As Easy As 1 2 3

Well, not exactly. I am going to be doing a spinning demo at the Sock Summit. Demonstrating how to spin striping socks.

First we will discuss the kind of fiber that would be best for socks.

Then I will show you how to spin & ply to create the perfect sock yarn.

After that we will discuss knitting the sock up.


This is an Anzula original pattern. I am in the process of writing it up. It will be available on Ravelry and at the Sock Summit. Happy Knitting!

Waiting Game

I am currently playing the waiting game, and not loving it. I have dyed up everything I have, and am waiting for the next shipment of yarn to get here. I placed the order 2 weeks ago, and hope it gets here soon. I can here my dye pot calling me. I am really looking forward to working on the Sock Summit Challenge.

While I have been waiting I have been working on my yet to be named sweater. It is an Anzula original in worsted weight superwash merino, cashmere, nylon. Here it is with the flash:


And here it is with out. Which I feel better depicts the actual color.


The stitch pattern was inspired by one of the stitches in Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. Again shown with, and with out the flash.


I am making an extra large, and it is using 7 skeins.

Tomorrow, I will tell you about the spinning demo I will be doing at the Sock Summit.

You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round

A month ago today I posted about the fab lace yarn I dyed. In the mean time I ordered swifts for reskeining and they showed up yesterday. Guess what I spent today doing.


Yup, that is reskeining three skeins at once. Look, no hands! That's cause we have an electric skein winder. It saves so much time & energy.



They look so pretty reskeined. Like candy. I just want to eat them up. Want more fiber candy?


Baby Llama & Merino/Yak. Merino/Yak is one of my favorite fiber blends to spin. So soft & lofty, it is like spinning clouds.

Last week we had an open house over here, so you could see what Anzula is all about. The yarn looked so good displayed in the house. It was really great seeing so many of you!


My wonderful guy picked some flowers to help decorate the place. Isn't he sweet?

What Used To Be

I was going to spend today showing you all the fiber pretties I have been dyeing this week. But I don't have them anymore. Carole from Dulitz Tree Farm, which is also a yarn shop, came buy this morning and bought up all of our fiber. So if you want to see what I have been dyeing you are going to have to go to Springville and check it out. It is totally worth the drive, Springville is beautiful and Carole's shop is just amazing. That is where I got the yarn for my February Lady Sweater. Which I would totally show you right now, but I'm not sure where my camera is. So, in all reality, I have nothing to show you 8~). Happy Knitting!

Getting My Dye On

One of my favorite things in the world to do is to dye yarn. I am so lucky that I get to do it as a job. Today I dyed 20 skeins of merino lace in shades of green, orange, red, blue & purple
These were all dyed as semi solids. I can't wait to see what they look like when they are dry and reskeined. I have found that reskeining the yarn gives you a better idea of what the yarn will look like when worked up. It also better demonstrates the depth of the color.


The four skeins of blue look very similar now, but I have a feeling they will look quite different from each other when reskeined. Red can be a really hard color to get, but today I was really lucky. I was able to get one true red, and another that is a close second.

If you are looking closely, you might notice a pair of socks. I also over-dyed a pair of socks for a friend of mine. I hope she loves the color.

Never Not Knitting

I knit. Everywhere I go, I knit. I thought this was normal. Then I went to dinner with a knitting friend and pulled out my knitting. She gave me a strange look, and I said: What? You're not going to knit? She thought it was quite odd that I was going to knit at a restaurant. I thought it was odd that she wasn't. But that is just how I am. I knit at concerts, baseball games, weddings, meetings, anywhere I go: I knit. People sometimes say they don't think they could have the patience to knit. I don't think I could have the patience to not knit. How else do you get through long lines, waiting at the doctor's office, watching a movie, or waiting for your food to come at a restaurant?

Mawwage

I took part in a pretty special event yesterday, Meet in the Middle for Equality. The main message I took away was that it is important for us to share our stories. The only way we are going to change anyone's mind is if we make it real for them. So I decided to share my story.

My Mother is a lesbian. She came out when I was in high school. At that time I had many friends that were homosexual, and for them my Mother announcing her sexuality was a reprieve. They finally had someone they could talk to and share their feelings with. For this I am grateful, because I saw how difficult it was for my friends to come to terms with their sexuality. Choices shouldn't be a or b. There are many shades of gray out there. And we need to be accepting of that. My Mom is my Mom, and the fact that she is a lesbian doesn't change that one bit. She didn't change the way she parented me and my sister when she came out. She remained my same old Mom. She has been with her partner now for 7 years and I think it is a shame that they can't officiate their relationship. Partner is such an ambiguous term. I had a business partner, and when I referred to her as my partner people were not always sure what I meant. This is so unfortunate.

I feel that when two people want to make a life long commitment to each other, they should have the right to do so. There needs to be one universal term for what that relationship means. When two heterosexuals join in union we have a term for that, marriage. Everyone understands what marriage means. Lets stand up and give everyone that right.

While at MITM4E I was knitting on my sock. Ty-Dy sock yarn in 631 blueberry field. In my Plain Jane sock pattern. Sorry it's a bit blurry, took if with my phone.