Holy cow, how much do I LOVE this merino I got from Grafton Fibers? If I were clever, I'd have some kind of cute "count the ways" kind of poem, but let's just say it rocks. It rocks big time. It practically spins itself and it's GORGEOUS (did i mention that?). My mom just held the wonderful soft batt of it last night, petting it like it was a kitty (and actually, it feels a lot like a kitty, all soft and kinda heavy and nice). I've got high hopes for spinning it all up and turning it into the wonderful Estonian shawl in the Scarf Style book. I wish I had a picture, but my memory card is all full and anyway, I'm having a hard time getting the colors to come up correctly, but it's the beautiful brownish with blue in the picture a few posts down, in the lovely sun-lit box all snuggled up with the blue and green.
And the hats are just knitting themselves, one down, five or six to go (gotta go check my order table). It's just so pretty, got this wonderful sheen to it and so super soft, I hope the recipients like them. The hard part will be deciding which ones to replicate, which dyes worked the best. Oddly, the violet that I liked the best doesn't have any takers yet. Oh well, I guess Oliver will be getting a violet hat!

What you see on the left is the product of my spindling thus far. In the top row you have two skeins of lincoln (a little on on top of a big one), merino single (that is just so pretty, I may leave it as a single), something funky and dyed that my mom gave me for christmas, plyed, and a little test skein from silk caps that I bought from Spinning Bunny off ebay. I'm going to swatch it up and see what it does, I'm very intrigued by it.

This is a dark closeup of the little mini-skein. It was kind of weird working with it, the thicker sections were very reluctant to stay twisted, but I like it a lot all plyed up like it is. I may have to try dyeing some of my own, after seeing how wonderfully it spins up, even looking kind of funny on the caps, I'm pretty confidant of getting something kind of cool out of it. Plus, I've had a few people request hats made out of something other than wool, so I though silk or cotton would be a nice option. I've GOT to get that spinning wheel, it just takes too long to spindle it to make it at all cost effective. But, special request, we shall see. I've got to figure out how to measure my yardage and test the gauge...

And here's my little project, all skeined up. I've really pleased with some of it. We've got Wiltons "garden colors", Wiltons purples and blues, strawberry Kool-Aid, Wiltons violet, Wiltons violet and royal blue, Wiltons violet and sky blue, and Wiltons purples, blues, and green. I'm just tickled to death with the way the purples, blues, and green came out, it looks great all skeined up like that, MUCH better than it looked drying over the shower rod. I listed them online and so far, I've gotten the most response to the strawberry, so I may have to do another few skeins of that. I also had a special request for pink, so I'll have to try that, maybe later on this evening. The Kool-Aid one color dyeing is just so easy, and so incredibly satisfying. Like all the other fiber arts, it's totally addictive.

My meeting with my advisor went amazingly well. She added a few books to my lists, but was so understanding of the difficulties you encounter having a youngster in daycare bringing home all those germs. And my other committee members were also pretty pleased with my lists, so I may just get these exams taken before my hair goes entirely gray (if the exams don't make that happen!).

So I decided to swallow my fear (of what?) and do some KoolAid and Wiltons dyeing. The Joann's over in the Waterworks is going out of business, so I stocked up on Wiltons and undyed wool (seriously, like $3.50 a skein, what a steal!). I decided to start with the Wiltons and do half my skeins (I bought 14). My first little beauty didn't come out as anticipated, but it's ok. The microwaving method DID NOT work for me (plastic wrap popped in the microwave and I had Wiltons everywhere, made a pretty paper towel, though). Steaming on the stove seems to have worked a bit better, but I wasn't as good at getting the color all the way through, so it's a little funny looking with those white patches in there. I was blown away by the violet, though. I'd been hearing about how it "splits" and I love it! my attempt to dye the skeins all wrapped up didn't come out as well, but I overdyed them with sky blue and royal blue, and oddly they came out the same color.
So, from left to right hanging over the shower rod, we've got all Wilton's, except for the red/pink one in the middle, which is strawberry KoolAid. The second from the right is Wilton's violet, and I LOVE the way it split. the two blue and purple ones on the left are violet and sky blue, on the left, and violet and royal blue, on the right. Funny, they look the same in that picture... I'll have to upload another one once they're all skeined up and dry. The one to the right of the KoolAid one is my first attempt, the one that exploded in the microwave. Damn thing was impossible to wash clear, it's still dripping yellow!
Eh, what can you do, right? I've got a nice batt of merino and mohair that my mom got me for Christmas that's just beggint to be dyed, and I just can't decide what to do with it. Maybe I'll try painting with KoolAid next, since I'm pretty tickled with that red/pink one. These are all destined to be hats. Maybe I can sell them as "designer originals" or something!