Footsies, Flowers & FO's --- oh my!

Greetings from a very wet and chilly New England! Our Nor'Easter started out with rain, then turned to snow for a bit and back to rain.... and more rain... and more rain is forecast for pretty much the rest of the week. Hello, Miss Mother Nature... did you miss my last post??? I'll spare you the photos of my wet basement and instead share the view out my window.

So, despite the friggin' stinking, dreadful rain cold and wetness, at least we have power today. I had taken yesterday off with intentions of getting some spring cleaning and other things around the house done... Yea, not so much! I found it a bit difficult to vacuum with no power. Fortunately, we were only out for 8 friggin hours most of the day though... Heather and Joanne didn't get theirs back until this afternoon.

I did manage to get some knitting done yesterday and actually do have 2 FO's to show you! First up, my Cabled Footsies from One Skein in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the beautiful Tuscany colorway. (feel free to ignore the snazzy pj pants!)

After I finished them, I got extra ambitious. I cast on and finished a matching mini sock for my sock blocker key chain (all while the man was still sleeping, mind you!). What do you think?

This was the first (of many to come!) mini socks for me and I have to say, working on size 0 DPN's with worsted weight yarn... not so much fun! Kinda like trying to vacuum with no power. Matt seemed to like the mini sock and even encouraged me to do some for Christmas ornaments ... hhmm, maybe instead of the usual bows & gift tags this year, we'll have sock tags!

So what socks to cast on next? I've already wound up my Sereknity Three Scoops, but now I have 3 skeins of my very own hand dyed yarn to play with too! Decisions, decisions... and back to that hand dyed yarn.... I had a lovely time at the Cherry Tree Hill yarn dying workshop at Yarn & Fiber on Saturday with some fellow ManchVegas knitters, including Heather, Gina, Ericka and Sarah from Pittsfield (whom it was great to finally meet!).

Here's Cheryll from CTH, along with her very helpful daughter!

The class might've been a little big for such an event (a bit over 20), but Cyndi kept the shop together and Cheryl kept things moving along (she started by saying she usually doesn't do classes that are only 3 hours long, which I could see as a longer class may've left those of us who were completely new to dying with a little bit better of an understanding). I do feel like I picked up the basics and had a lot of fun, but as Ericka mentioned over on her blog, I don't think I'm ready just yet to clean and make room to dye in take over the whole kitchen just yet (paging Miss Heather... how about a group dying day?? lol). We got to dye in groups of 7 and here are a few pictures of the action and the patient waiting.

I got to dye 3 skeins - 1 fingering weight and 2 sport weight. Here's how my messes turned out...

The bottom hank (blues, pinks, purples) was my first ever attempt at dying yarn. Cheryll asked us all to name our colorway before we even set foot near the dye table... this is "Jazzy Jewels." The middle hank was my second creation that I'm now calling "Autumn Road" and the top hank was my "mistake" hank (I got 2 wound together and didn't realize it until yellow dye had already been placed on both of them... yikes!), dyed at the very end of the class when the dye was scarce and almost all containers completely empty. I'm calling this one "Madi Gras." So what do you think at my first ever attempts at hand dying?

An interesting tidbit... Cheryl taught us to never throw away the left over water, run off or what one might consider "grime" from dying. What one (or at least I) would think to throw down the drain, she calls "exhaust" and uses to dye her Potluck (one-of-a-kind) skeins, of which she brought along lots for us to browse. Here they are, along with several samples of her work.

I was as reserved as a well trained dog at the White House good and scooped up just one skein. I wasn't even going to get the 1, but it was the one skein I was eyeing while chatting with Gina before class began and it was still there at the end of the day, so...

As you can see, I also picked up 3 skeins of Meditation for what will probably be a scarf and size 4 needles to start my headband (still haven't decided if I will do the Amanda or the Jacqueline but I did wind up my Sereknity "Lilacs In Bloom" yarn last night, so I had better choose one soon). Those purchases don't really count though... you see, the bag really wasn't big enough for Matt to show concern or notice more yarn coming in the house!

Speaking of my honey, look at the burst of color he brought home to me on Friday... I think he was trying to cheer me up from having dropped Dustee (who I got to visit for a bit on Sunday... which made me smile lots!) off to his new forever home the night before. So now I'll share it with my fellow NH knitas, as I'm quite sure you need a burst of color today!

Are you smiling a little bit and trying not to look out the window now? If not, let's try this one... it seems as though whenever I'm trying to photograph for the blog lately, a nose, tail or paw seem to pop up in the pictures... this time I got a little more.

Stay dry... stay warm... and keep this thought in mind... if April Showers Bring May Flowers, just what the heck do April Snow Storms and Nor'Easters bring??