Plodding on

Which is a dam'fool thing to say, really, it is simply that I am not doing anything out of the ordinary. Just usual stuff and nowt wrong with that.

Usual stuff at present being still spinning the brightly coloured merino/tencel mix, I did not get it all finished when I had hoped after all - I am spinning it fairly fine, and it takes a surprising long time. Nearly there on that one, though. Then, the CVM shawl, which keeps hitting snags. You would not think that I could make so many mistakes in such a simple "pattern", but there you go. That's me and knitting for you. Yesterday, I noticed that my yarn overs had moved two separate jogs to the left. How?? Well may you ask. I had placed a marker, but in such a way that it was actually at the YO, so it had wiggled under a couple of times. Whilst chatting with a friend, of course - serves me right for not concentrating properly on either her or the knitting. Now, I knew that I had heard about unknitting a stitch down and taking it back up within the body of the work, which seemed a much better idea than frogging, as the shawl is getting quite wide. But I had absolutely no clue how to do this. So, how fortunate is it to have a dearly beloved life partner (this is called buttering up) who is a better knitter than wot one is? Dear soul, he sat and did it for me. Actually, I must get him to show me how to do it for myself, it can't be so very difficult, can it? Whatever, I am on my merry way again. Yes, another shawl, and very plain work. But gives me time to ponder on - what to do next. Something rather more challenging. Gawd knows what.....

Now. The dyeing continues, and really, is going pretty well. At the moment, one small step at a time, in other words I am taking around 150gm of either silk or soy silk, heating it up in slightly soapy water, leaving overnight, next day dyeing with at present, a natural dye extract, leaving overnight again, and then washing. Ends up looking like this:



This is quebracho red on silk. Came up very nicely. I have drying more lac, that worked this time, on soy silk, and just done today, quebracho green on silk. This is lovely, a greeny bronze, the lac quite nice, but it was harder to rinse, so the top is more disturbed. Photos soon, for the record. then I have to decide just how this experiment is going - do I continue with the extracts, or try some dyes in their raw state? I also want to expand the colour range a bit, I need an orange-tawny, and some purple, and, yes, blue. I keep putting off doing indigo because it is somewhat hard to get the colour right through the fibre, and I can't decide how to do it - risk doing just a very well wetted-out top,leaving it in the vat for quite a long time, which would be ok with silk or soy, I think. Or investing in a pair of "proper" rubber gloves, and doing the under the surface squeezy thing? Decisions, decisions, laissez-faire or bring on the Marigolds?

All the brouhaha about the pope seems to have died down for the moment. Quite interesting just how fascinated we have all been by this archaic ritual. Takes our mind off real life, I suppose. A debate rages about whether or not whoever it turned out to be would or would not affect all our lives. Directly - not at all. Indirectly? Opinion is moving inexorably in a direction I find disturbing, shall we say. Has been doing so for quite a time, won't stop any time soon. But one day - well, the breeze keeps blowing, the windmill turning, the beck running. (Around these parts, anyway.) Ach, I'm blethering! Time for a cup of tea, and a listen to Radio 7 where there are no news bulletins so I can avoid the horrors of the election campaign. Did we say nasty? Feh.

gw