Newest Addition

So I put a hint on my Facebook feed last week about what I was currently working on.  It's a doily, but very special to me, as it incorporates Irish crochet motifs (something I've been dying to do successfully) and looks quite pretty.

The flat center will easily accommodate a 6" pillar candle and glass tray.  The whole thing is roughly 10" across from leaf tip to leaf tip.

I plan on doing another one in this same color scheme, but with different materials (still cotton, but from a different source which has softer thread) and making pointed petals instead of rounded, ruffled petals, looking more like a poinsettia.  I think it would be ideal for a Winter solstice celebration, whichever kind you choose to observe.

Apparently I'm impulsive...

Probably one hour after I posted yesterday that I was afraid to dye my merino/tussah roving, I dyed it up. In a rose-themed colorway. I know, right? If I had a good eyeroll emoticon, consider it inserted right here.



For all my waffling, I think it turned out pretty awesome.

The "Purple Heart" roving is up in the shop, back by popular demand. Okay, one person... but she's pretty persuasive. :D



I *may* be up to continuing my video blogging later today. My plague symptoms have mostly subsided, now I just have to deal with what feels like some nasty heartburn. It woke me at 4am, hence the early-tude of all my posting today. You know that old USArmy commercial where they say they get more done before 9am than most people do all day? Yeah. So true. But civilians can pull it off too if they have a reason to get up at oh-dark-thirty.

On the horizon

Two colors of roving drying in the drying room today. A new, experimental "one should not dye stuff when they're on the verge of getting sick" colorway, and an old favorite, "Purple Heart". It took forever for my roving supplier to send me out my last order, apparently because they couldn't come up with a full 8oz. of the merino/silk blend I purchased as a treat/experiment for a week.

Naturally I am now afraid to dye it. :/

I am tempted to dye it in "Beth's Roses" so I can spin up some laceweight for the Mystic Roses KAL I joined. The still-slightly ill and procrastinating part of me wonders if I can dye it, spin it (and spin enough of it), and have the yarn *ready* for the start of the knitalong. I'm thinking no.

I do have four undyed hanks of the natural version of Knitpick's Palette yarn. That has more yardage (undyed) than the author used for her shawl, but less than the recommended amount. I *could* also knit it up undyed, and then try the hand-painted post-knit dyeing technique I've seen floating around Ravelry lately. I'd get to set up my large vertical silk-painting steamer. I'd also have to buy dye thickener to keep the colors in place. Ah, decisions decisions.

*eyeroll* As though I've ever finished a shawl I've started yet. *snort*