Dye Job

Saturday morning my mom and I went to a handpainted yarn class at Sheep Street Fibers. She agreed to go to this class with me, and I'm going to a weaving class with her in August.

I loved it.

Nancy, the owner/teacher, called each of us the day before and asked us how much yarn we wanted to dye. Since I had no helpful answer, she asked what project I planned to do. I wasn't much help with that either. I'd never done any dyeing, so I was there for the experience, not because I was desperate to get a specific yarn. We decided on about 1000 yards of fingering weight. Mom chose sport weight yarn.

Mom dyed her yarn with red, deep yellow, and little hints of olive green. After it finished steaming, it looked like it had 5-6 shades of orange in addition to those colors. It was really stunning.

I think mine is also gorgeous.

I used green, blue, purple, yellow, and a touch of pink. It reminds me of an Impressionist watercolor. Well, the yarn version of it, anyway.

It took me over two hours to get the yarn into balls. I'd prefer not to say any more about that, except to note that I only threw a ball of yarn across the room once and there was no alcohol involved, which I think is admirable.

I'm not sure how deep this rabbit hole is going to go.

Sock Yarn Revisited

I found a pattern to use for the sock yarn that didn't want to be socks.

Strangling Vine Lace Scarf (Ravelry link), Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR lightweight yarn in Sweet Pea

The yarn has subtle light green and blush pink in it, although you can't tell that from the picture.

I love the way it blocked. This pattern has a lot of visual interest for a pretty easy four-row lace pattern. I plan to give it to Mom for her August birthday. I hope she likes it!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is Andrew and my 10th anniversary.

I thought about what to say about that.

• I adore him.
• He's smart.
• And funny.
• And quirky in freakishly similar ways to me.
• And kind.
• And the kind of person I'd want to be with at the end of the world. Sure, we'd both die, but we'd go out together.
• And sexy.
• And my best friend.
• And steady as a rock.
• And I'm keenly aware of how amazing our relationship is and how rare it is to find someone you actually want to spend your life with.
• And I can honestly say I've never once doubted that this marriage thing was worth it because I was married to Andrew. This is pretty damn shocking considering some of the marriage role models I've had.
• And I'm the luckiest person ever.

All of that is true, and it all sounds like Hallmark crap. So, I'll just leave it at this:

Andrew, you are my very favorite person in the world. I have no idea how we got this lucky, but I'm guessing we had some really bad stuff happen to us in a previous life and the universe is trying to make it up to us. Let's not dwell on it. Thanks for loving me even though we've both changed a lot in the past ten years. There's no one I'd rather do life with than you.

I love you. Happy anniversary to us.

Oh, and I'm really looking forward to fried vegetables and a crock of gooey cheese. Thanks for helping us find a restaurant that has more than one vegetarian option for our anniversary dinner.

Wordless Wednesday

In Which I Admit Defeat... For Now

I can grow some things. I can even grow some things from seed. Here are two very healthy spaghetti squash plants. This is the Hasta la Pasta variety, and I admit to buying it mostly for the name.

I'm going to have to find someone who wants a Hasta la Pasta, and probably some other squash varieties as well.

However, the seedlings that I faithfully started inside in March never took off.

Seriously, that's a picture of a seedling that I planted THREE MONTHS AGO. It's as if they're all stuck in some bizarre stasis. I think it's a good possibility that there's some sort of temporal wormhole in my backyard. Shouldn't they have either grown or died by now?

I gave up, and on Sunday I purchased pepper and tomato plants.

It saddened me because I had been babying these seedlings for three months, and I had pored over the Burpee catalogue and picked the specific varieties I wanted. I was committed to these particular varieties, and I couldn't get those plants at the nursery. Now I'll have to wait a whole year (at least) to see if the Fourth of July tomato really is ready on July 4 and if the Red October variety really does last for sixteen weeks off the vine.*

I'm trying to console myself with the fact that I'll try again next year, probably with a grow light. Also, I did buy a tomato plant called Mr. Stripey, and that eases the heartache a bit.

This morning there were nine ducks in my backyard. I admit to worrying about the health of my plants. Send positive energy their way.

*Of course I don't really believe them. July 4th? Sixteen weeks? That's crazytalk. Still, I have to wait another year to prove them wrong.

Recipe #22: Deep Dish Pizza

This is another recipe unearthed during the recipe reorganization project. It's deep dish pizza, and it. is. brilliant.

The recipe is another Vegetarian Times recipe... sort of. The crust is from that recipe, but I redid the toppings to make it tastier and less healthy. I used pizza sauce, fake sausage, fresh basil, portobellos, and topped it all with shredded cheese and pizza spice.

So very good. The crust was a mixture of whole wheat and all-purpose flour with a bit of flax seed. It rose beautifully and didn't stick to the pan. We slid it out onto a pizza stone after it cooled a bit because I was nervous about scratching this skillet.

I loved this and would consider eating it every day if I had time to make the crust.

Yarny Growth

My May sock club shipment was a departure. The company takes dyeing yarn very seriously. In addition to many multicolored yarns, they have primarily black yarn and primarily white yarn. These skeins still have colors other than black and white, but they are very subtle. Last year we received a Raven clan (black) yarn, and I made the socks recommended (second pair) and love them.

This shipment contained a Spirits (white) yarn.

It's called Sweet Pea, and indeed, there are small hints of blush pink and light green. Hints.

Joining a club where someone else picks what you receive means you're open to receiving stuff you wouldn't normally buy. Because of that, I've made socks with beads, socks with &$*%) tricky rosebuds, and socks with chart after chart after chart.

I didn't like either of the two patterns that came with this yarn. That was unexpected. Before, I've always either liked the yarn, one of the patterns, or both. Okay, no problem. I picked a pattern from a book by a designer I really like and cast on.

Rick pattern by Cookie A. from this book, Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR yarn in Sweet Pea

Gorgeous pattern, yes? Yes. Very pretty.

I kept knitting and admiring the pattern. Knitting. Knitting.

Today while knitting at lunch, I paused to take stock of this project. And I decided to tell myself the truth.

I don't like this yarn. I'm not going to wear cream socks. Boring white cotton socks? Yes. Brightly-colored socks that don't match anything I own? Yes. Cream socks? No.

I'm on the search for something to knit with this yarn, and I am confident I will find it through the wonders of Ravelry.

In the meantime, I would like us all to pause a moment and congratulate me that I did not spend sixteen hours of my life making a pair of socks I will never wear.

Growth.