The Yarnarian is back.

The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido

We had a wonderful time in Minnesota as usual. DD took us to Northfield, home of Carleton College and St. Olaf's. Lovely little town with cute shops and such. Hung out with family, and came home quite content with the weekend. Next is Cape Cod, and you know how much I adore the Cape. About 3 weeks to go. I'm counting the seconds!

Dyeing news: This week I was inspired by my Azaleas and a bouquet of Mother's Day flowers I saw on the Web. But what really caught my eye was the art work of Hiroshige and Eisen: The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido.

So first the flowery moments:

Ruth's Azaleas and Mom's Bouquet




And the wonderful pictures of the 2 Japanese Artists!

The first 3 are by Hiroshige: Yawata, Okute, and Shinmachi.

Yawata, Okute, and Shinmachi.





And the last one is inspired by Eisen: Tsumago.



These will all go up in my Etsy shop starting today. If you want one before I post it, just send me an email: fritzL234 AT Yahoo DOT com

The Yarnarian starts new projects.

Scarves, glorious scarves!

It must be spring fever, or something like it, but I have started at least 5 projects in the last month. Every day I have to decide what to work on because I love them all.
I love having a bunch of projects. I get bored very easily, so this takes care of my need for something new and different.

I finally finished the little shawlette that I'm knitting for Miss P. Here it is, unwashed, unblocked. It's drying right now, so when that's finished I'll take a good pic of it.



This one I started yesterday, but it's headed for the frog pond. I got myself all confused on what row I was, and you know that is not a good sign. Besides, I didn't like the wing pattern. So, I frog; therefore I am.



A crocheted scarf for whoever wants it. If Miss P likes, she can have; otherwise I'll keep it. I'm really into crochet these days. I love making fabric, and crochet works so well at that. Very different from knitting, and fills my need for constant fibery challenges.

Ordinarily I don't like variegated yarns on crochet, but I'm starting to change my mind. This one works. I don't know why, but the Hubbo likes it, and so do I.




And a new scarf, also on variegated, and I'm in major love with this one! It's mine, all mine. Piffle on those who want it, because I'm not giving it up. OK, no one else wants it, but I do. So there.




Other news: I'm dyeing to fill orders for the Mystery Shawl 17. I'm at the point where I dye to order, since I don't want to end up with too many of one color and not enough of another. It goes very quickly, however, so folks don't have to worry about not getting their yarn on time.

The Yarnarian is dyeing for lace!

Carrie Lace yarn!

Yep, I'm dyeing lace yarn like a crazy person for Renee's new mystery shawl 17! Check out Goddess Knits here. You can see the colors at the top of this post and over on the right side where the Etsy shop items are listed.

I'm using my Carrie lace yarn: 80/20 merino/silk with approx 1300 yards, and I can personally tell you that it is wonderful to knit with. Soft, and drapey and everything you want in a lace shawl! Like you can tell from this picture, but here it is in process, unblocked, not finished by a long shot, and just delightful to knit with.



And that's where I've gone. Deep into the bowels of the house, into the chaos of the laundry room/basement/general holder of all things junque and into the teensy dyeing area. I will emerge at some point.

itsJUSTmeWendy - Don't forget that you have to join the Mystery Shawl group first.

The Yarnarian and the Grands discuss forks.

If an eating tool which has 4 tines is called a fork, is a 3-tined one called a threek? 2 tines: a twook. One tine: a onek, and no tines, a nunk?

The 9 and 7 year olds think this is hilarious. The 6 yr old doesn't get it. she might be too young or else she doesn't have a goofy sense of humor. The Benster and Little Lili are just too young.

Tha Yarnarian Reappears.

I've been way too busy the last few days, and just ran out of time for blogging. So what have I been doing?

Designing: a very secret design, and that's all I have to say here except that it is has been quite a challenge to get a design in tip-top shape for publishing. NO, I'm not in any magazine or book, but the design needed to be very very professional. I have learned so much from the process. But what a struggle. My hats off to folks who can just whip these things out. Me, I fight it all the way.

Not a secret project: The Fairy Wings Shawl is in test-knit mode, and is finally coming together. Thanks to Sonia (you know who you are) and her eagle eyes, and a whole flock of testers from the Wool2Dye4 group on Ravelry, I think my count is finally OK. So, next week I'll release the pattern. Just waiting for a couple more testers to give me their stitch counts and we're good to go. Yes, you've seen this before, but now I'm on the home stretch! Finally!



And what does a knitter do when she is perfecting patterns and needs a break from such pain and tribulation? She starts other projects, of course.

Same shawl, knit in Gina merino/silk for Miss P (she picked out the colors and she wants a shawl) and in Emily merino/silk lace.




And then, because I'm bored with my 2 current crochet projects but wanted to start another, here is the latest hooky project. A cuddly blanket for the couch I think. done on the diagonal and based on a charming design I saw on Attic24. (Scroll down a bit to March 31). I'm thinking I need to add a couple more colors because I just like to do that.



And here's yarn, all wound up and ready to go for something, but what, I don't know. I'm guessing more shawls/scarves. I have a thing on them, in case you didn't notice.



Dyeing: I'm working on lace for one of Renee's amazing lace KALs, but not ready yet to show them to you. I love all but one of them, and that one just needs a bit of tweaking.

And because I seem to be in Granny crochet mode also, I dyed up some gorgeous SW merino DK yarn. I have 4 more skeins to dye, but am not yet sure what colors I want. Also, I'm not sure about the greens. I may have to tone them down, or not. I'm going to add a skein of undyed cream to the collection. Blurry pic taken in my 1950's bathroom color scheme, but you get the picture. (bad pun, not intended)



And that's it. I overslept this morning until 10:30, and I hate that, but I got in enough zzzzzzz's to make up for my insomnia. So I guess it's all OK.

The Yarnarian Surfaces Again.

We had the most wonderful 4 days! Miss P, that effervescent and ebullient 7 year old grand, stayed with us while her folks stayed at a local motel. They had a bit of time alone together, and we had all the fun of a 7 year old kid. She is so grown up this Passover. You should have heard her reading her turn from the Haggadah. And we played games, and she commandeered my American Girl dolls, and we cooked and had a grand time. She is a master matzo ball maker! I bet she could have done the entire shaping all alone. And polite! Lots of "yes, please" and "no, thank you". I suspect she was on her best behavior, but who cares. We had such fun and I miss her already.

We went back to a very traditional seder this year. Elder DD ventured forth into West Side Judaica in the city, and bought a bunch of haggadot with English, Hebrew, and transliteration. We figured that the non-Jews at our seder were already comfortable with the service and were ready for the big time, and they were. We even got everyone to do the blessings over the wine in Hebrew, and even some of the songs. Such fun, and the next day I felt like a truck had run over me. giggle.



I have 3 American Girl dolls and a Target knock-off. Miss P brought one of hers with her and had the best time arranging dolls and furniture and changing outfits. She loves to arrange, and every day, we had a new configuration.



Knitting? What? Are you kidding? Hah! It was a nice break though and I'm now happily working on a few projects. Pics maybe tomorrow because as usual, I frogged one of the projects. I frog, therefore I am. rippit, rippit.

Dyeing? Snort, laugh, giggle, snort some more. Folks, I was up to my eyeballs in grandchild doting and seder preparation. And to tell the truth, it was a nice break and I'm starting to get my dyeing mojo back.

Kitten With a Whiplash - yep, it was pretty nice, and now the house is too quiet!

itsJUSTme-wendy - It's even better than having your own kids. tee hee.

baby face - All of our kids are intermarried and all to Catholic people. Miss P identifies herself as being both religions, and is in love with both traditions. So we spent a good time practicing singing Ehad me yodea, which she happily sang at the top of her lungs.

Grace - It was great having the family around, but I really missed my sister and her kids. Ah well, there's always next year. Now, if I could just get the mess cleaned up.....