Whoops! It's Tuesday

And I was supposed to announce the giveaway recipient yesterday. *scrambles*

The winner this month is Jamie! I'll contact via Ravelry regarding the McMorran balance.

I'm going to blame my lack of focus on dyeing yarn inside. All those fumes, you know (not really). This is why I'm mostly seasonal and usually do my dyeing only in the temperate months. It's both easier and harder than when I can set up my station outside. For one thing, there's half as many pots going, and everything takes an interminable amount of time. And while it may be more comfortable, it's also cramped and messier.


That's two measly pots and all that will fit in the bathroom where I dye in the winter. I managed four batches of yarn yesterday. 12 is typical of a normal day when I've got 4 pots cranked up. *sigh* So instead of 2 days dyeing, I'm going to do three and hope to finish up properly tomorrow.

I have to finish by tomorrow because Thursday is set aside for shopping and cooking because Friday is my birthday. I decided this year that I just wanted a nice dinner at home, but I wanted DINNER, and I wanted free rein to go to the supermarket(s) and buy anything I wanted to make anything I want whatsoever, and damn the cost. Which, given how I can shop for food will be not inconsiderable.

I have a menu already and it's 7 courses. I've got my shopping list and my prep schedule and I'm debating what to drink with dinner and if I can include a new bottle of gin in the total. We'll see. But it should be good.

More after the jump, including a very limited time coupon code for the shop, so click through!



And since I feel like spreading the wealth on my birthday, or at least the less impoverishment, I've decided to offer free shipping on Friday. The coupon code is CREAKY. It will be activated on Friday, March 11th and I'll deactivate it some time late Saturday. In this case, you have to use the coupon code. I'm not going to refund shipping after the fact because I'm also profoundly lazy.

Meanwhile, back at the dye pots....

I've got to go back and continue poking my extremely slow dye pots but I did want to conclude with the fact that tonight I taught my father to knit Continental. Just garter stitch and I cast on for him, but he's knitting on his own with no supervision. He caught on fast, I mean blisteringly fast. I demonstrated the knit stitch FOUR times, all in a row. Then I handed him the needles and he immediately understood needle placement and the concept of forming a stitch and pulling the old stitch off the needles. What he hasn't figured out is the dexterity and comfort aspect. He knows what he's supposed to achieve and he can make the tools perform their function, but he hasn't figured out what works best for him yet.

I can only guess it's because he's such a strong visual learner and very manually dexterous, as well as understanding the physical world extremely well. He's an engineer and he grew up on a farm and he's constantly rigging things up out of bits of twine and found objects when he needs to solves some sort of problem. But still, 80 years old and he picked up knitting in less than 10min. If he's interested enough to keep going, I'll teach him how to purl next. :D