six days left

Six days left till I leave for Portland, and I still have so much to do. For a while I was thinking that I didn't have enough yarn left to dye, but now I have too much. My official last dyeing day was yesterday, but I'm going to have to figure out a way to squeeze in some more skeins. Whimper.

pre-orders for Winesap now available

I decided to do some limited pre-orders for my Winesap colorway for pickup at the Sock Summit (I'm in booth #324), plus pre-orders for September delivery. Info is posted in my store:

http://huckleberryknits.com

when 2 a.m. starts feeling like an early bedtime

... you know you have a problem. I can turn off the dyepot in 10 minutes and go to bed, and it's going to feel pretty darn good. I still have to go to work tomorrow. Ugh.

I'm in the homestretch now--the last week of dyeing before Sock Summit. July 30 will be my last dyeing day, and then it's on to labeling and other prep. For my day job, I have a Rubbermaid tote that I call my event box, with all the possible supplies that I might need for a public meeting. I wanted to start putting together my event box for Sock Summit starting in April, and I did pull together a list, but I don't have the actual box yet. All the boxes I was planning to use are full of yarn.

The Dye for Glory contest has started on Ravelry. I have two entries. Of course, I got a bunch of ideas for colorways the day that entries closed ... oh well. I'll jot them down and pursue them after Sock Summit.

My entry in the handpainted category, Winesap (another of my apple-themed colorways). Lots of different shades of green, with burgundy and rose, anchored by warm brown:



And this is my shaded solid entry, Limitless, based on my favorite shade of blue--the color of the evening sky just after the sun drops below the horizon, when the blue seems like it goes on forever:

a new logo, at last?

I've never liked the font on my logo, to be honest, and especially not the way the "t" and the "s" look together in "knits." I have looked at literally thousands of fonts, trying to find something clean but not boring or overused. Or that cost $200 to purchase.

I do really like the branch, though I wanted to prune it a bit. After some fussing, I came up with two concepts that I like.

The first one is pretty true to the original logo, just cleans it up a bit.



The second one, I like, but I don't think it looks that hot in B&W.



I need to decide ASAP. Apple Yarns and I are getting some collateral printed together, so she needs me to send the logo pronto. I'll probably go with option #1, as it's not too drastic a change from my current logo so I won't lose any brand equity that I've built up. Also I don't like sudden change. I worry that the font is too boring and that the little details that I like will be lost, but my husband tells me that I'm too much of a font geek and to just use this one already.

a forced break

I've had these itchy patches on two of my fingers for several days. I chalked it up to oddly located mosquito bites, since I've been bitten a lot lately.

This morning I woke up with blisters on the patches. Dr. Google says that it's likely irritant contact dermatitis. I threw out my dyeing gloves, will pick up some disposable latex-free ones just in case I'm developing a latex allergy, and I'm planning to take a couple of days off from handpainting.

This is just rotten timing in a lot of ways, of course. Sock Summit is three weeks away, and just last night I developed two colorways that I really like and I'd sure like to dye more of. I have non-handpainting stuff I can do, like revising my logo, getting collateral printed up, skeining yarn off cones, reskeining ... but jeez. I have Wed and Thu lined up for all-day dyeing, so I really need to be fully operational by then.

I'm also panicking a little bit that I don't have enough yarn to dye. It feels hard to believe, given all the boxes strewn about the house, but unless I'm totally forgetting about something, I am getting down to the bottom of my stash. Three base yarns that I was expecting to use are either out of stock or still in development, so that's part of the problem. Oh well, I can only do what I can do at this point. It's still going to be fun and a great experience. Right?