Twists of Fate

OK, every time I think of yesterday in that context I giggle. Thanks to Embe for the phrasing.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited over to Embe’s house for a dyeing party! I gratefully accepted, because I think this group of ladies women (heh) are a wonderful bunch, and I really enjoy myself every time I’m around them. They’re all so smart and funny and fabulous, and very very generous. I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t contribute much this time around. I went looking for my box that has all my dyeing supplies in it, as well as my box o’ Cormo roving, but couldn’t find either. Thankfully, these wonderful women had everything necessary for successful dyeing, and then some.

Evanne had brought some indigo, which was amazing and really, watching the fiber come out of the yellow-green murk to magically turn that beautiful, vibrant blue? Probably will never, ever get old. I’m not sure who brought the amazing variety of Jacquard dyes, but boy howdy did I appreciate it! And LindaK walked me through creating a custom purple with Mother MacKenzie’s Miracle dyes. And she showed me how to do the “Sandy’s lasagne” method of dyeing, which was really cool to watch. I may have heckled a bit, because my middle name should probably be “smart ass”, but it was in good humor and really, her final product was incredible! And, well, watching Janine in action with her color creations is always groovy and, well, a bit intimidating. She’s all about color. Me? I’m trying to go beyond your basic black, grey, green and blue in my wardrobe. And you know what? The twins are just full of fabulous with a side of awesomesauce.

Plus, all these folks are great cooks. I had a very happy stomach after lunch.

I don’t have many pics of the day, because I suffer from chronic camnesia, but I did manage to snap this with the Crackberry. I finally remembered to take a picture of this but only because I was calling the yarn “Blackberry” and lo, I had a Blackberry with a camera in my purse.

There’s about 1000 yards of this, which should be enough to do something groovy.

All of the fiber I used yesterday was from Hanna a Romney ewe from Skylines Farm, my favorite fiber producer ever. Hanna is, in fact, a full blood Romney ewe, and the fiber I used yesterday was from the ‘07 fleece linked above. I sent it to Spinderella’s in Salt Lake for processing. Half the fleece was made into pin-drafted roving, and the other half spun to a yarn that’s solidly in the middle of their “sport weight” classification. I was thrilled at how many of my new dyeing friends asked if there was silk in the mix, and they were pretty surprised at how soft a Romney this was. It just goes to show that Melissa produces a truly amazing Romney fleece y’all.

Anyway, 1000yds of Hanna is done in Blackberry. 1800 or so was done up as “Tree Frog” (thanks to Embe’s wonderful man for the name!), and an undetermined amount of roving was dyed with the indigo. More pics when I can dig out the camera and when the sun returns.

Thank you everyone for the good times yesterday! I truly enjoyed spending time with everyone, and learned quite a lot. ::happydances!::