Still dyeing after all these years.

It's almost 5 years that I started to dye yarn.  I began very timidly on a hot July day in 2007.  It took me 1.2 hours to dye just one skein.  That doesn't even include the prep time.  So then, when it had dried, I wound it up and knitted a pair of socks from it.  Maybe about 2 weeks later, I decided to try again.  Much faster this time, and that's the beginning of this story.  I loved it so much that I would dye and dye and dye.  I couldn't keep up with the knitting, so in Oct, I decided to try to sell on Etsy, and I've been doing that for almost 5 years.  Who would ever have thought it?  Not me.

Fast forward to now.  I'm now tired of the whole dyeing process.  I can't even begin to tell how many skeins I've dyed, each one individually, because that's how I like to do it.  But I can tell you that I swear there have been a gazillion skeins.  And now I'd rather sew.  Go figure.

Yesterday I decided that I was running out of sock yarn.  Oh, I can buy on Etsy or in my LYS, but now I have this bug in my head that my skinny yarns, sock and lace, have to be dyed by me.  So what's a girl to do when she needs some nice sock yarn?  She dyes.  And I did.  7 skeins:   2 merino/bamboo, and 5 Falkland Island merino.  Here they are.

 I'd think of selling them, but I really need some to knit with.  Besides, the Falkland merino is messy.  There's something amiss with the skeining up, and you can see what happens after dyeing.  It's all perfectly fine to knit with, but a mess to ball up.  I would not do that to a customer.  I'd hear her swearing across the country.

See what I mean.  And I didn't do this.  Every one of these skeins has been a pain in the bottom to wind up.  I originally bought the yarn for sale, but like all my yarns, I tried it out first.  Considerably more money than my regular Penny yarn, and I really can't tell the difference between them.  Penny yarn is just nicer to work with.  So that's the end of the Falkland merino.  I won't be ordering any more.

It's funny how all the yarns I dyed are not in my usual pastel mode; they're all somewhat gloomy.  Might be my mental state yesterday.  As the grands say:  "Whatever."  Today I'm just fine.  Yippee!

And here are 4 more stars to get added to the starry quilt.

Starring along

 Here's the star quilt as of this morning.  Growing slowly but steadily.  Now what I need is a good name for her.

I was trying to figure out why I like EPP so much as opposed to plain hand sewing, and I figured it out.  The first needlecraft I learned was embroidery, and I always used a hoop or frame to keep the fabric taut.  So it's the floppiness of fabric pieces that drives me crazy if I hand sew, whereas English paper pieced fabrics are very firm.  Ah ha.

I have 5 completed stars to add sometime this week.  Hmm, now where to put them?

We were up in MA this weekend seeing the kids and grands and my MIL.  Didn't bring any knitting with me, which is shocking!  But I can do EPP in the car, so that's what I brought.

This week?  More stars.  And maybe even a bit of yarn dyeing, and lots of shawl knitting.  And the GYM!  I ate enough food this weekend for an army.  I'm trying to lose 5 lbs, not put it on.

Clean as a whistle.

I'm not sure how clean a whistle is, but I have the means to make me that immaculate:   I treat myself to handmade soap from seaspritesoaps.

She makes the nicest soap around.  Long lasting, lovely smells, and very very pretty.  Here's the one I started yesterday:  Sanibel Island.  Mmmmm. Yummy.  Too bad we don't have smell-a-vision.

My latest bag.  This one is the "Artist" size bag, and it's for my sister, who crochets and needs larger bags than I do.

My favorite part of these bags is that adorable ruffly look with the lining.  It just makes me smile.  


The starry quilt continues.  At some point I have to decide how to finish a side, but I'm not quite sure how.  I'm learning as I go.  If anyone has a  brilliant idea, please let me know.  I'm thinking of bordering it with the off-white Kona. 

Stars in my eyes

And in my hands, and all over every horizontal surface in the living room. 

What I am not showing is all the prep work for the quilt:  fabric cutting, using the paper pieces, sewing the components together, pulling out the paper pieces to reuse.  There's a lot that goes on in English paper piecing.  It's much more work than sewing on the machine, but I really love doing it.  It has this gentle rhythm that is soothing and peaceful.  (and piece full, too)

The Yarnarian still knits.

Yay, me.  Last night I settled down to watch some Mentalist shows, and got out my shawl knitting.  I haven't knitted in maybe a week, and it was so good to get back to it.  This is the Elsie Shawl.  As usual, an unblocked shawl looks like a rag, but you can get a little idea of what it looks like.  A few more rows, and then onto the NEB (never-ending border, my trademark).

Quilting news:  Mostly what I did was cut out fabric and make a bunch of diamonds.  I did sew together one star.

I find it fascinating that you can put together the ugliest combination of fabrics, and when it's set into the quilt, it looks so pretty. 

But then I did this huge mistake.  Can you see what I did?

 

The blue diamond belongs in the center.  I showed Hiz Hubz to see if he could tell, and unfortunately he could.  Should I rip it out?  Yep.  but here's the kicker:  There are 5 teensy little whipped stitch seams to be gently ripped out.  Let me tell you that these things are very securely sewn.  I think I'll wait until the end of the project, and see if I actually need to do this.  

Today is gym day; I got very little done there yesterday, and I need a good tension release.  Plus, I have to find a Father's Day card for Himself.

Moving along

My starry quilt is growing.  Now I need a name.

Knitting?  Who's knitting?  I have 2 shawls almost at the Never-ending Border moment, and am I working on them?  Nope.  All I want to do is sew this quilt.

Back and at peace

We sat shiva (7 days of mourning) for a couple of days, and then escaped to Cape Cod for our annual trip.  We had booked our trip way back in January, and decided to use what was left of our reservation as a time for reflection and mourning and remembering Mom.  It was a brilliant idea.  We were taken care of, no cooking, cleaning, just long walks to talk about The Mommie.  Every day we felt a bit better and more at peace.  So I'm glad we went.  Was it traditional?  Nope, but it worked for us.

So now we're at home and I feel pretty good.  I've been driving myself crazy wondering why I wasn't sobbing, but then I realized that I've been watching my Mom slowly decline for months and months.  Her dying seemed like a natural conclusion.  She didn't suffer, she went exactly as she wanted to.  HAH! on going either into a nursing home or hospice.  Not my Mom!  No way!  And I got to be with her for the past 6 years when we moved her to NJ.  Besides, she's totally inside me.  I've absorbed her, and now I have conversations with her all the time.  So, while her body is now longer here, her spirit is very much alive all around and within me.  She still doesn't let me win any arguments.

I started a shawl in green, which I'm calling the Elsie Shawl in honor of her.  She loved green, mostly olive green, which is not my favorite color. but Piffle on that.  I'm using my favorite green.  (Hey, I think I might have won a battle here!!!!)

Lace always looks like a messy rag before it's washed and blocked, but you get the idea.  I'm about to start another pattern and am charting it out.  For once I am not working on a mystery shawl.  Yippee.  It's fun to actually show a pic.

I have admired English paper pieced quilts for a long time, so I decided to start one.  All but 2 of the fabrics are Kaffe Fassett style fabrics.  And all in blues and greens.  The background is an off white Kona.  Here's the first star:

It's good to be back home and back to normal.  I think I'll go for a walk before it gets unbearably hot.

Thanks, all you lovely commentators!   I do feel quite myself again.  It was very very stressful around here since last Sept with Mom health crises, and the last 3 months were beyond stressful.  But in all that time, I really incorporated the Mommie into myself, and I truly feel that she is somewhere in there.  And wagging that dangerous finger at me!