I'm taking a breather from the shawl. Not sure whether I love the cast-on after all. Maybe I want the points to be a wee bit---well, pointier. I'm leaving everything on the needles while the idea stews in my brain.
Yesterday evening I went to a yarn tasting at a LYS. Not having been to the shop in a while, I had to catch up on my yarn purchases, naturally.
That's Manos del Uruguay Fino in shades of brilliant turquoise (not looking very brilliant here, alas) and some amazing dusty lilac mohair, with a touch of wool and nylon, a discontinued line from New Zealand. The new yarns are posing with my Trellis Waistcoat since they seem to echo the colours to a tee.
Over the knitting samples, I chatted with Kim about dyeing handspun. She's an advocate of kool-aid and food dyes, for their ease of use and safety. You see, I have a couple of hundred grams of corriedale fleece left over from my handspun Zora project. In a moment of idleness yesterday, I started to play with spindle spinning the rest.
This morning I checked out two terrific sources for info on dyeing wool with food colour: this article in Knitty, and this website, the same one I used when I played a bit with Kool-aid dyeing last year. I especially love the way the latter website shows in a methodical way just how different colours combine at different strengths. I plan to over-dye my pale grey heather handspun, and the result could be very interesting. If it's a disaster, I can always over-dye again, right?
While I was at the supermarket today, I picked up this in anticipation of the project,
and already, I think I need to go and fetch a "neon" pack. Turns out the colours aren't nearly as electric as you'd guess from the name. Oh boy, a whole new area to play in!
