silliness...

my son, a very talented artist, drew this... we thought it was darned funny! hope you do too...

oooo

fun fun fun!

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Total Spoiler

So, I'm loving the shaft of these. BUT, i cannot decide what to do with the heel. I've played with a variety of things from vertical stripes (interesting) to some other things that failed pretty big, to these horizontal stripes. I'm not sure i LOVE them. I'm just not sure. Someone suggested just green. I've been considering just the dark color. Oh dear, i see more frogging in my future. :-(

I guess i'm sort of hoping someone will chime in and say either: Oh, i like it, it's good, OR What the hell are you thinking, that doesn't fit at all. So, what DO you think???

fresh from the dye pot

I've been playing again. after all that RED, i needed to see some other colors, and green is always my come back to color. so this morning, after finished more SCAB yarn, i threw two skeins in the dye pot just. for. fun. I hardly do that anymore, it seems. I think i'll call it Forest Canopy. it is lovely dappled greens and browns. the sun shining through deep forest canopy.It reminds me of a song a sang in college "...from deep in the forest, concealed by the trees..."

I'm shipping the first few skeins of SCAB yarn today. not all of the yarn is dry yet, but i want to ship as quickly as i can.

Things are moving right along with our yarn shop. we've ordered our first yarn and are going to be ordering more today! purchased some shelving. it's just so darned exciting.

let me just share... and a spoiler!

with you for a moment how unreal my life occassionally seems. I suppose that sounds silly. and it is. a bit.

Years ago, i wanted desperately to make a living as a musician. I went to college, i practiced, i worked at music. i tried very hard. somewhere around my first marriage i made contact with a guy who said he knew a guy that might be interested in my music. My (now ex) husband threw a tantrum (insecurities suck) and i passed up the chance... and had a baby instead. it was hard, it made me resent my (now ex) husband, whom was already a problem because he was abusive.

i finally left when my (now ex) husband quit the last in a long trail of jobs and we got an eviction notice. i came home to South Dakota. wrecked. Eventually i went back to college, back to music. I still had dreams. But i was older and had two little babies at home, so my dreams were a bit smaller. I wanted to teach and spend my summers traveling to arts festivals selling my CDs (not made yet) of celtic music. I met my now husband while in college, but he was going to law school and told me he wasn't going to get married until law school was done. so i ran off to Alaska for a year. I'd always wanted to go and i taught in Unalakleet for a year. Fabulous. Then my now husband decided it was pretty lonely on his own and said he didn't want to wait afterall. I came home. we got married. i taught another two years. i had Brenden. i made a CD. I loved it.

I started traveling. Gigs were hard to come by, and money was slow going at the beginning of his law career, but i got paid enough to afford to go. MOSTLY. But i was barely breaking even.

All this time, i'd learned to spin and was spinning little bits and bobs of yarn. they sat around in baskets in my house. I didn't knit. Crocheting hurt my hands (i had the beginnings of arthritis even then) and spinning was just a hobby. I was going to make my job playing music.

I did a couple more things to help me make a living as a musician... and none of them really seemed to make it possible to even make it a reasonable second income. I made a second CD. I traveled. I got lots of good reviews. everyone said i should be able to make it. BUT, i could not.

Then, while i was away on a weekend gig, i was sitting around spinning and someone bought a bunch of handspun yarn. I made almost as much selling a little bit of handspun as i had made playing a bunch of times in a weekend.

And a new career was born... the thing that i thought was a career, has turned into a hobby. and the thing that was strictly a hobby... is now a career. And i'm happier now, than i was when i was a musician. isn't life odd?

Pictures of yesterday in my life!

Dyeing scab yarn and Forest Primeval!


progress on the pride and prejudice sock!

deep bruise! and a spoiler

I dyed this up and debated about the name... Black eye? Shiner? in the end... i decided that Deep Bruise, was the most appropriate... and in spite of the yucky name... it is DARNED PRETTY!

On another note, i have 25 skeins ready to be SCAB yarn soaking! YEEHAW! I can't wait for it to be dyed, dry and shipped. I had to order new shipping boxes. I guess that's a good thing... I've used up all the ones i had!

i bought a couple new colors of dye that i really love... can't wait to play!

I've cast on the pride and prejudice colorwork sock! it is fun. a friend designed the colorwork part, and now i'm decided where to go from there... it beautiful!

the latice work is simple and fun. the colors are nice... i'm going to have to do more to see how i think it suits!

News and new yarn

so... my website and yarn was a topic of conversation on LimenViolet podcast 80! i can't believe it. CAN. NOT. BELIEVE. IT. Color me surprised! If you found your way here from there... welcome, glad you came by! a couple comments the S&S sock is neither feather and fan nor eye of partridge... but darned close! and yes, that's The Badlands! Castle Fibers is based out of Rapid City, which is about an hour from The Badlands... and it's one of my fave places to hang out!

I have SCAB in laceweight now available. It is a slightly different colorway, because my laceweight is half silk. This means that it's yummy yarn... soft and luxurious, but takes dye a bit differently! It'll be available in extremely limited amounts... scoup it up or it'll be gone!

Pride and Prejudice socks...

so, this weekend i got the design for the colorwork... and i'm totally excited. I can't wait to get started. I've dyed up what i think will be the colorways... it's going to be lovely and fun. I cannot believe how well SCAB yarn sold... it's all sold out... i'll be doing a sample of dk weight and a sample of lace weight to see how they turn out, before i list them in presale. As soon as I get the scab yarn all dyed, the banshee yarn will go into presale.

shipping... spoiler!

so, all the yarn is dry and in super pretty neat skeins (not like the ones that came out of the dye pot, which were messy). the yarn is all packaged into baggies so it will not wet with a extra added gift AND a coupon! the boxes look so cute all in stacks!

and what's inside looks even cuter...

out the door they go!

R.I.P. Line

the R.I.P. (undead yarn) line is available on my website http://castlefibers.com/ for those who are looking. Only SCAB is available for preorder at this time, Banshee will be available shortly!

i see yarn....

lots and lots of Sense and Sensibility yarn... it's everywhere... taking over my house! hehe. I decided to do a slightly different colorway than the one i knit up... i wanted the reds a bit richer...
Plus i dyed up this yarn...


It will be part of the R.I.P. line... It's called Banshee ... cuz it's screamin' pink!

she's walking...

Jinniver... someone i feel honored to call a friend, that i met through ravelry, is walking... for those who can't. Just saying that makes me choke up a bit. She's raising money for MS... she was diagnosed some years ago and has been doing this ever since. She's raided her stash and is raffling off some awesome yarn... donate and win!

check out her blog!
http://sarahwinchesteroffiberarts.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/walking-for-those-who-cant/

hugs

WOW

SCAB is half gone already... and it's only in presale because i haven't gotten the chance to dye it yet. I'm super excited about this new line... But i didn't expect them to move so quickly! I guess my bizarre-o sense of humor is a good thing!

coming soon... Old Bruise!

News and Gossip (spoiler)

So... news? i'm done with the S&S socks. They are little shorty cuff socks and i've been wearing them ever since i got them blocked. i LOVE them. someone who likes a bit longer socks may want to increase the length of shaft by an inch or so. I had 35 grams of the 100 gram skein left, so there'll be plenty of yarn, if somoene so chooses. They are super comfy... and cute! I've gotten a ton of compliments... from strangers in restaurants... and friends! I think i've convinced about 8 people to start knitting because of these awesome socks! The sock kit is for sale in my store, so even if you did not purchase the club up front, you can now buy it month by month (limited number of extra kits--i'm thinking 8 or 10--i'm not sure, but hurry if you like them, they'll go quick!)

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spoiler coming

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MORE news: the Rough Yarn is ready for people to pick their prize. After some thought i'm also going to allow people to pick $10.00 of other yarn instead if they prefer. If you won, look for emails... here's the yarn!

OK, so juicy gossip... and a bit of fun news! This week the gossip that MommaMonkey of Socktopia fame is NOT dead. there is quite a lot of evidence, apparently, that she ducked out of commitments and such by pretending to die of complication related to lupus. Moreover, it is likely that she created a sockpuppet account or two on Ravelry, before she did it, so she could watch the fallout. People lost money... people were hurt... This all coming out in the wake of the MCY scandal...

so, the options are get mad, get even, or point and laugh. I choose the latter. I'm starting a new line of yarn. It's called R.I.P. (Undead yarn)... i have the first colorway dyed up. It's going to be called "SCAB". it's actually really pretty... dark dark reds.... Coming is "I'm Dead"... it'll make it hard to hide. Old Mummy... anyway... I'm pointing and laughing. it's better than crying! SCAB... don't pick!

Jessica sent me these fab pictures of my kids doing Archery....

Brenden's awesome hat!

I've been playing with hat ideas... and intarsia... and Brenden needed a hat... so here's my 1st practice hat...



he loves red so, he's pretty happy with it.. and i'm pretty happy with the practice i got...

here he is with Tuck... ok, you can't really see the hat, but isn't he a cutie?

The winning name is....

After much agonizing and arguing with myself and my husband, i have picked the following two names... neither of which is QUITE what the winning people picked... but they will each win a skein of Rough Wool (I'll be sending out pictures of all colorways they can pick from soon)...

So Mrs. Feasance (MsFeasance on ravelry) suggested Anne (as in Green Gables)... which i changed minutely to "Anne with an E" for this one


and dobarah suggested Demeter (the greek god of the vine)... the thing is Demeter is actually the Greek goddess of the harvest, but Dionysus is the Greek god of Wine... so I'm calling this one Dionysus...



I am also, in the grouping of "random winners" going to send the people who suggested the following "runner up names" yarn...


Rusted Dreams
Celtic Copper
Dragon Scales
(for the first )

and
Frozen Fresia
Nordic Night
Lady of the Lake
(for the second)


other random winners will follow when my son gets home from 1st grade to pick "random numbers".

Good Luck!

I'll leave comments on teh contest post open a couple more hours... then i'll shut them. Just so everyone knows how i handle this. (i've done contests like this before... i've never gotten quite this many responses, so THANKS!!!) I'll read through the comments, i try NOT to look at who suggested anything, so i've not read through the suggestions yet. I open the pages without avatars, and just read name suggestions (and related comments). I write down my favorites... usually about 10 a piece, but with 430 suggestions, i suspect there may be more than average, and then i spend awhile considering, usually i cross out those that are not my faves as i go... eventually coming down to 1 name for each skein.

for random winners, of course, i use a random number generator... my 6-yr-old! hehehehehhe

good luck!

Free Yarn--DON'T POST COMMENTS ALLLL DONE!

I have two lovely new colorways and no names. I'm feeling a bit brainless i guess. Post suggestions for names and I will be giving several skeins of Castle's Rough Yarn away for free. (Rough Yarn is a slightly rougher yarn than my typical sock yarn and would work up lovely for felting purses or such. You can see pictures of some colorways here in my etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=11974&section_id=5002440).



Here's the yarn! What suggestions do you have? Be sure to post a name so i can identify who you are if you win. the names will be picked by me, but the winners will be picked at random, as well as those who pick the winning names. I will be giving away 1 skein of yarn (past the winning two) for every 25 people who post suggestions. So invite your friends and neighbors! (up to about 15 skeins cuz then i'll run out!)

Also visit my new website: http://castlefibers.com/ for more yarn to look at!

Contest will run through Jan. 23rd.

SPOILER WARNING...

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I have one of the Sense and Sensibility Socks done. I love it. I blocked the lace on the cuff... yesterday, which made a big difference. Lace just looks so darned much better when it's all blocked. As typical, there will be a tiny bit of pooling on the gusset. I sort of think that all hand paints (or virtually all) will do this. When i do spaghetti dyeing, there is NO pooling. NONE. But, spaghetti dyeing takes hugely more time, and i can't do colors like this with it, since the yellow would get muddied up :-(

anyway... pictures!

I'm absolutely loving the cuff and heel. I really like the top pattern as well. I put the sock on for pictures... and it was so hard to take it off. It felt so comfy. i just wanted to keep wearing it. But, unfortunately, the other sock is only in the lacey-cuff stage. I have 4 repeats of the 7 done.