I am still knitting and dyeing yarn, though to be honest, I haven’t done so in the past two weeks at all. What has captured my attention so fully? I am starting a business with a friend, whom you may know as perian (a co-author on this blog). The business will be a used book store/coffee shop, with a knitting group and perhaps a place I can sell my yarn, should i find time to dye more.

We’ve thought about a business in the past, but it was always a “pie in the sky” scenario. In the past two weeks, we went from not even thinking about it, to having discussed nearly all aspects of this business, including funding, marketing, stock, daily operations – you name the topic, we have a list with thoughts about it.

So, being the geeks that we are, we’ve decided to start blogging about the process of planning and starting our new business. Please check us out there if you’re interested in this not-quite-so-crafty side of our lives – the blog is at http://www.faking-sanity.net. Come check us out!

Due to epic cluelessness, I forgot to take pictures before leaving the house today. However, you can see a new batch of Faking Sanity yarns at Make One Yarn Studio, as of today. I just dropped off both my Fixation sock yarn and Bliss, the wool/silk laceweight. I really should have taken pictures; there were lots of colours that were very much out of my personal comfort zone – bright greens, oranges, pinks and roses… and of course some of my favourites, such as tonal greys, purples, and blue-blacks. Go take a peak. There’s also some other new fabulous yarns at the store that came in today, so definitely worth a trip!

The first is a fingering weight seasilk/merino blend. The sheen of this yarn is incredible. I’m not really fond of this dye job, so I’ll probably overdye it, but I do like the yarn overall. It would be awesome for a shawl or lacy scarf. The second is an extremely soft superwash BFL sock yarn with a bit of nylon for strength (20%). I’ve loved BFL from the first time I spun some, so I’m sort of partial toward this fiber, and this yarn in particular. The last two are both of a merino/cashmere/nylon blend fingering weight yarn. This one I’m fairly certain will become one of my regulars. It is a plump/squishy yarn that’s incredibly soft and has a nice sheen to it, as well. As I’ll be ordering this one again in all probability, I’ve decided that purple skein is going to go straight to my personal stash!

Last week, I also succombed to temptation and bought a bunch of Sidar Flirt DK – a machine washable bamboo/wool blend yarn for a cowl neck tee I saw at The Knitting Room a few weeks ago. As my crafty side is balanced with a very detailed/analytical/geeky side and because I have yet to knit a pattern as it is written, I decided to make several modifications to the shaping and construction of the top, which of course meant sketching out several scaled versions of the garment on graph paper. With my sketches in hand, I was able to determine if I like the basic shape of the garment with my proposed changes. Everything seemed ok, so I set aside my swatch and started this:

As for the rest of the dyeing, I also managed to get a number of skeins of my Fixation sock yarn dyed up. Here are a few samples, since this seems to be the pic spam post!

I’ve also decided to tear out my previous stockinette sock in the spring greens. I had tried a toe-up gusseted, short-row heel, and I really don’t like the fit. The heel was about 1/4″ shorter than I would have liked following the exact instructions, so I’d have to tear it out and increase more slowly to add the extra length without making it too baggy. However, I’m thinking I’ll try one of two options:

a) Knit a top-down heel flap and gusset as written (without reversing anything), from the toe up. This would leave the slip-stitch pattern on the bottom of the heel, where I’m more likely to wear through it anyway.

b) Knit my standard no-wrap short row heel, since I know it fits well.

Here’s the sock before the heel surgery:

I just finished the gusset and heel on my uber-bright greeny-blue socks. I was again reminded that although I prefer toe-up socks, I dislike knitting gusseted heels from the toe-up. On the upside, this time around, at least the sock and heel fit properly, as opposed to my previous attempts with this combination (the last time the socks ended up being a full shoe-size too short, so ended up being an unforeseen gift for the roommie’s tiny feet). I do like how the socks are turning out, so these will be for me, but the next time, I’ll either knit top down or do a short row heel.

As for the yarn, I bought a few skeins of sock yarn in the past month…Check them out:

The first two I think will end up being socks for me. The last, Lang Ja Woll Silk with its spool of coordinating reinforcement thread, will be for socks for my dad.

I’ve also made some progress on some bus knitting recently. It’s a simple stockinette sock, in a very bright-for-me Regia 4-ply sock yarn, but I’m quite enjoying it:

I’ve also gotten over 2 feet of my Tudor Grace knit up. It’s not what I had planned, but I’m enjoying the knit, and it turns out that I’ll be seeing my Grandma this spring, so I’d love to finish this one in order to give it to her as a gift.