Knittin' Nuttiness

A lovely package from Berrocco arrived at my door the other day. I hadn't ordered anything in years from them, so I guessed it was just a nice gift for me. Perhaps a delayed birthday gift, or an anniversary early gift or just my lucky day. I called Laura when I read the packing slip and saw that Berrocco has some minor confusion about my retirement and still has me as the shipping address. Laura ordered the Glace and already received it, but somehow they shipped it twice. Lucky me. I still have to pay for it, since it was charged to Laura's credit card. But really I am so happy to have it. If there is anything I love it is the whiteness of rayon ribbon yarn.

Not that I don't have some experience with dyeing it. I do. We used to dye all sorts of thread and yarn for sale. It became our biggest seller, but dyeing threads for the world is not my first choice and thus I retired from the biz, in 2002.

Nevertheless I am again considering dyeing up some neato keen stuff for my own use. I recently bought a book from Half.com on dyeing up wool sock yarns for striped effects and all that fakey fair isle look. One has to wind a skein 40 feet long and then dye the parts in sequences of 12 to 15 feet etc. (Where did I leave that book?) You don't want to change yarn alot in sock knitting.

SOCK KNITTING? WHAT AM I THINKING?

I am not going to count how many pairs I have already made (33). And since I cleaned out my sock drawer and realized that even a Rubbermaid can't hold them all (once the laundry is done and the rest of them fill this box) I am calling for a moritorium on sock knitting. At least until September when I fly again.

Speaking of half.com, I found 66 pages of knitting books for sale there and racked up a list of ten right off the bat that I absolutely need in my library, and then I struggled to whittle it down to three and ordered them. Such a thrill, a double thrill to get knitting books and half priced to boot.

I am about to rip out my newest experiment. I have a need for a shawl for my bare arms in over -air conditioned rooms. I noticed this recently and decided this would be a good use for all my black and white novelty yarns, and leapt right in without a plan ( see new Bohemian Knitters blog ring if you find yourself following a similar path). Then the Glace appeared and I wished I had factored that into the shawl/scarf/wrap/shortcloak/capelet thingy that I started.

I even recently added some smoke grey fluffy stuff to this stash. NOT mentioning paying full price for the white Trendsetter Aura, to go with three balls in black that I got three years ago at half price...

The white end of my stash... OK there are a few colors there to add interest, but the white; it is all scheduled to be dyed. I have some new Kona superwash and rayon slub yarns from Catnip yarns in there, plus some wonderful silk in white that cries out to be colored. All in good time.

But first a spin in The Car.

PS. Happy Birthday to my first husband John Farrell. He is 59 today, the old bugger. Haven't seen him in 20 years, but can still remember his birthday.