colors and playing the morning away

I bought this yarn from mysticalcreations.etsy.com. Notice it's not linked? It took over a MONTH to get to me!! They lost my order, the resent my order, they did add some nice stitch markers (even though I don't use stitch markers) so anyway....it's beautiful in the skein. Just as beautiful in person.

It's 100% silk. I think soft. NOT! It was dyed in the skien, and it has a very hard hand, and stiff.

So, being a spinner of many years, I decided to respin it. Pull out the hard, thicker areas (it is a bulky) and even it out and soften it up.
Here's the result.

Another thing one notices, is the colors, mixed, are dull! Respinning, the colors were vibrant and gorgeous, individually passing through my hands. But in a skein, and knit? Bleh. Really. Ack. Now what?

So I pulled out some merino/mohair black roving. I spun a fine single, and plied the darn stuff with it.







Better! The colors jump out now. So I frogged my clapotis that the yarn was intended for, and knit up this:

It's still darker, but if I play with the thickness of the
black, it should help.

And that's how I spent my entire morning! Didn't get tomato plants in the ground, didn't get to school to clean the aquarium, and didn't clean, sew or do much of anything else.

And now, I actually have to spin all those singles up, probably purchase more unless I can find ....oh. Brain blip. I could ply it with thread! Black thread.

My Brain gets a cookie today. I'm joining a knitting guild. They have a wonderful list of charity knitting opportunites. So I started obesessing about finding a pattern. Then I thought I should go to Borders and buy more books. I get 25% today for being an educator. But biking and my lazy self didn't mix, and then I thought: internet! Yep, found the cutest little ear flap hat.

Oh, well, since my 'want to spend ' reared up again, I to go to the yarn store to buy yarn. Of course, I have TONS of yarn, but none are really acrylic/washable/soft for babies and premies. Okay, I found red. That may still work, but THEN I remembered soysilk. According to this site
it has all of these incredible properties. Superior ventilation compared to cotton. The drape and beauty of silk. Softness of cashmere. Bacteria resistant qualities?

Does Paypal count as money? Anyway, it's also a charity write off (note to Brain: post it in blog for IRS proof of items made and sent to said charities) and I'm buying some lovely colors in soy fiber on ebay that I've had my eye on. Sigh. I know. I could buy the fiber and dye it at half the cost, and gosh knows I have dye out the wahoo, but I'm distracting myself enough these days!

I'm supposed to be working on my wholesale order of Sock Bugs (11 of them!) that I haven't started. I should plant my poor baby tomatoes and weed some more in my endless battle with bermuda grass.

But it's my weekend!! Oh, and tomorrow I need to ride. I'm so lazy. Really. I'll probably only do 34 miles tomorrow. I managed 50 last weekend! I'm supposed to building up, not down. Sigh.

OH - and told ds if the guy does not want to part with his '79 truck for less than $800, let it go. I know the 'engine purrs' according to Jeff, but it gets cruddy mileage, it's a longbed, very old, and it's RED.