The end of summer

My firm was gracious enough to close early the Friday before Labor Day weekend. I used the few extra hours to go to Target and buy another storage bin for my growing fiber stash. Of course, I didn't reorganize the stash right away. I have a character flaw that will not allow me to make use of things like storage bins right away; I must contemplate storage for awhile, secure in the knowledge that the bins are waiting for me.

Saturday I was busy. I finished my Monkey Socks. I really like the way they turned out. I would knit this pattern again if there weren't so many other sock patterns I want to knit. I really just used the pattern for the lace pattern and followed my standard sock recipe. So the Monkeys helped make a small dent in the yarn stash. Yeah!

I spun up about 4 oz. of the wine colored merino sliver, which means I have a little less than a pound left to spin. I'm really enjoying spinning this. I just have to figure out what sweater pattern I want to make when I'm done.

I painted some merino tencel sliver to solar dye. At the right is my solar dyeing set up. A black plastic tub from Ace Hardware, a piece of plexiglass and c-clamps. I left this out until late Monday afternoon.

Sunday was a mellow day. I drove down the coast with a friend. We stopped for a few hours at a beach about a mile below Pigeon Point Lighthouse. It was windy but the sun felt really good. Plus, it was fabulously clear. On the way home, we stopped at Duarte's Tavern for pie and coffee. I love the pie there; the crust is the best.

On Monday, I got out the dye pot to overdye some sock yarn I was no longer happy with. The orange was originally a hot pour of burnt orange leaving sizable spots of white. So I overdyed it with aztec gold and got this almost solid orange. The brown was my very first experiment of dyeing with KoolAid--originally, I dyed it with orange KoolAid. It was a bit too candied colored for my tastes. So I overdyed with brown. Now it is a lovely brown with hints of reddish brown. I'm really happy with how these turned out.

I also started knitting a Chevron Scarf using some Twisted Sisters handpainted Daktari I bought at the Knit Cafe two summers ago. I've been waiting for the right project to come along for this yarn, which is slubbed cotton. I love how it is working up. I don't have a photo yet; I'll post one soon.

This is how the solar dyed handpaint turned out. I'm calling this Spring. The colors are so much softer than if I had steam set the dye. The green broke a little bit, but I'm fine with it. This is going to become sock yarn. But first, I am going to finish spinning the wine-colored merino.