That's my favorite spot on a nice sunny day, knitting and yup, that's a glass of grape Kool-Aid. Made me want to dye some purple yarn!
It was a hot one today. Here's Willow wiped out in kitty heaven sun wondering why on Earth I am bothering her by sticking a camera in her face.
Phantom petunias! I love them! This is the first year I've seen these ones. I planted them in the window box under the kitchen window. Once they fill out I'll be able to see them when I am doing dishes.
We went to see Pirates 4 on Sunday. It was good. My mom's friend is a cousin of the director. It was definitely different than the others ones, very good though!
Saturday, I spent the day dyeing ... OK not the whole day because I only have two pots and have to wait for stuff to cool. So in between I ran errands, the cats and dog wouldn't understand why they had no food no matter what I tried to tell them.
I wanted to use up some of my dye stock to get rid of it, a lot of it was mixed colors and I have no idea how I made them. If I am intentionally dyeing in the future, I want my stock to be straight colors. The dyes I mixed today I labeled with color and strength for future use.
I'm thinking that if I open an Etsy shop it'll be sometime in July. I am traveling twice in June, so I figured the free time I had from now until then I would see what I could dye up and have several things to open a shop with.
Once the shop is open I was thinking of a giveaway for blog readers. I'll post a link and if you post the "grand opening" on your blog then I'll pick someone with a random number generator and you'll get your pick of one skein from what's in the shop.
I was trying to take notes to make reproducible colors ... thinking I was smart buying a brand new notebook just for dye notes ... until I realized that I can't take notes while wearing rubber gloves covered in dye. So I think I'll just stick with reproducing those I can easily remember the mix and take notes after and just having fun with the other ones.
I invested in some more dyeing equipment:
A large stockpot with steamer so I don't have to rig one with aluminum foil ... plus with that method I could only steam one skein at a time. I am thinking of investing in another small stockpot so that I can steam skeins and kettle dye more than one at the same time.
An apron ... somehow I've never gotten dye on my clothes, however, my back usually hurts really bad after dyeing because I bend over the table awkwardly to avoid getting dye on me.
A dishpan that can hold three skeins of yarn for soaking, definitely need another one or two of those!
Two clear plastic storage containers for dye powders and mixed dyes. Really much better than the cardboard box I was using :o)
One thing I didn't get ... towels. Did you know once you use one its wet?!? And it takes a LONG time to dry??
I also kettle dyed some laceweight in sage green and its lovely, I haven't re-skeined it yet though.
This one is Tesseract (if you're a nerd you'll recognize this word). This one is for me!
I also dyed some roving. This time I braided it first and I like that method much better. Apparently 7pm on a sunny day is the best daylight for photographs, this one is pretty spot on for color.
I don't expect to make any money off this venture ... but I'm sure it will support my habit of dyeing for fun!
4 comments:
*raises my left eyebrow in a Spock-like manner* Tesseract? Interesting. I don't blame you keeping it, the colourway is a stunner! All the others look fabulous, too. Instead of using a note book for your measurements, have you thought about using a voice memo on your phone or computer? Good luck with your Etsy shop. I'm sure you will have a ball doing it....and I can see you being fabulously successful, having to retire from your current career and take up a new one in dyeing. :):):)
Hee hee...I know "tesseract" from A Wrinkle in Time....
LOVE all the yarn; gorgeous colors...I'm especially impressed with the sage because what I see labeled as "sage" is usually too yellow for my tastes (and for what a sage plant looks like, IMO!)
Maybe you could have a white board w/marker to use while you have the gloves on and then transfer to the notebook? I don't know if dye would wipe off the white board, but at least the large marker would be easier to write with while wearing gloves. Voice memo is a good idea, too!! Though you might need a foot pedal for the computer. =)
WhAT are you charging? I already want TEss. and the sage yarn. Im serious. Your images are wonderful!
I love me some grape kool aid too.
It was all I could keep downwhen I was first pregnant with my daughter Allison
Yarns will be priced somwhere in the ballpark of under $20. I'm working that out now.
Post a Comment