New Colors and a Public Venue!

Entwined on Bounce Sock

Busy, busy, busy. That's how my summer has been so far. Not that I'm complaining though; I feel like I've managed to accomplish some of what I set out to do and I feel like I have some direction in my life.

L - R: Miss Piggy, Life Aquatic,
Echo, and Swirling Vortex of Entropy

In between trips to South Carolina and Pennsylvania I've dyed up some new colorways and I am very pleased with my results. Some of the yarns pictured in the blog today are already loaded in my Etsy shop while others are waiting until after Art in the Park on August 2nd. 

Soiree L - R: Swirling Vortex of
Entropy, Echo, and Life Aquatic

In addition to new colorways I have also added a new yarn base, Soiree. Soiree is a singles construction fingering weight yarn that is a 70 / 30 blend of superwash merino and silk. Not only is Soiree incredibly soft with a gorgeous sheen; it takes up dye beautifully.

Back to getting ready for next weekend. If anyone is near Hastings, Nebraska on Sunday, August 2nd, I'll be at Art in the Park at Libs Park with my hand dyed yarns, some hand knit and hand woven items, and stitch markers.

Almost Summer

I can’t believe summer is almost upon me! There are so many things and changes going on it is hard to keep track of them all.

Chris & Joe napping in the office

News on the kitten front…they are nine weeks old already. We have re-homed three of them; I cried each time we gave one away. Thank goodness I don’t have children I can’t even fathom how I’d react when it came time for them to go off to college. Anyhow, we figured the other three, two male and one female, can live as outdoor cats at our house. I use the term"outdoor" fairly lightly as they know where the door is, the noise it makes when it opens, and how fast they need to move to make it inside. It probably sounds silly but everyday I’m amazed at how quickly they’ve grown and what they’re doing/getting into. One thing for sure is that they make me smile.

And speaking of smiling, I dyed the most gorgeous colorway two weeks ago; I call it Malice In Bloom and looking at it just makes me giddy. The colors spoke to me so much so that it piqued my other creative juices. I swear creativity goes dormant if you don’t exercise it; it’s just like anything else. I think after losing three family members in a relatively short period of time last fall and winter I just became numb. I feel like I’m starting to crawl out of that funk and I am excited to do things all over again. 

I'll be adding a couple of skeins of Malice in Bloom to my Etsy shop in the next few days but in the meantime, I'm off to see how it knits up. I'll keep you posted.

Updates!

I never thought I'd turn into one of those people who uses trite phrases like, "I don't know where the time goes," but here I am firmly residing in that world.

Happy 3 Week Birthday!

What I do know is that the kittens that entered my world 3+ weeks ago are growing. There are six of them and they're officially on the move. We are going to have to come up with a way to keep them corralled so they don't wander off and get lost or meet a fate worse than being lost. I also want to contact one of the local shelters to see if they would take them in to adopt out to suitable people. 

I know you are but what am I?

With tax season completely in my rear view mirror for the year I hope to find some more time to dye. I have a few ideas kicking around in my head. I did manage to find a couple of hours to experiment last week and came up with this beauty. After a long grey winter I needed a pick me up and this fits the bill. I call it "I know you are but what am I?"

My first pooled scarf attempt ~ I love it!

For my birthday this year my husband got me a 15" Cricket Loom...he was nudged. :) So in addition to knitting I am trying my hand at weaving. My first attempt at weaving was with the yarn that was packaged with the loom. While the yarn was just fine my weaving was not. The sample, test run, whatever you want to call it is currently residing in one of the cat beds as a chew toy. I learned a lot from it but hope it never sees the light of day. I think weaving is going to be a great way to use some of my stash yarn. Expect to see some weaving projects from me this spring and summer.

How does one start to resurrect a blog? I suppose posting to it helps so here goes nothing after a year and a half.

Fuzz - action cat - hunting the
ever elusive garden flamingo
prior to domestication.

I’m still knitting and dying yarn albeit not as much as I’d like. I really came to stand still with Hansen Hand Dyes in the fall when my father passed away. I really haven’t felt particularly creative since then. Of course, with spring comes rebirth and new life.

My husband and I came to care for some feral cats in the neighborhood over the winter. In fact, we took in the only surviving kitten from a summer litter. She’s kept us busy and is turning in to a lovely indoor cat.  

36 hour old kitties!

Fuzz's mother was pregnant over these past couple of months and just gave birth 36 hours ago! I’ve counted six kittens for sure, possibly seven, though it is hard to tell as they move about as a big squirming pile of cute fuzziness at this point. It’s our hope to take them to a shelter for adoption when they are ready. We'd also like to capture the mama cat and have her spayed in an effort to help control the feral population.

Frog Hollow Rodeo - Bounce Sport

In addition to new kitty life I spent a little time in the yarn cave this weekend and breathed some new life into Hansen Hand Dyes. I dyed a couple of sport weight skeins in the colorway Frog Hollow Rodeo; this is one of my favorites that I dye. I love the varied bright shades of green. One of these days maybe I'll actually knit with it!

Wrong Turn - Bounce Sock

I was all set to dye a new colorway and had it all planned out when I added the wrong dye solution to the dye pot. I cursed a bit and then decided just to go with it and voila, I call it Wrong Turn. Sometimes wrong turns provide the most delightful surprises.

Here’s to a future filled with amazement and wonder from making wrong turns.