countdown...

My vacation officially starts in one week and half a day. I'm already looking at the lists of wineries and trying to determine a wine budget (2 cases for about $300 - eep!) BUT I'm saving so much money by not flying anywhere/not staying in a hotel/etc. so I might just do it. I'm so excited to see real live cypress trees.

Oh, in case I didn't mention it before, I'm going to Southern Illinois with my boyfriend, to run around the woods he grew up in. It's a cheap thrill for a girl like me who's wild at heart but has been in the city for far, far too long.

In other news, I got another customer appreciation photo!



This was spun by Claire de Lune out of my "Tart" roving.

Speaking of yarn, I started handpainting yarn. I think I'm pleased with the results so far, and I'll have more fun trying new things this weekend- since I have 16 skeins waiting for me in the living room ;)



I should have more BFL here tomorrow, so I'll get in one more huge weekend of dyeing before I'm off for a week. I think I'll dye some skeins for myself to take on the trip- duh, I'm bringing my wheel, could I live without it for a week? ;)

*stuck*

I'm on my break at work, staring at the YarnCon 2008 vendor application. I'm going to do it! But I'm stuck on this "short bio" part. What to write about myself? How to capture the awesomeoness of handspun yarns in but a few words? Blargh.

I'm also trying to plan out where I'm going to put all these flowers around my house:

They were $4-5 a TRAY at my favorite grocery store (all of that cost me less than $20!), so I went a little overboard. I've planted a fraction of them around the base of two trees in the back yard, but I'm thinking the rest may need to go in pots. Lots and lots of pots!

My head is also here right now:


A June sky never looked so good! Also, handspun yarn looks better when photographed in the back yard with grass in the background. I think all my yarny photoshoots will be al fresco from now on-

zzzz

I am pooped. I got up at 8 today (after staying up till 1 AM dyeing and rinsing wool- remind to not do that again) and gardened for 4 hours out in the 85+ sun and humidity at a local organic garden. Fun, but I'm covered in a mix of dirt and sunscreen and I'm so tired I don't even care!

This week, I spun up a couple of new yarns and started doing some fall knitting. Yeah, knitting is hard to get into when it's this hot, but I'm working up some great fingerless mitts. The first is from Folktale Fibers famous handspun patchwork yarn in the colorway Silhouette:

These are my test mitts, so they're a little big. I'm keeping them for myself.

Then, I got all inspired by the book by Cosette Cornelius-Bates, aka Cosyknitsliterally, called "Knit One, Embellish Too." It totally caters to my sensibilities and skill level as a crafter and knitter, so I started these mitts from some Pigeonroof Studios roving I spun up:

I think I'm going to embroider some vines and sew some small coordinating buttons on as 'grapes' or whatever.

I feel like it's been forever since I've knitted anything, so it's nice to do it again. Also, I find it's great to keep me busy during 7-hour sessions of playing Twilight Imperium with some friends.

Anyway, here are the yarns for the week:
Frog Prince, bulky singles from misc batts, unknown weight and yardage:


Get Happy, a mash-up of several

And Violet Hour, many purple and black batts, plied with clear thread, 110 yd, 4 oz:


Plus the Pigeonroof yarn in the WIP above. I got Intertwined the other day, so I'm going to try some new techniques this weekend- I think I'll start with corespinning my autumn-inspired LOOP batt!

I'd better go either check on how my rovings are drying, shower, or fall asleep.