Knitting, Spinning, Weaving and Life

Thursday, August 16, 2007

A Lost Week

Wow, it's amazing how time zips right past when you're incredibly busy. There just may be something to this "having a life" thing!

I spent last week zipping from work to dinner at a friends, to board meetings and finally to a night out. All very pleasant, especially the night out as there was music and beer involved, but also very tiring in the 100+ degree heat.

Anyway, when we last saw our intrepid blogger, she promised to tell of an exciting event. Well, I'm maybe it wasn't exactly exciting, but it sure was a heck of a lot of fun. I, and I believe 9 other like minded souls, spent the morning at the Charleston Museum. In conjunction with their exhibit
Clothes to Dye For, they held a natural dyeing workshop.



Suzanne Collins was our teacher. This woman has lots and lots to say about natural dyeing. Her enthusiasm is downright contagious.





After Suzanne spoke about some of the plants used, the colors they produce and how to prepare your yarn, we started the fun part. Lectures are nice and informative, I took lots of notes, but nothing beats getting to do it with your own hands. Here are the dyepots. We did cochenille (which I never knew are actually little bugs!) , onion skin, and the perennial favorite, indigo










Even though I've seen it before, I'm still amazed at the color changes of indigo. In the pot it's that horrible anti-freeze green, but let it hit the air and presto!
My yarn turned out nice, if a little streaky. I think we just had too much in the pots at once to get any precision colors. I tried to overdye my onion with the indigo for green. It came out quite Green Bay Packer colored. I think I like it though. Right now it's all aging in a nice handthrown pottery bowl I have. I may just keep it as decorative art.

While I was getting my photos, the girls decided to get into the act. What do you think, professional modeling careers in their future?

Come on baby, work it!!

Thursday, August 2, 2007

All Work and No Play


Nothing to show for the last week and a halfs' work. I am making progress on both MS3 and Med Lace, but it's just more of the same, nothing dramatic.

Mostly what I've been doing this last week is working out in the heat. I work as a facility manager on the Naval Weapons Station. My job was supposed to be a nice sit at a desk and play on the computer kind of job, but last week it took a turn. We needed someone to go out into the warehouse and onto current job sites and help keep the workers organized. The fun part is I get to boss around a bunch of guys, the down side is the 95+ degree heat and being in a poorly ventilated warehouse for a good portion of the day. By the time I get home and out of the shower (What's the Guinness record for longest time in a shower?) I don't have the ambition to do much of anything accept stare a book.

The good news is that I have an outing planned for the weekend. Details then.

Meanwhile, just so this isn't a totally photoless post, here's one of my attempts to take a picture of myself. I'll keep the day job.