yarn

Just got back from the Spring Fling in St Louis and I am still trying to catch up on my sleep, when I say just I meant 3 days ago.  It was AMAZING of course! 

The weekend began with the Gray Ladies showing up at my house at 5:30am Thursday morning, I was supposed to be ready to go but.... I wasn't, Del hasn't forgiven me yet.  We drove out of my driveway at 6:03am and began the Big weekend.  As we drove we all commented that it will only seem like a second and we would be driving home again, and that is exactly what it seemed like.  We ended up at Panera/St. Louis Bread Company for dinner, with a very large group, including Wendy Johnson, Anne Hanson, Gryphon from Sanguine Gryphon, Leslie, Laura, Aimee, Dani and several others.  Then it was on to the Desert Reception.. I just realized that I totally forgot about the amazing goody bag and the cupcakes.  Really I realize I am going to leave a ton out, so how about a bunch of pictures.

  did get to hang out with Leslie and Laura of KnitGirllls video cast fame, and I might have even done a little interview with them on the Video cast and boy was I in good company.  They interviewed Sarah from Perfect Day yarns, Wendy Johnson of WendyKnits, and me.  I have known Leslie and Laura since 2008 and the Gray Ladies really love Laura, she helped them through Wendy's class way back in 2008.  They are both amazing and a whole lot more fun then should be legal.

I also got to hang out with Carin of Round the Twist.  Yes, I really am that short.   Carin was totally wonderful, in fact I don't think anyone at the Fling were anything but wonderful.  I actually got to spend quite a lot of time with her and I hope I get to do it again sometime.  

The one thing I totally regret is that I didn't get a picture of all the Stacy Shawls, wow there were a whole bunch of them in a rainbow of colors.  I thought about asking everyone to get together for a picture but just didn't get it done. Dang it.

 Lobby Knitting

Oh and there was some shopping.

I have missed so much, got to spend time with some many wonderful people and I just can't get it all in here.  Tracee, Sara, Jessica, Sarah, Lulynn, Karen, Lynn, Aimee, Dani, Tammy, Janice, Kate..... and so so so many others Thank you so much for making this such a wonderful trip.

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.

I have once again been very tardy in my blogging.  It has been a long time, and believe it or not I really have been crazy busy.  I thought about blogging, I even had blogs in my head but nothing actually materialized on the computer. You know, what I need is a computer to read my very chaotic thoughts, organize them and then put them where they belong.  That would really make my life easier.

See to your left, there is a beautiful new colorway, really I love it!  Deep dark blues and purples, it is so pretty. However I have no idea what to name it, so if you have a suggestion leave me a comment with a wonderful name and if I really like it you will win a skein.

Ok, now on to all the other wonderful things happening at Tempted.  There are lots of new fun colors and most of them will make thier debut at the SWAK Knit Out '09.  Hope I see you all there!!  Just 2 weeks!!!  Lots more to get dyed before then.

I want to let you know what a wonderful time I had at the Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling.  Kaye and I left first thing Thursday morning. I have to admit we waited until the last possible minute hoping that Del would get in.  We drove all the way up to St. James, MO., where we stopped and had an incredible lunch with Keri of 3AM Enchantments and Tammy of the Knit Together podcast.  There is a wonderful little winery with a fantastic little bistro, called Meramec winery where we had a wonderful lunch and then headed down the road to St. Louis and the Spring Fling.  When we arrived we were greeted by some incredible women, I gotta tell ya, there are a lot of amazing knitters in our little world. 

Check out this little beauty by Kate, isn't it wonderful.  

I believe it is made out of Poison #5 by Wollmeise but I may be wrong.  

It was so great to see all beautiful hand knits.  Seriously, I wish I had pics of all the beautiful knitting I got to see.  

There were socks and shawls all over the place and such beautiful work.  I had several flingers show me what they had knitted with Tempted and wow, they really make it look amazing.

It was truly a wonderful weekend and on top of everything, I learned  a little something about myself too, I love a cosmo.

Last year, my most favorite memory was sitting on the floor at The Loopy Ewe with Cookie and Claudia (Woolmeise) while picking thru a bunch of cashmere.  This year it was sitting at the Ice Kitchen with martini's again with Claudia, Allen of Numma Numma and several wonderful knitters.  It was really amazing sitting and comparing stories and we had an incredible time, of course.  I also got to spend a little bit of time with Wendy.  I am a very lucky knitter, huh?  I did get Wendy's newest knitting book in the mail a couple of weeks ago and, of course, I had to have Wendy sign it.  I love her new book. Tons a wonderful toe up socks.  I wish I had gotten a picture of Wendy and me but alas I have no pics with Wendy, YET, although I will get another opportunity in a couple of weeks.

I will attempt to post more about the Fling soon.

Don't forget to let me know your ideas for names for the nameless yarn above.

As I promised in the last post I am showing off the 50% Soysilk/50% Wool roving and yarn I made recently.  I love it, not at all difficult to spin and it is so soft.  This one is in the process of becoming my very first Clapotis, I know I am way behind the times but I just couldn't ever find the yarn I wanted to use.  Now I have and I love the way it is knitting up.

I am really enjoying the yarn and the pattern, lots of knitting fun.  I will be sending an order of the Soysilk roving off to The Loopy Ewe today, if I can get to the UPS store.  We have snow and ice so not real sure I will make it.  But I will share a picture of all the pretty colors.

Due to scheduling conflicts we quite commonly open gifts early, our kids are all over the place at Christmas and it makes it very difficult to get together.  This year we opened gifts this past Sunday evening when our middle girl came home from school.

Those of you who have tried to surprise an older child at Christmas will understand the dilemma we were faced with this year.  Emily is 11 and it would be impossible to hide a large box from her, so what do you do?  Well we wrapped it up and stuck it under the tree without a name on it. Of course that only peeked her curiosity, so when she started asking who it belonged to she was led to believe that it was for Mom.  My DH whispered in her ear "you know that momma wants a new spinning wheel" thus began the teasing and hinting. LOL  Several times over the last few weeks I said things like "I think I will peek at my big gift today"  her response was an outraged comment like "Don't you dare, you will ruin the surprise!!!"   This went on for weeks, every once in a while I would try to get her to tell me a little about it to no avail she wasn't telling anything.  LOL  Getting smart in her old age.

Finally it is time to open gifts and everyone starts in and Emily pushes "My" big gift over to me.  She tries to get me to open it for a few minutes and finally Dad says "but it isn't hers its yours".  The look on her face was priceless!  Then she exclaimed "but I don't want a spinning wheel". LOL  She finally opened it.  She was ecstatic and kept makeing comments about how mean we are one second and how much she loved us the next.  This is one of the memories she will hang onto forever.  Oh and btw she got Guitar Hero World Tour the complete Band.

OK, really I do love the puppies BUT.... they decided to play in the Cashmere/Merino! I didn't kill them but I did scream a little. OK so this is one way for me to get to keep one for myself. I have to admit I am really really looking forward to spinning this up. There are just not enough yummy words to describe how incredibly soft and and and wonderful it is. I will show you how it turns out. Believe it or not I have been so incredibly busy. The Bono Kimono is really coming along well. I had an emergency project that had to be done and had to take a short break from it but I think I am back on track now. The Bono Kimono has really been a hit at Loops so much so that I have had to dye a bunch more glam for them and there will be another class on it this month. To all my friends in Arkansas and Missouri I finally got the orders out to One City Market in Rogersville, MO and Little Bo Peep in Eureka Springs AR. Wow I can't tell you how excited and honored I am to have Tempted in these stores. Trust me if you are over that way go to these shops. They are the kind of places to spend hours knitting, talking and sipping tea with great friends in.

"Destiny Glam"

"Boudoir Glam"

"Caress Glam"

Just a few of the newest semi-solid Glam yarns from yours truely.

*****News Flash**** Tempted is in the process of having a little makeover, I can't wait to let you all in on all the updates!