Web Footed Women make great wives.....

Once, in college, a girl in one of my study groups patted my shoulder in that cheerleaderish way and said, 'You're such a hobby-ish girl, do you get many dates?'. Apart from wanting to slap her, I was also really confused. Further discussion would reveal that by 'hobby' (which, you must admit, is a 'loose' term that could represent any number of freakish issues one could have) meant the crafty nature of my being. You know, I made my own skirts, wore and decorated my starved-chick apartment with thrift store finds, etc. The dates part (which kinda creeped me out to tell the truth) was her deduction that my homely nature would be an obvious turn-off to prospective dates because I would seem like I was desperate to be someone's wife. That nearly made me have to have a drink. Me? Wifey? Do not assume that just because I met someone the following year and married him after dating him for a mere few months that she was right. I had no intention of getting married and I still, for the life of me, can't see how the fool hubster changed my mind. This is fodder for another time.

So, anyway, I got some interesting knitterly books via the library this week. The Wild Knitting by Angela Jeffs took me down memory lane to recall the above mentioned incident. Okay, the floor cushions knit to look like a banana or grapes were temptin' for just a minute. Imagine, saying to a guest, "yeah, just grab that there banana and sit on the floor!" This may only be funny if you are a Southerner or were raised around simple people. How many of us would, wouldn't, and would look sinful and seductive doing it could provide hours of air-conditioned fun inside the trailer. The voice of experience has spoken. The book, so 80's that I had to look at it over and over, is maybe not your home decor dream but was both entertaining AND gave me some great ideas. The only pattern I could see myself knitting, however, was these. Is it just me? Sure, some of them really suck and look both tacky and doofy at the same time. Okay, all of them do. But, in the doofy/tacky category, I feel a desire to go webbed.

There has been spinning going on to the maniacal extreme as the Common Ground Fair is coming up and that is the show where my handspun is a must and in ample supply, ideally. So, to entertain (maybe diversion is going on as well) myself, I had to try something new. I've been wanting to work with plant dyes for some time but put it off because my research has concluded that in all but the simplest forms of mordanting, my acid dyes are actually LESS toxic than plant dyes. Scratch your head. This can't be right. SO, I decided to prove the skeptics wrong, one wagon load full of weeds at a time. First up, the 1/2 mile road of goldenrod that is growing so abundantly this year that it has held the ragweed up to grow to an impressive (and sinus-likely hellish for moi) 6+ feet this year. We got into our best Sarauman interpretation and 'cut them all down'. Really, we only filled a garden cart full but the drama helped the Things deal with the heat. We mordanted with alum and boiled a fragrant concoction of goldenrod into which we threw these skeins of handspun Cotswold and silk (the two skeins on the right). The next day, we had some serious yellow. It went really well. Now I'm moving on to some of the ( I presume) more tricky colors like blues, greens, etc. I'll post more as I get off my rear and get to it.

Again, coincidence rears its little head. I honestly did not intend to perfectly achieve the color needed for the duck feet. Really. Believe me in this.....

Here's the reason for my whole post - though it should have been done on Monday which I'm sure no one cares about but me and I quite like talking to myself. For some entirely idiotic reason that I have not fully discovered, the Mystery Stole 3 finish became really important to me. Not, understand, the actual finishing of the thing, but FINISHING ON TIME. What the hell does that mean? There is no 'on time'. Still, I had clue 6 whipped up by Monday morning at I'm just such the simple web footed wife monster that I wanted to let ya'll know that. Of course, today being Friday and all and the final clue out of the bag - it has lost its spark a bit, huh?

I'm loving the hand-dyed yarn for this lace (especially for the wing) and I'm glad I didn't do it in a solid color since this is the breaking point in a project for me - the finish. I need the excitement, any excitement really, to keep me going through the finish. I do this with alot of my knitting - work like a dog on it until it is almost finished and then roll it up and 'put it away'. Psychoanalyze to your heart's content.