well loved and spoiled rotten

I can't believe it!! Joe bought me a Blythe for my birthday. She actually has dark curly hair and everything. He hid the package so I would open it last. I tackled him when I opened it. It has probably been twenty years since I even wanted a doll for my birthday. What a great man to listen to my juvenile ramblings about how I want one of those super rare dolls that were made in the 70's and totally tanked because they are creepy looking, but they have these awesome eyes that change color when you pull a string on the back of their heads and would cost at least 90 bucks for a repro off of ebay because they are not sold in stores anymore. Gorgeous. I think I'll name her Scarlett. Here is a little awesome blythe history...
http://www.thisisblythe.com/blythe_history.php

Saturday morning dye fest

I was off this past Saturday (a rare occasion) and I got out of bed before 9 (an even rarer occasion for a free Saturday). The whole dying process takes about four hours for me.... I know I know I must have OCD with all of the soaking and applying dye and mopping my mess over and over. Why do you put yourself through it all??? I have no answer. Here are a couple of pics of the process. I painted up some commercial yarn and some roving. I'll have finished photos when I go out and get some batteries.
Here is painted green to pink sock yarn with way to many cups. Every time I experimented with mixing a new color it just ended up looking like burgundy. I think about five of those cups are some shade of burgundy.
You gotta steam the stuff to hold the color. Big pot.

Triad Craft Fair

Here are a couple of pics from the Triad High School craft fair. The turn out was kind of slim. I had kind of low expectations anyway since the weather was warm. Everybody out in their yards instead of indoors like I was all weekend. I don't have another event for a while but I am ready for break from this stuff. Here's the booth. I have a lot more inventory this year than last year. I'm really proud of what I came up with.
Here is a quick pic of last years booth. I have mostly the same items, but more to pick from this year.

The past week or so

Here are some of the things I have been experimenting with lately. While the mister was out at one of his poker games or something, I got up the nerve to dye up some roving. I used this tutorial and it actually turned out the way they describe. http://gfwsheep.com/rov.inst/rov.inst.html


This stuff is merino. It wasn't hard to spin. I just came up with the awful realization that I really should have a bigger flier on my wheel so I can spin up more yardage of the bulkier yarns. The kit I'm going to need for that is around $150. Geez. For now I'm going to have to deal with the smaller sections. Here is what happened with my handspun roving. I'm still pretty happy with it.
Yep. Pretty awesome.

I still sew these days. I constructed some patchwork pouches for the upcoming spring craft fair at Triad.

I really have a thing for bright colors on black backgrounds. Yet again I have another shameless cute cat pic. Gypsy is getting a little slower now that she is less of a kitten. I love those eyes.

Kool-Aid is awesome

I had my first adventure in yarn the yarn dyeing process. I did some experimenting with some Patons wool yarn and Kool-aid. From what I have read online, this is the cheapest and least easy method to screw up. I went from a skein of this...
Into the Kool-Aid bath. I used strawberry, grape, and tropical punch. This smelled so sickeningly sweet.

After about twenty minutes in the microwave, I let it dry for about 24 hours.
Here is the end result. I am working on a crochet skull cap with this stuff. If I have enough, I'll make a pair of mitts too.
Lovely.

it works

It took me a couple of tries, but I spun some stuff that resembles yarn. This stuff is single ply made from hand dyed merino roving. I just bought two pounds of plain roving and an acid dye kit. I'm hoping that will keep me away from roving searches on etsy. You know me. I have to make everything myself.

spoiled rotten

This Christmas has been amazing. I had no idea what the mister had up his sleeve. I got two biggins along with all of the little boxes I love to unwrap. I got to the bottom of the pile to find this one. Unassembled of course.

OMG. If that wasn't enough... he then proceed to lead me out to the shed behind the house. He had been hiding this little beauty.

Holy crap. I think he loves me.