Thursday, January 13, 2011

As the days pass from the last time I posted, I have been looking for time in my daily life to make room for blogging. The whirl of life seems to get louder the more time passes. It is hard to keep my eyes on the prize when everything keeps spinning. I read the blogs of artists and crafters that make things for a living, and I wonder how they manage to make a living and blog and enjoy their lives. I have been thinking on it a lot and I think that I figured out the key to being able to make a living of making things. The secret is not sleeping. No sleep for the busy. I think if I stopped sleeping I could probably rule the world, except that I would be crazy from sleep deprivation. And sleep deprivation makes me dangerous. Mostly to myself. But I have been sleeping, and I have been working. I dyed a lovely 8oz roving for my Etsy site.

Before the oven...

I chose a variety of greens, Ooze, Kelly Green and Lime Juice, Teal, Midnight Blue and Satsuma Purple. I rolled the roving up in a pot and poured the colors onto the white merino. Then I just stuck the whole pot in my oven to process and set the dye. Thirty minuets @ 300 degrees and my roving was taken out to cool.


After the oven!

This is a new processing technique that I have not used before, and have mutated from a collection of other processes. I like it, I think I might try it again. I have also noticed I have been working mostly in oceany colors as of late. I really need to push myself to try other colors instead of just blues and greens. I like lots of colors, and a few years ago all that spoke to me were combinations of grays, black, red, and lime green. I like the way that sounds. I know that I promised sneak peeks of the new thing i'm working on for my Etsy site, but I broke a drill bit and have not finished the prerequisite leg work to fill you in on the big new thing. In the mean time, here is a photo of the socks that I am knitting. They are Monkey by Cookie A. made with Lorna's Laces sock yarn. The color way is Amys Vintage Office and it is the colorway made my Knitty. I guess it is fitting that I knitting a pattern from Knitty for this yarn. I'm so close...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Really interesting to see how you dye wool.