Not Your Typical Wednesday

No, it was a most A-typical Wednesday indeed. Who should show up on my doorstep but the local constabulary? A lovely uniformed member of the Arcata Police Department, inquiring if I might be acquainted with the rather impaired & disheveled woman who had taken up residence in our side yard. No, I informed her, I do NOT know the aforementioned 'lady' plopped down on our lawn next to her 3-wheel bike who was claiming to reside in our very house. Four police cars, a handful (a gaggle clutch? a doughnut?) of Arcata's finest, and what I took to be 2 paramedics later, they all decamped after a 40-minute or so confab. The photo above was my view of the whole encounter through our kitchen window. Surreal. But don't ask what became of our 'visitor', apparently the 'hosts' don't warrant an explanation. My guess? They 5150'ed straight to our local residence facility.

Things calmed back down to a semblance of normal after that. I returned to my dyepots, which you see here.

This is the most AMAZING Rambouillet wool fleece from Homestead Wool & Gift Farm - 'Curley Sue' from yesterday's post as a matter of fact. I did an all green batch and a green & blue batch. Soft & springy to beat the band, I tell ya! Look for these in my Etsy shop very soon (they're on the drying racks as we speak).

I also did some Baby Doll Southdown yesterday, but wasn't that happy with the results. I had a bit of an 'oops!' moment with the orange dye, so today I'm doing some over-dyeing with turquoise. Let's just call it an experiment, shall we?

It wasn't all work & no play yesterday. Took that photo of my 4 new charms headed for my charm bracelet. A '64 Chevy like my Impala 'Betty' (ok, it's just a car, but still...); a rooster to bring me some Eleggua energy; a corkscrew 'cuz, well, I do love me some wine!; and a Princess phone just like the turquoise vintage model in our bedroom. Fun!

Ended my day with Crafters Under the Influence. This week was Lush, Monica, Jen, & me. Once again, beer, tequila, & whiskey were involved. We got kinda bleary & blurry. Good times, good times. Although I fucked up my entrelac socks. Le sigh. Guess that means I've earned my FUBAR Knit badge! I think it's apparent from our pics that we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. There was knitting, painting, & project planning going on in addition to the general swilling, rocking madness.

1. Word.,
2. Socks & Beer Under the Influence,
3. Lush Under the Influence,
4. Lush Gesturing Under the Influence,
5. Hat-in-progress Under the Influence,
6. Monica Knitting Under the Influence,
7. Jen Painting Under the Influence,
8. Lush & Jen

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Tags: Arcata, dyeing, drinking, crafting

Dye Devotee & Other Ramblings

Well, DAMN, I got behind on blogging again, didn't I? Sure gets away from me. Guess that's a sign that I'm leading a busy & interesting life (at least it's interesting in my OWN mind! Let's get right into it then, shall we?

The shots below are just 'test' shots with my new-to-me Nikon Coolpix 7900 camera. I've been having a great time playing around with it, & using a fully-functioning tool has made my life sooo much easier. That's me on the left (duh!) at sunset (love that warm light!) & my VonTiki 6ft. palm tiki totem on the right. These were taken before I figured out how to turn off the date stamp, but I thought they were fun. Gotta say that although Nikon cameras are known for being less-than-intuitive, that has not been the case for me with this one at all. Really like it!


As you may have noticed, I'm all about the dyepots these days! After my all-blue day for a big custom order, I needed some warm color to stain my hands, so I did a bunch of batches of PINK! This was, what?, last Wednesday I think?

Besides wool, I was recently inspired by the Etsy Storque Spotlight "Charmed, I'm sure" all about vintage charms & charm bracelets. Decided it was time to show off MY charms. I've been collecting for years, long before I actually had a bracelet. I've got my eye on a couple more over on Etsy, but haven't put any money down yet. After a Twitter conversation with Pumpkinhaus, I'm on the lookout for a vintage Princess phone charm.


Now, back to our regularly-scheduled spinning conversation!

After purchasing 2 new drop spindles at Black Sheep Gathering last month, I've been doing a LOT of that. And you probably know I'm fond of the alcohol. So what could be better than:
spindling under the influence! Yep, that's me at my friend Lush's studio last week, drinkin' beer & tequila, munchin' on giant Ak Mak crackers, & spindlin' up a storm.

I cooked up this idea that I wanted to gather with a few like-minded crafters (read: lushes who make shit) & gather for some convivial conversation & crafting with cocktails. (I am also overly fond alliterative speech). While I spun yarn, Lush did some wood-burning on a sign for the new vinyl shop in town, Missing Link Records (check out their logo; Lush designed it!); meanwhile, Monica & Tamika knit.

More dyed wool on the drying rack, I think this time from Thursday:

Thursday was also Purl 'n Hurl, which for me involved more alcohol & yarn-making.


And AGAIN with the spinning!

This shot is 4th of July BBQ spinning at Kat & Steve's. Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Craftiness! That's what I was celebrating.

And beer. I'm always celebrating beer (note the dead soldier on the ground, & the half-full bottle under my chair, Indica Pale Ales from our own Lost Coast Brewery.)

We went to another BBQ after, but there was no spinning & no photos, just more food & beer & then some fireworks on the way home. A holiday well spent, I say.


I tried to get on board with Tour de Fleece again this year, but only made it through the first couple of days. That's better than my previous record at least! The photo below is of my new Jenkins Turkish Delight spindle on Day 2.


Some more dyeing, some redonculous dyeing!

And yet MORE dyeing!

Although I haven't got it all listed yet, if you're looking for some lovely hand-dyed wool, check out my Etsy shop: www.colorbombcreations.etsy.com & I'll send ya some!

Tags: dyeing, wool, 4th of July, dropspindling