My Roses and Yarns

I wanted to share some of my pretty roses. It was really windy when I took the pictures, so they're not great, but you can see what I've inherited from the previous owners. I've spent alot of time with them - trimming them up and getting them under control. (apparently, the man who lived here just planted and let it go - the bushes around the house are crazy.) I'm hoping to get out with them today, but the weather has been so crazy. I have a tree to plant, too. Yay! It's a weeping pussy willow - I saw one in a catalog years ago and haven't stopped thinking about it. I finally saw one available online a few months ago and pounced on it - well, not literally, but you know what I mean. It will go out front in a little planting area by the front steps. I'll take pictures when it's in.

I've been busy dyeing up some sample skeins to see how colors look together and such, but I'm a little nervous about dyeing full skeins for the shop. So far we haven't sold anything. Would everyone please go to the etsy shop and let me know why you think nothing has been bought? Please? I have so many more ideas but don't want to waste time and money if I'm crappy at it.

I finished my market bag. It's some crochet cotton that was on sale - I like thinner yarns for bags so they are smaller when empty. It's my usual design - chain about a foot, double crochet around, but I switched to triple crochets for a meshier look. I like it. I found my skein of Euroflax, so I'll be making a bag out of it, too.

I'm so excited about Summer of Socks. I have yarns caked, patterns selected, ant two more weeks to wait! Aahhh! I suppose the clapotis will get done while I'm waiting. Which reminds me, here's a picture of the KUAS sock club package - minus the cookies. The yarn is very pretty and fresh - greens, yellow, and blues. Since it reminds me of a particular scene in the book, The Great Gatsby, I'm making a pair of socks that look like waves. The stitch markers are like jewelry. Each one is different, and each color represents an emotion in the book. Right now, they are decorating the above-mentioned clapotis - I'm going to make the socks as part of SoS.

Gosh, I really need to learn how to take better pictures. Time to take out the camera's instruction book and study!