Saturday 1 December 2007

Adventures in colour



I've joined two groups on the Rav this week - the Greenies 2008, and the Stash Knit Down 2008. Forward planning at it's most enjoyable. The Greenies aim to buy yarn that is socially responsible and for me that will probably mean not buying any ( that's the most responsible thing to do anyway. ) I have tons of yarn in Knitting HQ which is waiting to be used up and that fits neatly into the Knit Down plan. Spinning and the possible purchase of spinning equipment will continue and I am going to do my best to buy UK fleece. I bought some carders this week and had a mini tutorial in how to use them. I have great plans to dye my fleece and blend the colours by carding. Next week is Bee week so I will bring the carders along and get the experts, aka Julie and Kit, to help me out.

I dyed a couple of things for practise - a whole 80 odd grams worth. I used the Ashford Acid dyes and the same dye bath for all three. Scarlet and blue, with slightly more scarlet than blue. The blue must have taken up mostly in the first dyeing. I dyed the last lot as fleece to make sure I could do it without making felt. Not that I don't like making felt, it's just a bugger to spin.
Molly was here for dog sitting so I asked her to model the finished skeins. Like any other highly strung supermodel, she doesn't always follow instructions so things got a bit blurry.

The weather here is awful, sheets of rain and misery falling from the sky. Just the right time for the village Christmas lights to go up. We heard the sound of a brass band on Thursday evening and lo, the tree was up outside the church. In November? When I was a lass our decorations didn't go up until the seventh of December which is also my brother, Tom's birthday. Never in November, it's too soon. Sorry to those who love the festivities, I seem to naturally err on the side of Humbug.

Next week is filled with excitement, Tuesday we go to see Scottish singer Jackie Leven playing the Montrose folk club and then the Bee on Wednesday. I'd better start practising my carding.

3 comments:

Cindy G said...

ABsolutely agree with you about Nov. being too early, but, Oh, I do love the thought of a brass band playing in the tree.

We had snow this morning, but it has changed to sleet/freezing rain. Nasty stuff, and makes me grateful that none of us have to be on the raod today.

Purple Fuzzy Mittens said...

I pledged to work on spinning down at least some of my fiber stash in 2007, yet somehow I am ending the year with even more fiber than I had when the year began. Maybe in 2008...

We could use some of your wet weather here. Nevada is dry even on a wet year and after few years of drought we really need a good snowpack in the Sierras to make it through the summer. The best we are getting this week is a high wind advisory.

Julia said...

You're right ,it's far too early for decorations ,but they do look very beautiful in your picture.
BTW love that thing that roars!