Remember that tub Louet asked me to “destroy”?

Well. I did my best. Ok. Maybe not absolute best. I didn’t take a blow torch to it….If there had been one more handy I can’t say that I wouldn’t have tried it and well, the matches were handy enough. The tub will NOT catch fire, but it will melt. Also, if you leave it on a hot stove burner, I assume it will melt to the burner. But these are common sense things you already knew that you shouldn’t be doing. Right? Please, tell me you already knew that and didn’t need to hear from me that you don’t put rubber and plastic on hot burners.

I’m going to use the small tubs for dyeing. Maybe the big tubs too but the small tubs make a perfect sized tub for this stuff. First the proteins tuff didn’t dye it but what about the fiber reactive dyes? That stuff dyes everything!

it doesn’t dye this tub:

I also did a small batch of Osage Orange natural dyeing and it survived that. I just forgot to have photographic evidence of the dye in there. As you can see the tub is still as purple when I got it. I still hope someday to get dye to take to it so I’m going to do more different natural dyes and see if I can defeat it some day. It’s a challenge now and I cannot be beat by a little purple tub. It’s purple! I’m stronger than purple!

Yeah, I think I’m finished with this sweater. Finished for good.

I wanted a black sweater because I love black and it’s a great neutral. A couple of years ago I made this:

Looks good on the dress form doesn’t it. If only it looked that good on me. That’s my smaller dress form from back in the day. Back in the day before I had babes. It’s so not a good representation of how it looks on me. It was a horrible fit. Too big in places and the ties cut in the wrong spots. FROG.

I didn’t frog it all the way. Just enough to start working it back down into a different sweater that doesn’t wrap. Which I decided would be best as a shrug/bolero creature.

I don’t know what I was looking at, I assure you, I wasn’t trying to look regal or anything. Maybe I was tring to distract you from the PJ’s. It was Sunday moring and I was still in my yoga pants and fluffy sheep slippers…..ok, full disclosure, I never got out of my PJ’s yesterday.

I’m thinking that I need to rip this as well. It’s too big across the back. I looked back (when I looked up the photos) and I had originally made it in 2006 when I was at my largest size in the past 10 years or so. Now that I think about it, other than pregnancy size, that was the largest, I’ve ever been. I got smaller and I’m shrinking more now so I’m thinking that I need to just ball up the yarn, all of it, and put it on the back burner. Or just make a small size sweater now and make sure I lose the last 20 to make it work…..

It sure does leave a pretty landscape for a sunrise:

Since that’s probably a little cold for some of you….how about some Beach Day:

I’m working on weaving a scarf from a previous club offering of yarn and fiber. I’ve got one more scarf planned that uses fiber and yarn together. Then, I’ll be putting together a few kits that show the 3 different options (remember the first scarf?). I really like working with the fiber and yarn this way. It’s my new favorite for scarves.

That was the view from the room. I can’t remember how much I told anyone about my trip. There are so many sites that I post to that I can’t remember which one has all the information and which one might be just redundant. I left Maine at 6 am Saturday and got to SUNNY Long Beach at noon. It was lovely. I could walk around outside without shivering. I did have work to do.

I was helping out SWA - the Spinning and Weaving Association and filming a short spot on Knitting Daily TV. The TV show, I talk about novelty yarns, specifically the feather yarn such as what was used in these mittens which will be a Knitting Daily free pattern when the show airs:

I dropped by the booths I needed to and then went to bug Dave at Louet. I asked to new stuff and he points out the new dyed Karoke. I touched it and my immediate thought was that it was dry and didn’t quite feel like the white luxurious stuff. He gave me a bit and I trotted away to sit at the SWA booth and play with my little bit of Karaoke.

So there I was just playing and spinning away….all of a sudden I was out of fiber and felt a little sad. It was a good spin. I set up a plying bracelet and I plied it. Not bad at all. I like it. I was sent away with a little bit of each color.

I’m working today on spinning up my samples so you can see them. This is actually quite nice stuff. I’ll post when I get them all done. I’ll have it in the shop as soon as it arrives.

The other thing I received was a tub. I was instructed to ruin it. Or well…not really. But that’s what I heard. “Amy, you should take this home and try your hardest to make it all discolored and icky because we haven’t been able to do it yet”. I’ve been doing a few dye loads in it and so far it’s still just purple. We’re going to step it up and see if the fiber reactive stuff will stick. I’ll let you know. So far, I really like this tub and no you can’t have it. I do have some coming to the shop soon.

Oh, speaking of coming to the shop. I placed a bunch of orders. Louet, Buffalo Gold, Della Q, Lantern Moon baskets….I can’t wait for it all to start coming in.

Finally the last goodie I got was a yarn from Pico Accuardi Dyeworks. Lovely stuff and I can’t wait to start working on it. I’m thinking cowl.

Here it is available for immediate download as promised

If you want the yarn used The Knitting Experience is the only one selling it. If you want a custom, please order it through them. They’re a really sweet shop and very accommodating.