DESTASH ALERT!!!

In order to support my new dying addiction, and maybe get an etsy shop off the ground, I've started destashing! I need both the room and the money, so it's a win-win situation, plus I have some pretty sweet yarn, so YOU could win too!

Please visit my KNITTING VIRGIN RAVELRY DESTASH PAGE and see if there's something you may need to make your day happy. I truly love all that yarn, I just have had to go through and decide what I will actually knit up IN THIS LIFETIME and I've got too much. Way, Way too much.

**Also, please don't be offended if you see something you may have given me in the past, or if it's something I actually bought from you on a destash buying binge. As I said above, I truly love all this yarn, but it needs to go be with someone that will love it AND actually KNIT it. :)

Hey Heeeeeyyyyy, Good Lookin, What'cha got cookin? How's about cooking some merino up for me?

Well, someone needs to take my kool-aid away from me so I can get something else done! It's so addicting, and REALLY hard to stop. Everything except the pale yellow sock yarn (knitpicks bare) and the superwash merino fiber was the rescued OLD OLD OLD wool from my aunt in funky colors. It had tags that said "Dexter Worsted Knitting Wool" and came from Lee Ward's. Two nights of koolaid dying produced some pretty usable stuff I'd have to say. It has also gotten softer through the soaking and dying. It's close to the texture of a cascade 220, which I just happen to LOVE, so I'm entirely too excited.

No bathroom fumes have touched the yarn & fiber this time, it was dried on the back porch for a few hours, then in the dining room. There's just something about coming home, opening the door and picking up the hints of fruity wet wool. mmm mmm good.

And there has been a bit of spinning lately.


I actually HAVE been knitting, but nothing too exciting. Worked a bit more on my koolaid teal socks and am half-way between the heel & toe on the 2nd one. Hope to have it finished soon. I need to cast on another pair for Jeff's Xmas list since I've only got ONE pair done out of the SEVEN I hope to give him this December. Also am getting ready to do the neck & sleeve edging on my orange merino tank top. I think I'll call it a "vest" so people don't give me hell about yet ANOTHER sleeveless wool sweater.



No CYG photo shoot today. I actually had all the still damp wool loaded in my arms and made it as far as the truck with the camera. There's just something about hauling a bunch of wool in your arms in 99 degree weather with 90% humidity. Not even cyg can do that. Thankfully the lighting on the back porch was just right, so I could shoot a few, run inside and stand on top of the air vent, shoot a few more, stand on the air vent.

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

"Like taking a crap inside a box of Trix"

Husband was wandering around half-asleep this morning. I didn't pay any attention. While brushing my teeth, I heard this "WOW! COUGH COUGH COUGH GASSSSSSSPPPPPPPPP!" coming from the guest bathroom down the hall. He's rather dramatic from time to time, so I kept brushing my teeth. When he stumbled into the bedroom again he fell on the bed and said, "WOW, that was like taking a crap inside a box of Trix!" I think toothpaste may have actually come out of my nose.

NOTE TO SELF: Buy a drying rack for use in screened-in porch or dining room.

It's been a while since the last CYG sighting, so if skies are clear, I'll do a photo-shoot Friday post tomorrow. There is some serous kettle-dyed action going on in some of these yarns. I bought a TON of kool-aid, used A TON AND A HALF dying, and bought a new crockpot. At one point I had microwave humming, three casserole dishes of fiber and yarn waiting for cooking, and THREE crockpots going. Husband was a bit perturbed that with all the sounds of the wife in the kitchen there was no sign of food. I sent him up to have sole power over the remote control with a bag of chips and bowl of salsa and cooked all night long. Good times.



"Like taking a crap inside a box of Trix." *snort* You know, it really must have been. Window is now open, ceiling fan cranking and door closed. Husband and step-sons have been banned from the use of said bathroom until fiber is removed tonight.







Some of the yarn is a gift from my aunt. She is cleaning out boxes she's had since time began. OK, since before MY time began. She brought over a ton of acrylic that I've aired out on the back porch and will donate to a local senior center that I know takes donated yarn. AND buried in the boxes and bags, were these skeins of wool yarn that were OLDER THAN I AM (and I'm 40!). They feel like you'd expect, a bit rough, and the colors were less than desirable. Now, they've got a future as some felted bags and hats and slippers! Can't wait to get my hands on the rest of it.

But first, I need to buy more kool aid and a drying rack. Wonder if my kitchen could handle a few more crockpots? They're on sale at Target! 5 1/2 quart for $24.95.......

The blogger formerly known as Knitting Virgin

EVERYBODY SING ALONG! (to the Tune of the Artist Formerly known as Prince, oh wait, he's Prince again....Raspberry Beret) She dyed with Raspberry kool aid...........the kind you buy at the grocery store......Raspberry Kool Aid......and when she was done, she went and bought some more........

OK, it wasn't actually Raspberry Kool Aid, more of chery, cherry, grape, strawberry and pink lemonade. Isn't it purty? The olive green one was a masterpiece of who-knows how many lemon-limes, lemonade and some orange that was so old I actually had to pound on the packet with the salt shaker to break up the chunks of petrified rock into powder again. I DID make a mess, how did you guess?

It's part of my supplies for a spinning adventure class with Insubordiknit at the Studio here in KC. Not sure if any seats are left, but it should be really neat! If you've not got anything going on, call the Studio and see if you can still get in! I waited until the last minute to see what I had to bring, saw I needed fiber. I had some undyed goodness left over from last fall's Yarn School, I had some kool aid, and I have 2 crockpots. Many shakes of old gatorade bottles later, I have some seriously cool fiber.

I think the family is a bit tired of hearing me wander about the house making them SMELL the fiber (fruity!) and OOOh and AAAHH when I say "Can you believe I MADE THIS?" "Really." " I. MADE. This." Last night they each had a friend over and I overheard Joey telling both kids outside "OK, when mom brings you this yarn stuff, just tell her it's cool and she'll leave you alone. OK?"

Those few times that my high tech dying process (basically throw some of this there...then maybe that...what happens when I add this here? Oh!) actually WORKS is amazing. I have made some truly horrid things. I have even knit a few of them up into horrid knitted things. But once in a while I make something amazing. Something that takes my breath away. The power of creation is a wondrous thing to behold. Yeah. I was almost as proud of the fiber as I was of making a child. Yeah. I really need to get out more and get a grip on myself. But at least I have fabulous, fruity fiber (and fabulous Weasley children to boot).

And because I still can't get over my love affair of all things kool aid, I think we need to revisit the kool-aid dyed sockyarn. I've decided that it's the exact colors of the Sea of Abaco when Jeff & I went on our honeymoon. I will be ordering more undyed sockyarn and trying this experiment again. I'm so in love with these socks. I'm on the heel flap of sock #2. SO. In. Love.

THISCLOSE to merino roadkill

THANK YOU VERY MUCH OVERLAND PARK POLICE DEPARTMENT! No, really. Who else would give a ticket to someone in the midst of Friday afternoon rush-hour traffic in a spot where 2 busy highways intersect and there's about 6 exits AND construction has things down to one lane? I understand the whole charging-double-for-construction-zones and making money concept. Believe me. I paid double back before Xmas a few years back for a poorly marked construction speed trap to the city of Olathe.

As you can imagine, it was one of those bumper to bumper, traffic still flying afternoons. I had Jeff's 2nd sock with sharp metal hiya-hiya double point needles in my lap. (Before this story goes any further, let me point out that NO I was NOT knitting at the time. I only knit at stoplights unless it's a really straight long road and deserted, NEVER in rush-hour traffic.) Well, there I am, merging, looking over my shoulder, trying to fit my truck into the flying construction mess. Doing fine. When suddenly, tires are screaching, cars sliding, everyone everywhere is trying not to hit the person in front and not get hit by the person behind. IN A SINGLE LANE OF TRAFFIC. Ever so much fun. Well, apparently my super-mom-super-knitting instincts kicked in. In the 1.5 seconds of time I hit the brakes, swerved around the car in front of me onto the shoulder (did I mention we're also up in the air on one of those overhead curves of the highway so no where to go past the shoulder?) stiff-arm stopped the bag in the front seat (mommy-protecting-kid-style) and THREW MY SOCK OUT THE SUNROOF. Yes. The sunroof.

The very large UPS truck behind me missed my bumper by inches and ended up stopping just behind the car that was ahead of me. If I'd not swerved, I'd have been rear ended at a high speed for sure. I don't remember any of the things happening, just sat there panting, heart beating and noticing that there's a trail of sockyarn going from under the bag that I'd strong-arm-stopped out past my face above me through the sunroof. There was just this TINY bit of yarn left under the bag, thank goodness it had snagged or the damn thing probably would have flown through the air to the highway below and gotten run over by the multitudes on 435 West. I wound it back through and it was actually caught on my back bumper.

I've always been freaked out by stories of knitters falling and impaling themselves on knitting needles. Being a woman that both falls quite often and is usually carrying METAL pointy needles, this must have been knitter survival instincts kicking in. I don't know why I didn't think to throw it to the FLOOR of my truck or something, but hey. I'm alive and equally as important, the 2nd sock avoided becoming merino roadkill as well. One of the dpns is lost in action, but that's a small price to pay.

SO, after going outside to collect my sock, calming my heart back to a more normal pattern, I re-entered traffic and headed on home. WHAT was the cause of the whole sheBANG? Yup. The good old OP Police Department. Cripes almighty. MAN, if you didn't get thrown in jail for assaulting a police officer (where they don't let you KNIT by the way), I'd have sure enjoyed putting my foot up that cop's butt or at least poking him with a hiya-hiya a couple of times. Miraculously no one ended up in a wreck. Just a whole lot of tire screaching and squealing and swerving.

Poor little man-socks. I decided the trauma on both of us meant that they got moved up from stall-knitting and stoplight-knitting status to full completion-mode status. Pair #1 towards Jeff's Xmas present are now complete. Kitchenered the toe last night. *sigh*

And the socks I wasn't supposed to cast on until I'd finished man-socks pair #1? Well, I not only cast them on during the camping trip, but knit a whole sock. Koolaid dyed sockyarn. Fabulous.


The new stall-knitting/stoplight-knitting/baseball-game-sitting-knitting project is to complet the 2nd sock of my crazy hand-dyed sockyarn from the fall 08 Yarn School before I learned moderation in colors is a good thing.... (they're starting to grow on me now) Here's hoping they don't end up tossed out the window as well!