Thursday, September 8, 2011

Meep

I can't quite believe it's Thursday night already. I have so much left to do. *hyperventilates*

But one fun and quick thing I can do is announce that LadySisyphus was picked by the randomizer to receive September's food safe dye kit. Thanks for playing, everyone! Lots of fall colors in people's suggestions; autumn must be on people's minds! A drier season would be a good thing; the flooding in the region is really bad.

In random other news, I'm almost at another shop milestone and I tend to get myself little presents for those. This time around I ordered a custom hair stick from Hapagirls. I absolutely fell in love with her copper lotus and asked if she could make me a hairstick. And she did! It's so beautiful in person and it slips into my bun perfectly and holds great. I adore it and I don't think I'll take it off any time soon, even if I haven't actually reached my next milestone yet!

Here's a blurry picture of it in. Uh, please ignore the messy hair, etc.


Now I've got to run and get some more work done. I have to label all this and pack it away for the show. This is all the yarn I dyed the last few days of August and then this week, less about 40sk of yarn and also the 2 pounds of fiber I dyed last night.


In some ways I can't wait for the festival, even with everything I still have to do. Once it's here and then done I can go back to normal hours!

Hope to see some of you there this weekend!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

When in danger or in doubt.... (and a colorful giveaway)

Run in circles, scream and shout. Actually, we did none of that, although some crankpants sniping started happening.

I am, of course, referring to the recent visit from Irene. We lost power for 3.5 days, and since we have well water we were without electricity and running water for the duration. Otherwise, we came through unscathed. The gravel driveway looks a bit rough as parts of it are partially washed out, but the worst of it was fixed either by the neighbor who happens to be resurfacing right now or the county when they fixed the (dirt) road on Monday.

All in all, if I have to have some sort of storm inconvenience to handle I much prefer a power outage compared to all the horrible flooding going on in the region. I did have a small nervous breakdown on Tuesday when we were told it could last for a week, but it came back yesterday and I could get back to work.

In more cheerful things, I am up to my eyeballs in hot, wet wool since the Garden State Sheep Breeders' festival is in just over a week. And, since it's Sept 1st I have a giveaway! I am now 3 days behind schedule in my festival prep courtesy of a tropical storm, so I've decided to spread the wealth a little. Namely, I have assembled a little kit so that whoever wins this giveaway can try their hand at dyeing, too.


This is one package of concentrated gel paste food coloring in color primaries, 40g of citric acid, and one 400yd/4oz skein of 100% merino sock yarn. It's the Jackrabbit base, the really sproingy 2ply. All you need to do is add the water and the heat! And since it's food safe, you don't need to worry about special equipment.

I'm going to let this run through Wednesday the 7th, and pick someone at random on Thursday. To enter, comment to this post with what kind of colorway you'd like to make with this skein of yarn. Now I've got to race over to the Rav group. Have at it!