Bess, we would have loved to have you dyeing with us!

And thus ends my dyeing frenzy for the forseeable future!

I still love dyeing, but it is a lot of work. Not that I don’t totally envy Jennifer at The Spirit Trail; she now has her own at home business dyeing yarns and fibers! I would love to be able to do this all the time. However, we have a lot going on the next few weekends, and after 1 evening of trying to dye after work . . . . its just too much for a “school night”.

I did however, sucessfully dye the roving for my mother’s shawl last night. She picked out a Romney fleece at the NH S & W when we went on Mother’s day, we sent it to Zeilinger’s for processing and I recently got back just over 2lbs of roving. Yesterday I skeined it off into 2 oz. sections (since that is how much I like to spin at once) and spent the evening dyeing them.

I started off by practicing on some more of the Finn/Ram. roving that I have a big bucket of, dyeing it in green, blue/green, blue/purple and purple. I hope to spin worsted weight singles and then knit my own version of the Booga J bag in my own dyed/spun yarn!

After the practice skeins and tweeking the colors to be what Mom and I discussed . . . I covered the whole 8 ft. table in plactic wrap, laid out the skeins in pairs the length of the table and started painting. It took me a while to get the dyes worked in just the way I wanted (and my arms are killing me today) but after steaming and rinsing I love the colors! DH even liked them! I can’t wait to see what they look like once they are spun and plied. The colors will overlap in the plied yarns so it will look very different from the roving, but the overall effect should be stunning. I’ve named the color way Tropical Seas as Mom was looking for an oceany effect both in the color and in the pattern.

I’m undecided whether to knit my own design, I do have one in mind, or to use a pattern from somewhere like Fiber Trends. I plan to look over the patterns tonight so I can get an idea of what the yarn should be to make this work either way . . . . I’d spun a sample, but now I think perhaps it was too fine, a sport weight rather than a lace weight might be a better idea . . . esp. if I want to finish the shawl by Christmas! ;)

I spent the last bit of time that I was up last night winding the roving that came back from Zeilinger’s this past week. I traded a bit of it with M for some of her black Merino . . . and I have about 3 1/2 lbs of a pretty med. grey Corriedale and 4 lbs of the most beautiful white merino roving I’ve ever seen! Its like a cloud! I can’t wait to start spinning it, though I’m going to as I’m saving this until I have a specific project for it. I can’t even begin to explain how wonderful this roving is, it was a very soothing experience to sit and wind my 4 oz. balls of it last night before bed. I was tempted to take one with me and keep it on my pillow, it is that soft! I do have a few baby gifts to make a bit later this year, perhaps some lucky baby is going to wind up with a very special sweater or something!

Tonight I plan to take pictures, brush rabbits, finish some plying and look at shawl patterns (and of course, laundry) but that is it, my arms need a bit of a break from the rest of it!