I finished the Nouveau Poncho last night, even the beaded fringe. I haven’t managed to get a photo of it yet. This is something for which I’m going to need the help of Mr. Man to photograph. Also, I’m cranky because its rainy and the yarn I dyed yesterday isn’t drying properly. So next week I’ll have pics.

The good news is I have those backup fo photos. So here’s the little neck tube I made using one of my first kool aid dyed yarns.

Again, this was some thick and thin handspun from the notorious estate sale that I dyed with grape, blueberry, and lime kool aid.

There wasn’t a whole lot of this yarn. About 75 yards. So I was fairly limited in what I could make. I ended up using a neck tube pattern from the Lion Brand Landscapes label. Very simple pattern, alternating four or five rows of garter stitch and the same number of stockinette stitch.

I still didn’t have enough to feel comfortable seaming it up so I ended up sewing three buttons on one end. The stitches are so big I didn’t bother with buttonholes. I think it’s pretty neat. And not scratchy at all.

It was sort of a silly little project but I like it anyway.

In dyeing news I’ve been experimenting with dyeing blends of yarn. I did one a few weeks ago with kool aid that came out with an interesting stripe effect but I don’t like the final colors so I’m going to be doing it again.

Here’s some cotton/linen/acrylic that I bought for a dollar or something at a local yarn store with a HUGE cheap stash of old yarn from the 80s. I mostly bought a bunch of white stuff to play with dyeing experiments. These were dunked in leftover blue dye that I diluted a bit. There’s a slight difference in color because one was more diluted than the other and one was originally cream and the other white. Hard to get the striping effect in the photos.

Also, I didn’t like the fluorescent-ness of the yellow in last week’s kitchen cotton dye experiment so I added some green to tone it down a bit.

The drying rack is a leftover plastic-coated closet shelf from when I made the hedgehog cages. Also perfect using as a rack to keep the yarn from getting caught where the dye is mixing together and turning a gross brown.

I’m debating with myself over whether or not I want to invest twenty dollars in a beginning spinning kit. DAMMIT I’m fighting as hard as I can folks but you MUST stop making such beautiful yarn spun from painted roving. I will have no choice but to experiment with this.