Happy Birthday Conor

I survived Conor's birthday. Now that he is 18 he feels that a curfew is not necessary. I let him think that for one night, so he didn't get home until 3:00 a.m., bringing two friends with him, who needed to spend the night. I have to confess to not being too happy to still be awake when the birds started to sing. I definitely made the right choice in deciding not to go with friends to visit fiber farms in Vermont. I would have had to get up at 5:30. I am pretty sure that would not have been enough sleep.I spent some of my awake hours last night loading yarn and fiber into my etsy shop. I have been making some thrummed mitten kits, and put three of them in the shop, two pretty vibrant in color, and one more subdued.

The black, grey and charcoal grey are all natural colored fiber. The black came from my friend Andrea's sheep.

These kits obviously do not have any natural colored fibers, but I think they will make really fun mittens.

I love the colors of the yarn in this kit. I always think of sherbet when I look at it.

I also added my "Rainbow Connection" colorway dyed on a different sock yarn base. This colorway has turned out to be one of my most popular colorways.

And another colorway of sock yarn, which reminds me of pansies.

I spent yesterday and today getting my phat fiber samples together. I will be sending in hand carded batts of wool and angelina; alpaca, superwash merino and angelina; and a new sock yarn base of wool, alpaca and nylon. The theme for this month is Oceanic. When I showed Conor the yarn and asked him if it reminded him of the ocean he pointed out that all the colors in the yarn are also present in a beach towel that we have had for years. I must have been channeling the towel when I was dyeing the yarn.

I received some exciting news today. My etsy shop has been included in a knitting podcast called Cogknitive. One of my customers took fiber she had purchased from me to her knitting group, one of whose members is Dr. Gemma, who does the podcast. She is a knitting psychologist. It is a podcast that I have listened to in the past. I like it because she usually gives a few life skills along with her knitting and crocheting discussions. Dr. Gemma gave my shop and my fiber and yarn quite a glowing recommendation, and it made me very happy. Last week was kind of a yucky week for a variety of reasons, so this news was quite an uplifting thing for me. I am very appreciative to my customer, whose name on Ravelry is limejuicy. I always think of tequila when I see her name. Juicy limes and shots of tequila, yummm. But I digress.

I am hoping tomorrow will be another dyeing day. I have tons of fiber to dye, including some of the most awesome silk I have ever seen. I have never dyed silk before, so it should be an interesting experience. I wish there was a way for you all to feel this silk. It is the smoothest, softest thing I have ever felt.