Danger in the dye pot

G'day all!

I've been dyeing up a storm recently, though not the last couple of days. Last two days have been totally consumed by picking out a new camera and trying to organise car insurance. Blah. Next on my list is fixing up our tax returns.

But dyeing yarn is MUCH more fun!

Here's some results:


Some "cheap" merino/cashmere sock yarn. It really is cheap yarn and not worth as much as I paid for it - it had at least 8 major flaws (knots, broken plies) in the hank of 350y. But it dyed up prettily enough. You can see a knot in the photo below.




Closeups of some top notch merino aran/worsted weight yarn I brought from Oz.


And a wider view:

This is headed off as a giftie for someone I am meeting at Rhinebeck. Hope the recipient likes it.


Some laceweight - looks fantastic in the looooong skein but once it is skeined up in a normal size, looks pretty average. Weird, huh?




Some recycled yarn that I absolutely adore. It has such wonderful subtle shades of pinky mauve, pale blue, dove grey, all toning into deeper mauve and grey.




Some Cascade "Icelandic" or something dyed up just to see what happens. Umm, it goes the colours it is dyed. LOL


Pray excuse any picture fuzziness - I've gone for colour representation over sharpness.

You might think I am having a big goth time with the dye pot - that is because I'm using up the old dyes and gosh, what a surprise, I had lots of gothy-type colours left, not because I hate them but because I had been using a lot of the primary colours (CMY) and blending them rather than the more subtle ones.

This looks a little different,

doesn't it?

That is my last lot of white Patonyle, yarn beloved of Australian sock knitters. I shall have to see if I can get more from Back 'Ome. This yarn is headed for a particular blogger at Rhinebeck.


I am not the only person to have "one of those days" am I? Yesterday was "one of those days" (and it was the full moon I think!). I discovered that I had done all the shaping for the EZ ribwarmer I am making for Rhinebeck backwards. No worries, normally. But I am doing STRIPES in mine and of course the back of the stripes are very very different to the front, RIP RIP RIP. But only back as far as the incorrect shaping. Except then I discovered that I had started the colour on the wrong edge, so I had to break off the yarn and now am PURLING every row! Just as well my purl stitching is almost as far as the knit....

Does anyone else put ribs out? I do it a lot. I did it on Tuesday night but yesterday was the day I reaped the rewards, such as they are. My chiro is away, of course, and even Nathan could feel that my rib is not sitting where it should be. Very inconvenient! It sorta hurts and limits my lung capacity and even makes me vaguely nauseated (though if you saw how much I ate tonight, you might wonder about that).

Yesterday was one of those days even down to little things - pick up a teaspoon to eat my soyghurt with, and whoopsie! Straight onto the floor. Yuck. I know what has been on that floor and when it was last washed (two weeks ago). Pick up a fork and guess where it goes? I was sorta distracted.

Today I trotted off to see the agent about car insurance. It was a lovely trip on the bike. Not too far, not too horrible traffic, stopped on the way back and bought some new pants (as in trousers not undies), one new bra (OMG, a bra that fits and feels comfortable just as it promised!) and a black skivvy (turtleneck) to wear under Rhinebeck stuff. Then I had to go off to the Australian Product Shop (great name that - so thoughtful and inventive!) to get some bits and bobs for the trip. There were even people from Australia in the shop, running it! It was so nice to hear an Aussie accent - I was much more taken with the Taswegian lady's accent than the Queenslander's. And they had Aussie stuff! I toodled around quite happily - I've gotten over any embarrassment of displaying Aussie-ness. But I had to go home to get the roast on. As I sat down at the bus stop with my shopping, something stung me on the back of my upper arm! EEEK! OUCH! Whatever it was, it had green wings and an orange body, though the orange body could be because I flicked it off me without much care or compunction at all and squashed it. In my usual over-reactive way I felt a bit panicked as I watched the sting swell up. And I felt really hot. So I walked back to the shop and asked where a drug store was (so I could get antihistamines). It was a 10 minute bus trip away. You shoulda seen me knitting on the bus when it arrived - I was frantic! Knit knit, ignore the lump on your arm, ignore the wobbly feelings, they're just over-excited lizard brain doing its stuff (actually I hadn't had much lunch, so I was probably hungry), knit knit knit.... It is six hours later and I still have a lump but I am still here. And I was hot because it was hot - around 30C, which is Much Too Hot for autumn. I dare say I am ready for cooler weather.

Hopefully I won't wake up tomorrow with cellulitis (last bee sting did that, caused some grief too as my workplace thought I was skiving off sick "as normal." Heh. I guess they couldn't see my leg was swollen up like a big fat pork sausage from knee to ankle. Oh and walking was fun cos it felt like a big fat pork sausage that was on the BBQ and full of fat, just ready to explode once pricked or possibly with the next heart beat). Tomorrow would be a very inconvenient day to get sick. Tomorrow I get on a plane and fly to NYC. That will be fun! Overnight to NYC and waking up at the equivalent of my 3am... ack. LOL Then a full on day getting to Rhinebeck and wandering around the sheep and wool show. And meeting gazillions of people! And another day at Rhinebeck! And most of a day wandering NYC! When I get back I have some new yarn to try dyeing - if it works out, I'll use it as the base for my new sock yarn for the shop.

Hope you have a better day than I had yesterday! And I hope you get home to find wonderful new things to play with (I got yarn and a new camera! But I'll take the old one to Rhinebeck cos I know all its little foibles.

anon!