Mon 4 Oct 2010
You know that point where you have so much to say that you just can’t say any of it? That’s how I’ve felt about blogging for the past couple of weeks. First, I had a lot of things to say but no photos to show. Then, I took a bunch of photos, and now I have too many posts!
I guess there are worse problems.
So, let’s see. Let’s do oldest first, shall we?
Here are the warps that I dyed a couple of weekends ago in the workshop with the weaving guild. They were dyed as pairs, and are intended to be woven together.
I’m not sure yet if I’m in love with this one, but I will probably end up liking it, once I get started. The colors in the top section just sing, don’t they?
This one is brighter than my usual, but I love, love, love it. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
And this is for weaving with the first. It’s hard to see in the picture, but it’s a beautiful black-green that would be gorgeous on its own, too.
I’m excited about getting these started, but have a few other things in the lineup first.
Remember the ugly roving? The lavender-in-springtime turned acid green? (Actually, it wasn’t all that ugly, just entirely, absolutely, and completely not me.)
Well, it turned out to be a slightly felted ugly roving, which led to much grumbling during spinning, and a certain desire to let it disappear into the depths of stash and never be seen again. But I persevered (it really wasn’t that bad, but it also wasn’t what I had hoped). By the end, I had two slightly uneven, not entirely awful skeins of yarn that I was pretty sure I’d never use.
And then it hit me. This yarn is perfect. It’s just not perfect for knitting. Note how it is an entirely different color in the first photo and the second? Just proves that the camera is as befuddled by the color of this yarn as I am.
It really wants to be an accent yarn, to pull out the color in these two dark weaving yarns, and to make the fabric “pop.”
Unfortunately, that realization led to disappointment the next morning when I went to wind some warp in the 10 minutes I had before leaving the house. I went and got the cones, and realized that they are different weights, and it’s not usually a good idea to put different weight yarns together like I wanted to put these together. So, I placed an order for more yarn (sigh), and it should be here sometime late this week or early next. Just goes to prove that there’s never a “bad” yarn…just the wrong project. I am almost giddy with excitement about how well I think this is going to work, especially after being so sure that it was just never going to be useful.
And finally (for tonight…there is more, but I need to take pictures. Not that you’ve ever heard that before.), here are the results of last weekend’s playing in the basement:
I guess that was really two weekends ago now, wasn’t it? In any case, I had some friends over to play with color in the basement, and while they painted yarn I sampled away. I got through 6 of the new dyes, and it has amazed me yet again how many colors can come from just a few jars. Many of these colors aren’t high on my “must have” list, but I absolutely love the greens and other colors that I got by combining them with other dyes. My head is spinning with combinations that I can’t wait to put to fiber.
This weekend (the one that just finished), I embarked on a bigger project than I’d intended sooner than I’d intended, got one launched a lot faster than I expected thanks to some new tools Branden whipped up while he was home, and generally managed to get myself into all kinds of trouble. More on that to come, when I find some sunlight.
Trouble? Uh oh!
The yarns are all lovely, although I must admit I’m partial to the really bright blues and greens. All these posts of yours on dying could nearly tempt me into trying myself!
You got all this done AND Brandon was at home?!?!? I’m amazed!
I think my earlier comment got eaten, alas, but I wanted to say that the colors are gorgeous! I really can’t wait to see how those top ones turn out woven up – I love everything that’s going on there. Also, I think I forgot to mention that I may have come home with a cricket loom this past weekend, but that is not my fault.
Love the dyeing! My favorite is the bottom one in the top picture, makes me think of a muted tropical waters.
Love the colors from all your dying!
What a great arc of color! I love your scientific yet artistic approach to all of this.