Plying and Dyeing

It's here. The Post-Madrona Glow. The period of the year when I want to make ALL THE THINGS!
I took a dyeing class with Judith MacKenzie on the first day. I took this class with her many years ago at Madrona and as it's always good to spend time with Judith. She had some rovings she had dyed that she called dogs. They were okay but the color didn't sing. She overdyed them in class with stunning results. I was reminded of something Heidi from The Artful Ewe told me the first time we met. She said she always dyes everything at least twice. Otherwise, she warned, you get "clown hair."

I also returned from Madrona with a bag of Knitpicks Palette in three shades of yellow. My least favorite color and so much of it! I thought I'd just hold several strands together for charity hats. Then inspiration struck. I would make a cabled yarn from them. And then I would overdye it. I pulled out my spinning stuff on Monday when I got home from knitting and realized that I don't have any free bobbins because I have had the same spinning project in the works for over four years. Four years. Four. It's insanity. One of the few resolutions I made for 2014 was that I would ply this yarn at long last. I finished spinning the singles a year ago and they have sat, hogging my bobbins and my spinning mojo. So the 2014 ply-a-thon began. Three days later it was over and I now have 2000+ yards of questionably-spun, hand-dyed Corriedale from the first fleece I ever bought.

While I was working on that I dragged out a crockpot I bought years ago at a garage sale that I use for dyeing and fired it up. First victim was some roving I won at the Knitters Guild holiday party.

This is definitely the clown hair Heidi warned me about all those years ago. So I splashed some black and cyan over it and let it heat overnight. It's so much better now. This is a terrible photo but it's a deep murky green and much less eye-searing.

Then I really got going. I found all sorts of odd bits of things to ply to free up bobbins (almost entirely from spinning classes). Then I over-dyed those to make them less of a patchwork.

But so long as the dyepot was going why not throw in some more random lengths of roving I'd been given in various classes over the years. I think these are wool/silk and Corriedale.

And hey, what's this bag of cotton candy pink fluff? Who knows! But into the pot with you!

Once it dried I realized I had accidentally created the color of the year, Radiant Orchid.

Then last night I pulled out my drum carder and carded this pile up into batts! I haven't used that thing in years. But Clemes & Clemes had the booth opposite The Fiber Gallery at Madrona and I couldn't resist their batt lifter and storage set.

So this is all to say, I may not finish my Ravellenic Games project.