Today was Brought to You by the Color BLUE!

Isn't he cute? Cole's watering the sunflowers Kathy gave me last month when I was in the hospital having my gallbladder taken out. (Aside: best Get Well present EVER!). He planted 'em for us 'cuz he knew that although I have the best of intentions, my follow-through isn't always that great. So he's taken on the task of keeping them alive, too. Can't wait to see them bloom!

This is what I did today. More dyeing! This time it was all about the BLUE. Had a request from a regular COLORBOMB Creations customer for more blue, soooooooooo... Think this is blue enough?

I even found a bag of washed/undyed Wensleydale locks to whip up for her! I tossed 'em in to the crockpot dyebath after pulling the wool out, & there was plenty of dye left in there to get this gorgeous cornflower blue.

Still getting learning some of the nuances of acid dyeing. Took about 5 rinses to get the water to run clear with the first batch (wool), but the second batch (Wensleydale) ran clear on the first rinse. Go figure! I did learn something today though: turns out that it takes a really long time to heat set dye if you don't plug the crockpot in! ;)

Tomorrow will probably be another dye day, but in the meantime I'm gonna leave you with this frog I found on the side of our BBQ yesterday. He was only about 1.5 inches from top to bottom; he looks freakish this big, but I wanted to put my new camera through its paces. It rocked the closeup!

Tags: dyeing, frogs, husbands

I'm a Tool Tuesday

OK, it's not that I am a tool, it's that I have a tool, or actually, a couple of new tools. Cole has been a busy bee making me some cool stuff while off work lately. First, he made me these cone holders. I have lots of cones of yarn lying around for plying, and they tend to tip over, roll around, & annoy the crap out of me when I'm spinning. So I had him slap together a couple of cone holders! The tapered model is the 2nd iteration, designed to accommodate cones with smaller center holes. They work great, and look as good as me in the bargain. ;) I put a bit of no-slip carpet padding underneath (as I do with my lazy kate), to keep it from sliding on our hardwood floors. Think I'll put him to work on a horizontal, tensioned version like this soon. It avoids adding additional twist to the yarn like the vertical models do. Want one for yourself? I think a vertical paper towel holder would serve the same purpose, AND be a good reduce, reuse, recycle way to repurpose an unwanted household item. There's a how-to tutorial on I'm Tinking. Not handy yourself? No Homo habilis around the house? There's a cost-effective lazy susan version for sale at Catz in the House on Etsy.


One day Cole saw me trying to McGyver an empty Zatarain's Creole Rice box, DPN sock needle, & duct tape lazy kate for multiple thread bobbins, and he came up with this one. He used scraps of redwood & bamboo floorboard plus a section of wire hanger - reduce, reuse, recycle! I love that he can fabricate functional art from crap in our garage. Works like a charm, too. I'm gonna have him add 2 more horizontal wires so it will hold more spools.


The last one is a tote box to hold the canning jars I use for saving yarn scraps (not much goes to waste in this house). I've currently got 12 color-themed jars going, so he's making me a second one now that we know this one works for me. It's made of more redwood scraps; Cole is a woodworker/carpenter, so he brings home lots of leftovers from jobs he works. It's great being able to dream something up & then have it in my hot little hands within a week or so! And I love that he's DIY like me!

I'll leave you with this shot from yesterday. I always look forward to the first daffodils of the season; means spring & Farmers Market are right around the corner.

Tags: handspinning, tools, DIY, repurposed