First, lest Bess think I forgot she awarded me a lovely prize, I will start with this:

I am truly honored that Bess gave me this award for several reasons:  she is a dear friend, a true artist with fibers and someone who truly sets a high standard in blogging, fiber related and otherwise.  Her blog was the reason I started blogging in the first place!!

Now, comes the passing of the torch.  This time of year is incredibly busy for everyone, so I am passing these awards out without expecting the recipients to pass them along to others, unless, of course, they have a burning desire to do so.  These are “freebies”, girls, so just bask in the glory:

A bloggy ribbon goes out to Ruth, a great designer of user friendly, but interesting (and beautiful) sock patterns.  She is also a talented dyer, check her Etsy shop, which, hmm… at this time seems to be on hold, but I know why.  She is doing a small version of a trunk show today.  Way to go, Ruth!!  She is also a great friend and spins marvelous novelty yarns (not the fiber type, at least not yet, but the kind made of words!  You haven’t really lived until you have read one of Ruth’s tall tales!!)

Next I award the ribbon to Donna, my neighbor just to the north of me in South Carolina, who proves you can have it all… she is a successful professional with a delightful teen aged daughter and adoring husband who actually dyes yarn for her to knit with, a backyard with chickens and now, sheep!!, and she has a loving and giving nature and is kind hearted to boot!!

Then, one to Sally, who is an enthusiastic knitter and upcoming talent who isn’t afraid to take risks!!  She wanted to know if she could ply commercial yarns together, so I told her to come on up and we would do it.  She ended up with some gorgeous mohair stuff that looked like the luscious filling of a raspberry/blackberry pie, and all I wanted to do was pet the yarn.  She is also a great friend, awesome gardener and talented cook!

I do not know Beverly nearly as well as I would like to, having only met her once at SAFF, but she is one talented and prolific knitter.  This year, she took the sweepstakes award at the South Carolina state fair this year!!!

Now, on to other things with a warning!!!  If you get offended at the abuse of knitted objects, you may want to avert your eyes, block your computer from displaying images or take some such action!!!

So, does The Swifty from the second Mason-Dixon book really work?

Okay, so this is the picture of a pristine one which has not been dirtied yet.

You can see for yourself, they DO work:

Ewww… And, no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  The first was a Swifty I made for my stepmother.

The dirty one is mine, which does prove that I do work on occasion around the house.

Next, is what I have been doing with my days off:

Crockpot dyeing, my favorite way to dye fiber.  This is BFL/Alpaca 50/50, which is about the most amazing fiber to spin that there is.  I have a pot of polar red/lilac simmering out in the studio to complement this batch.