My mother and I drove to Massachusetts yesterday. I am very happy to be here and to visit this side of the family. Sadly we are here because my dear great Aunt Rose departed this world last week. We are holding the wake tonight and the funeral tomorrow. She was a wonderful woman and I dearly love her.The bright spots to the wake are being able to see my extended family whom I haven’t seen in a couple of years and it just so happens the great aunt and uncle I am staying with live less than 30 minutes from WEBS.
So my aunt Millie, mother and I trekked up there this morning. We had a grand time wandering around looking at the different kinds of yarns. Aunt Millie fell in love with some of the alpaca merino yarns and their wonderful softnesss. I found the spinning stuff but didn’t see any Turkish spindles. I did however find located near the spinning items a lonesome Namaste Executive bag. I had been contemplating buying this bag for a little while but I wanted to see it in person first. Of course they then discontinued it and I had given up hope of ever finding another. After carrying it around for the rest of our shopping trip I deemed it acceptable for purchase and bought it.
Namaste Executive Bag in Rust
Plenty large for my knitting.
There is room for my laptop in here. Finally a carry on that will hold the laptop and my knitting together.
I am off now to go visit the woman who taught me to knit. My mom and aunt Millie can’t wait to show her what she has created. It really is nice to have your own cheering squad.
So Saturday I hosted a yarn dyeing party for my local knit groups. It was a ton of fun and there were around 12 people in attendance. We dyed lots of yarn and had a blast. I dyed a skein of DK Superwash merino a lovely shade of green, if I may so say so myself. I also worked on a skein of laceweight merino that is currently kind of knotted. Let us not speak of that for a few weeks. Here are the photos of the DK yarn.
I really look forward to being able to dye more. This was a lot of fun! One of the best aspects of the hand dyes is that I can finally get the shades that I want for the men in my life. The boy (especially), my dad and brothers (to a lesser degree) are not very big into pastels and it seems most of the yarns I find in LYSes have pastel undertones to them. Seeing the deep and vibrant hues that came out of this party made me very happy.
My blog chum and fellow Master’s student KnitWitch recently started her own yarn company, Amia Yarn Company. She has a contest going through tom’w (Thursday July 31st) to win some of the amazing yarn her company has to offer. Click on the picture below to get more details!
Today’s Eye Candy Friday is brought by the letter E and the number 2. The lovely EcoWool you see before you was purchased on my last business trip to Denver, CO. I found it at the very fun Fancy Tiger yarn shop. Hopefully I can go see them again when I head back to Denver in 2 weeks. This yarn is destined for a Hemlock Ring Blanketthe recipient at this time is unknown.
The vast majority of the knitting related links on this blog go to Ravelry. If you are a knitter or crocheter who hasn't found this wonderful resource, please head there today.
