The Yarnarian Has a New Sock Finished.

Here's the latest. I'm not sure if I'm going to sell the pattern. It seems to be very much like Leafy Green, which I didn't realize until I took a good look at it. But I like it, so I think I'll give it to my niece.





No good idea on a name. Any thoughts?

Ruth's Socks: Just in case you were looking for a picture of all my available socks, look over on the right. There they are. You can find them all on Ravelry, most on Etsy, or ask me here.

Hey, it's my blog and I wanna be shamelessly commercial! Tee hee!

ambermoggie - I like those names. How's Mr. Mog doing?

MaryAnn - It does indeed look like a tulip. I never saw it until now.

Sharon - I like it: Tiptoe through the Tulips! The tiptoe part is that cute little twist stitch in the middle.

Sharon - or galumphing through the tulips!

The Yarnarian and the Hubbo Wear Out the 6 Year-Old!

Hah! Of course we also wore out ourselves, but hey, we're not 6 anymore. We were also not in Kansas any more. Not that we've ever been to Kansas, but it works better than "we're not in New Jersey any more", if you know what I mean.

We flew out to MN on Fri and came home yesterday. Miss P turned 6 on the 24th, so we were out for her annual family birthday party (Sunday) and our annual Mall of America birthday treat. She picked out some toys (all inexpensive, bless her), had lunch, went on a number of rides all by herself, had cotton candy. Then we went back to our motel, and she got to swim in the indoor pool. And then to IHOP for a pancake supper. By the time we got her home, she had run out of energy. This kid has enough energy to power a city. She hops, skips, jumps, runs, never, ever stops! And giggles and is delicious and a true pain in the butt, which makes her a perfect 6 year old. I miss her like crazy already.

Sunday we gathered at the family home for some serious moving packing and humping. The entire clan of my SIL were there, and we love these folks, so we had a great time working our little tushies off. But we accomplished a ton of moving, so that when they have to be out of their house, it will all be accomplished. Then they have a week in between houses, and then they move to their new one. The new house is in an incredible area, within walking distance to a super duper elegant shopping street replete with post office, drugstore, a Lund's (great supermarket), wonderful restaurants, and stores that reek "posh"! And a movie theater and a wonderful playground and the best high school in the city. The downside? I can no longer take light rail to get to her house. Taxi is the way to go. Hey, you can't have everything!

So we were really exhausted Sunday night. And yesterday we traveled and you know how I hate travel, but this morning, after writing this, I'm going to the gym! Did you read that? GYM! Maybe I can establish the habit again.

Knitting News: Here's all the knitting I did, 99% on the plane. No time or energy to do any more on the sock. The really crummy pic shows the little twist st cable; it looks so much better in real life.




Carolynh - yep, those leafy green socks yet again. The thing is that I didn't realize that these socks were going to look so much like the leafy ones. The little twist stitch cable makes a great difference. I like this little cable so much that you know you're going to see it a lot!

What is This?

The Yarnarian has delights for you today: 4 works in progress.

1. Mystery Shawl 9

2. Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn in a scarf
pattern by Irish Schreier.

3. Mindless sock pattern used Trekking number something or other.

4. Sock pattern using yarn that I liked so swiped from my for sale stuff.

So now you have a tiny idea of what I'm working on. The shawl looks like a crappy bag, which is how lace looks until blocked; the scarf looks just plain weird, but will look nice when washed and blocked; the Trekking sock is beyond mindless, but I like it; and the brand-new purple-ish one - who can tell yet what it's going to look like?

And so it goes.

How do you like Optical Arrows? I'm rather pleased with it. Most pleasant to knit. And if you can't find it, it's the post right below this one. Like you need me to tell you that.

The Yarnarian designs another sock!

And it's for sale on Ravelry!

Optical Arrows






Jen - Thanks!

The Yarnarian buys yet another bag!

This is my entire exciting news! But you'll have to admit that it is one seriously cute bag. Bought here. By the way, if you scroll down and look at some of Catherine's bags, you'll see some pretty blue yarn. That's my yarn. Boy, all this fame is going to my head!



And that's all the news that's fit or unfit to print!

Extremely Important Knitting Content: Here's my brand-new solution for second sock syndrome: Put each sock with the pattern into a cute project bag. Start another sock project in yet another adorable bag. Continue this until you have either run out of bags, yarns, or needles. Then go back and pick up one of the old projects. You've waited so long to do the second sock that it now feels like a first sock!

kv - That's my solution. Get yourself a bunch of project bags, and put each glove into one, etc, etc.

mapleweave - Um, yeah, I understand that. At this point, I don't understand which comes first: the project or the bag!

Emily - You "store" them all over the place. Now, instead of projects in every nook and cranny, I have bags in every nook and cranny. Looks a tiny bit neater because you don't see yarns and needles and patterns.

Sounds good, anyway!

The Yarnarian

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

I couldn't resist this! Thank you, Annie Modesitt!

Erin - You're my kind of gal! I love to get on my soapbox and rant. My kids have been accusing me of this forever. I'm going to have to investigate more of these Jib Jab thingies.

The Yarnarian Needs a Day Off!

And tomorrow is it! I've been dyeing like a crazy person because I need to stockpile some yarn, and now I'm pooped.

So, ta da, tomorrow I'm taking off. Isn't that nice? The joys of having your own business in your home. I can play at being retired. I think I'll go to the library, the Stitching Bee (my very favorite LYS!!!), Whole Foods. Whatever. OK, this is pathetic sounding, but futzing around is just what I want to do.

A group of independent dyers, including me, got together and put in an ad in the Stitches Midwest brochure, the one that's given out at the door. Such excitement. Some real hotshots here, ladies and gentlemen, and little shot Moi! So, since I am a low volume dyer, and it takes me quite a while to dye up each skein, I'm stock piling yarn for the Stitches moment.

Saturday, the Hubbo and I took a field trip to Harney's Teas in Millerton, New York. I refilled some of my used-up tins, and bought a very expensive oolong. Boy is this tea delicious! Lovely pale pinkish color, and what a taste. I'm really a black tea person. Give me fermentation. But this oolong is wonderful. And I can brew it twice, so the price is not all that horrid.

Another wonderful oolong from them is Da Hong Pao! Not cheap either, but again, 2 cups from the same tea, so pretty good. Hey, I can justify almost anything! Hee Hee!

Project Bags! Look at what I found in Millbrook, NY on the way to Harney's. It's reversible and cute as can be.

The Yarnarian Tells a Story.

The story of Crunchy!

Once upon a time, there was a shiny new car called Honda Civic. It was a pretty little car in a shiny gray/beige color with soft gray interior fittings. It was born in 2007, and sat lonely and unwanted on the dealer's lot as the 2008 cars came rolling in.

At the same time as poor Crunchy waited for an owner to love, there was a retired librarian driving an ancient red Ford Tempo. That old car had trouble climbing hills, and was aging rapidly. The librarian had just begun selling her hand dyed yarns and was in the process of reinventing herself as the Yarnarian and she decided one day that maybe the little red car was itself in need of retirement (AKA the junk heap).

So the Yarnarian sat down with the Hubbo and talked about buying a new car. The Hubbo was very pleased about this because he worried about the Yarnarian and her ancient car. And his car was beginning to feel its age and the two of them could use a new car for trips and such.

Off they went, those starry-eyed car buyers, and wonder of wonders! They found the little gray car! The price was good (those 2008 cars were in need of lots of space), and they purchased the car.

Now in the 16 year history of the little red car, the only time it had been in an accident was in its first year when younger DD got into a minor fender-bender with it. Otherwise it was pure and intact (except for the hole in the bumper from that little accident).

One day in November the Yarnarian was making a right hand turn at a red light (quite legal), nobody was coming and there was one car at the intersection. He clearly was at a dead stop and had his left hand signal on and was waiting to turn. The Yarnarian judged that it was a good moment to make her right turn, which she did very, very slowly as she was as a dead stop and needed to make a left turn into a driveway a couple of houses down. SO if the Yarnarian was not going more than 5 mph. Whammo!!! That bloody car at the intersection and Crunchy met, and Crunchy earned her first crunchy bumper and her name.

Move on until mid-June when the Hubbo and wife were making a right hand turn into a parking lot of a restaurant. Whammo! A car zoomed past them on the right and, you guessed it, Crunchy got a crunch on her right front bumper. So now the dear little car had crunches on both her front bumpers.

Yesterday, as the Yarnarian was slowly driving in a parking lot, a car backed into her right rear side and bumper. NOt much of a crunch, but a little scrapy thingy on the side and a tiny denty kind of thing.

So now we're holding our breath and waiting for Crunchy to get her left rear bumper bumped.

THE END!

Project bag and knitting news: Ta da! Yet another adorable project bag and a brand new sock to go in it. The project bag comes from Zigzag stitches!








KV - The little red car has long gone to little red car junk yard (um, I mean heaven). It's the new car that has earned the name "Crunchy" Poor little Crunchy. But she still gets great mileage, and what's not crunched is still shiny and new.

Rooie - I do socks at the drop of a hat or needle or whatever. It comes very easily to me. Always has. But ask me to crochet.Ack!

Meg - the cutie patootie sock bvag comes from zigzag stitches on etsy.

carolynh - Poor little Crunchy has to find the time to get fixed, and with her luck, will be out of the body shop 10 minutes and will get crunched again!

Sharon - It isn't easy being little Crunchy; it's not easy being her mommie either. I keep worrying that the left rear bumper will be next.

The Yarnarian is Off Her Soapbox!

Aren't you glad? You all know how I feel about rants: a good one every now and then clears away the cobwebs, aggravates people, and generally stirs up the waters.

I have to show you my latest project bag. I just got this from Ruddawg on etsy, of course. It's very big. I'm going to use it for my Mystery Shawl 9 project.





The yarn it's holding is this one. This is 1100 yards of the Kona all wound up into a ball. At the end, I had to ask the Hubbo to wind it because it was so big that my small hands couldn't hold it anymore. Yeah, yeah, I could get a ball winder, but I like to wind by hand.



Knitting Idea: I'm in a sock rut. Don't get me wrong, I love knitting them, but I've not done much of anything else in a very long time. So I had this idea, kind of based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Almanac. I'm going to try to focus on one other type of project every month or so. If I don't finish the project within the month, I'll carry it over to the next month. And I'd like to re-explore the techniques that I used to do with such aplomb, and have ignored these past years. Of course I'll need new project bags all along.

So here's July's project: Mystery Shawl 9. This is logical since I dyed a lot of the yarn for it, and because I'm doing it too. With that ball of yarn above and that adorable project bag. Natch.

In August, I think I'd like to knit Miss P a pretty pink sweater. I need to decide on the technique, and I'll dye up the yarn. I'm thinking some pretty cables with ruffles on the hem maybe. I don't know; I have to knit the shawl first. But that's my thought.

I might start a group on Ravelry for this. Maybe. Anyone interested in joining me?

Mommie News: Yesterday I took the Mommie to the doctor for a follow-up visit. We both managed to get urinary track infections, talented women that we are. So she was back for a visit. You know, when I get her out of her apartment and into the car, she goes back to being the Mommie of old. Witty, sarcastic, wonderful. She teased me left and right, and was so on target that I could barely respond. Funny! At one point we were laughing so hard that it was difficult to drive.

They love her at the doctor's office. Here's this tiny, fragile little old lady who can't walk in a straight line and whose short term memory is hazy,and she gets into the office and all the doctors go gaga over her. I think it's the grandma effect. Whatever it is, her doc (and mine) is just crazy over her. He tell us all the time that we don't need to make appointments if she's not well; just show up and he'll fit us in. Told her that any time she wanted to join the staff in coffee, she could just come in. I think he meant it too. She's amazing! Whadda woman! Her gray matter is right on target, and who cares if she can't remember what she ate 10 minutes ago. She certainly doesn't care, and it doesn't bother her either.

Have a wonderful Fourth! We're laying low and being lazy.

Carolyn - I am beginning to think that project bags don't count as stash. After all, sock yarn doesn't so why can't sock bags?

KV - I tend to get grandiose on everything, so who knows if I will actually carry this out, but it really would get me back into doing all that knitting I used to do.

Darcie - Just because I don't have enough project bags, I just got the knitting cats. Now that is one silly bag, and I love it.

The Yarnarian is Patriotic!

Well of course she is. Three cheers for the red, white, and blue, and all that stuff. It's just that she has a tiny issue with the current president and his administration.

It's too nice a day to hear me rant about the Pres. and company, but I've got to tell you that this tragically misguided Iraq invasion has brought a level of misery to that country that even Saddam in all his bastardy couldn't do. So instead of supporting education, and research and all the things that a government is supposed to be doing for its people, we're sending out young men and women to die in a country that doesn't want us, and indeed hates us.

Acck! Get me off the soapbox. My BP is going to shoot through the roof!

I was a Hillary supporter through and through; always felt that Barack needed more experience under his belt. But Mr Obama, I'm with you all the way. I like and respect McCain, but with him in the White House, it will be the same old mess. Why does Iraq remind me of Vietnam?

So this is why the Yarnarian is patriotic! She's exercising her right of free speech to criticize a government that governs for the rich, ignores the poor and middle class, and has the most dumb-ass foreign policy around. A government that doesn't even recognize global warming.

Patriotic people truly care for their country, and I do. Now if we could only get an administration that does.

And if you disagree with me, that's good too. That's what people do in a democracy; they respectfully disagree with each other, and don't come to blows if opinions differ, and don't regard the other opinion as views from the devil.

All this because tomorrow is the Fourth of July, and I'm happily waving my virtual flag.

Back to the mundane.

YARN NEWS: I'm getting in 30 more skeins of the lovely Kona, which you know already because I can't shut up about it, and, hold on to your bippies here, 2 cones of Jaggerspun Zephyr and merino lace weight yarn. Oh, such excitement. These last two are not superwash, so I have to be gentle with them, and I've never dyed a yarn that was 50% silk (Zephyr). A bit of experimentation may have to take place before I sell that yarn. Hey, life is tough; somebody's got to do the experimenting.

Have a Happy and Safe Fourth of July! Agree with each other, disagree with each other, tolerate each other, grant everyone her/his individual freedoms and then go and watch fireworks and listen to John Phillip Sousa.

And here's the best part of this post: I won't rant politically until November.

Love,

The Yarnarian.

Christine - Clearly we have great minds because we think alike! Happy Fourth to you and yours.

Skep - I need that button!

The Yarnarian is Never Happy!

So what's with the title here? Well, I'm just about finished dyeing up the Kona for Mystery Shawl 9. If I didn't dye up 80 or more skeins, I didn't do any. I've ordered and reordered and reordered again and again. Mary and Sue of Catnip Yarns now ask me how life is in New Jersey.

And as you know, along the dyeing way, I complained, kvetched, groused, grumped that enough was enough, I wanted to get back to sock yarn dyeing, I wanted a change from almost solids dyeing, etc. So, here's where the title comes in: I'm going to miss it. I've got this new dyeing system pretty much down pat. I worked out how I wanted to dye these skeins, and now I'm just about done with it. And I want to do more. I'm am truly never happy. I'm like the cat who wants to be in when he's out and out when he's in.

Yesterday I did a little bit of sock yarn dyeing, and I found I was using my Kona method. It's now ingrained into my dye-stained fingers. (not really, I wear gloves, of course. But you get the idea.)

So, I called Catnip yesterday and ordered another 30 skeins. But here's what I'm going to do with these guys: some will be dyed up as the entire 1100 yard skeins for lace knitting. And some will be dyed up in 520 yard skeins for socks and dyed differently.

And now that I've put you to sleep, I'm off to have breakfast. That's the beauty of a blog. I can pontificate or wax poetic or complain or just do the prolix number. It's my blog. Hee Hee!

Adee - i will eventually sell the pattern. First I have to finish the socks (!), and then do the pattern writing (blech). But eventually. I'll post it here, and if you are on Ravelry, my avatar will change to the new pattern.

Sock Club info somewhere below this post!