Cool.

I was asked to join a cool shop full of talented artisans selling their wares, Lily Pad Landing. I'll be stocking some items every other Thursday, starting tonight. We have some Cole on Springvale Super Merino available, ready to ship! :)

Instock Cole

Thanks for looking! :)

Stuck in the dark ages

My poor poor iPod Nano is no more.

Let us take a moment to thank him for his distinguished service.



Thank you, Mr. Nano, for faithfully playing the same songs over and over while I toiled over a hot dye pot. You shall always be in my memory.

That also means I am stuck in the dark ages. You know, listening to those weird, round things people call "CD"s. I had to hunt high and low for a "CD" to put into a "CD player" while I was working, and this is what I came up with:



(Sorry it's blurry, not my usual camera.)

Fiddler on the Roof. That is the "CD" I had to listen to in my "CD player" today.

Oy. If only I were a rich man. I would run right out and get myself a new Mr. Nano. (Not that I could ever replace the first Mr. Nano, mind you.)

How do YOU make it through the dark times like these?

New colorways! New yarns!

More later, but here's a look at our summer collection:

Connemara:



Cole:



Irish Sea:



And Brennan:



And our two new yarns are both washable! Springvale (soft and squishy) and Kells (soft and drapey) are both so yummy delicious -- I can't stop touching them! You can click on our logo in the upper left to go to our homepage and see more details.

The end of the agony.

Today's installment will bring our Studio Horrification Tour to an end. You've been patient. Only one more post to read through, and it will be over with.

I'll try and make it quick. I can't promise it will be painless.





Next door to the office is the room that now has clotheslines for drying all that yummy yarn. We care about the environment, and are trying to minimize our energy usage. We also recycle everything we can, source environmentally responsible yarns, and use recycled/biodegradable/low impact paper, dyes, and auxiliaries.

This table took up the entire room. Had to be chopped out with an ax. I cannot tell a lie, I DID chop up the giant, carpet covered table so I could walk in this room.





And lastly, but not leastly (or least, for that matter), the storage room. This room needed the least amount of work. There was actually something useful in there (shelving), instead of big holes in the wall, or velcro strips, or piles of rubble, or giant ugly tables, or Nano Hot Water Heaters. I am happy to report that this room is currently housing much of our yarn. The yarn tells me that it likes it here in the new studio. Just call me the Yarn Whisperer.





Tune in for tomorrow's edition of "Tales of Woe from the Fugly Yarn Studio."

Do you have an SMB?

I certainly hope not. Because it ain't pretty, that's fer darn tootin'. (Don't you love how I used the apostrophe at the end of "tootin" to subtly indicate that I know proper grammar, that I KNOW there's supposed to be a G there, I am just choosing not to use it as this time? No? Oh.)

On with the tour.

Before we visit the next two rooms, let me take a moment to let you know that the studio does NOT currently look like this. These pictures were taken months ago. The studio is now in much much better, much more habitable condition. Thanks to my hard work. And thanks to the fact that I would get up at 2:00 in the morning to go down to the studio and single handedly move piles of rubble, wield a paint brush, and scrape carpet glue from the walls.

You think I'm kidding? I am not. My husband "may" have helped a little. And by "may", I mean, "did a large portion of the heavy lifting himself." But the paintbrush at 2:00 am? That was all me. (I really am serious. It was the only time I had available!)

First, let us visit the SSR. The Small Storage Room. When you see it here, it's really more like a SSROLT. (Small Storage Room Occupied by a Large Table.) This is the condition in which I inherited the SSROLT.

Please note the carefully labeled small holes in the wall. For your convenience, I have counted them. I am all about trying to make your life easier!



Inexplicably, there are 73,000 small pieces of self-adhesive foam stuck on the wall. For your convenience, I have counted them. I am all about trying to make your life easier!



One final, heart-wrenching view of the SSROLT:



Let's move on to the SMB. There's only so much time you can spend staring at an SSROLT, really. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.







Needless to say, the table was ripped out of the SSROLT, making it now just an SSR. (In case you're wondering how one removes a table that has been glued to the walls with carpet glue, the answer is, "With an ax.") The SSR has now been vastly improved by a real hot water heater, some wall repairs, a sink, some shelving, and some eye catching paint. (Yes, YES, we will eventually get to the after pictures.)

The SMB has had the Nano Hot Water Heater (the NHWH) removed. It has a new toilet, clean floors, and is no longer a GHYEFL color. It also now has a medicine cabinet/mirror, a toilet paper holder, a towel bar, and soap. All things that were missing when the previous occupants were here. Wow, I am SUCH a girl. Soap, what a unique idea.