kid bit

This from the out-of-the-mouths-of-babes department:

Today as I sat my grade ones on the mat in front of me for story time one little guy told me that my hair "looks better". When I asked him better than what, he replied, "There's more white in it."

Oh, crap!

This is the hand-dyed denim yarn that I kept for myself from the last batch of dyeing. I adore this yarn - the color, it's softness, the heathered look as it's knit up. I am knitting it double-stranded to make a nice warm winter sock. It is fitting really well.

The problem? I am going to run out of yarn before finishing the pair. I knew that it was a possibility when I started. I had just one skein of a little more than 100 g, about 440 yards. I should have dyed two of them the same when I did this one but it didn't occur to me that I was going to knit it double-stranded. I didn't keep track of the color combos that I mixed to create it so making another the same is not going to happen. I naively thought that if it looked like I would be a bit short, I would finish the toes in a different color.

I just weighed the yarn that is still unknit and I have 60 g. No way is 10 g going to get me even close to the toe of this first sock of the pair. Because I love this yarn intensely, I don't want to have half of each sock a different color. I want the world to see my beautiful yarn as my toes peek out of my Birks. So... frog, frog, frog. Sob!

I've been dyeing again

Here are the latest dyeing results. The first two are available in my Etsy shop.

This is Denim, a fingering weight merino. Plenty of yarn for socks.

This is Mountain Spruce, a worsted weight alpaca/merino blend. The yarn was mule spun in Alberta and I bought it from Victoria's Fibre in Manitoba. Victoria is great to deal with! It's really yummy yarn and the colors turned out very pretty. There are two of these skeins for sale.

I'm keeping this one for myself. Shades of my favorite blues, the color of old jeans, it's also fingering weight merino.

Sale in my Etsy shop

I'm having a 20% off hand-dyed yarn sale in my Etsy shop until the end of October. Click on the link to the left for more information if you're interested.

finally, a show pic

Here's the show photo from Bentley's wins in Yorkton in August. The picture just came today because the first time it was sent it went AWOL in the mail. B is a handsome little dude, isn't he? I wish I had more time to show him while he's still a puppy but work interferes with that notion. Also, there are fewer shows near home every year so I would have to travel a good distance to get to a show. It's unfortunate but the small dog clubs just don't find it feasible to host shows any more.

fiber and other updates

Still Life With Spindles

There has not been much knitting or other fiber activities happening around here because of everything else that was going on in September but I do have a few things to share. I envy those of you who have such beautiful artistic photos on your blogs. My Still Life With Spindles is about as artistic as I get. On the left is a Kundert spindle and on the right is a Bosworth. They're both wonderful but I especially like the Kundert.

I finished this sock and am currently working on its twin. On Line Supersocke Winter 6-Ply, plain vanilla. Bentley in the picture, as usual.

I was invited to join Ravelry, and did, but I have no idea when I will get around to putting all of my stuff there. It could be a full-time job. Ravelry is a very cool concept and will likely be very interesting when I find the time to do it justice. My Ravelry name is doglover for those of you who are also members.

In the meantime, I've had the knitting blahs and a bad case of startitis lately. Rather than finishing things, I keep casting on new socks. I started a pair of socks using the Queen Kahuna Crazy Toes and Heels method with Apple Laine yarn. Although I prefer knitting socks top-down I really like the way the QK socks fit me. Her Aloha toe is the sturdiest one that I've found. The Apple Laine yarn is wonderfully soft.

I got Cat Bordhi's new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, and made the Little Sky Sock. I'm not sure how much I'll use these new patterns. I don't think I have the energy to be enthused about them just now. They're certainly interesting.

Cat Bordhi likes to double strand Trekking yarn to make socks so I thought I'd try it with these two skeins that I had in my stash. The subtle color changes in the Trekking yarns, this one and that one, are very attractive together. Again, just another plain vanilla pattern that will be warm for winter.

I had a couple of skeins of JoJoLand Melody yarn so I doubled it for this sock in the Spiralling Socks pattern. It's too heavy to do justice to this beautiful pattern so it will be frogged and started over using one strand.

I carded a bit of the sheltie undercoat that I've been saving with some merino using the new Strauch carder. It's gorgeous! I love my new carder. Here is some spun up...

And finally, we welcomed a new little critter into our already pet-friendly home. This is Carmen's 4 month old kitten. The kids named him Nightmare, which I refuse to call him. He is cuddly and friendly and laid-back; Nightmare is a stupid name for this little love. My dogs haven't met any cats before and they are most interested in this one. Unfortunately, the way they are showing their interest is by barking like idiots at him so he is understandably wary of them and spends most of his time downstairs past the baby gate that blocks the dogs from going down. He's ventured up a few times so I know that he'd like to join us but it will take time for all of the animals to get used to each other.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! We truly have much to be thankful for, living in this country.