I have so much to share - from a really busy, yet lovely few days - that I am going to have to break it up a bit into several posts. Since I'm feeling a little remiss about the lack of hooking posts lately, I'm starting off with the snaps of the weekend's worth of dyeing.
My mum came down on Friday to be my Dyeing Dog (filling and heating the kettle, moving wool from pots to cooling lids, to rinsing and wringing), and she was an awesome help. While dyeing with two people in my little kitchen isn't quite twice as fast as going solo, it's definitely a lot more fun and less stressful. By the time she headed home with 'three bins full', we had dyed about 80 skeins of slub! Since I don't have a washer at my place, she took it all home with her to spin out and then hang to dry up on their deck. I kept dyeing and managed to rack up another 15 or so skeins, spinning each one out in my trusty salad spinner....and then set about cleaning up the mess.
(Note: the skeins were all pulled backwards for the photo, but they spent most of there time on the outside of the railing)
Placing all of the skeins onto these long weaving sticks was a great, evolutionary step (thanks Mum!). Not only did it reduce the number of times we had to play "go down and find the skein" in the yard, on the driveway or down in the field...but it also made bring them in and out at night (they weren't quite dry) a lot easier, and there was little need for rotating or shifting the skeins around to dry. Wonderful!
By the time I arrived at lunchtime on Saturday, the skeins were mostly dry, but we left them out for a few more hours anyway. Just to admire, and give them a little more bouncy breeze.
I started dividing them up into braids in the late afternoon.....and the process continued (with a few interruptions) for almost a full 24 hours, finishing yesterday afternoon. And then it was time to play....
First I hauled a box out onto the deck and dumped it out (above), and then I sat and quickly arranged the skeins in colour order. Since I was a young child, I've always liked to arrange things in order (markers, crayons, pencils, etc. - nothing was safe!)
Not a bad haul for a couple of days work. I have about 45-50 skeins still to dye up....but that shouldn't take too long - especially if I can recruit some help again.... :-D
P.S. If you're counting I think there are only 92 braids in the photos. 3 skeins were rejects that need another turn in the dye bath....and 1 is AWOL.
