Black Dog

Well, thanks to some straight talk on my part (that was lovingly received and appreciated–THANKS, D!), I received yet another awesome surprise box from a certain someone. First, some back story.

I’ve read her blog for several months now, following her transition from what she previously did to her new avocation–hand dyeing. I was excited to receive the box, and when it came, I ripped it open and quickly dumped the contents onto one of the black tables at the shop and was….underwhelmed by what I saw. (side bar–none of this is news to her, as we’ve had several conversations in the interim and talked about what happened, why, and how I moved forward from that place). I packed up the box and thought about returning things to her with a thank you note, explaining that what I saw didn’t really fit our product mix at the moment, yadda yadda. But then it took a little turn (for the good).

Enter a fantastic phone conversation with a colleague (HI SHERI!) where we talked about various hand-dyers and our experiences and the like…….and said colleague was VERY supportive of this specific line of yarns. She even went to far as to tell me…”the beauty is in the knitting, and that’s not always revealed in the skein” (or some such…..I’m paraphrasing here). Sheri convinced me to wind and knit with some of the goodies in the box, and I’m here to say—I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT THIS STUFF. from first impressions to now, my opinion has done a complete 180, I’m formulating an order, and I’ve since recieved another box of love from said dyer.

The phone conversation I had on Tuesday evening covered some new dyeing techniques this person is playing with and how she had some mixed feelings about the initial results. No matter, she posted a skein my way, which arrived on Friday. Boy howdy, she has NO reason to think this is not some purty stuff. Check it out in the skein

and in the cake

and in knitted fabric

Suffice to say that this will DEFINITELY be in the order that I place this week. Unfortunately for you, my dear readers, she’s chock-a-block full for dyeing and cannot deliver until July/August. That’s quite alright…we’re willing to wait for such pretty goodies.

I’ve knitted more with other things she sent in the first box, which I’ll share here shortly. And she’s sent along spinning fiber samples as well that Matt will be spinning up and most likely sharing over on his blog.

Long story short–(too late, I know)–I think Dianne can now count on me for an HONEST and insightful opinion about things. And I can count on Sheri for good advice. And the net result is BEAUTIFUL new yarns coming to ThreadBear later this summer!

Do ya like the new look? Bl0gger took a crap out on me a couple months ago and won’t let me post, so Matt took the better part of today to set up my new look and feel and host (WordPress). Better yet, the picture at the top is our dear, departed Connor (namesake for the blog), in her heyday when I lived in an antebellum home outside of Montgomery, Alabama, when I was on the faculty at Auburn University. Big thanks to Matt for un-silencing my voice. And look out–there’s PLENTY I want to say in the near future. He’s also set up a “What’s New” blog for the shop that I’ll also be feeding, starting on Monday. Bwahahahahahaha….double-barrelled enabling! You’ve been warned!

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