I decided to have a sale on my favorite little bags in the shop for Valentine’s Day. I absolutely love my Grab Bag and thought I would mark them down 15% until February 14th to spread the love! The Grab Bag comes in Brown and Blue. I use mine every day as my little purse and get compliments on it all of the time.

I have finally updated the yarn gallery page with six new colorways. Actually, Adam did it for me since I can’t figure out Dreamweaver. I would be lost without him. The new additions are - Convergence, Hokies, Lavender Mint, Lederhosen (The Knitters Uncensored colorway), Loops ( for Kirsten’s sock pattern Sigrid) & Power Couples.

Right now I am saying I am out 3-5 weeks on all orders but if the weather cooperates, it could be sooner. If you want yarn, just go to gallery page for all of the details. I am now selling 100% silk in laceweight that is simply gorgeous. But I’m pretty dang caught up which means I can take more orders. I feel like it’s the first time since, oh I dunno, June that I’ve been able to catch my breath!
I wanted to also let you know that soon I will be announcing information about Scout’s Indie Swag Round III. I have some different things in store for this round which even includes customer-colorway-collaboration! The new round won’t start until April but the sign-ups will be in March. In a few weeks I will let you know all of the details. So if you have been waiting to hear about the next round it’s coming up! I will also be making the size a bit bigger too. I hate not letting everyone in who wants to take part.

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Did I get your attention? And no, I’m still not knitting lace. However, I am dyeing lace and selling new lace patterns from the Goddess of lace, Miriam Felton, in the shop. I’ve been a bit stressed out about this most recent dye-job because it’s not only for a very important and dear person to me, but it’s for an incredibly important event as well. My girl Bev is getting married and she asked me to dye yarn for her for a lace project. Of course I said yes and was very honored she trusted me enough to dye yarn I’ve never dyed before. We decided on the Zephyr Wool-Silk (See Margene!? You learned me!) and she showed me the painting she wanted to see in the yarn. She specifically wanted the greens to be like the lighter color of grass in the foreground of the painting and similar to the greens in Gimlet. IT’s hard to see in the picture but there are three shades of green. I was worried at first that it might be too bright but after I rewound it, I love it. She loves it too. I can’t wait to see her wrapped up in it on her wedding day. The color really is so, Bev.

I had a whole bunch more to talk about but Supergirl is sick. She threw up last night and then seemed to be on the mend today until about 15 minutes ago when she came out from her nap crying because she had thrown up again. Seeing a lethargic Supergirl breaks my heart. I’m glad that T. was home today because between the two of us we were able to take care of her and completely clean out our garage. The boy went to camp at the JCC for the day. He wanted OUT of here.

I do have to mention that it was a very big day for me. I recycled all of my teaching materials. For anyone out there who is or has been a teacher you know what I’m talking about. I had a 4-drawer file cabinet and three Rubbermaid containers filled with 10 years of teaching handouts/tests/etc. All of my work for English 9, 10, World Geography, and a number of Senior electives have been taking up too much damn space and I’m just not going to ever use it again. It’s gone. I pulled out things I thought could still be used and will bring them up to the local high school. But otherwise I had to let it all go. I don’t ever see myself going back into teaching in a public school again and it was time to let go of that part of me. The weird thing is that I feel free.

Carole and I are planning on going to SnB tonight. I can’t even remember the last time I was able to go. The past few months have just been way too busy. I’m sad to say goodbye to Cari who is moving away but excited for her too. Mona? Molly? You guys going? I hope so! I need to go check on my girly. I think her washcloth needs to be cooled off again.

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I am congratulating myself on a few things. First up, I finished dyeing the 35th skein of Swag Club yarn last night. Yes. You did hear me correctly. Thirty FIVE. (remember how the club was supposed to be limited to 20? Grumble grumble Paypal . . .) If T. weren’t helping me do this I don’t know how I’d get it all done. I’m ready for one of you to come visit me on a monthly basis to help me dye some swag? Any takers?  Now, I’m just waiting on the other swag that goes with it this month and I can get them ready to ship out in about a week or so. And no, that skein is not Swag Club yarn. It’s for Cynthia because she totally kicks ass.

My next cool news is that I am now up as one of the new artists at Indie Finds! Check it out. It’s such a great place to find Indie swag if you’re looking for some cool stuff.

And look! I finished my first ever knitted item with my own yarn. To read more about it go here. I dyed this for one of my classes I taught over the summer to show different things you can do with self striping yarn. I think I definitely need to do some more of this even though it’s extremely time consuming. Rock on with my Socktoberfest self!

It’s pretty cool that they came out exactly as I intended. I also have my socks down to a science and there is nothing like slipping on a hand-made sock that fits perfectly. I am already through the ribbing on the second one. I can’t wait to wear them!

As always, I couldn’t pass up showing you the clouds this morning. They were so pretty as the sun came up and bounced off the bottoms of them.

Have a good day everyone.

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This is the new name for the Lime & Violet colorway. It goes perfectly with their newly released sock pattern - Snakes On a Sock! I have it up at the shop now too along with all of these babies. Needles On Fire, Snakes On a Skein, Hot Tropics, Harlot’s Mums, Vodka Gimlet, Color Queen. Oh yeah, and Daisies too!

You know the drill. If you want anything, just ask! For the first time in a long time I’m completely caught up and have all orders dyed. That means yarn for you and fast. I have all 6 fibers/weights in stock.

Look what else I added to the shop

If there is an amount you don’t see let me know and I can add it. I thought it would be a good idea for the upcoming holidays.

In the next few days I hope to spill some really exciting news. There are a few things I’m waiting to hear back on and then I can share. I can’t WAIT to tell all of you! Super crazy shizznit!

And finally, I’m still going to leave the contest up until September 13th. If you haven’t guessed go for it. There is at least one right answer and perhaps more than that. My lips are sealed….

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Bonne Marie posted yesterday about how knitting’s not for grandma’s anymore. Some of you may remember me saying this back in February in the L.A. Times and it’s true dammit! (Not that there’s anything wrong with Grandmas who knit!) Just for Bonne Marie I’m reporting my own KIP (knitting in public) right here as proof that yes, I do still knit. I asked the woman sitting next to me to take this with my camera phone. I told her I had to prove to my friends that I was knitting at the soccer meeting. I get asked on a daily basis if I still knit. Seriously. I don’t think anyone believes that I still do. I get it in while I can. See!?

I think it’s time for a good ole contest. How about this. Guess what row I’m on right now, September 5th, 2006 on my Shadow Shawl. If there is more than one person who guesses the correct answer I’ll put them all in a hat and let the superkids pick out a winner. You will recieve a skein of my hand painted yarn in an existing colorway of your choice. Sound good? I’m not going to give you any hints besides this picture. It’s the last time I posted about my progress. And ironically it’s another post about me and my lack of knitting. Alrighty then. Go! Guess! I’ll give y’all one week to make guesses.

***As of today there is ONE right answer…..if you have yet to guess you still have less than a week to get your name thrown into a hat if you guess the same number!***

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Well it’s cloudy today so instead I bring you a different sort of sunset picture. Puesta del Sols by Loretta. Hand painted by moi. I just dyed a skein of this for another customer and now she’ll be able to see exactly how they’ll look. Aren’t they gorgeous? Loretta wrote:

The pattern is the Baby Cable Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks done with72 stitches on size 1 needles and size 0 needles for the soles and toes. They fit and feel fabulous. Loretta

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Are you hungry for some more fiber? It’s very good for your body. Click to see the names of the new colorways. I’m digging on Daisies.

I’m all caught up with my orders so now’s a good time to grab me if there is something you want. Just leave a comment or e-mail me from the shop.

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Has anyone else been playing with this? I love how you can put in tag words and Stumble along and find different websites. I’m Scoutj of course! I was looking at my shop stats and saw all of these hits from stumbleupon.com and had no idea what it was. I guess Bruce tagged my website and people came over to see what he was talking about. I found a few of you already but if anyone else is over there let me know!

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My kids are the luckiest kids in the whole wide world as they are the recipients of the cutest knitted items ever. These are the Fiber Trends Pattern I posted about a while ago and they are now the biggest craze at our shop. Everyone is making them. (Well, not me of course since I don’t knit right?) Franzi made a few and I loved them so much she just gave them to the kids. The shop added a class for them too and it immediately filled up. My kids now go to bed with their hedgehogs and Ugly Dolls. Thank you again Franzi for making my kids so happy!

I also dyed a new colorway last night. It was one of those I got from seeing some yarn in the shop and I literally had to do it last night at a really inconvenient time before it excaped my brain. Over the past few months I’ve become friends with Tina & Kaci of Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They make me laugh on a daily basis and I can’t wait until I meet them in person. Although Kaci might kill me when I try and waker her up at 6:30am…..  I hereby name this colorway - Color Queen after the master-dyer Tina. If you want some you know the drill.

And this was what I saw when I woke up this morning. I know you all love my sky pictures so I’ll keep posting them. I figure It’s like having my morning espresso with you when I take a picture knowing you’ll all get to see it.

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I’ve been super busy the past few days. Village Wools was closed for inventory on Saturday and I could barely see straight after 6 hours of counting yarn. And I wasn’t even there the whole time. I was up to my eyeballs in dyeing yesterday but am pretty much caught up with orders. I made one mistake with an order which means I have one skein of 1,000 yards of hand painted, laceweight yarn in the Rosalie colorway. It’s super soft and so pretty. This one is a bit more muted than the superwash in the picture on my shop. The first person who wants it can have it for $25.00 plus shipping. And if you get it fast I could even put it in the mail today. I’m bringing all of my orders to the P.O. after Supergirl naps. You’d have it by Wednesday!

I’m also in love with this new colorway Christy and I created called Hot Tropics. It’s for her friend who is an author. Her new book is called Hot Tropics Cold Feet and Christy wanted to give her a little something. I almost don’t want to part with this. The merino tencel makes it even prettier. Delish.

And these are the other pretties that kept me busy yesterday. I need to put them in their envelopes and send them off to their new homes. Isn’t that merino tencel shiny? I have to make some socks with it. I guess that would mean I’d have to knit then huh?

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