Charcoal Lace

Dime

Emerald Coast

Lady Rose

Navy

New Lil Squish Sock Yarns:

Fall Fireworks

Squishy:

Delicate

Deep Lilac

Raw Emerald

I have one more color of sock yarn I’m not sure if I’ll list, as it’s hand isn’t as nice as usual. Also have four colors of the 100% bamboo yarn to list and quite a bit of cotton yarn to list.  But one day at a time! (:

I hope you all have been doing wonderfully and are having a wonderful start to the 2008 Holiday season! (I’m just a few boxes away from my Christmas music, and the little scenty plugin thingy has been switched from clean linen type scent to a holly berry, pine tree type scent. YUM.)

Hopefully yarn and knitting soon. I had to frog the Pink Pearl shawl when it was about 12″ in diameter, and started on Holiday knitting, but there will be pictures all the same! Once I get my computer set up and move all of the temporary files off of the Yarn Husband’s laptop. /grin

Shot of a bit of the horseshoe section of the Orkney Pi shawl I’ve been working on in the new lace weight:

Two of the other lace weights:

And the bamboo yarns!

(Two colors in this next one.)

And in honor of the University of Texas, this one is ‘Hook’em Horns!’:

(I love Hook’em Horns, but I would. Did you guys see last night’s game? Man, they were on fire! And the OU game! /cheer)

Lots more to reskein and photograph. (:

We’ve only had brief chances to connect to the internet. I don’t have ANY of the backup files for the shop on the laptop. All of those are on my work computer… packed up in a box on a truck.

Something always goes wrong. Always. If you are prepared for it, but still hope for the best, it’s not so bad.  Frustrating beyond measure, but not that bad. It could ALWAYS be worse.

Good news?

I’ve gotten a LOT of knitting done, and the Pink Orkney Pi shawl (aka: The Moving Shawl #1) is coming along well. The base yarn I’ve been testing with it is doing beautifully, and I’ve been getting a lot of comments from people who’ve seen me working on it. (Yes, I knit in public.) I also have one of the Combat Boot socks done, but I’m waiting until I don’t feel the need to glare at the finished one before I cast on for the second.
Oh. And we’re in the process of buying our first house. Knitting has kept me sane through it all, and I’ve resisted the urge to stab things with the needles so far. Negotiations may challenge my will power, but you can bet I’ll be knitting at the closing if (when!) we close on the house. (:

It’s been a crazy few weeks. We’re hoping to be out of temporary living quarters and in our own place before the month is out, but a lot is still up in the air. We’ve found a nearby wireless hotspot that we can use, so I should be back to updating the shop at least on a semi-regular basis soon, and I think we’ve found a post office. Technically the Yarn Husband found it, I’ve only heard about it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t fit it all into the footlocker. The new bulky and worsteds had to be wrapped up in a plastic bag and packed. The new lace weight, the bamboo and cotton yarns are happily wrapped up and locked away in the footlocker, however. Teehee. Lots of yarn. This makes me ridiculously giddy.

What doesn’t make me giddy is being mid move. However, even a move has it’s benefits. All this time without internet (I’m at the library currently) and no yarn to dye has given me quite a bit of time to actually, you know… knit. Those combat boot socks that have been sitting over at Ravelry as just a toe?

It’s a good sized sock, 11 US men’s shoe size, and designed to be worn with combat boots. Despite the progress, the more I knit this sock, the more frustrated I get with it. I know for a fact the cuff is getting longer, but each time I measure against my husband’s current combat boot socks, the shorter the cuff gets in comparison. I’m at a total loss how this works, but it’s how it’s working! My husband, bless his heart, willingly offers up his foot for sizing and pulls out a sock for comparison as needed. Each time he sees me biting back the last half of four letter words, he suggests that I could bind off and he could use them as lounge socks or bed socks or something, I really don’t have to knit him combat boot socks, even though he does appreciate the work that went into the single sock so far. The poor guy has even suggested that what has been dubbed the Combat Boot Sock Saga would make a great blog post. (He’s right, of course. I’m just dreading the second half of this saga… the second half is always more difficult before the triumphant end. Assuming it’s not a sad ending. But I will not let my base nature to frog overtake me. I will persevere!)

So there you have it. Yarn and socks. And coming soon, the beginnings of a pink SeaCell/Silk Orkney Pi Shawl. The needles are at my in-laws house, or should be today, and we’ll be driving through there on the way to the new base. Mmmm, new knitting needles. I printed out all 29 pages of the Orkney Pi pattern just in case I can’t take knitting these cursed Combat Boot Socks one night after 8 hours of driving. Because even my first try at lace knitting is preferable to knitting the same ribbing pattern over and over again on the cuff of this sock, all while his regular combat boot socks seemingly get longer and longer. One of the Great Mysteries of Knitting, I suppose. Lost stitches, lost rounds. I guess I’ll go knit a few more invisible inches on this sock before it’s time to pick up the oldest from school. Oy.

Not too shabby! Those are Six inch needles, Knit Picks, getting about 7 sts per inch. I have to admit that I was a bit worried the yarn would have a stiff or crunchy feel to it, but am blown away by how silky it is.  It is beautifully shiny, and even with just the little bit I have knit, it’s already starting to drape.

What do you guys think?

I’m pretty happy with how it’s coming out, but think I’ll use size 4’s for my Pi Shawl. The yarn overs on 3’s are just a bit smaller than I like. I know it’s recommended to use closer to 6’s on a Pi shawl, but I’m going with a plain Pi for my first one and would like a tighter fabric. (I need some mindless knitting.) However, as much as I adore this pink one and how it looks, I’m thinking I’ll keep one of the darker colors that I just finished dyeing… that dark red is tempting.

Really and truly, that is a lot of yarn. And a lot of work. And a lot of dye.

Exhaustion aside, I’ve loved every minute of it. In some strange little way, I even liked being completely worn out at the end of the day. It let me know I was working hard, which is a good feeling in and of itself.

Not to say that the art itself was not rewarding… some of the yarns that came out of this week are simply stunning. I’m tempted to keep all three hanks of one particular dye lot for myself.

The photo does not do it justice. The colors are so much more subtly complex, with pewters and silvered sea greens. That is one of the 100% bamboo yarns. It’s going to be hard to sell any of those, especially that batch.

The best part of this week, surprisingly, was proving to myself that I was capable of true blue production dyeing. That I had the focus, drive, motivation, skills and endurance to do it. This week I gave it a go, and this week I did it… and I know that with practice, enough blank yarn and enough dye, I could take 90 hanks and get that number up higher.

Right now, I am actually out of most of my dyes, and have only a very small amount of blank yarn left. (Bulky and worsteds, just a few pounds of each remaining. I ran out of buckets, bowls and tupperware.) So I could in theory still be dyeing more yarn, if I still had blanks and dye. Well, that and if we weren’t moving again Monday.

Yep, moving. Again. We knew this one was coming, which is why it’s not that big of a deal. It’s also the reason behind the Hell’s Bells dyeing this week. None of my dyed yarn is getting packed up - it’s all coming with me, as we make the trek cross-country to the next place the Air Force is sending us. So is the niddy noddy, the swift, the ball winder and the scale. That way if we end up in temporary quarters for more than a week or two, I’ll still be able to wind, photograph, list and ship yarns. Yay for planning ahead!

As things stand, I’ve spent from this past Monday through to tomorrow working on dyeing. Saturday and Sunday will be printing tags and locating necessarily supplies for shipping while on the road. Monday watching our things being packed up, and Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning the now-empty house. We’ll begin driving on Thursday and arrive somewhere on the East Coast Satuday or Sunday. With a kindergartender, preschooler and an almost 3 year old.

You know what? After reading all of that, I think I just may keep a hank or two of that bamboo. After this move is done, I’ll have earned it! LOL!

Close up of the 100% Bamboo:

The silk and seacell lace weight:

And the cotton and milk protein sock yarn:

One more shot of the cotton, which shows off the twist and texture a bit better:

Will be dyeing some of these up tonight, fingers crossed they come out as well as I’m hoping!

Oh, the hand spun from yesterday!

100% bamboo, hand painted, two ply, approximately worsted weight. I’m pretty happy with how they came out!

Off to dye some new yarn I go! <3 Happy Friday and have a great weekend!