Rock Day

So yesterday was Rock day, Peg explained. So we all need to meet and have a spin-in or get our knit on. So yesterday in the Village Yarn Shop, that's exactly what we did. I picked up Janet and her Kromski at noon and we were there by 12:30 and set up, spinning and having girl-talk by 1. Lots more people came and we had a full circle going and it was a great time. I got a ton of spinning done...

Here is my new favorite handspun, "Calypso" (bigger, lighter skien) and "Cousteau" (smaller, darker skien) I figured I'd stick with mostly nautical names because the colors are a most beautiful blue. The roving was Fleece Artist 70% merino, 30% silk, and it was a dream to spin. I can't believe I spun 2 whole things of roving yesterday, and then plied them together. It was 2 different colors, a dark blue and a light blue and I spun them separately and then plied them together. Nothing too fancy, but I love how it came out.

And I even did a little shopping (for my Brit Knitters and a little for myself of course!) Mandie knows I can't resist her Sheepyfeet sock yarn http://sheepytimeknits.com/ , shown here in "Wisteria" (very Desperate Housewives, I love it!) I also got some Alpaca-ey sock yarn from the store. You know I can't resist sock yarn, and heathered sock yarn is an even bigger weakness. I think it's Alpaca with a Twist, but that's upstairs currently in the "do not pack" room and I don't want to bug the movers. I was making them nervous earlier putting the wheel back together from it's ride in the Jeep. When they are making a living out of taking things apart, they must get confused when people are putting things back together.Back to Rock Day. There was also a gift/yarn/roving exchange. I took some fun thrummed roving and I think Mandie ended up with it. I ended up with some nice brown roving that had been Peg's. I think her awesomeness may have rubbed off onto it, making it wonderful to spin. I didn't get a picture of that. I also took a gift for the dishcloth+$5 present swap. I took a cute (well I think it's cute) knitted looking mug that I found in England. It came with Walkers shortbread inside, and I threw in a pink and green ballband dishcloth and a crochet 2-sided potholder. They're awesome, they take 2 hours to make, and even non-crafters like them. Seriously, my mom has a drawer full and wants more for the Florida house. I also took some stitch markers I made about a year ago. I called them "Cosmo" they were pink and black and I thought they were pretty cool. (And my blog is refusing to post pictures of them. Oh well, if you were there, you probably saw them, if not, use your imagination)

I ended up with Gloria's awesome gift, which was a bright pink washcloth with butterflies all over it, a dishtowel with a knit-top on it so it hook on to things like drawer handles, and 2 little notebooks, 1 of which is already in my knitting bag.
Lets see....I spent most of Friday night making a mess in the kitchen, which I do really well. In the middle of all that mess, there was a pot of acid dye and a little more than a pound of soon-to-be-green Patons Classic Merino in the Winter White colorway. It used to be a sweater for my mom that was too boxy with sleeves that were too small (early attempt at designing) and it got frogged, washed and dyed Friday night. The color was "Amazon Green" from Dylon and had a picture of a really green parot, so silly me, I assumed that the yarn would come out bright green. (or maybe even feathered!) Instead, I got celery. (My hands, however, came out a brilliant shade of Emerald)
It's growing on me. I was expecting something much brighter, but this is probably more along the lines of "colors I might actually wear". It was a fun process, I haven't dyed with anything other than Kool-aid before (unless you count washing red undies in the load of whites "dyeing") and it was fun.

So not a whole lot going on with my life outside of yarnyness. I finished the 4th Sookie Stakhouse book and am a little ashamed to say how fast I'm reading this set. I also started the 5th one last night. I really thought my "sexy vampire" stage ended when Buffy got cancelled. Apparently not. HBO does do a great job with True Blood and Charlaine Harris' books are amazing. They're quite refreshing after a semester of Charles Dickens, Anton Chekkov and Leo Tolstoy. I love brain candy like that.

I'm going out to my Grandma's house tonight to have dinner and hang out before I head back to England. I'm also going to visit Toffee's little grave. She's burried at G-ma's house, she loved it there. We always joked that Toffee was their favorite grandchild. That's about it. I'm outta here!