Category: Dyeing

It is God Awful Alabama summer hot here right now.

So hot that these sworn enemies could do nothing other than lie in almost companionable lethargy by the front door in hopes we would come home soon.

Sadly, catnaps weren’t a part of my game plan today.  Ollie and I spent the afternoon together, while the Judge took all the big kids to see Batman.  Ollie was inconsolable about not seeing the movie.  I was willing to promise him just about anything to keep him in good spirits.  We settled on a new Mootah — the big fat wool-stuffed cats that I made last year at Christmas time.  We made an owl-inspired Mootah, using some vintage Japanese fabric my friend Kara sent and which I have been hoarding and using in small pieces.  Ollie really loves his new Mootah.

After we finished, he decided he wanted to learn how to sew.  I have to backtrack here and tell you, it’s always a mistake to agree to do “anything.”  We had one of those days last fall, when I was destashing fabric.  I had some truly ugly stuff, but the worst was a piece of fluffy pink cotton sherpa (think ugly bathrobe) and a tremendously horrible piece of purple/silver stretch velvet.  OMG!  What was I thinking?  Ellie and Ollie pulled the two of them out of the burn stack, and begged me to make a blanket out of them.  I cut and pinned it that day (anything to avoid destashing), but it was so incredibly awful that I had managed to ignore it since then.  It was occupying my desk chair, though; an itching reminder of bad taste.  Ollie and I decided he would learn to sew on it, but he lost interest quickly, leaving me with a very thick and annoyingly stretchy sewing project.

The end result was almost palatable, though.  (And isn’t he cute?)

At least Ollie likes it.

But the purple stuff.  Oh my.  Whatever was I thinking when I bought it?

A word: Hellboy II.  Don’t be deceived if you, like me, have teenage children who tell you it’s going to be a wonderful movie.  It wasn’t.  Thank good for mindless movie knitting that can be accomplished in the dark!

Hellboy aside, it’s been a great day around here.  I’m continuing to slowly, ever so slowly, clean up my studio.  The problem is, I clean some stuff up and then I go make something and it’s worse than ever.  Since I don’t have, and am unlikely to get, a solid week to clean and organize, I’m just trying to make the best of it and do a little bit every weekend.

I’ve made enough progress that Ollie has reclaimed floor space for painting.

Isn’t it cool?  It’s a wooden attache, and he has proudly told everyone it’s his “first altered suitcase.”  Hmmm…maybe someone spends a little bit too much time with Mama?

I’ve managed to clean off some counter space and make a little soldering station — albeit a highly cluttered one.  (If I had cahones, I would force myself to cut the number of stamp pads I keep in half, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to do that yet.)

And, I finally cleaned off my desk.  I decided to keep my computer in the kitchen and make this the yarn winding station, as the “footprint” of the new electric skein winder is bigger than I anticipated and too much trouble in the Yarn Heaven Room dining room.

One of my long-time on line friends, Marcey (if you have children, you really need to visit her website — she makes the coolest wings and dress up clothes around), was asking for kitty cat pictures.  The sad truth is that Harry and Hermione have been such slugs in the summer heat that all I can offer are photos of them snoozing.

Harry, for instance, believes no suitcase is ready for travel until it has a nice veneer of cat hair on the outside.

They have difficult lives, as they nap in between dividing and conquering the humans, cunningly convincing each of us as we come downstairs in the morning that no one has fed them yet.

I’ve also spent some time this weekend, working out a colorway for a knitter who has visions of Knitty’s Tempest sweater in the colors of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland.  Isn’t that a wonderful indulgence?  She sent me an incredible picture and we’ve discussed the correct shade of purple (grayed) and whether we want one or two blues (two), and finally, whether we wanted a bit of white for some punch (yes).  I’m really please with the result and the only problem I’m having is that now Susan has me wanting to knit this sweater!

Instead, I’m going to be good and finish Ollie’s Bamboo socks — I need to rip out the foot of the first one, as it’s too long, and finish it along with the second, which is almost done.  I also want to knit an IPhone cozy this week, so I think I will dye myself some of Susan’s yarn and console myself for not diving right into Tempest.  But, I’m definitely putting it on the list of sweaters to knit after I do Rowan’s Tess!

I owe y'all an apology — I don't have a finished picture of the silk/cotton yarn I was painting in my last post.  And that's really a shame because it looks beautiful!  I've been reskeining it all afternoon (by hand — my electric skeiner is here, but i haven't had a chance to set it up yet) and it's simply gorgeous.

I do have a picture of a hank while it was drying.  That will have to be my tease for now.  I promise real pictures later this week, and maybe a swatch, although I haven't decided what to knit with it yet.

That picture simply doesn't begin to capture the sheen of this yarn or how pretty the colors look when the yarn is reskeined (usually a better idea of how the knitted fabric will appear).  I've never seen a silk/cotton blend before this, and I'm pretty much wholeheartedly in love.  I can't wait to see how the linen/silk blend dyes up too!

So now I'm hoping that just the right pattern will present itself.  Maybe some kind of summer shrug or wrap.  I thought I might swatch to see if I can get the gauge for the pretty Blue Sky Alpaca cardigan pattern that I've always wanted to make but never actually done.  Suggestions welcome!

I've also been working in two round robin books.  This is the concrete angels book from the pocketful round robin.

I've got the little collage sitting on top of the pocket in the scan, but it actually slips down, and you can see a bit of the pocket behind, where I used watercolor to stamp a floral design into the pocket.  The words at the bottom that you can't quite make out are the definition of baggage, and I underlined the secondary meaning, " a pert, willful young woman."  Hmmm……

Tuesday I'm off for Los Angeles, so there's not a lot going on around here other than preparing and packing.  I'm hoping to get in a little bit of night knitting with one of the knitting groups out there, if my meetings don't run too late at night.  Ellie's Be Sweet skirt is about two-thirds done (yes, I owe y'all a picture of it too), so I'm hoping to finish it on this trip.