pictures and some yuletide love

The dyed fiber and yarn (post black wash):






The sun wasn't shining directly on it, this one really is this bright



This is actually quite toned down after the black wash:



Meanwhile, Christmas came about 5 and a half months early this year, when my mom came over yesterday and decided she couldn't make me wait to give me these:



A brand new set of Valkyrie mini combs! I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled. Mom did some dyeing of her own yesterday, you can see it here, and one of the many lots of fiber she dyed were some Romney locks, in this absolutely gorgeous combination of orange and coral. I just fell in love with the luster and color of it, she just up and gave them to me, so today I combed them up, spun and plied it and now I have 74 yards of this gorgeous yarn. Just need to find something to do with it.

My attempt at self-striping sock yarn turned out very well, I believe, (I won't know until I actually knit with it to see how good the striping is), however the colors are SO FREAKIN' NEON it's like being back in 6th grade and listening to the Micky Mouse Club group The Party and watching Back to the Beach.

So, this morning I mixed up a very watered down black and overdyed it. It's cooling now. I think it toned down the colors a bit. I'm just hoping it doesn't come out all muddy. Right now it's hot and wet (heh heh) and looking a little muddy, so we'll see.

This weekend I don't have much going on, I just dropped off my wedding dress at the seamstress to have it altered, so I'm nervous and hopeful about that.

Ken and I are pretty much planning on a whole lotta nothing this weekend, which sounds just about perfect to me. We might go out and look for some wedding clothes for him, otherwise, I just plan on doing a lot of knitting and spinning.

It's damn hot and humid, though. I want my next house to be on a small, swimmable lake. A lake on which no motorboats are allowed, only canoes, rowboats, kayaks, and where you can just swim across over and over for exercise. There isn't slime or too many weeds, and no bitey fish. A nice, clean sandy lake floor, and maybe an island where we can canoe out and have a campfire.

dye, bitch

Yesterday I had a fiberlicious day. I got an awesome dye kit from Hello Yarn and I dyed up 3 different lots of 4oz of combed mystery-wool top (which is something very similar to merino, we just don't know for sure) and a skein of Bare yarn from knitpicks.

I am not overly adept at color theory. I mean, I get the basics, but I don't have that natural talent that some people have, though I'm pretty psyched about some of the things I got. The first batch I definitely put too much dye into, so it got a little muddy, but after that things ended up pretty much how I wanted them to.

It's cooled overnight and when I get home I'll wash it and hang it to dry. I need to get a bunch of superwash sock yarn. All the stuff I dyed is not superwash, and I'm kind of over handwashing.

That could be the percocet talking. Again.

My mom-turned-obsessed-fiber-junkie bought a drum carder which she has loaned to me, which is great. I've always wanted one. However, now that I see how drum carders work (producing batts) it's becoming clear that what I really want are a set of combs. I want to be able to create combed, um, whatever they ares. Though, batts are wicked frickin' cool too, so I still want a drum carder (or just unlimited usage of hers. :)

I dyed some roving a year ago with food coloring, and it felted a bit in the processing of it, so I'm flicking it open with my new flicker brush that I got, and I'll card it up into batts. I can't WAIT. It's nice to get into processing fiber again. The wedding has kind of taken over my life.

the perks of perc

Starting on my 3rd pair of Monkeys. Don't know what it is, really, I usually hate knitting the same thing over and over again, but I just' love this pattern.

I'm using this special colorway of STR lightweight dyed specifically for a yarn shop called Tricoter in Seattle. I bought it when I was out there visiting my lovely cousin Jo. I WANT to knit these for her, but I may decide to be selfish and keep them for myself. :)

We'll see.

I had a dental implant put in yesterday. I'm in a bit of pain today, so I'm utilizing the Percocet. It's a good thing. :) I feel like my perc-high is probably coming through in my blogging right now. Which is a-okay.

Just sent the dude out for Rice Krispies and some marshmallows. We're going to the birthday party of his Best Man and I wanted to make these amazing cookies, but I just don't feel like going too deep into it, but RKTs are super easy, so I'm going to make those.

I pretty much just want to stay here, buzzing on the couch knitting and listening to old episodes of the Ricky Gervais radio show. Really kind of digging the ride. :)