Mama's First Lightbox.

Not so much a box, but I did use the back of a box (full of a few pounds of Coopworth, no less) for support. I noticed how nice my sheer white blind diffused the light the other morning and thought it would be the perfect place for setting up a big shot yarn photo operation. I'm sured you're all sick of my kitchen table. And, lo and behold, I have yarn to take pictures of!

Like I said, when my knitting slacks, I try to do other creative and still yarny things to keep my brain at it. So, there's been lots of spinning.



Flawful Fiber's September bats, which are a mix of a gabillion different things. Julie explains on her blog. First bats I've ever spun! I have two more that I'm going to try woolen spinning on today.



This is the Fleece Artist merino I've been working on.



It's 233 yards, about DK weight, I haven't wpi'ed it yet. I think I finally have yarn for socks!



Pretty. It's really squishy and soft.

So then I was rooting around in the cupboard yesterday and I found some Wilton icing colour! In brown! Dreamy! So I dyed up some worsted merino with it, and the other colours in the pack.



This is yellow, brown, and blue, which all sort of migrated into a nice spring green with spots of light brownish-red. It wasn't what I was going for, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I don't know the actual term for the kind of dyeing I did next, but this was the one where you have a jar with the dye in it and add an end of the yarn but keep the rest suspended, and then put it in a pot of water. Leave it for five minutes, then come back and squish more yarn in the jar and add more water, repeat until jar is full. Then I put the whole thing in the hot water/vinegar to simmer for a bit. I got this:



Which I love. Love love love. This is my favourite part.



LOVE. So then I went on ebay and found some acid dyes for cheap, 33 pounds for $31. So I can pretend and practice at being a real dyer.

I also may be bidding on a swift and a ball winder, because I can't deal with not having them anymore. Mostly the swift because I don't mind winding a ball by hand, but if I have to wrap a skein by hand one more time, I'm going to lose it. If someone outbids me on the swift though, I have a skeinwinder lined up that can work as well. In fact, it might work better. But we'll see.

Stuck.

Remember how everyone in the world was stalled with their projects over the summer? Well, it's my turn. I have project ADD, I have startitis, I've hit various black holes and I just plain don't want to do anything.

Usually, I crochet when this happens. I can slap together a crochet project in no time flat, provided it's small and interesting. But even crochet isn't helping; I started another Secret Method hat but I don't even feel like doing that. It's boring, the yarn doesn't want to do it, what do I need another hat for anyway? Arg.

What do you do when you're in a funk? For the time being, I'm concentrating on spinning and cooking. Fall is generally my busiest baking time but the oven is still out of commission, which annoys me to no end. I finally get good instruction for a sour dough starter and I won't have anywhere to bake the actual bread!

Oh, and good news! While I was away, I won the August gift certificate drawing at Unwind! What fate! I don't go in there much anymore because I'm not in Newmarket and they don't have the greatest hours, but it's really one of my favourite shops. As a young knitter who is often, unfortunately, treated like a novice everywhere I go, it's nice to talk to a young shop owner who doesn't assume the sock yarn I'm buying is for my first pair of socks. I can't even tell you how many times I get that one. They've also got a spinning group that I have to remember to ask about when I go in for my spending of the gift certificate.

Maybe having free reign to get $25 of whatever I want with no project in mind will spark some creativity? I hope so.

And I'm going to try my damndest to get over to Pick Up Sticks brick and mortar store in Bradford over the next week; the bus makes it really simple, even easier than getting to most in-town yarn stores. I know it's kind of selfish, but I do wish more yarn store owners would consider those of us who don't drive when choosing their locations. It would take an hour and a half to take the bus to Serenity Knits when it's a ten minute drive. I'd walk, but there aren't sidewalks along most of my route.

Maybe I should get a bike. Also, a job.