muriel

Well I've decided to Hijack Stacy's website!  That'll teach her to give her little sister access and acutally expect that I'll be good. *Evil Laugh*  I will say it hasn't been as easy I first thought.  This website thing can be quite a challenge.  For example, this is the second time I've tried to create this post!  I hit preview and *poof* it all disappeared into cyberspace. Maybe that's the punishment for...what did Courtney and Mary call it?  Oh yes, Hasselhoffing I believe is the term.

Anyway, the "Cricle of Friends" yarn has been dyed and is ready to be sent out.  I have to give Stacy a lot of credit for being able to duplicate this.  I didn't exactly listen to her when she said, "Now remember to write down how you're doing this so that we can dye more if anyone else wants it". To be perfectly honest, I didn't think I could come up with anything that this many people would like!  So thank you for approving of my color scheme, but Stacy really put in a lot of time and I don't know how many skeins of yarn trying to get that green right.  I guess it just isn't as easy as it first appears.

No matter how wonderful a dyer she is, I will still be holding her most cherished and nostalgic Raggedy Ann doll hostage until she gives me MY skein of "Circle of Friends" back!  I mean really, the nerve of her.  She lets me go crazy with all her yarn and dye and she doesn't even have the decency to give me my own product of creativity.  You just have no idea how hard it is being related to her!

But don't fear for little Ann.  She is more than comfortable on my guest bed surrounded by a variety of colors and fiber.  And if she happens to get bored, she can throw off the loose bonds of soft handknitted scarves to start playing with a sock pattern or two. I feel I've been very kind, she even has access to my needles! (That Stacy got for me)

I guess I should go and organize that mess of a room.  Since Stacy has introduced me to Wendy and Keely, I can't seem to keep it organized.  All that yarn!!!  Yes...I've been pulled into the obession as well.

Until the next hijacking............. unless she changes the password!

Well, I'll start out by saying that I (Muriel/BFFofWendy/lil sis) am substituting today for Stacy since she's been a little down with her RA and migraines.

Up until now, though, we've had a wonderful time this week while I've been here on vacation.  We've not only been knitting, talking, plurking, laughing, making fun of each other and chasing the kids around the house, but we've also been coming up with new colorways!  Yes!!!

As you all know from past blogs, I've recently broke down and started knitting (thanks to Wendy aka Wendyknits).  This has given me a new passion for yarn naturally and a great new passion for dyeing yarn.  Our family has been SO very proud of Stacy and her love and talent for knitting but none of us, up to this point, have really understood that passion.  Well now I can officially say....I understand!!

Ok, so the adventure this week began with me badgering Stacy into letting me be creative and work on some ideas I've had over the past few months.  My first thought was a colorway that would explain our relationship as sisters and friends.  Now understand that all ideas somehow mutate over time, this one was no exception.  We have a very "hot and cold" relationship like most siblings so I thought it might be cool if we mix both our favorite colors into one skein of yarn and have them "Duke it Out".  Well my favorite color is orange and of course hers is red so there we went with black and white "specks" in the middle.  Well if you're from Oklahoma, you know that the most famous rivalry in our state is between Oklahoma State University (OSU) whose colors happen to be orange and black and Oklahoma University (OU) whose colors happen to be crimson and cream.  So now we have the colorway born, "A House Divided".  Well darn!  There went my sisters idea but we still had a lot of fun fighting it out in the dyeing process regardless.  I'll be delivering some of this very unique color to Keely at SWAK in Guthrie on Saturday.  So if you like it, I'm sure she'll be more than happy to hook you up.

The dyeing highlight of my week was when we decided to come up with something for Wendy.  She's been such a wonderful friend to me since she and I met at the knit out that SWAK put on in Guthrie so Stacy thought it would be something very special that I could put some time and energy into while I was here.  She was absolutely right!  Since I already had knowledge of Wendy's favorite color and season, I went to work.  Now remember what my favorite color is?  That's right!  Orange and green are the 2 main colors used and in a unconventional pattern I might say.  Stacy thought it would be especially pretty to add a hint of brown, which it is.  So even though it is a lengthy dye process, it turned out wonderful!  I know this because as soon as Wendy received her skein, I received an email entitled WOW!  Now that's an amazing compliment since she sees and knits with so many beautiful colors.  I was especially blown away when she posted an entire section on it in her blog!  How lucky am I to have such a great friend and smart ass companion.  I can't wait to see what her brilliant mind ends up magically weaving with it.

Oh yeah, would you like to know the story behing the name?  I guess I should first tell you the name (if you don't already know).  I decided to name it "Circle of Friends".  The reason I decided on this name is because I have found such a wonderful circle of talented and funny knitters to call my friends thanks to Wendy and my big sis.  One group, for example, is the SWAK circle of knitters who have encouraged my new obsession and haven't laughed at me too much when I've screwed up my projects.  They're great!!  Of course all my new Plurk friends have been wonderful as well. 

Now just in case you're wondering, I did dye a few more skeins of "Circle of Friends" today to meet the demand we've already had.  I also made sure Stacy watched my unorthodox ways so she can dye some up for anyone else who wants some. Now for some odd reason, Stacy thinks I should let you know that I've kept a few skeins of yarn for myself to start my own stash, I have no idea why she would think that's important! LOL

I won't blog about the reasons and stories behind the other colors we cooked up this week because as you can see, I can really talk a lot if you let me.  Feel free to visit Etsy and spend some of your mad money though!!  I hope you like the colors as much as we liked dyeing them.