Many Irons in the Fire

Well, the school year is winding down.  I have only a month and a half left.  I am so ready for a break.  The greatest reason is that I'm really tired.  This happens to all teachers at this time of year.  It also happens to the students.  Usually, my first two weeks of summer break are spent on my couch sleeping.  It always amazes me how much time it takes to start to relax.

The other big reason for the break is that I have a lot of fiber related projects going on.  I have two big ones that seem to be occupying most of my time and about six small ones that I pick up when I need a break from the other two.

Big project number one:  I am working on another round shawl pattern.  This one is coming together a bit easier than Tuscan Sunflower but it is still quite a bit of work.  I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the month.

Big project number two:  I have started a yarn business.  This past week I filed all the paper work for WildHorse Fiberworks.  Currently, it is an internet store selling hand painted sock yarn.  I'm hoping that it will grown into an actual yarn store over the coming years.  I have this dream of owning my own yarn store in retirement.  Hopefully, I have just planted the seeds for this to happen.

Anyway here are a few pics of my latest dying experiments.

I'm pretty happy with the way that these guys turned out.  I can tell that dying yarn is going to have about the same learning curve as knitting; it's going to take a lot of practice.

My smaller projects include two sweaters and two baby blankets.  One of the babies was born about a week ago.  Luckily, the mother already has a sweater that I knit for her first son.  Jen was really sweet when I told her that she probably wouldn't get it until summer.

The next blanket is for a new mom; so, I'd like to get it done fairly quickly.  However, I'm not too sure about that one.  My plan is to do a fair isle blanket very similar to this one.  Baby is due in five weeks.  Hmmmm....what do you think?

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with all that's happening in my fiber world.