A Perfect 4th of July.....no hillbilly hospitals, no jail cells, Good Times!

OK, first of all I did actually miss my kids. A lot. They're with their dad for a MONTH for their summer vacation and it's awfully quiet around here. Now, the fact that neither Jeff or I had any kids that we were responsible for made a HECK of a sweet vacation and the fact that I was happy-dancing and singing "We ain't got no ki-ids....We ain't got no ki-ids!" should in no way diminish the fact that this momma was missing her babies. Occasionally. Add an extra vacation day to the holiday, a van more than half full of fiber, spinning wheel, fiber, yarn, and MORE FIBER at the lake and it was just short of heaven.

When we weren't cruising around in this.....

or bailing out this (the kids' fishing boat with help of my nephew)....

I looked like this....

And was creating things like this.....





Like I said, Good Times! The sister/brother in law plus their kids were helping me come up with names for the various things that came out of the crockpot over the long weekend. The greens the 7 yr old girl who helped me with the painting of the fiber decided it looked like "forest floor." I agreed. Her dad thought it looked more like "compost heap on a hot day." The rich brown fiber I thought of as "mahogany", the brother-in-law thought that while hanging dry it resembled more of "intestines, fully loaded." nice. I think I'll use the 7 yr old over the 37 yr old any day.

And, I'm sorry, but you KNOW I had to smuggle just a little kool aid in as well, right?


Also, if you ever wondered what the softest thing on the face of the earth was, (or at least the softest thing that's come off my spinning wheel), it's this....


4 oz of beautiful superwash merino. I've spun tons of superwash merino, but seriously? DUDE! This shXt is SOOOOFFFFFTTTTTT. Dude. (Hey, just got off the phone with my son who's having a blast with his cousins playing video games and Dude!...Dude?...DUDE!-ing themselves silly. I've been conjugating the many variations of DUDE ever since). Duuude!

Heading back to the lake for another long weekend soon, but this time with the step sons. Not too worried as they should have more than enough to keep them occupied and I just got an order of bare sockyarn from Knitpicks and have a LOT of fiber calling my name. Husband was a titch grumpy about the level of fiber vs tools that came along on our long weekend. Good thing fiber compresses so tight, huh? I'm gonna have FUN if I ever make it to Thursday.....

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!

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!