The Yarnarian Makes Progress.

I finished the first Judy Sock. I did this on 64 stitches for my narrow foot and leg, and believe me, the cables really drew it in. When I write up the pattern, I'm going to do separate patterns for medium and large, I think. Cables are warm, beautiful and cuddly, but they really require lots more stitches. My fits perfectly, but wider feet need a bigger pattern written up.

Judy, my cable-loving friend, these are named for you.




The color on the lighter one is more accurate than the bright one. Photography is a pain in the keester sometimes.

And because I'm into picture sharing at the moment, here's a pic of my gansey in progress. You know what a mess sweaters in progress look like, so use your imagination on this one. I think it'll be fine when finished and given a bath.




The top one is closer to the actual color.

I did a bunch of dyeing for my sock club yesterday. I'm so pleased with how they came out. They all dried, and one of them is for me, and I can't wait to knit with it. So, to add to all the wips, I'm going to cast on for a new sock today. I don't know what kind of pattern to use; I'm thinking a knit/purl pattern. I need a break from cables, and am not in the mood for lace. Maybe something with a twist stitch? Well, I'll play and show you some results as I go along.

Rubicon - maybe the early part of next week, or if I'm really ambitious by Thursday night of this week.

The Yarnarian Aids the Economy.

I helped out the economy yesterday! Armed with 3 coupons, worth $20 apiece, the Hubbo and I went off to Coldwater Creek yesterday. Shall we say that I made a major killing here?

One coupon was a birthday coupon. Yay, getting older. The other 2 were $20 off $80 worth of merchandise. The Hubbo took one and I took the others. Yes, it's perfectly legal, so if you go to CC, take a friend, the Hubs or a significant other.

And now I'm all set for spring, should it ever appear. Hasn't this felt like the longest winter on record? And we still have March ahead of us. OK, back to clothing: 3 pairs of light cotton pants, casual but not jeans, in navy, light brown and off-white, the usual spring colors. I can easily wear these in spring, summer and fall. All on sale: buy 2 or more..... Then 4 t-shirts, also buy 2 or more....Red, navy, grass green and blue. And the prettiest floral print blouse that has all the t-shirts colors in it and can be worn as a blouse or a jacket. It sounds boring, but it has been years since I wore red, white and blue. I'm quite pleased with my purchases, and believe me, the price was right.

No knitting to report on; I knit maybe an inch on my cable socks. No dyeing, no nuttin'.

Food news: We ran all over the joint yesterday, and after we had a nice Mommie visit, we went off to the local kosher butcher. Bought some chicken and some chopped meat. And I bought cold cuts! Stop laughing! It's hard to find freshly cut kosher cold cuts where I live, so I rarely have them. Turkey and salami. Mmmmm. You're laughing; I can hear it. Supper last night was sandwiches. Cold cut sandwiches. I loved every minute of it.

The Yarnarian Changes Shipping Costs!

Enough with the Priority Mail option. It's gotten very expensive and why should you pay all that money! So, as of immediately, effective right this minute (but not retroactive), I'm mailing First Class. $3.00 for the first skein and $.50/skein afterwords up to 3 skeins in a pkg. Isn't that much nicer? Hey we have to save where we can.

International, unfortunately, has to stay where it is. I know; it's a lot of money, but packages go by weight, so when I tack on an extra yarn, the cost doubles. I wish I could change this, but I'm not in charge of the Postal Service.

Jen - Be my guest! If I ship a $20 yarn + Priority postage, it comes to $25/skein, which I think is a lot. After all, the extra money is not in the yarn but in the postage. And first class still gets there pretty quickly.

Judy - I want to see pics of the socks. Not that I'm nosy or anything. Hah! I am now also reading your blog. I'm not a quilter, the sewing machine is kaput, but I so admire them.

The Yarnarian Gives a Few Good Plugs.

Whoa, that sounds lascivious. Nah, business plugs.

I love to find new places to spend money or to recommend to you, so here's what I've got:

THE most beautiful wood needles, crochet hooks and shawl pins I've seen:

http://www.graftonfibers.com/

The cutest project bags around. I love so many of them, but these are my latest loves:

Miss FiberFox
Ruddawg
The one and only ZigZag Stitches!

Buttons! I think I need all of these.

ButtonOdyssey

Soap, both funny and pretty:

MollyCoddle Soap

SeaSprite Soaps, my very

favorite. They last forever and smell wonderful!

What are your favorite Etsy stores?

And a plug for me!

My latest sock pattern, Winter Wonderland! Available now on Ravelry and on Etsy in a few days.



Jen just mentioned Polpette Clay. You have to check this out. The funniest magnets I've ever seen. They are adorable! Thanks, Jen.


Look at this one from Catherine of ZigZag Stitches: http://woollyfabulous.etsy.com

The Yarnarian Has Too Much of a Good Thing!

I have so much yarn for sale. Where have all the buyers gone? Long time passing? ...
I think this is going to be a very turbulent ride in terms of yarn sales. Why? I'll tell you why:

1. The economy, the economy, the economy: When you or your significant other have lost your job, you certainly are not going to spend your very precious money on yarn. Well, I wouldn't.

2. Saving money: People seems to be tightening their belts, even if they are fully employed and in no danger of being laid off. Given the rate of debt in this country, this is a good thing.

3. Stash. Every sock knitter I know has enough sock yarn to knit for the next 27 years. We've all reached the explosion stage.

4. Competition: There are so many indie dyers out there now, plus the big online yarn shops, that little dyers like me can get lost in the confusion.

But, this leaves this poor lonely dyer with an excess amount of yarn to sell. What to do? I love dyeing, so I'll continue to do so. If people buy, they buy. If they don't, I'll swipe yarn for me. I may dye at a slower rate or not. I think I'll just continue as I have been doing. I like it, and why should I stop? It's fun. So I won't get rich? Who in holy hell gets rich in this business? Nobody I know. We do it for the love of it. Otherwise, we'd all go out and get a 9-5 job someplace. Not me, though. I'm lucky to be retired, so whatever I make on this (at a rate of about $2/hour!!!) goes towards whatever I want or need.

I hear more people say: I want to quit my job and do this dyeing full time. Um, maybe not a good idea. It's physically hard, the rate per hour is dismally low, and you get no benefits. No health plan, no sick days, no vacation. You go away for a week or two and close your shop, and then you worry that people will forget about you.

And the glamour of the job? Are you kidding? You should take a look at us when we are in dyeing mode. The grungiest clothing, the respirator. Ah beauty. The dyeing is the fun part of the operation. But you have to do the business end too, which is necessary but not great fun.

So why do I do it? I love to play with color. This is like a kid getting a brand new box of crayons. You have to try them all out. You have to mix and match and play and play some more. I never get tired of it. The result is that I have way too many skeins of yarn, and so I sell them.

Well that was a major ramble into something or other. Anyhow, I have lots of pretty yarns if you want. And if you don't want, I still have lots of pretty yarns. ;-)

And now that I've put you to sleep, let me wake you up with a cooking story. The Hubbo and I love Indian food. I can eat it at least once a week. Give me cilantro and I'm in heaven. Bring on the biryani, the tandoori chicken, the masala dosa, the malai kofta, the kheer, the carrot halwa. I get hungry thinking about it.

So the other day I wanted to make plain old spaghetti and sauce for dinner. Nothing beyond that because I was tired, and anyhow, we had been eating out a lot. The cupboard was bare, and all I had was a jar of Trader Joe's organic spaghetti sauce. the one with no salt and no flavor. Blech. So, I diced an onion and sauteed it, added some balti masala (from scratch no less), mushrooms, cut up cherry tomatoes, and cooked that for a bit. Then I dumped in the boring sauce, cooked it up while the water was boiling for the pasta, sprinkled some garam masala (also home made) on top of it. Tossed in about a ladle of the pasta water with all its starchiness, and then mixed them all up. Topped with cilantro, and we had a wonderful feast. It's amazing how you can doctor up the world's most boring sauce and turn it into something wonderful.

Go look at the comments on the post of January 27th. Allison has an hilarious posting of the letter X!

Ria - I just got started on it, and then it just flowed along. I must have gotten my second wind. I told the Hubbo that he can buy more of that blah sauce just so I can doctor it up. Or else I could just use diced tomatoes combined with tomato sauce and then blend it together in the blender, etc, etc. Nah, the boring TJ sauce works well.

Jen - Let's hope he can do something with this mess.

MamaMay - Thanks for the information.

The Yarnarian Has a Visit from the PQ!

In case you were wondering, the PQ is the Pastel Queen, aka my alter ego. Yesterday she came out with a vengeance and I dyed up 4 stunning pale pale lace yarns, all in Zephyr. I love doing yarns like this. They are pale enough so that any pattern shows up, but they still have some color. The PQ was most gracious about my dyeing efforts. Here they are:

Cameo, Violet, Mint, and Blush.






And then, much to the Pastel Queen's horror, I did a couple of much darker sock yarns:

Canyon and Walk in the Woods:




These goodies and more will arrive in my Etsy shop over the week.

Off to the gym. I really need it today. I'm loggy and have no energy. Off to tread on the treadmill and lift those weights.

Jen - I'm glad you like the yarns. I was just working on the sock but have to take a little break and do some laundry.

The Yarnarian Knits and Dyes.

I've been having a productive few days. I did a lot of knitting and today I dyed up some pretty new yarns.

Knitting News:

Take a look at this new sock I'm working on. I charted out a nice cable, and when I finished the first repeat, I decided to keep playing around with it and produced something else entirely than that first repeat. I'm knitting it in a skein of Penny that nobody wanted. I liked it, so I gave to me as a present.



I'm calling this one "Judy Socks" after my dearest buddy, best friend forever, and also another crazed knitter!

I took the pic on my sock form so that's why it looks sort of weird at the bottom. I'm working on 64 sts, which is a lot for me, but cables draw in the fabric, and it fits like a dream.

Here's the other sock I'm doing. I sent it as the pattern for the January shipment of the sock club, and will post it for sale at some point. It's easy, interesting enough so that you don't fall asleep, and it works very well for variegated yarns. This one was done with my new Shelley yarn and I got 8 sts/inch with size 0 needles. Next one will be done on my usual 3 ones. Zero makes my hands ache. It fits very well though.



I'm still working on modular scarves. I'm busy knitting, taking pics, knitting some more, taking more pics, etc. It's amazing how labor intensive this is. I have a written pattern in progress, hence all those pics. What I love about this scarf is that it works up beautifully in variegated yarns! That's always tough to do, but these babies are perfect for yarns like this. Here's the last one I finished and the one in progress (with those never-ending pictures).







I'm still working on the gansey. I separated the garment at the armholes and now am working back and forth, which I don't like to do. But, I put in some new patterns, and it's looking good, so I shall persevere. I would love to wear it sometime this month.

Dyeing news:

I'm happily back dyeing lace yarn. Today I did 4 really icy colors. Just enough color to catch the eye, but so pale that any pattern will show up magnificently. No pics because they're steaming at the moment.

And while I'm on the topic of stuff to sell, here are the latest sock patterns available on Ravelry. I put them up on Etsy occasionally too. If you want but you don't belong to Ravelry, let me know and I'll post them on Etsy.

Tulip Socks and Rapunzel's Braid.




seejenknit - I don't see why not, the cable is pretty simple and so is the lace in the middle of the front. It should look just fine.

Ria - That "double twisty thing" is so easy to do. that's the thing about cables: they look hard but they're actually quite easy.

Carolyn - Thank you! You give my ego a major boost!

Georgia - Thanks. They really are addictive.