Still Here!!

Wow! A whole week passed again?? I'm in a bit of a daze over the speed with which my days have been disappearing lately. A lot of that time has been spent looking at this:

And watching for this:

The Kiddo's swim season is in full tilt, and it's keeping us busy 4-5 nights a week. He has practice Monday through Thursday 4:30 to 5:30, so we have to leave home by 4 to get him there and suited up before practice, and usually don't get home before 6:15 or so. The it's homework, supper, whatever family time we can snag, and bedtime. While still squeezing in Scouts, mother being gone again, and normal life (cleaning, cooking, eating, sleeping, etc.) It's a lot.

And then there's a fiber. I've been dyeing again, and plan to continue to dye every Saturday for some time to come. The potential venture, about which I am not saying much right now, is incubating, and requires a lot of fiber for food. I've been carding, too.

Remember this from last week's dyeing session?
It looks like this now.


Nine 1.8oz batts, all blended to match, while still retaining individuality and character. They'd make an awesome sweater! I hope they do!
Since I can't bring myself to make self-limiting fibers, mostly because I dislike having only an ounce or two of a fiber and not knowing what to do with it, I tend to think big. I don't mind suffering through the monotony of making a ton of the same thing, partly because I know that the nine (or whatever) that I'm making are IT. I'll never repeat them exactly the same. I won't be making "standard" colorways, but will be producing "batches" that are unique, but in quantity enough to make a complete project. I think in terms of sweater-amounts, regardless of final use.

So the rest of last week's dyeing has been weighed and packaged for short-term storage, though not photographed in beauty sessions. The batts are in the bottom of the box, bagged with air to avoid compression (as if more fluff on top of fluff would compress it...) and to keep the kitties out. I might adore my kitties, but potential customers might not! And the results of this week's dyeing? Three batches of color. I'm getting better with the food-safe dyes, and have started pulling saturated color out of them, using a few tricks.

Some of these are going to be left as top, others will be carded into batts. The shiny strip you can see in some of the top is mohair, not quite blended into the fiber. I love it. It's so shiny and glossy, and takes the dye differently than the wool.

I started knitting a sweater on my knitting machine today, too. Since Sundays are for playing, and not for working... I'll share more later!