Red Letter Day

Back home now and back the to the real world. Mr S returns to uni this week after a year off because of his heart surgery, but getting him registered which should have been a breeze proved impossible - email after email told him to log on and completed the 'simple' process. Well it would have been simple, but they forgot to inform him that his password had been changed........... mind reading is unfortunately not taught at UWE so is was not until Monday, the first day of teaching, that he finally managed to complete the 'simple' process. So for the next 40 weeks our lives will have to work around his timetable, it seems very strange after a year of complete freedom...

Because of the problems I have encounter finding a new Director for my doctorate I have had to asked for extenuating circs and am deferring until January - so hopefully by then everything will sorted out and I might have actually caught up with my spinning and dyeing - a vain hope but I can at least try...

Saturday I had a red day - dyeing 400 grams of Falkland - some with Kool-Aid (an American kid's drink which requires copious amounts of sugar to make it palatable) which dyed my fingers and nails as well as the fibre, the rest with Landscape dyes, all reds....... In the evening we had supper with friends we hadn't seen for nearly a year - so truly a red letter day...

From left to right, Red Letter Day, Jam Today, and Fruit Salad.

Currently I am spinning a roving of Winter Crocus a falkland fibre dyed with Moss, Coral and Sarsparilla. I have three projects on the knitting needles a second sock, baby bootees and my beaded shawl, although in my defence I am waiting for a delivery of beads so that I can finish this, and I have three bags in the making - all in patchwork, and the makings for several more.
















Tuesday I spent the morning dyeing!!! Some time ago a friend gave me some Ammonuim Sulphate crystals which are supposed to help the absorbtion of dye. As I find that Jacquard and Kemtex dyes leave great quantitles of exhaust I thought I would experiment. Same amount of dye, but Kemtex and Jacquard with the crystals against Landscape without crystals, both presoaked in Citric Acid, Calgon and a squidge of Washing Up Liguid (my usual) - no exhaust with the Landscape dyes. First the lime green and bight blue (second from right) the dye came out staining both my hands and the sink, the other (first left) I mixed the dyes one eighth of a teaspoon each of Teal, Black, Jade , Turquoise and Navy mixed with equal amounts of Ammonium sulphate and Citric Acid, wrapped and cooked for a total of 10 mins left less exhaust but still some.

Still I am pleased with the results, particularly the navy and turquoise (far right) which is for another beaded shawl......................time permitting....