Tulip/bulb mania

Ah ha! The interest mounts. We have a few interested people. It this is ringing your chimes, let me know here or better yet, on Ravelry. We're noodling around with ideas about it.

Tulip Mania

So now the folks on the PennyRoses forum are hinting about a Tulip sock club. Sigh. any interest out there? Yarn only, no pattern, two shipments. Cost for the US and Canada: $46-50. I have to work out the yarn cost first. Overseas: the usual $5. Can't do anything about that unfortunately.

Let me know if you are interested. I'm just noodling around here. Nothing is set in stone or with dates or anything else. the other idea I had was a Tulip and Lily sotm. As in tiger lilies or other gorgeous lilies like that.

You can respond here or on the PennyRoses forum or email me or message me on Rav. I'm ruth on Rav.

Off to watch The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Scrabblequeen - Believe me, I understand. This is just an idea that probably won't happen. I'm so busy now, that it's OK with me, but I figured if thousands of people wanted one, I'd do it.

We watched also on DVD. I just love that series.

More Tulips?

There seems to be an interest in me doing more pastel tulips. Yes? No? If enough people want, I can do another batch. They won't be the same because I mix the colors all together to get these colors, and truly don't remember what I dumped in with what else. The green I know. I used the exact same green on all of the yarns. Believe it or not, it's a very pale, pale Evergreen! Neat, huh?

You can comment here.

itsJUSTme-wendy - I hear you. I so enjoyed doing these especially after all the vivid ones I've been doing, that I think I'll make more. I'm also thinking of pale yellow, darker yellow and that wonderful green. I don't think I've ever done that combination before.

Henya - Yep, I'll do more. The response on Rav has been very good. So, this time I'll use other tulip growers for more pics. It'll be lots of fun for moi.

itsJUSTme-wendy - I rarely dye up just plain yellow, but I think we're ready for it; enough already of winter! I'm glad you like the yarn.

Holly - I think if I live to be 100, I'll never use up all my stash! Believe me, I understand.

The Yarnarian Loves Tulips.

Tulips!

Based on pictures of real tulips, here is the Tulip Collection!

Abba Double:




Apricot Parrot:




Blue Moon:




Dream:




Gavotta:




Little Beauty:




New Design:




Weber's Parrot:




Aren't they lovely in the middle of winter? A hint of things to come. Hang in there; we are less than 2 months from spring.

baby face - I could probably do something like it. The orange part is made up of a couple of different colors, and neither color is orange. Isn't that neat? But I could probably come up with something pretty similar. You know my motto: there's always more yarn! Sorry that knitting is getting harder for you. There was a spell where my carpal tunnel really made me stop knitting and boy, did I miss it!

itsJUSTme-wendy - They really are irresistible, aren't they. I think it's because we've been wearing dark colors since the summer and we're mentally ready for spring. Don't forget that I have your brown and tan to mail out. Today or tomorrow, depending on how fast I work.

New Design and Weber's Parrot have been grabbed.

Abba Double and Blue Moon are grabbed.

Henya - I could do something sort of like it. "Sort of" because i mixed merrily away and have no idea what was combined with what.

Susie - Thank you. I had such a grand time doing them that I'm going to do some more this week.

The Yarnarian is tired and is taking a break.

Wonder Yarnarian checking in here. So far today, in no order whatsoever, I finished the soup I started last night in the crock pot. (Split pea and I tossed in some tomatoes left from the pasta e fagioli I made earlier in the day.) Got dressed like a human being. Laundry. Finished the dishes. Had the township guy check the installation of the new water heater. Changed into my disgusting dyeing clothing. Dyed yarn, cooked yarn, cooled yarn. Waiting until it all is cool enough so that I can rinse and rinse and rinse. Did my PT exercises. Stripped the bed and am drying the sheets. Did my computer work.

Wonder Yarnarian!

I had such a grand time dyeing up my tulip yarns. Warning: lots of them are pastels, but then lots of pretty tulips are also pastels. And I needed lovely colors because it's raining and gloomy and generally awful outside. So the dyeing was a real treat. And because I love you all, I'm going to subject you to terrible pics, with the colors not really on target, just so you can believe me. Are you ready? Here goes. Don't even think about asking me for any of them yet. They're sopping wet, and will look quite different when dry.




And a lovely still life of the kitchen counter where it all is hanging out. No, I don't dye in the kitchen. I dye in the Dyeing Room, aka the laundry room. But I cook and rinse in the kitchen.



Here you see the respirator. The 2 little pieces of paper toweling on either side of the nose part? Those are my protection devices because the fool thing hurts my ears. The kitchen timer doing what it does best: timing. The little piece of paper in a lid: that reminds us that the mugs we bought this weekend at an estate sale can't be microwaved. The bottle of Tums for tummies. 2 cutting boards, and one tier of my steamer. Is this not exciting?

Dry yarn tomorrow, all for you!

Henya - Yes, you did see a little bit of purple. And there's a lovely violet/green jobbie now in the Etsy shop. Just enabling you. Tee hee.

Tulips!

The PennyRoses forum folks asked me to dye up some tulip colors, so that's what I'm about to do. I'll show them to you tomorrow. This is going to be such fun.

It's pouring here, and I need color, and tulips will do it.

Scrabblequeen - Nope, this is a one-shot deal. If it were a lot colder, we'd have snow up our wazoos. Now it's tapering off a tiny bit. I suspect it's good for the reservoirs and the ducks. You can keep your monsoons.

The Yarnarian Dyes Lovely Yarns.

It was a love fest yesterday when I dyed yarn. I was thinking about Valentine's Day and love, and so I dyed some Karen Cashmere yarn because it is a most romantic yarn.

Karen Cashmere: 80/10/10 SW merino/cashmere/nylon. 100 grams approx 43o yards. I'm always amazed at what a difference 10% cashmere makes in a yarn. Merino is soft all by itself, but add in the cashmere and you have baby's bottom soft.

Arboreal Love




Here's to Love:




Hot Romance:




Hugs and Kisses:




Love Song




Lovey Dovey:




Sweet Love:




Valentine:



By the way, Hugs and Kisses and Here's to Love would work very well together, should you want a lot of yarn!

You want? Email me at fritzl234 AT yahoo DOT com

Otherwise, the yarns will start appearing in my Etsy store: http://fritzl.etsy.com

Off to PT. Gotta get those muscles in shape.

Jen - It is indeed a pleasant way to spend the time. What are you dyeing today?

Wendy - Here's your yarn. Do you like? "no" is OK, too. Just let me know. I dyed yours on Alexa yarn: 80/20 SW merino/nylon. About 430 yards.




Wendy - send me your paypal number on Ravelry and I'll invoice you.

The Yarnarian Has a Little Update.

Dyeing yarn today and hopefully will list here tomorrow. Want a hint? Karen Cashmere, AKA Merino/Cashmere/Nylon yarn.

Wendy - I'm dyeing your yarn today.

The Yarnarian Found a Project!

It's this one. I've wanted to do this ever since I saw it made up. In real life it's much prettier than in the picture. I have a bunch of JoJo Land yarn from all over the place. I tend to buy it if I'm visiting an LYS in vacation mode. Inexpensive, pretty, and what am I going to do with it once I get home. So I started this shawl. The instructions are not exactly straight-forward, but I'm figuring it out. One change I made is to end each row with P1, and slip the first stitch of each row knitwise to give me that nice pick-up edge.

So this is what I have so far. At this rate, I'll be finished when I'm 120 years old.



Wonderful News: I've been having knees for a while and it's gotten particularly bad in the right knee, so last week I told the doc. He sent me for PT, and yes, yes, yes! It's not the knee; it's the quads and hamstrings and such. Well, it is still the knee because it hurts, but the X-ray was fine, and I don't need surgery or any such activity. I've been to this physical therapist before. She got me through the really bad back moment I had a few years ago, so I trust her implicitly. And I like going to PT. Hey, I like the stretching and working the whatever, and I can actually see progress. So, watch out world, Yarnie the Yarnarian is going to get strong legs. Tremble in fear, you weaklings.

Flower Fairies sotm: Yes, I know you are royally sick of me talking about it, but I'm only going to tell you that I'm full up. Yes, I can squeeze in a couple more people, so if you want to do it, go to Etsy and sign up. Otherwise you'll be too late and you'll cry and have a tantrum, and you'll feel very sorry for yourself. This is the biggest club I've done., and I'm quite excited about it, and so is YarnYenta.

And that's the news from New Jersey, where the days are getting longer, and what little snow we had is melting and the Yarnarian is going to be mighty and powerful!

itsJUSTme-wendy - I was going to dye tomorrow, but with PT early in the morning and then a hair appointment, I'm not going to have time. I'm hoping for Thurs. I really wanted to dye the past few days, but it's been too busy and I hate dyeing when I feel that way. I like to just enjoy it. So remind me tomorrow. See, I put all the work onto you. Heh heh heh! I have a few customs to do, and I like to do them, so keep your fingers and toes crossed that there are no family crises.

Henya - I don't mind PT. It's pain that I can't do anything about that I mind. Can't you just see me in my shawl collection and giving my speech about the joys of being 120?

The Yarnarian Returns.

Please help the folks in Haiti; I've put up a link to Doctors Without Borders over on the top right.

It's been a while since I've blogged, but sometimes a girl gets busy. So, yuchy news first: We went out with our dearest friends for dinner at one of our favorite Indian restaurants, and I ordered chicken korma, which I've had many times before. Um, maybe not a great idea. My poor little tummy has been not happy since. I don't know if it was too rich for me, or something in it didn't agree with me, but there you have it. So it will be a while before I venture into korma-land again. Bummer, because I love kormas. I'm on the mend, but the old tum is still growling at me.

OK, got the kvetch out of my system. Kvetch = complaining, grousing, grumping, whining. A good word to know. And you pronounce that k and v together. Good lip exercise.

Flower Fairies Sock Club news: We are really full, more folks than I've ever had. YarnYenta and I are quite excited about this. So, this is the final call: Sign up between today and Wed, and then we are closed! Gotta have time to do the dyeing, and you know that I do skeins individually, so I really need time. Info is here and you can purchase on Etsy.

Speaking of Etsy, they may finally make it easy to switch the name of the shop and I can hopefully become just plain PennyRose Yarns. But not yet. You still have to do the "fritzl" thing. Fritzl is my poor little defunct kitty. Don't even ask why he's my contact name on Etsy.

Pattern news: Test knitters are happily (I hope) working away on the Garland Shawl pattern.





I've been learning a new charting program, Intwined Studio, and I love it! I'm not a geeky person; nothing on the computer ever comes easily to me. I have to struggle with it all. But this wonderful new program is working its way through my brain, and it is really great! I can do my charting, document writing, and then making it all a PDF in the same program. I believe the program becomes available on Wednesday, so if you want to do your own patterns, check it out. Reasonable too. We have a winner here. And I did the pattern for the Garland Shawl in it.

Knitting News: I finished another little shawl, which I'm thinking of calling Fairy Dots because I can't think of another name. If you have one, let me know; Fairy Dots is kind of lame, but that's all that came to mind. I must have Fairies on the brain.




The pattern has to be written up and then test knit, so it will be a little while before it's ready.

I think I might be shawled out. I'm not sure what to knit next. It would be nice if I finished the 2 sweaters on the needles. I'm still plugging away on the 2 blankies. Finished the socks for elder DD, and still have 3 pairs left to do for her, but I don't feel like working on any of them. Maybe I'll thumb through my pattern books and find something that calls to me and then build a project around it. Or, maybe do a real lace shawl, a large one to swoop around me. The thing is that I have lots of these that I've designed and I'm not wearing any of them. They are beautiful and are just sitting in a cupboard waiting for me. Nothing is tempting me in the slightest, and I hate this. I love to zip from one project to the next full of excitement. Not to worry, all of a sudden I'll get motivated and then off I'll go.

baby face - Unfortunately none of my shawls are warm. The big lacy jobbies are out of very skinny lace yarn with big holes and wouldn't keep a cat warm, let alone a person. I do let my kids pick from the pile every now and then, 'cause I'm a good mother, and I'll wear them in spring or summer when I need just a bit of something to combat the AC. I'm glad you like my blog.

Angelika - As soon as Garland has been test knit and I've made the corrections, I'll have the pattern for sale both on Ravelry and in my Etsy shop. The second one, which still needs a good name, has to be written up and then test knit. So, in a few weeks, I hope.

=Tamar - That's a good name. A lot better than Fairy Dots!

The Yarnarian Has more yarn!

Well, of course I do! All in my NEW Penny yarn, which is wonderful, so stop resisting it. It comes from the UK, and is as lovely as the woolly UK can produce.

Blossom for the delicate Valentine in you or your favorite Princess:




Fall Creek Falls. I named this after I found this lovely picture of the falls. Quite accidental, but here it is. Gorgeous deep blues and perfect for fancy patterns because it's an almost solid.




Water Fall. OK, I couldn't come up with a more original name:




Spice. My favorite in the bunch. I can't seem to get past oranges in any form.




You want? email me at fritzl234 AT yahoo DOT com

Exercise news: Yes indeed! I'm back to the gym and truly enjoying it. For a non-athlete (me) all that treadmill walking and weight lifting makes me feel like a player. This is the only time in my entire life that I've ever felt like an athlete. Not that I am, of course. I'm so bad when it comes to athletics, but this I can do. And I feel good. Of course the knee is aching, but then it aches when I don't exercise either. So I might as well work up a sweat and feel mighty and powerful!

I've been motivated by watching the Biggest Loser, the only reality show I can watch. I figure that if these morbidly obese folks can exercise, than so can I, and I'm right in my correct weight zone. Yes, the show is repetitive, but watching these behemoths work off that weight and feel great and drop tons of their meds, I root for them nonstop, and I always feel bad for the person eliminated.

Have a lovely day. The sun is shining, and I'm off to do my thing.