandma, the woman that taught him to crochet when he was a kid. Yeah, he is sitting the chaise lounge, under the umbrella, crocheting in front of the farm where....you get it, more healing full circle stuff.

He is making a remarkable recovery and believes that those of you that have sent energy and love to him are aiding in this recovery. Denise...he loves the yarn and was just astonished that you sent it. Thank you, big time!

So, in the meantime, I am dyeing and thinking. Tink got her hands on the initial skeins of Fat Bunny and declares it a winner, enough so that we are going to offer it in skeins that are just the right size for a hat. This is a thick 60% angora yarn, which will be quite affordable and wonderful. The caps that I have seen...oh MY! (Two of them are heading to Italy with young Fashionistas who declare them to be irrisistable.) You are going to love it. Tom is going to get some to play with and we will see Fat Bunny in knitting and crochet. Yippee!

It's amazing how much more energy is to be had when you feel 10 pounds lighter...happy camper, that's me.
  

Knitting again

So? I raided the handspun stash...wanna make somethin' of it? Do ya? I started with one ball of Gold Mine and I think that the whole thing is going to be mine, by the looks of it. I am so loving this Blue Faces Leicester (yes, it is going on the site soon...sport weight, 1320 ypp) and thought that I should pair these two for a sweater that I found again, when there was all of this chatter about a Jade S pattern (I was off in my magazines by a year but I am now glad that I was...) This is the Lofty Cables and Lace Pullover by Sandy Cushman from the IK issue Winter 00/01. How much do I love that I can roar right along on this with my size 11 needles? Oh...with my schedule, this if fabulous. Plus...with angora, I need lots and lots of loft so that I do not ROAST.

Stayed home this weekend. Yes, I know...what a weenie. We decided that the timing is just OFF and it would not be possible to move right now. Hell, I'd have to put the business into a doublewide while making this place look like a model home. Not going to happen, my friends...not right now while I am trying to recoup my lost Sock! time AND get ready for Stitches East. I know...easy for YOU to say that I should just go for it. :o) Tinkerbelle, you can breathe again.

I got a lovely picture in the inbox this weekend, from Phyllis who turned some Can't Elope Sock into the Adamas shawl by Miriam Felton. You can see how it knits up on socks here.

Teaser of the day. I got a picture from a certain Podcaster today and she is going to be offering a free sock pattern very soon for the sock in the picture and we will linkydink you up here and on the site when she gives me the green light. Keep checking... :o)

Jonesing for a new place

I don't know why he did it to me. I would have just gone on stepping over the dogs and dodging the little fluttery thing, muttering to myself about stupid mill this and tight quarters in the dyeroom that. Blah blah blah. He has to show me one of those real estate listings for the little village of my choice, up in the Sierra foothills. I put a curse on his shoelaces. He had to show me a 5 year old 4 bedroom house on 5 acres, with city water (I am a city girl) and a 1500 foot insulated work building with a built in office. Are you kidding me? This is torture...total and complete. Oh yeah, and it is 17 miles from The Daughter and Schnicklefritz. He is killing me...taking years off of my life with all of this jonesing because he still has a few months left on his contract. Of course The Daughter catches a whiff of it and in her Aries way begins to try to make it happen...come on up and we'll go look at it. Nah, daddy is digging post holes all weekend for the damned deer fence, which leaves me free to work orrrrrrrrr...torture myself with a 90 minute trip east to see my grandson. The timing...the timing stinks. Maybe this just means that we buy something and install such a building ourselves when the timing is right. The last time that I was Jonesing for a building was when I was waxing poetic about a barn with potential...this building has skylights, windows and insulation. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Oh...speaking of The Yarn Problem. We fixed it...the supplier gets a gold star and I get to give you the good stuff. Win win win.

Oh...it was a full house around here yesterday. Not only did I have Tink and Audrey but I found out that Tinkerbelle has a mama and the mama likes to knit. Yup...there was no stepping over the dogs but there was quite the party atmosphere here around lunchtime. Mama was great and became the proud owner of a perfect set of Sheila's buttons to go with her completed cardigan.

All of this jonesing makes me clean house...a good thing, I guess. SIGH...

Dog Days

Remember little Tank? He really was the most adorable little guy, although no cuter than my little Sasha was at that age...just heavier. He was a rolly-poly little guy who ate bamboo needles and jumped on the furniture. Remember how during our trip to Michigan, the house/dogsitter took him down for his snip snip? He is over it and has become a fabulous dog now. He is still silly but he has stopped being driven mad by hormones that caused him to want to nibble my ear ALL of the time. I know, gone are the huge boy knockers and in their place is a funny and lovable and much more calm Wiggle Butt. Anyone with a Lab will just nod knowingly...the bend in the middle all-over smile of the affable and eager to please Lab. Bless him. He and Sasha are my companions on the quiet days when I am Tinkless but of course this means that I have this to step over all of the time.

When Tink is here, he and Sasha go into the bedroom so that there is less to step over , which in this small workspace is a big deal. Remember, Sasha (half Rottweiler) makes Tank, at 100 pounds, look small. She does love him dearly and is so much happier since he came to be her little brother/plaything/packmate.

There you go, Vanessa...dog pictures. My buddy Vicki had a DIFFERENT kind of black thing in HER yard...

One the dyeing front, I am limping along with Sock!, happy to have the shipment on one hand (we have been stranded and rationing since May) but very unhappy with a full 40 percent of the skeins from this mill shipment having knots. No, I can't send you sock yarn with knots and so I wait for the next 100 pounds, hoping that this will be "good" and wait to send the crap back to my supplier. They say that you are not supposed to buy a car made on Monday or Thursday...well, we now know not to push a mill to put out a token amount of yarn just before vacation...they do not do good work. Period. My goal is to get you beautiful yarn for a fair price and the highest quality that I can muster, because this is what I want for myself. I have been in this fiber business in one capacity or another for 25 years and have gone to small spinner's flocks for the finest wools for my own handspun garments...now they are collectors items with my customers. Quality. My newest supplier understands this and believes as I do, having begun as a spinner herself, and so this is why I am so very happy with the cashmere fiber that I buy from her as well as the new yarns...The Baby alpaca/silk and the Merino/angora. They are awesome and make me happy every time I pet them or squeeze them. I can't wait for you guys to try them and love them yourselves.

Ok, time to brace myself...I have Tink AND Audrey coming today...a housefull. I think this will get me dyeing out there. :o)))