After a little episode with a smoking cookie sheet under the broiler, I decided that I need some new pot holders. And, I wanted them to match my kitchen, which would require dyeing the yarn. The Fire King jadite color is one of my all-time favorites; but I can’t wear that color, so I painted my kitchen that color instead. I was so excited to try out dyeing in my new, dedicated dye pot. I followed Melissa’s excellent advice from her hand-dyeing podcast to test the dye color with the corner of a paper towel to get an idea of how it might look on the yarn. This was my first time to intentionally dye a pale, not fully saturated color. I’m pretty pleased with the results, although the yarn is a little bluer than perfect.

Yarn: Bare Peruvian …

I knit a finished, wearable piece of clothing that’s not a scarf!

I can’t believe it! I wish I wasn’t wearing black tights today so that you could see them better, but you get the idea.
Here’s how it happened. I’d been stalling on the second legwarmer, but I got a good 6 inches of knitting done on Tuesday evening when I went to listen to the Yarn Harlot speak at the World Forestry Center (BTW, if you missed it, she was as hilarious in person as she is on her blog). And then I got quite a bit done last night as I watched the final episode of Six Feet Under on DVD. And then this morning, when I went out to my car and realized I had left my headlights on (again) and my battery was completely dead (again), I thought of the Yarn …

A friend pointed out that this lace shawl looks like a dead animal in one of my previous posts. Ugh! She’s right though, lace looks horribly ugly until it’s blocked (and perhaps my photography skills need improvement :-). My HUGE problem is that I’m pretty sure I won’t have enough yarn. I made the body of the shawl bigger than the pattern said, so I guessed at how much yarn I would need – oops. For some reason, I have this feeling that if I knit really fast, I can sneak in some repeats of the border without actually depleting the ball of yarn. Totally illogical, and yet I find myself knitting faster and faster and checking how much smaller the little ball of yarn is. I’m just going to have to order some more yarn and hope the dye lot is close.
Pattern: Curved …

I was on vacation last week, doing a HUGE basement repair project, which means hardly any knitting happened. Every time I sat down for more than 10 minutes, I fell asleep! Also, what I’m knitting on is kind of secret. I can at least tell you that it is our Bare Essential yarn, which Alison dyed using Jacquard Acid dyes in purple, emerald and sky blue, but that’s about it. For now, enjoy the stripes!
I always bring my knitting to work because it’s perfectly acceptable here to knit during meetings, but I especially look forward to Fridays because I am guaranteed to have half an hour of knitting time while I proof Kelley’s podcast. Her interview with one of my favorite designers, Kathleen Taylor, will go up later today. …

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we’re having a “pot(luck) at the end of the rainbow”. Doesn’t everything look delicious? Alison baked that bread from scratch. I had no idea she was so multi-talented!

In addition to wearing a green sweater and gorging myself on bread, vegetable pie, red pepper and asparagus curry, strawberries, and chocolate, I’ve decided to get into the spirit of the day by making a list of all our green yarns. I love making lists. Here we go.
Lace weight:
Lost Lake Heather (Shadow)
Moss Heather (Alpaca Cloud)
Tide Pool Heather (Alpaca Cloud)
Fingering weight:
Green (Palette)
Mint (Palette)
Grass (Palette)
Ivy (Palette)
Verdan…
Terrain Twist (Essential)
Lily Pad Multi (Essential)
Meadow Multi (…Woodland Sage (Gloss)
Arugula (Felici)
Grass (Risata)
Sport weight:
Cilantro Heather (Telemark)
Rosemary (Telemark)
Pesto (Telemark)
No…
Grass (Shine Sport)
Green Apple (Shine Sport)
Moss Heather (Andean Treasure)
DK weight:
Lime (Crayon Boucle)
Spumoni (Twist)
Moss (Merino Style)
Asparagus (Merino Style)
Key Lime (Cot Lin)
Moss (Swish DK)
Asparagus (Swish DK)
Grass (Elegance)
Worsted weight:
Pampas Heather (Wool of the Andes)
Thyme (Wool of …

This is Spencer, our intrepid photographer. He’s getting all his lights set up in my kitchen so we can photograph a special dyeing tutorial for our June catalog. We were very fortunate to have an overcast day so we didn’t have to deal with bright sunlight coming in the kitchen window.

This is Alison, who has outlined every photo we need to take to go with the step-by-step instructions she’s written. The only free space in the whole kitchen for her to take notes was between the burners (don’t worry – they weren’t on at this point!) on the stove.

Hard at work. Honestly, tutorial photography days are really fun! What I like best is the “behind the scenes” look of all the piles of supplies and things that are just outside the photos …

I love watching NASCAR races. I was trying to remember how this came to be, and I think it stems from going with my family to Champ car qualifying days at Portland International Raceway when we could get free passes. My Dad and brother absolutely loved going, and Mom and I would tag along and sit under the makeshift lean-to awning and read – back when they would let you camp out for the day on the grassy banks around the track. There’s something about the sound and the excitement and unpredictability. What I like even better about stock car racing is that they smash into each other and into the walls and yet, many times, THEY STILL KEEP GOING, albeit with sheet metal flapping. Repairs are attempted with baseball bats and …