| Ack |
[May. 25th, 2009|04:39 pm] |
I am paralyzed by indecision.
I don't know what to spin, I don't know what to eat, I don't know which of my 6 in-progress books to read (fluff, biography, history, literature, neurology, and something I can't remember).
And it's making me anxious.
I've been washing fleece today, and I'd actually like to do more of that, but all my fleece washing stuff is also used for fleece drying, and there's no more space or equipment.
I've started dyeing, which is fun, but again, takes up the same drying space that's already in use for my just washed stuff. And I've got more in the pre-wash stages already.
I did my first dyeing at home experiments Saturday. I bought 11 colors of dye (one pink, 2 reds, apricot, yellow, chartreuse, green, turquoise, blue, purple, brown) and attempted a skein that would show them all. Of course, some blended in to each other, so I can't actually tell which is which. I'll have to attempt it again with smaller skeins and fewer colors. I also tossed in some "combing waste" (the fiber that doesn't hold up to the combing process, but can still be carded) and a couple of sheep eggs (note to self: dye before combing). (Er, sheep eggs are what Randy calls my bits of hand-combed top. They're whitish and wound in a ball and look vaguely eggish.)
Then I tried "overdyeing" - dyeing new colors over already dyed fiber. I had some turquoise stuff that was a little too ... what's the word... one-toned, so I added some splotches of blue and peacock. I prefer it this way. Eventually I'll post pictures. I added a skein of yarn and dyed it blue, peacock, and chartreuse (a stunning combination if done well - this was not done well, plus I missed some spots), and a small piece of grey alpaca (intended to be just blue, but got some turquoise as well).
All of this is done in a crock-pot that doesn't get used for food.
My intention with the gray alpaca and one of the gray fleeces is to make a sweater, which will be dyed blue over the natural gray, leading to a dark, heathered blue. I'm psyched about the idea. I hope it works out.
I tried spinning up some milk fiber - a hideous not quite christmasy blend of red, light green, and white, which I will overdye with blue to get (I hope) teal, blue, and purple. But it broke, and it's slippery, and it seems like a lot of effort.
I keep intending to use my food crockpot, but I only think about breakfast food in the morning and about dinner food in the evening - I never remember to start stuff 8-10 hours ahead of time.
Time has passed. I now have a plan. I am going to update some stuff on Ravelry, put away my laundry, clean some, maybe dye some roving (doesn't need the same kind of drying layout), have dinner, and go to a coffeeshop.
And I'm going to put out ingredients for breakfast near the crockpot (those extra slow cooking oats, I forget if they're Irish or Scottish).
And now there's less paralysis.
And maybe I'll take pictures of wool drying and some other stuff.
Ok, time to do stuff.
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