Gulp

The steek class is this weekend. Pass the Scotch, please.

Spent all day yesterday dyeing a new batch of yarn for Susan. I wanted to dye a bunch more, so I'd have a little reserve for surprise Susan orders, some to put on Etsy and some to take to another LYS that has expressed interest in carrying it, but I've been having issues with my supplier. As in, the base yarn I use is constantly on back order. Grrrr.

I put in a gi-normous order a week or so ago but they can't tell me if it will be available next week or next month. Or six months from now. This is irritating. I'd switch suppliers, but the base yarn is soooo nice... soft, springy, bouncy, elastic, but with a high twist so it wears well. It truly is a Most Excellent Sock Yarn.

I haven't found an equivalent, and there's no way I'd be happy with using something lesser, so I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth and wait.

I reserve the right to whine and complain bitterly.

Pretty pictures

Forest Darkness, in progress...

Detail shot of the yoke...
Blue Shimmer kit...
and Wild Apple.

This would all be sooooo much further along if I wasn't such a slow knitter. It would also be further along if I didn't have the attention span of a gnat. I knit an inch or so on the Bo, then wander off and spin or dye (or sometimes, under protest, do things that indicate that I have some smallish life outside of fiber).

It is possible Bohus No. 1 will be done by mid to late August. Anyone want to take bets on the exact day? Before you do, check the Farmers' Almanac. My guess is, I'll finish it on the nastiest, hottest, most stinking humid day of the entire year. 'Cause there's nothing quite like finishing a marathon project and then being unable to bear wearing it for more than 30 seconds ;-)

Slow ride

A couple of nights ago, I proved something that was long suspected: I am, as experienced knitters go, dirt slow.

The lovely ladies in my knitting group at Margie's Muse are almost all beginners to advanced beginners. They are all I have to compare myself to, and of course I am faster than them. So for awhile I was tricked into thinking that maybe I'm at least average for my level of experience. But no, not so much. My Speed Racer pedal-to-the-metal top number of stitches per minute, in stockinette on circs (no purling, and certainly nothing tricky) is 43 stitches per minute. On lace, colorwork, cabling, whatever, my pace is anything from glacial to geologic.

No bloody wonder it takes freakin' forever for me to get anything done.

In my own defense, I am pretty darn accurate. But still, accuracy alone is worthless unless you eventually wind up with A FINISHED OBJECT.

If anyone knows any sort of speed-knitting training program for terminal waddlers, could you let me know?

Eye candy

It's been one of those weeks that can best be described as soul-sucking. Haven't been able to rouse myself enough to work on much of anything, even my true love, the Bohus.


However, I did get off my butt in order to dye a big fat batch 'o' yarn. I had not much choice in the matter and could summon little passion for the task, but it needed doing.

Wonder of wonders, Susan at Not Just Yarn has been selling my little bits of string at a pace I can best describe as surprising. Or at least surprising to me. She called to reorder, so dye I did.

Sent a passel of skeins off to NJY, put a bunch on Etsy. I give you pictures (mostly to distract you from the fact that I have nothing profound or clever or even mildly witty to say).

UPDATE: Well, I'll be damned. I had my first Etsy sale! (If you don't know what Etsy is, go there now. Trust me.) The two green skeins in the pictures are off to their new home in sunny California.