fiber content!!

The Beginning of a PROJECT. so, do you suppose that by documenting the beginning of it i will actually finish this? that's the plan right now. i've been wanting to do a lace something-or-other and had decided the fiber would be alpaca/merino/silk blend, of which i had 2 pounds in the stash. i dyed up about 1 1/2pounds of it in WF Turquoise, Lanaset purple and blue mainly, and with what i thought was a small amount of greens - olive, dilute olive, dilute gold with a dash of brown and a drop of green. then when i spun a sample, discovered there was too much green and it looked awful plyed with the turq/purples, so pulled the sections with the greens out of the roving and spun that separately. so, with the pattern i finally found that is a rectangular stole, not a triangular shawl with the long pointy back and could be done on #5 US needles (not the itty bitty #2 or #3), i actually did a swatch! it looked good, so i started on The Project. i think it will be a good travel project, and maybe i'll finish it while in Crete and it will be cool enough in november to wear it! here's the fiber, yarn and a couple of inches of stole with a pic from the book - _Naturally Noro_ by Jane Ellison, "Silver" chevron lace wrap.


and then a more "artsy" shot. just couldnt help myself!

hah! now i know...

the lovely flower is on a bush/small tree called Leycesteria Formosa. (photo friday, july 22) there are little black edible fruits (berries?) that form after the flower, which are sweet and some people make jelly from them. i cut a couple of small branches with the flower on the end and put them with other flowers in a vase. everything else in the vase faded away after 4 or 5 days, and this one is still alive and perky. gotta love it! i know i do.

and here's a photo of the fruits forming -

Hania, Crete harbor

a photo i took last October of the harbor at Hania, Crete, which is about 1/2 hour drive from where we will be staying in Vamos.

we leave in 6 weeks (and 2 days)

flower du jour

one of my favorites and i dont know its name...

a laugh

well, I needed a laugh this morning and received this in an email from a friend. read on if you, too, need a laugh:

The couple had been debating the purchase of a new auto for weeks.
He wanted a new truck.  She wanted a fast little sports-like car so she
could zip through traffic around town.

He would probably have settled on any beat up old truck, but everything she seemed to like was way out of their price range.

"Look !" she said. I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in 4 seconds or  less.   "And my birthday is coming up.  You could surprise me."

For her birthday, he bought her a brand new bathroom scale.

Services are pending.

dyeing

Twisted Pam asked what dyes i used on these rovings, so i'll do the best i can in describing them. Mostly, i use Lanaset dyes, and a few Pro WashFast. In the reds, pinks etc merino/tencel roving i layed the wet fiber out on plastic wrap, snaked back and forth in about a 2 1/2 foot length. starting with copper (L scarlet, brown and gold),
then L scarlet,
polar red,
scarlet with small amount of either polar red or L magenta,
L magenta with sml amt polar red,
then WF violet
*(L=lanaset and WF=Pro Washfast)
smoosh the dyes in to be sure they go all the way thru, add vinegar, wrap up the plastic wrap and steam (~45 min)

reds

same procedure... this time the dyes were:
olive (add tiniest amount of L brown to lime)
lime ( L yellow = small amt. L green)
L yellow and L gold mixed about 1/2 / 1/2
copper
L brown w/L gold
?L magenta +WF violet (not really sure what this is)
WF turquoise
magenta (same as above)
L yellow w/a few drops of brown
Lyellow + gold

I cant give you any exact formula as i dont keep records. i just add dyes to each other in a plastic cup or a jar and swirl it around ... when it looks right, i pour it on the fiber. let me know if you have any questions... maybe i can answer them :-]


turq, purple etc

Tuesday already

Pam and I went to Lincoln City Friday a.m. and stayed at her friend's house which is right across the street from the beach. it was a really nice home, with a front deck which was perfect for spinning and looking at the ocean. i spent a couple of hours in Depot Bay visiting a dear long-time friend and got to see her daughter and grandson (and if they send me any photos of Sam, i'll put them up here) He is 2 and is just darlin'... and was very generous with tickles, hugs and kisses!!

I think i want to knit a lace shawl! ok, i've taken the first steps in that direction... searched the internet and my books and pattern stash for something suitable, dyed up some alpaca, merino, tussah in purple, turquoise and some soft olive-y greens and have spun and swatched a bit. I really dont like the olives plied with the turq or purple, so have Navajo-plied enough to do a swatch and will do that tomorrow. actually, it's a stole that i'm thinking of as i dont like how a triangular shawl looks and feels on me. will prob. pick a lace pattern that's simple and maybe even in garter stitch, figure out a border and how wide i want the thing to be, get going on it. it should be a good travel project. just hope this is a more successful project than the cardigan of which i do not speak as it is now hidden in a corner to age and wait for me to figure out what the hell i'm going to do with it! quite of bit a store-bought yarn involved there, so i cant just permanently ditch it.....

I promised twisted Pam that i'd describe how i dyed a couple of those merino/tencel rovings that i put up on the woolgatheringsfibers blog.... however, i'm just too damn tired tonight and need to go to bed. it was a hot day again and i was out and about taking Pop for acupuncture to fix his neck and shoulder spasms, then out for lunch, followed by a stop at Good Will to find a gallon glass jar for making "bounce" with black cherries and vodka (mmmmmm). and while there i found the jacket i've been looking for to take to Crete..... and what a deal that one is!! it's a REI goretex, mauve-y pink, has a hood, looks totally brand new and cost $9 ohmy!! probably by mid-november the weather will be turning cooler and rainy, and i've been wanting a light-weight jacket with a hood... and yay, i found it! can cross that one off the list.

NEW HANDDYED FIBERS

check on www.woolgatheringsfibers.blogspot.com to see these new superwash Merino/Tencel fibers for sale:

family

here's the most recent edition of our sibling photo, taken july 3 at the gathering of the tribe -

Robin, Dinah, me, Bud (aka Curbhead)

drying fibers

here's photos of what i've been dyeing lately. they are still hanging on the drying rack, still a little bit damp
superwash merino/tencel 50/50 (i just love how all shimmery and shiny it looks!!)


and another one....

Ruby2

We got our new Prius on tuesday and hoo boy, it is a sweet thang..... Salsa red (metallic) & drives so smoothly! and has so many displays to look at, i need a co pilot just to watch all the displays. with buttons on the steering wheel, i can turn on the radio and search for stations i want and turn on/off the ac and adjust the temp. it does many cool things and i expect it to start a conversation with me any time now. we have about 200 miles on it and average mpg is 47 and that's some highway and some city driving. funny how attached i've become to driving a pickup truck tho. it was really hard to leave Ruby sitting alone on that lot and i do miss driving her. my brother, Curbhead, has already offered several times to take care of the car for us for the 3 months we're gone..... dunno about that.
here's Ruby: (photo of Ruby2 to come later)


we have been having perfect dyeing weather... cool and rainy.. and it should continue for another day or so. so i spent most of yesterday dyeing some superwash merino/tencel which i'll take photos of and post for sale on woolgatheringsfibers.blogspot.com in the next few days. one of 'em is especially inyourface with attitude!! also, dyeing some yarn for Linda for the shop. got about 25% of it done so far..... hope the coolness lasts a few more days! back to the studio i go.

4th of July

and i spent the day recovering from the family tribe gathering yesterday here at dome central. a lot of the day was spent looking for the title to my pick-up (Ruby) which i never found. tomorrow she gets traded in on our new red Prius and as much as i want this new car (the first brand new car we've bought in 27 years of being married), it's sad to give up Ruby. I've had pick-ups for the past 20 years. a new car!!! wow...

Saturday Night at the World...

hhmmm - i do remember when"Saturday night" used to mean something. that was a LONG time ago, and now it just means that it's Jim's one night of the week to cook (yippee!!) and i might be able to find a British comedy on tv or satellite that i havent seen already. rarely even stay up for SNL anymore. it's that age thang, i guess.

we're just about ready for the clan gathering tomorrow. Jim has been working like a madman getting caught up on all sorts of outside chores and Pam and I have been doing a bit in the flower beds, so it's looking pretty spiffy here in my queendom. Pam will make a trifle tomorrow by special request... mine! Jim has the chick and salmon ready to bbq and i have a salad still to make. Robin and kids are in town somewhere but i havent seen them yet. Dinah, Jonica, Anna and Tyler probably arrived today and are staying with Jen and Maggie. sad to say that Chris, Kate and kids arent able to be here... Chris is really swamped doing some last minute work stuff to get ready for his 10-day MS trip to London, the dog is in heat AND this is one crappy weekend to be on the highway... and that all added up to it being better for them not to make the trip! sigh. will miss them!!

got started on yarn dyeing for Linda, doing alpaca first and it takes the dye so beautifully it would be difficult to mess it up. the first one is blues with a bit of eggplant and turquoise and looks great. must remember to put that combination on some BFL roving... mmmmm...! some of the folks from the Shakerag workshop have emailed and it does seem that we did a right fine job of enabling and inspiring, for which i'm proud and happy! and i'm sure Lynne and Lori are, too.

seems like there is an over-abundance of spiders about this year... both inside and outside. got my first spider bite of the summer today while wading around in the weeds in my garden. i wonder if i got a spider tattoo would it act as a mojo against spiders, or just attract them to me?????? it's been 11 years since my feather tattoo, so it must be time to get another one and get the feather touched up a bit. and 11 years since my crone ritual.