duh… DYE!

Yes, that’s it. D is for DYE!

It’s no secret that I’m a whore for color. Bright contrasting crazy colors.

And then green. I’ll fall all over myself for good green dyed fibers and yarns. I get weak in the knees and lose my mind.

Of course we also have the natural dyes.

There’s something really fun about dyeing with sticks and bugs.

I was assassinated in a game that I wasn’t even playing.

You see a few weeks ago my LYS started a game of Killer Sock Assassin. Basically you kill someone with a pair of socks. I had deadlines and projects due so I couldn’t play but I could create the pattern:

At some point one of the players turned rogue and started making socks for those of us involved in the contest. Chesley the Shop owner died first, then her husband who does all the fab computer work. And then I was killed in the middle of the day at SPA!

Brazen assassin work.
We will find this killer….. or not.
Being “dead” in nice warm socks is good enough for me.

Fiber, friends, laughter…what could be better? It really was a fantastic weekend. I want to thank everyone for making it a great weekend for me. I thought I’d feel silly staying there since I lived only 20 minutes away but I enjoyed spending time with my friends. I don’t get to see my friends from out of state that often so it worked out well that I got to stay there and chat it up with all of them.

I didn’t bring my camera but plenty of other people did. I need to steal some pictures somewhere. Julia got a particularly lovely one of me though she did say it was only going into her “personal” collection.

I am not without any photos.
I turned in 28 hats from the contest. You guys rock.
13 from Suzanne

and 10 from Jessica

and 5 from Amy

Sorry about the lack of linkage ladies. For some reason my brain isn’t working right and remembering which blog is yours. Anyone else notice that sometimes it’s hard to place the right “real” name with a blog name? I need to get organized and then the prizes will be distributed.

I also have in new products. I have Tracy Eichem spindles.

I got in a new stock of Merlin tree spindles.

I think I have 6 left and will get them on the website as soon as I can.

Dave tried to get me to take home a Great wheel. I resisted though I fear I soon may buckle under the weight and end up with a pendulum wheel this year. Still, I did take home a couple of new Hitchikers for the shop. I particularly like this one:

It has oak, black walnut, pine, tulip wood, paduk, and cherry woods. I think it’s a charming and very original wheel. I don’t imagine Dave will make many if any more like it.

I picked up some pretty orifice hooks made by Judy of Ball and Skein:

This week I need to get out club but I’ll also be working on getting all the new goodies online. There are even more goodies than I showed here.

With all of that, I didn’t leave without a few goodies for myself.

It’s a small stack but still lovely and especially lovelier thanks to my fantastic roomies / friends.
I have a Forrester spindle, a Hello yarn mitten kit, a Split Yarn needle bag, a bit of fiber from Kim at the Woolen Rabbit, a pretty ball of Merino/angora/silk from The Spinning Bunny, a cool glass that Dagny gave me and a little Merino Alpaca bump from White Barn Meadows. It’s a nice modest size haul. Not as big as it usually is but it’s usually the fleeces that make the pile look excessive and there won’t be new fleeces for me until Cummington.

I also picked up a little order from The Irish Ewe.

I got a quill for the old Ashford Traddy. I was disappointed that I lost an Ebay auction for an antique treadled quill wheel. Then playing around I realized I could buy a quill for the Traddy I own. It took a little of the sting out of the loss. I’ll surely report back as to how I like the new attachment to the wheel.

Last but not least my new favorite pub glass which held beer on Friday and a smoothie this morning:

I made 2 great new foods over the weekend but I don’t have any photos to share with you to go along with the recipes. Frankly I made the foods for the taste and they weren’t all that pretty photographed.

Rawfood cereal
Soak 1 cup each of Pumpkin seeds and Raw almonds overnight.
In the morning drain them and process them with the s blade on your food processor. This is enough for 2 meals so I returned half to the fridge for the following day (it only lasts that long anyway) and the other half I put in some dried fruit and a cup of cashew milk. It was surprisingly good.

Roasted Stuffed Eggplant.
1 Eggplant
1 onion - chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic - minced
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
fresh basil about 1/4 cup chopped.
2 large tomatoes chopped.
Olive oil

- Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and cut out all but 1/4 inch of the meat - cube that meat.
- saute the onions and garlic, then add the eggplant and mushrooms. cook until it’s reduced and yummy. Remove from the heat and stir in the basil and tomato. Fill the eggplant halves with this mixture. Cover it and pop it in the oven at 350F for about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook for an additional 15 or until you can’t stand it anymore and have to eat it now because it smells too good.

Knitting and spinning:
I wish I could say that I’ve gotten a lot done. I haven’t. Lots of stuff happening here has prevented me from doing a lot of knitting or spinning. I’m hoping things will return to normal soon and I’ll have something to show for my efforts.

C is for Curls of course.

Curls on the girl:

In her case, c could also mean crazy.

Curls on my elbow:

Of course, I’m sure that my tattoos would cause some of you to say C for crazy could also be applied to me.

And curls in my fleece:

I wish I could say the breed of sheep was a C breed like Corriedale or Coopworth but the one I’ve shown here is Border Leicester.

Gotta love those curls.