Yesterday, Becky came over to visit.
If you look closely, you can see the cat in the window.
I say that so casually! We’ve actually been planning this since March – and I had been trying to think of a good reason to invite her over for much longer than that. In my head “come sit on the porch and knit and maybe we’ll have some lunch” wasn’t a good enough reason. I came up with “Soon I will be in the midst of the SYAC and sad about my lack of new sock yarn*, so whaddya think about coming up to dye some with me?” She said yes! So yesterday, Becky came over to visit.**
Becky is my first knitblogger to turn from Imaginary Friend into Live-and-in-Person Friend. I warned her about the driveway and about the stacks of bricks (you know where YOU can go Brick Man) and about how I Cleverly Crop my house picture so that no one can see the Terrors of the Yard, lack of furniture etc. etc. I did not warn her that I am flaky, babble/am shy in turns and in general have no awareness of my surroundings most of the time. I thought I would save that for a surprise.
In case anyone is wondering, Becky is NOT a “troll masqurading as a fat, grey haired knitblogger”. She is cute, sweet, fun to hang out with, has a great laugh and really isn’t all that grey haired! If I were making Song of Hiawatha, I would have grey hair, too. The parts of it that I hadn’t torn out.
I’ll spare you Dyeing Details, you can google for those if you want to try it yourselves.*** We mixed our dyes and then used squirt bottles and sponge brishes to apply them to the yarn.**** After one hank of that nonsense, we switched to the soak-each-end-in-two-colors method. Then we wrapped them up in plastic wrap and stuck them in microwave for 6 minutes. The results?
From front to back: mine, Becky’s, Becky’s, mine.
Our conclusions? We are very happy that there are many many other people who hand-dye yarn and are willing to sell it to us for the low low price of $20. Dyeing is hard work!
Becky has also ruined my Granmother (What? Of course Great Gran was there). All Great Gran wants to talk about is the Flower Basket Shawl that Becky brought for show and tell (the purple one that she dyed with Kool-Aide). Luckily Becky has some great pattern notes to help us get through this thing. I have to order the yarn so that we have it when my Mom is here next and start collecting Kool-Aide packets to be sure we have enough. I guess I know what our next KAL is. I haven’t even finished a hand towel.
I know that I have left a TON of stuff out! But I am late for my haircut so I will have to update later. Becky, thanks so much for coming and for saying “the next time we do this” several times while you were here! There should absolutely be a Next Time – just give me a call.
Becky has a much better account of the day over here. I can’t believe I didn’t show her any of my knitting and completely forgot lettuce for the sandwiches!
*I ordered the dye-your-own before April 1!
**Some hand-dyed yarn for Great Gran (she’s taken it home – I haven’t got a picture) and a felted box (a la MDK) for me! How cool is THAT?!
***I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I planned…I’m so sorry, Esther!
****I heart superwash. You can do all kinds of bad things to it and it still looks like yarn.
Oh my gosh!!! I am so jealous!! And really happy about what a great time you all had!!! Your porch, your grams and the kitty look like something out of a postcard – such an inviting scene and I am so glad you mentioned that Becky IS NOT A GREY HAIRED TROLL!! LOL – I already yelled at her for putting that in her blog. I totally agree, she’s a fantastic person and I can’t wait for the day that I get her butt down here (SOUTH FLORIDA) – much longer hike – to knit w/me a bit. I wish we all lived closer – it would be so nice to be able to get together in groups and have lunch/sip on tea and knit! Ahh, one day perhaps. I’m told you and grams were the best hostesses ever and from Becky’s account I hope one day we get to meet too!!
Your house is beautiful (I really love the brick driveway) and from what I’ve heard of the “inside” I was already picturing a really beautiful home.
Wonderful post, wonderful visit my friend. And you should know that anytime your guests utter the words “next time I visit” that means that they are having a blast and are just praying for a second invite! Give Gran a hug for me!
I ordered dye-your-own yarn back in January that only arrived in April, too. No yarn purchases since March 31st – yippee!!
I’m jealous as hell! I’d love to come sit and knit on your porch – that would be good enough of a reason for me ANY day! Glad you had fun!
Knitting, dyeing, and hanging out on the porch with a friend and a Gran — sounds like the perfect day to me! And your dyed yarn — gorgeous! It makes me want to get out the dyes, call the girls over, order a pizza, and get to work. There’s just nothing like knitting with yarn you dyed yourself…
Sounds like ya’ll had a GREAT time!! Looking forward to meeting you and hope to have enough time to “sit a spell” and knit with you!! Quit envious of the fact that you get to share time with your Great Grandmother!! I miss my Grandmother…..special bond between granddaughters and their grandmothers!!!
Sounds like a lot of fun. I’m jealous! 🙂
Sounds like a great time 🙂 I love meeting my online friends! I must agree with the others..Jealous!!! Haha!
Sounds like ya’ll had such a good time! Envious, but really very glad for you!
Can’t wait to see the finished sock yarn!
It sounds like y’all had a great visit! I have just recently tried some yarn dyeing, too. I agree that it’s worth $20 to let someone else do it. (Reskeining is a pain in the you-know-what!)
You all had such fun (even though the dyeing is hard work -thanks for the reminder!). I have had the chance to meet a few knitblog virtual friends who have become live and in-person friends too, so I know that special thrill 🙂
Ooh looks like fun! I know that my dyeing experiments would look really bad so I don’t think I want to try it. Not unless I become very brave first.
what fun! I’m so glad that you had such a wonderful visit with Becky!
Oh, what fun! I bought 5 hanks of sock weight natural yarn to dye myself. I just need to find time to do it. Your porch is amazing – what a great place to knit. Take care and enjoy your yarn!
From both your blogs, it sounds like you all had a wonderful time. And isn’t it nice when your Gran reinforces your great opinion of your knitting friends? You know you have found someone wonderful to hang with when Gran can’t stop talking about her…
OH!! I’m so jealous!! Y’all look like you had so much fun!!
Come sit, visit, and knit on the porch sounds like a WONDERFUL invite to me! Lovely porch and rockers to do so with. I’m inspired to push for the construction stuff to be finished and moved off my porch so I can sit and knit!