Hanging Hanks

Chris has the better pictures and story of yesterday's Dye Day.

All I have are four beautiful hanks of yarn,

hanging around in the porch,


drying in the warm summer breezes.

They'll look prettier when they are dried and skeined and sitting in a lovely basket. Chris also managed to capture some great action shots of Sammy and Tigger in a boxing match whilst in a catnip induced high. Perhaps she'll share them?

Ramen Noodle Knitting

Sorry this is later than usual. Our cable (and consequently our internet service) has been out since last night). That's today's equivalent of saying "The dog ate my homework" I guess!

I finished the final steps of the sock blank dyeing experiment. After unraveling it all (because I have ZERO interest in knitting from the blank) I had what Kathryn referred to as Ramen Noodles. Tru dat! The unravelling process was cumbersome and tedious until I corralled a few 11-year old girls to wind it up on to paper towel rolls at the same time. The blue-green and orange skein was a single knit blank from Plymouth and that wound off beautifully on to the niddy-noddy all by itself.

From there the skeins took a long, really, really hot bath in Eucalan in separate tubs as they had not previously been rinsed at all. There was significant dye run off. Imagine that part as I forgot to take pictures.

There was a lot of weighted hanging around time. Heavy weights. I found them in the shop. They were industrial strength Master locks. Yeah!

I'm quite pleased with the results. Most of the kinks are gone. Indeed - quite kink-free. And that Plymouth hank had a ways to go being knit with a single strand. But while the results are good, the process just doesn't seem worth it to me. Way too much extra work. The white spots from where the dye doesn't absorb through the knit stitches in the Knit Picks yarns are bothersome - unless that's the look you were going for - which I wasn't. Maybe it's just me - but give me my long skeins and I'm a happy girl.

Do Not Adjust Your Dial

The "Satur-Dyers" reconvened this past weekend but the following photos won't look anything like what you're used to seeing after one of our marathon sessions.

First off, you'll note that our environment changed - due to the weather freaks in Minnesota who forecast a wicked hot and humid day, we set up inside. As it turned out, it was a glorious day and we could have been on my porch but.....

Please pick yourselves up off the floor now. Yes, that is Chris, and yes, she is using orange, hot pink, and raspberry. We decided to try some sock blanks this time too. She's using a Knit Picks one here.
Jeanne is trying to recreate a skein she made the last time we were together. She actually keeps notes on these kinds of things and was able to do this! HA!
I made a watermelon flavored sock blank. I have no original ideas whatsoever.
Behold Chris' "Noro-esque" sock blank. It's absolutely gorgeous in person (and with a flash - Chris will have a better picture).

And here is Jeanne's "Noro-esque" sock blank. Better picture. Beautiful isn't it!

All finished! The jury is still out on the sock blanks. Chris has some early reports about white spots as the stitches are unraveled. Maybe a good wash at that point will help? I'd hate for all our hard work to be for nothing!!

Ever Present

One of the questions I'm asked often (by people who don't understand that it's the process, not the product that matters most!) about my hand-dyed yarn is "What are you going to DO with all of that?" As if looking at it weren't enjoyment enough! I never question the collection of power tools in the basement - just sayin'.

That said, one of my favorite things to do with a very special skein is to find a matching gift bag and matchy-matchy tissue paper . . .

. . . wrap it up all nice and pretty-pretty (yes - this qualifies and nice and pretty in my house!)

. . . and take it up to the yarn store as a birthday gift for a special person I used to work with!

Happy Birthday Becky! Love ya!

I hope there a lot more birthdays coming up, cuz there's another Dye Day coming soon!!

Porch Fiber Festival

The second annual Holly Lane Porch Fiber Festival was this past weekend and it was a blast. Just like those other fiber festivals, this one has all the same things.

Animals:

Hands on demonstrations:

Adult beverages, (gluten free of course!!):

And fiber, fiber, fiber!

Word of this event has spread so much that this years attendance increased over last year by 33%. Amazing as we had NO advertising or marketing budget (despite being married to a VP of the same!)

Jealous yet?? Well there was food too!

Would that I Could

After reading so many comments about using the left-over Easter Egg dye to dye yarn, I admit to getting inspired to trying it. I thought it would be another fun "mother/daughter" project for Kathryn and me to try. The good folks who make the Dudley Easter Egg Coloring kits dashed those hopes quickly. It seems they have reinvented a process which didn't need re-inventing. They created a solution where no problem existed. The ruined my plans - again.

In their warped little Easter egg dyeing world, you place the eggs in a little plastic bag and put a few drops of color into the bag and smoosh the color around. First problem - the bags easily rip. Second problem, you can't make half & half color eggs. Third problem, you can't make super saturated colored eggs by leaving one in for a really long time. Fourth problem, not enough color drops. Fifth problem - not enough bags if you wanted to mix colors.The next part of the "Glitter Egg" process is to sprinkle glitter on the eggs once they are in the lame egg holder - not in the kit as shown! First problem - glitter only sticks on the top of the egg - DUH!!! Second problem - if you pick up the egg to put glitter on the other sides, all the glitter either falls off or sticks to your now colored hands (see problem 1 from above). Our work around was to put the glitter in with eggs but since there weren't enough bags, that meant all the eggs were glittery.

In fairness, I guess clean up was easier. But there was no way we were going to be able to stuff yarn into those little glittery bags. Next year I'll buy Paas!

After we finished, she told me she doesn't like hard boiled eggs any more. There are 11 left; we leave on Wednesday. Egg salad anyone?

Swap-Bot Swap

A few month's ago Chris found a hand-dyed swap on Swap-Bot and talked me into joining it. It was a really small swap - maybe 12 participants. I sent my yarn out earlier this week as noted here. Mine had to go all the way to Philadelphia and I have no idea if it got there yet.

I was a very lucky recipient. My swap sender was someone known to me, Louise. She's an awesome sock knitter and a really wonderful hand-dyer. Louise is a friend of Jeanne's. Louise knew that Jeanne and I spent an obscene amount of some time dyeing yarns together and asked her for suggestions on colors. Jeanne's response: "She never met a color she didn't like!"

This is the "freebie" yarn Louise tossed in with her swap yarn. She didn't think it turned out right and suggested that I could over-dye it. Having a lot of experience in this arena myself, I know that my first step is not to go pack to the dyes but to re-skein.

Step 1 - I don't know Louise. It's looking mighty good here. I have a really good feeling about this.

Step 2: on to the niddy-noddy for skeining. Yup - this is a keeper. I'm calling it Juicy Fruit. You, uh, don't want it back now do you? Because it's really quite lovely.

I'm not sure how she managed to pull this off. Given my love for Endless Summer Hydrangeas and their special significance to me this week in particular, Louis dyed this beautiful colorway she named Endless Summer.

Thank you so much, Louise. I will think of Leslie as I knit this yarn into socks and remember her when I wear them.

Dye 'N Dine

I know that Chris, Jeanne and Miss T have already given their reports on our wonderful Saturday together. I really don't have more to add except a few different photos.
Miss T finished a bit earlier than some of us and so she grabbed her knitting and sat peacefully while Chris and I fiddled away with our few remaining skeins.

Jeanne also had some time to knit for a while while Chris and I continued on our merry way.

See the serious look on Chris' face? Yeah me either. Perhaps because you can't see her face? It's because she to busy trying to catch up so she can sit happily knitting like the others at this point.
When all is said and done, that's a lot of yarn. Too much for that small table that's for sure.
Wait - what's that - a new looooooooong table. Thanks for the new table Mr. It sure came in handy with the addition of a new person.

And thanks for taking the group picture - and for understanding the whole "No, you can't show her in the picture!! She wants to be hidden! It's her "thing". Especially when you were ready to leave - like ten minutes ago!Some of my yarn - not reskeined.

The rest of my yarn. The top two are from this weekend as well, and are re-skeined. The grey, black and purple went on to a Swap-Bot exchange. Hey KmKat - You won the Happy Hour Contest!!! Guess what's coming your way sister!!! Send me an e-mail with address etc.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Thank you all for you wonderful comments about Leslie. They lifted my soul. Her Memorial Service is this morning and I will carry them with me in my heart.

Too Busy for Words

Saturday

Sunday

Sunday - 9:15 P.M.

Sunday 10:00 P.M.