Sock Summit Dye For Glory Yarns

Hola, yarnies and non-yarnies. These are the yarns I submitted for Ravelry's Dye For Glory contest. It's limited to those of us who will have yarn at the Sock Summit, so I figured, hey, give it a shot, free exposure, etc. I dyed up three batches of yarn, all based on the colors in the Sock Summit logo. In each batch I emphasized a different color and then fiddled with the other colors randomly. I kettle-dyed these yarns, which means that all of the dyeing took place in a kettle of hot water. I combined dip-dyeing, hot-pour method, and then sprinkling the dye powder directly onto the yarn. They are gorgeous, and my pathetic photos really don't do them justice.

All of the skeins, just in from drying outside. There's the Sock Summit logo for reference.

Batch One, side by side. Before re-skeining and after.

Batch Two.

Batch Three.

So, if you like my yarns and you're on Ravelry, please vote for me starting tomorrow 7/23.

In other news, our renters are officially moved out. Taylor and I start painting and cleaning tomorrow.

In other, other news, I completely lost my damned mind and ordered myself some more sock yarn. Commercial yarn. Not dyed by me. Because, you know, I didn't already have hundreds of skeins sitting around the house. It's an illness, I tell you. Sock Yarn Fever.

Also, we are going to go see the new Harry Potter movie AGAIN tonight. That's probably another form of crazy altogether. I don't wanna talk about it.

Catching up here, but not in real life.

So, hey! I thought I'd take a few minutes to semi-catch up here. Life's a bit mad at the moment, but that's alright. I wouldn't mind at all if I didn't have so damn much to do! Adam and Taylor are out fishing. I suspect that we'll be having trout for dinner.

Adam w/ last week's catch. They aren't very big, but they're damn tasty...and I don't even like fish.

Anyway, we did the SLV fiber fest this last weekend in Monte Vista. It was fun. We got to catch up w/ Mac and Monica, make a little money, make new friends and generally enjoy the mellow atmosphere. I am totally digging vending at fiber fests. Fiber people are just so nice to be around, and there's always something to talk about.

My vendor tent.

We stayed at the Movie Manor Motel, which is a motel w/ two drive-in screens. So we watched a couple of movies, both of which sucked, (Year One, & the new Sandra Bullock one) but whatever. The novelty, people! We have to leave town to go to a drive in, which is sad. I keep hoping maybe the tribe will build one or something.

My friend Mizpah groping the fiber. Her husband, Chris, makes all sorts of wonderful drop spindles and tahkli spindles and other beautiful things, so we arranged a trade. Fiber for spindle.

My new toys. A walnut tahkli spindle and a darling beehive yarn guage.

A little bit of my yarn. There's so much that I have trouble displaying it all. We're working on that, though. Hopefully for the next show I'll be more organized. We can always hope, anyway.

Also, many people asked me if I dyed it all. The answer is yes. Everything you see comes to me with no color at all. That's where the fun starts, dawg. Ya dig?

It puts the color on the yarn or it gets the hose again.

Anyway, now that we're past SLV, I have to think about Sock Summit. I was contacted by a business owner who wanted to represent my yarn at Sock Summit, and naturally I said yes. So I need to prep a bunch of stuff to ship out w/in the next few days. Also, Ravelry is having a yarn dyeing contest for people who's merchandise is going to be at Sock Summit. Naturally, I also need to do this, as it would be good exposure for me. I understand that there is DRAMA over on Ravelry because people are all butthurt over not being able to enter the dyeing competition. I shall make a point of avoiding that shit. It's yarn, people. Get over it.

Taylor is such a good sport. Both Adam and Taylor are, I suppose, and invaluable helpers. These shows are lots of work. I couldn't have gotten that tent up all by myself, that's for sure. Plus, Adam can make small talk. This is such a bonus for those of us who can't seem to master the art of random bullshitting.

And now, on my horizon: I'm moving. We're moving. Back to Allison, back home, back to my house and my land and my pond and my trees and my garage and my storage shed, and my driveway....did I tell you that I missed being home? Well, now you know. I told Adam that he is not going to be dragging me away from home again. And now he knows.

Mrs. Slocombe is dead.

Michael Jackson dead? *shrug* Farrah Fawcett dead? *shrug* Billy Mayes dead? *shrug*

Dudes, Molly Sugden, the inimitable Mrs Slocombe has died. Now I feel sad, and I am unanimous in that.

I love my job.

This evening's kettle-dyed yarns, drying. I will never get tired of doing this.

Random

It has been business as usual around here. Trying to keep up dyeing momentum, hoping someone will buy something from me on Etsy, avoiding tedious paperwork, making a mess. I don't have anything new, or particularly amusing to post, so I'll do one of those 5 random facts about me dealies.

1. I read the obituaries every day.

2. I talk to my cats like they're people. Sometimes I think they understand me. This doesn't bode well. I see "crazy cat lady" status in my future.

3. I'm not religious at all, but I do believe in positive and negative energy and the way it affects people. Some people have really negative energy, and they are a drain to be around. Conversely, you know those folks who are a joy to be around no matter what is going on in their lives, and you can't put you finger on why? Positive energy. That's my theory anyway.

4. I am the least conservative person I know IRL. My husband and I have a pact not to discuss politics for fear of our marriage. We get along pretty well this way. It's amazing how many other things there are to talk about.

5. I want at least three more tattoos. One of my friends from knitting said she told her kids not to get tattoos because of how bad they would look when they were old and in nursing homes. I told her that I planned on being one messed up Granny Lady and that the interns would have to stretch my skin out to figure out what my tattoos were. Entertainment for all!

Pretty Things

I think I'll take a little time to inject some color into this grey, dismal day. Summertime, where are you?

Today's finished batch of roving. I went outside to try and get photos to use on Etsy, because the house is like a cave since the sun hasn't come out today. *pouts*

I snagged this photo just as it started to rain. Again. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate w/ me tomorrow and I can take some better photos in order to get more stuff up in the shop.

Pagosa Springs Fiber Festival

Adam and Tay in the booth on day 2 of the fest.  We really had a great first day and there's a serious dent in the yarn and fiber in this photo.

Another view of the booth.  I was going for "colorful" not "a crackhead gypsy set this up."  I'm not sure how it turned out...

This lady was selling all Colorado-grown fiber.  She was really nice.  I bought a bunch of yarn off of her to play with.

Llamas!

Angora goats!

Scottish Highlander!

Tons of churro fiber.  Navajo churro is huge here in the Southwest.

Alpacas!  

The Burbachs are the nicest of people, and we're going to be neighbors in the fall.  Woot!

Spinning!

Sheep to shawl!  This is where they start with a bag of fiber, card it, spin it, and then weave it into a shawl during the festival.  Completely awesome!

An alpaca pre-shearing.  So fuzzy!  So cute!

Alpaca post-shearing.  OMG.  So tiny!  Me wantee!

So, hey!  Sorry for the long blog hiatus, but I was all-consumed in getting ready for the festival. It was a great first time, and I made quite a bit of $$, plus I made some excellent contacts and met a buttload of supremely awesome people.  We had a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to our next show in Monte Vista on July 11-12.