Unfortunately I won't be going up to Eugene this weekend for Black Sheep. Early Monday I have to be in Mendocino with my firm to do an on location charrette for a master plan for a resort which is a new project of ours. Boo hoo. By hook or by crook I will be there next year! Mark my words!
But in the theme of black sheep last weekend I washed up part of a fleece that a guild mate had given me. It is from Conolly Ranch in Napa and we have no idea what breed of sheep its from. I spread it out on our outdoor metal table so that I could pull it apart lock by lock and stuff it neatly in mesh sweater bags. This attracted quite a bit of attention from the animals needless to say. The picture above is Fili totally zonked out on the fleece and if you look carefully you can see Cici's back in the upper left hand corner. I still have quite a bit more fleece to wash but it has been in the hundreds here and we don't have ac.
Last weekend I also dyed a bunch of random weight skeins of Sincere Sheep yarn and rovings so that we can use them for sampling. The colors are all a little random because I was using up some dyes that I had mixed up during my last dyeing spree and hadn't used nor had I labeled. I got some wonderful reds this time. My latest batch of madder seems to be a bit more coppery-red rather than orange and yields great reds when mixed with cochineal. The big ball of indigo dyed pencil roving was a straggler that managed not to get collected and washed with the rest of the roving a month or so ago. Who knows where it has been hiding all these weeks but it's finally washed.
Here is the finished beaded cuff that I showed earlier. I think they are quite fetching and have the added bonus of being fun to make. I think I mentioned how addicting they are to knit. I am very close to being done with the knitting on the striped spiral baby blanket. Once done I can knit the mate to this beaded cuff. Just in time for summer!
In other unfinished knits news: While I was in Colorado I knit another repeat on the center motif of the sample stole that I haven't touched in almost a year! I still have a bit more to knit on the fronts of the E. Lavold 'Liv' sweater. I might try and work on that next since it is so close to completion even though it is out of season. Also while in Colorado I cast on for a top down v-neck tank in E. Lavold's Hempathy in Black. I only did the math on it and knit the set-up rows and then put it down knowing that I really needed to be working on the spiral blanket. So that will be up next in heavy rotation with Liv and the second beaded cuff.
Have a great weekend and stay cool!
Great colors!
BS in Eugene totally snuck up on me this year. After I missed it last year I SWORE I was going to go...but forgot to save up for it. Oops. Next year. Hey, we can carpool. ;)
I thought of you--www.mendenhallwoolranch.com had fleeces entered in our local fair and I have never seen a cleaner lovelier bunch of fleeces, and apparently they're semi-local to you. Maybe somebody to check out for SS.
Posted by: spaazlicious | June 23, 2006 at 08:51 PM
Fili does look blissed out! What's in that fleece?
I can't imagine dealing with those temps and no AC. There would be no blanket knitting for me :-) Hopefully you'll get relief soon.
Posted by: Charleen | June 25, 2006 at 04:45 AM
The fleece is very inviting. I really like your drying rack and the puppy embellishment.
Also like your recent dyeing and beaded cuffs. Lots of great things to admire here.
Posted by: Leigh | June 25, 2006 at 08:03 AM
Ah, it's 103º here and I f--d up the woolranch link! It's just www.woolranch.com. Oh g-d, my brain is melting...(it doesn't help I have a mordanting pot and a dyepot going) . In a way it's great dyeing weather though as stuff is drying nearly in an instant. But I'm very damp.
Posted by: spaazlicious | June 25, 2006 at 02:25 PM
He is partial to fleece, isn't he? I wonder what is in there that makes him go ga-ga about it? Beautiful things as usual!
Posted by: Jenni | June 27, 2006 at 06:45 PM