Experiments went well last week, so I got the weekend to myself. This was good, both for my mental state and the state of my projects.

Sadly, it didn’t help the state of the mess that is my apartment very much.

Anyway, I did three sets of things this weekend:

Dyeing (Mostly roving, one yarn)
Seaming
Stitch Markers

The seaming will be split off into its own post about the memorial afghan. The rest I will talk about here.

First, stitch markers.

I made two more sets of the stone chip markers, in the short variety. Same stones as before
Lapis – Onyx – Moss Agate – Onyx – Garnet – Onyx

With those done, I put on my creative hat again. I thought maybe I should try some more “delicate” stitch markers. Delicate in the light and refined sense, not the fragile sense. I came up with this, and made a set of six…

Labradourite – Garnet (x4) on a gold pin

Then I decided to go the other direction entirely and make some beefier markers. I really like these, except that the hematite they’re made out of is magnetized. That means you can’t keep them really close to each other on a project. I want to get some more hematite that isn’t magnetized to redo these.

Then I got down and dyeing. Mmm, it’s been too long since I’ve had a day to mess around with the dyepot. I started with two slight variations on something you’ve seen before.

A muted and a dark version of “Gold Road.”

Then I started messing with colors a bit more. Tried some more directly related colors, and got Edge of the Sea (A reference to the song, “Far-Off Shore” by Kate Wolf)

Then a person favorite, red, and got Claret Sunset

Then I thought to myself, “Self, these browns and golds and reds are great, but you haven’t tried anything bright. Some people like bright, you know.” And I responded, “Hrm… maybe you’re right, self, I suppose I should try one of those. Blue and yellow? Green and yellow?” Self happily replied, “Green! You never let me do green. It’s all elfin and planty and you never let me play with it! Hell, you’ve only bought me one premade green to play with! Why are you such a jerk, you should let me do more green you big meanie!” And so I gave in, waving my hands, “Ok, ok, ok! Green it is! Never mind Edge of the Sea which you just did, or Into the Green you did a while ago, green it is… whiner.” Luckily for me, Self didn’t catch that last bit.

So I came out with… Pollen Dust. Pollen scattered across the green leaves. Very spring, even if spring isn’t here yet.

Self had a great time with this one. Which is why the yellow is so vivid. Luckily I managed to keep it heathered or it would have shamed the actual flowers!

Well since Self got to play, I wanted to as well. So I did something I rarely do on roving… a semi-solid. A rich dark purple. Like plum juice on your chin. Like berry jam. Like the deep flaws of the darkest purple amethyst… and thus, Amethyst Depths. I like this one. Self thinks it’s boring. I told him to shut up.

Since both I and Self had been satisfied and it was getting later, we decided to work together on one more roving. Hrmm… “Why not one with more colors?” said Self. “Huh, that’s an idea, and we can do it with 6oz instead of 4oz so there will be more space.” I agreed. “But what colors?” Queried Self. “Now THAT is a very good question. If we do three colors, how about starting with a version of that color I used for Amethyst, and work out from there, see what inspires us?” I responded, not quite sure myself.

So I did. And as I pulled out the first part, Self started jumping up and down, “Flowers! FLOWERS!” “Huh?” I quirked an eyebrow, “Yes, they’re lovely… and?” “Our garden! When we were a kid, remember? They had those pretty flowers, that were gold and brown and exactly that burgundy!” I cocked my head, “Wait, the one Matt picked out? The gaillardia?” “Yeah, yeah! The blanket flower! Why do you always use the prissy stodgy name?” Self bounced. “Oh hush you, it’s an excellent idea though, let’s do it.”

And so we did. Gaillardia. Which Self still insists on calling Blanket Flower, which I think is a silly name for a roving, but he insists I point out he disagrees and thinks it sounds too much like a disease and people will think it’s gross.

Guess that’s about all for today. Hopefully, it’s enough! I’ll get these up on the store shortly, except the Gold Road, which someone has dibs on first. If they don’t want them, then they’ll go to the store as well shortly.

So, we’ll leave you with a little seed-headed grass fairy.

~The Gnome