August 11, 2003
It's a Small World, Lah, Lah, Lah...
K and I had our own bona fide “six degrees of separation” experience this weekend, although in our case we only eked out five degrees. The chain:
Me: Seattleite, blogger, knitter. Link to my blog on the page of:
Rebecca of Supergirl: Seattleite, blogger, knitter, bicyclist who also has a link on her blog to the blog of:
Fran of Northwest Notes: Seattleite, blogger, bicyclist, gardener who met this weekend with:
K: Seattleite, gardener, bicyclist wannabe, who is the partner of:
Me: Seattleite, blogger, knitter.
Ack! My head is spinning!
Anyway, thanks to a world that is truly growing smaller every day, on Saturday we spent a great two hours with erstwhile-stranger-now-acquaintance Fran, talking about how to cut, rototill, amend and build new flowerbeds. Which is weird, since my blog is about knitting and dyeing. Hmmmmm; when did this all stop being about, me, me, ME?!
Knitting Knews
I forgot to take a picture of the felted Crayon Bowl but it's really all for the best since it bounced around in my purse all weekend and came out looking like a cross between a felted bowl and a deflated balloon, not the sturdy, gourd-like yet delightfully fibery bowl I had envisioned.
Here, though, is a picture of the completed, blocked Acoma Sock cuff. The triangles are definitely "swirling," although I’d still like the swirl to be more pronounced. Unfortunately, in its present form, this sock would only fit the leg of a gazelle, an anorexic gazelle, at that, so the whole thing will have to be rethought.
Dyeing Dyegest
And now, the good, the bad and the ugly of dyeing with walnuts. Or, in this case, the ugly, the bad, and the good.
The ugly: I didn't realize that the 12-year-old walnuts were actually still in the 12-year-old walnut dye so when I innocently scooped out a cup of dye juice, and black, floppy, wet lumps suddenly started swirling darkly around in the gallon jar, I practically shot across the yard with terror. Oh, no, I'm not jumpy.
The bad: Being a bit of an eejit, I went straight to simmering the yarn in the dyebath, instead of simmering the walnuts in the dyebath first and then simmering the yarn. Here are the results, a slightly silvery beige, miles away from the dark brown I had been hoping for:
The good: I wised up and simmered some of the dark, creepy lumps in the dyebath first and then simmered the yarn in the dyebath. The result was worth every heart palpitation and "smack on the forehead" moment I had to go through: a beautiful, dark, cinnamon brown, slighty lighter than this picture shows:
