I have thoughts of making this a regular feature. Each Friday sharing with you some things I love. So without further ado…

I *love* my new part-time job. I had no idea how much I missed working in a yarn store. I love helping people, I love being around the yarn and the crafty people. And I hate to admit this, but it’s nice to have a once a week grown-up day. I actually think that in the near future I might be taking up stitching. Because there are so many beautiful things there. If you’re local you should visit. I’ll be off the next two weeks, but normally I’m there on Wednesdays. The owners are constantly getting new and beautiful yarns in, and it really is my new favorite place to be.

I love the shop, and it’s irreverent fun names and ideas, and I adore the woman. My collaboration with her on the sock clubs has been fabulous fun and it was an opportunity that was not to be missed. We’re taking the summer off, but I’m looking forward to what we’ll come up with for the fall!

Another great shop with another great woman behind it! One of these days I’m gonna get serious about spinning. I’m thinking about wheels and when I get one I will be stocking my new fiber stash with her stuff. I already have a few things and what I do have is just freaking gorgeous.

If you have suggestions for Friday Favorites, let me know. I only want to recommend things I have personal experience with (or trust someone who does) so let me know!

I’ve been trying to post more regularly, but sometimes, well sometimes good intentions are all you got. So what have I been doing instead? Well I’ve been sketching up designs and writing patterns like whoa. But of course I can’t post any pictures. I built a swift/skein-winder. Yes, yes I did. I used this tutorial. Just a word to the wise - this is NOT a $10 project. Not at all. I bought all of my supplies at home depot (just like the tute author) and it came to well over $30. And that’s not including the $13 I spent on a pvc cutter. And it looks like this:

And I finally started getting together some of the stuff to put in my etsy shop. Like this:

And this:

The superwash really took the colors and just made them sing. I’m so pleased with it! In other news I am dreaming of vacation. We’re going up north, and the weather is looking to be sunny and seventy degrees. 70 degrees? That’s like winter. I’m so excited I can’t see straight.

Judging the sock naming contest was hard. Every time I got a new comment, I was like ooh!!! That’s the one! And then another comment rolled in. (Yay for comments!) But when push came to shove I had over 30 options to choose from and I just could not decide. So I called a family meeting. I grabbed the leg that the sock was hanging out on - the mannequin leg that is and I headed into the livingroom. I should note here that I live with all boys. So this may not have been my best plan. But I was desperate. Desperate I tell you!

They looked at it. They made fun of me a bit. And then I read off all the name choices. Over and over again. Finally each of them chose their favorite. I chose the one I was most attached to. And then I did some research on what other socks and patterns were named. Finally I chose. So the new socks will be named…

Minerva’s Tower

I love the Minerva owl reference and surprisingly enough there weren’t many patterns that even used the name Minerva on Ravelrly. I mean Minerva McGonagall can kick some butt - show the woman some respect. But anyhoo, that’s the winner! The name was suggested by OneSheep who wins….

A final copy of the Minerva’s Tower sock pattern (once the test knitters have at it)

Any other two patterns from my catalog

AND….

She can choose any one item from my etsy shop. I will say you might want to wait on the choosing. I have about 20 new yarn/fiber products that will be listed this week.

Each of my boys was very disappointed that their choice wasn’t the winner. So they decided I had to do consolation prizes. So three folks can have their choice of the final Minerva’s Tower pattern *or* any other single pattern from the catalog.

Grapevine - suggested by KnitStix2

Owl Eyed - suggested by FlawfulFibers

Jonathon Livingston (Seagull) - suggested by Julie

Thanks so much for entering folks, this was a lot of fun. And if I use your name for a future pattern, I will be contacting you with some prize-y goodness!

It’s been a busy weekend. Friday included a get-together with some of the man’s old high school friends, which was quite fun, and kept us up until the wee small hours of the morning. The boys - who had come along - were quite excited to see 1 AM.

Saturday I taught a beginner’s class at A Stitch In Time - where I now work on Wednesdays - come see me! All of the students were super fun, and I seemed to blessed lately with folks who just get it. Everyone was doing fabulous when they walked out. After that I spent a very long time with my behind planted on one of Sugarbee’s couches, just knitting and hanging out with my good knitting friends - until 2am! I think I’m too old for these late nights though, because I am seriously considering an afternoon nap - when I really need to be hitting the grocery store.

In other news, my boys are getting insanely excited about the trip up north to the cabin and I’ve been trying out some new dyeing bases and some old favorites. I leave you with a small batch of results:

There’s a little too much death and despair in the world lately, so I’m trying to focus on the good. My boys are happy and wonderful and seem to be making the most of every day they have off this summer. Good. My dyeing experiments as of late have yielded some very nice results. Good. I have a new base yarn that has a super tight twist, and is on the thinner side of fingering (think Opal) but it takes color beautifully. Good. My dear friend Chris gifted me a printer/scanner/copier combo. Good. It prints out my patterns nice enough that I can skip going to Office Depot for hard copies. Very good. It allows me to scan in pictures from my youth. Good?

I leave you with this, while not exactly good might make you giggle. Me, circa 1990-1991. First year of college. Next door neighbor’s dorm room. Dated signs of the times everywhere - not the least of which is my hair. Which may or may not be responsible for a large percentage of the hole in the ozone layer. Hair like that doesn’t stand up by itself. That’s all I’m saying.

Oh and hey! Don’t forget! The contest for the sock naming is over tomorrow. So scroll down, give a suggestion. The prizes may even get better ’cause I’m feeling generous like that!

Well yesterday was a little tough. My mind kept racing and I didn’t get to sleep til well after 3am. Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m an early to bed, early to rise kind of gal. Normally I’m sawing logs by 11pm and up no later than 6:30am. But not last night. I got up at 8:30am and started to get ready for my first day of work.

Would you like to know how my day went?

Of course you would. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.

Well ok, if you insist, I will tell you.

It. Was. Awesome.

So awesome. The woman I was working with was crazy nice. The shop owner asked my opinion about stuff. I got to help people with their knitting. It was soooo cool. I’m tired, mainly because A. I didn’t sleep much last night and B. I’m spoiled rotten and don’t have to work 8 whole hours like ever anymore. But it really was a fabulous day. And for the cherry on top my beginning knitting class is totally full for Saturday! Yay me!

In other news we hit the Cummer Museum again last night and met up with some friends. Here are some pictures of the monsters in the gardens. (The stone kind and the ones that belong to me!)

You always hurt the ones you love. You know the old adages. When’s the last time you kissed your kids good night? When’s the last time you told your spouse that you love them? That you really appreciate them? When’s the last time you did something nice for a friend just because?

Well go do it.

Yes, now.

I’ll wait.

Of course I’m telling you this because someone died. I won’t lie and say that it was someone I was super close to, because it wasn’t. Never was actually. We went to school together. He was funny and easily had one of the best smiles ever. Ever I tell you. Nowadays with all the networking stuff we were facebook friends of course. He had really adorable little boys and a lovely wife and I found his work in green energy kind of fascinating. And he’s gone. Just like that.  And there is a very large group of his family and friends who have a hole that will never heal. But I think it’s the wife and kids that gets me the most.

What if you were gone tomorrow? What if they were? Did you tell them everything you needed to? Did you hug and kiss them until they squirmed to get away from you?

Tell them.

I dyed two skeins of yarn last night. Trying a new merino/nylon base that has alpaca blended in. It’s super soft undyed, and I’m very interested to see how it feels when it is dry. The alpaca will make for warm socks (for someone who doesn’t live in the sub-tropics) and it gives the yarn a lovely halo. Here’s what I’ve done so far…

These are still a bit damp, so they may lighten up some, but I love the richness of the colors. Just lovely. I have some semi-precious silk/merino going right now, and I have superwash merino roving soaking for the next go-round. I’m still trying to decide what sort of theme/scheme to go with color-wise on the superwash merino roving. I was thinking of continuing the retro candy theme, but I’m not sure. I was actually thinking of doing a mini-line of stuff that was based on my friends. Colors that I associate with them and all of that. Too many ideas, but the right one hasn’t clicked yet. Oh well. At least I get to experiment!

I received a new yarn base today also from the UK. It’s a superwash merino/nylon blend that seems pretty tightly spun. It reminds me of Opal or Trekking. I’m interested to see how it takes dye. So many factors to consider, so much fun to be had.

I’ve finally started a group on Ravelry. I decided it was the perfect place to host chatter, post shop updates, and put out calls for test and sample knitters. So please, come and join us!

It’s a good place to keep in the know, and if some of my crazy fun friends join up, it will be a fun place to hang out as well!

So I spent a few hard-working hours cleaning and reorganizing the office/yarn room. Found lots of yarn that I forgot I had. So now I have a nice long list of design ideas for said yarn. It also gave me some closure on some things. Sometimes it’s very, very good to just be able to move on, guilt-free and do what you want.

It’s been a good father’s day. This post was originally titled Sunday Dye-day, but the plans changed. We had a leisurely breakfast of bagels, leftover pizza for lunch, and the boys had headed over to the pool around 4:45 as I was gearing up to start dinner. I had dyed the first batch of the day and was looking forward to a peaceful evening at home.

When suddenly no more than two minutes after they left, they arrived right back home. Seems the pool decided to close early today. And boys who think they are going swimming were looking mighty disappointed - including the big man. So we moved to plan B - B for beach. I threw on my suit, some board shorts and a sundress overtop and we were off!

It was so danged hot today - I think it easily topped 100 *before* the heat index. But once we got to the beach, it was quite a bit cooler of course. We played and swimmed and had the best afternoon. The waves were super gentle and the water was pretty warm. Perfect.

After the beach we hit Cruisers for burgers (for the men), a nummy half-a-big salad for me, and some of their delicious fries with ranch dressing. Again with the perfect. No more dyeing got done today, but it was worth it. Speaking of dyeing, here’s what I’m working on now in some of my hand-dyed yarn. It’s the semi-precious silk/merino blend in amethyst, and the pattern is one of my own creation. The stitch pattern is a modification of something from the Walker books (naturally) and I’m really in love with it.

But whatever shall I call it? It needs a name, this lovely sock. And so we be having a contest. (We being me, myself, and I.) I need a name. Presumably you think the sock is pretty. You give me a name that I think is just perfect. I give you a free copy of this sock pattern (when it’s finished) and any other two patterns in my catalog. The contest will be open until Friday. Oh and I’ll help you out a little bit. I don’t like names that have colors in them. Chances are most people who make this sock won’t make it in the exact same yarn, so I like to give color-neutral names. Please give your suggestions/entries in the comments. Have at it!