Yarns and Odds

I promised you new yarns, and new yarns you shall see. I have been bitten by the love chicken and consequently am merrily dyeing love yarns. Hubbo is convinced that I've lost it.

I think that on my monitor they look rather blah, but it could be the light at this time of day. Anyhow, they are quite fetching, and I hope someone fetches them. By the way, the etsy ones are photographed in original form, the ones right here are in reskeined form.






Yesterday I had lunch with my work buddy, who retired June 1. It was fun to compare notes about families, retirement, etc. Her Honey is also retired and has a regular gig at a local funeral home. He fetches bodies, acts as a pall bearer, looks solemn, etc. He's the nicest guy around (except for Hubbo), and does "kind" very well. I can just picture him directing folks to various rooms: Standing straight, hands folded in front. You get the picture.

Yarn dyeing business. My so-called hobby business has moved into the tiny regular business mode. People seem to like my yarns and are buying them. I thought of advertising on Ravelry, but I don't think I could handle a lot more business at the time. Not that an ad would bring me lots more business, well I don't know. But I'm happily dyeing at a rate that I like. Between dyeing for Etsy, my sock club, and writing patterns, I'm a pretty busy woman. Which I like. I might even investigate selling at a craft fair or festival if the rates were reasonable. But that's a lot of dyeing. Actually, it's not the dyeing that takes long. That's the best part. It's cooking the yarns to set the colors. This is a pain in the ass, but necessary.

Supper: Baked ziti my style. I make a bechamel sauce (white sauce with a fancy name) with no salt (yeah, that sodium stuff). Cook the ziti, mix them with spaghetti sauce, and layer them. Ziti, bechamel, a bit of grated cheese (that's where the salt is), etc. I top with bread crumbs that I've mixed with Italian herbs, and then on the very top, a layer of grated cheese. It's so good, and so easy to make, and I have a thing for it.

Bev: Dinner was great! And guess what I discovered? I use a microplane to grate my cheese. So I get these delicate fluffy cheese fluffs. I scattered that on top of the casserole, and when it was done, some of those cheese thingies became very light and delicate cheese chips That's the only way I can describe it.

Here's what I can do with this: grate the cheese into little circles on top of parchment paper and bake. Then peal off. Holey moley!

Creative: What? Hey, you are the famous one. The awesome photographer, roving dyer, and yarn dyer. Are you kidding? Me, I'm just a humble (pff! snort) refreshing librarian freed from the Reference Desk.

Christine: Uh oh, the pressure is on. I'm starting to dye tomorrow. And I may just dye up one for me. I wonder how many skeins TLE dyers have to produce. Scary thought!