Like bubbles in a fish tank

Little thoughts keep rising to the surface. I'm a bit scattered, I've got a festival on Saturday and I'm behind schedule!

*bubble*
If you happen to be in the Montgomery NJ area on November 13th, swing by Montgomery Made by Hand at the high school (1016 Route 601, Skillman, NJ). 10am-3pm, it's a holiday craft fair hosted by the honors society, and there will be 45 vendors in attendance.  Free admission!  Raffles!

*bubble*
One of my yarns was in an Etsy front page Treasury last night. That was a very pleasant bump in views and hearts. Statsy screenshot. I really like the coy little bird print in the top row.

*bubble*
Someone asked a question on the Rav forums yesterday about whether garter stitch or seed stitch uses less yarn.  My gut reaction is to say seed stitch, both from experience and from considering the mechanics of both stitches.  But in a bit of procrastinatory rebellion I also decided to swatch.

Cast on with the backwards loop co, slipped the first stitch of every row, and bound off in pattern. The total number of rows included the co and bo. Each swatch was made with exactly the same length of yarn on the same needles.  Tension differences are sure to influence this, of course.

Now if I can just avoid getting sucked in to figuring out how to adjust for giant holes in one's knitting, like those Swiss cheese holes at the start of the hemlock ring.  For some reason these puzzles are always more interesting to me when I've got a massive pile of other things to do.

*bubble*
In another bit of procrastinatory rebellion, I put together a clip for This Is Handmade.  If you haven't heard about this blog, it collects tedium.  Specifically it collects the tedium of handcrafting (an explanation of the project).  So here is slightly more than 5min of me making stitch markers last night.  It's not a tutorial and it's hard to see exactly what I'm doing, and it's quite dull. But that's kind of the point. YouTube link


*bubble*
And now for something completely different. Some ruminating about cake after the jump.

An early Midsummer Night's Dream

It's not yet midsummer, but this month's theme for the June Phatfiber box has arrived right in the middle of some mid-summerly heat and humidity.

Before I get into the glories of the box, however, here's a picture of a visitor to our carport this afternoon.  I don't know why it was in the middle of our carport instead of wandering amongst the trees.

It looks like a luna moth caterpillar to me. I put it in the ground cover out of the way and hopefully it's made its way safely to wherever it was going.

Now, on to the box!  Lots of beautiful and large! samples this month.

This was the great "program" Jessie sent in the box to hold the cards and such.

Pictures of the box contents and shop links after the jump.

Ouch, that's hot!

I need a new pair of insulated gloves. There's nothing quite like handling hot yarn and having that creeping certainty that very shortly one will want to dance about going "OW OW OW!!!". Still, it's not bad for nearly a year. They're still usable, just not so great for protecting my hands from boiling water anymore!

I thought I'd show some in progress pictures of my yarn today, since I'm in the middle of dyeing up yarn for June/July. But first up, a reminder that the Ice Cream Social giveaway is still open and will be so through tomorrow. I'll pick someone out of a hat on Sunday. C'mon, you know you want it. It's free ice cream!

Also, I'm in another Treasury. Americana Cat in various fun shades of red, white, and blue.

Now, on to the yarny goodness!

Mmm, the smell of hot wool and vinegar....

These are 3 of my crockpots, in the middle of the dye process. I usually dye three 100-114g skeins or two 170g skeins at a time. That's the most I can fit into the pots and still get results I like.

FP

Wishing everyone a great Memorial Day. It's hot but beautiful today, so I'm doing my best to keep cool.

Keeping cool is not something I'm actually suited for today, however, because yesterday I was on the front page of Etsy for an hour, in the citruscitrus Treasury.  *flails quietly*




I had my doubts about the front page being all that influential in the grand scheme of things. But... *flails*

It's not. It's really, really not. The front page is brilliant and incredible. That one skein of yarn had a jump of over 200 views in that hour, and then sold within a few minutes of the Treasury switching over to the next one.

Heartfelt thanks for everyone who puts Treasuries together. I know they're hard work, because I've contemplated assembling one and been totally stalled by the sheer scale of the task. But OMG, it's been a very OMG kind of weekend to end a very OMG kind of year. 

OK, back to the knitting. I have a baby hat and some ice cream cozies to make before I can do anything else.  And when it cools down, I have to wind some yarn. :)

Updating in the actual month the yarn was dyed! (And a sale)

Shocking! :P

These are the colorways I've started listing tonight.  All from this month, they fall mostly into two themes.  I will finish listing them some time tonight:

Clicking the image will take you to the shop. It's all Three Hares except Nebula, which is Arctic Hare.

Colonial Day and Kobol were colorways thought up for the BSG FPB group on Ravelry.  Sea Wrack is an old favorite on a new base, and Nebula is another one I've done before.
 
Titania, Bottom, and Peasblossom are my June Phatfiber contribution:


Also, I'm having a sale right now.  The particulars and coupon code after the jump.

Groups and knitting, but not knitting groups

I started a Ravelry group for my shop yesterday.  Light Brown Hare (group)  I've been thinking about it for a while, worried that I would be the only one at the party, as it were. But it seems time with the one year anniversary of the shop coming up fast and the things I have planned with both the shop and this blog.

A lot of the information will overlap with this blog, but I think the format difference will be enough to make both worthwhile in their separate ways. One of the things I'm not used to about this kind of blog format is how difficult it is to have an actual conversation, and the group forums are specifically designed to facilitate conversations.  I also don't plan to duplicate the giveaways. So, right now I've opened up the group for an inaugural June giveaway of stitch markers. Anyone who joins the group and comments in the relevant thread by June 4th will be added to a random drawing.  I'm going to pick 12 people to each receive a widget stitch marker.  Meanwhile, the June giveaway on this blog will be a skein of yarn. But I'm waiting for June 1 for that. :)

As an aside, my yarn has been in 3 Etsy Treasuries recently. Treasury East, but still treasuries.  I'm never quite sure what to do about them, but it's lovely being included.  Apparently Moro appeals! :) B l o o d Orange; Electric Blue; We Belong Together.

Meanwhile, on to the knitting.  I finished my Vertex, which I have called Vertiginous, late last night which was really early this morning. But I'm still calling it "yesterday" in my head.  Ravelry project page  It's not blocked yet. Far too hot and humid to wear scarves, let alone block them.