Shanah Tovah to you and your family!

Or Shana Tova, which ever way you want to spell it.  For non-Jews, a good year to you and yours, also.

Busy, busy.  Gotta make the tejes kolacs, the chicken for tonight, neato meatloaf on a bed of potatoes for tomorrow after synagogue.   Pay bills.  ick, boring.  Stuff.

Sister and niece coming this afternoon.  Elder DD joining us tomorrow.

Totally off topic, but then I've never stayed on topic:  here's what Miss P gave her mom for her birthday.  A spa visit!  Now, you may ask yourselves, how does a 9 year old manage that?  She gave her mom a spa visit at home.  Bubble bath, cucumbers on eyes, foot massage and back massage.  How sweet is that?  What a kid!

Gotta run.  Gotta bake.  Thank goodness, a colleague of the Hubs gave him a challah, so I don't need to bake that.

scrapperjen - She really is a wonderful child.  Very caring, very kind.  And her eyes always dance with mischief and fun.  All the grands are wonderful, each in his/her own way.  She received the latest set of doll clothes and especially loved the ones that I'm most fond of.  Whadda kid!

Scrabblequeen - She is that.  More energy that the other 4 put together, and the brain is constantly going.  

The Yarnarian Returns.

The big holidays are over, the company has gone home, and things are slowly settling down to our normal pace.

We had a wonderful Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. There's nothing like family visiting on holidays. My sister came down for both holidays, and my niece and her boyfriend came for Yom Kippur. I felt as if I were cuddled in a warm blankie to have them and my dear Hubbo surround me in synagogue. The food was good. The fast went very well for everyone. We laughed and fooled around and were serious (OK, mostly on Yom Kippur), and it was great!

So. now it's back to normal, and I'm dyeing again, and showing new yarns on Etsy, and I'm into new projects. I feel as if I had a wonderful vacation, and am now delighted to be back to work.

I dyed the first shipment of the Magic Carpet Ride sotm yesterday, and added a few more skeins to play with. I find it fascinating that my eye wants different colorways now that the days are so much shorter, and the summer heat has finally ended. Autumn is my favorite time of year, and I want more grayed or muted colors, except of course, when it comes to the leafy colorways. Then, I go a bit crazy, but then nature goes crazy, so who am I to argue with nature?

This little batch of yarns is not in leaf mode; no oranges here. Sigh, but don't worry, I'll get to them as soon as those leaves change color.

Stormy Weather, Faded Green, Cinnabar, and Bronze:






I've been listing new yarns almost every day since I last posted, so there are lots of pretties listed. This is the time of year when I expect to sell tons of yarn, but instead I have a slow time. In the summer, when I thought I'd snooze with sales, nope, I was delightfully busy. Go figure. It's quite beyond me.

New Projects:

I started a pair of socks and a cowl. I dyed this yarn quite a while ago, and it didn't sell, but it intrigued me, and you know that that means that I had to play with it to see what it would do. This one is Grazing Moo, and the tricky part of the colorway is that very dark bit of gray.



When I work with a yarn like this, it takes me 3-4 tries to get it right. At first, I played with this gorgeous lace that I'm using for my cowl. Yech! So busy that you couldn't see the lace, and that deep gray made a mess. So, I played with other ideas, and ta da, finally did this mindless little rib pattern. And it works. The pictures don't do it justice; you should see it on my leg. It really pops. So, the lesson here is: if you have a dark contrasting color in your variegated colorway, use it in a type of ribbing. And then add a pattern in which a bit of the yarn is displaced, as in this fake little cable.




When it's stretched out on my leg, you see the cable and the gray adds to the charm. Trust me, it works.

And here's the cowl that I started. This is the original lace patter for the sock, and it was a disaster there. This pattern calls for a solid or almost solid, no wild yarns here. It is so easy to knit, and I'm quite in love with it. I can see me using it again and again. It's that pleasant to do.



I've never worn a cowl, but everyone seems to be knitting them, so I figured that I'd play with it. The pattern has work done on every round, and that's enough for me not to do a scarf or shawlette in it. I'm way too lazy a knitter to work that hard. But in a circular piece, it's just fun.

And now I'm off to get those sotm packages out. And bake some bread, and call the drugstore for the Mommie meds, and find a warm sunny place to work on my projects. Mmm, I do love retirement.

Scrabblequeen - I almost never have my kids except for Passover. For these holidays, I always have my sister, and often her daughter and boyfriend. I think we would feel very lonely if they were not with us. When my mom was younger, she would come and so would my MIL, but my MIL is not in great shape these days, and the Mommie is close to 96 and she just wants to stay in her residence. Going to synagogue would be just too much for her. So instead, my sister and I pop in to visit her during Rosh HaShanah, and bring her our holiday coffee cake.

KV - And to you and yours also. It was a most enjoyable time for all of us.

The Yarnarian Chats a Bit.

The holidays were so nice. We had great weather, great company, services were good, we didn't freeze too much during services, and it was just plain nice.

Services for Rosh Hashanah go on forever. We got out about 1:30 each day, but I've gotten the food down pat for this. For years now, I get cold cuts and such for lunch. By the time we get home, we're ravenous, and nobody wants to wait for food to heat up. So we do easy peasy lunch, and save the big meal for supper. Friday night we had a Persian rice dish with teeny meatballs, chicken pieces, basmati rice, dried fruits, orange marmalade all steamed together. Yummy. No, it's probably nowhere near authentic, but by golly it tastes delish. Saturday we did the stuffed cabbage and noodles thing. Last night, we did leftovers. Yay, leftovers. We still have a bit left, and my refrig smells of cabbage. Tonight we finish it or it gets tossed. Enough already.

We picked up The Mommie yesterday to spend the afternoon and supper with us. There's no way that she's going to synagogue any more. The services go on so long and she's so old, and I pray for her. Anyhow, at her age, what bad things could she possibly be doing? She really enjoyed seeing my sister and her granddaughter.

So, in between nonstop talking about everything girly and especially about crafy things, I actually got in a bit of knitting and crochet. Worked some on the crochet blanket, but at this point, you're not going to be able to tell what I did, so no pics. But! Take a look at the Ten Stitch Blanket. Is this not a cutie patootie project?




I can use either side as the right side, but I like the side without the visible ridges. The ridgy side looks fine in a pic, but not so nice in real life. Anyhow, it is reversible, so that's an added feature.

Dyeing news: I dyed up some Rose and some Linda yarn today. I planned on doing lots and lots of reds, with a bit of navy and some gold. Hah! The dyes ignored me, and I came out with all sorts of combinations. My eyes are clearly seeing fall hues, and it shows in my dyeing. Even the couple of pastels are autumnal. You'll see them tomorrow in all their glory.

Take a look at this: I just saw this goofy, fun, silly adorable hat on Ravelry. If I had a baby, I'd knit it for her/him, it's that cute.

CathyR and Henya - Isn't that hat the cutest thing ever?

Marion - I think so too! ;-)

Linda - I think so. tee hee.