I measured out some of the natural color 3 ply yarn I bought at the
Mannings. I am planning on using this in the next rug. Well, my original plan was to make it black. Black and white, or technically natural. And as you can see...
...it is gray. A sort of greenish gray. This is because I am a dummkopf. I had a little jar of Procion out and was reading the directions from that. But instead of using the Procion powder, which would make complete sense, I accidentally put the Dylon powder in the mix using the Procion directions. Yeah, we're talking Mensa material here. However, I really sort of liked the funky greeny gray and have decided to call this one of Marcel Duchamp's "happy accidents".
I love dyeing and now that the cooler weather, (i.e. the air is air once again instead of humidified liquid air), I can start dyeing in the garage. The problem is I must get my DH to get his crap out of the garage!!! There is a busted up awning, courtesy of Hurricane Wilma, that is still moldering in the garage. It's like he's attached in some strange way to this thing. And that's just the tip of the junk iceberg.
In this picture it looks more bluey/gray. Anyway this color has inspired a totally different design in my head. I'm thinking more of a quarter of the rug in gray 2/2 twill, morphing into a 12 pick color sequence and then into white. I'm loving the idea already and can't wait to get started. Unfortunately, I have to thread the heddles first. Poo.
Also, wanted to share this little book discovery. Got a copy of
The Handweaver's Pattern Directory from the library. What a cool little book! It has all the basic 4 shaft weaving patterns with drafts and color suggestions. It is so clear and concise.
You probably can't see this very well, but this is my pattern so far. Not crazy about it. Not at all. Believe it or not, it's supposed to be a straight 2/2 twill, 12 pick color sequence. It looks like pancakes!
So I'm thinking of switching to this Krokbragd pattern from the book I just ordered, The Handweaver's Pattern Directory. Even though I've never done Krokbragd. How hard can it be? HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Well, we'll see. I'll do a little test run. I am sure that I want to add this yarn color...
My friend and I had a little dye fest up at her place. She made a big batch of this lusious Rit dye that we made by combining Wine and Tangerine. I dyed this yarn, originally natural color, and she dyed some baskets. They came out real pretty. I didn't even know you could dye baskets! Check out the Rit website. They give you formulas for different color combinations.
On the animal front....I don't know if I mentioned this, but I found this little turtle on the side of the road, after I watched a car hit him and send him flying. He's the little guy at the bottom of the pool. He is a red ear slider and not indigenous to Florida. So I brought him home and put him in the pond with big turtle. That was about a week ago. Now, he's not in the pond anymore. I hope Sammy didn't tell him to "get in ma belly!"
And here's a parting shot of Littleman's left buttock hanging off the chair. 
