On Saturday, we played with color!!

Denise and Lisa joined me in a little dye workshop. I hope they had as much fun as I did! DH swathed the entire kitchen in plastic sheeting (reusable) for the event, and did most of the setup. He’s such a sweetie.

My colors are Lanaset/Sabraset in 4% stock solution, ready to mix and dilute for handpainting.

I love the results!

I really wish I had written down Lisa’s formula, because in the middle there, she’s come up with the perfect breast cancer awareness pink, and I’d like to duplicate it.

Denise aimed for, and got, denim blue, just right.

I did a few more skeins later that night.

In the middle there are 2 skeins I decided to call “flame”.  I was shooting for medium rose and gold.  I guess I missed a little.  Practice, practice, practice.

I need to be a little more careful with my ergonomics in future.  I spent all day Sunday recovering.  Someday I’ll learn.

where to start?

I’m having such a lazy summer. It’s a wonderful thing.

DH and I did an eastern NC fiber crawl last week, and I can report that Murfreesboro is charming, and so are the folks at the Woolery. This is Tim, and a glorious array of wheels and spindles.

loot! spinning toys, Yarn Meter with tensioner!! fiber, fiber, fiber. Oh joy. I was hoping to see a Schacht-Reeves saxony wheel set up, but no luck. Maybe there will be one at SAFF in the fall. I’m such a material girl. For shame. I never have enough toys.

On to New Bern, where this guy is looking the very picture of serenity, in the midst of the chaos of construction. I suspect DH would rather have been hanging out with him than yarn crawling with me!

A short stop at Weaver’s Webb, and more stash enhancement.

I’ll have some fun with that merino superwash in the dye pot. Don’t know what the Noro will become, but I just couldn’t resist the colorway.

A very late lunch at the Chelsea restaurant. I can’t recommend anything in particular, because I think it’s all particularly good. Nice history about the address, just don’t ask for a Coca-Cola.

Since I’ve gotten home, I’ve been spinning a probably fingering, maybe sport weight 2-ply from (remember this?) a sheep named Ganache, a lovely chocolate color when spun. Singles on the bobbin, 2nd bobbin almost done, I’ll probably be plying tonight.

I’m still knitting on my peacock and plum feather and fan stole, (ravelry link)

which is more than halfway done. I’m ready for it, because I have these fancy thingies from the Wondermat outlet page to block it on. I bought 12 standard 2 ft tiles in latte, which lay out to 48 square feet total, one possible configuration being 6′ by 8′. That ought to be big enough for any lace object I might ever knit in my lifetime. There are no visible defects in any of them, and they were half price. They are the same product that the Yarn Harlot blogged about here, and I so agree with her that they are “freaking brilliant”. I have the blocking wires and pins, I’m ready to go. When I finish knitting the stole, I mean.

This is not my first blog entry dominated by shopping rather than actually using the products. I’m sure that says something about me, but I don’t want to think about that right now. I’ll think about that tomorrow.