Rainbow of silky goodness

So I finished spinning and plying the rainbow silk that my sister and I dyed last year using Easter Egg dyes. Basically I put 4 sets of roving side by side on saran wrap and poured vinegerated (Look mom, I made up a word!) Easter Egg dyes in a very long colour progression. This particular yarn came from one of these rovings which was 100% silk. It has grown up to become this 616 yard 2 ply skein that starts off pink and changes to violet, blue, and green - with colour variations inbetween...

Pretty? I sure think so - it's telling me that it wants to be a triangular shawl, not sure how big it will end up.

I'm being Very Good and not casting on any of my handspun until I finish the P90 that I'm working on, which is pretty close to being done.

Here's a not-wonderful picture of half of it. I'm doing both sides the same so that it will be reversible, and also because I do like a low back on my tops. I used the same type of yarn as my No Gauge Swatch Top - Jonelle Shine - 50% cotton / 50% rayon, with a nice drape. I've made a few mods to the pattern as well - nothing major, and I'll list them when I post my done photo.

The other half is done up to the armhole on the right side - so not too much longer until I'm done. I really like it so far. I'd love to do another version in an all over variegated at some point... Maybe the Merino Tencel that I'm spinning on my Joy.


So yesterday I was able to finally get my neighbor to a proper yarn store (Dharma Trading) - thank God! She's really caught the knitting bug, and has made 2 garter stitch scarves so far. It's hard because when I first taught her how to knit I was very happy to grab something out of my stash to get her started. But as it's gone along, it turns out that she's very particular about what colours she wants to work with..."Don't you have this in a red?" Or if it is the right color, then she wants to know if I have it in cotton. Sigh!

She's really going through a really rough patch right now, and we all know that the knitting - it helps when you're going through hard times. I'm happy to try to help her through this a bit - but the going through my stash? Talk about testing my patience.

So anyway, she was finally convinced that my stash is probably not the best place for her to shop and I got her out of her house for the first time in days. She was thrilled to walk into Dharma - I mean she had that intake of breath - and the ohmygod reaction that I think most of us are familiar with. And then she went straight for the fun fur. Lots of fun fur. Yarn with squiggles and hairs and sequins, oh my! And Addis to work with. She's loving the Addis. And I'm loving the fact that I am no longer going to have to worry about her not being able to find what she wants in my stash! I mean - I had most of it shipped home from England - there's a lot of stuff in there that has sentimental value. Stuff I bought on vacations, to Wales, to Malta, to Scotland etc....

Anyway - I guess that's about it for this post. More next time!

And now for some prettiness. Just some purple cone flowers growing up by the main house.