Check out this design

Once again, the very talented Liberty came up with this adorable creation using the Duet Sock Yarns ! Check out how those colors knitted up! Liberty is amazing when it comes to design creations...she starts with a skein of yarn and what comes out at the end is always something impressive!!! Once again Liberty, you did a fabulous job!!!

Happy Halloween

You know Halloween is here when you leave behind your everyday regular clothes to be some one else for a night! Check out my sister in law and her hubby....Meet the Flintstones! There were so many great costumes at this party!
Over the weekend Mr Ken and I headed to a local pumpkin patch to pick out some gigantic pumpkins and found a few other fall favorites to feast our eyes and tummys on.

We discovered that butternut squash is now our all time favorite of all squashes! Can you believe this was the first time we had ever tried it! Yuuuuuummmmmy!

Then we carved our two pumpkins that totalled 101 pounds together. Holey Moley!!!

I was a little intimidated with those snazzy pumpkin carving patterns, but it really wasn't all that bad.

We now have our yard fully decorated with cobwebs, talking skeleton heads and giant spiders....We definitely are the most spirited house on the block!

Eye of Knute

Check out these gorgeous Eye of Knute Duet Socks knitted by Laura!!!

She was kind enough to share the finished photos! Check out how she decided to use the coordinating color! How clever is that?!

Those are great for the spooky season that is upon us!!! Great job Laura!!!!!

Have you seen the new Solos?

Have I mentioned the new Solo Sock Yarns???

I know that I sent out an announcement on the mailing list through the website, but a glitches have been occuring with the announcement website feature so I thought I would mention it here.

Solo Sock yarns.....the same great Original Duet Sock Yarn yarn, but no heel and toe! I know that you have heard by now about the soft squishiness of this yarn, but aren't quite ready to try those seperate heels and toes. Well this yarn was created just for you!!!! Now you can use this great yarn, and you can knit toe up, top down or sideways...what ever your fancy :) Come on by and check them out.

Also, look around while you are there...lots of colors made speficially for every one that might be on your Christmas knit list!

Boycott this 'art'

I read this on someone's blog and I am still shaking with anger!!!!

Please sign the petition to boycott the artist.

His name is Guillermo Habacuc Vargas. He took a starving dog off the street and tied it up in a gallery as his exhibit. He felt that the dog would have eventually died on the streets so it was okay to let it continue starving. This sickens me so much- I can’t comprehend how so many people stood by and did nothing. They were complicit in this dog’s death. How did anyone not try to help? Apparently the “artist” did not allow anyone to give the dog food or water (how did anyone not do anything ???). He justifies that the dog would have died anyway- except that he could have saved that poor animal and countless others who were there & involved could have saved the dog. I hope he gets what he deserves one day- a slow agonizing death from thirst & starvation as people stand around to watch his death as they mingle, have drinks & make small talk. What this “artist” has done is so reprehensible and I cannot comprehend how this was allowed to happen.

The above was what I read....here is what I have to say What is the matter with people today? Seriously....what happend to the days when someone did something wrong and people didn't let it fly? Why do we now have a legal paths we have to take to stop wrong doing because of the rights of the accussed? Animal cruelty, rape, murder, arson.....Heaven forbid we step on the piece of crap's rights that is doing this heinous stuff. AAAAAaaaahhhhh!!!! If I met this person on the street I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to let him know what I think of this 'art'!!!

Sock of the Month

By now I imagine everyone has their October sock of the month Lucky Lurker Package! I am lucky enough to have a few Lucky Lurkers in my area and have gotten to see their progress on their October socks....so pretty!!!

Well, while the Lucky Lurkers are just getting started on their October socks, I am knitting away on their November socks and creating the pattern. Oooohhhhh, does that mean the colors is already done?! Why yes it does :) I am nearly done with the foot of the socks and already I am thinking that I may need to make a pair for someone for Christmas too!!!

I hope that wasn't too much of a tease :) Don't worry, November will be here soon enough! :)

Muuuuuuhhhhaahhaaaaa

A little slow to catch the Halloween Spirit, the inspiration for some ghoulish decorations finally kicked in yesterday when Mr Ken came home with a bag full of talking skeleton heads and glowing headstones! We quickly went out and put them in the yard, stood back and realized if we are going to do some....we need to do a lot more!

We hopped into the car and went to Big Lots (gotta love this store). We found some of the creepiest decorations I have seen and grabbed a few. Here is one of those creepy ghouls hanging in our tree. We have LOTS of spider webs to put up....I will snap a picture when we have the yard all spooked out!

How do you solve a bad hair day?

I don't know about you...but when I wake up and feel like I am having a bad hair day, I grab a pair of scissors and a box of dye and come up with a new hair-do. I figure it's only hair and it will grow back if I totally hate it.

Here's what I came up with this morning.

Play Time

This weekend was so much fun! I tend to be a bit of a workaholic (so easy to do when you love your job and your job is yarn!), but this weekend I set aside all of my to-do*s and played.
First up was playing with dyeing plant fibers....I've got the dyeing animal fibers thing down, but I haven't spent anytime with cottons. To be perfectly honest, I read the directions and everything seemed so exact that it intimidated me. Thankfully Sabbath and Koleen were already comfortable with Procion dyes and were kind enough to walk me through the experience...and show off their amazingly cute baby clothes they had tie-dyed (should have gotten a picture, they were adorable!).

I started with a variety of bamboo and cotton

The Sabbath helped me with the preperations, then mixed the dyes with me and away I went with the squirt bottles.

I loved the non-bleedingness of this stuff. Mind you, I was a bit impatient and didn't let the thickener dissolve completely and had little jelly balls all over everything, but it still turned out great!

Then the wait begins! 24 hours of waiting to be exact. Ugh. Then, 23 hours later (yes, I am impatient) I rinsed it out and Viola!

Pretty Cool, HUH?!

During all that wait time, I did something I haven't done in a looooooong time! I pulled out the crochet hook. I have been itching to make a wrap for a long time and figured since I was already goofing off this weekend, I might as well go allllllll out and whip out the crochet hook!

The great thing about crochet is how flippin' quick you can whip something out! I polished off a skein of Original Duet Sock Yarn in two days!!!! WOW! The color above is Chantily Lace.

What a fun weekend! Fun projects and fun people! Can't ask for much more than that in a weekend :)

Lucky Lurker Blog

There's a new blog in town! One made just for the Lucky Lurkers.

I must admit however that I am not techily inclined enough to create such a gorgeous blog, it was generously created by the great and always helful Liberty!

All you lucky lurker club members out there I would love to have you get signed up and join in with other Lucky Lurker members as they knit their exclusive lucky lurker yarns. Just click the e-mail me button and join the fun :)

Yarn Grove

Just in case you were still looking for these colors (since I don't repeat the colorways) I wanted to mention that Yarn Grove still has a skein or two of some of the colors a few of you have been e-mail about. Also, some of the colors that I see there were colors that they exclusively recieved so you may not have even seen a few of them before! Check it out!

I am sooooooooooooooo excited!

I know you have seen the link to the new 'Middy' Duet Sock Yarn. I know you have clicked it and gotten the screen that says no products available and thought, 'What the Heck is this!?'

Well, what that is, is a new line of yarns, from a new mill that I have been sooooooooo anixiously awaiting! This yarn is sooo soft and bouncy, it has a gorgeous subtle sheen to it, the texture is just plain YUMMY, and unbelievably it is superwash!!!! It has been a good couple months and it is finally HERE!!!!

Introducing the new 'Middy' Duet Sock Yarn.

I do hope you are really able to see the look of this yarn...Never have I seen a yarn this pretty, and feel so gentle and be a durable superwash! I am so excited!This yarn makes me think of a commercial from long long ago. The Charmin commercials....that lovely display of all the soft squishy Charmin and that person that just wants to squeeze it and that clerk that says 'don't squeeze the Charmin' and the person just can't resist and squeezes the Charmin.

I WANT TO SQUEEZE THE MIDDY :)

Today, I am working on getting the labels on these naked skeins of yarn, then they will get uploaded to the website! I CAN'T WAIT to hear what you think of these yarns once you try them!

How CUTE is this?!

Alison (ravelry id Smurf) of Bellevue, WA was kind enough to share this ADORABLE Baby Suprise Jacket (pattern by EZ) made with Original Duet Sock Yarn in True Romance!

So, so, so CUTE!!!

If you are on Ravelry, check out what she has to say about using this yarn for this cute little jacket!

Thank you for sharing Alison!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!

AND I just noticed that Yarn Grove just so happens to have a skein of this in stock. Even more suprisingly, they have a skein of Chocolate Fantasy! (so the person who just e-mailed me to ask if I was going to be making that colorway again, you may want to pop over there and pick it up before someone else grabs it!)

Do you know a MOM?

This is for anyone who is a mom, has a mom or knows a mom!

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=FT365huJ5i4

Etsy Shopping Spree

I have never been much of a shopping spree type of person. I usually himmm and hahhh over a purchase for far too long then just not buy anything at all! Well, friday morning, I don't know what got into me, but I started poking around http://www.etsy.com/ and WOW!

I went on a little shopping spree.

The first find was these gorgeous bags by Crafty Mama Creations. The pictures showed a beautifully made product, but now that they are in my hot little hands I am blown away at the care and talent put into these bags! I can't wait to fill them up and take them to knitting tonight!

The next two finds were this fiber and these spindles. I have to say that I don't think this picture actually captures the colors in these fibers. When I opened the package of fibers made by Loop I gasped a little. Not only are the fibers absolutely gorgeous, the her talent at drum carding is exceptional....every fiber is laying so perfectly...I have never seen such amazingly custom carded fibers. WOW WOW WOW!
Then to top it all off, of course I needed some new drop spindles! These little beauties are made by Butterfly Girl. And they have soooooooooo many more, I may have to continue to add to my collection, because I am obviously buying more of this custom carded fiber! I am currently drooling over the rose quartz and cherry quartz sets!

For not being much of a shopper, I think I made up for lost time all in one sitting...and it was fun to just shop. It was even more exciting opening up each package of goodies with the anticipation of see the things in person!!!

I had so much fun etsy shopping that I went poking again and found someone that makes the most adorable custom collars for doggies and kitties. We are picking out the fabric right now for a custom order for all our critters. I can't wait to show them off when they arrive!

I am sure I am the last person on earth to shop http://www.etsy.com/ but if by some chance you haven't checked it out, I HIGHLY reccomend browsing around!!!!!!

Under Construction

It's official! I have out grown the kitchen as my 'office'. Believe it or not, I krank out hundreds of skeins of yarn per month and use our kitchen, deck, spare room and living room as my work space. You might imagine that this meant a bit of compromise on space we use as our 'living space'. Well, I am soooooo excited that I am officially getting a workshop, completely devoted to A Swell Yarn Shop and Duet Sock Yarns. On either side of the partially stocked shelves will by my yarn helpers work stations. Yarn helpers...as in two helpers that do their prepping and packaging while I am creating fun colorways. It's under construction right now, the plumber and electrician will arrive soon to install the needed amenities....now I have to decide how to decorate :)

Also recently finished is the brand new 'Bundo' (a bunny condo)

As you already know, my critters are my babies! My angora buns have been inside the house with us for the better part of a year and we did our best to make it the most comfortable environment for them. Well, angora bunnies have those super warm fur coats and no matter how cold I kept the house in the winter (while we shivered and layered our clothing) and did my best to keep it cool in the summer, I knew that they just needed to be outside to be comfortable. So Mr Ken built this! The bundo! They have more hay to romp around in than any bunny can ever hope for. They can make as big a mess as they want and hop around for hours on end! And check out the fort on the left! They are loving it and are much happier now that they don't have to deal with the temperatures that us humans without fur coats need. Daisy demostrates how she enjoys taunting Pearin while she hops around for her play time.

Our home is definitely 'under construction' in so many ways, but everything is moving along and once it's all done we will have a home back, super happy bunnies and a yarn workshop....a dream come true!!!

Tomatoes Galore!

The garden season is coming to an end, and I have to admit it comes as a bit of relief! Everything did AMAZING this year...we had vegetables coming out our ears! This is one bowl of at least 8 full bowls of tomatoes that came out of our garden this year. We had so many we were giving bags and bags away just trying to keep up with the next batch that were ready to pick.

We ate lots of salsa and yummy spaghetti sauces this year! This possible last batch of 3 bowl fulls is becoming sundried tomatoes...we did a batch of these about a month ago and had them on EVERYTHING. OH MY GOODNESS, it was sooooooo good! Sundried tomatoes make even the most plain sandwhich taste amazing!

Living here in the Seattle area, we don't actually get to 'sundry' the tomatoes. The sun seems have decided that summer is now over and it's fall now. It hasn't stopped raining in days. Great news though, you can still make sundried tomatoes. We have our oven loaded right now, set at 175 degrees and these little guys will be in there at least 24 hours. Probably more though since the oven is so full with them. The shocking part of this is, it may look like a lot of tomatoes, but once they are done, they will probably all fit in one large mason jar and be eaten in about a week! Even so, it is soooooooo worth it for that sundried yumminess! :)

In addition to all this tomatoe yumminess, I am so excited to say that I FINALLY GOT INTO RAVELRY! WoooooHooooo! Lots of people have linked to me to add to friends like (THANK YOU) but I am still figuring out what to do with that feature. I found the Lucky Lurker Group with lots of people working on their first installment of lucky lurker (I am a member now and getting the hang of posting in there). I also found two doggy knitting groups that I had to join :) I am a sucker for anything animal related!!! :) Come find me in Ravelry, I'd love to hear from you!!!!