Finally, Friday!

I got out of work a little later than I had hoped and still had to swing by Dick's Sporting Goods to pick up a gift card for my son's friend, who is having a birthday thing (no longer called party) tonight. Run into Dick's (hmmm...), get gift card, run next door to Target, get birthday card, stop at ATM for cash, finally run home. No time to stop and get adult beverage...don't you hate that?

So, I got home, gave Zack the cards to sign while everyone is very patiently waiting to go to the birthday thing. Zack heads out the door and I follow him as far as the mailbox. As I was yelling a greeting across the street to a neighbor, I reached my hand in the mailbox and felt something gloriously squishy. OH...OH...OH! I did the Yarn Dance (in public, in front of the neighbor, in front of Zack and his friends) and I squealed a bit. My neighbor came over to see what goodness my mailbox had produced, and when I showed him the yarny contents of the package (it took only seconds to rip it open) he started talking about the candidates for the upcoming council election and how he wants a council person who will blah blah blah blah blah. Cripes, dude, this is YARN! I'm going inside so I can fondle it in private.

This came from Sarah's Yarns. You can order swatch samples FOR FREE, all you have to pay is shipping. I got swatches of all the JaggerSpun and some of the silk. Plus, they sent color cards of all their stuff. I love Sarah and I love Sarah's yarns. I've never ordered from them before (just heard about them on Lime & Violet), so I thought I'd give it a try. When I saw the free swatch samples, I ordered one of each. That was maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, and I got them today. Totally exceeded all expectations! I don't know which one to swatch first. It's tough to be me right now.

AND...
To make it even better, I just sold Blimey! Wheee!!!

Did I mention that I bought a bunch of dye and more undyed yarn from KnitPicks today? Well, we don't need to talk about that until it gets here. Hush.

Sold!

I just sold my first skein of hand painted yarn! I'm so excited but will be a little sad to see it go. I called this colorway "Tequila Sunrise", it's just so yummy looking.

I dyed it with Kool-aid of all things. I used orange, pink lemonade, fruit punch, black cherry and a tiny bit of very diluted grape. Grape hasn't given me much luck...it's pretty dark, but diluted it's much better.

I have another colorway on sale at www.etsy.com (seller name is Junebug514) called BLimey. This one is dyed with blue raspberry, berry blue and lime. I love it! It looks like a tropical breeze.

I hope it finds a home soon!

Both skeins are Knitpicks 100% merino fingering weight yarn. 440 yards per skein and very soft! It should knit to about 7 stitches per 1" on size 1-3 US needles. I really want to use superwash, but they won't have any in stock until the end of July.

Late Night Confession

I still have not purchased the Kauni yarn. However, I bought 8 ounces of undyed merino roving and have grandious plans to dye and spin, or spin and dye, whichever happens first. It was a moment of weakness involving a "Buy it Now" button on eBay. I'll let you know when the package arrives. It was much cheaper than the Kauni and it should keep me out of trouble for a time. I've never dyed a roving before, dyed yarn, but not a roving. I'll take pictures.

Dear readers, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can finally sleep. Sweet dreams...

Fleas, Rain and a Bit of Knitting

My son, Zack, and I went to the Flea Market today. Dang, it was hot! We mainly lurked in the A/C buildings. The outdoor booths were torturous. I saw a few cool things, but nothing that made me pull out my wallet. Our main objective was to get a silver dollar for Zack. He dabbles with a coin collection and there's a guy named Elvis (I kid you not) at the flea market who has an awesome collection. We found a neat silver dollar from 1892, got a good deal on it (by good deal I mean we paid less for it than the going rate of an ounce of silver), and headed home. When Zack lost his first tooth, years ago, the Tooth Fairy left a silver dollar. Silver was a lot cheaper then, and he has several more teeth to go. Darn, that Tooth Fairy.

Then the rain came! Here in Nashville, we are a good 10" below our normal rainfall amount for the year, and it looks like it. Everything is just crispy dry. (Think Kansas in August. Don't get me wrong, I like Kansas, but Kansas in August is, well, parched.) It could rain for a couple days straight and we'd still not get caught up. It was a good rain that helped settle the dust. Send more, please!

I did a bit of knitting this afternoon. I've got about 4-5 more inches on my silk skinny scarf. I almost dread finishing it because then comes the blocking. Oh joy. I don't know why, but I really hate blocking. I realize that the piece comes out all shapely and nice when it's done, but the process of shaping and pinning makes me cringe. When I'm done with this scarf I'll cast on the BEAUTIFUL ginger colored silk my parents got me for Christmas. My mom was like, why would you want yarn for Christmas? Well, duh! This stuff is (to borrow a phrase from Lime and Violet) lick-worthy. Once I get batteries charged for the camera I'll take some pics.

What I really need to do (and soon!) is come up with a project for our trip to Panama City Beach. All that driving is perfect knitting time. Mind you, I'm not doing the driving. I have several projects in the works, but should I start something new or finish a UFO(s)? Maybe a nice mix. I'll keep you posted on what I decide.

A Day of Not Knitting

This is the second day in a row that I haven't done any knitting. For me, that's just weird. I thought about knitting (a lot), so that counts. I also checked out some really cool Danish yarn. I read about it on the Yarn Harlot's blog...oh...my...God... I must possess some of that yarn. And, it's relatively cheap, however I'll need to hock a kidney to pay shipping. Kauni yarn. This is some pretty good yarn p0rn. I drooled over it most of the morning. I put several skeins in my cart before I summoned the will power to walk away. It was tough, but I was able to talk myself down. I had to think of all the other lovely yarn in my stash and how hurt that yarn would be if I added more to the stash without knitting from the stash first. Yeah, it sounds lame, but it worked...for now.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Flea Market at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds to search for treasure. It's held the 4th weekend of each month...some months are better than others. One never knows what one will find. It's going to be hot, but I have a feeling I'll find something good. I'll let you know what I find.

Drive-in Movies

You have GOT to do this before they're gone. Check out this site: http://www.driveinmovie.com/ and look for the drive-in theater closest to you. Then pack up the car with kids, pillows, blankets, lawn chairs, pizza and a cooler of drinks and head to the show. I just got home from the drive-in in Franklin, KY. It's about a 30-40 minute drive from here, but it's well worth it. There's just something neat about watching a movie under the stars. And speaking of stars we saw two big shooting stars during the movie. Too cool!

I took my knitting and a drop spindle, but it was too humid (not hot, just humid) to get anything done. That's ok, it was a good night to visit.

Nearly off the needles: silk beaded skinny scarf! I'm almost done. Maybe 3 or 4 more inches. Now the big question--to fringe or not to fringe? I'll post photos when it's done and blocked.

Good night...er...good morning!
Crazy Aunt Chris

Welcome!

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That has been my history with blogging. Maybe this time I can keep it in gear and post regularly. The tough part has been deciding on a name. Sheesh! I'm not asking much, but I want my e-mail, Etsy and Blogger names to the be same. Can I make that happen? Nope. I give up.

I'm not going to go into obnoxious detail about me...I'll save that for future posts. My plan for this blog is to create a journal of my knitting projects, yarn, patterns and everything else that involves knitting or even thinking of knitting. Dudes, I love to knit and I love to talk about knitting. The problem is, the people around my house are getting sick of listening to be obsess about my knitting projects, yarn, patterns and everything else that involves knitting or even thinking of knitting. So, I figure, if you're reading this blog you have an interest in knitting projects, yarn, patterns and everything else that involves knitting or even thinking of knitting.

Welcome!