Wednesday, May 09, 2012

I Think It's Finally Spring

I think it's finally spring! Monday was absolutely lovely, not too warm with a nice breeze, so Laura and I sat outside with our wheels and spun. Laura finished the roving she had dyed so started on some she bought from Mim the day before. I'm spinning stash reduction.

I realized I would run out of weft for my lap robe so on Sunday while we were visiting at Mim's I spun up the last 4 ounces of the gray wool, and then Monday I collected more rabbitbrush and overdyed it in the house. Thank goodness we could have the windows open because it's stinky!
And since we were already outside, I decided to put some alpaca in laundry bags and soak it for a couple of days to get some of the sediment out. I'll take it out of the bags tomorrow and rinse it on the grass, what little of bit of grass we have. I discovered I have five alpaca fleeces - two were in one tub!
Yesterday I went to town for book club, a swim and our CSA box pick-up. When I got home, my yarn order had been delivered and was being carefully guarded. Actually Charlie perches on anything that's new and catches his attention.
Look at my new toys!! I love these colors. I'm moving them around, trying to decide how I'll pair them up for another set of turned taquete towels. This is a block weave structure, so I think whatever I decide on for this set, I'll alternate the colors on the next set, just to see what that would look like.
I let the gray yarn soak in the rabbit-
brush dye liquor from Monday until late this afternoon, then rinsed it and hung it to dry. I checked it this evening. The yarn is dry and I think the color is going to be very close. I was worried because even though I used the same weights and ratios, the rabbitbrush is much greener than when I dyed with it a couple weeks ago. Laura suggested some contrast stripes in between the yarn I'm running out and the new yarn, only it's getting pretty close to the end and I think that might look even stranger than a subtle shift in color. This is a problem for tomorrow.

Laura left this morning and Petey called last night to say that he didn't get picked for jury duty so will be here on Friday for Joe Winter's spring kiln opening show on Saturday. Joe hires a blue grass/folk band for this event and he invited Petey to bring his banjo and sit in. I'm broke in greenbacks but rich in everything else!

8 comments:

Karen said...

The lap blanket looks lovely. And the new color seems a good match.

Benita said...

You know, money is over rated - it's life's experiences that make it worth living, and you have the nicest experiences. I'd love to be there for the music. I grew up in a blue-grass and old gospel playing family and it is so far down in my marrow that just the mention of blue-grass music gets my feet a-tappin'.

I love the colors you chose for the next sets of towels. That orange on the really speaks to me.

Cindie said...

that rabbitbrush color is beautiful, I'm partial to yellow and in the pix it looks like buttercream. can't wait to see what colors you combine for the next towel warp.

Michelle said...

Jealous again....

LA said...

Sittin' and spinnin' outside....life is good!!!!

Valerie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Valerie said...

Looks like life is good in the valley!

Love the new towel colors. You know, Halcyon has a new online tool to play with color. You can upload a photo and create a palette with it. Or you can just play with the color wheel. Take a look at halcyonyarn.com/yarn-colors

Sue O said...

Love the soft color you got from the dye. If you are worried about a color shift you could do what I do when knitting and have a very slight color difference between skeins. Just weave using one shuttle on the left and one on the right alternating each pick!