Rows Red » dyeing

Sep 07 2010

Swimming Against the Tide

Category: Knitting,Life & Stuff,Spinning,Vending,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 7:24 am

Labor Day weekend was, at very least, a weekend of labor for me. Not only was I in full dyeing/vend prep mode, but I had to work a company event as well. We had the Clearwater Sloop come and do educational family tours on the Hudson for lucky employee families, I was there as company photographer and face painter of children. Fingers crossed, it’s supposed to be over time and we could really use the money. On the yarn front, I dyed 35 skeins of yarn, re-skeined 11, finished the shawl I’m wearing to mom and dad’s re-wedding, battled Tempest the entire weekend (she’s chattering, and yes I oiled/took apart/adjusted), and watched almost the entire first two seasons of Dexter.

Tempeste doesn't like me right now, but we're working through it.

It feels good to have so much new shop stock in the house, and a few of the skeins are dyed in a style I don’t do very often but will be more so in the future. Rich, complex, and still kettle dyed. The kind of yarns that make your fingers itch to cast on for a sock or shawl that’s full of sultry goodness. The thought that this should be the last big dye session I have to re-skein by hand leaves me breathless and my shoulder, neck, and arm whimper in gratitude.

Guilty Pleasures sock yarn in the new "Earth Golem" colorway.

Finishing one of the bridesmaid shawls also left me temporarily giddy. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. I can’t say it’s truly ‘done’, it has to get over-dyed yet. Yes, mom and I decided that dyeing it plum would be best, and I can finally not force myself to love the copper/burnt orange color. I’ll do a test dye on a swatch before I throw the whole shawl in the pot. Gives me the willies just contemplating it, but it needs to be done. The shawl is HUGE. Huge. Already shawl size, unblocked, just like the one I made mom to wear herself. I’ll have to be very careful handling it when wet and blocking.

Shawl size, as you see, unblocked.

Tiny House has been under a bit of a pall lately, I’m sad (literally) to say. Work has gone from bad to worse, becoming a toxic stew. The kind of environment that is tailor made to trigger a major depressive episode, which I am struggling very hard against. I really don’t want to have to put on my mask again. It feels rather like swimming against the tide. Steve, friends, and family, have been something to hold on to while I figure out what direction I can realistically take next. For now, I’ve got a remix (and free download) by one of my favorite groups on repea

Tags: dyeing, Knitting, Life & Stuff, Spinning, Vending

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Jul 01 2010

Sigh of Relief, Reproduction, & Road Trip

Category: Spinning,Uncategorized,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 10:46 pm

Though there’s a lot going on at work, and despite the fact that we’re going to be out of town visiting Steve’s Aunt Susan in PA this weekend, despite all that… oh yes, I am excited about the Tour de Fleece starting on Saturday. Woo! I can be happy now because yesterday’s freak out is over. Since I couldn’t start carding the fleece I’d processed and dyed last year because it had gotten another rinse (dye residue), I decided to have Steve bring me up the bag of fleece so I could dye more. Only… he couldn’t find it. We both looked everywhere in the basement, and I looked in my wool room. Nothing. All that work, a week of washing the loveliest fleece I’ve ever had the pleasure of getting to know, just GONE. I – Lost – My – Shit. Just lost it, at least in my head.

I was so angry and depressed that I felt like I was vibrating with violence. I wandered the house aimlessly, checking and rechecking, thinking I might have found it twice, but no. Then I checked this green, opaque popup storage bin thingey I have, and wouldn’t you know, down at the bottom, where I’d put it to keep it safe and upstairs so I could find it, there it was. My relief was palpable. I guess I’ve been stressed out lately, eh?

Wine, celery, red, and sapphire.

So I dyed up two pots, one in dark sapphire blue and another in brown that was splashed with fuschia leftover dye halfway through the process. Gorgeous. The brown will be used to temper the green and the red, while the blue will have to wait for another batch to be dyed up in colonial (medium denim) blue. I put it all out to dry this morning and I spent the evening carding. I had to get as much done as possible tonight so that I’ll have enough to spin while we’re away at Susan’s house. I always bring my wheel when I go visit friends and family, provided they have the floor space, and they’re all very supportive. I know we’ll be busy running around, but I’m going to have to build in down time anyway so I’m not crying come Tuesday when I have to go back to work. Spinning will be perfect. If I don’t get enough processed? Well, that’s what handcards are for.

I was aiming for a redding brown to compliment the green, but I think wine will do nicely too.

Meh, yellow.

Yesterday I had a nice surprise when I came home, our first year flower bed has blessed me with blooms! We planted a mixed bag of gladiolas, a mixed bag of Asian lilies (white to pink and white), and alternating with the mixed lilies I added a bag of Star Gazer lilies, one of my all time favorite flowers. When fall comes I want to add in some Monte Negro lilies to give the pinks some depth and contrast. And we still have half the bed to plant. Pardon if I don’t do a full shot of the flower bed, we haven’t added our mulch yet and have some weeding to do before then.

Star Gazer lily (or at least a very close cousin, it's a little pale).

The gladiolas are pretty, but disappointing in that they’re all yellow so far, one of my least favorite colors. The lilies, on the other hand, are my pride and joy! We planted them in April and were stunned to see that of the 12 we planted, 6 of them naturalized immediately, giving us another 6 plants already, in the first season! Totally blew me away. So I have 18 lilies, two of which are already blooming. Isn’t the Star Gazer a gorgeous flower?

Pepper buds, woot!

Baby squash!

I have baby squash, beans, and pepper flower buds too, which absolutely thrills me. Last year I got just one pepper that grew in the community garden, which someone then stole off the plant over a weekend so I never even got to taste it. I have to harvest another round of lettuce tonight, now that I’m watering the gardens with feed once a week they’re going crazy. I can only imagine what I’ll have to look forward to when we get back from Pennsylvania!

Green bean babies.

Tags: dyeing, Spinning

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May 27 2010

“Test Your Might!”

Category: Knitting,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 6:29 am

“It HAS begun!” (Cue Mortal Kombat themsesong.)

The Great Lace Race is on, and as with all shawls that start with only a handful of stitches, I’m feeling good. I’ve never knit shawls quite like these before, but I have high hopes for both the pleasure of the knitting and their finished beauty. Fingers crossed that my hands hold out. My current library rampage could actually help me in the quest to balance the need to knit as much as possible and not hurt myself in the process. A good book is both a powerful draw and a way to rest my hands that doesn’t feel like inaction.

I’ve never attempted anything quite like this before, working two lace projects at the same time, both having immutable deadlines. I had hoped that this would be the year I finally made the Garden Path Stole, especially after scoring the needed extra yardage of the discontinued Moss colorway, but I doubt that’s going to happen. Still, I’ll have these two gorgeous shawls to show for my time, and I can’t complain about that. I think that it’s fitting to work on the bright shawl during the day on my work breaks and the dark shawl when I’m home at night. Fingers crossed, tick tock.

Flamenco, just starting to get interesting.

Flamenco is coming along nicely, as you can see. This pattern has less stockinette than Painted Sun, and I’m already past the first diamond motif. It feels good to be starting the actual lace work, seeing how the picture paints itself in yarn overs is what makes knitting lace fun after all. Mom’s not hot on the color, but since it’s my shawl, and not hers (which she loves), that’s all right. The color is devilishly difficult to capture, sometimes it looks like an old penny (low light) and other times it’s brighter. Copper isn’t a color I normally like to wear or work with anyway, but it’s the only one of her two wedding colors that works against a black dress, so we’ll manage.

"Sin", from Bittersweet Woolery, in Sweet Nothings Silken.

Now that the yarn Jess commissioned has passed inspection I am beside myself with squee. I adore how it came out, you can see and read more about the process over at the Confessional, and while you’re there why not check out some of the more recent posts? Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Gadzooks, how I love this yarn! The wool/silk blend is very nice in the hands, and it takes the dye like you wouldn’t believe. The colorway is called “Sin” (as in “living in…”) in honor of Jess and her honey’s prolonged cohabitation. I’ll be skeining it all up and labeling so that it can be parceled out to the other bridesmaids on Saturday… which, by the way, is Cummington. Yay!

The infant stages of Painted Sun.

I’m only a few rows in, but now it’s ON.

Tags: dyeing, Knitting

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May 24 2010

Flamenco: Bridesmaid Shawl #1

Category: Knitting,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 6:08 pm

Well, I wanted copper and boy did I ever get copper. Perhaps the yarn is too copper? To be fair, this picture is brighter than the more chocolately orange I ended up with.

Lucky Penny

What you’re looking at here is the Cognac (beige) Alpaca Silk lace yarn I showed last week. Mom’s wedding colors are copper and maroon. Since my dress is black, copper is the smart choice as to which color to dye the shawl yarn. I mixed myself up some “Bright Orange” dye, of which they are NOT exaggerating, and poured just a portion of it into the pot. Seriously, the water was still clear, I didn’t use a ton, not that you can tell by how bright the yarn came out. Would you believe I gave it a second dye bath with “Reddish Brown” to tone it down? I figure if I hate it when I’m done with the shawl I’ll overdye it again to dull it down even further.

This shawl pattern is fairly busy once it gets going, so I wanted to dye the yarn as close to solid as possible. Between the two dyebaths, it definitely came out as close to solid as I’ve ever dyed. The yarn is silky and absolutely luxurious to the touch, but… it’s a poorly put up, two-strand lace yarn. What we’re working with here is two, two-ply strands that are barely twisted together. What a pain in the ass to work with! Well, to be fair, it’s only really annoying when I have to k2tog, otherwise it’s ok. Technically I could just dye up the KP Gloss Lace I bought myself last month, but I’m going to soldier on.

Humble beginnings.

I cast on last night before the Lost finale and fought the entire finale to knit the same 11 rows over and over again. I knew I was missing something, and it was driving me NUTS. Who knew that stockinette and M1s could be so infuriating! Cue this morning: STILL missing something, still starting over repeatedly. I gave in and asked for help on a Ravelry board and by 10 a.m., voila! I had my answer. It was both my own fault, and a clarification that the designer could have put on the same page as the damned charts. *breathe* Everything’s fine now. I can do this.

Tags: dyeing, Knitting

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May 18 2010

Meh Unto You!

Category: Knitting,Life & Stuff — Mistress Rows @ 7:06 am

I find it unfair that allergies are the gift that keep on giving. Yesterday my allergy pill did nothing for me, but I can’t take more than one or I’ll fall asleep at my desk. I sneezed on and off all day, usually in bursts of two or three consecutively. Today I feel much better and haven’t been sneezing as much, but my whole torso, especially my ribs, aches… on top of my normal aches and pains. Every time I sneeze I wince. Oh Fibro, you are so talented! How clever are the news ways in which you torment me! Meh. Meh, unto you. Recently I’ve started tracking my pain levels in “My Pain Diary”, an app for the iPhone, and I’m really glad to have it, totally worth the $4. It’s sad that I get all excited about showing a pain-tracking application to my friends and family, but there you have it. Now, if only my cracker-jack GP didn’t reply “wow, that seems obssessive” when I showed it to him.

My Pain Diary app, available in the Apple App Store. May you never have need of it.

On a much more pleasant note, I am starting to weird out the ladies who man the desk at the library, they see me take out giant stacks of books and then I bring them back in seven to ten days, which is apparently quicker than they expect. It’s been remarked upon. Half of them are craft books, which I look through relatively quickly, so they don’t count. But yes, I really did read those five novels I took back yesterday. I think it’s because I haven’t used the library in so long, I feel like I have to burn through it all at once. I don’t HAVE to gulp books down, they’re not going anywhere! I’m slowing down now that I’ve gotten to the next to latest Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novel by Laurell K. Hamilton. It’s thick, 486 pages of ass-kicking sex, violence, and moral quandries, and I plan on savoring it. Anita is my hero, and I understand and relate to her much better than I do more conventional female main characters. That should tell you something about me.

Anita Blake speaks my language.

Tonight I’ll get the yarn I’m dyeing for one of the wedding shawls and I’m excited. It’s the same yarn I used for mom’s shawl, and I loved working with it beyond all reason. I’ll be dyeing quite a few skeins, enough for myself, Risa , and the bride. The plan is to dye it crimson first, then overdye it black in stages. The hope is to have a complex, gothic shade that will look great with the red dresses.

Until then, I work on the vanilla-footed sock, which is now finally back to where it was before the great rippage.

The yarn for my other shawl, the one I’ll wear to mom’s wedding, was mailed yesterday. I should have it by the end of the week, it’s coming from Texas. I know it’s insanity to be working two lace shawls at once, but I don’t really have a choice. Well, I could have started one of them months ago, but I didn’t. So my plan is to work it just like I did when I was making mom’s. Then I worked on mom’s shawl during the day and a second project at night. In this case I’ll work one shawl in each time slot. A little bit every day and hopefully I’ll be done before October. I think I can do it. Mom’s Aeolian shawl took me three months, and it was not only HUGE but had thousands of beads on it, each one hand placed. Four months, slow and steady, for two shawls. Mmmhmmm.

Tags: dyeing, Fibromyalgia, Friends & Fun, Knitting, Life & Stuff

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Apr 05 2010

Signs of Life

Category: Just Us,Tiny House,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 7:00 am

Monday, you are a cruel mistress. We did entirely too much this weekend, and I’m certainly paying for it today. My legs are sore from yard work! I won’t complain too much though, Steve did most of the heavy lifting, and with his help I was able to get in half of the bulbs for our new front flowerbed. Asian lilies (pink and white mixed bag) augmented with a bag of Star Gazers (love!), and a pink/white mix of Gladiolas in the back. Oh, and Freesia (mixed colors) for the very front! Next up will be mixed irises on the left and something in the middle to separate the two halves. Over the next couple of weeks I hope to have at least two raised beds built for my veggie babies, they’re so big!

First leaves on our... crabapple(?) tree.

Steve and I have been so pathetically pleased to see signs of life in our yard as spring finally hits the North East. Last week had a lot of firsts for me… first buds, first leaves, first flowers (daffodils & forsythias), and first day I felt warm enough to wear shorts.

I love these little chicadees, they make me smile, and since they know I'm the seed lady, they don't mind me standing very quietly and photographing them.

Even though we backloaded our weekend by mistake (or at least I did), I still enjoyed myself heartily. The weather was beautiful, with sunny skies and temps in the high 70’s. There’s something about the sun on my face, before the humidity hits, that just lights up my soul. It was a struggle to stay in on Sunday and dye, but I’m glad I did because I got more than half the dyeing done I need to have in the mail in the next ten days. One more session, then processing and packing. Then I’ll be hooting and hollering as I’m featured (for the second time) at Yarn4Socks in May! But before then, more dyeing for Clermont! God, I can’t wait, even though it’s a lot of work.

Handspun, drying in the late sun.

Our Easter was non-existent as neither of us are Christian and our normal “Easter” dinner with my parents was off the table, so to speak. My parents spent the weekend with family in Connecticut, leaving us to our own devices. The bonus? We had Nuala for the weekend and may I just reiterate that she’s such a cute little peanut?

Sleepy little peanut.

Steve built her a little hut to keep her shaded (with water of course) while we worked outside on Sunday. She’s such a sweet girl, and it shocks me to think that she’s already 7 going on 8. Thankfully, with any luck, she’ll be with my parents for another 7 or 8 years to come. Many of you have met the Ambassador (Alien Ambassador of Love & Joy), and you know I don’t exaggerate when I say that she’s a joy to have in your arms for even a moment.

My blocking mat makes up the roof of the pup-hut.

Regular posting will be back on track this week, including replying to comments, pictures of recently spun yarn, and the latest dyed offerings.

Tags: dyeing, Just Us, Tiny House

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Mar 15 2010

Pasteles & Pigment

Category: Knitting,Life & Stuff,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 3:01 pm

By all that is tasty and covered in chocolate, WHY do we still do Daylight Savings? What a ridiculous convention in this day and age! If it wouldn’t mean being out of sync for months at a time I’d boycott it entirely. So says the grumpy woman who really wanted sleep that extra hour this morning.

Completely unrelated: I can’t believe how much I got this weekend, despite the recent rise in my pain baseline. Saturday we visited with my parents and friends of the family, we gathered to make a Puerto Rican delicacy called Pasteles. Personally, I can’t stand the things, which are kind of like a savory cooked root and plantain masa (dough) with meat filling, formed into a rectangular patty, wrapped in banana leaves and paper, then boiled for an hour. Many Caribbean peoples have a similar dish, but our version is by far the complicated and time consuming to make. We keep our strength up by eating other delicacies, almost exclusively fried. I hadn’t had bacalaitos in years. Mmm.

The process, however, is great fun in my opinion, and the dish is so revered that we make hundreds at a time over the course of an entire day. People take home their share in bags, to be frozen and doled out sparingly over the year. My favorite part is wilting the banana leaves over open flames to make them supple. The process also brings out the flavor of the leaf, which fuses with the masa and meat fillings. Even with 5 couples working non-stop, it still took hours to assemble them all. Thank god my parents started the meat fillings the day before or it would have been all day and night. If you want to see a photo tutorial of the process, click here.

Sunday I conquered the Spiral Eyelets sock, huzzah! I could have been done long since, if I hadn’t screwed around earlier in the week, thankfully the yarn is closer to sport weight and knits up quickly. Since I’ve taken to knitting toe up I decided to go for broke and try to use up as much of the yarn as I could. You can see from the photo below just how close to toe-up Zen I came… it seriously couldn’t have gotten any much closer than that. All told the leftovers were about 5″ long after weaving in the tail. I love the colors, and I’ll definitely be using this pattern again. There’s a fiddlyness to rearranging stitches at the end of each full pattern repeat (due to the spiral nature) but I muddled along as best I could and it came out just right.

Later in the day I threw together some dyeing, to great ends. I’m tweaking my dye techniques, last night’s results allowed for more variation per skein and more control. I’m also trying the new 100% superwash wool (no nylon) base yarn and I’m so far pleased. It’s a little thick, possibly sport weight, but the 8oz mega hanks are wonderful to work with. It looks like a strong contender to replace the base I use for Miss Priss, which is not currently superwash, and therefore not a plus in my book. I have no intentions of replacing the Guilty Pleasures base yarn, and if you’ve handled a skein you’ll know why.

If light permits I’ll get these photographed and up pre-weekend, but either way you’ll be seeing two new colors in sock (Stargazer & Storm King), more Dragonfly, as well as three new colors in lace (Cherry Blossom, Persia, & Neptune).

And I managed to relax with the husbeast. Time well spent.

Tags: dyeing, Knitting, Life & Stuff

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Feb 08 2010

Busy Sounds Like Fun

Category: Bittersweet,Designing,FO,Knitting,Spinning,dyeing,events — Mistress Rows @ 1:26 pm

It’s official, I’m building up my dyeing habit. I have to be careful, because I haven’t been feeling particularly great over the last few weeks, but I’m doing what I can and enjoying it. Wednesday evenings, no later than 10 p.m., are being set aside for updates. I’m not sure if my schedule will always include dyeing every single week, but I can definitely see myself dyeing enough for an update every two weeks at least. Knock on wood. Coming up this Wednesday are two new colors of sock yarn in lighter, spring shades, and two stunning lace yarns, one in a tonal chestnut, and one in a dazzling rich sapphire with eerie mint contrasts. Momma’s got a new shade of blue, and restocked her citric acid, so watch out!

There’s news on the knitting and spinning fronts too, stuff’s happening all over the place.

Test Knitting: My scarf pattern is being knit by several people, and aside from a stitch count error, which was fixed early on, it seems to be going well for people. The biggest issue that they’re coming across is finding just the right yarn. I’m going to change the requirements to note no larger than worsted. Also, apparently Noro can lead to some fugly chunks of color, so a variegated or solid yarn might be better when it comes to commercial yarns.

Modern Mob Cap

Designing: The hat I’ve been designing is done, photographed, and completely written up. I’ve got three small process photos to shoot, but as it is it’s ready to send out to test knitters. I love the hat, really love it. Because my hair is kept snug inside the slouch section, I don’t get static-y hair from tugging it out from under my coat, and then my scarf. It fits me perfectly. Not so much in love with the black dye globules that were evident when I gave the hat a bath. Very much in love with what the bath did for the drape and definition of the fabric. An FO post will come when the pattern is ready to publish.

Spinning: I finished spinning up some top I dyed a couple of years ago and forgot I had. It was a great spin, and I love how the finished yarn came out. Pictures and an FO post no later than Wednesday. I’m inspired to dye some of the top I have in the basement, I know there’s at least one or two of you who’d like to see more Sea Glass if I do nothing else.

A Warm Return, in progress.

January I joined my first SAL (spin along) in support of my friend Cris of Into the Whirled. Members of Cris’s Ravelry forum voted on member submitted photos, and the inspiration for three months worth of ITW loveliness was born. The club is very reasonably priced, and you can purchase your spot as they go up, one at a time, so there’s no large outlay of cash. This month’s color “A Warm Return”, was inspired by a photo of a Robin’s nest inside a bush. I’m loving the way it’s spinning up, and my plan is to chain ply it for socks.

Last, but not least, if you’re local, please don’t forget about the Stir Crazy Stitch & Spin on March 6^th! I created a page for it on Facebook and some of the guests have suggested it to their friends as well. I have high hopes that I’ll see quite a few new faces, and of course my much loved regulars. Tonight I’m emailing a promotional flyer to several local yarn shops in the hopes of reaching even more new faces. If you’d like to hand one to your own favorite LYS owner or S’nB group, you can download and print one here. I hope to see you there!

Tags: Designing, dyeing, events, Knitting, Spinning

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Feb 02 2010

Dye Pot Diary: 2/2/10

Category: dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 1:37 pm

Do you smell that? *sniiiif* Ahh… that’s the smell of wet wool and dye people, and it is lovely. Something came over me last Friday night, and I blame my iPod. I cranked up my “Cleaning” playlist (good rhythms, good sing along music), grabbed some yarn from the basement and set up my pots to dye. Singing at the top of my lungs, I mixed colors and had a grand time!

Bramble in sock and lace, Blueberry Morning in sock and lace.

I had an idea, based on the knowledge that a skein of sock yarn and a skein of lace yarn will take up the same colors very differently. I decided to put a skein of each in the pot and see what happened. Let me tell you, the results were striking! The cold (blueish) winter light made photographing some of them difficult, but here are side by side photos of what I’m calling the Strange Siblings series. All went into the pot at exactly the same time, for the same exact length of time.

Dragonfly in sock and lace, Jammy in sock and lace.

Pretty cool, eh? The first few are listed in my shop already, with another round going in tomorrow night. I’m excited to share them with you, I feel like I’m really getting a handle on the two or three dye styles I want to focus on this year. My favorites right now are tonals (one color applied to varying intensities) and pours (two or more colors poured into the pot at different times).

Whirled Peas in sock, Daffodil in sock. They don't have siblings, but I wanted to show them off too.

I don’t have my studio yet, but we’re taking steps to get ready for production. I’ve ordered more citric acid and Synthrapol as I am now completely out, but I’ll have to make do with what dye and yarn I have for now, which is enough for a good while. Dyes are not cheap! 8oz of four or five colors can easily run upwards of $100. What is really got me doing the happy dance is one fantabulous internet find on my part… 16qt stainless steel stock pots, which usually run around $25-$30 each, I found on the Boscovs outlet website for $10 each! TEN DOLLARS. And free shipping. We ordered eight, for when I have two stoves running side by side in my dye studio.

As my dad would say, “kiss the hand”.

Tags: dyeing

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Jan 18 2010

Inspiratus

Category: Bittersweet,Chez Chastinez,dyeing — Mistress Rows @ 1:30 pm

How is the house, now that we’ve survived the holidays and then some? The house is good, really good. We’ve had some misadventures with the furnace and a wonky fuel oil gauge, but we’re getting then hang of it. We have been blessed with recent gifts from friends, first with a free futon and later that day Wendy and Jody gave us a portable dishwasher! We’re thrilled, those two gifts alone have saved us many hundreds of dollars at a time when cash is thin on the ground due to having to pay up front for fuel oil. We’re going to need that futon too, Amy is coming to visit in February for her birthday! We can’t wait.

It’s hard to move into a house in the winter. The days are so short and cold, all you want to do is hibernate after work and on the weekends, but there’s so much that needs to be done. We’re getting things settled slowly, taking stock of what we can or need to do now and what we will have to tackle later. The house finally feels like ours, like our home. A lot of that stems from my early push to immediately fill the book case where my craft books are stored, hang my decorative metal votive sconces, and get piece meal curtains up on the living room window. Steve’s been wonderful, he’s really stepped up the challenge of weather proofing the house, getting things organized and moved, and of course keeping up with his eagle eye budget. Our next big task is getting the basement ready for my dye studio, which will unfortunately have to wait until the walls are insulated.

Sweet Nothings Lace Yarn in Cherry Bomb

That didn’t stop me from fulfilling my first custom order of 2010, which came by way of a repeat Phoenix Fiberworks customer, an intrepid lace knitter named Linda. Linda’s blogless and not on Ravelry, which means I never get to see what she makes with my yarn. I have much to thank her for, she was very patient during my move and it was her order that spurred me to throw a few extra skeins in the pots and play. I need to make a sign that says “Dyeing is fun, you LIKE dyeing!” I still have such a hard time remembering that now that I’ve moved to kettle dyeing, and my Fibro is much more manageable, I LIKE DYEING AGAIN. That studio can’t be set up soon enough, seriously.

Guilty Pleasures Sock Yarn in Dragonfly

I think that kettle dyeing, and experimental over-dyeing, are truly the most fun I’ve had with yarn in a really long time. Monochromatic dyeing reminds me of a mysterious woman with hidden depths, there’s more than meets the eye at first glance. Over-dyeing, something I’m exploring only recently, isn’t as time consuming as I first thought… and really exciting. I started with dipping the sock yarn into the pot I was dyeing the Cherry Bomb lace in, but only for a moment. As I pulled it out I saw that it was satisfyingly mottled from pink, to blush, and some undyed areas. I used the exhausted water from Dragonfly to make up a pot of weak chocolate brown and voila! A rich blend of vintage pinks with a hint of caramel, and still not so “busy” that you couldn’t do cables or lace with it. Love. I even got them listed and up in the shop, go me.

Guilty Pleasures Sock Yarn in Pressed Petals

Most gratifying of all was the look on Wendy’s face when she and her husband came by to visit later that day. She liked the colors of the drying yarn well enough, and we talked about the dyeing, my choice in base yarns, and consumer tastes. I told her, touch the yarn, you’ll love it! Everyone really likes it when I do shows and it’s the first thing to sell out of. Well, wouldn’t you know, I’m not bullshitting and Wendy fell in love. Deep, abiding, ‘oh my god how much is it I want to take it home right now’ love. The happiness I get when my yarn makes knitters and crocheters happy is a rush that I need to remember as I build my plans for 2010.