It’s been a busy weekend. Friday included a get-together with some of the man’s old high school friends, which was quite fun, and kept us up until the wee small hours of the morning. The boys – who had come along – were quite excited to see 1 AM.

Saturday I taught a beginner’s class at A Stitch In Time – where I now work on Wednesdays – come see me! All of the students were super fun, and I seemed to blessed lately with folks who just get it. Everyone was doing fabulous when they walked out. After that I spent a very long time with my behind planted on one of Sugarbee’s couches, just knitting and hanging out with my good knitting friends – until 2am! I think I’m too old for these late nights though, because I am seriously considering an afternoon nap – when I really need to be hitting the grocery store.

In other news, my boys are getting insanely excited about the trip up north to the cabin and I’ve been trying out some new dyeing bases and some old favorites. I leave you with a small batch of results:

I dyed two skeins of yarn last night. Trying a new merino/nylon base that has alpaca blended in. It’s super soft undyed, and I’m very interested to see how it feels when it is dry. The alpaca will make for warm socks (for someone who doesn’t live in the sub-tropics) and it gives the yarn a lovely halo. Here’s what I’ve done so far…

These are still a bit damp, so they may lighten up some, but I love the richness of the colors. Just lovely. I have some semi-precious silk/merino going right now, and I have superwash merino roving soaking for the next go-round. I’m still trying to decide what sort of theme/scheme to go with color-wise on the superwash merino roving. I was thinking of continuing the retro candy theme, but I’m not sure. I was actually thinking of doing a mini-line of stuff that was based on my friends. Colors that I associate with them and all of that. Too many ideas, but the right one hasn’t clicked yet. Oh well. At least I get to experiment!

I received a new yarn base today also from the UK. It’s a superwash merino/nylon blend that seems pretty tightly spun. It reminds me of Opal or Trekking. I’m interested to see how it takes dye. So many factors to consider, so much fun to be had.

Nevermind the fact that my initials are C.F. I am not. My home is a warm and happy jumble. There are very few things that I require to be just so. As long as I can find the coriander, I don’t really care how the spices are arranged.

But I think I’m becoming a control freak with my dyeing. Before I dye yarn I put together a lot of information. 1. What line? 2. What colors? 3. What name? 4. What precise measurements of dyestock will I need for those colors? 5. What is my backup overdye plan and name should something not go right? 6. What order shall the colors be applied in? And so on, and so on, and so on…

It’s not really pretty, not my best personality trait. Last night I had some presoaked yarn in the dyepot. I pulled out five colors that would go together and I just applied everything randomly. This is what I got.

It’s scaring the beejeebers out of me. It’s a different base yarn than I usually use. I have no idea what line to put it in – other than the snackyarn line, which is for my one-offs and experimentals. I have no name. It’s pretty, so thank goodness it won’t have to be over-dyed. But all I can do is look at it and wonder, “what the heck was I thinking?”

But it will be ok. Chris promises that it will be. She swears that most of the things that you dye willy nilly come out beautiful regardless and the rest can be overdyed. I’m *really* trying to believe her. I have 4 dyepots of belief simmering right now. Wish me luck and whatever it is I need to be less rigid about these things.