Think pink

There is good pink, like a November sunset through the locust trees:

And then there's bad pink,

the kind you get when you accidentally leave a freshly dyed skein of red yarn in the washer and then do a load of whites on the super-hot "sanitary" wash setting. We now have pink sheets, a pink dust ruffle, and a lot of pink underwear. It took me two days to face this mess and I ended up having to throw away the yarn because it had gotten so tangled and stretched in the sheets. It didn't felt, though!

We had a great Thanksgiving and ate a locally grown turkey, though not one of ours. And in one day I turned my very favorite silk/merino hand-dyed handspun from this

into this:

(free neck-warmer pattern from Hello Yarn here). I did almost the whole thing during Love, Actually, which is starting to be a holiday movie favorite for me. This is the second time I saw it and I bawled just as much as during the first time. Sappy, funny love stories have a mascara-flushing effect on me, even though I think they're totally ridiculous.

Notice I am not modeling the neck warmer. That is because I am a big-haired, curly-headed girl, and putting my hair through a tube like that turned me into a frizzy, scary hair monster. It's a gift, anyway. Isn't it cool?

Since this is a knitting blog, I had to take a picture of my cat early the other morning:

"You go ahead and read your blogs and drink coffee. I'll sit here and yowl in an effort to wake up and piss off every other member of the family. And if you take one step toward me, I'll run and hide until you go sit down again."

Stupid cat.

We've had oddly warm weather, which I both enjoy and worry about. We did have a good frost the other morning, though.

Now that the neckwarmer is done, I have moved on to a sweater for my nephew, a Lopi-style number done in Lamb's Pride bulky. I've done zillions of these over the years and they typically take me about 3 weeks if I'm casual. Yay for big needles! I may try to do this a little quicker as there are still some other gifts I would like to get done for Christmas.

Speaking of which, I've updated the shop. Stop here if you hate shop updates, or scroll down for some pictures. I have been asked repeatedly about worsted-weight superwash for quick gift knits like boot socks or mittens. I've added 4 to the shop, including "Black Walnut," a nice dark one for the boys

and "Saturday Afternoon,"

a soft blue with lots of other colors, which would go great with jeans.

I also added these 6 superwash sock yarns:

If you are browsing A Piece of Vermont, please make sure to click on each yarn photo. The true colors don't show well in the thumbnails, but there are alternate views and supersize closeups if you click and they give a much more accurate picture of each skein.

No one has bought our old house yet. Guess nobody wants that free skein of yarn....

Comments

[Carrie]

I do! Alas, careerbuilder.com has no Vermont jobs for me.
Beautiful neckwarmer, beautiful yarn!

[Mary]

Sorry about the pink nightmare. Here's hoping you can bleach that stuff back into submission. Love the neckwarmer. And I love that greenish yarn in the bottom photo -- tempting....

What is it about cats and yowling? I think they love the sound of their own voice, and try to find the best acoustics in the house....

[margene]

Yay! I was finally able to get some yarn for my hubby's socks! Black Walnut is perfect.
It wouldn't be TOO upsetting to have pink underwear, etc. unless you're a guy, I guess but the loss of the yarn is just too, too sad. The neck warmer looks so soft and the recipient should be very pleased.

[Amy]

The neckwarmer looks great! Glad to see that Love Actually is becoming a holiday fave for you as well. :)

[CindyCindy]

Your neckwarmer turned out just beautiful. I can't believe you're able to give it away. I'm in awe. Don't look at the house. Maybe it will sell when you are looking (like a watched pot)? As for the cat. They're all idiots. That much I'm sure of.

[Dorothy B]

Your cat does the yowl and run thing too, eh? Mine does his at 3:30 in the morning usually.

Love the neck warmer, it looks so silky and well, warm.

Too bad you threw that yarn out. I'm pretty good at untangling crazy messes of yarn. Sucks about the laundry though. Will a bit of bleach restore any of it?

[Ramona]

I guess that's why we buy bleach. I love the neckwarmer. I wish it was cold enough here to wear mine.

[trek]

Eek! Sorry about the inadvertent pink!
I love how your other yarn plays nicely with the cables.

Annoying pests, I mean pets, they can be, cats.

~Former cat-own-ee
('cause you just don't own a catl they own you)

[Carol]

Wow-That laundry looks like a punker's nightmare. Don't ya just love "cat games"? Me neither...
Your neck warmer is gorgeous! really, the recipient of that must be one special person. I so love the Saturday Afternoon! I sure wish I could be the one that says I'll take the house. Best of luck , really...

[Kelly]

Love the neckwarmer. Your handspun knit up so nice!

[--Deb]

Pity about the pink thing . . . the neck warmer looks great, though!

[stephanie]

Lol! Glad you didn't eat one of your own turkeys.

Oddly enough I just did a load of wash like yours, only with new blue jeans & a resulting grey tone to everything. Yuck!

BTW - I'm knitting a scarf with the worsted I bought from you. I love the way the colors look.

[Diane E.]

The homespun is gorgeous! I hesitate to put my head through the neck warmer without a water spray bottle nearby, as I so gread static!

[kitkatknit]

Wasn't the CherryGarcia neck warmer a fun pattern! Love yours in your handspun.

Have you tried the "bury a St Joseph statue" method of selling your house?

[courtney]

I love your yarn! I'm almost finished with a pair of socks I'm knitting from the first skein I ordered, and I'm looking forward to knitting up the second skein.

[Jane]

The homespun is just beautiful, and it looks wonderful in that cabled neckwarmer. No one has bought our house, either, but then I hadn't thought about offering yarn as an incentive!

[Stephanie]

Gorgeous neckwarmer. If only I knew someone who would wear one. Have you tried sythrpol to get the red out of your whites (someone said that would work when I dyed a sweater by accident). Rit also makes a color remover.

[Tina]

Gorgeous neckwarmer! Who is the lucky reciever?

And I must say I'm impressed by that red tangle of yarn, that it didn't felt after all that work. And that it contains that much dye too.... Maybe a pink dust ruffle makes cleaning more glamorous?

[Laura]

Oh the red disaster. And was that yarn going to be for the Red Scarf Project? I that that would be your next sentence! I'm thinking of dyeing some red yarn for it.

And. The yarns. So beautiful.

And. The cat. heheheheeheh Eh hem. :)

[Teyani]

oopps about the pink undies - what a story your hubby would have to tell if anyone accidently saw his, eh?!
the neck warmer is full of lovely goodness. Nice job! I'm sure thatthe recipient will love it.

[Amanda]

Oh, the pink! :(

The colors in that hand-dyed are absoolutely gorgeous, by the way. So subtle and pretty.

[Kathy]

I LOVE "Love, Actually" -- so many great performances -- the Laura Linney story is just SO heartbreaking. And Emma Thompson -- I think I'm going to need to watch it soon. I hope that the pink has faded somewhat -- we've all done that at one time or another.

[Leigh]

Wow, a neck warmer, excellent! And I really like the pic of your cat.

[hollyeqq@hotmail.com]

Love the neck warmer - love the dye, love the cables, love it.
Isn't it fun to make something from scratch. It makes me very happy. And dye pots make my life complete - what will happen if....