I'm a machine, baby!

I've got some sort of mojo back.  It might be the walking.  My sister started the 10,000 steps program, and I got motivated.  Before I retired, I'd go for good walks during lunch or break times, and really did 10,000 steps/day.  Then I retired and turned into a sloth.  And I have felt slothful for about 6 years now.  Enough already.  I'm walking again, and loving it.  Starting off slowly, I'm up to 4700 steps in a walk.  Every day I'm adding a bit, and should be at 10,000 pretty soon.  And it's paying off:  I have energy again.  Plus, I make sure that I don't sit for hours.  I get up and move all the time.

Of course it helps that we're having the most glorious spring weather around.  Wait until it rains; then I'll have to go back to the gym or use an umbrella.  But right now, it's so beautiful outside, and I can't wait to go marching.

Quilting is now a walking activity.  I stand up to iron and go downstairs to cut or trim.  All the time.  When I was assembling my Floating Squares quilt, I had the blocks laid out in the bedroom, and walked there every time I needed to sew each block together with the rest.  I figured out that a row took about 100 steps.  

I'm turning into a motion machine.  I really like it, too.

So, on the design floor in the living room (a level down.  We live in this dopey split-level house) is Rose Chevrons.  At the moment, I'm going with the chevron layout.

 

Then, yesterday, I went down to the Dyeing Dungeon, AKA the cellar (2 levels down from the kitchen), and did a bit of dyeing.  I found some long-lost yarn in one of my yarn tubs, and I want to use it up.  So here you are.  (I also did a dye-up for a mystery crochet project, but it's a mystery so no pics yet.)

This is Shelley yarn, a fingering weight (despite that lofty look) with a soft twist to it.  Very nice.  I think I have about 16 more skeins, and then that's it.

Where?

http://fritzl.etsy.com

Gotta go and walk.  Yay, walking.

The Yarnarian Posts New Yarns!

I have a ton of chores to do today, so all I can do is post a few new yarns for you. No wordy, prolix post! You get away for free today.

OK, our Fourth of July weekend was perfect. Weather, company, barbecue, it all came together and I just wanted it to go on for a couple of more days.

Yarns!

Sophie and Harmony: Sophie is Shelley yarn, and Harmony is Bambi.




Soft Cherry: Yes, Soft Cherry is my new Judith yarn, the most wonderful 3 ply lt fingering or heavier lace yarn. 80/10/10 merino/silk/cashmere. NOT superwash, so don't toss it into the washer or dryer or you'll get a doll size garment.



Jabbersocky: Penny yarn in the prettiest of colorways. A lovely variegated that doesn't scream at you.




Click on pics to get the full effect. Want any of them before I list on Etsy? Email me at fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com.

Jen - mmm, tasty! I hope your screen was chocolate flavored.

Mary's Sharing Space - Thanks! How come we all view yarn with food in mind? I do it all the time.
Henya - It is as pretty in real life as it looks.

The Yarnian Is In Love!

With a scarf/shawl pattern. Yeah, I know that I wrote about this before, but I cannot tell you how delightful it is to knit this pattern!

This one:





The middle one is true to the real color.

This is like eating peanuts. I can't stop doing this. Talk about mindless, yet interesting. I used my Alexa yarn here and a size 6 needle, and it came out so soft, and drapey and silky and warm. I want to make a gazillion of these.

So the instant I finished this, I wound up a ball of my new Shelley yarn that I dyed just for me, and started another one. I have to either dye up some almost solids, or buy a couple at Judy's, to play around with solids and variegateds.



Let me tell you about Shelley yarn. It's amazingly lofty and looks more like a sport wt yarn until you start knitting with it. And then you realize that it has wonderful stretch and makes cushy socks. It looks and knits like K...u, but the base is not the same. However it has that nice twist and is sproingy. and works up so nicely.

So the new shawl is also on size 6 needles and has a different feel than the one out of Alexa.

The Alexa one took a little less than a skein of yarn. It's about 5.5 inches wide and about 45 inches long and is enough to wrap around my neck and fling over my shoulders. Indeed, if I fling carefully, I can drap the flung part over my shoulders and it helps keep me warm. I love it to pieces. I might just have to actually write up a pattern here.

I think I have post Inaugural blues. All that excitement and now we're back to the humdrum of daily live. On the other hand, we could have excitement that we don't want, so I'll happily take humdrum.

The Yarnarian Writes a Long Post!

Yeah, it is a very long post. So it goes. I have lots to catch up on.

We went into Brooklyn on Sunday for the Benster's 3rd birthday party. There were a ton of little kids, most 3 and under, all their parents, 4 grands, and Ralph the Dog. It was wild and crazy and such fun. You had to keep looking down to make sure you didn't run over a little munchkin. I noticed that the 3 year olds have grown a lot since last year. They still don't share. Much squabbling and shrieking of toys and we grands just giggled. We let the parents do their thing. Ah, the joys of being a grandma: you get to watch and not discipline.

Let me tell you about Ralph the Dog. Ralph is our canine grandchild. He's a large furry Portuguese water dog, and he is a lovable pain in the butt. A true doofus of a dog. So, I'm happily eating a couple of pieces of dried mango, and wham, the fool dog grabbed a piece and scarfed it down and got his doggy slobber on the second piece. So I just fed it to him. The hubbo got a leash on him to keep him from grabbing everyone's food, especially the little kids. At the end of the party, when no one was looking, he knocked over a plate with carrot cake on it, and managed to eat half of it before anyone noticed. Next year, he's going to be banished. Poor dog.

Yarn news: I have a brand new yarn that I'm calling Shelley. It's 100% superwash merino fingering weight with a wonderful twist in it. Very lush and delicious to work on. Soft, and makes wonderful socks and scarves and mitts and anything fingering weight. I'm currently making a pair of socks out of it. Since it has no nylon reinforcement, I probably won't wear them as often as my usual socks, or I may knit along a bit of reinforcing thread on the heels and toes. Nah, forget it. I can't be bothered with all that extra work. A pair of socks it will be and I'll enjoy wearing them.

It dyes like a dream and I like it very much. 3 of the yarns in the Rapunzel collection are done in Shelley. I'm charging a tiny bit more than my usual: $22/skein, but it's well worth it. Here's a picture of the sock in progress. It's the same colorway as Rapunzel's Tower.




And speaking of the Rapunzel Collection, here's what is arriving on Etsy tomorrow: 7 skeins (I stole the 8th one because it was Shelley yarn and I wanted to try it out), and a brand new pattern: Rapunzel's Braid!

So, to tantalize you, here are some pics. Rapunzel's Braid is on the previous post, so go look there.

Yarns: Rapunzel's Mother and Rapunzel herself.




The Tower and The Wicked Witch:




The Handsome Prince and the Rape Leaves that Rapunzel's mother craves.




And finally, Rapunzel's Palace (where she and the prince live after being reunited):



So why these particular colors? I based the colorways on a children's book called Rapunzel. The author/illustrator is Paul O. Zelinsky, and he sets his story during the Italian Renaissance.

And, because I have nothing else to knit, I was forced at needle point to start a new scarf. I swiped my Frog Pond yarn because I wanted a nice bright set of greens and such. The pattern is a simple modular pattern and because I'm just doing it in one yarn, very few threads to weave in.



And that's it. I'm done. I have nothing else to say. OK, that's not the truth but it will have to suffice. ;-)

Melissa - Thanks! I kinda like that Tower too. And I have a great fondness for the Wicked Witch.