sunny caught a squirrel

So, I know there's been an absence of knitting on this blog lately, but I have been knitting! And when I remember, I will take a photograph of my boyfriend all wrapped up in his winter knitted Christmas gifts. A hat and scarf, since I believe the sweater curse very firmly. And I've got a February Lady Sweater on the needles, in some delectable Fibre Co Terra, a sock in my Circe yarn that I'm designing, another sweater on the needles, and a very seventies- coloured log cabin blanket. But for now, you get Sunny and her christmas present: a squirrel. Sunny adores squirrels, in the sense that she goes crazy after them and the fact that they run up trees and cackle at her drives her nuts. But now she has a squirrel of her own!


the above photo is how Sunny's been pretty much ever since she got the squirrel (which we posed in the tree, made clucking noises, and dropped down to her). She puts its head in its mouth and basically just blisses out on it for hours. And carries it everywhere with her. I love this dog so much, and only wish we had full custody of her and not just half. (she travels with my boyfriend's kids when he has custody of them.)

Happy new years everyone! I'll be spending mine chaperoning my bf's son's new years party, so nothing too raucous will be going on over here. Ah well, lots of knitting time, right?

plumbing and yarn

So, a few weeks ago, I noticed that my kitchen sink was leaking. as in, I looked under the sink and there was an inch of water. Great. I plopped a kitty litter bucket under it, and kept using it. That worked for a while, until the day before yesterday, when I became aware that water didn't seem to be going through the drain at all, and instead seemed to just go straight down into the bucket. So, I took a closer look at the pipe, and put my hand up to it--- and it folded and crackled in my hand. Pipe? should not have the consistency of tinfoil. Ever.

This is what the pipe looked like:



To say that I was a little freaked out would be a bit of an understatement. I need my sink. Not for cooking, or doing dishes (heaven forbid!), but for dyeing. Oh, yeah, and my landlords were out of town. Also, i'm not a big fan of calling my landlords to fix things in my apartment; that would require herculean efforts of cleaning on my part, and I just like to take care of things myself. Thankfully, my boyfriend knew a little about plumbing, and off we went the next day to the hardware store, where we were informed that our pipe diameter could not be replaced by PVC pipe, because the diameter was only for bathroom sink pipes. Great. But, we managed to find a pipe, and now my sink is nicely working again, for the cost of eight bucks.

all this is just to say-- chrome plated brass pipe? Will disintegrate into the consistency and strength of tinfoil over time. yippee.

eta: I'm pretty positive that my dyeing had nothing to do with the demise of the pipe-- I use citric acid, which is food grade, and as an acid, it's super weak. I'd have to have been pouring nitric acid down that sink all year for the pipe to corrode that fast! I did a little research, and it turns out that this can be a common problem for really old plumbing. Like in my apartment.

Toasted!

And well done, too! "Toasty" mitts by Leslie Friend, from the blog A Friend to Knit With. Or look it up on Ravelry. These are yummy, and the Siren Two worsted yarn is the perfect yarn for these-- soft, squishy, and warm, these are the perfect winter accessory. Super simple to knit, too! I knit the Toasty mitts instead of just the armwarmers because I like a little more hand coverage...but I like the idea of slouchy armwarmers, too. Maybe I'll knit some in Siren Two sock held with a strand of kidsilk haze....

an aside: I recently got an email from a customer expressing concern over some what she considered undissolved dye spots, or spots of secondary colours on my yarn...so I thought I'd address this issue. I dye my repeatable colourways in a unique way that is quite different from many other dyers, and it can result in secondary and tertiary colour spots. This is part of the colourway. For example, my new colourway, Icicle:



If you look closely, you can see spots of blue. I photograph each skein when I post it to Etsy, precisely for the reason that you know exactly what you are getting. I don't have standard photographs for each colourway for this reason. I like this effect, and the method of dyeing is how I can get the hints of blues in colourways like Venetian and Harlequin, or the blueish haze in Hydrangea.

Every skein of yarn is handdyed, and so there will be variations. That's part of my yarn, and that's why I try to photograph my yarn so you know what you are getting. It doesn't seem to have been a big problem for anyone, but, like I said, someone asked about it, so I thought I'd explain a bit! It's more noticeable in semi-solid colours, but it really depends on the colour.

FO: RYC Soft Lux Tunic Sweater

About a year and a half ago, I bought a bag of RYC Soft Lux in a gorgeous sage-y green colour from Little Knit at a fabulous price. I'd been coveting this yarn and colour for quite a while, although I'm not really a sparkly person. Luckily, the sparkle just adds a wee bit of interest and flattering glitz, and the yarn itself knits up really, really nicely. I cast on for a top-down sweater, knit a few rows, and there it languished until I picked it up a few months ago and finished the sweater.

Knitting this sweater was incredibly simple and pleasant-- knit all in the round, I just added waist shaping and increased so that it would flare flatteringly around the hips. Even when I had to rip out the bottom part and re-knit it, for the proper flare, knitting in the round is so fast, that it wasn't bad at all. The result is just what I wanted-- a warm, cozy, flattering tunic that can be dressed up or down. It's long enough that it could be worn as a dress, with tights or leggings and boots, or tossed over jeans. I've been wearing it pretty non-stop, and the yarn seems to be holding up well. Success!

Also...thank you to everyone who signed up for club memberships last night! Wow! What an experience-- my heart was pounding as I listed them, and I'm just thrilled that people were as excited as I am! I've already started placing orders for the fibres and yarns, and am eager to get to work.