Making Up For It / Famouser

So, to make up for my previous procrastination, I kicked into high gear since the last post.
First, the cloud of merino has been spun, dyed and half of it knit into a hat! I really like dying yarn with Kool-Aid. Really. It's so easy and CHEAP. I'm all about the cheap. If you'd like to try it, but haven't, there's a great tutorial on Knitty. So half of it is this sweet pale aqua color, from apple and ice blue lemonade flavors and the other half is the very awesome bright orange with poppy, pink, red tones made by spooning mandarin and black cherry randomly over the skein. I've always been in love with the bright Orange You Glad shade that Brown Sheep has, but this puts it to shame.
Also recieved my pound of Corriedale roving, but it's just sitting there waiting to be spun. My thought was to crack down and spin and dye enough to make a half-sleeve cardigan, but it had to be put on the back-burner for now. Why, you ask? Because my dad's birthday (and mine!) was Sunday, the 14th. On Tuesday, I decided I wanted to knit him another tie, this time out of pure silk. I really like Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, but the only colors I could find locally were black (too dark to show), pink and purple. Damn. Hey, I could spin that and knit it before Sunday... And I did! Blocked and everything, but it still needs to be backed and finished. He's a patient kinda guy though. So I picked up 1.5 ounces of this beautiful locally dyed teal silk roving, and, oh hey! That purpley merino-silk roving looks pretty too, I may as well get that...
Oh, hey! Guess what! One of the ladies at my favorite local yarn shop e-mailed me a couple days ago to let me know that Socktopus was mentioned in Country Living magazine! I'm really not into magazines and probably would never have known, but of course I had to go out and buy a copy. It's just a two or three sentance blurb about DIY with free patterns found on knitty.com, but to see it in print in a magazine was so COOL! The people around me probably thought I was crazy, grinning like an idiot at some magazine.
I picked up the Spring issue of Interweave Knits, too. I don't think I've ever knit anything out of the couple dozen knitting magazines I own, but they're so darn pretty to look at. Someday, you'll see.
Oh, by the way, that hat is the rough draft of what will be the Lacy Leaf Beret, a new pattern I'm working on. It looks like a lot of work on paper, but when you see how it knits, it's pretty easy to get the swing of the pattern. Very fast, too. I knit, took apart, knit, took apart, knit, took apart, knit, took apart and knit it in two days. I'd like to change the shape of the leaf, but that's for the next draft. As it is, I dig the orange! And I hate to bust any bubbles, but I think I'm going to sell this one. But $2 sounds reasonable to me for a hat pattern. Any input?

Whatcha been up to?

Oh yes! Who rocks the procrastination? Me!
I've been thinking about blogging, but really, there hasn't been much that interesting to write about lately. I got some fun new stuff this week though, so I figured I'd share!
First thing to note is the GORGEOUS new bright striping rainbow yarn! A dear recently renewed friend was in town for the weekend and I managed to get a few hours to hang out with her. She is amazing! We pretty much lost contact (this makes me sound old) about 15 years ago. In that time, we've both gone through hellish teens and early twenties and have come out very similar! She knits! She makes soap! She pickles and cans and gardens! All this in her spare time because she's a 4th year medical student as well! I'm not edumacated like her, but crafty as hell. I'm absolutely psyched that our lives have met up again. We went on a field trip to a yarn store, surprise, surprise! She bought me this yarn, she said for driving her around. Really, that's not a good reason! I only had to cross one major street to get to her and would have driven hours to get to see her anyway. So I'll be calling this an early birthday present (my birthday is next Saturday! Party!) instead. I was thinking I would finally get down to making a real pair of socks on teeny tiny needles, but (lucky me) this stuff is pure merino and I would hate to have them wear out too fast. I know, I could use nylon reinforcing, but I'm lazy. Plus, how cute is this yarn going to be for arm warmers?!
The yarn shop we visited also happens to be the only one in town that carries fiber for spinning, so now I'll direct you to that fluffy cloud of merino the rainbow yarn is resting on. Lovely. Since I took that picture, I've spun about half of it. It was only my third try at spinning, but I feel like I'm making progress! My goal is a Kool-Aid dyed two ply that I can use for a hat. Fingers crossed. I also have a full pound of Corriedale roving coming to me via eBay. Woo!
Last but certainly not least of my new goodies is the sewing basket. I've been eyeballing the thing for months and finally decided 40% off was worth actually buying it. I've been sewing lately and I've accumulated enough stuff to warrant buying a new sewing basket, as my old one was about six inches in diameter. I think I'll have an entire summer wardrobe of sun dresses this year. Last summer in Alaska was a total bust. I think we had less than two weeks total that the temperature went above 70. Really, it has to be better this year! I'm reaching the point in the year that the cold is getting to be too much. I'm ready for sun and skin and margaritas on the deck! Who's with me?!