Whatsa matter you?

Simply, nothing. In fact, my mojo seems to be back, and Sobe agrees, as she has conferred upon me an honorary Master of Mojo....or M.Mojo.

The job is going on pretty well, the company has just announced a new contract with a eminent open source company, and a celebration is planned for Friday afternoon, after a meeting with a notable person from a particular embassy....I am excited about both! It is so nice to be working in a sane environment for a change....where you are treated like an adult and just expected to do the job. As we know, people rise or fall to meet expectations!

Decisions with the yarn business are progressing somewhat, and I am adding a website to the online presence on top of the storefront which may get phased out completely. Take a look at the website at http://www.dyeingtoknitandspin.com and give me some comments. It's still in pre-launch, but is published online so that you can view it. I am planning on redoing the storefront as well to match the look and feel, but that is not quite so easy....

I have also been knitting again. Here are pictures of my new projects, because I cast on for like 3 things in as many days....I got startitis after the hiatus and I got it bad!

Project One: Sweater tunic knit with Gong by Filati? It will be a tunic with seed stitch hems and vents on the bottom....fingertip length....so I throw on 130 stitches on size 3s (Yes, LeftCoastKnitter and Cpurl, you heard me right, I am knitting a sweater on 3s, but in my defense, were I not a LOOSE knitter, I would be knitting it on 5s or 6s....those 3s are Addi Lace BTW). But the gauge is way too big. I may have to get some Naturas in the smaller sizes, because my smallest bamboo circs are 5s. So yep, I will prolly be ripping back!

Project 2 and 3: Socks knit with KnitPicks Sock Garden....colorway Daffodil. The yarn is fine, and colors are okay, but not Fabulous. But I have it in stash and plan to knit it up into socks, because I need socks. Come to think of it, I always need socks. Mostly because I wear virtually no commercial socks anymore, just my handknits. I may at some point in the near future rid myself of the commercial socks, because at this point they are clutter. Also DH gets confused about which socks are mine and which are the kids....cause my size 9s are so similar to the Boy and Girls bitty ickle feet.

The other project is the first sleeve of the aforementioned sweater inspired by the Stitches class that will use the eleborately embroidered plastron on the front. I had a bit of a moment when I knit the yarn up on 2s, and got really loose gauge, but doubled it after calculating the yarn requirements. So doubled it is.

Meet the first of the spinning fiber for the website. This is Superwash Merino, very soft and the yarn will be washable and driable, so great for baby things! This first color is PoisonBerry, and the other is called Dusk. They will be packaged in bundles of 4 ounces and sell for $12 dollars.

I have been thinking alot about the environment and dyeing's impact on it, as well as our own impact. One of the things that occured to me is that spinning is the ultimate of conservationist activities. It promotes a connection to the land and the animals in it, it reduces the unclean fuels used to manufacture goods and it's humanscale. What is humanscale? Humanscale is when you do things that are scaled for you and what you need....no more no less. Really, the level of spinning fiber consumption that one person can do is limited by how much time they spin. Of course, there are those of us who go beyond humanscale in our purchase to be sure, but for the most part, each of us reaches a point where we check ourselves and scale back to more reasonable levels. So if you don't spin, learn. If you do spin, teach another to spin....it's viral and good for the planet. Many of you have heard me talk about small changes with big impact, and this would be one of them.

Speaking of spinning, here is the yarn from that fleece that I mentioned before....it's basically superbulky, soft and airy, and the fleece is spun up.

Meet my little friends. Twist, Raw Silk, and Summer Cotton. Twist, many of you know already from the storefront. Raw Silk is a new yarn for summer knitting. Okay....

Siiiiilllllkkkkk. But it's Raw silk, that cool, crisp cottony stuff for summer, not the slick stuff. This stuff has texture!

And finally Summer Cotton, a fingering weight thick and thin cotton that should be lovely. I am hoping to dye them this weekend, assuming that all recover from the current plague ravaging our humble home and the weather is passable fair. All signs so far are good.
And to wrap up this evening, some cute overload for all of you! These are my charming ickles....showing me their alter egos as Blue Man Group. Some of you may know that I don't post the ickles very often, it's the mama lion in me, that wants to protect my babies at all costs from the relentless online pervs that want to carry my children away, without having to hamstring the idiot that gets between me and my cubs which I think is illegal in most states and punishable up to and including jail time. I posted these, because the eyes are missing, and we all know they are the key point of recognition in faces....so there you go. (Lest you have doubts, my dedicated readers and the relentless pervs are not the same with a few notable but harmless exceptions-You know who you are!)