Man am I ready for this week to be over! It’s been a long one, full of late hours at campus and lots of homework. I also had lots of Yarn Nerd orders to ship out, (thanks everyone, you rock!), so I often found myself awake at 1 am, packing yarn or working on math simulations. The math simulations aren’t so hot, but at least the yarn shipping is still a labor of love, so I don’t mind packing a few skeins up in the wee hours. I keep telling myself that I’ll keep more humane hours after school is over, but then I’m sure I’ll spend a few nights watching movies and knitting into the early hours too. At least I’m still young, because I think in a few years this lack of sleep thing won’t be so easy to recover from.
I have a nice relaxing weekend planned, involving dyeing up some Create Your Skein orders, knitting on my sock, and a little yard work. The yard work isn’t terribly relaxing, I have to install a new sprinkler timer and a new pond pump, but it’s a change of pace from bit error rate calculations so it should be nice. Speaking of the weekend, I woke up this morning to find my sock (which may or may not be a physical manifestation of my inner fratboy) trying to convince me that it was high time for a beer. While the sock made a convincing argument on why I deserved a nice treat after a long week, I had to tell him that it just wouldn’t happen. Just because it’s “5 o’clock somewhere” doesn’t mean I can just go hog wild, at 8 am nonetheless. I guess I’ll just have to wait until 5. 
Anyone else looking forward to quitting time after a long week?
The sock is progressing nicely though, and I’m hoping to sail down to the foot this weekend so I can seam it’s mouth shut…I’m getting tired of it trying to get me to shirk all my responsibilities…
Also, my Eye Candy for today is the lovely pond Irises (I think that’s right, is that what you said they were Mom?), which are beginning to bloom. I’m looking forward to the summer as my backyard is a great place to hang out and listen to the pond, while taking a nap in the grass. It’s a lot of work to get it up and going, but I’m making steady progress. Plus, I think the Irises alone make up for all the labor!
Finally, the last thing I have before sailing off into the wonderful land of miller time is a finished object that I’m very proud of. Although I didn’t knit this sock, I did dye the yarn for it, and I think it’s smoking hot. It was knit by Chawne (I don’t know if she has a blog, but her Flickr photos speak for themselves), with my 900 MHz Merino the in Tour de France colorway. This is one of my favorite colorways and I think she did real tribute to it with her simple sock design. Isn’t it sweet?
I was sad :( to find that Chawne found 4 knots in the skein when she wound it. 4 knots? Man that would make me mad if I was knitting it! Knots do occur occasionally when hand-dyeing, but I always try to limit them, and I would definitely not send out a skein with 4 knots if I knew about it. But sometimes the skeins come from the mill with knots already, and those ones are sneaky little buggers.
Anyway, the short of it is, if you buy yarn from Yarn Nerd and are less than pleased, do let me know! I want you to be extremely happy with every Yarn Nerd purchase, and I will do whatever it takes to keep you as a Yarn Nerd fan. I value my customers highly, and I would love to hear your opinions on my yarn (good and bad). Because good customer service just makes the world a better place, ya know?
Oh boy, 10 minutes until 5, I can’t wait! Have a great weekend everyone!
Your pond looks like a great thing to sit by and knit (or nap). I may be snaking into your backyard soon…
I like everything in these photos! Especially the beer! Hope your weekend was great & relaxing!
Enjoy the Guinness Adam! Your backyard is looking really inviting.
it IS always 5 o’clock, … somewhere …. and i love to use the expression the “wee hours” too!
my yarn nerd arrived in today’s mail =) sorry you’ve been losing sleep, but i’m very excited to have my fresh yarn. i hope to use the “create your own skein” feature next time. i think the twist on the yarn is divine, and i look forward to knitting it up … someday (hopefully soon … but my pomatomus socks are kicking my a**).
have a great weekend
The sock looks great!
That sock Chawne knit is gorgeous!! Hee hee - it’s long after 5, even in NM. I only have to make it to 3:30, but I was ready.
Your sock looks great, although you might want to talk to it about the pre-partying. I found myself thinking I should stop at the liquor store next to my office after the week I’ve had, but I forgot all about it and came home instead. Fortunately, I checked the mail and had Yarn Nerd yarn. It’s gorgeous! I’m sorry you lost sleep, but thanks!
I think it’s high time to de-lurk.
Just want to say that one of these days I’m going to end up buying your yarn. ;-) But first I have to knit up some that I have here.
I imagine it’s very gratifying to see your creations knit up. My friend Jane is working on a sock design using your Printed Circuit Board colorway. Hopefully she’ll have pics of that soon for you!
Thanks for staying up late to dye beautiful yarn for us all to knit up! And thanks for the shout-out on the sock; it was a joy to make. I really like your drunken sock. What yarn/pattern is that?
Wow, that sock did come out awesome in that colorway! And the iris’ do look beautiful, they are my fave flower. My mom sent me some from her garden in Alb. and they are finally coming up here, her’s already bloomed there! And DUDE! What’s with the beer?! I thought you were on some kinda diet??? Or did that run-a-go-go away? Beer’s is uber fattening.( I’m de-lurking to scold you! ;)
Those are great looking socks.
Yes, yes, dye those custom colorways. :)
ok, now my cakes of “tour de france” are tempting me more than ever. that sock is seriously beautiful!! bummer about the knots…i’ve had some louet yarn with knots in it too. knots don’t bother me. i know it’s just the way it is. most commercial yarn i’ve used has a knot or two in it. i try to limit them in the stuff i send out and i know you do too :) congrats on a great shop update!!
I got my yarn nerd yarn on Friday. Yay! I love the choice of pattern for sock, but must say, not its choice of beer…I’m so NOT a Guinness fan. I can’t wait to figure out what I’m going to do with this new yarn, though… Enjoy your irises! Things are just starting to bloom here, and about time!
love the sock with the beer - i was feeling that on friday at the same time! Part of ti was the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to log on until tongiht/
The sock that chawne knit - do your colourways stripe like that regularly or was it something she did?
really fabulous yarn!
Hey Adam! I got a message that my yarn has shipped. WHOOHOO!! I like the tour de france sock! I like the colors anyhow, but after seeing the color name, it’s interesting to see how the black lines look like skinny bike tires. I heartily approve of your beer choice. Though when we were in college, anytime after noon would’ve been a good time to start. The iris looks like ‘Iris pseudacorus’, which around here (New England) is considered invasive. Check it out at the usda plants site if you’d like, http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=IRPS. Looks like you have it confined to a small pond in your yard. It doesn’t look like it has high potential to become invasive in your situation (as opposed to some of the stuff around here that is spread by birds eating the fruits).
ting! (Anne sent me.)
Love the sock with the Guiness. Can’t imagine much else that a self-respecting sock would drink.
I wanted to let you know I’ve knit up my Yarn Nerd yarn into a beautiful Clapotis! There are pictures here: http://knit.liquidgirl.org/?p=208
About the yarn itself… when I was winding it I was worried because of areas where the fiber seemed loosely spun, but I later realized they were mostly pills that could easily be removed so it wasn’t a problem. After washing and blocking, my scarf is super soft and has wonderful drape.