Here’s what’s going up next on my etsy shop. What should I call this colorway? I don’t have any fabulous name ideas. Tell me what you think.

I’m carding batts and playing around with product photography today. This is my first try, and the color is pretty good.

I need to get another daylight bulb so I can get some pictures that aren’t so Film Noir. But they’re cool, anyway. Nate designed the card, and I love it!

So, major, major score yesterday. I’ve needed a case for my pedalboard for almost a year now, and there isn’t much in the way of “pedalboard cases” on the market. Sooo I looked on Craigslist and saw a set of old Samsonite suitcases, full sized and briefcase style (so without interior upholstery), less than 10 minutes from my house for $15. They’re PERFECT! The bigger one is housing my board right now, and the smaller one, which is also big, has been Clark’s favorite toy today. He’s loaded, unloaded, reloaded, and hauled that thing all over the house, all day. And he’s trying every angle he can think of to-

1. lay exclusive claim to the suitcase
2. get me to hand over the key

neither of which are going to happen.

Here he is at Jump Planet this morning, wearing his new pair of socks.

He is one grateful little guy. This morning he said, “Mom, the only socks I like are the ones you make for me. I don’t like white socks at all.” That’ll score ya more socks right there, honey. More than that, I realized yesterday that I think I’ve knit him 5 pairs now, and he hasn’t lost a single sock. That’s love.

I had to rip back the toe to add about 6 rounds to Clark’s first sock. It’s not done yet, but it’s very close.

He tries it on periodically, and when I asked him how it felt he said, “warm.” This yarn has alpaca in it, so I bet it’s warm.

I started a cozy house shawl yesterday…

I’ve wanted to knit this pattern for years, and I’m finally getting around to it.

Liv also knit this weekend

She’s making a slouchy hat that isn’t going to end up being as slouchy as she’d hoped, but she doesn’t want to rip it out and redo.

On Saturday, Nate, Liv, Veronica and Clark painted on canvases.

And just now, I turned around to find Max making use of a roll of toilet paper on the couch.

Abby and I are sick. Our family’s been sick for 6 months now, ok 5, and I’m really, really tired of it.

I’ve been wanting to order this yarn (Pirate King) for a long time, and I finally did last week. It came today, and it’s even more beautiful in person!

I’m going to make Clark a pair of socks! We’re both very excited.

Pretty pictures…

Lunch yesterday-

Max with his haircut-

Clark’s haircut, along with the fleece shirt he’s worn every single day since receiving it-

Max loooves books!-

I will frequently see him up on the couch, quietly looking through a book. He also frequently brings books to us when we’re sitting down and looks expectantly on, waiting for us to read it to him. So very, very cute.

I dyed a pound of GORGEOUS wool today. It feels so weird to dye wool brown, ’cause although it started out white, it still looks “natural” when it’s done, like I didn’t do anything to it. Anyway, this wool is now the color of an irish setter.

It’s lustrous and luscious and pretty much irresistible. I’m excited for it to dry so I can start working with it. I have big plans.

Also, I sold 3 more batts last night on etsy! Hooray! To a blog reader, too! (Thank you again)!

I’m so excited! I’ve wanted two things for a long time…

1. to knit a slouchy hat for myself
2. to knit something for myself from my Tweedy Batts

When cleaning out the wool room last month, I collected odds and ends of browns I’d dyed years ago when testing out colors. I decided to do something productive with them so I separated, carded, and spun them into 3 different tweed yarns, plus a blue. Making it up as I went, I started knitting yesterday morning and came up with this-

and it’s GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS!!! I’m so excited. So now, I want to make Tweedy Hat kits for my etsy shop.

Of course, since I was using old test scraps, I’m going to have to go back the drawing board in terms of trying to dye up more. But I’ve got the blue, the tweed, and the dark brown used on the skinny stripes. And I know and still have at least one of the dyes that I used on the brown wool, and a good guess at the others. So it’ll take some work, but it should be doable. However it won’t be exact so I’m left to hope I can make it work.

In other news, I’m working on posting a new color on etsy, which will bring me to 7. It’s a gray/yellow combination that is really pretty. I’ve knit Liv a mitt with it and have the yarn spun up to knit the other one.

I still don’t know how I’m going to tweed the blue, which is the clean blue stripe in my slouchy hat.

And finally, I sold my first batt! Nate designed a nifty card for me to slip in the back of the package (that truly did not photograph well) and I shipped it off on Friday!

I’m finally doing this.

You may recall that we returned Abby’s horrible lovebird and bought a baby parakeet several months ago. His name is Meiko. In the last 6 months, he’s grown quite a bit and has livened up significantly, which is good.. I was worried for awhile, ’cause I’m not remotely exaggerating when I say that for months, he might as well have been a stuffed bird that pooped. He didn’t move, or tweet, or eat when anyone was watching….. I think he was extremely young when we got him. Of course, he DID finger train in 1 try, and that was the point of getting a baby bird, so it’s all good.

He’s a sweet little thing but as his temperament is developing, he’s getting a little feisty, which makes me laugh because he’s SO not scary. We’re really enjoying him. His cage is in Abby’s room, but he spends much of the day on his playground which is out in the main living area with me (minus over half of those obnoxious toys).

So, Nate’s still looking for more clients. Max is keeping me busy. I’m working on my Tweedy Batts and have an etsy shop up, but there are only 4 colors on it right now. I have 3 more that I plan to post really soon. Check me out if you want.

Here’s a preview of 2 colors I’ll post soon…

the third is an amazing blue that I’m really excited about.