Spinneret

Green Magic

 Okay, so I knit Annis - as mentioned.  I used Morehouse merino laceweight.  Butter I believe is the color.    

Here she is gently steam pressed out.
  I'd had this yarn for a while,  at least as long ago as Morehouse used to do the Christmas Fair at Grand Central and this goes back easily 6 or 7 years if not more.  So I was doing a bit of stash busting.  The yarn is a beautiful soft light yellow.  I'm sure I bought it to make a gift with as it is the same color as my skin and not something I would should wear.  The person I was currently thinking of giving it to really has the same color sense I do so I lined up several dye projects yesterday and played through.

The wildest thing happened.  Annis ombréd herself.  

 

You can see it in the nepp rows and towards the top edge.  Both places where center pull balls were begun.  From their centers.  Karen Who Knows and I discussed it.  It may be the plastic zip lock it was stored in off gassed and made the exterior of the ball less receptive to dye.  Maybe.  Or the dye vat imp was messing with me.  I'm fairly certain it is not places where I put hand cream on and then handled the yarn.  I mostly can't remember to use hand cream so it's a safe bet that didn't happen.

I like the way it happened and I like where it happened in the piece.  It would be thrilling to be able to reproduce the same effect with the same attention to technique.  Which is to say none whatsoever.  This was a big unintentional serendipitous surprise.  fancy.

I'm using the remaining yarn balls for the same scarf again and will mark where the ball changes and dye the resulting item and see if it happens again.  Or I may need to use hand cream more consistantly.  Stay tuned.
 

On the Advice of Karen

Karen Who Knows. That Karen. Paper clip Karen. I am under strict orders to sit and spin something to center myself. And calm the hell down. I trust Karen's judgement. It's just easier.

Whazzing and banging around here. One of the cats is going mysterious (she's also going to the vet if she doesn't cut it out). The chemistry final has come and gone and the earth did not open up (Hey, I'm from the land where these things happen, frequently when I'm there). Still out in the sea of life, swimming, still in circles. It's wearing me out.

Hmm, cashmere/merino or camel down/tussah? … Dr.'s orders.

Rhinebeck '06

    Saturday dawned clear bright and beautiful.  The drive up in the morning light was stunning.  The trees are doing their thing.

    And Rhinebeck was gorgeous, jamming and jammed.  Barely room to swing a camera.  But Karen found another use for paperclips. 

That blur in the background is Karen.  Things to see.

   

Some Romney fleeces where catching the light and showing their stuff.  ooh, baby.
    Test drove a Robin wheel.  Smooth, stable, gorgeous workmanship, stately.  Gilbert and Robin are lovely folks.
    Also test drove a Journey wheel.  Same review. 
    Can’t say enough good things about all of these people.  How many aliens do I have to paint to afford a wheel?
    Some acquisitions;

    Viking Combs.  Yikes.

    A spindle for a friend who couldn’t make it, ooh, ahhhh.

    A bump of merino/cashmere.  Which I’ll yarn dye.

    And Shadeyside Farms tussah/camel down top blend.  Nancy’s dye work gets my highest respect and admiration.  Brava.
    There was one woman who, perceiving an obstruction to her child’s stroller on the cement floor of the barn, by backing up and gaining enough speed was able to make it over my feet.  Using a child as an assault weapon makes so many assumptions about the kindness of strangers.  Enough said.

Potential Fall Out

Have been having a week of it in my glamorous midtown bomb shelter

(would I lie to you?) studio. I love how the arrows have worn away so you never really know where you are, or where you should be going. Very profound.

Isn’t that inspiring? Note the slope of the ceiling, that’s not bad photography. Really, I appreciate how fortunate I am to have this space (Some day I'll give a tour of studio spaces I have had. Maybe for Halloween), and try to remain mindful that it is shared space where other people work too, some with bassoons. Fortunately not all of us at the same time.

As you may have noticed there is an ongoing aesthetic wrestling match with variegations here. Even called in the big guns - my friend (blogless) Karen. I name her boldly and out loud because she is a textile oracle. Ladies & Gentlemen, Step Right Up. I ask you - How does she do it? She’s a genius. When you have a question she’ll not only have already pondered it but will presciently, nay - eerily, have the solutions she came up with ready to hand and will ask more questions to get you going on your own brain path to come up with different solutions. How great is it to have a second set of eyes and a second brain to work with? She also has a great design sense and problem solving capacity - a great one for the “what if you…?” and also the "Come'eer, hand me a paper clip. I have an idea". Knitting like a bat out of hell (…now that I think about it), she’s the only person I know who can get a commissioned project off of the island of Manhattan when it’s in complete lock-down, and on time. But that’s a story for discreet delving, another time. She’ll also swatch for me. And she loves rolling skeins in to balls.

Karen's worked up this sample from the first mbatch (best 3 out of 5 - no needles barred). But it begins to pool. damn.

You’ve all seen the wishful sky blues I worked up last Saturday when it was green and grey outside here. feh, what weather.

This colorway is going on at my desk at home , which begins to approach the blended effect I'm after. Sort of.

There are two more colorways waiting in the wings,.

And the Bamboo which still has my mouth watering and continues on as a cardigan for the moment. Karen is advising on that “what if there’s not enough” question.

Clearly more work remains to be done. Independent studies and peer reviews will be presented and debated. What is the half life of "pooling"? Will that bamboo be cuter as a boat neck? What is she doing with that paper clip?