Her super-secret, custom made, Birthday, Supergirl-Splink arrived yesterday. I’ve talked about these dolls before but to actually see and hold one in person? Holy crap. It’s truly amazing. I can’t believe the craftwomanship. Julie was so sweet and even added a backpack for Supergirl “with a surprise inside for her exploring adventures.” I sent pictures of Supergirl because I wanted it to look like her and it’s so damn cute I hope I can wait a month to give it to her! I took a bunch of pictures of her Birthday Splink but this is one of my favorites. Click the image to see the other ones. Then, go to Etsy and buy one. It is a true piece of art and worth every penny. Thank you again Julie!

Also, I have one skein of Van Gogh for sale. You know, inspired by the Vase with Twelve Sunflowers? It’s 350 yards of sportweight 100% superwash merino for 25 plus shipping. First come first serve. Just leave a comment. I’m leaving for my class right now so I will get back to you as soon as I get home.

Off to prepare for another dye class I’m teaching tonight. We are having horrible weather again so I’ve slowed back down on the dyeing. And I had made such headway last week too. Grumble, grumble…. I’m probably getting the Indie Swag out by the end of next week because I’m waiting on yarn to get here. My yarn suppliers have been out of yarn for almost 2 months now which has been very stressful. However, as of yesterday I have about 50+ lbs of yarn on its way to me that should be arriving within a week. I can finally catch up. It’s a little hard to dye yarn when you have none.

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Kinda. Who cares that I have my degree in English and my Master’s Degree in Education? Teaching a dye class is still teaching right? This week I’m skipping Eye Candy Friday & Saturday Sky because I’m too damn busy. I taught a three hour class today, came home to eat lunch and am now going out back to dye. Instead, I give you some pictures the class I taught today. This time I made the class 5 hours (over two days) and it was much better than the previous 4 hour class. And we had our own amazing dye room to boot! This is my 3rd class I’ve taught and my first in this room and man, did it make a difference to have this space and the extra time. It went so smoothly and we finished right on time. They each left today with a self-striping skein and variegated skein. I’m so proud of all of them. They really did such a fantastic job. Click on the picture to see the rest of the pictures.

I’m teaching another class next month that is already half full. (There’s another one in April too) I’m looking forward to using the dye room again with a new batch of students. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have stainless steel sink with THREE sinks in it. It’s like heaven for a dyer. And you see the purple floor don’t you?

Yarn is calling me…..

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Or at least where I spend the majority of my time these days. It’s nothing special really but I thought you might want to see where I do all of my work. My supplies keep multiplying therefore my space continues to grow. When I first started I had one container for the dyes in their jars and one laundry basket with the dyes in their containers. Now I have the dyes inside on a cart, a new storage unit outside and the yarns all in a closet in the office. I have about 50+ lbs of yarn that should be here any day and I have no clue where that is going to live. I need more space! I also took a picture of one of my most favorite pieces of art we have in the house. It’s a felted piece that symbolizes creativity. It hangs in our dining room which is also where I do most of my computer work.

As you can see. My dye room is my porch. Luckily It’s nice most days of the year to work back there. I love it. I get the sun all day and my yarns only take a few hours to dry. A lot of the time I bring my computer out there and listen to podcasts.

Not very exciting now is it? But hey. It works for me. Also, this way I don’t get dye on my pretty tiled floor. So that’s where I do all of my work! Click the picture to see the individual pictures.

In shop news I have a lot going on behind the scenes. In about an hour I’m meeting with Merchant Services so I can have my own credit cards on the website. This way you don’t need a Paypal account to buy yarn from me. It will also make a huge difference for the next round of the Indie Swag Club as it won’t oversell spots! I will still accept Paypal though so don’t worry if that’s what you like to use.

The other stuff…..I’ll tell you as soon as I can. I’m getting really excited about it though. I’m blaming Bruce as it’s his fault. Yesterday, Supergirl and I met him for lunch along with his beautiful daughter and as always, he got me thinking about what else I can do with my business…..wait and see!

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These two pretties are still left. I can’t believe a Bluetini is still there. Project Spectrum People! I also marked down the Caramel Swirl. It’s so pretty y’all! I promise.

I also wanted to thank everyone for your continued support. It really means a lot to me that I have you all out there cheering for me. Remember to sign up at the shop so you’ll get the e-mail notices when I update. My goal is to update about once a week. Now that it’s up and running I’m going to start adding in some new colorways too. Oh, if you want a button for your blog I made one. It never hurts to beg ask my knitster friends to hook their sistah-friend up now does it? At this rate I have to rely on word of mouth to get my customers since I’m not over at Etsy anymore. Ya dig?

I just finished re-skeining a beautiful custom colorway for another sport’s fan. This one was for a WSU fan. Once she sees it I’ll share the picture of it.

And finally, check this picture out. It’s my DYE-O-RAMA pal’s sock with the Zutano I dyed for her!

I love how it’s knitting up. OKay. I must get to bed early tonight. I’m exhausted.

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I dyed a bunch of orders yesterday and was also finally able to dye a skein for Emy because her Twizzle Fo’ Shizzle got lost in the mail. Can you believe that? Her yarn just vanished. Do you think the mailman stole it? I told her I’d re-dye her something and she asked for something in between Raspberry Parfait and Million Dollar Baby. I e-mailed her yesterday saying it would be a one of a kind colorway only for her. But damn. It’s too pretty not to do again! Sorry Emy. I’m a liar. I even want one of these for myself. I’m done telling y’all the colors in my colorways because it seems like some people out there are dyeing some yarns way too close to my colorways. Whose idea was it to do this whole DYE-O-RAMA thing anyway? Grumble grumble. But here’s a picture. It’s beautiful. This one is Emy’s. I might just do a few of these today with some Bluetini’s so head’s up. Tommy likey! Tommy want wingy!

Here is Illini all skeined up and ready to go. I’m not usually an orange person but this is actually really freaking cool. I can’t wait to see those stripes!

OKay. Time to motivate. T. is at work today and I’m home with the kids. The JCC opens up at 10:00 so I think we’ll just go swim. Have a great Memorial Day.

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I got a custom order to do a self-striping colorway for Julie so she could make some Illini socks for her sister. Shoot. I hope her sister doesn’t read knitting blogs. I guess they are huge University of Illionois fans and she wants to make some Jaywalkers in their school colors. This was the link she sent me. It’s my first time doing one of these school colors things and it was fun! Here is what I got.

Pretty much right on spot if I do say so myself. She wanted the orange to be the dominant color then blue then white. I can’t wait to see her knit this up! Who else wants school colors? Bring it! Oh wait….. are you doing the stash-along?

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Look at the pretties I received in the mail yesterday!

I signed up forthe Project Spectrum Yarn Swap and my pal was/is Jen from Cast On, Cast Off. She dyed me this beautiful 70% merino/30% angora. I can’t wait to knit with it. She called it “Scout’s Green” as she made sure to put purple in it! Thank you Jen! And I love the stitch markers too. I’m going to get yours done tomorrow. I promise!

If you’re looking for a fun swap go check it out!

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These pretties are up at the shop now. I had a productive day

Here’s a new colorway called Zen.

(I’m taking the liberty to shorten the full name!)

Margene was one of the first people I read when I stumbled upon the whole Knitty Blog-Wold. I fell in love with her new blog look and as soon as I started dyeing I told her I would eventually make her a colorway. Well today was the day. There are about 4 shades of purple and lilac with bits of grey and deep red. It really looks a lot like her blog which makes me happy. She also sent me some birthday love and I’m happy to return the favor. Therefore, one skein goes to her and one skein goes up in Etsy in a bit with a few other favorites so check back in a bit.

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would you please sit for a few minutes and knit up a square for Justin? Cynthia needs them immediately. I used my leftover Sockapaloooza yarn to make mine. It’s just a garter square but I thought the yarn was pretty enough to keep it simple like that. Nothing makes me sadder than sick children. If you have the time, please do it. Okay? Thanks.

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After Superboy came home from a friend’s house, he, of course, wanted to dye his own yarn.  We stuck to one color for him.  It’s actually pretty cool looking and much more variegated than it appears in this picture.

Now they’ve only asked me 100 times to dye again. I guess we need more colors. And I wasn’t kidding about the martini washcloth. See the stem of the glass?

I love knitting with Supergirl’s yarn. I think it’s really pretty. And she’ll smell like Kool Aid as it washes off all over her body! Bonus!

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I finally caved and let Supergirl dye some yarn. She asks every day if she can help me and there’s no way I’ll let her anywhere near the dyes I’m using. This morning I was in Hobby Lobby looking for a frame and had a 40% off coupon. The frame didn’t pan out but a pound of Sugar’n Cream did. I’m going to make washcloths for the kids out of their own hand painted yarn. I think we’ll also do this as gifties this year. We’ll use something that will hold the dyes more permanently for the gifts. I think their grandparents would dig that.

She had the best time and the yarn turned out super pretty! I think she’s a natural. Click this picture to see the slideshow. It’s pretty damn cute if I do say so myself.

I think it’s pretty cool that she turned this into this:

She hasn’t seen it yet because it’s been drying while she naps. She’s going to flip out over how cool it is. Now everything smells like Kool Aid. I might have to abandon my Shadow Shawl so I can make a few washcloths. Don’t you think she needs a martini wash cloth?

Also, you should know that Kool-Aid on cotton isn’t a very permanent dye.  Thanks to Noelle and a bit of research,  I’m going to try getting some Dye Fixative to see if it I can *seal* it more permanently.  We shall see…..

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