Hi everybody!! In an effort to divert your attention from the fact that I have very little to really blog about, I'll tell you a very short story about Good Intentions (aka What Was I Thinking?).
Last year I learned about the Preemie Project. Such a special organization that has GROWN by leaps and bounds in the past year. Wow so many members in the Yahoo Group now! I feel slightly less guilty about being a very low producing donor to the project when the organizer, Laura Aker, is literally covered up with donations. So about this time last year I started making pumpkin hats and booties to donate for the October Pumpkin Push. Before I really knew much about what I was doing I went in search of the perfect pumpkin colored yarn. LB's Cotton Ease had JUST been discontinued and they had the most perfect pumpkin colored cotton yarn and lots of other people were using it but it wasn't available to me. I really thought I had hit the jackpot when I found this:
I think the color is called "carrot". I know you're saying to yourself "What was she thinking?" I know - I know. I don't want this stuff made into a blanket, sweater, hat or booties for my own baby or myself much less a precious delicate little premature baby in the hospital! So that brilliant idea was nixed right away when I got it home and said "I can't believe I bought this stuff." I did end up using Caron Simply Soft "Mango" yarn for the donation and it was wonderful for the project. It's time to think about getting that stuff back out and making a few more pumpkin hats. :)
So this yarn has been repurposed. There's a LOT of it here. I'm using it to tie up undyed skeins before soaking them in vinegar water for dyeing! Yes! Even hideous yarn like that has a purpose in life. When you're dyeing yarn, don't forget to add extra ties to help prevent tangling and always use something that won't BLEED onto your undyed yarn while it soaks!! I made the mistake of using some blue kitchen cotton a while back and while it soaked some of the blue dye came off on my to-be-dyed yarn!! EEK!! Don't make that mistake y'all!!
In other knitterly news, I've been working on the Memory Blanket little by little. It's now 24" across the bottom edge. I want it to be about 36-40" so I've got a good ways to go. That's okay - I'm not in any hurry - and it's very pleasant to work on. I do think I need to get a longer circular needle though because I hate for my work to be bunched up TOO much on the needles.
In the spinning department I'm coming along slowly with the Evening Sun singles I'm spinning but it's OHHHHHH so beautiful to watch. These colors are really rich and dramatic - even more so than the yarn I've dyed - THIS is what I want from the yarn colorway. I'm definitely going to be working on developing it into richer stronger colors in the yarn colorway if possible. Every dye lot is different - sometimes heavier on the reds, sometimes on the greens. It's never exactly the same as the last time.
And now I need to hurry along and get working on a Super Secret Emergency Gift Knitting project before the babies get up from their nap. Hint: It involves this lady (below) and a project I started a long time ago. Well, okay - the pattern is from the Fall '05 Interweave Knits and I started this project as soon as the magazine arrived so it's that old. A year. I think it's time to finish and it's for a gift. I hope I haven't given it away now. Sometimes I'm such a bad secret keeper. :)
