one last announcement

Free shipping while I'm gone, on the Fire Lizard Studios main page and the Etsy shop. I'll ship everything on Jan. 2 when I return: Priority within the US, First Class outside. We all deserve a treat after the holiday madness; this is the perfect chance to get yours and save a little money!
Safe travels and best wishes to everyone! See you in 2009!

resurfacing

First I wore myself out with a manic dyeing marathon. Then I hurt my shoulder and spent most of the past week hopped up on drugs. Now I'm getting ready to make the trip to my parents' house for the holidays. Last year, it took much longer to fly than it would have to drive, and I'm tired of being treated like baggage, so this year I'm driving. I've still got some business stuff to take care of before I go, though, and packing everything (including the kitty cat and all her luggage).

I hope you all get time to relax, good cheer, and lots of love this holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Kwanzaa, Cheery Solstice, whatever you like--let's hear it for days off, family and friends, blessings, and more sunshine on its way.

what a week!

I still don't have pictures of the scarf, but I did get the ends woven in on Tuesday. Very psyched.
For my next project, I think I'm going to preempt the scarf and do the cowl next instead. My office is unbearable, and I think some wool and cashmere around my head and neck would be just the thing.
Meanwhile, it's not that I've been slacking: I've been in the dye studio every night. Here are some of the latest. These are on my new base, which I'm calling Joy. It's 80% merino/20% nylon, and I love how soft it is. It's also much fluffier than my regular base.



These are all available on the Fire Lizard Studios website if you like them. I also have a couple in my Etsy shop.

victory is mine!

Dudes, I finally finished the scarf! I finished it!!!
Well, ok, I still have to weave in the ends. But I'm done knitting it! I thought it would never end. I'm determined to weave in the ends tonight so it will really really really be done. Pictures tomorrow!
And then, I'm ready for this.



(It's the Plymouth Boku from Little Barn.) I can't wait!
Can anyone suggest a stitch pattern that doesn't curl but doesn't require switching between knit and purl every other stitch? Otherwise, I'm breaking out the crochet hooks.

uh oh...

will I never learn?

I was trying out the three-skein feature on my new electric skein winder, but the yarn escaped the guides and crossed between two skeins. I'm pretty sure most of it belongs to the back skein, but I can't seem to find the point at which things went wrong. Of course I couldn't leave it alone and think about what to do, I had to keep messing with it.


Ugh. Note to self: if it's later than 10:00 and something goes wrong, step away from the yarn!
I do have a plan: I'm going to move both skeins to my old vertical skein winder in the same configuration they're in now and wind off of that and back onto the new one... very slowly. I don't think I've managed to make them hopelessly tangled yet, so they should wind off no problem. This sure didn't save me any time, though!

my vicarious obsession returns

When I first started my current day job, it was after teaching and then taking the summer off to move and get my new house set up, so I suddenly found myself with way more money and way, way less time when I started work again. During that last summer off, I spent a lot of time crocheting and designing with yarn--it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that yarn was all that kept me sane that summer, or preserved what little sanity got preserved, or ... whatever. You get the picture. Anyway, when I started work after that, I found myself buying tons of yarn, and after a month or two, I realized why: it felt like I was still getting some time with the yarn, even though basically all I did was fawn over it on the Internet, buy it, and then hang it on the guest room wall. Well, despite the fact that I spend practically every waking hour that I'm not at work dyeing yarn, I think I'm starting to do that again.
Remember the yarn I bought for the Noro scarf? I haven't touched that. It's sitting in my kitchen. But that hasn't stopped me from buying this

for another Noro scarf, and this

for a cowl of some sort. It's Cash Island, from the mega sale at Webs. At 60% wool, 30% cashmere, and 10% nylon, it is soft and luscious and totally a steal at $6.49 a hank. I had four different colorways in mind for two striped scarves, but they sold out of the one I liked best before I could get any, thus the cowl in the second picture. (They substituted two more skeins of colorway 17 for me, so I should have enough. Uh oh, did I just jinx myself?)
I'm still totally into bright, saturated colors, but after seeing some people's gorgeous Noro scarves in subtle colors, I'm totally psyched for the pairing in the top picture. Now I just need to find time to actually make it!

light at the end of the tunnel

I went to knitting night last night, and it was a fun time full of laughter. What great people--I'm so glad I met them!
And, with my stunning powers of concentration, I managed to finish a scarf part that required a lot of counting to five without messing it up at all, despite all the amusing and interesting conversations.


Voila! I actually accomplished something at knitting night! And this brings the end of the scarf in sight.



I had begun to despair that I'd ever finish it, but now that all that's left is a little garter and stockinette, I'm all psyched. I'll bet I can finish it next knitting night, even if I don't work on it before then. Yay! Which of course leaves visions of Noro scarf dancing in my head. I would like to knit it, but 1x1 rib sounds like some kind of punishment out of Greek mythology, the way I knit. (I knit purely English style, but when I purl, I put the yarn in my left hand and do sort of an almost-Continental hybrid. Switching between those every single stitch? Um, no.) I'm trying to think whether there's any smooth pattern that will look nice and not distract from the changing colors but also not require switching between knit and purl any more often than every four or five stitches but also not curl like stockinette. Otherwise, it's going to be crochet.

totally new website

Well, I didn't go anywhere over the holiday, didn't even pig out on turkey. Instead I spent a lot of time redoing the website for the business. I used to do web stuff for a living, but finding a host with the stuff I need in my price range and then setting everything up?



It's about enough to make you go toes-up under the table.

It was worth it, though. Check it out: Fire Lizard's new home. I still have more spinning fiber to post--hopefully I'll get that knocked out over the next few days. All the hand-dyes are up, though, and that's the best stuff. I'm still doing the Etsy site too, but the new website will be the main place to go for all things Fire Lizard.