Knitting, knitting, knitting

Check it out! I'm almost done with my Estelle cardigan. It's been hard to work on during this crazy heat but I'm so close to being done that I just want to keep going and get it done. The second sleeve is nearly finished and then it just needs blocking and buttons... and then I just need to wait a couple months for the weather to get cold enough. I'll be ready!

And I also finished a hat with the yarn I spun a couple weeks ago (I wrote about it here). I knit most of it on the car ride up to Vermont last weekend. I just cast on 88 stitches on a size 8 (or maybe it was a 9?) circular and improvised the decreases as I went.

The colors turned out really pretty and the alpaca in the yarn gives it just a little bit of shine. This one might be a present for someone in the Fall...

Oh, and guess who got shipped off to a new home today?

This cute little guy. Hooray! I should be putting the money towards buying an air conditioner... but I have a feeling it will probably be for more yarn... and beer...

Dear Internet,

My name is Lydia and I'm starting this little blog today for a few reasons:

-to promote my Etsy shop http://smallestfriend.etsy.com

-to organize some of my own thoughts and ideas (and hopefully be more productive)

-to share some of the knowledge I have through tutorials and knitting patterns and other things like that

-to have more motivation to take photos of things I make and do

Lately I've been really getting into Kool-Aid dying. It's really fun, pretty cheap, and a great way to try out dying with out spending a ton of money on a big dye kit and special pots and mordant and whatnot. I used this tutorial from Leethal.net to get started. You can really get some beautiful colors and it even smells good. Well, except the Mango, that one smells so weird and musty and definitely not something I would ever drink.... eww.

Some yarn drying on my little balcony

Yarn dyeing in progress using Cherry, Orange and Mango Kool-Aid

More to come soon!