Flower Fairies Sock Club!

For those of you who like to shop via Etsy, I've now listed the Flower Fairies Sock Club there.

http://fritzl.etsy.com

Yippee! Pretty socks and yarns, here we come.

The Yarnarian and YarnYenta Team Up!

This is a very long post with lots of pics. Enjoy it.

Here's my exciting news! I'm so revved for this.

YarnYenta and I have been chatting for a while about doing a sock club together, and yesterday we messaged back and forth and here's the result:

Flower Fairies Sock Club!

Is this neat or what! 3 months of charming sock designs and fairy yarns to make you a very happy camper. Everyone needs a little magic in her life, and we are going to give you a bit of it.

The particulars:

3 months: Feb, March, April (middle of the month, as usual)
3 brand new sock patterns designed by a wonderful sock designer
3 charming new colorways dyed my me

Yarns? I have a lot to choose from and have not decided yet, but you know that they are all lovely because I wouldn't knit on them if they were not.

Cost? $90 for everybody, USA, Canada, UK, and any other place possible. US shipments will mail out as Priority Mail, the UK and other places across the Pond will be sent as First Class International, Canada will also ship as First Class International. So, no extra charges for the basic package because you are not in the States.

Payment is done all at once, and not pay-as-you-go. I'll need payment by the end of January to make sure that I have enough to dye up the yarn.

Extra goodies? Nope. I don't like them, and don't send them, and anyhow, if it costs me to send them, then I have to add that cost to the club. We are a no-frills club, but we are sending you what counts: wonderful yarns and patterns!

Sign up: Any time from this blog and Etsy posting will follow next week. My routine here is for you to email me and then I invoice you. Etsy is self-explanatory.

Payment is done all at once, and not pay-as-you-go. I'll need payment by the end of January to make sure that I have enough time to dye up the yarn.

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

So, is that not a treat? Now I have even more treats for you! New yarns. Really new yarns. They arrived last week after dyeing day, and yesterday I played with them.

First of all, I have a new Penny yarn. I'm replacing the old Penny yarn with this one because it is softer, has amazing yardage, and I don't have to wind up skeins from a cone! I've been looking for a replacement for quite a while, and now I've found it.

Penny yarn: 4 oz, approx 450+ yards. 75/25 superwash merino/nylon. This is a tad skinnier than the old Penny and softer and that yardage is amazing! The usual $20/skein.

Aida



Amneris



Radames is much more vibrant than Aida. Well he's a guy and a general and she's just a poor ex-princess now a slave girl.




Pastel Rainbow.



Violetta




AND my brand new Gina yarn: 50/50 SW merino/silk! This is so gorgeous. You don't even have to knit it. Just drape it around your neck and arrange artfully in a crystal bowl.

Gina yarn: 100g, approx 400 yards. 50/50 superwash merino/silk. Cost is $26.00, which is very reasonable for a luxury yarn, and this is really luxury. It is superwash, but I would hand-wash it. The pictures don't give you any idea on how soft and luxurious this is, and you can barely see that silken sheen. This yarn is a treat!

Metallic Silk




Midnight Silk




Silken Dew





Silken Mahogany




Silken Huntress




I need to keep one of the Gina yarns for me so that I can actually get to knit on it. Which one? I don't know. If you shark them, and one is left, I'll keep that one. I love them all and cannot make a decision.

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Silken Dew, Midnight Silk and Aida are already taken!

Silken Huntress is grabbed!

rheffner5 - They will be almost solids, or with a little bit of color variation. No deliberate striping or tons of variegation because that will interfere with the patterns. So just a bit of color play to make the yarn interesting and to give the socks a bit of spark. Light or dark? Not yet determined. YarnYenta and I will work that all out. Does that help?

The Yarnarian will have exciting news tomorrow.

And no, I'm not pregnant.

Check tomorrow, because I have some neat news, and I'm going to post 10 brand new skeins of yarn in brand new yarns. How is that for excitement! Merino/silk and my brand new, hot off the presses, Penny yarn. The one I've been looking for. With the amazing yardage.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

Today, I do laundry. Hey, one does not live by yarn alone, although one should, don't you think?

itsJUSTme-wendy - I don't mind laundry; it's just that it grows overnight.

Scrabblequeen - No chocolate involved tomorrow, alas.

The Yarnarian Knits.

Yes I do, and I also crochet, and that is my sister's fault.

At the moment, I'm in the middle of about 7-10 projects. Some of these are in hibernation, and most I'm actively working on. But nothing finished yet. I'm in this limbo of almost finished projects, and of course what do I have? Startitis!

Ten-Stitch Blankie: I'm making slow progress on this, but that's just fine. I pick it up whenever I only have a few minutes to knit, and I'm not in a hurry to finish it. It'll get done when it gets done. I'm knitting it in Silk Garden, which irritates me to work on because it is always twisting up. Yes, I'm knitting it from the outside but it still does that. Singles yarn is a pain in the bottom.



Ripple crochet scarf: This one is moving very slowly. I like crochet very much but the motions are very hard on my shoulders. So I do a little at a time. Yep, I need to weave in those ends. Boring.



My zigzag sweater. This is a nameless sweater because I don't name my sweaters. I don't get why people do this, but so it goes. It's a sweater, not a person. Grumble grumble.

This is the one knit out of the Brooks Farm yarn that I bought at Rhinebeck this year. Yet another single, sigh, but much less aggravating than Silk Garden. It feels so wonderful through my fingers, and knits up beautifully. And yes, it fits me. It doesn't look like it would fit anyone, but it has a built in stretch which is pretty powerful. I've zigzagged the body, and the bodice is simply the rib employed in the zigging without the decreases and yarn overs, i.e. a nice rib. I will probably make my usual round neckline. Pick up the stitches from the armholes and work that ribbing downward and then, ta da, will increase and do a zigzag ruffle. Maybe, unless it looks ridiculous, in which case I'll leave out the ruffle.



And what do I have startitis about? I want to make an adult BSJ. I've wanted to do this for a while, and when I was in the Stitching Bee getting a yarn fix, I spotted a larger kids' size of the BSJ. It was so neat. So, having no will power whatsoever, plus Judy made me do it, I bought yarn for it.



I've been good, I haven't even wound up a ball of it yet. But it's calling me very loudly.

What else is in the works? Finishing up the first sock of a pair, 2 lace shawls, another Multnomah (pic at the top of the blog), my crochet blankie (which is growing nicely), and a couple of crochet scarves which are taking forever. Plus various other goodies in hibernation.

Have a lovely weekend. If you are into shopping, the stores are starting to get it together. Me, I'm nowhere near a mall now until after the holidays.

Kitten With a Whiplash - I have the crochet pain in the right shoulder, and I'm right-handed so that arm is doing a lot more motion than when I knit. so I crochet in very tiny time increments and frequently take days off. I'm in no hurry here, unlike knitting, where I always want a gazillion projects in progress.

The Yarnarian Dyes for You!

I've had a very crazy 2 days in which I've been run ragged by all the tasks I had to do, so today, just blogging and editing pics and easy peasy stuff like that, suits me just fine.

Yesterday I actually dyed up enough yarn for me to make a sweater. I used a sport weight SW merino/nylon. I'm trying this out. Basically, I bought just for me. To my eye, it looks as if this very lovely and soft yarn leans more towards a fingering weight than a sport weight. But then, I've seen sport wt yarn that is far closer to a DK weight. So, I'll have to knit it up to figure it all out.

I rarely dye multiples of colors; my method doesn't lend itself to dyeing many skeins simultaneously, but I wanted to play with this yarn and see if I could indeed do 8 skeins that were pretty close in color. And, I did. It took me a long time, mostly because I was trying to get a color that I had dyed previously, and couldn't do it. I suspect that that color was the result of luck. Anyhow, you know that the dye rules me, and sure enough, I dyed orange. It's actually2 dyes mixed together, neither of which is orange, and then dunked in a very pale brick. This is how it came out, and I rather like it. Yep, it's bright, but it's a very good color for me, and will look spiffy with browns, which also look good on me. And if I wear it next year with green, I'll look like the Great Pumpkin!



Dyeing for you: I only did 6 skeins. I decided to use these skeins as a color experiment, but they turned into something else entirely. Darn those sneaky dyes; I reach for green, and the dye that jumps into my hand is gold. Not my fault.

Brick, Gold, Iseult All done in Linda BFL yarn, which I'm having a hard time convincing you how wonderful this wool is. We are talking silky fibers that are soft, sturdy and utterly wonderful! They almost glow, and that is the length of the fiber here.

Linda BFL: 80/20 SW BFL/nylon. Approx. 420 yards $20/skein





And here is some Rachel yarn. This is the skinny yarn with that neat twist. Patterns look particularly good in this yarn. The twist produces nice neat cables, and twist stitches and even lace.

100% SW merino. Approx 400 yards, maybe a little less. $20/skein

Blue Moment, Malinda, and New York Night. Blue Moment is dyed with only one color, and I let the color get lighter and lighter as the yarn absorbed it.





You want? email me at fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Knitting news: Every project is moving along. There's not much to see this week. Just imagine everything getting larger and/or longer.

Yarn news: Guess what arrived yesterday? A trial 20 skeins of 50/50 SW merino/silk in a fingering weight! I can hardly stand it. I want to dye it, but I am pretty busy the rest of the week, so it will have to wait until next week. And, along with it, is my new Penny sock yarn. The one with the 460+ yards. Yep, 460+ yards. SW merino/nylon, 75/25.

I got so tired of having to wind up Penny into skeins that when my vendor showed this on her site, I jumped.

Off to do bills, which I hate, hate, hate to do. So there!

Blue Moment is grabbed! Yay, quick ordering fingers!

Wendy - I need your email address for paypal. Send it to me directly (don't post that kind of info here): fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

New York Night is grabbed. Heathwitch, please send me your email address or whatever you use for paypal. Don't put it in a comment here; it should be private.

The Yarnarian Picks 4 Winners.

Using the Random Organizer, the 4 winners have been selected:

Resplendentquetzal - Top down for toddlers

Delia in NC - Knitting new scarves

KV - Knit so fine

Kitten with a whiplash - Kristin knits

Artseycrafts - Wendy knits

Congratulations to the winners! Please email me with your name and address so I can actually send you the books. fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

If you didn't win this time, never fear. I have more books to give away at another time.

Thank you all for participating in the giveaway and for sending me your good wishes. Who knew that I could blog for this long and still have something to say? Not me.

Ilix - I was a winner, too. It's a nice thing to give something away, and I cleared away a tiny space in the never-ending knitting corner. Of course, there are at least 10 books to fit into that little spot on the shelves.

It's my Blogiversary!

Two years of my blather, and you're still reading it. I don't know if that says something about the quality of my blather, or the quality of my readers. Giggle!

The Blogiversary Book Giveaway ends tonight, so don't forget to enter. Just send me an email telling me which book you would like should you win, and then I'll add you to the pile of respondents. Books listed a couple of posts below.

Off to enjoy the day. A Mommie visit, and then who knows what kinds of trouble the Hubbo and I shall get into.

Blogiversary Giveaway!!

Look DOWN. To the previous post. To the Blogiversary Giveaway. sigh.

Dyeing news: I have 3 yarns in a gold mode. I seem to be influenced by all the Thanksgiving decorations and discussions and food around the US at this time of year. I truly did not plan on doing a harvest theme, but there you have it.

All in Alexa: 4oz, approx 420 yds, 80/20 merino/nylon. soft and lofty and a steal at a mere $20/skein.

Harvest, Pumpkin Pie and Glee.

Make a quickie shawl or scarf out of one of these and wear at your Thanksgiving Day dinner. And if Thanksgiving Day is not your holiday, wear it just for the joy of it. Bright, cheery autumnal colors. Remember, winter is around the corner, unless you live in New Zealand or Australia, and you are going to need cheeriness to combat the winter doldrums.





Yep, if you want, email me at: fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Oh, you know the drill already. Yes, I mail to Canada and overseas. It's just a little customs form I have to fill out, so it's no big deal.

Holly - Thank you. I'm in full boggy swing here.

Look down. Right now. Yep, check out the Blogiversary Contest! Previous Post. Do it. You know you want to.

The Yarnarian Has a Blogiversary Coming Up!

2 years of blogging. Talk about running of the mouth. I love doing this. I never liked writing at any other point in my life, but here I get to choose the subject and the tone, and it's fun. And it gives me a chance to display new yarns, and even more important, a way to connect with people all over the place. And let's face it, I like to blab.

So, I thought that this year would be a good time to have a little give-away: books that I have gently used, if at all. Gotta off-load in order to make way for new books. As the Hubbo says: books flow. So how about my books flowing to your hands?

Myers, Lisa R. - Knit so fine



Gemmell, Deb - Top down for toddlers; no-sew knitting



Johnson, Wendy D. - Wendy knits




Barr Lynne - Knitting new scarves



Nicholas, Kristin - Kristin knits




That's it. 5 very different books, by very different authors, and all delightful to knit from and/or read.

So here's the way it will work:

If you want to be in the pool for one of these books, please leave a comment with the name of the book you want in it. Then, on Sunday, I'll do a random drawing of the winners' names and will post those names on the blog. Please don't leave addresses or phone numbers or anything that's private and personal. We'll email back and forth to get the necessary information for me to mail out the book. I'll mail out either media rate or first class, depending on which is cheaper. Hey, you know I'm frugal.

Please, this time, only folks from the US and Canada, otherwise the shipping will be prohibitive. Next time, I'll do only one book and then the cost for shipping won't clobber me.

You can comment through Saturday.

Knitting News: Take a look at this amazing scarf given to me as a gift from a dear fellow dyer, friend, and super-spinner! This is her handspun yarn and I am just speechless at how lovely it is. Even the Hubbo, who rarely notices these things, was pretty amazed.




Lindsay is an amazing dyer of not just yarn, but of all sorts of fleecy, fibery goodies. You have to check out her Etsy site, and then buy her stuff and then spin it up very finely, and then give it to me. Well, I can try, can't I?

The Yarnarian is in the pink of things...

Plus some other lovely colorways. After all, knitters do not live by pink alone.

Dyeing news: the new offerings for this week. Yep there are 4 pinks, and 4 other pastels. All in almost almost solids to almost solids. First are the pinks, all dyed in Alexa.
Alexa is 80/20 SW merino/nylon. A tad heavier than "regular" sock yarn with great loft so easily knitted at 7.5 - 8 sts/inch. Wonderful for socks and scarves and all those lovely little shawlettes. 4 oz, approx 420 yards.

Pinkalina:





Mauving Along:





Where's the Pink?:




Torrid Pink:




And now the Linda Blue Faced Leicester yarn.

Linda BFL is 80/20 SW BFL/nylon. Lofty as is the Alexa, and with a very long staple wool yarn. BFL has to be felt to be believed. It's a remarkable yarn, and I'm luck to get it at such a good price. 4 oz, approx 420 yards.

Honey:




Lavender Blue:





Shale:





Memories:




Cost of each skein is $20 + shipping.

You want? Email me at fritzL234 AT yahoo Dot com


Honey is bought.

Pinkalina and Lavender Blue are sharked.

Jen - I did get a bit carried away with the brightness and all. I set out to do pastels but the dyes would have none of it.