While dyeing and drying though I spun up a skein of just plain old 2-ply sock yarn, which I now need to finish plying the scraps left on the bobbins so I can get to spinning the colored stuff.

I’m going stir crazy. Resting is easy, unless I’m absolutely supposed to do it because it’s good for me– then it becomes a huge inconvenience. Suddenly all those books I was looking forward to reading become too pedant and dull to actually describe with words. I start resenting everything, I know it’s irrational but it totally makes sense in the moment.

I decided I absolutely hate it when people tell me to “Take it easy.” Really? Can I please have detailed instructions on how to take it easy? I have no idea, I’ve been taking it hard with chocolate sprinkles– is that not the right way? I’m so confused.

Also, I can’t tell if my camera is taking crap pictures, or if I’m just unable to focus my eyes clearly because I’m in pain. I tried putting my reading glasses on but that didn’t help. I can’t tell if their smudged if I just can’t focus my eyes. I’m not even sure what I’m typing right now.

Doesn’t this look like fluffy shiny deer guts? The effect is far more realistic in real life than I was able to capture with the camera. I thank goodness that the smell is not that of authentic intestines.

One of the things I like about dying silk is that it’s fairly goof proof so long as I give the dye enough time. It can be treated like an animal fiber and put into acid dye, or like a plant fiber and soaked in soda ash. I ended up using scarlet RIT dye (which is a little of each type of dye), warm water and giving it a good three hours soak before pulling it from the dye pot.

I can’t believe how paranoid I was the first few times I handled the stuff and how casual I am with it now.

Spun up it makes a more attractive and much less graphic yarn. It’s almost appropriate for Valentines day.

When I have my second bobbin full I plan to ply it, but it is so tempting to leave some portion as a single to weave in with the flax that is currently languishing on the other wheel.

Bombyx silk fit the bill.

I dyed this batch quite a while ago, the technique was really simple. I waited for a warm day, soaked the silk in water and soda ash, added a little ammonia, emptied dye into the bath and wrapped the whole thing in black plastic and set it out in direct sunlight. Time and solar energy took care of the rest for me.

I can’t believe I let this color languish for so long. I think it’s much prettier on the bobbin than in a zip bag hiding in the closet.

It’s easy to let spinning take the better part of my spare time. It’s cold and drizzly here, but easy enough to day dream of slipping into warm clear waters elsewhere.

I can almost smell drinks with paper umbrellas.

As it turned out, I was horribly horribly wrong. It was a bad change, a disturbing change. It made my complexion  look as though I had failing liver function.

Not a total loss though, it did pretty things to my yarn. I figured that the peroxide would have weakened with age so I added a little vinegar and ammonia and then soaked it. Ammonia always seems to do a nice job of distributing the dye through a skein.

Not exactly an intense color, but clean and I’m sure Lexi won’t mind a bit if I knit her a shawl from it.

My camera can’t seem to comprehend the real color, but I assure you it’s much more fluorescent than it appears. There’s actually streaks of two colors “fire” and “mandarin” so the color is also deeper than pictured. After a few weeks it’ll tame down into a more faded traffic cone color.

Why orange?

• It’s easy to spot a hair in my food, and identify it as mine or not mine.
• My children *never* lose sight of me at the grocery store.
• I come in handy during traffic emergencies.
• My conservative friends rarely ask me to baby sit.
• If I am lost in the woods I will not be shot by hunters.
• My friends don’t ever accidentally mistake another person for me at a distance, and accuse me of ignoring them later.
• People remember me.
• I like the irony.
• It looks good with pinks, neutrals and earth-tones.
• I’m never accused of being a fully domesticated housewife.
• Makes my Pokémon and Hello Kitty stuff seem not so weird by comparison.

Although I swear I put more dye on the first one, I must have twisted it too tightly since there are large white swathes that look kind of like graffiti. I used the more 60′s style of dying, crumpling, then twisting, then wrapping and dipping in the dye.

The second cloth I pleated with large (about an inch and a quarter) pleats that progressively get looser, then tightly bound it in sections using rubber bands.

Although I like both cloths, I’m definitely more partial to the second one. The pattern seems more complete. Next time I do some cloth I’ll add some humectant to encourage more movement with the dye.

I fancy that after I’m done staring at them for a while I might actually do some fussy cut patchwork.

Out of no where I started getting a hankering to use long draw method with baby camel down. No– not top, not roving: actual baby camel down. For those of you that haven’t spun camel you won’t be that impressed until you try, the fibers are slippy and grippy and very very short. If you’ve spun dehaired camel before let that sink in before moving on.

Ready?

Okay lets go one word at a time: Loose. Baby. Camel. Down. Long. Draw.

The first bobbin was an exercise in non-perfection for me. I stuck with it though and came up with a yarn. Not the prettiest yarn, not the ugliest, but ever so soft and moderately interesting. The second bobbin went much better and came out as a fairly even single. I haven’t plied it yet, but wound it into a ball and I’m letting it rest before plying.

Resting with it is a ball of stuff that Opal sent me many moons ago. It’s sort of a rustic looking single right now, I let the little neps and noils stay (usually I’d pick those out but I’m going for a homey yarn) and I am debating as to whether it should be a 2 or 3 ply.

I managed to earn a little money doing odd jobs so I promptly went to the Little Barn website and spent it all. Actually I was only going to order ramie from another website but that site’s shopping cart wasn’t working– so ummm. I didn’t order the ramie, that’ll have to wait until the next time I have some cash in my grubby little paws.

In the meantime I’m spinning some of the fleece I’ve been arguing with since last summer. It’s base color is cream with black peppered through it, very coarse, and I can’t find the thing where I wrote down the breed because I knew I’d forget (this is part of my MO when it comes to dealing with raw fleece) in short it looks like Churro but isn’t Churro and has longer less coarse staple.

Anyway I am learning to like this wool, last summer I was overwhelmed with the urge to wash what was left of the raw fleeces and did this this one in cold water with salt, I put a galvenized tub in the shade next to the house, filled it with a garden hose and sunk the fleece down with some big rocks from my garden. The hard part was letting it soak over night, then pulling out the fleece, putting in clean water and letting it soak for a second night without messing with it. The salt water soak worked extremely well for removing the dirt and the excess lanolin, however it still has lanolin, so I do have to spin it when the room is warm otherwise it’s a battle.

My hands are super soft now.

Back to cravings. I’m always attracted to natural colored fibers first. I have plenty of white to work with but I like the honey color of natural tussah, I like the cinnamon and moorit colors of certain wools, black and gray and taupe that come straight from the animal, and the silvery gray of water retted flax. Even if I intend on dyeing over the fiber I like the depth and richness that naturally colored fibers take on when dyed.

I crave loose down over top with short fibers: cashmere, camel, cotton, quivit, and yak. I crave top over bells or caps or hankies with silk fibers. I crave locks over roving for hair type fibers. I crave roving over locks for wooly fibers.

I don’t really have preferences for long or short staple, fine or coarse, slick or crimpy or lofty– they all have their qualities, but some will wait around to be spun longer than others until I’ve figured out what’s the best thing to do with those qualities.

Bead Jewelry designer Patricia C. Vener wrote a beautifully illustrated color treatise for Autumn 2006 season, even though Winter ’06/’07 is almost upon us her vision for Autumn is still very contemporary and can easily carry though until Spring 2007 if you are (like me) a color junkie.

After Vogue Knitting convinced everyone that crayon bright colors were “in-in-in” they did a really unsubtle about face and are pushing grays like crazy. Sock knitters will really enjoy the newest issue though, as there are some incredible patterns for socks.

One bit of advice, a lesson that I learned in my short tenure in the fashion industry, it’s much more important that you wear what actually looks good on you than to follow the whims of couture. Fashion trends are just trends, beauty and style are eternal. If you look fabulous in apricot wear it. If you look like a walking tomato wearing those washed out grays, then don’t wear them, or create a non-tomato illusion with the right accessories.

If you like color, then use it and ignore the trends.

No sneak peeks. I want this to be surprise.

The internal debate however is set aside with the above skein (and it’s mate, and a few of their friends) as I’ve developed this fantasy that a really talented doll artist will want to incorporate it into a fabulous doll, or that a weaver will want it.

For some reason I’d just really like to see it worked up in the spirit of dusk over the Atlantic, or the depths of Crater Lake, or something that requires more artistic vision than I currently possess.