What I’ve Been Up to Since May 10

No, the mess in the office didn’t bury me, it just felt like it. May is always a crazy busy time in a school. This year was added the fact that I am moving books and opening a new library in another building. So we had to be packed and ready to leave a day or two after school was out. Boxes of books — one reason I had not planned to move for quite a while after buying a house. Well, I’m not moving house and I’m still packing books!

I finished spinning the Blue Faced Leicester and with it added to the alpaca I’d spun I think I have enough for a sweater. I’ve started on it; pictures when I’ve made some headway.

I finished a lace table topper for my assistant who retired at the end of May. Here it is blocking.

I dyed some wool — the picture’s fuzzy but the color’s pretty true.

And in an unusal (for me) departure into other realms of textile arts, I’ve been working towards quilting. More on that soon.

 

We’ve also been dodging tornadoes, storms, and floods for the last two weeks. There’s another one rolling in now, wouldn’t you know.

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Too Long

Okay, I can tell it’s been too long since I blogged when I go to download pictures from the camera and see that there are still things on there from three weeks ago.

I have been busy!

I went to a Natalie McMaster concert — fifth row! Brilliant!

I finished spinning my gray mohair. I have stealth plans for this yarn.

I survived Open House at school.

I went to the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon in Lafayette.

I am recovering from the sudden attack of a two-day cold (no pictures).

I’m trying not to envy everyone at Rhinebeck.

Today I ventured into the kitchen for more dyeing.

“Before” picture of the gray mohair. I don’t really like the gray color.

“Before” picture of the too-bright yellow. I bought it for a project with primary colors that got frogged to turn into something else.

Enter the Kool-Aid.

“After” pictures — cooling. The red and green look so Christmas-y.

We’ll see how they do rinsed, dried and skeined. Stay posted.

Yarn: Grape Goodness

People who know me know how dangerous I can be in the kitchen, so I should tell you up front that no humans, equipment, or animals were harmed in my first foray into dyeing yarn.

There was, however, a cat who was quite possibly annoyed since I was ignoring her during the process.

Friday afternoon, relying on Kristi Porter’s “Dyed in the Wool” article on Knitty, I decided to jump into creating my own colors. I used one 3.5 oz. skein of Patons Classic Wool since it was easily available at my local craft store. (Sharp eyed readers will note the strawberry drink packets; I am entitled to change my mind on the colors.)

The dyeing itself proved remarkably easy.

The hard part was waiting for the yarn to dry. It started out in the shower, but finished here, which I thought was a much prettier picture than the inside of my shower. Can you tell I’m fond of purple?

By this morning it was dried and skeined. This shot is pretty accurate color-wise, although a Kodak EasyShare is not the best for close up pix. All in all, I’m very happy with the results.