Friday, July 22, 2016

Deep Dark Stash

Way back in 2001, I was given my very first floor loom.  Along with that loom came a ton of stuff, books, yarn, shuttles, yarn, fabric cut in strips and more yarn.  One of the yarns that I got with that loom was 2 skeins of perle cotton in a beige color, which is not my favorite color!  For 9 years I left that yarn in the tub it came in and tried to  forget it even existed, with a lot of success.

In October 2010, I took part in our very first Tuesday Weavers Dye Day,  I know that because I looked it up!  I had used a knitting machine to knit that perle cotton into a blank, and I dyed it that day.  Once it was rinsed and dry, I skeined it up and I still thought it was ugly!

Recently I have been weaving with a hand dyed warp at the weaving Center, and I have been using a solid color pattern on top of it, it is surprisingly satisfying.  At home I have a loom I am trying to empty, and it is full of 8/4 cotton in natural.  I have woven more baby blankets than I can count on this warp, mostly overshot patterns.    This is the  last of 3, 40 yard warps  I was really getting bored with it!  I had already rethreaded the loom with a monks belt and I wondered what I could do to make it more interesting.  That is when my gaze found those "ugly" skeins, I knew that I had nothing to lose.







I still thought that it was ugly, ugly, ugly!






 Still UGLY!

Ugly?  What was I thinking!  This is when I went searching to find the post about that first dye day.  I couldn't even remember what I had done to get the long color repeats.

 I then remembered about knitting up the blanks of perle cotton, and there was a picture of the dyeing in progress.  I think I will be able to get 2 blankets out of this first skein, and maybe one out of the other slightly different and smaller skein.

This yarn is truly the deepest darkest stash come to the light.  I have finished the first blanket and I am debating with myself if I should cut it off and wash it before I weave the second one to see how it washes up, but I think I will just plug ahead and weave until both skeins are history.  It will be quite the accomplishment.

Until next time, Keep on Crafting, Tina

2 comments:

LA said...

Sometimes it pays off to revisit our stash from time to time!!! There's no telling what gem lies in hiding!

Theresa said...

And I'm betting you wish you had more. Very pretty!