Dyeing not disasters

Wow - I haven't posted since Monday, which isn't so long for me - but I just have so much I want to share - where to start?

Well, I guess the obvious place would be with the promised pictures of the merino tencel that I plied up with bright orangeness. I had a few comments from some of y'all that the colour was OK - well... trust me it really wasn't. The eye searing orangeness with the delicate rose and blush was just so Wrong.

My daughter came over the other night (after I'd done the overdyeing) and I showed her what the whole horribleness had started off as. She took one look at it, said, "And you plied the whole thing? And you knew how wrong it was?!? Oh my god mom, you are retarded!"

Well, yeah, there is that - but I wanted to see how much 3 Joy bobbins would fill on my Skipper bobbins (still not all the way full btw) - and I did fix it - I mean look! Isn't it pretty now? It reads as a lovely tomato red. There are still shocking orange bits to it, but with the darker reds combined, well it works, I can knit with it, and I like it! It's 650 yards of a light worsted weight. No idea what it wants to be when it grows up, but I'm sure it will figure itself out.

I also got some photos of the rest of the fiber that I dyed. Took them out to the shrubberies to get some pics in full sunlight - talked to my neighbors for a bit. They don't think I'm too crazy, but the people that were walking past the Mexican restaurant the night before where I took the pic on the cactus sure looked at me funny.

Here it is all laid out. From left to right:

BFL in blues and greens. I was so happy to see that, it's about 8 ozs. I'd totally forgotten that I had it. It was in the kitchen in the pile of wool that I've been meaning to dye. I do love to spin BFL. I also had some superfine merino in that batch that I didn't even bother with - I mean, it's OK - but I don't like spinning it all that much.

4 ozs of Optim in darker blues and greens. Mmmm optim. I dyed it in the same batch with the silk that is right next to it. There's about 8 ozs of the silk. I'll probably end up doing separate plies with this stuff, and then plying it all together.

The red blue and green space dyed fiber is the other batch of merino/tencel that I just dyed. It will probably go well with something, don't ask me what yet.

Next to that is red and blue superwash merino, that will most likely get turned into my first pair of handknit/handspun socks. I've never ever knit a pair of socks out of my handspun. I know, I know... it just has never come up.

And last - but certainly not least is some mystery wool that I think is my favourite of the batch. No idea what it is, probably some Corriedale or something similar.







And here is the progress on the Azalea shawl so far, looking a bit washed out - but still it's progressing nicely!

I've done more work on it after the picture was taken, it's now down into more of an aqua colour - 12 repeats! I'm sure I can get at least 1 more repeat, but with triangular shawls like this, as the rows get longer the yarn starts to get eaten up at a rather alarming rate. Still, it is going to be big enough. I confess that I was slightly worried that 612 yards wouldn't be enough for a full size shawl for me - but holding it out from the center it is already covering my wingspan. I'm hoping to have it done and blocked in the next couple of days, you probably won't see it again until it's final unveiling.

Whew - there's more - lots more - but I'm going to try to get on with my evening now, and sign off for this installment with a sunflower shot that I got outside the Mexican restaurant by my house.