F is for Finished Project
Over the weekend I finished Sprout #2:

I did a smaller size than my original green one and it fits a little better. Of course the green one has stretched out seeing how it’s cotton and all. The yarn in this tealish one is Ella Rae Emity.

F is for Free Pattern
Sprout is a free pattern that the group at The Knitting Experience is doing a Knit along at the shop and online over at Ravelry. But that’s not just it, I have a NEW free pattern to share.

Sprout - Growing Roots is a new pattern based on sprout. It’s top down and includes new women’s sizing for longer arms and longer body with waist shaping. It’s also got information on making it as a full length Men’s cardi. This pattern hasn’t been tested though. I’ll be testing it with the group on the 27th. So if you start it early and find any mistake, please let me know.
F is for Falkland

I’ll be making my next Sprout out of the yarn above. It’s Falkland wool from the spunky club. I’ve been itching for a sweater from it. It’s not really my colors so I may just end up leaving it at the shop.  I’ve been itching to knit with it so at least I’ll satisfy that urge.  I figure this probably won’t even be the last sprout….

E is for Eichhem. As in Tracy Eichhem.

Tracy is the man that makes the amazing spindles all individually cut on a scroll saw. I first saw them in 2005 but didn’t end up with one until 2006 when I started carrying them in my shop.

My own spindle from Tracy Eichhem is this pretty little spider

It’s one of the ultra lights weighing in at .4 ounces.

I’ve been spinning some silk in lace weight.An ultra light spindle with spiders just screams to be using silk.

While we’re on the subject of Tracy Eichhem and his amazing spindles, he has asked me for feedback on his spindles. Good or bad. Shaft lengths? Weights? Whorl sizes? If you have any feedback, please let me know and I’ll pass it along.

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.

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.

B could be lots of things. Blue faced Leicester, Border Leicester, Batts, Bad yarn…..But again I avoided the obvious fiber choices.

There is Baby Boogie:

Lots of B but still not the one I kept thinking of. Sorry Baby Boogie.

You might have thought with all the Boxes that went out yesterday:

that it might have been B for Boxes. Still that’s not it.

Just one B word kept popping into my head and I had to use it.
Burpee
Not so full of gas, that I’m Burpy. Burpee the seed catalog.

The catalog came in right around my birthday and I just happened to have some birthday money that needed to be spent on plants. Normally I buy from the local guys but Burpee had a few variations that Johnny’s didn’t. So I bought seeds and a few extras that I’ve always wanted like cool row markers. I missed having my herbs inside this year so I started a few Baby plants.

We’re all eager to have some of these plants ready to eat. And if you’re wondering what my “greenhouse” is… It’s a plastic lettuce container. A great way to recycle and it works wonderfully for a small bunch of plants.