Finally!

Ever have one of those embarrassing moments where you ask someone to watch your blog for the first time, and then you can't log on? Yeah, that's what happened to me. The good news is that Firefox is acting flaky, which is why whenever I tried to log in to any of my Google services (like this blog)it wouldn't do anything but ask me to log in... over and over and over. I'm not that web-savvy... I'll clear my caches and see if that fixes it, otherwise I guess I'm switching to IE for the time being. Bleargh.

Anyway, there have been a few updates to the shop since last I blogged... but quite frankly I don't want to tinker around with the pictures after all this... I just wanted y'all to know I was alive. :D

New fluffy stuff...

I've been dyeing like mad, trying to at least put up one item a day. I don't think that is going to last much longer, lol. I'm starting to get permanently pink fingernail beds. :D

Here's what's gone up on the shop since my last post, I think... "Wine in a Copper Vessel" is making a second appearance, since I managed to re-create it.

White Christmas? In Texas?

It snowed last night! We got about a half an inch, if the amount of accumulation on my apartment railing is an accurate gauge. Unfortunately it was not easy to document this freaky phenomenon... but I tried to take pictures of my neighbor's grill and a stump from a Hurricane Ike casualty that had nice little white blankets on them.

My daughter did pack up some in ziplock baggies in the freezer... it might be easier to snap those. LOL

I'm from Minnesota...

This morning was freaking cold. Like the title suggests, I *know* cold very well. Today's weather is worse, though, because this biting, sleety wind is so unexpected in the gulf coast Texas area. I have never been so glad to be a knitter! Just dip into the sack of hats, scarves and gloves and away you go. Saved our bacon this morning, and a few other kids' at the school bus stop. One poor kid had a busted zipper, and a very nice lady (not me) gave him a hoodie to wrap around his front. Had I thought that far ahead, I would have done the same. He was miserable.

On to the fibery goodness...

My fiber dyeing has been reinvigorated, partly by purchasing 120 ounces of blank "canvas" and partly by the unexpected (and semi-delightful) discovery of about 40 ounces of merino/tencel fiber that I had "organized" right out of sight and out of mind. It was neatly wound into four ounce balls and stored in a box... that promptly got buried behind many other boxes.

I say it's a semi-delightful discovery, because on the one hand it's practically like getting free fiber. I mean, I didn't know I had it last week, and now I do. It's like a gift. A gift given by forgetfulness, but still a gift, you know? On the other hand... I know why it was forgotten. I *hate* dyeing tencel blends. Hate, hate, hatey hate. Once it gets wet, it likes to fall apart and *cling* to everything. And of course I have to charge more for it because I can only sell about 50% of what I dye, because the unsellable half has disintigrated in the dye process, or fallen into too many pieces (I won't send out fiber that isn't continuous unless it's on purpose, like in the Duo sets). But what does come out is so *beautiful* and lustrous, it almost makes it worth it. Two of my new shop offerings are tencel braids, so you can judge for yourself.

Here's the deal...

I don't believe I've told the story of how I started dyeing yarn. There was this Etsy seller whom I liked very much... she had great base yarn, great colors, and was friendly (and hard-working). Unfortunately, her stuff was in such demand that I could very, very rarely buy any! If I logged in on payday, her shop was empty. If I saved money on the off-chance there would be an update, items would jump out of my cart while inputting my payment information! It became a clicking contest, one where shoppers who clicked the fastest got the prize of yarn.

So I started dyeing my own roving, and later yarn. While I do not have the same flair for color as this other seller, I am very happy with a new creative outlet. However, I remember why I started dyeing in the first place, and try not to give my customers a reason to give up on me. :D

I received shipment on 120 ounces of undyed roving this afternoon, so expect new (and hopefully as exciting for you as they are for me) products in the Etsy shop very soon!