It can now be officially summer because we have Summer colors

This time, i tried to keep it simple with three seasonal colorways. First, we have Firecracker, inspired by Tammy (syracuse)

Watermelon Head, inspired by stephanieg

and Meadow, which is a mishmash of inspirations. I started with sammysmith's glass of lemonade, SusanfromAthens' lunch in the shade (the water!), and blueswirly's green mandarin goby, and things took on a will of their own. I love this color madly, and hope I can recreate it:)

I did save a few pictures for later, cause they were just too good, and am thinking an Amber Bock wd be an amazing colorway as i develop my palette of Browns. So, watch the Ravelry group for the next few days for contest winners, ok?

Now, I hope you will enjoy a few pool pictures. My girl is having a good summer, both in and out of the pool. She has been swimming 4 events in the Saturday A meets, which is quite an accomplishment for my gentle mermaid. Also, just worked a s a counselor at vacation bible camp and I believe she and the second graders really enjoyed one another. Breaststroke is her best stroke.

Aquaboy is on the younger end of a very strong age group, so he isn't winning everything like last year, but he is having a great time and working hard on getting faster:) See how huge he is?

Thanks for humoring me:) I may be a bit slow to respond and post for the next couple weeks as i entertain and take care of family, but I'll be back!

Summer's here!

I am dancing between the blissful feeling that comes with the lack of schedules and requirements, and seeing my children's lovely faces throughout the day, warmed by the sun (or in aquaboy's case, sunburned) and the jangled "how will I do this?" thoughts that invariably come during times of transition. I am having a double transition; still figuring out how to work my days and weeks to get the best out of my tome for the business, and managing the transition between summer and school. I see it in my kids as well. Boychild alternates between yelling at me about what he's not going to do (dinner, swim practice, you pick) and plunging headlong and with joy into those very same activities. The mermaid is either roiling around in the water, giggling with her best summer buddy, or laying in her bed, which i've discovered contains enough food, electronics, and reading material to sustain an army for the rest of the year.

Even the puppy is having his moments. Having failed miserably at crate training, we had abandoned the scheme in favor of gating him in the kitchen. When Cody began to vault the gates with ease and devour our furniture and our house, we bought him a big boy crate. So far so good.
Luckily, he is also enjoying sitting in the yard on a long lead, watching the world go by and barking at it:) I think he'll be thrilled to sit in bed with the girlie and eat her food and toys all summer, too.

I have been spinning like a crazy woman. This loveliness is the Knitwitch's bfl roving in melanza (that's "eggplant" to you and me) and I have a sweater's worth. i'm planning to three ply it. I accidentally bought some merino and some bfl, so i'm planing to ply each fiber together. I decided to make Veronik Avery's Offset Raglan from Simple Style, and am now having Brittany dye a bit more merino for me so i can be sure to have enough. Love the sweater and LOVE this book.

I am still knitting away on my very boring High line cardigan;l down to the last 6 inches of the last piece. Hopefully, I can get it done soon. Swim meet coming up; that should help:) Wayne's socks were put on hold when "Stinky" (can you guess who that is?) ate my knitting needles. this dog is too smart. one minute he's sleeping innocently in a chair. Next minute, he's knocked my purse on the floor, has taken out my project back, and has pulled the needles out and eaten the tips off! Aarggh! I made it into my LYS to buy new needles, so we're back to work. Not only did i get needles, but a lovely Kromski spinning stool, followed me home too:)

Our Summer colorway inspiration contest is on its last day today. Even if you don't want to play, you really should go look at the great images. There is clamoring for a fireworks color; should be fun to try to do. As usual, i am down to the wire (June 21st is next week!), so I will get busy developing new colors as soon as i finish dyeing miniclub. Almost done, believe it or not, even with the strange green spots that wound up on most of the first round of Arctic Pearl (yep, that's the new name for the blue one in the Pearl series). No worries, no one will get ones with green spots, but we will be discounting that lot in the next update:)

Speaking of updates, the next one will be NEXT Sunday, the 27th, probably at three. My summer life rhythms are dictated as usual by the swim and dive team scedules, and that is just fine with me. Tomorrow is a big day: the Mermaid's first really big A meet (after a long winter of hard work, it's really nice to see her reap the benefits), followed by her first Bat Mitzvah (her friend's, that is). Not surprisingly, she has a cold:)

Soon you'll be suffering through multiple swim and dive pictures of my beautiful children. Oh well; might as well sit back and marvel over how big they are and such.

Other than dyeing for updates and wholesale orders (did you see my Djinni go up at the Loopy Ewe?), I'm planning to do Stitches Midwest. Okay, I haven't officially sent my money in yet, but i will. it's a huge step for me, as it is far and none of my other vendor buddies will be doing it, but it's a great time for me, and I think my husband may drive one way with me. And Karen, as in "make it so Number one", is going with me. We are having a Thelma and Louise-style yarny road trip. (But don't worry; we will be back:) I may also add the Shenadoah Fiber Festival to my schedule because it's near, and the Mermaid should be able to assist me without missing school.

Now, I shall leave you with a few lovelies I have up in my shop, just because. Above is Poseidon merino silk spinning fiber. This is Smoky Mountain Naiad sock.

And, fnally, Velvet Underground Naiad Sock. Happy June!

So much to tell

I did not mean to take a blog "sabbatical" but i must say, Wow, May sure went by! It started off with all the lovely knitters and spinners at MDSW and Stitches South (not technically May, but you know), and continued on with the Mermaid's confirmation. There were some goodbyes in there, and my father's illness, and suddenly, it was all over!

Not for my dad, however, who is recovering nicely from his surgery and preparing for the next part of cancer treatment journey in New Mexico, where he seems to be a ble to breathe. He starts chemo and a full course of radiation this week. Luckily, he and mom have made wonderful friends there already, and they are looking after him well. Mom is bravely soldiering on with caved in carports and doggy surgery, and her own health and well-being. Eventually she will make her way to New Mexico too, and then here for a grand kids fix for the 4th. At some point this summer, both the lovely Jack and i will be going seperately to help my dad. It'll be a bumpy ride, but that is the way life happens sometimes:)

I did have the pleasure of spending Memorial Day weeknd at home, and spent most of my time doing battle with the weeds in my garden. Above is my Lady's Mantle, which, thankfully, seems to take care of itself. I LOVE the colors in it; do they look familiar? below is my fancy french pink hydrangea, which starts off as a pink-tinged chartreuse and ends up almost burgundy, with a delicate light pink in the middle. Doesn't look a thing like my colorway "pink hydrangea", does it?

May need to re-name the old one and make a new colorway just for this loveliness!

As you can see, we were hopeful that we might prevail in our battle with the weeds; his loveliness bought some tomatoes and peppers on one of his innumerable trips to the hardware store. They are in the ground, and still living. I am dreaming of ordering some new hardy perennials and flowering bushes...blueberry bushes, and more butterfly bushes and some mountain laurel, as well as more moonlight coreopsis, and something orange. And maybe a bit of Gaillardia? Better hurry up as my drop dead date for putting things in the ground is July 4th. After that, forget it!

Another thing that happened in May thanks to Shipping Goddesses and Skeining Djinnis is that my basement has begun to look more and more like a proper studio. After much measuring and planning (not mine:), we took an excursion to IKEA and bought some shelves and lighting. I had nothing to do with putting things together either dyeing yarn out on the deck while the magical folk at DF Headquartes put everything together and made it all look gorgeous. I know have tons of shelving, a packing desk and a computer desk, and room for people to even walk around and not run into each other.

Do you see those little signs on the shelves? If not for Team DF, i'd still be routing around in boxes and finding nothing!

I have been knitting, however. This is a sock for Wayne the wonderful warlock to Brittany's KnitWitch. As I mentioned, he made my very attractive and clever show set up. I hired him fully intending to pay him the going rate (whatever that might be:) and he wdn't take more than the cost of materials. So I'm knitting him a pair of socks out of Rocky Top Djinni Yarn. Hopefully, he'll like 'em and, more importantly, they'll fit! First sock down, and second sock re-started, cause I think he'd prefer two socks roughly the same size, don't you?

I am also knitting the High Line Cardigan from the Tahki Yarns Terra collection in a lovely springy green cotton tape yarn also from Tahki. No picture yet, but i am on the last piece. This will be for me, as is nearly always the case. I am knitting this with Victoria, owner of the Knit Spot, my lovely new LYS. We are doing a two-person knit-along; although, as I have been mia much of the month or more, i have no idea if she is also working on the sweater still or not. She picked a pretty coral color. One of my goals for the week is to get in there for knit night; wish me luck!

Now for important Dragonfly news! We are having a shop update at 9 pm est this Friday night, the 11th. I'll have Naiad and laces, including a few skeins of Squishy in requested colorways. I hope they phoyograph well, cause i think they are stunning:) I'll try to do some spinning fiber this week, as well.

Also, do come by my Ravelry group and join the June Miniclub, if you want. I am featuring Djinni and Dragonsock and six colors: Midnight at the Oasis, Bad moon rising, Poseidon, Spring in Washington, and a new color in the Pearl series (to be dyed). You have until Sunday sometime to place your order, and you can change your mind as many times as you'd like until i lock the thread. We'll then ask for your email address and invoice you through paypal, then ship as soon as the yarn is dyed and dried and paid for.

The final very important thing is that June and Summer are here. yay! This means I'll be retiring my Spring Colorways (Spring in Washington, Baltimore oriole, Green and Speckled frogs, and daffodils) and dyeing new colorways for Summer. The summer colorway inspiration contest will start later this week, possibly Friday, so start thinking!