Skeined Alive

Sure, it isn’t all cuddly cold and snowy yet, but the weather is perfect for dyeing. The last few weekends have just been beautiful! Sunny and sixties, YUM!

Red, yellow blue, purple, brown, green…. all drying and waiting to have their pictures taken or to be shipped off to shops. This may be the first time that I’ve had all my colorways in the bin at once. It’s kind of overwhelming, but I like it.

I have a few skeins that need a couple of touchups and there are 2 or 3 more colorways that I’d like to do. Seeing as it’s going to be sunny and 80 tomorrow, and the shop is closed on Sundays, myself and a couple friends are having an inpromtu dyeing day tomorrow (10/16) in the parking lot behind Knit One Weave Too.
You are all welcome to join in the fun. Come just to hang out or bring of couple skeins that you want to dye and we’ll play all afternoon. First pots will probably be ready to go on around noon.  Bring your lunch, your knitting, and some ideas for crazy colorways! There will be a small fee for the use of the dyes, etc.

Oh, and it is Art East weekend. Many of the shops on Main Street have amazing local artists displaying their creations. Check out their website for more information! http://www.arteasttour.com/

Happy Yarning!
See you tomorrow!

After a long week of working in the real world, there is nothing like a relaxing weekend of yarning.

Friday night at the laundromat was extremely productive for Catkin. I fixed the mistakes in chart 1, row 2. And I finished rows 3 and 4! It’s amazing what can be accomplished in an hour of silence. Pictures will be coming soon….

Post-laundry, I sorted all my hand-dyes into piles: what’s up on Etsy, what’s going into Kiss-a-Gram bundles or samples, what’s going in the shop, what’s going into my stash. I put them in pretty baskets and promised myself I’d label them all and get them where they need to go by next Friday (finger’s crossed, but I doubt that the minis will be finished!).

After being all productive-like I’m sitting here in the quiet shop relaxing. I love Saturday mornings in K1W2. Random people stop in after spending the morning at the Farmers Market and inquire about lessons (another one bites the dust!). People I don’t see very often stopping in to just say hi. Regulars coming in to hang out or get a little encouragement/help.
Saturdays are AWESOME! Not very productive but very therapeutic and relaxing. Now for some blankie time!! (Maybe I’ll get pics when Sandra stops in this afternoon!)

Columbus, Ohio.
I LOVE IT!
Home to the best hostess in the world, my dearest Chrissie and her sweet little kittehs.
And Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream .
And The National Needle Arts summer trade show.

Somehow I have won the privilege of accompanying Madalene to the TNNA Summer Show each year. We eat ice cream, take classes, eat ice cream, buy fun stuff for the shop, eat ice ream, and meet amazing fiber people. Did I mention that we eat alot of ice cream?

OK, I get it. Enough with the ice cream. But it’s really that good and worth mentioning 40 more times. You really should have some shipped to you. Yes, worth it. We took a cooler, bought dry ice and brought some home….. and yes, anyone attempting to invade my freezer gets stabbed with every needle I own. It’s goat cheese roasted red cherry and I don’t share that one under any circumstances.

Right, so, um….. back to yarnie goodness?

Walking around Show is always interesting. There are so many faces that I recognize and can usually place either with a booth or perhaps that they are a LYS owner or designer or dyer. Frequently its that you remember an insane project that they were wearing and each year you get to see another. We got to chat with familiar friendly faces (and squish yarns) at Jade Sapphire (the new Moonlight knits up like a soft piece of heaven!) and Punta Yarns. We giggled with the gals at Schacht, Hiya Hiya and Knit-Picks. We fondled quivit, cashmere, alpaca, wool, silk and 100 other types of yarn. We saw (and ordered) hundreds of fun new accessories. We saw, met or geeked out about several of our favorite designers. All in all it was highly productive!

On Friday I took a class with Audrey Wagner of French-Knot Boutique in Savannah, GA and HandMade Savannah. If you ever head down that way you really need to check out her shop. She is sweet and wonderful and her stitchery and accessories are amazing. I really admire all the one needle crafts. It isn’t my forte but I love the end products! The time and effort that goes into such intricate work is just awe-inspiring.

The same thing goes for lace-work.

I happened to run into Anna (KnitandKnag on Ravelry). We met at the SG dyeing camp a couple of years ago and just finally had a chance to catch up. She’s up to some really great projects. I’ve always been in total awe of her designs and now there’s a BOOK! I can’t wait!! It should be out very soon from Cooperative Press. Definitely ask your LYS to order it. The patterns are so beautiful. I’m not a great lace knitter (sorry Lisa) but her designs are so inspiring that I keep trying!

While we were chatting with Anna, she introduced us to a couple of the other designers including Alasdair Post-Quinn of FallingBlox. If you haven’t heard of him, you have to look him up. His Extreme Double-Knitting is just mind-blowing. Really, look him up. I can’t describe how unbelievable his work is. I was just in total awe.

Oh right, I should mention how I ran into Anna in the first place…. We were at the same design table in a Cat Bordhi creative design class. (yes, i totally geeked out, one of many times on the trip) Can I just say that the class was incredibly fun and some of the ideas that came out of it, well, lets just say that there are a few cowl patterns that were a little too far out there (which is what made them so much fun!) and a few that you will hopefully see soon… including this one

It is a collaborative effort with Anna, Rae, Sarah, a lovely lys owner from MS (who’s name escapes me and I haven’t unpacked her info yet) and myself.
Once we all talked through it, it turned out to be much simpler than we expected and I can’t wait to see it knit up! (Note to self: send yarn tomorrow!)

What else????

The girls in the Deep South Fibers booth are as adorable as ever. They were extremely entertaining as we looked through all their amazing patterns. Thanks for the giggles!

Also worth noting: Deep South publishes for Ysolda. I got to look through Little Red in the City. Be Jealous. It’s so much more incredible than even my highest expectations. And I got to try on Skelf, the pretty blue one in the picture… and it fit (except the sleeves were a couple inches too long). And believe me, sample knits and models never come close fitting me. Yet another reason to love Ysolda and this book. A fit for EVERYONE.

There are a million other things I’d love to share, but it’s getting late and we had a long drive. As I think of it (and knit up new patterns and swatches for the shop) I’ll keep you posted.

…. For the long drive to TNNA with my fave LYS owner who refuses to be in the picture.
I can’t wait!

Taking advantage of a overcast day and a mannequin to take some pictures. I realised the other day that I haven’t updated my photos on Ravelry in about a year! Oi!