A good day to dye number two

Which is, of course, highly inaccurate, as there have been many dyeing days this summer.

Yesterday was a perfect, beautiful day. The sky was very blue, with few clouds, and there was only a light breeze. It wasn't warm - this has now, after all, seamlessly drifted in to autumn, and the quality of the light shows that. But it was glorious, and at one point I sat outside quietly observing everyone else, and it felt like heaven.

The coven has occasional get-togethers, often to dye. Theoretically, this was what we were doing yesterday, but I at least didn't do so very much. I needed to overdye the skeins I dyed with Janet a couple of weeks ago, and that just wasn't practical. I did put some silk and some soy silk into a walnut dyebath, and they have come out quite an interesting colour. I have some thoughts of working up a line in those two fibres to sell alongside spindles, but I need to work some more on my time-management skills........

Freyalyn and I managed NOT to come to blows over whether or not one should use a mordant with alkanet and hibiscus - it is true, what I said to her, that I had got the same colour without that she got with, and that I think water and the pH thereof are important. I do also agree with her that we need some more red in our lives. I have got the turkey red oil to use still - and of course, I still have quite a lot of Ed's cochineal. I know what is going to happen now - I am not going to want to use that all up, but that would be so silly - better by far to make something and see the colour glow. Or colours - I could do a range of little skeins and make a bag (ooh! What a surprise!) But why not, why should bags not be my bag, eh?

We had a visitor at the dye day, and Australian woman from one of the lists, who was very nice and who did beautiful weaving using silk fabric stitched and spiral-cut as weft. Light, lustrous fabrics that she then made up herself into beautifully tailored garments. So clever. What will I ever do that comes close to that? She was brave, too, drove up on her own from Matlock, not on the motorway - we did send her back via the M62/M1. It was nice to meet her. Which reminds me, an old SOAR acquaintance is going to be at Masham, from New Zealand, so that will be fun - I like it when Masham is just before SOAR, kind of gives a foretaste of pleasures to come.

I got the Interweave Crochet mag, and Piecework yesterday. sueb had told me about a cat tapestry cushion in PW, and indeed it is quite cute. And there is tapestry crochet in the other thing, too. I am planning to take Elaine's Retreat session in tapestry crochet, I haven't managed to get my head around it on my own, and she is such a great teacher that I am sure she will sort me out! I am not a huge fan of PW, but this one looks pretty good. Nor so sure about the crochet supplement, though - some quite nice stuff, but very much aimed at the rather younger.

I am being quite (quite) productive. Trying to ply all of the fibre I spindle spun whilst travelling last year, finishing of a commercial yarn scarf in a nice pearl-grey fluffy almost chenille-like yarn - a pressie for the mater for Christmas, I think. I have washed the Rovings Polwarth, and will start sampling for that as soon as it is dry. And I am getting on well with Freyalyn's flaming orange. Also, there were a couple of crocheted hats in the IW thing, and I am going to try using some leftovers to make those - and a rather nice multi-coloured skein I just re-found, hand-painted merino from Royale Hare.

Maybe I am knitting my way out of the Black Hole after all!!