It's a good thing I have three children and a dog.

It's the only thing that keeps my house from looking like this:

I mean, really. If I were a woman who lived alone, I would have a sideboard, and this is what my sideboard would look like.

Covered with antique lamps and teacups.

It's a sickness.

I would own all of those lamps. And I would turn on a different one each night. And I would make myself tea, and I would use a different floofy flowered cup every day.

And I would eat cookies along with the tea and I would gain 100 pounds and I wouldn't fit in my clothes, but I would love looking at my teacup and lamp collection.

It's a trade off. Clothes or teacups.

Those mint green ruffle dishes? I covet them. I COVET them. Covet is not a strong enough word.

What is the universe trying to tell me here? That I should have been born in 1910?

That I have a sickness?

It can't be that I need a hobby. I have more hobbies than I can count, and can think of ten more hobbies I'd like to take up if I had time. So don't suggest that.

What?

I can't even stand it.

Stop. 

The only thing that stops me from filling my house with floofy tchotchkes is the fact that I have three small children and a dog.

That, and the lack of a vast personal fortune.

P.S. Please forgive the camera phone pictures. I just happened upon these and couldn't resist.

What today looked like...

It started with me wearing my glasses, which I hate doing.

I hate how they slide down my nose

I hate how they make my face feel hot.

I hate how they smudge my makeup.

I hate that I can't wear sunglasses because I don't have any prescription lenses.

Glasses = nemesis.

But the glasses were necessary today because my contacts are driving me crazy and I need some new ones.

And besides, today I laid out my 33 (34?) new fall colorways and named them all.

All of them. This is a huge step. It usually takes me 91 hours to name some colorways. But I did it.

That means we're one step close to putting together the fall lookbook, which will have patterns and yarn -- lots of yarn -- in it.

So, now I'm asking for some feedback.

Having seen our Spring Lookbook, can you make any suggestions that might improve our fall version?

Photos of models wearing clothes knit in our colorways = check.

Better pictures = check.

Was there anything you particularly liked, so I can know to include that in the new version?

Fall Lookbook launch countdown is on!

Keep it to thirty

That's what I keep telling myself.

I wish it worked with my age. I tried. I walked around for four days at age 29 and 361 days muttering, "Keep it to 30, keep it to 30."

Then I looked in the mirror and found seven grey hairs.

I'm trying hard to keep it to thirty new fall colorways. It's tough, because once creativity strikes, it's hard to ward her off. She wants to play, she doesn't want to be caged.

I need to keep it to thirty for logistical reasons, really. Otherwise, I'd make 300.

How do I choose between my babies? HOW? Eeny-meeny-miny-mo? Is that even how you spell eeny-meeny-miny-mo?

This is going to turn into Sophie's Choice pretty soon if I can't curtail my impulse to make just one more pretty thing.

Help!

Well now...

To dye yarn... to ship yarn... to do a Carpe Yarnem stocking...to make the new fall collection available... that is today's conundrum...

I think I'll put up September's club colorway study instead. Or should that be in addition to?

From front to back: Smoke and Mirrors, Metamorphosis, Sleight of Hand, Illusion. The front two colors are lighter versions (in technical parlance, "they have a lower depth of shade") than the back two. I love the way they look together!

Ahem!

To keep this main page clear, we'll be posting our random Carpe Yarnem items here, on the CYSD portion of this blog. See illustration below.

It's the little section on the left side of this screen that says "Carpe Yarnem: Seize the Dye".

You just never know when something will show up!

In the meantime, back to my regularly scheduled ramblings...