Not much time for posting but here goes. I tried my spindle out last night but wasn't able to draft. Definitely not worried though, just need more practice.

Currently working on a top down pattern from Pure and Simple patterns, that has to be my big WIP now as it should be a holiday gift.

Without further blab here is a better picture of the natural dyed yarn.

Starmore Kit

Here's a pic of the Alice Starmore "Grant Ave." kit I ordered. I don't know how I'll ever knit it up! Never done steeks. Never even made an entire sweater. Not very good at keeping my place in patterns or charts. But I can never say never and I will, come hell or high water, make this vest. May take awhile but I will try. Goal is to complete other projects as skill builders.

Swatched up my natural dyed yarn this weekend. Tough to find a fair isle pattern to showcase the colors. Keep thinking I should have reds. Perhaps I will make the background color the natural off white of the Dale and use my colors to pattern. By the time I'm done with natural dying experiments I'll probably have enough to make a larger project.

10 NOV Advanced Life Forms

Okay, someone tell me how to do it. This must be a world with super-humans scattered among us. I perceive that so many are accomplishing so much. They must have power over time. My daily schedule:

5am ARISE
6am Arrive at work (outside home)
2pm leave work (no lunch break)
2:30 – 3:50pm FREE CHOICE
3:50 – 9pm Kids present
9pm – 9:30, maybe 10: finish chores, collapse in bed, maybe read a few knitting book pages

The competing tasks for FREE CHOICE would include but not be limited to: exercise, knitting while watching HGTV, starting dinner, reading, putting away laundry, yard work, cleaning (what’s that?). Well, you get it.

My question is how everyone else manages to get it done? How can there be so many fit, working, productive, crafty, blogging, beautiful knitters out there?

OK, just to prove that I do here’s a shot of an in-progress:


I leave you free to enlighten me about advanced life form time management....

Lizards, not Lizard Ridge

A FO. This hat is giant, made for my 9 yo son who has a New Caledonian Crested Gecko. This chameleon chart came from the book Tap Dancing Lizards. I guess you would call it intarsia but let me tell you it's not elegant on the inside. I just cut the red at the end of each motif row and ended up weaving in a million ends - AFTER I showed it to DS to make sure he loved it enough for me to continue. It has a fair amount of ribbing, all folded inside in this photo. Think I may sew it in on the inside permanantly.

November 8th 2006

I've been wanting to create a blog for a while to share and express my various passions. At present this amounts to a fiber obsession in the form of knitting. Mom taught me to knit, I think I was a young teen. It never took off as an obsession until the last few years. Well, the details of my particular existance can wait. Here are some photos.

My grandmother's cedar chest holds much of my yarn stash. Found some plain undyed Dale Helios and another skein of natural wool.

What I found to dye, Dale Helios. The Candide will be for another time:

Vinegar soak:

Tumeric, waaaay concentrated and Hibiscus tea on the right:

I also used black walnut powder to create a brown dye. No picture.

Results, tumeric on the left was a vibrant saffron yellow. I ended up tossing the rest of the tumeric dye in with the black walnut (right). Result is an alpaca brown. Better daylight pictures are needed. Hibiscus tea was turning out a pretty beige. I added 1/4 bottle red wine to the dye bath and decided to let it sit. I'll either get a darker shade or wooly wine.