It's official I'm a pillock - that's a nice way of saying that I'm daft, silly, stupid whatever. I think you might just agree with me when you read my latest offering. I'll try not to go on too long but bear with me won't you? It's quite funny in the end.
I was invited to a natural dyeing day ages ago. I thought it was on July 19th but when I called the friend of a friend who is running it, I realised it was on 16th. Better get my act togther I thought. So I spent most of yesterday afternoon looking at this book and sourcing what I was going to dye etc. I had some madder in the cupborad and this lady was going to do indigo which I just love. I decided to dye some fleece, which would give me the impetus to learn to spin (I already have a second hand spinning wheel that I picked up for £30 last year). After a bit of googling I discovered that Blue Faced Leicester was a good one to knit and I managed to find (locally) a BFL cross with something. Part one done - happy woman.
Next thing, I know I won't get around to spinning for a while and I don't want to waste this dyeing opportunity so I decide to find some undyed knitting wool whcih I could dye on the day. First, I need a pattern to knit. Something in me loves the research element of all this obviously because I go onto knitty.com to see if there is anything I fancy. There isn't this time but I remember that in my favorites I have some patterns saved from old. So I come across Knitting Pure and Simple and I discover a men's tank-top and a child's one. Are you still with me - or have you nodded off?
As I don't have the pattern in front of me I call the people at this site and ask them to look at the patterns and tell me how much wool I need. They probably think I'm mad but the lady obliges and I order the patterns online.
Next stop I need the wool remember. I google and I find Texere yarns in the UK (yippee) and I telephone and the nice lady says I should go for their pure new wool. So I look on their website and see that they sell Aran, DK, Chunky and Super Chunky. Another phone call - what is Chunky but she doesn't know!! So I compare their weight of wool and meterage (is there such a word?) with lambs pride length and yardage and I discover that Texere's Chunky is like Lambs Pride Bulky. Of I forgot to mention how I had to use these conversion tables for yards and metres because ofcourse we are metric and the patterns I'm buying aren't. I think by this time I had about 6 pages open on Internet Explorer.
Now I decide how much wool I need and I gets out my notebook and scribbles down all my options. For Tom's tank-top I need 2 cones of Aran which I will dye indigo. For Rohan's hoodie (like this one he has grown out of) I need 2 cones of Aran which I will dye with madder - better check with him first. For Raj's tank-top 1 cone of Aran in madder. Might also get another cone of Aran to make another polo neck jumper like the one Amber made for Raj at Christmas. Finally, I'm debating whether to get 2 cones of chunky for a pullover in Kid's Knitting. Here's a pic of some wool that I dyed with indigo a few years ago. Isn't the colour divine?
This took me all afternoon. Luckily it was only me and the boys at home and they were happy with a snacky supper of bacon, eggy bread (or French toast) and the chocolate muffins from yesterday. Good job as there wasn't time to make anything else. By now I was computered out, extremely tired cos I slept so badly the night beofre and I could hardly keep my eyes open. Still I was a happy woman - all that dyeing and knitting and spinning to look forward to.
That is until I glanced up at this later in the evening and discovered that I WILL NOT BE HERE ON 16TH JULY.
I could have wept. I think I was so tired that I just sat like a zombie not taking it in. I did manage to laugh about it on skype with pairiemouse later on though. I hope you had a laugh though as you discovered how I really like to 'get into' things, how I still make a calendar like I used to when I was a child, how I should have had an afternoon doze etc etc. Still I've managed to share lots of links with you haven't I?
Incase you think I'm taking it very well I'm not. I'm really pissed off. What a thing to miss - there will be about ten women there all with different dyes and the woman running it is a bit of an expert. In the back of my mind while I was writing this was maybe we could come home early from camping but even if we do I'm not going to have time to mordant my wool before we go. Anyway, we're only going away for 3 nights as it is - how can I cut that short. Looks pretty doomed to me..........
* Pairiemouse sent me a lovely e-mail after reading this. She said "....... let the dyeing go and have a fantastic few days camping with your lovely family. Dye when you come home then post beautiful photos of the wool drying on your line in your garden......"
She's right. I've let it go....poof ...it's gone.
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