There is a direct relationship in this town having to do with Monday morning road rage and how the Bronco’s fared the day before. 

 

Mondays are always a less pleasant drive to start with…we all know that, it’s just MONDAY.  Granted, there aren’t many people on the road at 6am when I head out to work, but still, when the Broncos lose, WATCH OUT!

On these losing Mondays, I don’t know why, but there are MORE people out with me at 6am.  And they’re so MUCH nastier!

This morning (yes, the Bronco’s lost last night, it was ugly), the same &@%#$  cut me off 5 times.  In the course of 2 consecutive stop lights, 1 on ramp,1 freeway merge and 1 right lane ends, merge left….so in the span of about 1 ½ miles!  Complete with horn honking, headlight flashing and the obligatory 1-fingered salute!  Oh yeah, did I mention, she was driving a Prius?  Yeah, I said “She”!

Did I mention I was driving my 23 year old Jeep Wrangler (aka “The Tank”)?

 
C’mon UPS man!  I KNOW it’s on your truck!!  Just need the right truck to turn up, is all!  Which makes me wonder, why do they send 3 UPS trucks into the neighborhood during the course of the day, and not put my box on the first one???  The obviously don’t know how impatient I can be! 

I’ve got a 5 kilo box of fresh, ready-to-be-dyed-into-glorious-colors coming, and I can’t wait to get started!!  And with this box, I’m broadening my yarn dyeing horizons!  I’ve got 3 different types of super-wash merino coming (2 different sock and some more of that that lovely 2-ply lace weight), and this time, I’ve also got some super-wash Blue Face Leicester, and some 50/50 super-wash merino/silk blend! 

I’ve had requests from some of my online friends to come roll in piles of the silk blend, and honestly, I can’t WAIT to get my hands into it!  I’ve dyed silk fabric before, so I’m very interested to see how the blended yarn behaves in the dye bath!

But why all the super-wash you ask?  Well, a couple of reasons, actually. 

First, it takes up dye gloriously!  Actually, sometimes it takes it up a little too fast to be even, but we’ve learned a couple of tricks to work around that!  The first time I got my hands on super wash, I was a little stunned at how fast was the up-take! (our first dyeing experiments had been using Lion Brand Fisherman, which I’ve now come to the conclusion is a little slow-pokey about it’s take-up!)

Secondly, it doesn’t felt.  Not for me while I’m heat-setting the color, and not for you in your laundry!  Granted, even with the Fisherman, I’ve never had yarn felt while I was heat setting, no matter what method I was using, but better safe than sorry!

Now, I know I recommend on my labels that you hand wash your items and lay them flat to dry, but we can be honest with each other, laundry accidents happen!  To the best of us!  Even before you throw spouses and kids and a myriad of other distractions into the mix!   Just ask the glorious Andean wool sweater I got when I first moved to Colorado…the one that can now fit my 9 year old!
 
I feel like Sally Field when she finally won her Oscar!  “You really like me!”  or like the yarn!!

I can’t tell you how humbled I am at the reception our yarn received during the Yarn Across the Rockies debut!!  I’ve gotten to meet a couple of you, and talk with a couple of you, and I do hope I get to see what you create!

We’d love to show off your finished items on our Gallery page, too!  You can use the “Contact Us” form, or e-mail your pictures and details to us at [email protected].  The first submission will receive a set of hand-made stitch markers as a prize!  And don’t worry if yours isn’t the first sent in, we’ll be sending out stitch markers periodically…our way to say thanks, and you can NEVER have enough stitch markers!!

We’ve got a 5 kilo box on the way (it’s due to arrive tomorrow), that we just can’t wait to dig into!  This box includes some wonderful superwash Blue Face Leicester in sock weight, as well as a 50/50 silk & merino sock yarn…I might just have to keep one of those for myself…as a reward, you know!  However, we’ll begin delivering the first batches of that yarn to the Yarne Shoppe on the 22nd, then about weekly after that!

We also have plans for at least one holiday color-way, because I know I’m not the only one who’s already started Christmas knitting!!   I just have to convince my assistants that “sparkly” gold & silver (as in “tinsely”, as opposed to a warm gold or silvery grey hue) is going to be challenging to achieve!