Wicked Women Sock and Scarf Club

Yes! an official posting. I'm taking sign-ups now.

Here's the scoop:

Wicked Women Sock and Scarf Club

3 alternate months of yarns & patterns.

What: Evil yarns and/or patterns. two sock ones designed by 2 devious, wicked designers: Hunter and YarnYenta, and a scarf designed by me.

When: Mid-Sept, mid-Nov, mid-Jan. 2 with enough time to do a bit of holiday knitting, and one for when we can all breathe again.

Cost: $90, which includes Priority Mail shipping to the US, first-class international shipping to Canada, and first class international to Europe and beyond.
Yes, I'd be delighted to mail internationally! It just means me filling out a customs form, no big deal.

What you will receive: yarn, of course, pattern either hard copy or emailed PDF, if you prefer. No goodies, surprises, stitch markers, candy, tea, no nothing but the essential goodness of my yarn and our patterns. I don't do elegant fancy wrapping or enclose extras because I don't care about them, and I want this to be easy on your pocketbook. You pay for extras, so I don't include them. Wicked me.

Why do you want to do this? How can you resist the call of Wicked Women?

How to sign up: email me directly at:

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

I'll ask for your address and paypal account number and will invoice you. If you need me to wait until mid-late August to invoice, that's fine. I just need to know who is interested so that I can do my planning, yarn ordering, etc. etc.

Thanks of course.

With an evil laugh, Mwahahahaha,

ruth the Transylvania Terror. or something like that.

Mary's Sharing Space - Oh, Mary, I'm so sorry to hear that. You concentrate on getting by; there is always more yarn and more sock clubs. It goes on forever.

The Yarnarian Blathers On!

Yup, it's Friday, the day that nobody buys yarn or reads blogs. I haven't figured out why, but it's true for me. Still, I feel like a good blather, so this will be written whether it's read, or not. ;-)

Knitting News: Remember the violet blob I showed you the other day? Here's a pic of it in not so blobby form.



I love knitting on edgings, even though it takes me at least 10 tries to get it right. I knit and frog, and repeat until I'm happy. And then, I knit 2-3 repeats and decided that I'm not happy, so frog again. It's not particularly difficult to frog; you just have to catch the live stitch that you're knitting together. And now I'm hoping I have enough yarn. I dyed up 600+ yards of the lighter violet, and it should be enough, but you never know. I have visions of me running out 2 repeats from the end. Gnashing of teeth. Then I'd have to frog, always catching that live stitch, and make a narrower edging, which would defeat what I want to do with it. So, cross your fingers, toes, and eyes that I make it. You just never know. These are very short rows, but I need way over 900 rows in total.

Dyeing news: I had a grand time dyeing on Wed. I wasn't in the mood for it, but went ahead anyhow, and ended up thoroughly enjoying myself. I decided to base many of my dyeings on a particular dye, and randomly picked scarlet, and then watered down the scarlet to more of a coral/pinky scarlet. All four of these yarns is scarlet-based: Jabbersocky, Flippy, Jibber, and Liebe.









Before I went scarlet crazy, I had some leftover dye solutions from Monday, so here are the results of that dyeing: Dulce, Belleza, Raritan and Sea Sprite.









Sea Sprite is Emily lace weight and quite delicious to knit from. That's the yarn I'm using on the no-longer blobby shawl. The reskeined ones are Penny, of course, and the others are Bambi, the Bambi with the little white blobbies here and there, the heathery Bambi.

Prices? Everybody but Emily is $20; Emily is $32 for over 1200 yards of merino deliciousness.

If you want before Etsy, you know the drill:

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Have a good weekend, don't work too hard, hell, don't work at all, don't eat too much, don't yell at the kids too much, don't hell at your parents too much, be kind, try to repair the world a little. Do not ever yell at your Grammie or Gramps. Oh, just enjoy it!

Love,

The Yarnarian

Yay, Henya and Ruth in Ottawa - you read my blather on Friday.

The Yarnarian Has a Couple of New Yarns and a Plug!

Oh, do I have a plug for you! Do you like stitch markers? Henya of ChickenStitches has just entered the stitch marker field on Etsy, and hers are different and adorable. I bought a set of cat markers and they are so cute. Now we have to convince her to make earrings. Hint, hint, hint.

New yarns: I had more but one of you grabbed 3 that I posted on Ravelry, so we are down to 2 left, but really spectacular yarns, both of which are Alexa.
Here's Purple Mountains. This one is deep purple with a bit of overdyeing here and there of lilac. I know, it doesn't look remotely like lilac, but that was the dye I used. isn't it grand? Way out of my comfort zone of pastels, but I do love it.

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And then here are 2 yarns, dyed simultaneously, which is very rare for me, and using a new technique, the same one that I did on Purple Mountains. So you can buy one or both, or I can swipe one for me.





Yes, I know, lots of pics of Santa Fe Sunset, but I'm trying to show you the yarn the best I can.

I just did 10 new skeins, 2 pastel, the others ranging from dark to medium. The dark mojo was with me today. They are soaking wet, and won't be here until tomorrow, I hope.

Henya - I love your stitch markers, and now earrings? whoo hoo.

Sharon - It's sock weight in Alexa, which is very soft. There's enough yardage to make a long or wide scarf, but not enough for a shawl.

itsJUSTme-wendy - Evil laugh! It's even prettier in real life. very evil laugh.

The Yarnarian Has Yarns For You!

Do I ever! I swear these are some of my best dyeing jobs. Well, they all appeal to me. The funny thing is that I really wasn't in the mood to dye, but the yarn was soaking, so I went ahead anyhow.

And then I hit the first solution and it was heaven after that. I like to do about 10 yarns a day. Yes, I really am a very low volume dyer, but it suits me. I'm not interested in speed, rather in the way the colors interact.

So here are the first 5 yarns. I'll show the rest tomorrow. Gotta spread the wealth out, you know.

Herbs and Maplewood:




Dark Emerald and Adina:




AND, the first skein to be sold of Judith yarn: Misty!



All, except for Misty are Alexa yarn. I've decided that I'm quite in love with Alexa; it is my favorite sock yarn at the moment. That of course is liable to change any minute. Whatever yarn I dye is the favorite of the moment.

Here are the specs on Judith yarn: 125 grams; over 800 yards. fine fingering weight, i.e. not skinny like lace weight, not as heavy as the sock yarns. NOT superwash. 80/10/10 merino/silk/cashmere. Knits up like a dream. I can see it for scarves, shawls. Socks? If you're willing to hand wash and want a special pair. I can't tell you how well they would wear.

Enjoy. gotta eat lunch. I'm starving!

Misty is spoken for. We have quick on the trigger finger folks here! Giggle.

Yes, I mail internationally!

itsJUSTme-wendy - You know my mantra #103.5: it's yarn, there's always more yarn, don't get into credit card debt over yarn. But I'm glad you like them.

Quick update!

They are now for sale on Ravelry and/or Etsy. 5 bucks apiece or as a duo for $9. Saving is good.

Fairy Leaf Scarf, which is a lot prettier than the picture shows. Trust me on this.



Titania's Waltz, which is easy, and looks so complicated, and yes, the first row is on the wrong side and the even rows are the right side. If it drives you batty, change the numbering, but make sure that you knit that garter ridge on the wrong side. Oh, you know what I mean. You need that little garter row to make the pattern. Verstanden?



Or email me and I'll invoice you the amount and then send you the pattern(s), although that's very cumbersome, if you know what I mean. Bye, I'm hungry and my brain is flying off somewhere.

Henya - They're really not that hard. Once your brain understands the pattern, you can just go and knit. Yeah, you do have to look at the chart occasionally, but not so it will drive you nuts.
I'm glad you like the yarn. Go knit lace with it!

Bishop Stone - It's actually very pale blue cashmere from JoJoLand. I used a little more than 200 yards of it.

The Yarnarian Ponders Imponderables.

So here are my questions: I have 2 light switches in a part of my kitchen, one on top of the other. Why do I always flip the wrong switch?

Why does the Hubbo do the dishes, but not wipe down the stove top?

Why does the Hubbo not clean the sink after doing the dishes?

Why do I put a bowl down on top of the counter instead of putting it away?

Why do I not put away that large box of yarn to be dyed? Why is it sitting in the living room? Is it living?

Why are there no pics in this post? Ha! That one is easy to answer: because I have nothing new to show you.

Here's itsJUSTme-wendy's post:

why do kids ask the same questions day after day?
Why do you have to tell kids the same thing over and over?
Why does the sun shine all day until I have to walk to school to pick up the kids, then it downpours!

The Yarnarian Has Pictures.

So, I'm happily working on my lace scarf and lace shawl, plus other projects. These 2 are irresistible to knit, and I keep going on them. Do you ever have a few projects that call you nonstop? That's what these 2 are doing to me. Here's a pic of the scarf, that may turn into a shawl when finished and blocked. I cannot tell which it's going to be, and when you look at the pics, you'll understand what I mean. The color is violet. My camera thinks it blue. So the more violet one is the correct color, more or less, maybe. arrgh.





And here's a good pic of my new shawl. I'm knitting this in my newest yarn, Judith, 80/10/10 merino/cashmere/silk. Not superwash, but who washes lace shawls in the machine anyhow? I think I said that in a previous post. Good grief, the woman is repeating herself. Size 6 needles.



Purchase: Look what I had made for me as a custom wallet:



Here's the inside of it, the color is a bit off because I really blew it up so you could see.



I have one of these in wristlet form, and it holds everything. You would be amazed at what you can stuff into it. Wristlets, however, are bad on my wrists, so I asked Julia to make a long strap that I could wear diagonally. To tell the truth, I just asked for a long strap, and she came up with the diagonal idea.

I bought it on Etsy from Julia Martinez. She has lots of fabrics available, and she's wonderful to work with.

And that's it. Today is as usual laundry day. Every day is laundry day, but today I'm determined to actually finish a load.

Henya - Wait for lace when the kids are a bit older, then you can drape yourself in gorgeous lacy stuff.

Bishop Stone - My advice? Just work slowly at your lace, and count often. Also, try to learn your pattern: look at the graph and then at your knitting, and see what kind of pattern there is, where you yo or decrease. It helps a lot.

PS, the wool is to dye for. I couldn't help it. Had to say it. hee hee hee.

The Yarnarian asks you to look at a blog.

Please, click on this. It's so important. Whatever would we do without Alison Hyde? She is such an amazing person. To me she embodies all that's good in the universe. And she does it with grace and modesty, and she really is a role model. And a fabulous knitter and designer, too.

Gotta run. More pics eventually, maybe Sunday. Wait until you see the scarves/shawls I'm knitting, and the yarn too. Whoo hoo. Off to visit the Mommie!

Debra - I have never met her either, but she is just wonderful.

Scrabblequeen - We'll start the AH fan club!

The Yarnarian Thinks About Moving.

Linda just mentioned on her blog about leaving her lifetime home in Orange County and moving to Taos. What an adventure! Starting over in a completely new place, one that you love! But also about leaving her home where she has been forever. What a push/pull that must seem. To leave where you grew up and lived your entire life to a brand new location, even one that you love, must be wrenching/exciting.

It's a life lesson. Leaving what is familiar for what is unknown. (Yes, she does know Taos, but living and traveling there are 2 different things.) Isn't this a life story? Look at our relatives who left their homes in wherever and came to this country. Look at the Africans who came here involuntarily. Look at the Native Americans who were displaced from their homes. It makes me wonder what "home" actually means. Is it a physical location, a feeling, a spot in your heart, a bolt hole?

I had the fortune of growing up and going to school in an industrial city where everyone was from somewhere else. Parents who spoke English as a first language were exotic, although we regarded those who had southern accents as foreign also. We were multicultural when multicultural meant exactly that. We learned respect for each other. I can remember classroom discussions in elementary school that were about how we all celebrated the holidays. OK, we Jewish kids were ignored, and there were a good number of us in our classes, but that was a different time, and that's a topic for another post.

Anyhow, we learned about Christmas in Germany, Albania, Portugal, the South (!), Hungary, Ireland, Scotland, etc etc. Not one kid I knew had an "American" last name, except for the 2 southerners. Kids brought in cookies for the holidays, and they were all different.

To get back to my original post, Every one of those parents pulled up roots and came to Connecticut. I heard about the glories of Vienna from my father and his family, and also about what the Anschluss meant. I didn't have to watch movies about the Nazis; I lived those stories. My mom came here in the late '20s. She left Europe for entirely different reasons. My grandmother was widowed while pregnant with her last child, left her kids with relatives, and came here to make a new life for herself and her children. These were big moves.

And here is my friend, Linda, who is moving out of her comfort zone for someplace new, where she probably has no friends or support system except for her husband. That's a big move too. But think of what her rewards will be. She'll have the adventure of a lifetime here, her mind will expand and her delight for life will be enhanced. I'm envious! I'd love to move somewhere, where I don't know, but somewhere, even for only a couple of months. Just to learn new ways of looking at life, see different buildings, taste different foods. What an adventure!

I suppose that anytime you "move" into a different phase of your life, you are heading into the unknown. So many people are fearful of it. They want their lives to proceed as they have always done. They are terrified to go into a big city, to travel where English is not spoken, even to try different ethnic foods. But moving gives the gray matter a challenge, teaches you so much that a book or TV program cannot.

Retirement is like that also; you move out of the routine of work for pay, and into something brand new. Scary. But look at it this way: you now have the opportunity of a lifetime to do what you want to do, to take classes, to take up a hobby, to travel, to be free of responsibility at least until old age sneaks in. And even then, to age and grab life by its horns and go with the flow, that is living. I know, illness, death, will hurt beyond measure, but even then, there are opportunities to move and grow.

OK, now that I've put you to sleep, here are some pretty yarns to wake you up:

Morning Glory and Ice Green:




Peach Tart and Aruba:




Go off and move somewhere today. Try something new; be brave.

Andrea - Yes but you were adventuresome; you tried it out. I know people who will not go into New York City and they live in a town that's 27 miles west of the city and you can commute in and be there in 45 minutes. Talk about provincial. It's not that they don't like the city; it's that they automatically reject it because it isn't what they are used to. They pride themselves on never having been in the city. arrgh.

Henya - If you can do that, you can do almost anything.

Linda - Your blog post really moved me.

itsJUSTme-wendy - Give me flats any time.

The Yarnarian is Heathered.

I have a new shipment of Bambi yarn (70/20/10 merino/bamboo/nylon) and this batch seems to have come with little bits of bamboo fiber hanging out on the surface. I don't know why, I suppose I could have sent it back, but I like the heathery-ness of it. So it stays. I certainly couldn't see it in its undyed stage. Off white is off white, but dyed up, there it is. And I like it. Bamboo doesn't take acid dye. I'm certainly not going to play with fiber reactive dyes just to get it to take color. The fun of the yarn is that it is not totally solid within each color, and this batch is more of that undyed effect.

Here are pics of some very damp yarn. Nope, you can't have it yet; bamboo takes forever to dry, and it's been cool and damp here, so maybe by tonight it will have dried. Maybe. You can however email if you want me to put aside.

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com.

Oh, you know the routine. If you really want one, jump on it; we have yarn sharks here, evil laugh, and they are very quick. And they know who they are. And they are a lot of fun, and make me giggle.

Damsel and Allianora:




Gossamer and Sunlight (Sunlight is Alexa and NOT heathered; she sneaked in here)




Tender, Squawk, and Lake:





If you look closely at the darker ones, you'll see those fluffy little bamboo fibers.

Tikkun Olam: Huh? Hebrew for "repairing the world". I don't like the word "charity"; it implies noblesse oblige, which while certainly useful, seems very snobbish to me. I would much rather do something to repair the world than to give charity. It's all semantics. but from now on, it will be Tikkun Olam

So these last couple of months I've been doing a bit of knitting for the folks at the Pine Ridge Reservation, the poorest spot in our very wealthy country. A couple of months ago, I worked on knit squares for the kids in South Africa, and will go back to it again (and yes, they did arrive safely). I just thought that I'd like to help out people in our country this time. So, I'm knitting 6" squares on the diagonal, and amassing them, and will mail out to Pam, a lovely lady who assembles them and then sends on to the Reservation. You can check her out on Ravelry in the Afghan Squares for Pine Ridge Reservation forum. Pam is looking for 6 and 12 inch squares, knitted or crocheted, as warm as you can make them. This is THE perfect travel knitting. You can do it on auto-pilot, it uses up all your knitting worsted leftovers, someone gets a warm blanket, and you do your part to repair the world. What could be better?



Alianora, Gossamer and Tender are spoken for.

KV - I concede! You have THE CITY; we have Newark and Trenton.

Caryn - I have webs growing between my toes. The grass is beautifully green, however.

Quick post!

I was checking my hits on sitemeter, and I saw that someone from Storr, CT took a brief look at ye olde blog. Hey, I went to UConn, Class of 1965. Oh, stop laughing you silly little kids!

That's it, back to work.

The Yarnarian and Darth Yarnarian

I had a visit the other day from a strange character, Darth Yarnarian. Seems like this odd evil person decided to invade my dyeing chamber (AKA the laundry room).



And then as I cried: Fie! Be gone Evil Darth Yarnarian, this evil apparition disappeared, only to reappear upstairs with my new scarf!



I waved my magic wand, a wooden spoon, and said the magic words: "ipsy bipsy", and lo and behold there was a flash of fire, a clash of symbols and a roll of thunder (hey, it was pouring outside), and Darth Yarnarian went back to her evil demesne.

BTW, this is my awesome new respirator mask. Scary no? I sound like Darth Chicken when I breathe in it!

Dyeing news: I bought this amazing new lace yarn with 80/10/10 merino/cashmere/silk and I dyed it yesterday.



It is so soft and wonderful. Not superwash as I've mentioned somewhere else, but who in holy hell washes lace in the washing machine. Not moi, that's for sure. 800 yards of yarny goodness. I don't know what it will be, nor am I ready to work on it, but I just couldn't resist dyeing it.

The color is one that I wear all spring and summer, and it will look gorgeous over the browns and deep greens that I wear in the cool weather. I might have been subconsciously influenced by this top:




I wasn't wearing that top when I dyed. My dyeing clothing deserves a post all of its own, but I wore it the day before.

And if you notice, I'm modeling Titania's Waltz scarf. Yes, I know, it clashes, but this is what I had on, the Hubbo was dragooned into taking a couple of pics, as he kvetched loudly, so you get what you get.

Titania is the correct spelling. She is not Russian as in Tatiana; she is Oberon's consort; a fairy queen, and she bosses Oberon around because we women need to boss mens around, even kingly guys.

Here are the main rules about bossing mens around: they have to kill bugs, take out the garbage, reach whatever you can't, move furniture, drive if you hate driving, and make you howl with laughter. Women are so perfect that we don't need rules. Ebil laugh here. Mwahahaha. This must be the effect of Darth Yarnarian!

Off to slay evil chickens, do the dishes, etc, etc.

Sockmadmary - I don't know yet what colors I'm going to dye the new yarn in. I might take suggestions from you all, and then dye up. No obligation, just me getting a feel from what the Great International Public wants (or want as you Brits say, which I don't get, but so it goes).

Ruth in Ottawa - It's symbolic of cymbals or symbols or symbolism or botulism or...

Carolyn - The hair color depends a. on the dye job of my beautician, and b, how long it has been since the hair was colored. The real hair is virtually white, and makes me look ancient.

Holly - I have a silver gray somewhere in my dye collection. I bet it would look lovely in this yarn. Now to find it......

Ria & Scrabblequeen - It's my inner glamour that you're seeing.

Skeppie - Unfortunately it is moi. I think the mask adds a certain elegance to my appearance.

Henya - Purples and lavendars and such are one of my favorite combinations. I don't know about your part of Brooklyn with the summer aroma, but I gotta tell you that wandering through Manhattan on a hot swealtering day and walking past a pile of garbage bags is one of the delights of civilization!

CathyR - I personally think that the mask is very flattering.

Olivia23 - Can't you just see me in that mask at the MOA! That would surely terrify everyone except for Miss P and the Hubbo!

The Yarnarian Likes to Tempt You.

Wicked woman that I am, here are a few more pretties for your pleasure. I seem to have been in a sea green dyeing moment, because I just looked at my stock, and there's a preponderance of those greens with blues. I didn't plan it; it just happened. However each one is different, so at least there's some variety here. And I'm not crazy enough to show them all; I don't want you to howl in the night that I was on a seafoam toot.

Water World and Summer Dream:




It's the berries:



See, that wasn't too bad. Summer Dreams is Bambi, It's the Berries is Alexa, and Water World is Rose. Don't even ask how I dyed up 3 different yarns without getting confused.

New yarn: I just got in 20 skeins of the most delicious lace yarn: merino/cashmere/silk. Over 800 yards of loveliness in a weight that's not skinny-minny like Zephyr but not as heavy as fingering. Not superwash, so you'll have to wash by hand, but since when would you put a lace shawl in the washer and dryer? I hope to start playing with it next week. Cost? Not sure yet. I'm guesstimating about $35-40, although the $40 seems a bit pricey for Miss Mingie here to charge. We'll see.

What do you have to look forward to besides yarn and more yarn: the 2 scarf patterns that I've been showing you. Fairy Leaf and Titania's Waltz. The Hubbo will do his PDF magic on them and I'll offer them at $5 apiece or together as a collection for $9. Maybe tomorrow on Ravelry and Monday on Etsy.




Holly - these are wonderful! I'm so tempted but which one?

Henya - Mwahahahaha! Evil laugh!

Caffeine Girl - The Hubbo just has to wave his magic wand!