Oh, wow! I actually have enough people with questions that I can do a Q & A session!
Laura: I had been wondering what you’d do about dyeing once the sun heads south for the winter. Stove?
The variegated and multicolored ones will go in the oven instead of the solar oven. I use the oven-safe disposable leftover containers, but reuse them rather than disposing of them. It’s an inexpensive way to get a whole bunch of dyeing containers, so that I have enough to heat the yarn in, and then let the dyebath cool in the same container. They’re a great size for a skein of sock yarn. I have a big pot for dyeing solid colors on the stove, but I’d like to get a thrift-store crock pot so that I don’t have to tie up a burner, and can set it to “simmer” without worrying about it getting too hot.
Sarebear: Does embroidery floss work well for warps?
No, it isn’t abrasion-resistant enough for most weaving projects, though it does come in such a wide range of colors (ask me how I know this). But for this one, it should be fine because the warp is so
short, and there isn’t anything particularly hard on the warp planned. You can adjust the length to make it fit neatly into the length of the floss, if it’s in shorter put-ups. Just make sure to tie the ends together to make a continuous loop, as in the warping article.
Emily asked about the black tomatoes (I answered in the comments, but I never remember to go back and look when I ask questions, so I’m going to repeat myself here).
Relax, Emily, they are supposed to look like that! These are black cherry tomatoes, and not moldy (well, except when I miss one under the mass of foliage). It’s not exactly the ag labs either, since they are an heirloom variety.
Mine look like this, and there are plenty of other black tomato varieties.
See? Not really black, and very appetizing-looking.
And finally, not a question, but hi Genevieve!
Thanks for the questions, folks!
Okay, the roving isn’t so bad. This pile has four separate colorways in it – this isn’t all one dyejob! Apparently it looks awful when wet regardless of how it looks when finished. Whew!
Spindle whorls. The one on the left is 35-40 g (haven’t weighed it yet), and is of damascus steel. The other one is fancy plastic, and is 10 g. Both spin nicely, though with different results. Both will be available for sale on October 1, along with the pile o’roving above, and all the multicolored sock yarn. (And yes, they’ll come with spindles!)
The fall things start to take over the garden. I think these are sedums.
We had a giant thunderstorm in the middle of the night. The dog cowered in the bathroom, while I listened to the wind and thunder. Very nice, but not enough rain to get us out of this drought. More in the next couple days, I hope.
on Sep 27th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Well, after a week of searching my place for my THREE compartmented floss boxes full of floss, I couldn’t find them. Which it sounds like is just as well, lol!
I have two colors of size 10 crochet cotton or whatnot. One a nice denim blue, the other has metallic silver in it. Should be a nice combination!
Off at warp speed to go use a cropper hopper cart (w/file box lifted out) as my loom, lol! It even has wheels, and a gridded shelf below to put my supplies on, hee hee!
on Sep 27th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Thanks for the answers!
Comments of my own:
1) ooh, lovely spindle whorls…
2) but wouldn’t it be cool if you COULD do all those colors in one dyebath?! It makes me think of the different mordants/same dye thing, though I don’t believe the results would be quite as, er, drastic.
3) there’s a particularly neat sedum called, I believe, “Autumn Joy”–I think it is a more bronze-y color. You should probably get some. :) Or maybe that’s what you have, and the color comes with cold weather. (Like my purple opuntia.)