Silk, color, and harlotry

A few months ago, I read a Yarn Harlot blog post about knitting directly from some unspun, undyed silk hankies – mawatas – and thought, “that looks interesting” and “I must get hold of some of those in my next yarn/fiber order”. Then, a few weeks ago, they came up again, in a Ravelry conversation, [...]

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All a matter of priorities

I like to think I have mine straight: tea kettle, pasta pot, dye pot, dye pot Perhaps it would be better if I didn’t mention that the food is in the small pot in front, and the giant next to the kettle is the single most expensive pan in the kitchen (even shading out the [...]

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Lots and lots of wool

This is a short message about wool. I love wool. I really do, and that’s evident from the fact that I’ve been playing with quite a lot of it recently (more than usual). Some has been sold to the nice lady at the local knitting shop, some has been traded for, er, more-but-different wool with [...]

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Oh yay, yarn at last

I got some nice sock yarn in from the wholesaler recently, and ordered some more dye, and slowly but surely, I have been preparing for a shop update, in between stirring batches of sweater-yarn custom orders. The sweater yarn comes in one-kilo hanks that have to be wound into more manageable quantities, but although I [...]

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Mary, this is for you

I’m so excited to have found this. Mary loves designing hats, and she’s recently got into the fun of knitting socks (although she did have to be dragged in the sockward direction kicking and screaming pretty lustily). Me, I just like reinventing the wheel, and doing things like unventing the afterthought heel – done mid-sock [...]

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When multitasking breaks down

I hav to buy a new reskeiner. Again. It’s that damned dinner-making that’s to blame. I’m trying to multitask: I’m in the kitchen making curry, and inocently reskeining some yarn I dyed the other day, when I realize I need to cook one half of the reskeiner… possibly both, depending on which recipe I choose. [...]

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Good problems to have

This is my personal mantra: I rather want people to remember me as ‘One Who Used to Say Such Things’.* I’m suffering under a perfect example at the moment. Since I enjoy dyeing yarn, and can’t knit all that fast (frankly, no-one can), I decided to open an Etsy shop to sell it, and keep [...]

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I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I love it.

I had a whole other post planned, but Life intervened and it didn’t happen. Or not enough of it happened, so it’s languishing in Draft-land. Sorry post: at least you are not alone. Some of my best posts are there. I have spent most of the last couple of days trying to recover from the [...]

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Lurgy (but not swine flu)

I’m shivering through today, shivered through last night, and through yesterday, laid low with another of my recurrent bouts of tonsilitis. I so hate this. I can probably write off most of the next week to misery. I had no energy today so I did little more than make the builder tea, look at a [...]

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