In The Early Morning Rain

I am not disciplined about much. My discipline tends to come for exactly as long as it take to accomplish my goal and then leaves. Since my new goal is to not have to dip into the funds controlled by Mr. Honey and to rely on myself - I think I will have to be disciplined for quite some time. Part of that discipline is to spend the first hour of every day promoting Knitter's Restaurant and also designbcb on Etsy.

Now, I have to do this while remembering and staying true to the main purpose: whatever else this might be to someone else, it is a knitting blog to me. So, whatever else is going on in terms of ad space and sales and all that stuff - within these frames it's just you and me and that craft we love so well.

It is with that in mind that I make my confession:
I'm thinking I want to give dyeing yarn another shot.
I'm going to make some more stitch markers.

I know, these confessions will not stop the world except for the teeny-weenie little fact that I have no talent in these areas. My first hand at dyeing everything I dyed turned out to be orange - even if it was supposed to be pink.

And in the world of stitch marker, I can pull together some pretty ones, but I can't handle the little tools to make the wire part look pretty.
But, I have a plan to improve my skills:
I will stick with single colors and just hope for some natural variations - after all, not everything is supposed to be variegated.
Mr. Honey has agreed to do the little detailed stuff on the stitch markers. He loves doing that kind of detailed stuff so he gets to have some fun with me. Since this is part of the goal that will keep my hands out of the combined till, he's happy to help. (it's not that I'm high maintenance - I am so not - but he's much more...frugal...than I am. I'm only frugal about yarn. He's frugal about EVERYTHING!)

But I am going to give them both another shot. Who knows? It could be another bridge to the shop but it definitely is another pathway to fun - and if your business can't be fun, maybe it shouldn't be your business.
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Knitting Books - Or How The HB is an Enabler!

As much as the HB sighs over the yarn, needles and the time I spend knitting; he is not very good at pulling me away from my passion. In fact, he enables the addiction by purchasing knitting related items every time I ask.

So, sometime in October I was surfing the web when I came across Knit-Picks 40% book sale. Not being one to pass up the opportunity, I made a list of the books I wanted and put them on the HB's desk with a note saying: for my birthday and Christmas.

My birthday was the day after Thanksgiving and he handed a box.
A small box.

I didn't get all the books on the list obviously, but I did say birthday and Christmas so I imagine he split the list in two.(Well, there were about a dozen books on the list, so I'm expecting Christmas to be really big!) Here's what I got for my birthday:


The Prayer Shawl Companion is full of knit only prayer shawls and is a lovely book with some interesting patterns that go from beginner to intermediate. I didn't see anything in there that was scary.

Color Sense is a really good book for learning how to pull colors together. I am not very good at combining colors and this comes with a nice color wheel that explains it all nicely.

Natural Dyeing wasn't anything I expected. It talks about making dyes out of natural substances (well, that I expected) but some of those substances are: rhubarb, onions, cabbage and avocados. Who knew? It really got me thinking. I didn't have much luck dyeing with Kool-Aid; everything came out orange. But dyeing with fruits, veggies and herbs/spices may prove to be great fun. I am going to start experimenting.

The other books on the list are all pattern related so I am hoping has ordered them and has them stashed away for Christmas morning.

Hand Dyed Yarn

Information and registration for the Sit & Knit is here.

Ok, so this is my first attempt at dyeing yarn. It didn't come out as nice as some people's I've seen on the web. But in person, I find it quite nice. Also, the picture shows variations I didn't even know where there and couldn't see.

I used Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool and Kool-Aid. I used vinegar on two of them and went without on the last one. I don't think it made a difference. For these, they are all orange color based so I will use them in making something like a small lapghan or a hat and scarf set. Something like that.

I still need to do some more studying - I have two more skeins to go and about 30 packets of Kool-Aid left. I also used some food dye in the one on the right. It's all orange Kook-Aid, but I dropped some red food dye in and went over the yarn again.

Because spring has finally come, I dried them all outside (out of direct sunlight.)

The next time I try it, I will use more Kool-Aid in the six ounces of water, start with a darker base color and try and lighten up the variations. I'm not real interested in making solid colored skeins because there are many solid colors out there. I have a problem finding nice variegated yarn and this is my way of getting just what I want. Plus, since I can find the wool yarn at a discount, it is really an economical way of making yarn. It does save money and I get exactly what I am looking for - this could be the start of something really fun and really good!