Divergent Threads

For the third time in a row...

...it's all about the color.  Outside my window, everything is white and gray right now, but inside I still have these:
A few weeks ago,  Christy had a dye day again.  This was probably one of the quietest ones I can remember, with no indigo on the ceiling, no mad spatterings, and we only shorted out the entire house's electrical system once.  But we got some lovely colors nonetheless, and some formerly lily-white hands are now covered with dyes, so it was, as usual, a smashing success.

These are a pair of sock blanks, which were a birthday present for me, and started the day off pristine white.  I believe Christy ordered a bunch directly from Nancy Roberts, who conveniently has an artcle in the latest issue of Spin-Off on the process.  I just know they're great fun to fingerpaint -- okay, not literally, but I did consider it.  I made them messy on purpose (no, really), and love the way they're knitting up, though I'd love to see how Linda's ever-so-neat ones will turn out. 

(I started out calling these Fraternal Socks, but my children have dictated that they are really Pippi Longstocking socks.  So be it.)

Next, on the right, in a photo taken before the world turned white, two skeins of Brown Sheep sock yarn, painted with a bunch of different dyes, then steamed and washed.  I say Brown Sheep sock yarn, but they're actually each a 4 oz. skeins of seconds, so each hank will more than make a pair of socks.  I'm still not sure the colors are bright enough.  I am a major fan of intense color for my feet.  I'm convinced they stay warmer that way.

And one more:

I have no clue what red this is, or what combination of blues -- as usual at Christy's, I wait till the end and make stone soup out of whatever's left lying around.  The brown is Caramel, though, because it's fast becoming my favorite brown, and I wanted to show Christy why she needed to go out and buy some yesterday (because, after all, she doesn't really have enough dyestuffs).

I'm spindle spinning this on campus, as I walk from class to class, and am becoming slightly notorious as the spinning lady, which is fine by me.  My one regret is that, even spindle spinning, it's going way too fast, and I should have dyed more.  Of everything. 

Ah, well.  There's always next time.

Why I love Wyoming

Friday, September 22nd.  I was up and hit the ground running, at least after the caffeine kicked in.  Mr. Debbie and I had bought tickets ages ago for a Sheryl Crow/John Mayer concert the previous Monday night, which I ended up missing because of an ecology exam Tuesday morning.  The night before, eldest daughter had taken my ticket to a Barenaked Ladies concert because I'd been up till all hours studying for the organic and biochem exams instead of hearing how the group could play banjos again.  Coming in from his morning run, Mr. Debbie looked solemn.  "You're too frazzled," he tells me.

What can you say to a comment like that?  I keep on packing lunches, pouring more coffee. 

He hands me a shopping bag, empty.  "What's this for?" I ask.

"You need a break.  Go pack for Wyoming."

I start to make a mental list of why this is impossible: homework, housework, clinic on Sunday, I haven't baked Carl's cake, I already told Carol I couldn't make it, I have nothing to dye... and decide instead he's right.  I toss a change of clothes and a toothpaste into the bag, put my wheel and a random bin of fiber into the back of the truck, and head off for my exams smiling.

After my exams, I go and (sacrilege!) buy a cake, then head north to Encampment, home of Carol and Carl Lee, two of my favorite people in the world.  For years now, Carol has hosted a Gathering in September at the Academy of Spinsters for fiber folks from all over.  This year, we covered at least three continents.  We eat very well, as folks potluck and make it a point of honor to have way more food than we could possibly eat, and we dye almost everything in sight, mostly with natural dyes.  I was unprepared, and thus not up to my usual manic standards (one year I dyed nearly 12 pounds of handspun Churro rug yarn in a day), but ended up with some lovely skeins anyway.

Left to right:  2 skeins indigo (no mordant), brazilwood on alum, black walnut (no mordant), and the original yarn (mordanted with alum but not dyed -- yet).

This was the first time I'd worked with the instant indigo, and it was definitely simpler than the method I've used before, but I'm not sure the color is quite the same.  Part of the difference may be due to the water, though.  Most years we're still using creek water at the end of September, but the town had anticipated an early frost so we were on town (treated) water instead.

I also tried some cochineal, which had problems, and will no doubt be overdyed at some point.  Everything was washed out and muddy and pale, quite unlike the usual vivid cochineal colors. 

The company was full of familiar friendly faces, and I was glad to get caught up with Shirley and Cindy and Peggy from Brown Sheep and all the rest.  I returned home to the usual mess and too much homework, but was ready and eager to enter the fray, and really, what more can you ask from a 24 hour escape? 

Summertime

...and the dyeing was easy.  It was a long, hot summer, great for washing fleece and solar dyeing, which I did when I was not driving kids or visiting relatives, or both.  I even have photographic evidence of some of it.
Before:                                                             During:

and after ...

I didn't accomplish half of what I'd intended this summer, and couldn't get near the computer four days out of five. But school's back in session, the kids are in school, and now.... well, now I'm back in school too, full time at CSU, which seems to leave even less time for fiber, and has the added effect of increasing my weekly time behind the wheel. 

If I got paid for every mile, I could retire already.

I'm trying to sneak in as much fiber as possible in between organic chem, biochem, ecology and physiology.  I did manage half a sock in the past week, so all is not lost.  Tune in tomorrow for the latest in the ongoing saga...