A sure sign of spring...the Fiber Trees are in bloom!

JwrayCo 100% wool fiber, double plied, GORGEOUS, finished plying last night.


Artclub on Etsy fiber, 100% wool, Beach colorway. 4 oz spun as fatter singles, 4 oz spun in thinner singles, all navaho plied (my first and 2nd attempts and I'm pretty darned proud of myself, thank you very much). Love, love love. The two smaller skeins in the background are chunky weight and the front is more of a heavy worsted. I'm thinking hat with matching fingerless gloves? For now I just carry it about, petting it.


More JwrayCo fiber, spun up earlier, but it didn't want to get left out of the photoshoot today. Also 100% wool and SO unbelievably soft and the depth of colors? spectacular.


OH, and there's only a few spots left for an arts yarn workshop with Insubordiknit at the The Studio in KC, MO on June 27-28th. (Scroll down on the linked page to see the KC workshop info). I just got in and it looks to be a fun weekend!

Also along for the ride today, the three-times-frogged-didn't-want-to-be-socks Socks that Rock as a scarf for my cousin, Kelly. I think I've finally found the perfect match of yarn and pattern. Yes, I'm creating yet ANOTHER Old Shale Scarf from the lovely Tiennie. I do love her patterns and her blog.


And the signs that summer's coming.....

How we like our children to appear.....


And how they REALLY are the other 99% of the time.....


I'm off to a road trip to go trying not to feed the ticks camping with these monsters. Much fiber will come along. And much, much buspray. Have a great weekend, everyone!

OH, and I found the magic phrase to not looking like a loon while hiking about in the woods near my work's complex hanging yarn in trees!!! You just say "photoshoot" in a snotty tone while wearing big sunglasses. Then people go from looking at you like "wow, you're a freak of nature!" to "wow, you must be doing something really cool!" Or while wearing big sunglasses you just THINK that's how they look at you. Works for me.

All things Sockyarn

For the husband's Xmas present this year I'm planning ahead. I know, I can't believe it either. We'll see how well I do when December rolls around. My goal is to give him 7 pair of socks. Yes, I realize it's now the end of May and I've not quite completed one pair, but at least I'm not starting a sweater on Dec 14th like last year! So far, I'm on the heel of the 2nd sock of the first pair of fingering weight socks. He loves worsted and dk weight socks, so I should still be able to crank out 2 pr per month and still make goal. Here's sock #1 modeled on my own toes...

Yarn: Rio De La Plata Needles: 1.5 Hiya-Hiya dpns (my all-time faves!) Pattern: my own 3X1 ribbing, top-down. CO 72 sts, 1 inch of 1X1 ribbing, slip stitch heel, 3X1 rib down to toes where I kitchener 28 stitches together. And yes, I still sing each and every time I do it. "Knit, Slip purl....purl, slip knit." over and over and over. I freaking love kitchenering toes. I don't get out much.

In a fit of finish-itis (it doesn't happen often, so I'm taking advantage of the feeling) I found and finished my Tess Supersocks. OH they're beautiful and such lovely yarn to knit with! Again with my 3X1 pattern but cast on 68 stitches for me.



Another finish-itis project, pulled out my crazy hand-dyed sockyarn I did up at Yarn School last fall and got one and a half done in the last couple of weeks. It's growing on me. Slipped every 5th stitch every other row. Seems to make the wild coloring look a bit less jarring.


It's so very hard to work on plain old man-socks when I've got fiber vying for my time! It's so hard to resist the call of the fabulous sockyarn......can't you hear it? This stuff is going with me this weekend. This is some of the kool-aid died yarn I did at the SSK retreat in Harveyville. FABULOUS koolaid dying instructions here. Ana's a great teacher! I'm going to try really hard to not cast on until I'm at least half-way down the foot on the last of Jeff's first pair.....


AND, the best part of knitting more socks?????? MORE SOCKYARN BLANKET KNITTING!!!!! WOO HOO! Pattern rav link above on sidebar. If you're not on ravelry, comment w/your email address and I'll send you a pdf. It makes me so happy and is such perfect tv-watching or driving down the road or stoplight knitting.




I finished my 2nd rectangle and started the 3rd. Isn't it cute? Does that yarn look familiar? Each rectangle is big enough to be a baby blanket, but I'm going for a BIG afghan for me. This is a memory quilt of all the socks I've made (and some single skeins thrown in that never quite became socks, but were lolling about in the stash.) Go on and make yourself one.

Before & After

Sure wish I could have gone to Yarn School this last weekend, but am planning to go this Fall in October again. In the Harveyville Project Theme, here's some before & after pics from the kool-aid yarn I dyed while there for our guild's SSK retreat a few weeks back. I always thought kool-aid yarn was just crayon bright boring yarn, but there's some gorgeous stuff out there! Have you seen Jo! Minor's kool-aid silk? Gorgeous. Absolutely Gorgeous. Here's my sockyarn before & afters:

What, did you think I wouldn't dye ORANGE yarn? Seriously? I actually held myself back on the coloring for a subtle orange colorway. Subtle. Me. Who'd of thunk it? I figured I had enough bright, in-your-face orange sockyarn for now. Can't wait to knit these up to see how they turn out.

Directions from our talented teacher Ana are here. Go on and dye yourself some. It was a blast!