Chickenlips Knitting

"Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum."

Crass, I know, but it's my favorite vintage Monty Python way of describing the current hundred-degree temperatures! Oi, I tell ya. My poor ancient drying rack, which I bought at a garage sale for something like $3, is groaning under the weight of what all I dyed up yesterday. I'm about due for one of those fancy shmancy racks from Ikea. Last night I put on lots of yarn to soak, but didn't get to the dyeing today. Just as well--even with the room AC that Mr. Stitchjones put in, it's just plain too hot. I did some skeining of undyed yarn today, trying to stay a step ahead of things. Tomorrow morning before the whole house heats up, hopefully I can get through a batch.

I placed my order today with Kraemer Yarns for 70 skeins of their superwash worsted merino, which is fabulous, some bulky weight wool for kettle dyeing, and a surprise. These folks are awesome. Their prices are competitive, and their yarn is high quality. How do I know? Because I contacted them, and they responded with a free sample kit offer (I did have to provide my tax ID number as proof that I'm in business). But was it just little 2-yard snippets of their yarns? Shoot, no--they sent me this deluxe box of full size skeins of each yarn in their Naturals hand dye collection! I'd show you a pic, but I've already started dyeing it up. When it's all dry, reskeined and pretty, I'll post photos.

Stitchjones yarn, and lots of it, will be at next month's Knit and Crochet Guild of America show right here in Portland. So I'm cranking as much as I can, of all the different types of wool I can get my hands on. One of my wholesale customers, Naked Sheep Knit Shop, will be featuring local fiber artists at their booth, with a 5-tier basket full of Stitchjones handpainted sock yarn. Handpainted and kettle dyed worsteds, chunkies, DK and sportweights will be available at the Gardiner Yarn Works booth, along with...yup, you guessed it--those adorable kids' sock kits! Online unveiling of the kits will be early September, before the TKGA show if possible, so keep it right here friends--this is something you don't want to miss. Many thanks and mwah's to Kathleen of Busy Digits, for lending her talents, diligence and hard work to this project.

Still trying to keep interest levels up in my Etsy shop, I've spiced up my sock yarn dyeing with a little flurry of pastels. One of them, the yellow, sold yesterday. Totally wrong season for pastels, but some part of my color instinct must have needed some. Anyway, here they are. Top to bottom: Baby Blue, Blush, Daffodil.