Why do I like this colorway so much?

I just can't quite put my finger on it.

I've been thinking and thinking, and I just don't know...

Hm.



Maybe it's because every color in it was hand selected to match a part of my studio?

That could be it. We might be on to something here. Maybe.

I'll need to keep thinking.

I like the color brown. (Please forgive me for stating the obvious.) And brown likes me. Me and brown, we go way back. Brown is underappreciated. Brown deserves to be the new black. Right after hand dyed gets done with its turn being the new black. (See blog tagline for explanation if statements appear nonsensical.)

So perhaps it's no coincidence that the brown in the Petit Fours colorway above matches the brown on many of the walls of my studio. It's a warm, rich brown, with some red undertones. It never gets boring to look at. Every day I love it anew.

The aqua color? It does seem to match two of the walls in the main work room (the other two are... brown.). The pale green? It goes with the aqua in the drying room. (A room full of clotheslines. You have to duck underneath them to walk around in there.)

The dark mallard blue/green? That's in my storage room. I'm thinking there could be an unexplored trend here...

The periwinkle? The raspberry color? They seem to be matches for the shipping room and the SMB.

This is getting interesting, I must say. Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that the pale pink is the same shade as much of my office. (The accent wall being painted... I'll give you one guess... brown.)

<lightbulb moment>

I see it now! Petit Fours is a colorway inspired by my studio! The same studio that once looked like this and is now painted in delicious shades! I didn't slave over those paint chips for nothing! My months of labor were not in vain! I know why I like this colorway so much! Why does every sentence in this paragraph end in an exclamation point!

</lightbulb moment>

I need to take pics of the finished studio. And by finished, I mean functional. With pretty colors on the wall.

P.S. Petit Fours is one of November's club colorway choices.

It’s better than being bited by a shark.

That's what my little sister used to say when she wanted to point out the difference between two situations. "I don't want to do my chores!" I would lament. And my sister, five years my junior, would reply, "It's better than being bited by a shark!"

I have something for you today that's better than being bited by a shark. And possibly, also better than a sharp stick in the eye.

It's handspun yarn.



Lots of handspun yarn.



I didn't spin it, I'm not that talented. My attempts at spinning closely resembled a hairball coughed up by a cat. You know, brown and kind of matted... I'll spare you the details.

This yarn, the good yarn, was spun by Meridith from SweetKnits Handspun, and I have to say that handspun yarn is just...delicious. I love unique things, and you can always guarantee that every skein is unique. And tasty.

Thank you, Blue Faced Leicester sheep who allowed themselves to be sheared so their fleece could be processed into roving so the roving could be spun into yarn so the yarn could be knit. I appreciate it.


All the yarn in this picture



was spun from the same roving. I love that. I love how just changing up one small thing will produce a totally different result.

Here's what I'm making with the gorgeous handspun yarn:



This is about one movie and a bunch of stop lights worth of knitting. I used up an entire skein of the handspun and have one more to go. I tried some more ambitious stitch patterns, but ultimately, the yarn whispered to me that it wanted to be knit simply, so 2x2 ribbing it is.




This is unblocked, but you can get a good idea of that lovely handspun texture.

I now have something quite remarkable to share with you. It's a skill I've learned that has taken years of practice. Do not attempt this without much preparation.

I can make the consonant W with my scarf.



Again, I repeat, do NOT attempt to make the consonant W with a half-knit scarf on your own without proper preparation.

Now I just need to wind my other skein of SweetKnits handspun into a ball, watch another movie, drive around town for a week, and my scarf will be complete!

Not everyone’s a winner…

... but the rest of you are definitely NOT losers! I appreciate you entering our contest, and hope you'll try again next time, if you didn't win this go-round.

I instructed my trusty random number generator to select a number between 1 and 114.

It complied.

It's a good random number generator.



It chose #58 as the person who won the golden ticket!

And the winner is...



Wendy! Congrats! :) What will you choose?

And hey, while I have you on the line... here are a couple of new colorways:

Riordan:

Here it is on Beckon:



And here it is on Carys BFL:



And also, Cernunnos, the ancient Celtic god of nature.

I think this is pretty nature-y. It looks like the Celtic version of nature to me. But hey, I'm kind of weird. I think that's been firmly established.

On Beckon:



And on Carys:



These are for sale right now here. Instock and everything!

Thanks for playing. I have more pics to show you tomorrow. And if you're a club member, you don't want to miss tomorrow's update... it's going to be good!

TIME’S UP! And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

The Great Internet Outage of 2008 is officially over. Thanks to those of you who sent concerned letters via wagon train, owls bearing news of the outside world, and nourishing soups to bolster our strength.

We have much to share -- Albert is all grown up, and has taken himself a lovely bride. Laura is headed west to homestead on the prairie, and Mrs. Oleson and I have been busily preparing for the coming winter by darning socks and canning the last of the summer berries. Hopefully, Pa will enjoy his jam as the snow flies in January.

prepare for segue

It's time for a contest, don't you think?

I do think.

As a prize, how about a skein of our awesome new sock yarn, Beckon? I can't wait to share its awesomeness with you. Never a prettier sock yarn has been found. Never a stretchier, funner-to-knit-with yarn has been seen. Never has a grammar teacher been so horrified.



You pick your poison: a semi solid? Describe the color, and we can make it for you. Or maybe one of our yummy handpainted colorways? To sweeten the deal, we'll also add a free copy of one of our sock patterns.

To enter, respond to this post and answer the following question: What's on your needles right now? Or perhaps, what do you wish were on your needles right now? This will allow those of you who tidily finish one project before beginning another to enter.

Or allow those of you who are currently stuck in the horrid, "When the BLEEP is this project going to be finished?!?!" stage to fantasize about greener pastures. (Which I've heard are out west on the prairie.)

You have until Thursday evening, October 9th, to respond, and then we'll randomly select a winner. I will share one of my projects tomorrow!

Hey, guess what?

Chicken butt.

Guess why?

Chicken pie.

And that's all I have to say this evening. Thank you and goodnight.