12-Step Hand Carded Color Wheel for Spinners and/or Dyers; Color Gradation; More Children's Knitwear; and Mrs. Schneider's Shawl

On a Night Like This

On a night like this
So glad you came around
Hold on to me so tight
And heat up some coffee grounds
We got much to talk about
And much to reminisce
It sure is right
On a night like this

On a night like this
I can't get any sleep
The air is so cold outside
And the snow's so deep
Build a fire, throw on logs
And listen to it hiss
And let it burn, burn, burn, burn
On a night like this
On a Night Like This ~ Bob Dylan

Aah, nothing like some Dylan quoting to put me in a blogging mood. Anyone who's been reading this blog since it's inception knows Dylan's words pop up occasionally on my posts. Dylan seems to have words for every occasion of my life. If Bob's not your cuppa tea, by all means skip to what interests you. If you're a Dylan admirer and his words make you ecstatic or invariably make you ponder life...know you can occasionally find lyrics here that I can't seem to get out of my head. If you know nothing of Dylan or wonder what the spider is so gaga about, get any of Bob's CD's and inhale deeply...what you take in could be life-changing (geez, I sound like a Dylan-preacher!).

Above you'll find two pics of my Babes; my personal musician-husband. Chris was recently gigging in Colorado and is presently touring in the Los Angeles area, then on to Tennessee. It did not escape my eagle eyes that there was little to NO snow present when and where Chris was in Colorado, unlike the mounds surrounding our home in VT as I tap this out. I do believe the above pics were taken in Boulder. Something tells me some readers may know about the beautiful spot, falls included, that Chris is standing by? If so, do tell us about it.

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A week ago, Lunar Lady Leslie Librarian came to my home, where I have an inside garage dye studio, to immersion dye her handspun Shetland wool and llama for the last spinning project for the BOOK...a pair of EZ's jogger's mitts. Next time maybe I'll share pics of that fun adventure. But for now, below are some pics of a simultaneous project we worked on in the spider's kitchen.

I have always wanted to make yeast bread but had no one 'til now to show me how it's done. Prior to our dyeing day, Leslie e-mailed and wrote to ask if we should bake bread on that day as well. I wrote back and said we had better tend to the dyeing task at hand...no room for mess-ups now. Leslie, uncharacteristically, did not respond to my e-mail. Instead she showed up with all ingredients for bread-making in tow and proclaimed something like, "I'm pulling a Jenna. We're baking bread anyways." And so we did.

The only foray into bread baking, and solo at that, I had ever made occurred more than 20 years previously. The end result mimicked a brick. I'm not to blame. No one told me not to knead for hours. Not so this time. This time I had expert advice.

Leslie was not surprised that I was reminded of the pleasure of a "live" indigo urine vat as I admired the yeast coming to life in the warm water bath.

My upper body is going to have to get used to the workout provided by mixing bread batter. The consistency of the batter reminded me of what we have to slog through during mud season in southern Vermont.

This time I've got a ringer on board to show me how to knead.

How can I get across the sheer joy I felt when patting the risen bread? The act floods me with memories of patting either of my little boys' bottoms.

Look at these beauties!!!!

Is there anything that speaks pure bliss like a warm loaf from the oven?

Do share your bread baking stories in the comment section. If you've a favorite recipe you'd like to include, I would LOVE to try it. After all, I'm a bread baker, don'tcha know?! Thank you, Leslie, for making that statement possible.

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The same day Leslie and I dyed and baked bread, the Lunar Ladies made a later-in-the-day appearance at the spider's home.

Only Maureen couldn't make the date, but above she is with us in spirit. That first book of the Green Mountain Spinnery never ceases to amaze me with it's beauty.

As is usual when the Lunar Ladies convene, we have to see what each other have been up to fiber-wise. Above is a scarf that Leslie finished and an EZ Baby Surprise Jacket that Elizabeth completed, sans buttons. Both were made from the same style of self-striping, commercially spun, yarn. Different results completely, eh?

E also brought her wheel and this beautiful garnetted (silk? Tencel? Do tell us more E, please.) and homegrown llama fiber above. If my memory is correct, did the talented Spincerely dye the nubbly fiber?

Above is a pic of E's handspun from this beautiful and exciting blend. Instant novelty yarn...like colorful crocuses emerging from the earth on a spring day!!

Jenna had her own project going at my house. Above are the components she used to create magic: pipe cleaners, colored paper, and beads. Scissors are helpful, too.

Some masterly cutting, folding, and curling produced the beautiful bouquet held by our charming E. Jenna's lucky niece was to be the recipient of this gorgeous, long-lasting flower arrangement.

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Alas, Kindred Spirits, where I read Tarot in Brattleboro for several months, closed its doors in January, unable to withstand our country's economic downturn. I shall miss my Mondays there (you never could tell what interesting person you'd meet at Kindred Spirits on any given day) and forever be grateful that I was granted my first break at being a professional Tarot reader within it's warm embrace. Thank you, Shirma.

But what's a Tarot reader to do when she's no place to read? Ack!! Enter Hundredth Monkey, a fabulous holistic health store in Wilmington, Vermont. Susan is the lovely proprietress, but a little, naughty, black cat definitely runs the show.

Shakti...in one of his unusual quieter moments.

Here's my snazzy Tarot set-up, complete with orange and yellow cloth, rimmed with prosperity-inducing goldfish, gifted to me none other than by our talented Jenna.

Here's my set-up after Shakti had the last say.

But oh how I enjoy being around that nix-nooxy, pisser of a cat. You should see how HIGH he can jump!!! Visit the store when you're in town to find out!

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And on to some more items knit for my children ages ago. Like last month's post, none of the baby and toddler-ware is knit from handspun, but that doesn't make it less treasured.

This little baby set was knit from Shetland jumper weight wool for Alexander, youngest of the spider. The sweater and longies come from none other than EZ's "Knitter's Almanac." The plain blue bonnet and bootees hail from EZ's newsletter and leaflet #22. The hat in shades of blue is part of a set entitled, "Spring Fair-Isle," from the book, "Kid's Knits ~ Classic Handknit Fashions For Young Children," by Lesley Anne Price.

I distinctly remember proudly putting the longies, for the first time, on Alexander only to have him adorn them immediately with one of his gross "blow-outs." I'll spare you the gory details but surely you knitters will have pity on me having had to clean up that mess even all these years after the incident.

To this day I love this sweater. Everything about it makes me smile. I particularly love the hand painted, porcelain heart buttons.

I seem to remember the hat was quite fun to knit despite occasionally having more than two colors per row to knit. I worked diligently on it the night prior to my scheduled C-section surgery in the hospital. There's a pic showing Alexander wearing the hat in the past post, Winterlude.

The above pic shows another creation hand knitted for Alexander. The yarn for both top and bottom was a flake cotton. The top is EZ's "Open-Collared Pullover," again from "Knitter's Almanac. The bottoms, fondly called "Pumpkin Pants" by our family, are an abbreviated version of EZ's longies.

A close-up of the polo-style shirt. The fishie buttons are hand painted porcelain.

This sweater that a toddler-sized Alex wore (you'd think I never made anything for David, oldest of the spider...but that's not so...just haven't featured anything much yet), was knitted from a back 'n forth pattern in an ancient copy of "Knitter's" magazine. A girlfriend and I both converted the sweater to circular and made it for our sons. My equally ancient brain can't begin to remember anything about the yarn details I'm afraid.


A close-up.
And finally, here's one of many wool diaper covers I knit back when the kids were little. If truth be told, I went to disposables sooner than later, rather than my originally preferred cloth, because we didn't have our own washer in the early years (and for that matter during much of our 29 years together) and it was a bloody drag going to the laundromat constantly for diaper duty. For me the diaper covers were more of a romantic notion than something that was practical for our family. In the end, plenty of stuffed bears wore various versions of them.

On to my recent spinning project...

I showed you the fiber and singles of this handspun in last month's post, A Spinner's, Knitter's and Dyer's Array of Shading Techniques; 3 Handknit Hats; and Spider's Present Projects. Here's the 2-plied yarn on a bobbin...

and in a washed and dried skein.

I had some leftover wool singles and plied some of it with leftover 100% Bamboo for this little skein. I slightly upped the amount of twist in the Bamboo and wool 2-ply from the twist I used for the 100% wool skein, so that the plying wouldn't be sleazy. Worked well me thinks.

My brain keeps designing and redesigning the hat and half-mitt set I want to make using this yarn and some other handspun yarn I had made and stashed previously. When the ideas in my noggin' settle into something tangible, I'll feature what results.

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When I lived in Toronto, now nearly 11 years ago, I took part in a spinning and dyeing educational program that had me doing all sorts of interesting exercises. I particularly enjoyed anything that had to do with dyeing. Below is a 12-step hand carded color wheel that was created by dyeing each individual color separately. Take a peek at a past post to see the two friends I did this exercise with: Dyeing Blitz.

If you've never plunged into such a dyeing project, I highly encourage you to consider sallying forth. MUCH gets learned and acquired along the way... What gets learned and acquired, you ask? Well, for one thing you'll see just how accurate a measurer of minute dye amounts you are. And you'll learn first-hand how to be gentle with your fibers to avoid unwanted felting. Plus, I guarantee your love and appreciation of color will be strengthened. In other words, those color-juices of yours will be revved big-time and you'll be dreaming of how to get MORE color into your life.

I chose to spin the colors for my "yarn" color wheel version, much to the chagrin of my instructor. To this day I'm glad I made such a stand because dyeing commercial yarn would have been meaningless to me since by then I already hadn't used commercial yarns for years.

I've never taught a workshop to reproduce the dyed version of the color wheel, but I do teach a 12-step color wheel workshop made possible through hand carding. Participants begin with just the three primaries: red, yellow, and blue. All the rest of the nine colors needed for their wheel are from blends. Three of the blends result when two primaries are mixed 50/50: blue with yellow (green); blue with red (violet); red with yellow (orange). Green, violet, and orange are called secondaries. The final six blends are made when 50% of a secondary is mixed with 50% of a primary: yellow with green (yellow-green); yellow with orange (yellow-orange); red with orange (red-orange); red with violet (red-violet); blue with violet (blue-violet); and blue with green (blue-green). Yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet and blue-green are all called tertiaries. To summarize what makes up a 12-step color wheel: 3 primaries; 3 secondaries; 6 tertiaries.

How your hand carded color wheel will look depends on what your primaries look like (their qualities) to begin with. To give an example, if the yellow you're using for a primary is more on the golden side (a yellow with a "warm undertone"), the green you get by mixing that yellow with blue will be quite different than if you used more of a lemon yellow (a yellow with a "cool undertone"). Why? Because a golden yellow has more orange in it than a lemon yellow. Orange is the complement of blue (they're opposite each other on the color wheel) and when two complimentary colors are mixed they dull down or literally grey out. Sooo, if you mix 50% of a golden yellow with 50% of a primary blue, you may get a greyed green due to that orangey addition in the yellow. If you mix more of a lemon yellow with primary blue, you'll get more of a "Kelly" green.

I don't know about you, but in order to insure I'm really getting, for instance, a 50/50 blend, I need to use a scale to weigh each component. I could measure in a "by gosh or by golly" fashion without the use of a scale, but it's so much more pleasant to know I'm absolutely weighing everything accurately for the best results possible. I personally like my digital Ohaus "jewelry compact scale," but even a cheapy diet scale may work just fine for you. Then again, it's perfectly possible that some folks are accurate "guessers" without the use of a scale.

Can you just imagine a knitted piece based on a 12-step color wheel? Saliva is forming in my mouth as I think of the delicious, juicy possibilities.

Pat was a participant in two workshops I had previously taught. Recently, Pat sent me the above pic, showing a color wheel she created at home, with the following info:
That weekend at the Gathering (spider adds: In November '08 I taught a carded color wheel workshop at the Northeast Handspinners Association "Gathering") I bought some natural dyed Cormo from Alice Field and that's what I used for my wheel and the yarn that's in the picture. The colors in the picture are nothing like what I got - mine were muted and very beautiful because of that wonderful Cormo roving was dyed with cochineal and madder, tansy and indigo. I just wish the colors showed better.

Thank you so much, Pat, for sharing your delicate color wheel with us!

The above pic shows a color gradation dyeing exercise also performed back in Toronto years ago.
In this case, the gradation was achieved by measuring milliliters of dye liquid from a stock solution using a syringe. Going from top to bottom on the card, you'll see the progression from no dye, to using less ml of the stock solution (less dye), to using more ml of the stock solution (more dye). As you can see, magenta was our color of choice for this exercise.

Here's the color gradation utilizing handspun yarn.

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And to finish this month's blog...
My dear friend, Jofran, who lives in Michigan, recently visited her mom, who lives in Ohio. Both mom and daughter are avid and wonderful knitters.

Here's what Jofran wrote to me when sending the following 3 pics:
This was a simple circular shawl. My mom bought the shetland directly from Schoolhouse Press in 1998. In 1998 my mom asked me to put a lace edging on it.

It took over ten years.... The edging is a traditional shetland lace edging from Heirloom Knitting. I added the beads for a little excitement.

This is my momma who taught me how to knit when I was 5. My mom has been knitting 72 years....

Lovely knitting, Mrs. Schneider and Jofran! The shawl looks soooo perfectly beautiful on BEAUTIFUL you!!!!

Let the four winds blow
Around this old cabin door
If I'm not too far off
I think we did this once before
There's more frost on the window glass
With each new tender kiss
But it sure feels right
On a night like this
On a Night Like This ~ Bob Dylan

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Ostara Blessings! 'til next time.