skein-o-meter, part II

As of today, the count is 499 skeins.

We'll just call it the Indie(dyer's) 500.

luminary panel colors

This is a story with an end, a middle, and a beginning.

The Sock Summit will end on August 9th, 2009, with a Luminary Panel on the occasion of Elizabeth Zimmermann's 99th birthday. The Luminary Panel consists of an extraordinary line-up of women:

Cat Bordhi;

Nancy Bush;

Priscilla Gibson-Roberts;

Judith MacKenzie-McCuin;

Lucy Neatby;

Deborah Robson;

Meg Swansen;

Barbara Walker;

Anna Zilboorg.

The event will be moderated by Tina Newton of Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot.

I am in the middle of dyeing a series of Luminary Panel Colors, one for each of the panel members and the moderators. My twelfth 'colorway' is an undyed natural sportweight yarn, because I think that EZ would have liked that one best.

The series is a limited edition of colors which will be launched at the sock summit, and depending on how well they sell, I will have them for sale on the website (which is still under construction at this time) afterwards.

To get to the beginning of this tale, the part which inspired the color story, I have to tell you that there is an opening night dinner with a raffle which serves as a fundraiser for Doctors without Borders. I am going to donate a basket of yarn containing the 12 colors of yarn.

I will also donate a portion of the sales of the luminary color series to the same charity.

There are roughly six weeks left until the summit. Starting next week, I will showcase two colorways a week until it's time to go to Portland.

Of course now I need you all to cross your needles for me so I can pull this off!

PS: yes, there is Dye for Glory, too. I'm already getting messages that I should enter. I think I will. Now if I could send my family away on an extended vacation, and I could stop needing to eat and sleep, I'd be all set.

skein-o-meter

Crossing the 300 skein mark today.

Dear Husband was able to safely extract the skein from the fan last night. The yarn was fine, one of the (rubber) blades had a cut in it. That's some strong yarn!

this is where the s**** hits the fan

I want you all to tell me a really funny story about how you had a really funny thing happen to you one time.

make hay

...while the sun shines.

What if the skies are gray?

And the rain falls?

You take some yarn and dye it in sunny, warm colors.

This is trying to dry indoors, with fans just blowing the damp air around. And me trying to take a picture in low light.

Tomorrow morning, my friend Laura who is a photographer by trade and training and art, will come take pictures of my skeins. I'm saved!

meet my new buddy

In my effort to get ready for the Sock Summit, I was taking advantage of the beautiful weather today and did figure 8 ties around some skeins. I will be bringing this particular wool in the undyed stage, but wanted it nice and pre-washed.

Usually I sort of wring the skeins out by hand, hang them on the drying rack, and hope for the best and a really nice sunny afternoon. Still, it would take days sometimes for the yarn to dry, or require a fan. It was starting to drive me a little nuts in the face of about 1000 hanks I still have to do.

Then my friend Kay had the absolute best idea the other day and told me about this little fellow.

Hehe can you guess?

A spin dryer. Believe it or not, when I was a little kid we still had one of those in the laundry room in the basement, and I was "allowed" to transfer the laundry from the washer (which did not spin) over to the "spinner". You have to load it just right so as to have a balanced load, close the lid, and turn it on. All it does is spin with its amazing centrifugal force.

I can put about 20 4 oz skeins in it, spin them out for about 3 minutes, and have damp hanks.

See them on the rack? Look Ma, no drips! I LOVE my new gadget.
Oh and in case you're wondering why on earth I don't use my washer: we have a high efficiency front loader, and I can't spin my yarn out in it.

This rack full took exactly one of my daughter's soccer games to dry.

this is where the sheep posts.

Two blogs?
For now, yes. We'll see what your response is, and how I can keep up.

(front porch - want to help me unpack and see what happens?)

I realized that I need to have a blog just about the knitting, the spinning, the dyeing, and the designing. Just like I'm always carving out space and time from my family to pursue my fiber interests, I need this to be concentrated time and space where nothing else happens: just fiber.

I also do realize that fiber (synonym for wool/yarn/spinning/dyeing yarn/designing with yarn/writing about yarn and knitting and designing) and life are intricately connected. But fiber is not only a hobby for me, it's my job, my passion, my reason to get up in the morning. :) I am hereby dedicating space and time for that for all to see. The other blog will feature knitting, too, but will always be featuring more of the rest of my life. Kids, garden, photography, etc. Except when I finally get my first tattoo, I'll probably write about it in both spaces! (tee hee)

At any rate, thanks for coming here and taking a look. This space is still a work in progress, much like what you see in the above picture, and just like me and my knitting.