Amazement!

Amazing! My two friends Mary Ann and Sheri sent me this beautiful card with a large check for a loom or a fibery thing.

It's a man's Navajo shoulder blanket from the 1860s!
I've put the money aside so I can take the time to choose wisely. Thank you Mary Ann & Sheri!
Meanwhile, I've been using a lot of my free time to clean up and organize my work space and supplies. It's a big project and is cutting into time I could be making something.



I still have had room for a little bit of spinning and even less knitting.
Here's what's on my bobbin now:




Destined to be a 3 ply of a "heavy worsted" or Aran weight. It's Ashland Bay merino Rose Quartz.




I did finish up 300 yards of the llama as a three ply and am swatching it for a lace scarf though I don't have anything substantial yet that will give any clue to what it will eventually become.


And bad picture, yes but this is a sock for the Dulaan Project. (In case you don't know, it's a project to send warm clothes to Mongolia to help them in their very harsh winters. Hats, sweaters, mittens, scarves etc are collected and sent in one big shipment in July each year.) I've been having fun knitting little things here and there and using yarns I wouldn't normally knit with like this self patterning mystery yarn.












It is fun to pick up the odd ball here and there at the thrift store and often it's more than one ball. This is a recent mysterious addition. It seems to be cotton and it is wound in balls with 6 or 8 strands together. In the past, I've run into needlepoint yarn like Paternayan approximately like this but this seems different. I'm wondering if it would make winding warp easier.











I also began dyeing roving with the idea of perhaps selling it. The dyeing part isn't that difficult. I found the biggest challenge is presentation i.e. photographing it so it actually looks good and also trying to adjust the colors so that they are accurate. The color is the biggest problem for me.
This is suppose to be a fairly brilliant turquoise with a very deep teal bordering on forest green with an occasional bit of deep violet.










And this is suppose to be a turquoise with a deep blue that sometimes becomes deep violet. A little bit of a reddish purple here and there too.



I'm hoping to work out the presentation & color glitches. I'll just keep soldiering on.